682
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
། ། ། ། ། ་།
Reference :--
C.O.882/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
سم
200
Straits Settlements, they are not employing it to help the prices of Manchester goods to sell against the Soviet prints and other goods now commanding this market; and locally they are doing practically nothing for British manufactures in return for the encouragement given them by the Department.
5. What Haji Ali Akbar and Sons Ltd., of Manchester, are doing in sales of cotton goods to compete in price with the Soviet manufactures as a return for the sales of opium they have also been enabled to make to the Government at Singapore, I cannot tell; for they have no exclusive agents Persia, nor do they import on their own account and sell on the spot to customers like Messrs. Ziegler and Co., but deal direct with their various clients in Persia.
I doubt whether sales of Manchester goods are deriving any benefit; and for that, and the following consideration, I am now ashamed that I supported their request in 1927 for participation in such undesirable business.
6. Having watched closely for several years opium cultivation and trade in this, one of the four largest, perhaps the largest, opium-producing province of Persia, as well as the attitude of Persian government officials, merchants, cultivators, and the Press, I am sceptical of any sincerity in the professions of the Persian Govern- ment to the League of Nations, and of the goodwill of officials and people to limit the production of opium and gradually abandon the opium trade. They asked, and have since obtained, tariff autonomy to compensate them for the loss in revenue from opium. On the contrary, the purpose of the new Opium Monopoly Law as declared by the Ministry of Finance, and the proceedings of the opium Monopoly set up in Shiraz indicate that the government officials are only concerned to obtain a far larger revenue than up till 1928 from internal and external sales, and the ring of merchants here exporting for smuggling to the Far East is being encouraged rather than other- wise.
In my opinion this noxious traffic will only be reduced in this province to small and legitimate dimensions when the opium ring in Shiraz and Isfahan find they can make practically no sales for export, and the cultivators in their turn find that merchants are no longer buyers. This condition will arise whenever the Chinese Government becomes strong enough on its sea coast to seize all consignments of opium entering Chinese waters; but it might be materially hastened or assisted if the Government of the Straits Settlements and other eastern possessions went not to Persia for their purchases, but to the Smyrna market, where a stricter and less insincere control on cultivation and export of the drug can presumably be assumed. The loss to the Persian ring of the 1,000-2,000 chests annually shipped to Singapore and other British Possessions would soon make a salutary hole in the area put under poppy cultivation in Fars and Isfahan.
I gave an uncompromising refusal this week to the broker of the Imperial Bank of Persia, one of the chief opium buyers, who sought my assistance in order to obtain. like Messrs. Bellairs, Atkinson, a share in the supply to Singapore.
7. Copies of this despatch have been sent to the Acting Secretary in charge of Commercial Affairs, Teheran, and to the Political Resident, Bushire.
The Comptroller-General,
Department of Overseas Trade,
35, Old Queen Street,
London, S.W.1.
C. 63017/29 [No. 6].
No. 170.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
I have, &c.,
H. G. CHICK.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.
(Sent 1.5 p.m., 21st January, 1929.)
TELEGRAM.
[Answered by No. 172.]
CONFIDENTIAL. Your telegram of 2nd November.*
Crown Agents have received application to be allowed to tender for the supply
* No. 164.
201
of opium to the Straits Government from Andrew Weir and Co., on behalf of Haji- Seyed Mohamed Reza Kazeroni and Sons, of Bushire, Persia. learn whether you desire that they should be allowed to tender. Department of I shall be glad to Overseas Trade are being asked whether Kazeroni can be regarded as reputable opium dealers, and Home Office approval will, of course, be necessary for the participation of British firm.-AMERY.
C. 63017/29 [No. 7].
SIR,
No. 171.
COLONIAL OFFICE to FOREIGN OFFICE.
Downing Street, 25th January, 1929. I AM directed by Mr. Secretary Amery to refer to the memorandum of January, 1929,* by the Department of Overseas Trade addressed to the Foreign Office on the subject of export of opium from Persia, a copy of which has been received in this Office.
Mr. Amery notes that a suggestion was made by His Majesty's Consul at Shiraz that it should be made a condition of the granting of further contracts for the supply to the Government of the Straits Settlements that the firms receiving the contracts should display greater activity in the sale of cotton piece-goods and other United Kingdom manufactures. The Department of Overseas Trade do not, in view
2.
of the report on the subject received from His Majesty's Consul-General at Isfahan, propose to suggest the adoption of this condition.
3. Secretary Sir Austen Chamberlain will no doubt realize that the granting of contracts for the supply of opium to the Straits Settlements is primarily a matter for the Governor of the Colony, and Mr. Amery would not be prepared to instruct him to impose any such condition as that suggested by Mr. Chick, although had the Department of Overseas Trade desired it, he would have been willing to forward it for the Governor's consideration. It is realized that it is not at present proposed
to adopt Mr. Chick's suggestion, but it is desired to remove any misapprehension that may exist as to the procedure in granting these contracts.
4. Copies of this letter are being sent to the Department of Overseas Trade, Home Office, and India Office.
C. 68017/29 (No. 17].
No. 172.
STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.
I am, &c.,
G. GRINDLE.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 10.53 a.m., 28th January, 1929.)
28TH JANUARY.
TELEGRAM.
[Answered by No. 178.]
Confidential. Your telegram of 21st January.† Opium.
Kazeroni is already supplying opium through Ali Akbar. I feel some doubt about interfering with existing arrangements, but am prepared to leave decision to you.
* No. 169.
† No. 170.
—---