pangan, making and a
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
56
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[7801]
No. 1.
March 3.1
1SEcPFON
25
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.-(Received March 3.)
Downing Street, March 2, 1911.
Sir,
I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, with reference to letter to the Colonial Office of the 24th February, copy of despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong (with enclosures) on the subject of the opium traffic.
I am, &c.
H. BERTRAM COX.
May
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Governor Sir F. Lugard to Mr. Harcourt.
(Confidential.) Sir,
Hong Kong, January 10, 1911. THE opium merchants in the colony on the 6th instant requested me to send the telegram, of which a copy is enclosed, to the Government of India, on their behalf and
of
at their expense, and expressed the hope that I would support it with an expression my own concurrence. I replied that I regretted that I did not see my way to do either, and should be glad to explain my views to them if they desired. representative (Mr. Levy) called upon me on the 7th instant in consequence.
A
2. I explained to him my view of the position as follows: In 1907 the Indian Government authorised the export over-seas of 67,000 chests of opium, of which it was stated (I presume from available statistics) that 51,000 chests went to China. The Indian Government undertook to reduce this latter quantity by one-tenth each year till it expired in ten years from the 1st January, 1908. This arrangement has been in force, 5,100 chests being deducted from the 51,000 chests each year, so that the amount declared for 1911 is 30,600 chests (viz., 51,000 chests -- 5,100 chests x 4). There remained, however, the 16,000 chests for export to other countries which is not touched by the decennial agreement, and which will still be exported when the import to China has ceased. Hitherto the opium merchants have taken no exception to this matter.
3. In 1909 the price of Indian opium in China rose to unprecedented values (due to the laying in of stocks in anticipation of possible prohibition and other causes which do not concern the question at issue), and those enhanced prices attracted to China a certain proportion of the 16,000 chests exported by India for the demands of countries other than China.
The actual figures of imports into China as shown by the customs' returns are as follows:-
1907 1908 1909
Chests. 47,141. Indian Government estimate 41,851. 42,186.
Chests.
51,000
"
45,900
"
40,800
These figures show (as was contended by the Chinese) that the estimated import to China was in 1907 in excess of the actual amount, viz., 51,000, as against 47,141; that the actual imports fell in 1908 by considerably more than the estimated one-tenth of the previous year's import, and were, in fact, only 41,851, as against 45,900, according to the Indian Government estimate. They show, further, that in 1909 (for the reasons given) not only was there no decrease, but an actual increase on the year before, and an increase even on the quantity estimated by the Indian Government.
4. The Chinese Government, who had possibly never appreciated that there were 16,000 chests exported for other countries, protested against this apparent violation of the decennial agreement, and when it was explained to them they asked that they might mark the chests in Calcutta which were destined for China. The Indian Government, I understand, undertook to do so, beginning in January 1911.
[1930 e-2]