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10. Whenever local bad characters, corrupt official servants and persons pre- tending to be soldiers promote the cultivation of opium the local authorities must inflict severe penalties and report thereon to the offices of the Military and Civil Governors, the Taoyins and the Opium Prohibition Bureau.
11. The local authorities must inflict the proper penalties on opium cultivators. Should such offenders abscond the elders of the villages and clans and the landlords may be called upon to produce them.
12. In accordance with established precedents in this province, the fines arising out of opium cultivation may be given in part to informers and the organisations bringing about detection; otherwise the proceeds will be given to the Opium Prohibi- tion Bureau or retained in the magistrates' offices for opium prohibition purposes.
Sir,
No. 48.
Earl Curzon to Sir B. Alston (Peking).
Foreign Office, March 8, 1921.
I HAVE received your despatch of the 16th December, 1920, forwarding copies of despatches from His Majesty's consul at Foochow on the subject of opium cultivation in the province of Fukien.
The action taken by Mr. Coales in regard to this matter and the language used by him in his official communication of the 5th October, 1920, to the Military Governor have my approval.
I should be glad to learn whether any steps were taken to obtain from the Central Government the issue of an explicit warning to the Governor, as suggested by His Majesty's consul at Foochow in his despatch of the 15th November, 1920. to Mr. Clive.
No. 49.
I am, &c,
CURZON OF KEDLESTON.
Chinese Legation to Foreign Office.—(Received April 4.)
THE Chinese Government having received information to the effect that, at the request of the Hong Kong Government, the Indian Government had agreed to renew the agreement for a direct supply of opium at a fixed price for five years beginning from 1921, the Chinese Minister is instructed to enquire of His Majesty's Govern- ment whether the information is accurate and to inform them that the Chinese Government views the reported renewal of the above-mentioned agreement with
concern.
In view of the proximity of Hong Kong to the mainland of China and of the absence, as far as the Chinese Government is aware, of any prohibitive laws in Hong Kong against the export of opium therefrom into the leased territory of Kowloon which is on the mainland itself. the Chinese Government apprehends lest such continued supply of opium to places in the immediate neighbourhood of large communities which were once the centres of the opium illicit traffic before prohibition was enforced in China should encourage the lawless elements to smuggle opium into Chinese jurisdiction either through the leased territory of Kowloon or along the Pearl River, and thereby add to the difficulties which the Chinese Government has lately experienced and is still experiencing now, as a result of the present unsettled condition in China, in its work of opium suppression.
The Chinese Government, which is at present negotiating with the Indo- Chinese authorities with a view to the effective prevention of opium smuggling across the Tongking borders, earnestly hopes that His Majesty's Government, whose friendly co-operation in the past has contributed so largely to the success of China's efforts to eradicate the evil of opium from China, may see their way. so to limit the supply of opium to Hong Kong and regulate the export of it therefrom as will preclude the possibility of smuggling to the mainland of China
Chinese Legation, London,
March 31, 1921.
113
No. 50.
Earl Curzon to Mr. Wellington Koo.
Sir,
Foreign Office, April 29, 1921. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your memorandum of the 31st March, 1921, enquiring whether the information is accurate that, at the request of the Hong Kong Government, the Government of India have agreed to renew the agreement for a direct supply of opium at a fixed price for five years, beginning from 1921, and expressing the hope of the Chinese Government that His Majesty's Government may see their way so to limit the supply of opium to Hong Kong, and regulate its export thence, as to preclude the possibility of smuggling to the main. land of China.
The information that the Government of Hong Kong have requested, and the Government of India have agreed to, renewal of the agreement for a direct supply of raw opium to the Government of Hong Kong at a fixed price for five from
years, the 1st January, 1921, is correct. Under the new agreement, the supply of raw opium from India, to Hong Kong is now reduced to a maximum of ten chests a month, which is less than one-fourth of the amount which the colony was entitled to import prior to the present year.
With regard to the apprehensions of the Chinese Government lest this continued supply of opium should encourage lawless elements to smuggle it into the adjoining territory under Chinese jurisdiction. all the information in the posses- sion of His Majesty's Government goes to show that, owing to the great increase in production of opium in China, the price of opium originating in that country is now reduced to about one-sixth of the price inside the territory of Hong Kong under the existing system of strict and efficient Government control, with the inevitable result that the smuggling of opium from the dear market prevailing in Hong Kong to the cheap market obtaining in China has now been reduced to infinitesimal proportions. This statement is amply borne out by the official statistics of the quantities of smuggled opium confiscated in transit between Hong Kong and other territories during the period from the 1st January to the 20th July, 1920. Out of a total amount of 44,993 taels so seized, 4.607 taels were raw Chinese opium; no less than 29,551 taels were Amoy opium; while the opium of Hong Kong origin seized during the same period amounted to 17 taels only.
Your memorandum refers to the difficulties which the Chinese Government are experiencing, as a result of the present unsettled condition in the country, in carrying out the task of opium suppression.
While His Majesty's Government are aware that the existing state of unrest which so unhappily prevails in large areas of the Chinese Republic may render it more difficult for the Central Government and the provincial authorities effectively to enforce the prohibition against the cultivation and consumption of opium, the reports received for a long time past from His Majesty's diplomatic and consular officers in China, and from other reliable sources, furnish conclusive evidence of so widespread a recrudescence of poppy cultivation and so greatly enhanced consump- tion of, and traffic in, the drug, that I have felt obliged to instruct His Majesty's Minister at Peking to address to the Chinese Government, in the name of His Majesty's Government, a formal protest.
My Lord,
No. 51.
I have, &c.
CURZON OF KEDLESTON,
Sir B. Alston to Earl Curzon.--(Received June 27.)
Peking, May 5, 1921.. THE reports concerning opium from the various provinces received since the beginning of this year are uniformly bad and mark a distinct step in the retrograde movement described in the section on opium in my last annual report.
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