C.0.129/382r
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
154
[December 20.]
622
SECTION 2.
[46010]
Rece No. 1. 7 JAN ||
India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received December 20.)
India Office, December 20, 1910.
Sir,
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to forward, for the information of Sir Edward Grey, copy of a telegram which has been received from the Government of India on the subject of the interrupted negotiations with the Chinese Government for an opium arrangement.
I am to suggest that Sir John Jordan should be asked for his opinion and advice with regard to the two questions on which instructions are sought by the Government of India. Lord Crewe has no objection to his being authorised to communicate the purport of the Government of India's telegram to the Chinese Government, if he thinks that it may serve to impress them with a sense of the seriousness of the position which will arise on the 1st January next, or may induce them to show their real intentions as to completing the agreement which they had originally proposed.
Enclosure in No. 1.
I am, &c.
R. RITCHIE.
Government of India to the Earl of Crewe.
December 18, 1910.
(Telegraphic.) P.
YOUR telegram of the 8th December: Opium negotiations and Sir J. Jordan's telegrams of the 5th and 8th to Sir E. Grey.
We may sum up as follows the present position, from our point of view :-
2. We have made China the offer of an agreement very favourable to her, and have fixed its period, at her request, at seven years, volunteering, at the same time, to waive our claim to proof of the reduction made during the last three years in the production of opium in China. We have further, at the special request of the Chinese Government, offered to earmark opium exported from India, and are ready to do so from the beginning of the new year, in order that China may be helped to make reduction of imports effective, and, apart from the single condition that the duty on native opium shall be correspondingly increased, we have made no objection to a proposal for raising the import duty. We have also shown great patience for a long time past, and have induced our merchants to show the same patience in regard to the illegal actions of the Canton Viceroy. We have, in short, shown in every way our desire to meet the Chinese Government wherever possible, and it is disappointing to see no evidence of a corresponding readiness to meet us on their part.
3. It is necessary now to consider, in the light of the fact that the present agree- ment with China lapses at the end of the year, what is our own position. In view of the illegalities at Canton, and of the fact that the evidence of the reduction of produc- tion in China which we are entitled to ask for is not forthcoming, we are under no obligation to continue during 1911 the reduction in our exports, and we think it undesirable to continue our restrictions unless we have a clear understanding as to the future. If the Chinese Government do not wish to enter into a new agreement on the lines accepted by us, we would ask for instructions as to whether we should make in 1911 any further reduction in our sales or exports, and more particularly as to whether we should bring into force next month the system of earmarking chests for China. If this system is not introduced on the 1st January, its introduction will have to be post- poned for a whole year, as there is nothing to prevent the whole Malwa export for the year 1911 leaving India early in January, and we should not be giving China the desired assistance if we earmarked Patua and Benares opium only. On the other hand, we remain ready to begin earmarking on the 1st January, provided the Chinese Government enter into a satisfactory agreement.
[1804 u-2]