This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
16309
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[Ap]
TREG MAY 06 SECTION 1.
297
[11940]
(No. 61.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received April 7.)
Peking, February 13, 1906.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 304 of the 27th December, 1905, transmitting a copy of a letter addressed by you to the Board of Trade dealing with the question of morphia in China, and laying down certain conditions, whose acceptance by the Chinese Government might not improperly gain the consent of His Majesty's Government to the prohibition of the importation of the drug into this country except for medicinal purposes.
I see no objection to laying this proposal before the Chinese Government, and, in forwarding it, it might be well for His Majesty's Representative, with a view to assist that Government in obtaining the consent of the Powers, to address at the same time a letter to his colleagues informing them of what has occurred, and asking them to lay the matter before their respective Governments, so that the motives of His Majesty's Government would not, as might occur were the proposal communicated to them through the Wai-wu Pu alone, be liable to misrepresentation.
With regard to the copy of the letter of the Board of Trade, which was forwarded His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires in Foreign Office despatch No. 108 of the 20th April, 1903, it was thought that the matter had better not be dealt with until the Commercial Treaty was ratified, lest the suggestion contained therein should be made pretext for delaying ratification. The Treaty was ratified on the 28th July, 1903, but the suggestion would appear to have been lost sight of.
I have, &c. (Signed) ERNEST SATOW.
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