511.4 A 2/263: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Consul at Geneva (Tuck)
For Porter. If as appears from your telegram of February 1, 4 P.M., you are convinced that there is no possibility the Conference can agree upon a convention satisfactorily carrying out the purposes of the Hague Opium Convention of 1912 and of the Joint Resolution of Congress of May 15 last, the American Delegation is authorized in your discretion to withdraw from the Conference.
Upon receiving word of your withdrawal, the Department will, in pursuance of your suggestion, give out a brief explanatory statement to the following effect:
“This Government has received from the American Delegation to the Opium Conference now in session at Geneva a report to the effect that that Conference cannot be expected to reach an agreement which would be satisfactory to this Government as carrying out the purposes of the Hague Opium Convention of 1912, or acceptable to it as according with the purposes set forth in the Joint Resolution of Congress of May 15 last, which authorized the participation of this Government in the present Conference.
The President has therefore, to his regret, found it necessary to authorize the American Delegation to withdraw from further participation [Page 125] in the Conference at the discretion of its chairman, the Honorable Stephen G. Porter.”
It is assumed that in announcing the withdrawal of our Delegation you will make a statement of the reasons for that action substantially as set forth in your telegram though of course with the modifications appropriate to a public statement likely to have reactions upon our relations with other governments and therefore requiring to be drawn up in a way to avoid all unnecessary occasion for irritation. You will please telegraph to the Department as soon as possible the text of your statement.