[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]`
C O 6653
OPIUM.
[February 22.]
REGE 17 MAR
CONFIDENTIAL.
SHOTION 1.
[6131]
No. 1.
Sir,
Foreign Office to India Office.
Foreign Office, February 22, 1911. WITH reference to the letter from this department of the 30th ultimo, I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to enclose, to be laid before the Secretary of State for India, a copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's Minister at Peking,* relative to the additional regulations issued at Canton by the Opium Prohibition Burean.
Sir J. Jordan, while calling attention to the measures by which the policy of restricting the consumption of opium is apparently to be enforced, points out that there is no prospect of securing the withdrawal of those measures, and he raises the question whether, in view of the altered circumstances with regard to the opium trade in China, the time has not come to warn interested firms in general terms that the trade in the raw article must inevitably be affected by the steps taken by China, and that they should suit their arrangements to the new conditions prevailing.
Sir E. Grey would be glad to receive any observations on the subject which Lord Crewe may desire to offer.
* Sir J. Jordan, No. 41.
[1897 y-1]
I am, &c.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
463