C.0 38162
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
I immediately to seriously interfere with the wholesale trade in foreign opium. addressed a written protest to the Chinese Government, and requested that the Viceroy might be telegraphically instructed to put a stop to the vexatious proceedings lately instituted by the Opium Prohibition Bureau of Canton, which I said were quite at variance with the written statement of the Wai-wu Pu that the Chinese Government had no intention of interfering with the wholesale trade in foreign opium. I pointed out that the arrangement concluded between the British and Chinese Governments provided for a gradual extinction of the foreign opium trade, so that as far as foreign opium was concerned there was no necessity for measures which inflicted grave injury on British merchants conducting a still legitimate trade under treaty provisions. Having heard from the acting British consul-general at Canton that the Viceroy Yuan Shu-hsun refused to give an assurance that the enforcement of the prohibition regulations would not be allowed to interfere with the wholesale trade in foreign opium and that the imports of foreign opium into Canton had entirely ceased, I addressed a second note to the Wai-wu Pu and followed this up by verbal representa- I had tions to his Excellency Liang Tun-yen at an interview on the 4th instant. received your letter of the 22nd September two days previously, and was therefore able to include the regulations issued by the Viceroy of Nanking in my representations. I disclaimed any intention of interfering with any regulations which the Chinese Government or provincial authorities might think fit to issue to control or suppress the trade in native opium, but I pointed out that the eventual suppression of the trade in foreign opium was already provided for by the arrangement concluded between our two Governments. The action taken at Canton last year in consequence of my represen- tations proved that it was possible to enforce regulations in regard to the sale of native opium without affecting the wholesale trade in foreign opium, and I therefore requested his Excellency to issue instructions to all high provincial authorities, in accordance with the repeated assurances of the Chinese Government, that foreign opium should be excluded from the operation of any regulations applying to the wholesale trade, so that the legitimate interests of the British importers should not be unnecessarily interfered with. His Excellency promised to send instructions in the sense desired by me.
0
I am, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[40571]
No. 1.
Rro 23 NOV 09
114
[November 4.]
SECTION 1.
Memorandum by Consul-General Sir A. Hosie on the Investigation of Opium Cultivation and Production in China.~(Received November 4, 1909.)
1. IT is admitted that there has been considerable reduction in the cultivation and production of opium in China during the last three years; but the figures for production, given in the Chinese memorandum presented to the International Opium Commission at Shanghae in February 1909, were, according to the Chinese com- missioners themselves, merely guesswork, and the alleged reduction in 1908 as compared with 1906, which was based on these figures, was therefore guesswork and unreliable.
2. At the end of 1910 China has to prove to the British-Indian Government that she is reducing the production and consumption of native opium pari passu with the reduced export of opium from India.
3. As China has not the machinery available for ascertaining the amount of land under poppy,
it is extremely doubtful whether at the end of 1910 she will be able to state with any degree of accuracy the amount of reduction in cultivation, production, or consumption.
4. Under the above circumstances it seems desirable, as a check, that steps should be taken by the British Government, prior to the close of 1910, to ascertain as far as possible the extent of poppy cultivation and opium production in China.
5. In Manchuria aud the northern and north-western provinces of China the poppy is a summer crop (April to September), while in the south-western provinces it is a winter crop (November to April), so that to determine generally the extent of poppy cultivation in China prior to the close of 1910, personal investigation should be carried out in Manchuria and in the northern and north-western provinces from the end of April to September 1910, and from November onwards in the south-western provinces.
6. Such investigation could best be carried out by a consular officer in China of sufficiently high rank to entitle him to gain easy access to the high Chinese provincial authorities when necessary, and to command the respect of his fellow consular officers, with whom he would always require to be in close touch during his investigations.
7. Were such personal investigation made in 1910, an excellent basis for comparison with subsequent years would be secured.
ALEX. HOSIE
10, Louisville Avenue, Aberdeen,
October 18, 1909.
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