[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[August 2.] C O
[27718]
No. 1.
529
Section 125501
IRECR
REGE 19 AUG 10,
(No. 227.) Sir,
Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received August 2.)
Peking, July 15, 1910. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 211 of the 17th ultimo, in which you instruct me to approach the Chinese Government with an offer, on certain conditions, of 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. These conditions are (1) that Sir A. Hosie, who is now on a tour of investigation in the provinces, should be able to furnish His Majesty's Government with a satisfactory report as to the manner in which the Chinese Government have carried out their share of the existing arrangement in the suppression of the cultivation of opium, and (2) that the British merchants engaged in the wholesale trade with China are allowed free trade within the treaty ports, and that the number of wholesale dealers is not arbitrarily reduced. In the event of the Chinese Government accepting the offer above mentioned, I am authorised to inform them that, if at the end of the ten years' period the production of opium shall have ceased in the Chinese Empire, His Majesty's Government will co-operate in any equitable measure for prohibiting the importation of opium into China. If the Chinese Government appear to be in any way dissatisfied with this offer combined with the above assurance, I shall endeavour to ascertain whether they have any practical proposal to make for supplementing the indirect restriction at present enforced by the Government of India, or for substituting for it direct progressive restriction of import at the treaty ports.
Finally, I note that if the Chinese Government reopen the question of increased taxation, His Majesty's Government, although unable to abandon the principle of the additional article of the Chefoo Convention, are prepared to consider any proposal I may submit as to an increase in the present consolidated import duty, if there is evidence that the effective taxation of the native drug has been correspondingly increased. As it was evident that the proposals contained in your despatch would entail considerable discussion, I thought that the best plan would be for the Wai-wu Pu to delegate one of their members to negotiate with me, and accordingly at an interview I had at the Wai-wu Pu with Mr. Hu Wei-te, the new vice-president, I handed to him the enclosed memorandum, and suggested that they depute a member of the board, preferably Mr. Liu Yu-lin, who had served on the Shanghai Opium Commission and talks English, to discuss the question of the prolongation of the agreement with me. I was surprised to find that my proposal met with considerable opposition, and Mr. Hu Wei-te replied that no discussion was necessary, and that the original agreement provided for its own renewal. I pointed out that a prolongation was dependent ou production of definite proof that China had fulfilled her share of the bargain, and that though in my report I had expressed the personal opinion that China had done 80, had simultaneously deplored the fact that she was not able to produce any convincing proofs to substantiate such an opinion. I further gave his Excellency to understand that I was authorised to discuss very liberal terms with China. All, however, I could obtain was a promise to consult Prince Kung, the High Commissioner for opium, and to let me know the result.
I
I would take this opportunity of expressing my regret that in my despatch No. 110 of the 20th April, and my note to Prince Ching enclosed therein, I made the statement that the eventuality that Indian opium at the end of ten years would, under the existing arrangement, still be imported into China, had not been foreseen at the time that the proposals of His Majesty's Government for the restriction of the opium were under discussion at Peking. The point raised in Prince Ching's note of the 13th April was perhaps never very clearly put before the Chinese Government, though I see that Sir John Jordan in a memorandum handed to the Wai-wu Pu on the 7th January, 1908, explained that "any restriction which might be imposed in India on the quantity of opium shipped for any given destination would always be liable to evasion by transhipment or an alteration of the ship's destination.”
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