[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
вс
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[20854]
(No. 167.) Sir,
16
C.O.
[May 11.]
24265
SECTION 1.
Noot 6 JUL 14
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received May 11.)
Peking, April 27, 1914. IN continuation of my despatch No. 163, Confidential, of the 21st instant, I have the honour to enclose herewith, copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's consul- general at Shanghai, giving the opium importers' statement of their position.
I am very far from being convinced by the arguments used by the importers, and I have replied in this sense to His Majesty's consul-general in a despatch, copy of which is also enclosed herewith.
It is to be hoped that the warning conveyed by your telegram No. 61 of the 1st instant, and also the fact that the importers are receiving similar instructions from their friends in India, will serve to expedite the disposal of the stocks.
In the meantime, the opium situation at Shanghai is attracting much attention in the native press, and Great Britain is roundly abused as lending her flag to uphold the abuses of a trade conducted by a coterie of eleven merchants.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN,
(No. 40.) Sir,
Consul-General Sir E. Fraser to Sir J. Jordan.
K
Shanghai, April 20, 1914.
I HAVE the honour to report that on the 18th instant Mr. Ezra, who with Mr. Levy of E. D. Sassoon and Co. manages the
combine" reported in my despatch No. 64, Confidential, of the 14th May, 1913, called to say his Hong Kong correspondents had warning from India to hasten the clearing out of stock which might otherwise prove unsaleable, and he had come to implore me to move you to prevent the imposition of any time limit for the clearance of stock.
He was told that there was no word of such a step, but that the doubling of the price within a year and the present stagnation in deliveries must suggest that the consumption was being checked by the high cost of the drug, and that His Majesty's Government could not be expected to let this policy of squeezing the consumers delay indefinitely the desired cessation of the trade, nor in case China should offer to buy the stock, to fix the cost on the basis of such an artificial market.
Mr. Ezra protested again and again that the importers had no desire to raise prices, but could not let the Chinese dealers to whom alone they were bound by agreement to sell, reap all the profit of a keen demand. The check in deliveries was partly due to overstocking and laying down hoards on the part of Chinese retailers and consumers-the latter never look far ahead--but especially to the very rigorous search for revolutionary plotters and incriminating documents which had made smuggling of the drug beyond settlement limits extraordinarily risky. In case a period were fixed for getting rid of stock, the Chinese authorities would certainly be encouraged to redouble their efforts against smuggling, while native buyers seeing the market falling would hold off to the last moment in the hope that sellers must then accept any price.
I replied merely that his declaration that importers had to follow dealers in fixing prices was not, I thought, likely to leave a favourable impression on my
superiors.
This morning Mr. Ezra returned to announce that importers would in defiance of their "combine" agreement sell direct to retailers at about present price (6,800 taels), in case dealers tried to raise prices unduly, that is, by more than 200 or 300 taels above the "combine" rate, and, if they were sued, would plead force majeure in the shape of His Majesty's Government's insistence on prompt clearance of stock.
Mr. Ezra went on to explain the present conditions here.
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