This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
C.O 23470
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[27485]
No. 1.
301
RECR
REG 25 AUG 09
[July 27.]
SECTION 2.
Gentlemen,
Foreign Office to Messrs. E. D, Sassoon and Co.
Foreign Office, July 27, 1909. I AM directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 19th instant protesting against the action of the Bureau of Opium Suppression at Soochow in issuing certain new regulations, which, in your opinion, will have the effect of restricting legitimate trade, and which will tend to constitute a monopoly in favour of the Chinese provincial authorities.
I am to state in reply that a copy of your letter will be sent to His Majesty's Minister at Peking, who will be asked to furnish his views on the matter.
In this connection I am to inform you that a despatch has recently been received from Sir J. Jordan respecting a complaint received from the Hong Kong branch of your firm about certain new regulations sanctioned by the Canton Government for the control and purchase of raw opium. Sir John has authorised Mr. Fox, His Majesty's acting consul-general at Canton, to call the attention of the Viceroy to the matter, and to request that foreign opium should be excluded from the operation of the clauses in the regulations which applied to the wholesale trade. He did not, however, consider himself justified in instructing Mr. Fox to make any protest against the enforcement of the new rules. Mr. Fox was further instructed to remind the Viceroy of his assurance of 1908 that the regulations then issued, with which the new ones are practically identical, applied only to retail sellers of raw opium, and to express a hope that his Excellency would give a similar assurance in regard to the new regulations. If his Excellency was unable to do so, Mr. Fox was to request him to issue clear instructions that foreign opium must be excluded from the operation of any clauses in the regulations which were intended to apply to the wholesale trade, but he was to add that no formal protest would be made as long as the licensing regulations were carried out in a proper spirit and in such a manner as not to interfere with the wholesale trade between the British importer and the native purchaser.
Mr. Fox is to watch carefully the working of the licensing system, and if he detects any tendency towards the formation of a monopoly or of a close ring for the purpose of dictating prices to the importing firms, he will represent to the Viceroy that the regulations are not being carried out in the spirit in which His Majesty's Government had accepted them.
I am, &c.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
[2363 dd-2]