2
Shanghae to report whether he regards the measures taken by the local authorities there as effective, and have requested Mr. Leech, the Councillor of the Legation, to prepare a statement based upon the Consular and Missionary Reports of the action taken throughout the Empire to give effect to the Edict of the 20th September, 1906. Both of these documents I hope to forward by next bag.
I have sent a copy of this despatch to His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consul-General Sir P. Warren to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 122.) Sir,
Shanghae, October 24, 1907. WITH reference to the question of the prohibition of the consumption and cultivation of opium in China, I have the honour to inclose herewith a copy of a letter which I have received from the Chairman of the Shanghae Municipal Council in reply to the communication which, in accordance with your circular instructions of the 31st July, I addressed to him on the 6th August informing him of the opinion held by His Majesty's Government in regard to the closing of opium shops and dens within the limits of the various foreign Settlements and Concessions.
The letter expresses the willingness of the Council, if the course of total suppression and concurrent limitation of supply during the next ten years is generally followed elsewhere in China, to adopt a similar course in respect to municipal licences as will bring about their complete suspension at the end of the same period, and mentions, as evidence of their readiness to co-operate in the suppression movement, that all applications for new licences are being refused. At the same time stress is laid by the Chairman on the necessity and desirability, so long as opium is smoked, of municipal control, and on the evils which any precipitate discontinuance of licences would entail, especially in view of the improbability that the Central Government will be in a position to enforce the new regulations.
Sir,
I have, &c.
(Signed) PELHAM L. WARREN.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Municipal Council, Shanghae, to Consul-General Sir P. Warren.
Council Room, Shanghae, October 18, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th August, communicating to the Council the opinion of His Majesty's Government that, under certain circumstances, the opium shops and dens within the limits of this and other foreign Settlements should be closed.
The strictly local aspect of this important question is one which, since the suggested Regulations for the suppression of opium received Imperial sanction in November 1906, has had the continuous attention of the Council, and I have the honour to set out certain facts which bear thereon, together with a statement of the policy which it appears to my colleagues and myself desirable to follow in the best interests of good order and administration in Shanghae.
Article 34 of the Bye-laws attached to the Land Regulations charges the Council with the duty of licensing shops for the sale of opium, and, under provision thereof, there are at present licensed 86 shops selling the crude drug (Class 1) and 1,511 houses where opium is smoked (Class 2). The revenue derived therefrom is estimated for the current year as follows:-
Under Class 1, a variable fee of from 1 dol. 50 c. to 10 dollars per house per month. 5,500 Under Class 2, at 50 cents per opium lamp per mouth 65,0003
The revenue of the municipality is fixed for each year in advance, at the annual meeting of ratepayers, and no alteration in the schedule is legally possible, therefore, until the next such meeting in March 1908.
By that date it may be presumed that there will be sufficient indications of the aims and intentions of the provincial authorities throughout China as to giving real effect to the terms of the Imperial Edict, and some closer estimate may then be formed as to whether or no this present endeavour to check the use of the drug will prove as abortive as those of former years.
If the course of total suppression during a period of ten years is genuinely followed, and if a tendency is shown to bring about concurrent limitation of supply, there will be occasion to adopt the same course in respect to municipal licences, which may then be issued with such gradually accumulating restrictions as will bring about their complete suspension at the end of the same period. For the present it has been considered advisable to refuse all applications for new licences, and thereby to indicate readiness to co-operate in the suppression movement if carried to a conclusion.
Finally, and above all other considerations, I have the honour to observe that because prohibitive Decrees in the past have been almost totally disregarded, because many subordinate native officials have direct interest in the cultivation of the poppy, and because there is some probability that the upshot of the present agitation will be the development of an official monopoly, there is good ground for supposing that the task of enforcing the new Regulations will prove beyond the power of the Central Government to accomplish. Under such circumstances precipitate action in the foreign Settlement would appear injudicious. Here at present the houses for smoking opium are under supervision by the police, are maintained in conditions of sanitation, and afford resorts for smokers, the use of which tends to prevent the baleful influence of the drug from spreading to the family. From closing the houses in the cities of Shanghae and Soochow no diminution in the sale or consumption of the drug is apparent, nor is there likelihood that the result would be different in this Settlement. So long as opium is smoked the exercise of municipal control is alike necessary and desirable, for it may with certainty be predicted that the precipitate discontinuance of licences would bring about the surreptitious use of the drug in the lower-class native lodging houses, and that the prevention of the practice would involve almost insuperable difficulty.
I have, &c. (Signed)
DAVID LANDALE, Chairman,
The value of the system in force lies, however, not alone in the income it produces, but also in the condition imposed in the licences of both classes that the police on duty shall have free access at all times to the premises concerned,
390
2
Shanghae to report whether he regards the measures taken by the local authorities there as effective, and have requested Mr. Leech, the Councillor of the Legation, to prepare a statement based upon the Consular and Missionary Reports of the action taken throughout the Empire to give effect to the Edict of the 20th September, 1906. Both of these documents I hope to forward by next bag.
