Effect on Hongkong
given.
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I will deal first with the statement that in Hongkong nothing has been done. of pledges England has already taken one very definite step. She has promised to reduce the export of opium from India to China by one-tenth each year for the next three years, and to continue that reduction annually if at the end of three years it is shown the China has proportionately reduced the production and the consumption of the drug.*
This pledge seriously affects the interests of Hongkong which has long been the mart for the trade in raw opium in the Far East. The annual value of this trade is given as £5,312,645 in 1906 and £4,656,218 in 1907. The profits made are similar to those secured in any other form of trade, and add to the general commercial business of the Port, by increas- ing freights, insurance (fire and marine), banking, warehousing, and handling. The extinction of the trade therefore would not merely be a loss to the merchants engaged in it but also to the general business and prosperity of the Colony. No protest, however, has yet been heard from those chiefly interested, who have accepted loyally the policy of the Home and Indian Governments, but they claim- looking to the magnitude of the trade, and to the fact that it has existed for over 100 years,--that ten years is the minimum time in which new interests can be created to replace those sacrificed, and any diminution of this period would im- pose too heavy a burden upon them. In this connection I venture to suggest that China should be required to reciprocate by abandoning her exports to Siam and Indo-China-both of which countries, like herself, have declared their desire to
fut restrict the consumption of opium. (See below, page 3.)
Independent
action by
tion of export
opium.
A second step has been taken in which Hongkong alone was concerned. In Hongkong. 1907 His Majesty's Government proposed to prohibit the exportation of prepared (a) Aboli opium from Hongkong. Opium, under the Monopoly system in this Colony, of prepared can only be "prepared" for sale by the Farmer. It was perfectly legitimate for him to export to China under proper permit and declaration, though such export formed no part of his Monopoly rights. To prohibit it would be, however, a cur- tailment of the privileges under which his contract was signed, and might have involved a moral claim for compensation, but as China undertook to reciprocate and to check the smuggling of prepared opium into Hongkong the Farmer wil- lingly agreed and the trade was abolished. The Chinese Government expressed itself as very grateful for this action by the Hongkong Government.
(.) Aboli- tion of smuggling,
Further assistance has been rendered to China by Hongkong through the consistent efforts of the Colony to prevent the smuggling of opium to the Main- land, though such smuggling was of course in no way injurious to the Colony itself, and if unchecked would add to the value of the Farm. No doubt the decrease in the rental value of the Farm in recent years is in part due to the cessation of smuggling.
It is generally believe that some ten years ago there was a very considerable smuggling trade to China, for judging by the figures of recent years it would seem probable that the Farmer at that time drew more opium from Bond than he required for his legitimate business. It is surmised that he sold the balance to smugglers, but the risks both to them and to himself were great, for the condi- tions of the Farm were designed to prevent smuggling and as experience was gained new precautions were from time to time taken. No one can lawfully possess prepared opium in sufficient quantities to smuggle unless procured from the Farmer for no one else may prepare opium. No one may have "loose opium", (viz., anything less than an unbroken chest), except the Farmer, and every chest imported must be declared and a permit to store obtained. Quantities" in the authorised stores are checked from time to time. A new permit must be got for removal from store for export, and for removal from one place to another, or for transhipment within the Colony. The Harbour Master furnishes the Master of every Ship carrying opium for export with a memorandum of particulars con- cerning such opium, and a copy of the mnemo. is sent to the Imperial Maritime Customs. (Ordinance 9 of 1887.)
The Farmer used formerly to have two establishments at the East and West of the Town and it was open to boats in Harbour, if found with loose opium on board, to declare that they were carrying it from one to the other, and had no
* Sir J. Jordan 7.12.07 in China No. 1 (1908).
† Abstract of Chinese IAL. Customs Part I.A. p. 21.
† hir J. Jonlan of 7.12,07 in Caina No. 1 (1909).
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intention of smuggling. In order to eliminate the possibility of illicit trade due to this cause, the Farmer since 1900 has only been allowed to maintain one establishment.
If prepared opium bearing the Hongkong Farmer's "chop" is now found in China the "chop" is probably a forgery in order to obtain sale as foreign opium for what is really native opium. It is hardly likely that the Farmer would put his "chop on smuggled opium. If it is a fact that opium is still smuggled into China, it must be remembered that there are other non-British ports which are quite as favourably situated for the operations of smugglers as Hongkong is.
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The price of prepared opium in Hongkong being double that in China there is obviously little inducement to smuggle the prepared drug, while the sinal! number of chests drawn by the Farmer (about half the number authorised) shews that it is improbable that raw opium is illicitly exported. There is moreover independent evidence to shew that any systematic smuggling is now practically extinct, though no doubt small quantities may be occasionally exported illicitly by casual individuals,
(a.) The Police have made no seizures to speak of for eight years. (b.) It has not come to my knowledge that the Chinese Customs, in spite of the large rewards they offer to informers, have made any important seizure.
(e.) The armed bands who in former days were met with from time to time and often offered resistance, appear to have been quite broken up.
(d.) The willingness of the Farmer to co-operate in preventing the smuggling of prepared opium to China, if the latter would reciprocate, goes to shew that he does not smuggle.
(e.) Finally there is conclusive evidence furnished by Mr. Clementi's recent examination of the Farmer's books to exonerate him from
any such charge.
The efforts of the Hongkong Government in recent years (and before the present agitation began) have therefere been consistently directed towards the abolition of illicit trade in either raw or prepared opium to China and there is evidence to shew that its efforts have been attended with a large measure of suc- cess. This is a benefit of the very first importance to China, and has only been secured by constant efforts and some pecuniary loss to the Colony. Recently China has pledged herself to reciprocate by checking the illicit importation of prepared opium from China into Hongkong, but her inability to translate her undoubtedly genuine desire into effective action is shewn by the fact that for the six months following that in which the agreement was made (riz., August 1907 to January 1908) the average number of seizures of prepared opium illicitly imported into Hongkong has exceeded one per diem. The snuggling takes place from various ports, Canton, Amoy, Swatow, Hoihow, etc. I have reason to know that the Viceroy at Canton is sincerely anxious to put a stop to this practice, and the Imperial Maritime Customs have done their utinost, but the effort to suppress smuggling is to attempt the impossible, so long as the price of opium in China is only half the price in Hongkong.
Export from
I have already observed that since China has appealed to the Indian Government to make heavy pecuniary sacrifices in order to restrict the China. import of opium, it is reasonable to expect that she herself should abandon the authorised export of Chinese grown opium. The official returns* show that this export had continually increased up to 1907 when it fell to 84,737 lbs. The average for 5 years (including 1907) is 348,811 lbs. The re-export of foreign opium is slightly decreasing. In 1907 it stood at 48,400 lbs., the average for 5 years being 70,947 lbs. The total average export for the last 5 years through the Customs (ie., apart from smuggling) is therefore 419,758 lbs, the bulk of which goes to French Indo-China. There is also a considerable illicit raw opium from China, to the Straits, Saigon, Bangkok, America, and other export of places, which as I have said can only be checked by exhancing the price of opium in China, till it equals the price in the countries to which smuggling takes place.
• Memo, communicated by Mr. Harris, Commissioner of Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs. † The Straits Opium Commission Report states that China is the chief if not the only source of smuggled
opium into that Colony.
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