[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPTUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[27607]
No. 1.
T. 0.
[June 29]
SECTION Brega o AUG 12.
♪
561
Sir,
Messrs. E. D. and Messrs. David Sassoon and Co. to Foreign Office.-(Received June 29.)
17, St. Helen's Place, London, June 28, 1912. WE have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated the 25th instant, and regret to learn that the Government of India are unable to entertain our request that the sales of certified opium may be suspended until the Chinese Government have been induced to carry out their treaty obligations.
Our
The only reason given in your letter for this refusal, is that the Government of India has undertaken to make no change without giving three months' notice. request to suspend the sales referred to certified opium only, and we think we are correct in saying that all the buyers of opium certified for China are unanimous in asking for this suspension. Exceptional circumstances call for exceptional remedies, and if the buyers of opium ear-marked for China are unanimous in this request for suspension, surely the three months' notice can be dispensed with. May we beg that this point be pressed upon the Government of India, as matters have arrived at a very critical stage.
We have the honour to place before you the following telegram received from Shanghai:-
"Following from Kiukiang:-
"Consul has protested against new regulations. Tutu maintains, without supporting his contentions by arguments, that regulations conform to articles 2 and 3, agreement 1911. Nothing further can be done beyond appealing Peking. It is notorious that various Provincial Governments pay no attention to instructions of Central Government if not in accord with their wishes.""
The Central Government is stated to be unable or unwilling to control the Provincial Governments. If it is able, but unwilling to do so, we trust that pressure may be brought to bear to insist upon treaty obligations being carried out. If, however, it is willing, but unable to impose its will upon the provincial authorities, it is difficult to understand how it will be able to control the expenditure of the money now being loaned, when that money goes into the provinces.
As you are already aware, British merchants engaged in the legitimate opium trade in certified opium are faced with :---
1. Grave restrictions, and, in some of the chief markets, total prohibition.
2. Large and immovable stocks, bought from the Indian Government at high
prices.
3. Continued Government sales of opium certified for China.
4. Extensive smuggling of uncertificated opium.
5. A rapidly increasing production of the native drug, in direct contravention
of existing treaties.
This last clearly proves the insincerity of the Chinese Central and Provincial Governments, aud of the so-called Anti-Opium Bureau, their sole object evidently being to create a monopoly for the native drug.
We have all along doubted the sincerity of China on this opium question, and more than once during the past two years we have had the honour of calling the attention of His Majesty's Government to the obvious goal aimed at.
We beg to point out that the Chinese Government, and the Chinese Government alone, is responsible for the enormous losses inflicted upon British merchants, and should therefore be forced to pay adequate compensation to the merchants. Disregard of treaties by the provincial authorities began long before the revolution, at a time when the central authority had the power to enforce its will upon the provinces. Nothing, however, was done by the Central Government who allowed the disregard of treaties
[2519 f-2]