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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[25335]
No. 1.
[July 13.]
SECTION 1.
Sir,
China Association to Foreign Office.-(Received July 13.)
159, Cannon Street, London, July 11, 1910. IN the "Times" of the 1st April last my committee noted a letter from the Rev. A. Caldecott, professor of moral and mental philosophy, King's College, London, enclosing copy of memorial presented by him and his co-signatories to Sir Edward Grey, on the subject of "Great Britain and China and the opiuni trade."
In the course of this letter Mr. Caldecott writes :-
"Nor has any decision been arrived at as to the acceptance of the American invitation to a conference at The Hague upon the opium problem all over the world.”
My committee have no knowledge of any such invitation emanating from the American Government or any other source, and would much appreciate any information that His Majesty's Government may be able to communicate to the association.
Assuming the correctness of the information, my committee, in the meantime, feel. constrained to offer the following comments on what they consider a singularly inopportune suggestion :-
The foreign opium imported into China is-with the exception of an almost insignificant proportion-all of British-Indian origin; and my committee are of opinion that His Majesty's Government in readily deciding to co-operate with the- Chinese scheme for the annual reduction of the import of opium and the ultimate extinction of the trade in ten years' time, have in the circumstances done all that can be reasonably expected. More especially is this the case, considering that the Chinese Government have yet to prove the diminution in the cultivation of the poppy in certain provinces of their own Empire. If circumstances have arisen which justify any further sacrifices, it seems to the association that it would be better to make them dealing directly and single-handed with China from motives of friendship rather than. to follow the finding of an international conference which would create an impression that His Majesty's Government were yielding to outside moral pressure.
Moreover, in view of the resolutions passed by the Opium Cominission held at Shanghai last year, which are now engaging the attention of the Governments of India. and of the Eastern colonies, the association fail to discover any warrant for this intrusion. by the American Government into a field in which their interests are so microscopic, and with upwards of six years of the agreement for the gradual extinction of the opium trade still to run, my committtee strongly deprecate any further attempt either to excite world-wide attention, or, less, to provoke international discussion of a question which primarily concerns Great Britain and her Indian dependency, and which, if assented to, might involve her in serious difficulties and great commercial loss.
My committee cannot conceive that His Majesty's Government is called upon to bring their treaty engagements with China under review by The Hague Tribunal, and they therefore venture to hope that His Majesty's Government will meet the invitation of the Government of the United States, if such has been given, with an unqualified refusal.
[2812 n-1]
am,
&c. F. ANDERSON, Chairman.
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