[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[2500]
C.O
8563
[January 19.j
REC
SECTION 2.
2d 9 MAR 4
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 19.)
(No. 2.) Sir,
Peking, January 3, 1914. WITH reference to your despatch No. 352 of the 5th December enclosing copies of two letters from the Board of British Anti-Opium Societies and Dr. Lavington Hart, I have the honour to state that there can, in my opinion, be no doubt that the educated classes in China are opposed to the continuance of the opium trade and feel keenly the disgrace which it brings upon their country, although it must be admitted that not a few among the officials with practical knowledge of the question hesitate to believe that the work of suppression can be effectively maintained except under the system of a Government monopoly. The measures which have been taken during the past seven years for the extinction of cultivation in the provinces owe their success largely to the fact that the mass of well-informed public opinion has been behind the movement. This was the case in the declining days of the Manchu régime, and is still more so at present. The difference now is that since the establishment of the republic a new class of officials have come into prominence-men of a younger generation, for the most part, many of whom have received their education in Europe and America. Not a few of these are Christians, and no one who has met them can fail to be impressed by their earnestness and sincerity in the movement against opium. These men know how to exploit public opinion, and find ardient supporters amongst missionaries and others who consider the trade morally indefensible. This body of public opinion, which in former days was inarticulate in China, now directs its assaults upon our connection with the trade, and undoubtedly causes grave prejudice to British interests.
From my personal point of view, far too much stress has been laid upon the stocks of Indian opium in China, and the difficulty which they present to the effective suppression of the native drug appears to me exaggerated by the Chinese reformers and their friends in Great Britain. It would not be too much to say that the feeling of resentment, for which the presence of these stocks has been offered as an explanation, is of comparatively recent date, and owes its origin in the Chinese mind largely to the agitation, not always scrupulously conducted, of a few foreign enthusiasts in this country. It is, moreover, open to some doubt whether the re-exportation of the stocks would really facilitate the effective suppression of opium in China and hasten to any appreciable extent the attainment of the object which both Governments have kept steadily in view from the outset. I confess that I view the relaxation of the stimulus furnished by our co-operation with some misgiving. But criticism has been concen- trated on this one point, and nothing short of the removal of the stocks will, I recognise, satisfy Chinese public opinion. Their presence is a constant source of irritation, and the trade, as at present conducted, is one with which it is very desirable that we should no longer be associated.
It may be regarded as certain that during this spring at least five will be added to the eleven provinces into which the entry of Indian opium is already prohibited. Cultivation may continue, and may even increase, in the remote provinces of Kansu, Kueichow, and Yunnan; but foreign opium does not reach these parts, and the area of its consumption will practically be confined to the markets supplied by Shanghai and Canton. It would therefore, I consider, be a politic step if, concurrently with the completion of the examination of the provinces, we notified China that we had decided to withdraw the remaining stocks. By that time they would in all probability not exceed 10,000 chests, and it will be remembered that I have long held that this is a contingency that we should be prepared to face. In the first place, it must be remem- bered that had the Government of India acceded to the request for the stoppage of the sales in June 1912, the chests subsequently sold, amounting to 8,108 from July to December and 2,760 in 1913-a total of 10,863 chests-would never have reached China, and no solution would now have to be sought for a problem, which would not have come into existence,
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