88
2
they are in the present case, inasmuch as in that year only prepared opium was to be taxed, and the tax was to be collected from the boiled opium shops, whereas the tax now levied is collected on raw opium.
In reply to Mr. Jamieson's enquiry referred to in the second paragraph of your letter, we may say that the case cited by Mr. Levy, wherein the tax of 7 dol. 20 c. was collected on one ball of raw opium on the 10th June, is not an isolated case, but, we are assured by the dealers, is one of daily occurrence.
In proof of this, Mr. Levy handed you this morning two receipts and permits in respect of similar tax imposed on two balls of opium purchased on the 2nd instant.
We regret that, notwithstanding the protests made by His Britannic Majesty's chargé d'affaires to the Wai-wu Pu and also, under instructions, by His Britannic Majesty's consul-goueral to the Acting Governor of Canton, there are, so far, no signs of the abolition of this illicit taxation and monopoly. In the meanwhile our trade is We have now an still paralysed and our losses are daily increasing in consequence. accumulation of stocks of opium which we are unable to dispose of amounting to about 16,000 chests Bengal and Malwa, and, taking a conservative figure of a loss of 500 dollars per chest, we estimate our losses to be no less than 8,000,000 dollars. In addition to this, we stand the risk of further heavy losses on stocks which have been sold, hut not yet delivered through the probable failures of the native purchasers to carry out their
contracts.
Unless the situation is immediately relieved, we are afraid that our losses would be greatly increased, and we must hold the Chinese Government responsible for these losses, which were brought about by the illicit action of the Kwangtung authorities.
We shall feel greatly obliged if his Excellency the Officer Administering the Government would see his way to telegraph to His Britannic Majesty's chargé d'affaires and acquaint him with these facts, and urge upon him the necessity of prompt action.
We have, &c.
E. D. SASSOON AND CO.
P.S.-We understand that on the 7th instant the tax and regulations will come into force in Swatow and the vicinity of Macao.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM,
CONFIDENTIAL.
[30084]
со
[August 18.]
SECTION 1.
20648
REC? Rrot 16 SEP 10
No. 1.
Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received August 18.)
(No. 253.) Sir,
Peking, July 30, 1910. IN continuation of my despatch No. 228 of the 15th instant, I regret to have to report that the further representations made by His Majesty's consul-general at Canton and myself against the enforcement of the new opium regulations have proved, as far as I am aware, quite unavailing, while from a telegram received on the 28th instant from the officer administering the Government of Hong Kong, I learn not only that the regulations have, in spite of my request to the contrary, been extended to Swatow, but also that they are being enforced there in a particularly objectionable manner.
On the 18th July I received from the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce a copy of the letter they had addressed to you on the 9th instant, aud on the same day I received a telegram from His Majesty's consul-general at Canton informing me that the Viceroy had replied to his note by stating that the taxation of prepared opium, the control of sales, and the restriction of the number of smokers were questions within the inherent right of China. The Viceroy had gone on to say that if we considered the three days' limit, within which all raw opium purchased had to be boiled, as too short, he was prepared to extend it to ten days if we on our part would then cease to describe the tax as a tax on raw opium. The Viceroy further maintained that no monopoly was established, as any dealer could take shares in the Kuang Yuan Company, and as to the alleged case of payment of the levy at the time of purchase of some raw opinm, his Excellency explained that the case had been inaccurately reported, as the opium had been purchased three days before the receipt bad been given. I authorised Mr. Jamieson to make a reply to the effect that the Viceroy was merely transmitting a report of the Opium Suppression Bureau, and that it was not the bureau but the Government who would be held responsible if their action prejudiced the chances of an agreement with His Majesty's Government, who still maintained that even prepared opium could not be subjected to increased taxation in a treaty port, and further that the statements of the bureau as to the dates of payment appeared to be mere quibbles. I have the honour further to enclose a copy of a despatch from Mr. Jamieson forwarding a copy of his note to the Viceroy of the 5th July as to the levying of the tax from purchasers of raw opium at the time of purchase, to which note reference was made in my telegram No. 119 of the 11th July.
On the 19th instant I had a further interview with Mr. Hu Wei-te on the subject, when I said that, to judge from the telegraphic report I had received, the Viceroy's answer to His Majesty's consul-general was exceedingly unsatisfactory. Instead of examining the question himself, the Viceroy was content to transmit what was laid before him by the interested officials of the Opium Suppression Bureau. He did not even attempt to deal with the question in a liberal spirit, and his replies appeared to me to be mere quibbles. The strict interpretation of the additional article of the Chefoo convention was that even prepared opium could not in a treaty port be subjected to any taxation other than that laid down in that instrument. This of course Mr. Hu Wei-te refused to admit. Whereupon I replied that, leaving that point out of the question, the practical result of the enforcement of the new regulations was that foreign opium, raw and prepared, was subjected to heavy additional taxation, and that the wholesale trade was unjustifiably interfered with. I then said that the time limit of three days for boiling opium was specially objectionable, and that the Viceroy's proposal to extend it to ten days was useless, and I suggested that the time limit for boiling should be done away with altogether, and that this might possibly provide a satisfactory solution of the difficulties. I assured his Excellency that His Majesty's Government were most unwilling to interfere unnecessarily with any fair regulations introduced by the Chinese Government with a view to suppressing the opium vice, but that these regulations arbitrarily introduced by the provincial authorities, and differing from province to province and from port to port, were most objectionable and led to constant friction, and I was bound to protect the interests of the British opium merchants from improper interference. I suggested, therefore, that the Viceroy should
[2860 8-1]
}