Opium
Memorandum by Mr. William Keswick
on the regulations necessary to enable the Chinese Govt to collect the import duty and likin tax authorised by the Chefoo Convention, dated Shanghai, 10th October 1885.
In order to enable the Chinese Govt to collect on opium the increased duty and likin tax which become leviable under the recently signed Chefoo Convention, it appears to me necessary for China to arrange with India some process by which the imported drug should come under her control.
The Straits Settlements and Hong-Kong are consumers of opium, and must necessarily be parties to any agreement which would affect supplies, and these colonies should therefore be consulted in any proposed arrangement.
The only arrangement which appears to me practical is one that would in its operation have to begin in India, and what I would suggest is
A regulation to be agreed on with the Indian Govt by which no opium should be allowed to leave India that was not shipped by the vessels belonging to companies prepared to enter into bonds for the due carrying out of the conditions. These conditions might be embodied in special bills of lading, and should oblige the vessel carrying drug to Hong Kong or to the Treaty Ports of China to deliver it into the custody of an Agent of the Govt.