[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government)
CTC.
11779
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OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[9740]
No. 1.
[March 21]
SECTION 1-
Ree 21 APK 10
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 21.)
(No. 61.) Sir,
Peking, March 1, 1910. ON receipt of your despatch No. 327 of the 5th November last, enclosing copy of a despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong to the Secretary of State for the Colonies in regard to an alleged increase in the export of native opium from Chungking and Ichang, I sent copies of the enclosure confidentially to His Majesty's consuls at both these places and requested their observations on the subject. I have now the honour to forward herewith copies of the replies which I have received.
As regards the comments by the Governor of Hong Kong on the Chungking commissioner of customs' report for 1908, it should be noted that in the report itself Mr. Acheson expressly guarded against undue inferences being drawn from his figures, and explained why the large increase must not be held to imply any abnormal development in the trade in native opium. The quotation, moreover, in Sir F. Lugard's despatch from the same report in regard to the 73 opium dens allowed to register and continue business in 1908 acquires an altogether different significance if the first part of the sentence is read with it, as shown in the memorandum by the acting consul at Chungking. Mr. Smith's despatch, besides amplifying the explanation of the customs figures given by Mr. Acheson himself, and proving that even in 1908 these figures did not necessarily justify the conclusion that the export of opium had increased, contains also some evidence that, however little progress may have been made in Szechuan in 1908, at the present time effective action is being taken to put down the cultivation of opium.
The reply from His Majesty's consul at Ichang explains how the Maritime Customs statistics are recorded, and shows that, as in the case of Chungking, these statistics taken alone, are without value as indicating amount of production. The available statistics cover only the traffic by the Yang-tsze route through Ichang, and until the cultivation of opium is suppressed entirely in the inland provinces these figures may be expected to fluctuate in accordance with varying conditions, such as good or bad crops, demand and supply in other provinces, market price of opium, and disposal of surplus stocks.
The Governor of Hong Kong conuments also on the customs reports from Kiukiang, Changsha, and Shanghae as to comparative imports of foreign and native opium. All these reports, it may be noted, ascribe the decrease in the import of foreign opium to the success of the anti-opium movement of China. The customs statistics of native opium imported into any specified port are of little value as indicating the amount of consumption, for they record merely internal movements of such native opium as travels by certain channels. The customs returns for nearly every port in China showed an increase in the import of native opium in 1908 compared to 1907, but the increase was variously ascribed to reduction of local cultivation, anxiety of dealers to lay in stocks in anticipation of further anti-opium measures, and changes in regulations tending to bring more native opium under the notice of the Maritime Customs. Nearly all the customs reports for 1908 agreed that the use of opium is decreasing.
In conclusion I would point out that the customs figures for the trade of 1908 were before the International Opium Commission at Shanghae in February of last year, and yet the commission found itself able to recognise "the real though unequal pro- gress already made in the task" of the Government of China. Since then reports have come in from all parts of China which tend to confirm this view, and the summary of such reports published in the China White Book No. 3 of 1909 furnishes, I believe, incomplete though it may be, more trustworthy data for estimating the progress made than can be found in the admittedly defective statistics of the native opium coming under the cognisance of the Imperial Maritime Customs.
I have, &c.
[2661 -1]
W. G. MAX MÜLLER.
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