[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[77426]
No. 1.
[December 1.]
SECTION 1.
Sir,
India Office to Foreign Office(Received December 1.)
India Office, November 30, 1914. 1 AM directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 11th November on the subject of the opium licences issued in the international settlement at Shanghai, and in reply to inform you that the Secretary of State for India is not aware of the actual status of the settlement as regards the province of Kiangsu, and cannot therefore offer an opinion as to whether it is correct to state that the shops will all be closed as soon as the province has been declared free of cultivation. It is presumed that closure by the Chinese Government is meant, in view of Sir Edward Grey's statement in the House of Commons on the 16th June last, that His Majesty's Government have no control over the municipal council.
Lord Crewe concurs in the third paragraph of the letter under reply.
I am, &c.
T. W. HOLDERNESS.
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