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for the observance of the agreement as interpreted by the former Wai-wu Pu last year could avail to remedy the situation.
Mr. Lu promised to confer further with the President and to inform me of the result in due course.
The question of the Anch'ing opium burning was then discussed. I produced the original transit certificates covering the seven chests destroyed, and Sir Everard Fraser detailed the results of his investigations, proving conclusively the illegality of the tutu's action. The latter's delegate attempted a voluble defence of the seizure on the ground of smuggling and non-production of the transit certificates by the consignees, but as his statements were entirely inconsistent, both with the documents and with an elementary knowledge of treaty provisions, I pressed Mr. Lu for an immediate reply to the demand for compensation as contained in my memorandum of the 21st November, and amounting to some 25,000 taels.
The answer, which was promised for the next day, reached me in the form of a message to the effect that difficulty was felt in replying to my memorandum without raising the question of our right to claim compensation on behalf a Chinese citizen, but if the demand were not pressed, the Wai-chiao Pu would see that the owner of the opium was properly indemnified.
I have caused Mr. Lu to be informed that I cannot consider any suggestion for the waiving of the demand for compensation, which we claim in respect of breach of tren
eity.
The interview with the President took place on the 10th instant, when the whole ground was gone over again, and my representions were supported, as before, by the first-hand evidence of Sir Everard Fraser.
The President urged me to endeavour to arrive at some satisfactory procedure in consultation with the Wai-chiao Pu, but I repeated that I had already exhausted every effort in this direction and had no further suggestion to offer beyond the immediate issue of instructions by himself. He then said that he could not take action except on a report from the Wai-chiao Pu, which he promised to call for.
I shall not fail to press the Chinese Government for early and definite proof of the result of these emphatic representations, but I am not sanguine that either the willingness or the ability exists to give to them the only effect which can be satisfactory to the British interests involved. This renewed and simultaneous defiance of the agreement by so many provinces can only, I fear, be due to a concerted attempt, made with the connivance of the Central Government, to strengthen the hands of the latter in resisting our demand for the observance of treaty provisions, and if the failure to issue effective instructions now should prove the correctness of this foreboding, our future course of action with regard to the treatment of Indian opium must, as I have warned both the President and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, form a subject for the consideration of His Majesty's Government.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[55513]
No. 1.
[December 30.]
SECTION 2.
Sir G. Buchanan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 30.) (No. 230. Cominercial.)
St. Petersburgh, December 26, 1912. Sir,
I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith a memorandum by Captain Rowland Smith, on the subject of proposed legislation respecting opium in Russia.
I have, &c.
GEORGE W. BUCHANAN.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Memorandum by Captain Rowland Smith on Proposed Legislation respecting Opium in Russia.
THE "Novoe Vremya" of the 11th (24th) December states that the cultivation of poppy for opium (Papaver somniferum) by the coloured population in the far eastern territories of Russia is assuming alarming proportions, and that in the Olgin district alone (maritime province) about 700 "dessiatines" (approximately 1,900 acres) are now under cultivation of this poppy.
In view of the fact that the opium habit is rapidly increasing among Russian communities in those parts of the Empire, the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Organisation, in agreement with the Government Emigration and Settlement Depart- ment, has already drawn up a Bill prohibiting the cultivation of poppy in the Trans-Baikal, Amur, and maritime provinces, and making such cultivation a criminal offence involving the infliction of heavy fines. In addition, it is proposed to prohibit within the limits of the Empire the smoking of opium, and to forbid the possession, sale, and purchase of opium, as also of all appliances used in its smoking.
This Bill has already been dealt with by the Committee of the Far East Settlement Commission, which sat under the presidency of Privy Councillor G. V. Glinka, and in the immediate future will be submitted, through the Council of Ministers, to the Imperial Duma.
ROWLAND SMITH.
St. Petersburgh, December 26, 1912.
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