[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
51
HINA TRADE.
ONFIDENTIAL.
40915 [October 18
NECR SECTION
24 6 NOV 06
35165)
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
No. 178.) Telegraphic.) P.
Foreign Office, October 18, 1906. YESTERDAY the American Ambassador called upon me and stated that the pium question was causing his Government much concern, and that he had been nstructed to inquire how we should view the appointment of a Joint Commission, or a oint investigation of the conditions of the opium trade and the opium habit, by the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Japan, and China. de added that his Government had addressed a similar inquiry to Japan; and went n to explain that it was desired that a decision should be arrived at as to whether the consequences resulting from the opium trade were not such as would merit an effort o put an end to it on the part of the civilized Powers.
In reply, I said that it would be necessary to take the India Office into consultation before answering, but that I was in a position to state that, although a great sacrifice would be involved by any interference with the import of opium into China, His Majesty's Government would not, for this reason, be prevented from taking the question into consideration, provided that clear proof were forthcoming that diminution of the opium habit would be the outcome of this step. Genuine measures on the part of China to stop or to restrict the consumption of the drug would meet with encourage- ment from His Majesty's Government, but it would be quite useless for us to make sacrifices if the Chinese intended to prevent importation in order to grow more opium themselves, and to obtain a higher price.
[2209 s-1
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