Your Excellency,
2
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Consul-General Fraser to Governor of Hu-Kuang.
His Britannic Majesty's Consulate-General, Hankow, November 20, 1909.
I HAD the honour yesterday in a note to confirm what I stated at our interview, namely, the falsity of the anti-opium societies' allegations regarding the exaction of damages by His Majesty's Government in case China did not effectually suppress opium smoking and growing concurrently with the reduction of the export from India to China.
In the "Kung Lun Hsin Pao" of the 15th November I find, in a report to be submitted to your Excellency by the Hupei Provincial Council, the following among the ways suggested to your Excellency for opium suppression :-
"The issue of orders to all prefects and magistrates to notify leading gentry of good character to divide up their jurisdiction into areas, and therein organise anti- opium societies and establish watching, first of all expatiating on the evils of opium together with the intolerable hardship which will befal the people through the certainty, in case of our failure after the expiry of the ten years' limit to effect complete suppression, of international complications over the British exaction of a heavy indemnity," &c.
Your Excellency is, of course, aware that so soon as China expressed her determination to suppress opium His Majesty's Government, out of friendly feelings, agreed to reduce the export from India by 10 per cent, annually, and took upon themselves the heavy loss of revenue thus to be incurred by India. In view of the doubts freely expressed of the genuineness of China's resolve, His Majesty's Govern- ment felt bound to stipulate that, if after the first three years there were not satisfactory evidence that the growth and smoking of the drug in China were being honestly checked, Great Britain should be released from the voluntary obligation to continue the yearly reduction of the export from India; but there was never any mention of the possibility of any claim for compensation at any time, nor was it even stated that in case of China's failure to carry out her resolve India would not voluntarily go on reducing the export until after ten years it should cease altogether.
I do not know how the story of compensation arose, nor who is responsible for it, but that the statement is widely current is evident from the fact of the provincial council's representing it as a fact to your Excellency.
It is manifest that the circulation of such a story among the people must breed in all classes a feeling of resentment against Great Britain and prove as pernicious to friendly relations as the charge against the Powers of plotting to dismember China, which has been revived by two students from Japan and accepted by the provincial council and the educational and commercial associations in the three cities, which have mainly on the strength of it founded a renewed anti-loan society for Hupei.
Your Excellency has doubtless appreciated the serious trouble that such fostering of the anti-foreign spirit is liable to produce, and I have the honour to suggest the advisability of your Excellency's publicly correcting the erroneous information of the council and the various societies in the three cities.
I avail, &c.
[B]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[46854]
is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government,
No. 1.
1433
Beck
Rre 14 JAN 10
[December 28.]
SECTION 1.
Sir A. Nicolson to Sir Edward Grey.-{ Received December 28.) (No. 670.) Sir,
ON receipt of your despatch No. 301 of the 23rd nltimo I did not fail to enquire
St. Petersburgh, December 22, 1909. whether the Russian Government would be willing to take part in an international conference for the purpose of conventionalising the resolutions adopted by the Shanghae Opium Commission. I now have the honour to forward to you copy of the reply which I have received from the Imperial Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
I have, &c.
Inclosure in No. 1.
M. Suzonow to Sir A. Nicolson.
A. NICOLSON,
M. l'Ambassadeur,
EN réponse à la note que votre Excellence a bien voulu m'adresser en date du
Saint-Pétersbourg, le 8 (21) décembre, 1909. 25 novembre (8 décembre), année courante, j'ai l'honneur de vous informer que le Gouvernement Impérial ne voit pas d'objections à la convocation d'une conférence dans le but de mettre en forme d'une convention internationale les résolutions adoptées par la Commission de Schanghai au sujet de la consommation de l'opium dans l'Extrême-Orient.
Le Gouvernement Impérial ne manquera pas de nommer un délégué officiel pour prendre part aux travaux de la dite conférence, dans le cas où les Puissances tomberaient d'accord à ce sujet.
Veuillez, &c.
SAZONOW.
E. H. FRASER.
[2553 ee-1]