co
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[March 25
こ
246
10404
SECTION 3Rrat 3 MAY 12
[12644]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 25.)
(No. 109.)
Peking, March 5, 1912. Sir,
WITH reference to your telegram No. 31 of the 13th ultimo, on the subject of the alleged prohibition of the import of Indian opium into the province of Chekiang, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copies of despatches which I have received from His Majesty's consul at Hangchow, regarding the seizure at the railway station of Chiang-t'ou, or Chia-k'ou, on the left bank of the Ch'ien-t'ang River, of nine chests of Indian opium, in transit to the cities of Lan-ch'i Hsien and Ch'ü-chou, on the ground that they were not covered by provincial permits authorising the dealers to leave the province to purchase opium, and on the discovery being made later that such permits had been applied for and were unobtainable, that the amounts and weights did not agree with the particulars given in the Customs transit certificates.
On the 31st January I had received a telegram from Mr. Savage reporting this seizure, and on the following day I instructed him to communicate full information to His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai, whom I at the same time instructed to ascertain the facts, deny the validity of the provincial regulations, and, if all treaty requirements in regard to the opium bad been complied with, inake unofficial representations to Wu Ting-fang and obtain its release. Mr. Fraser's reply of the 14th February, stating that the opium was still detained on the new allegation that it exceeded the amount covered by the customs transit certificates, was repeated to you in my telegram No. 55 of the following day. On the 20th February Mr. Fraser reported that Mr. Wang, the republican Minister for Foreign Affairs, had stated in an interview that he was sure that my wishes in regard to the opium would be met; but on the 24th he telegraphed that, in spite of these assurances, nothing had been done up to that date. In the same telegram he informed that the Messrs. Sassoon had produced copy of a proclamation, dated the 13th February, by the Deputy-Governor of Shao-hsing ordering the destruction of all opium in stock after the end of the month, and refusing the petition of traders for passes to return it to Shanghai; that all opium shops throughout the province of Chekiang were closed; that British importers were unable to obtain payment for opium already sold, whether sent into Chekiang or in warehouse in Shanghai; and that His Majesty's consul at Hangchow had been informed that, as the preparation and smoking of opium were absolutely forbidden, stocks and imports from Shanghai could only be sold to medicine shops. On the 27th February I addressed a memorandum to the Wai-wu Pu requesting that immediate steps should be taken to put a stop to this interference with the trade in Indian opium, and pointing out that any destruction of Indian opium in the province of Chekiang, where opium was still being cultivated, would entail claims which it would be the duty of His Majesty's Government to enforce. A copy of this memoraudum is enclosed.
On the 26th February His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai reported by telegraph that 14 piculs of Malwa opium in 144 packages duly labelled by the Chinese authorities and covered by twenty transit certificates on the way to the province of Kiangsi via railway to Hangchow had been, together with the native dealers accompanying it, who were supplied with Kiangsi permits to buy, seized at Hangchow railway station on the pretext that the certificates bore Imperial dates. On the receipt of this I at once telegraphed to His Majesty's consul at Nanking, instructing him to represent unofficially to the Provisional authorities the great harm which incidents of this kind are doing to the maintenance of the good relations which it is our earnest desire to cultivate with the authorities and people of China; that the pretext for this seizure is too flimsy to merit examination; and that the opium should be released at once. Apart from this case, I at the same time instructed him to point out that the repeated infringements of the new opium agreement which had occurred in territory under the immediate control of Nanking have produced a very unfavourable impression of the attitude of the Provisional Government towards treaty obligations, which nothing but a strict observance of the agreement in the future is likely to remove. His Majesty's consul replied on the 28th February that he had already made
[2412 66-3]