3
2
The fourth (same date) provides that pending the registration of smokers, all smokers must buy the Government-prepared opium, and must not boil opium themselves. The opium ash being therefore henceforth useless to private individuals is to be sold either direct to the Head Bureau, or to the agents of the Bureau, who will be expected to produce about 3 ounces of ash for every 10 ounces of opium purchased from the Head Bureau.
The preciseness of the date fixed by the above Proclamations for the monopoly to take effect, seemed to me inconsistent with the representations already made to me by Mr. Sun, the Director of the Bureau, as to the difficulties involved, and also with the terms of the Petition prefixed to the printed Regulations, of which I obtained a copy on the 26th ultimo, in which the Financial Commissioner and Sun Taotai propose that the scheme shall be put in force experimentally from the beginning of next year.
Moreover, such information as was obtainable from outside sources indicated a prospect of considerable delay in enforcing the monopoly. I therefore called at the "Foreign Office" on the 27th August, and requested Mr. Cheng to find out from Sun Taotai whether or not the monopoly was actually intended to come into force on the date specified in the Proclamations. Mr. Cheng promised to do so, and while I was waiting for a reply, I received your telegram of the 20th ultimo inquiring specifically as to this point, and also your despatch No. 10 of the 21st último, showing that you had protested to the Wai-wu Pu against the monopoly as an infringement of existing Treaties.
Learning that Mr. Sun was absent in Hankow, I called on the Viceroy on the 30th August. His Excellency informed me that, in consequence of your representa- tions, the Wai-wu Pu had telegraphed to him an inquiry on the subject, and that he had telegraphed a reply, the purport of which he would instruct Mr. Cheng to communicate to me for my confidential information. He went on to speak of the difficulties of arranging for the annual diminution of the import of Indian opium, owing to the uncertainty of success at the end of ten years of the effort to suppress opium smoking in China, and said he had asked the Peking Government whether they could guarantee that the prohibition would be effectual in that period. I failed to see what connection these considerations had with the matter in hand, and I asked for an assurance that at least the monopoly would not be enforced on the date mentioned in the Proclamations. The Viceroy gave somewhat vague assurances that Treaty rights must be respected, that he would see Sun Taotai about it on his return from Hankow, that perhaps the date might be postponed, and that he would instruct Mr. Sun to explain matters to me. In reply to a question from his Excellency, whether His Majesty's Government were really willing to assist China in suppressing the opium evil, I replied that their good-will was undoubted, and that this was the very reason why scheines such as the present should be made the subject of general preliminary negotiations with the British authorities, and should not be put in force experimentally here and there in disregard of existing Treaty stipulations. The Viceroy finally authorized me to telegraph to you that further consideration would be given to the scheme, but stipulated that my assurances should not be too precise.
Mr. Cheng a few days later, in accordance with the Viceroy's instructions, gave me a rough translation of his Excellency's telegram to the Wai-wu Pu, dated the 29th August. In spite of what I had been led to expect, I found that the telegram kept to the point, namely, the proposed opium monopoly, and the question of its consistency with Treaty provisions. Rule of Trade 5, Article III of the Chefoo Convention, and Article III of the Chefoo Additional Convention, were quoted to prove that opium is on quite a different footing from other goods, and that Article V of the Treaty of Nanking and Article XIV of the French Treaty have no concern with opium. Even if they had, it was argued, the present Regulations constituted no infringement, for all dealers with sufficient resources were at liberty to carry on their trade. The objections now raised were probably due to the machinations of the Chao- chow drug dealers, who were reported to have instigated Messrs. Sassoon and others to stop shipments to Nanking. The British Consul-General at Shanghae had been requested to direct these firms to resume their trade with Nanking dealers, and the Wai-wu Pu was asked to assure the British Minister of the harmlessness of the Regulations. Strict instructions had now been given to the Monopoly Bureau to give fair play and act in accord with Treaty stipulations.
"On the 4th instant I received from Mr. Sun, who had returned from Hankow, a reply to my request for explanations as to the date fixed by the Proclamations for the Regulations to take effect. He stated that this date superseded the date originally proposed, namely, beginning of next year, and that the sale of Government prepared
opium would begin on the 8th September; but that the operation of the Articles of the Regulations providing for
1. Restriction of the trade in raw opium;
2. The licensing of smokers;
3. The seizure of private prepared opium; and
4. The fee of 5 taels per picul on Hsuchou opium, was suspended pending the result of a Memorial to the Throne on the subject by the Viceroy.
I understand from this that the monopoly is practically suspended. The information is inconsistent with the Proclamations, and no further Proclamation has yet been issued countermanding the former one; but it is by means not unusual in China that Proclamations which have in theory the force of law, should be in practice nullified by failure of administrative measures to carry their provisions into effect.
I had the honour yesterday to communicate to you and to His Majesty's Consul- General at Shanghae by telegraph the information received from Mr. Sun.
I am sending a copy of this despatch to Sir Pelham Warren.
(No. 21.)
Sir,
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
I have, &c. (Signed)
W. P. KER.
Consul Ker to Sir J. Jordan,
Nanking, September 7, 1907. IN continuation of my immediately preceding despatch, I have the honour to inclose herewith copy and translation of a Proclamation which has just been com- municated to me by the Opium Monopoly Bureau, by which the operation of the monopoly is ordered to be suspended pending the conclusion of the negotiations between yourself and the Wai-wu Pu.
I am forwarding a copy of this despatch and of the translation of the Proclamation to His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae.
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
I have, &c. (Signed)
W. P. KER.
Proclamation by Kiangnan Opium Monopoly Bureau.---(Communicated September 7, 1907.) (Translation.)
ON the 5th September this Bureau received the following instructions from his Excellency the Viceroy :---
"The monopoly of the sale of Government prepared opium by the Kiangnan Bureau was to have begun on the 8th September; but a telegram has now been received from the Board of Foreign Affairs stating that negotiations are just being entered into with the British Minister on the subject of opium monopoly, and requesting that pending their conclusion the measures taken for a monopoly in Kiangnan shall be suspended. In accordance with this telegram the scheme must he suspended until the Board has decided upon the procedure to be adopted, when the matter can be taken into further consideration. A telegraphic reply has been sent accordingly, and the Bureau is hereby directed, on receipt of these instructions, to order the suspension of operations at all the branch offices, and to issue a Proclamation at once for the information of the public. The Bureau shall report the action taken in accordance with these instructions."
There is no way to make a beginning with the policy of suppressing opium except by means of a monopoly of the sale of prepared opium; and when at the end of the 7th moon the opium dens were closed in obedience to Imperial Decree, it became difficult henceforth for smokers to purchase the drug. The Board's Regulations con- cerning the monopoly of sale of prepared opium not having been then received, this
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