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F
نی خامه
WILLMAN
*
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[47118]
No. 1.
[September 24,]
SECTION 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 263.) Sir,
Foreign Ofice, September 24, 1914. UPON the receipt of your despatch No. 239 of the 18th June regarding the opium situation in China, I caused to be addressed to the India Office a letter, copy of which is enclosed herewith,* proposing that as soon as the provinces of Kiangsu, Kiangsi, and Kwangtung bave been closed and opium licences have been discontinued in the international settlement at Shanghai, the opium merchants should be required to remove their stocks from China. It was also suggested that in the event of the Government of India concurring in this proposal it would be desirable to convey a warning in this sense to the opium merchants.
I now transmit to you copy of the reply which has been received from the India Office.† from which you will observe that the Government of India, while they agree that on the closure of the three provinces mentioned above and the discontinuance of the licences in the international settlement at Shanghai the importation of opium into China must cease, consider that the stocks then remaining should be detained in bond until their owners have made arrangements which the authorities approve for their complete removal from Chinese territories. The Government of India are willing that a warning to this effect should be addressed to the merchants.
I request, therefore, that, if you see no objection, you will convey to the opium merchants an intimation of the intentions of His Majesty's Government as proposed by the Government of India in the first paragraph of their telegram of the 19th August ; and, further, that when the question arises of closing Kiangsi, Kiangsu, and Kwangtung you will, before coming to a decision, submit reports on the state of cultivation in those provinces for the consideration of His Majesty's Government and Government of India. Special care should be devoted to the inspection of these provinces.
am, &c.
E. GREY.
*To India Office, July 14, 1914.
[2265 aa— -1]
† India Office, September 5, 1914.
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