I have sent a copy of this despatch to His Majesty's Consul-General at Shanghae.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consul-General Sir P. Warren to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 122.) Sir,
Shanghae, October 24, 1907. WITH reference to the question of the prohibition of the consumption and cultivation of opium in China, I have the honour to inclose herewith a copy of a letter which I have received from the Chairman of the Shanghae Municipal Council in reply to the communication which, in accordance with your circular instructions of the 31st July, I addressed to him on the 6th August informing him of the opinion held by His Majesty's Government in regard to the closing of opium shops and dens within the limits of the various foreign. Settlements and Concessions.
The letter expresses the willingness of the Council, if the course of total suppres- sion and concurrent limitation of supply during the next ten years is generally followed elsewhere in China, to adopt a similar course in respect to municipal licences as will bring about their complete suspension at the end of the same period, and mentions, as evidenco of their readiness to co-operate in the suppression movement, that all applications for new licences are being refused. At the same time stress is laid by the Chairman on the necessity and desirability, so long as opium is smoked, of municipal control, and on the evils which any precipitate discontinuance of licences -would entail, especially in view of the improbability that the Central Government will
be in a position to enforce the new regulations.
Sir,
I have, &c.
(Signed) PELIAM L. WARREN.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Municipal Council, Shanghae, to Consul-General Sir P. Warren.
Council Room, Shanghae, October 18, 1907.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 6th August, communicating to the Council the opinion of His Majesty's Government that, under certain circumstances, the opium shops and dens within the limits of this and other foreign Settlements should be closed.
The strictly local aspect of this important question is one which, since the suggested Regulations for the suppression of opium received Imperial sanction in November 1906, has had the continuous attention of the Council, and I have the honour to set out certain facts which bear thereon, together with a statement of the policy which it appears to my colleagues and myself desirable to follow in the best interests of good order and administration in Shanghae.
Article 34 of the Bye-laws attached to the Land Regulations charges the Council with the duty of licensing shops for the sale of opium, and, under provision thereof, there are at present licensed 86 shops selling the crude drug (Class 1) and 1,511 houses where opium is smoked (Class 2). The revenue derived therefrom is estimated for the current year as follows:-
3
The revenue of the municipality is fixed for each year in advance, at the annual meeting of ratepayers, and no alteration in the schedule is legally possible, therefore, until the next such meeting in March 1908.
By that date it may be presumed that there will be sufficient indications of the aims and intentions of the provincial authorities throughout China as to giving real effect to the terms of the Imperial Edict, and some closer estimate may then be formed as to whether or no this present endeavour to check the use of the drug will prove as abortive as those of former years.
If the course of total suppression during a period of ten years is genuinely followed, and if a tendency is shown to bring about concurrent limitation of supply, there will be occasion to adopt the same course in respect to municipal licences, which may then be issued with such gradually accumulating restrictions as will bring about their complete suspension at the end of the same period. For the present it has been considered advisable to refuse all applications for new licences, and thereby to indicate readiness to co-operate in the suppression movement if carried to a conclusion.
Finally, and above all other considerations, I have the honour to observe that because prohibitive Decrees in the past have been almost totally disregarded, because many subordinate native officials have direct interest in the cultivation of the poppy, and because there is some probability that the upshot of the present agitation will be the development of an official monopoly, there is good ground for supposing that the task of enforcing the new Regulations will prove beyond the power of the Central Government to accomplish. Under such circumstances precipitate action in the foreign Settlement would appear injudicious. Here at present the houses for smoking opium are under supervision by the police, are maintained in conditions of sanitation, and afford resorts for smokers, the use of which tends to prevent the baleful influence of the drug from spreading to the family. From closing the houses in the cities of Shanghae and Soochow no diminution in the sale or consumption of the drug is apparent, nor is there likelihood that the result would he different in this Settlement. So long as opium is smoked the exercise of municipal control is alike necessary and desirable, for it may with certainty be predicted that the precipitate discontinuance of licences would bring about the surreptitious use of the drug in the lower-class native lodging houses, and that the prevention of the practice would involve almost insuperable difficulty.
I have, &c. (Signed)
DAVID LANDALE, Chairman,
Under Class 1, a variable fee of from 1 dol. 50 c. to 10 dollars per house
per month..
Tacls.
5,500
Under Class 2, at 50 cents per opiam lamp per mouth
65,000
The value of the system in force lies, however, not alone in the income it produces, but also in the condition imposed in the licences of both classes that the police on duty shall have free access at all times to the premises concerned,
390
!
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.