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of the instructions of June 1911, I have the honour to enclose translation of this memorandum, together with copy of the instructions which I have sent to His Majesty's consul at Hangchow in connection therewith.
I am forwarding copies of this despatch and its enclosures to his Excellency the Viceroy of India.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
Note communicated to Sir J. Jordan by Wai-chiao Pu.
ON the 4th November, 1912, a telegram was received from the Tutu of Chekiang stating that the police office had reported the establishment by British merchants in the port of Hangchow of a shop for the retail sale of opium, and that, while instructing the police office to afford adequate protection, he had made serious representations to the British consul, and requesting that the British Minister in Peking be induced forthwith to put a stop to it.
Now the additional article to the Chefoo agreement recognised the desirability of placing restrictions on the consumption of opium, while the opium agreement of last year merely removed all restrictions on the wholesale trade in Indian opium, leaving the Chinese Government at liberty legally to regulate the retail trade in the drug in general.
The opium shop established in the present instance by British merchants being for retail sale and not for wholesale trade should therefore, to give effect to Great Britain's earnest desire to support the suppression of opium by entering into the treaty, be interdicted forthwith.
Moreover, article 18 of The Hague International Opium Convention stipulates that "the Contracting Powers having treaties with China shall take effective measures for the gradual reduction pari passu with the effective measures which the Chinese Government shall take with the same object of the number of shops in which raw and prepared opium is sold, which may still exist in their leased territories, settlements, and concessions in China.
The imposition of restrictions on opium shops in concessions having thus been promised by the international convention, it is of course undesirable that British inerchants should be permitted to establish an opium shop in the port of Hangchow, where no such shops have existed hitherto, and that too just at the time when Chekiang province is carring out strict measures of opium suppression.
The Wai-chaio Pu have the honour, therefore, earnestly to solicit the kind offices of His Majesty's Minister to issue prompt instructions to the merchants, forbidding them to obstruct the progress of the suppression of opium by retailing the drug in the port of Hangchow.
November 6, 1912.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
WAI-CHIAO PU.
Memorandum communicated to Wai-chiao Pu by Sir J. Jordan.
HIS Majesty's Minister has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Wai-chiao Pu's memorandum of the 6th instant on the subject of the retail sale of opium by British merchants at Hangchow.
There is nothing in the treaties which prohibits a British subject from selling opium like any other merchandise in a treaty port or foreign settlement in China, though in the case of opium such retail sale is not necessary so long as the Chinese authorities do not prohibit the retail trade by Chinese. But the province of Chekiang has openly broken all treaties, and instead of taking the step prescribed by the agreement of 1911 for establishing a claim to the exclusion of foreign opium, has taken the law into its own hands, and has instituted forcible repressive measures against the foreign drug while still continuing to cultivate and consume native opium.
The action of the province has formed the subject of repeated protests, notwithstanding which it has remained closed to the foreign trade for the past nine months.
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In their own defence the foreign merchants have resorted to the step of which the Wai-chiao Pu now complain, and which is directly attributable to the long continued defiance by the provincial authorities of the solemn obligations entered into by the Central Government.
His Majesty's Minister is, however, quite willing to comply with the request now put forward by the Wai-chiao Pu, if they on their part will at once carry out the verbal promise made by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and recirculate the instructions issued by the former Wai-wu Pu in June 1911 and give strict orders to the Chekiang authorities to conform therewith. By this means the spirit not only of the International Opium Convention, but also of the agreements between Great Britain and China on the subject will be upheld.
Peking, November 9, 1912.
(No. 31. Confidential.)
Enclosure in No. 1.
Consul Savage to Sir J. Jordan.
Hanchow, November 18, 1912. Sir,
I HAVE the honour to report that on Saturday, the 2nd instant, Mr. Ellis Ezra, of the firm of E. Ezra and Co., arrived at Hangchow Settlement during the afternoon. He stated that he had called on me, but I had just left to spend the following day up-country. Between 4 and 5 o'clock he opened a shop for the sale of Indian opium in the settlement, borrowing for the purpose a portion of the premises rented by by Serebrianikof and Co., as well as some of their opium, and started selling the drug in small quantities.
Purchasers were plentiful. During the first two and a-half hours some ninety clients were accommodated. But after that several persons were arrested on leaving the shop. Purchasers were supplied with guarantees of protection similar to those
Ce. This was issued by Serebrianikof and
done without any authorisation
whatever.
Nevertheless, I understand that after a few arrests had been made Mr. Ezra started for the city in the evening and called on the Secretary for Foreign Affairs at about 9 P.M. There, as I subsequently heard, he protested in a vehement and over- bearing manner against the arrest of his customers, even threatening that Sir Everard Fraser would come up to Hangchow in a gun-boat. At first the foreign affairs secretary appears to have been somewhat intimidated, and he promised the release of the prisoners who, he said, had been arrested without orders. He also telegraphed to me in Chinese, signing the telegram himself, protesting against the opening of a shop for the retail sale of opium by British subjects without any notice being sent by me to the authorities, and without any application being made to the local police. This, he said, was a breach of treaty, which should properly be met by the closing of the establishment, but he appealed to me first to put a stop to these improper proceedings in order to preserve friendly relations.
The telegram reached me on Sunday afternoon, being sent on to me from the consulate. The fact that it was not signed by the tutu and was not marked as sealed deprived it of a regular official character, as I afterwards pointed out to Mr. Wên.
I returned to Hangchow during the night, arriving the next morning, and on passing along the main street in the settlement I noticed a number of police around Serebrianikof's premises. Soon afterwards Mr. Ezra called and did his utmost I replied that to persuade me to protest strongly against the arrest of his customers. he had no business to issue guarantees of protection, and that I could take no action until I had communicated with you. I then telegraphed to you and asked for
your
views.
Meanwhile, on Sunday morning, the Russian merchant had also started selling opium; but after some seventeen purchases had been made the police began to arrest every purchaser as soon as he left the shop. This promptly put a stop to the sales.
On receipt of your telegram of the 5th November I transmitted its purport to His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai for communication to Messrs. Ezra, Sassoons, and others. This brought Mr. Ezra senior to Hangchow. He called on me twice and asked me to forward certain messages to you, and to give him a letter of introduction to the Foreign Affairs Secretary. He saw Mr. Wen on the 7th November, and obtained from him a verbal admission that the Chekiang authorities had broken the
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