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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
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engaged in a perfectly legitimate trade, have also to be considered, and it will adversely affect the trade of the Settlement if they are allowed to be ruined or seriously crippled, which will certainly be the case if the council's proposition is not carried through.
In conclusion, we beg to say that if the retail opium shops are closed before the stock is absorbed, the opium would have to be sold to other markets than China, in which case it would not realise one-tenth of its value. This would involve a financial disaster which would entail the ruin of many merchants, both foreign and Chinese, and would largely affect the banks who finance the opium. We cannot believe that at such times as the present His Majesty's Government will add to the existing financial difficulties by allowing such a disaster to occur, seeing that it would primarily fall on British interests.
The Chinese authorities have already received the duty on a considerable portion of the remaining stock, and they should surely be required to cease their repeated infringements of treaty stipulations and allow that opium, as well as the opium admitted into bond, to pass into consumption.
We have, &c.
E. D. SASSOON AND CO.
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[10661]
No. 1.
C 0 13076
19 MAF 15
[February 3.]
SECTION 1.
Foreign Office to India Office.
Sir,
Foreign Office, February 3, 1915, WITH reference to your letter of the 24th December last on the subject. of opium licences in the international settlement at Shanghai, I am directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to transmit to you the accompanying copy of a letter from Messrs. E. D. Sassoon and Co. complaining that certain parties in Shanghai, not connected with the trade, are agitating for the immediate closing of all the retail opium shops in the settlement, and urging that the proposal of the Shanghai Municipal Council, with a view to the gradual reduction of the number of such shops by periodical drawings, is equitable, and should meet with the approval of His Majesty's Government.
Sir E. Grey proposes, if the Secretary of State for India sees no objection, to inform Messrs. Sassoun of the warning to the council, conveyed in his telegram to Sir John Jordan of the 31st ultimo which was sent off on receipt of your letter above referred to, to the effect that the stocks of opium in bond will automatically be sealed as soon as the three last Chinese provinces have been declared free of cultivation under the provisions of the Opium Agreement, and that the Chinese Government will no doubt also hold that the opium shops in the settlement should be immediately closed at the same time.
am, &c.
I
W. LANGLEY.
• Not printed.
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