[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
367
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[21414]
No. 1.
C. O.
[May 20.]
SECTION 2.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 20.)
(No. 197.) Sir,
Peking, April 20, 1912. WITH reference to my despatch No. 100 of the 5th March, regarding two cases of seizure of ludian opium in transit in Chekiang, and the imposition in that province of restrictions contrary to the terms of the additional article to the Chefoo Agreement and the Opium Agreement of May 1911, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith copies of further correspondence that has passed between the Wai-chiao Pu and this legation, and copy of a memorandum which I addressed on the 18th instant to the President Yuan Shih-kai on the subject.*
All the opium seized has been released, in one case on enforced payment of a fine of 500 dollars on the pretext that it was not accompanied by local permits to import, while, in the other, examination proved that the opium merchants were in no way implicated in a discrepancy in the dates in the Opium Suppression Sub-Office's - covering certificates, which was the reason assigned for the seizure. As in both cases the opium was covered by Opium Trausit Certificates in accordance with the terms of the additional article to the Chiefoo Agreement, I have intimated to the Wai-chiao Pu my intention, on receipt of details of the interest on the value of the opium from the dates of seizure to the dates of release, to present a claim for the amount thereof in addition to expenses incurred in connection with the two cases.
In their reply to my memorandum of the 27th February, copy of which was enclosed in my despatch No. 109 of the 5th ultimo, the Wai-wa Pu asserted that they were in receipt of telegraphic information that proclamations had been issued stating definitely that Chekiang opium suppression did not extend to Indian opiun. This reply was dated on the 23rd March; but His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai and His Majesty's consul at Hanchow, to whom I forwarded a copy of the Wai-wu Pa's reply, reported that no such proclamation had been issued, and it was not till the 10th instant that the former received a copy from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Nanking, while the latter found it necessary to apply for a copy to the tu-tu, or military governor, who furnished it two days later. This proclamation, a trauslation of which I have the honour to enclose, is very vague and unsatisfactory, for, while the wholesale trade in Indian opium is nomiually excluded from the general prohibition, opium smoking is made a punishable offence.
In my memorandum of the 27th February I called the attention of the Wai-wu Pu to the issue on the 13th February of a proclamation by the deputy governor of Shao-hsing ordering the destruction by burning of all opium in stock after a fixed date, and I warned them that any destruction of Indian opium in the Province of Chekiang, in which uative opium was still being cultivated, would entail claims which it would be the duty of His Majesty's Government to enforce, and on the 10th instant I again warned them of the issue of a proclamation at Hanchow calling upon prepared opium shops to hand over the balance of their stocks for destruction by burning. My representations on this point were based on telegrams received from His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai and His Majesty's consul at Hanchow, and, although I am now in possession of copies of these proclamations, the Wai-chiao Pu in their memorandun of the 20th instant inform me that they are in receipt of a telegram from the Tu-tu of Chekiang to the effect that the proclamation regarding the destruction by burning of opium stocks was never in fact issued. This, taken into conjunction with the fact that the nine chests of opium seized at Chiang-t'ou in transit to Lan-ch'i Hsien and Ch'u-chou Fu were not allowed to be conveyed to destination, but compulsorily returned under local permit to Shanghai, shows the independence of the Chekiang authorities who, in the present unsettled condition of the country, are a law unto themselves, and decline to listen to the Wai-chiao Pu or any other authority.
With regard to the Province of Fukien, I received a telegram from His Majesty's consul at Foochow on the 19th March, stating that proclamations were issued on the
* Not printed.
[2502 u-2]