[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL,
[2022]
&
Sir+
No. 1.
367
[January 6.]
C
SECTION
17818
REC?
19 APR 15
Dr. Caldecott to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received
King's College, Strand, London, January 4, 1915. THE representative board of British anti-opium societies desires once more to address you on the present position of the opium question as regards—
(1.) The continued pressure on China to admit Indian opium into three of her provinces;
(2.) The sale of opium in licensed shops in Shanghai.
1. That the board ventures to press these matters again upon your attention, even during the present time of strain and anxiety, is due to its earnest desire that at this grave juncture the position of our country should be free from any shade of injustice towards the Chinese nation and consistent with that high standard as regards the claims of weaker States which His Majesty's Government is engaged in maintaining elsewhere at so tremendous a cost- The board is profoundly convinced that a right attitude towards China in this matter is of momentous import to Britain's position before God and man.
2. The board has had before it the following:
(a) Your letter to Mr. T. C. Taylor, M.P., of 8th October in reply to a resolution of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Traffic.
(b.) Your letter to Mr. C. E. Price, M.P., of 5th November in reply to a letter of the Edinburgh Anti-Opium Committee.
(c) A pamphlet by the Rev. Arnold Foster of Wuchang entitled "Municipal Ethics," commenting on the action of the Shanghai Municipal Council licensing opium shops (copy herewith).*
(d) The "Shanghai Municipal Gazette," 22nd October, 1914, containing correspondence between His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai and the Chairman of the Municipal Council on the same subject.
3. As regards the release of China from her obligation to admit Indian Opium.- The board recognises the important concession offered to China, in the intimation that His Majesty's Government is willing to release her from the obligation to admit Indian opium as soon as it is shown that the three provinces in Eastern China not yet certified as free from poppy cultivation-Kwangtung, Kiangsu, and Kiangsi-have been cleared of the plant, without waiting for similar proof as regards the five remaining provinces in the west, which are practically inaccessible to Indian opium. At the same time the fact that it will be impossible to obtain evidence of such clearance for some months to come, as the poppy is in these provinces a spring crop, involves a delay which is both humiliating and vexatious to China. The maintenance in the meanwhile of the treaty obligation to admit Indian opium into these provinces affects, not only themselves, but other neighbouring provinces like Chekiang, which find it almost impossible to protect themselves against smuggling, although they have been declared free of poppy growth themselves. (See on this point the testimony of Mr. Alexander Langman, of the China Inland Mission, Hangchow, already submitted by the Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade.) Considering how wholly unprecedented is the claim of Great Britain to dictate to another nation that she shall complete her own measures of suppression before being permitted to exclude from her territory an injurious drug; considering, too, the abundant proof given by the Chinese Government of its determination and ability to carry out this great reform, notwithstanding all the hindrances interposed by revolution and disorder, and the enormous vested interests, both public and private, which have to be overcome, the board submits that it would not merely be generous but essentially just on the part of His Majesty's Government
• Not printed.
[2362 f-1]