CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 408

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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

CHINA TRADE,

CONFIDENTIAL.

[February 15.

C.O.

9119

SECTION 12 MAR 07

[5996]

No. 1.

Extract from the "Times" of the 15th February, 1907.

Mr. Rees asked the Secretary for Foreign Affairs whether he had information that the Government of China proposed to increase the existing taxes on Chinese-grown opium in the same proportion as that by which it asked that the import duty on Indian opium might be increased; and whether the Foreign Office had any information whether the Chinese drug was steadily supplanting the imported article among the population of China.

Mr. Morley, who replied, said :--

The Chinese Government has increased the duty on native opium, which until now has varied in the different provinces, to a uniform rate of 115 taels; this is higher than the duty on imported opium, and proposals for a corresponding enhancement of the duty on this latter article are under consideration by His Majesty's Government. As to the supplanting of imported opium by the home-grown drug have no trust- worthy information. According to the Consular Report on the foreign trade of China for 1904-1905, imports of foreign opium have decreased by nearly 22 per cent. during the last 30 years. The same report states that the production of native opium has increased during the period. In the absence of accurate statistics, it is impossible to say to what extent native opium has supplanted the foreign product.

Mr. Rees asked whether the British Commercial Attaché in China had reported that the decline in the import of Indian opium into China was due, not to a decrease in the use of the drug, but to the fact that the production of native opium increased year by year without restriction, and that the taxation of indigenous opium produced a large revenue, all of which now went to the Imperial instead of to provincial Governments.

Mr. Morley. The answer to my honourable friend's question is in the affirmative; but as I have said, a moment ago, I have reason to think that the inferences drawn in the report to which he refers cannot be verified by statistics. I am without accurate information as to the allocation of the proceeds of the taxation of native opium.

Mr. Rees further asked whether the Secretary for Foreign Affairs had information whereby the quantities of opium imported into and grown in China could be compared; and if not, whether he would instruct Consular officers in China to obtain such information, in order to ascertain the correctness of the unofficial reports that the China-grown opium was, at the lowest estimate, five times that imported from India.

Mr. Morley. The answer to the first part of the question is in the negative. Consular officers in China will continue to obtain such information on the subject as is within their power, but, as stated by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in reply to a question asked by the honourable Member for Ripon on the 29th November last, more information than exists cannot be promised.

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