[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[4522]
No. 1.
[February 11.]
SECTION 1.
C.0.
13822
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received February 11.)
(No. 28.) (Telegraphic.) P. OPIUM.
Peking, February 20, 1907.APR 07
Please refer to your telegram No. 19 of the 5th instant. No objection is raised by China to the commencement of the Indian reduction dating from January of next year; the Wai-wu Fu point out, however, that the limit of time within which the probibition of opium must be consummated in this country is fixed by Imperial Decree at the end of the 42nd year of Kuang Hsü (23rd January, 1917). If, therefore, the Indian settlement commences from the 1st January next, and is extended over ten years, it will not be completed until eleven months after the Chinese limit.
Accordingly, to fit in with the Chinese measures, it is suggested that India should have the diminution on a period of nine years.
Otherwise after January 1917 the Indian drug will have no market in China, supposing that the prohibition programme is carried into effect.
My telegram No. 232 of the 30th November last year contained a summary of the original Chinese proposals. The Wai-wu Pu admit that these were loosely worded.
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