[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
(
CONFIDENTIAL,
[6131]
427
C O
[February 20.]
1235
SECTION 2.
NOL & MAR
(No. 41.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey-(Received February 20.)
Peking, January 28, 1911. WITH reference to my despatch No. 16 of the 10th instant, I have the honour to enclose the copies of despatches from His Majesty's consul-general at Canton, No. 46 of the 24th December, 1910, and No. 1 of the 10th January, 1911, covering copies of further correspondence with the acting Governor-General in regard to the additional regulations issued by the Opium Prohibition Bureau.
It will be seen from this correspondence that the arrangements for transferring the collection of the tax to the Opium Guild are not yet completed. The policy of restricting the consumption of the drug is apparently to be enforced by prohibiting the smokers from making their purchases at any prepared opium shops other than those indicated on their licences and by closing a number of the shops on the ground that they had committed a breach of the regulations. To what extent the new regulations will interfere with the trade of the Indian opium merchants will depend largely on the strictness with which they are enforced, but it would be idle to pretend that there is any prospect of securing their withdrawal. Messrs. Sassoon and others have repeatedly invoked the protection of the treaties, and on strict treaty grounds a strong case can doubtless be made out against the Chinese Government. But they appear to be oblivious to the fact that conditions are totally different from what they were when the additional article to the Chefoo Convention was concluded, and in face of the unexpected and unmistakable determination of the Chinese to stamp out the opium habit in a shorter period than was ever contemplated or thought possible, it becomes a matter for consideration whether the merchants should not be warned in general terms that, whilst every effort will continue to be made in the future, as it has been in the past, to protect their legitimate business, the inevitable effect of the measures which are being taken for restricting the sale and consumption of the prepared drug must be to react on the trade in the raw article and that they should suit their arrangements accordingly.
I have the honour to enclose two further petitions which I have received praying for the abolition of the import trade in opium, the one from a society in Shansi, and the other from Chinese Christians in Chefoo; also a telegram from the Chamber of Commerce at Kirin on the same subject.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
J. N. JORDAN.
(No. 46.) Sir,
Consul-General Jamieson to Sir J. Jordan.
Canton, December 24, 1910. IN continuation of my despatch No. 45 of the 22nd instant, I have the honour to transmit herewith text and translation of the Acting Governor-General's reply to the enquiry addressed to him by me on the subject of a proposal to alter the present method of collecting the levy on prepared opium (vide enclosure No. 2 in despatch No. 45).
You will therefrom gather that, as I surmised, the proposal is only under consideration and has not yet been finally adopted.
As to how licences are to be controlled, and as to the conditions under which they are to be issued, his Excellency abides by previous declarations that these are questions of purely domestic policy.
Unless otherwise instructed, I do not for the present intend to answer this communication.
I have, &c.
J. W. JAMIESON,
[1897
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