[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
0
[April 20.]
FOR SECTION 12 MAY 10,
d4293
[11818]
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Mr. Max Müller.
(No. 132.) Sir,
Foreign Office, April 20, 1910. WITH reference to your telegram No. 57 of the 26th March, I transmit to you herewith a copy of a letter from the India Office in regard to the question of the opium traffic in China.*
Lord Morley is desirous that the Chinese Government should be approached and offered on certain conditions an extension for a further period of three years, with effect from the 1st January, 1911, of the existing arrangement between Great Britain and China for the progressive reduction of the export of opium from India, and the production of opium in China.
The conditions on which this offer is to be made are set forth in the telegram of the 19th March, and in the extract from a letter of the 28th October last, from the Government of India, copies of which are enclosed.†
I request that you
will approach the Chinese Government in the sense desired by Lord Morley, at the same time stating that Sir A. Hosie is on the point of undertaking a tour in the provinces with a view to furnish a report to His Majesty's Government as to the present position of opium cultivation in China, and as to the advance made in the matter of suppression, during the period 1908-10, covered by the present agreement.
I am, &c.
E. GREY.
*India Office, April 0, 1910.
↑ Not printed.
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