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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[March 21.]
SECTION 1,
524
[12498]
(No. 95.) Šir,
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received March 21.)
Peking, March 7, 1914. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 21 of the 27th January, transmitting copy of a letter, with enclosures, from the India Office, respecting the sales of uncertificated opium, and requesting me to furnish information regarding the smuggling of uncertificated opium into China. The India Office asks for information regarding the extent to which uncertificated opium is smuggled into China, and the routes which it is believed to follow.
With regard to the extent to which uncertificated opium is smuggled into China, I am still of opinion that the difference between the total uncertified export from India and the actual requirements of non-China consumers approximately represents the amount of the drug smuggled into China. I observe that the amount of uncertificated Indian opium to be sold in 1914 was fixed, in September last, by the Government of India at 13,200 chests-an increase of 4,200 chests over the amount sold in 1913. My opinions, in strong disfavour of any increase in the export of uncertificated opium, were fully laid out in my despatch No. 450 of the 3rd December last, copy of which was sent to the Government of India. In that despatch I gave it as my opinion that the maximum requirements of non-China countries in 1914 would be 9,000 chests, and I have no reason to alter this opinion.
The Maritime Customs returns show that seizures of smuggled uncertificated opium are made in many ports, but, as pointed out in my despatch No. 220 of the 9th May, 1912, there is no inducement to customs officers to trace and detect the smuggling of opium, since any opium detected and seized is destroyed instead of being sold as formerly, and consequently there is now no fund from which the detecting officers can be rewarded. In spite of this, the Customs returns show seizures of smuggled opium. In the December quarter of 1913, for example, smuggled uncertificated opium was seized at eight ports, viz., at Lappa, Kowloon, Canton, and Swatow in the south, and at Hankow (800 oz.), Wuhu (400 oz.), Nanking, and Chinkiang in the Yang-teze region; and it is a fair assumption that the quantity seized bears an infinitesimal ratio to the total smuggled.
Some light is thrown on the extent of smuggling of uncertificated opium into China by the particulare furnished by the Governor of Hong Kong in his letter to the Colonial Office of the 3rd May last-to which my despatch No. 450 of the 3rd December last drew attention-concerning Kuangchouwan, at which place opium was being imported to an amount ten times as much as local requirements; the local consumption in 1912 being 56 chests, while no less than 570 chests of Indian opium were imported.
In Macao-where smuggling of opium brought about the Anglo-Portuguese agreement of June last-smuggling into China is apparently as extensive and as lucrative as ever before; for, although the amount of opium permitted under the agreement to be imported into Macao is now restricted to 500 chests
per annum, the price paid by the opium farmer to the Macao Government has become, since the agree- ment, seven times as great as before. Up to July 1913 the annual price paid by the Macao opium farmer was 148,750 dollars, while the annual farm commencing on the 1st August, 1913, was sold for 1,056,666 dollars.
In view of Macao's limited requirements, this excessive payment can only mean a programme of extensive smuggling into China, and, in face of the recently concluded agreement with the Portuguese Government, the price taken for the opium farm for the current year may well be deemed to demand explanation.
It is obvious that in such an essentially clandestine matter as smuggling statistics of any definiteness are impossible to obtain, but I venture to submit that the particulars I have given above only point to one conclusion-that the smuggling of uncertificated opium into China is extensive in amount and fairly general in locality and route.
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