[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's
со
77
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[10640]
No. 1.
13345 [March 31.1
Sir,
Foreign Office to India Office.
Foreign Office, March 31, 1911. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to transmit to you, to be laid before the Secretary of State for India, the accompanying copy of a letter which has been received from the China Association forwarding a transcript of a proclamation issued by the Canton local authorities with regard to the enforcement of certain supplementary regulations on the opium question recently issued in that city. I am at the same time to enclose a
COPY of a despatch from Sir J. Jordant forwarding a despatch from His Majesty's consul-general at Canton, together with a translation of the abridged form in which the above regulations have now been issued, in eight clauses.
Sir E. Grey proposes, if Lord Marley sees no objection, to inform the association in reply that be las already received the text of the regulations from His Majesty's Minister at Peking, and that although they do not actually infringe the Additional Article of 1885, they do nevertheless provide for a tax on prepared opium after the packages are broken at the place of consumption, and that there can be little doubt that in practice it is intended to collect the tax on raw opium before it leaves the treaty port, which would constitute an undoubted infringement of our treaty rights; and that Sir J. Jordan has instructed His Majesty's consul-general at Canton to watch carefully the working of the regulations, should they be bereafter enforced.
Sir E. Grey would further state that throughout the course of the long negotiations which have been proceeding at Peking with regard to the whole opium question, Sir J. Jordan has repeatedly informed the Chinese negotiators that there can be no agreement which does not contain a clause making a continuance of the present practices at Canton impossible, that explicit assurances have now been given by the Chinese Government that they shall cease, and that it is hoped that these will prevent the enforcement of the regulations until it can be seen what success is likely to attend the opium negotiations.
I enclose at the same time a printed copy of a despatch from Sir J. Jordan dated the 27th February, reporting on the course of the general negotiations which were resumed on the 11th ultimo by Sir J. Jordan and Na-tung and Dr. Yen.
In view of your letter of the 28th instant, I am to enquire whether Lord Morley would wish some addition to the letter to the China Association to the effect that it is difficult for His Majesty's Government to insist upon the literal adherence of China to her treaty obligations, in view of the amazing progress which has recently taken place in the extinction of the cultivation of, and traffic in, native opium, and of the widespread sympathy which China's action in this matter has inspired throughout the civilized world, more especially in this country, and that the situation has totally and radically changed since the anti-opiums movement commenced in the Chinese Empire.
ani, &c.
F. A. CAMPBELL.
May
* China Association March 20.
Sir J. Jordan, No. 98, February 28,
[1930 kh-2]