[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[27444]
No. 1.
India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received June 28.)
C.0.
[June 28.] SECTION 5. AUG 12'
560
Sir,
India Office, June 27, 1912, IN continuation of my letter dated the 18th June, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to forward, for the information of Sir Edward Grey and for any observations, copy of a telegram from the Government of India, dated the 24th June, on the subject of the Indo-Chinese opium trade.
The Government of India's telegram of the 21st June regarding a proclamation with my alleged to have been issued in the Kiangsi province was forwarded to you letter dated the 26th June. Lord Crewe will be glad to be informed whether any report on the matter has been received from His Majesty's Minister.
With regard to the concluding words of the telegram 1 an to refer to my letter dated the 18th June, 1912, and to enquire whether a reply has been given to the letter of Messrs. E. D. Sassoon and Co. and Messrs. D. Sassoon and Co.
I ᏄᏓᏁᏗ ; &c.
Enclosure in No. 1.
R. RITCHIE.
Government of India to the Marquess of Crewe.
June 24, 1912. (Telegraphic.) P.
MY telegram of the 14th June: Unsold opium stocks, Hong Kong and China. Further enquiries have been made here. These stocks are estimated at 20,000 chests to the value of 9 crores,* viz., 14 to 2 crores financed by three exchange banks, We did not think it probable 4 crores by owners, and remainder by Chinese banks. that branches of exchange banks in China should indulge in wild speculation when, in India, the same banks had acted with due caution regarding advances against opium. Our belief that Chinese stocks are much lower than suggested by previous alarmist reports of merchants and that latter are largely responsible for accumulation is confirmed further by articles in "North China Herald," dated the 18th May (p 449) and the 25th May (p. 553). It should be borne in mind that opium now sold must be exported before the end of calendar year, and that consequently amount of purchased chests held in India by merchants is necessarily much smaller. "Position has, we under- stand, improved somewhat, recent sales both in Hon. Kong and Shanghai having been better. As regards alleged restrictions in Kiangsi (see our telegram of the 21st June), we presume that if merchants' reports are correct necessary representations are being made; also regarding reported resumption of cultivation in Shansi and Szechuan (see British Minister's Peking's despatch of the 20th April to Foreign Office). We are being urged by Malwa merchants to allow them, in view of breaches of agreement on China's part, to export in excess of number of chests notified to enable large stocks in Malwa to be cleared. As regards Bombay merchant's memorial (see our telegram of the 6th June) it will shortly be necessary to make a further statement. Presumably there is no objection to our saying again that we are not prepared to alter the number of chests permitted to be sold for export to China in 1912.
(Repeated to Peking.)
* 9 crores = 90,000,000 rupees = 6000,000/. instead of the 10,000,000, the estimate originally given by the interested parties.
[2519 ee-5]