CO129-360 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 350

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

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"It appears that in Hong Kong, where the opium imported from abroad is prepared, under the arrangements for sales under official control, fifteen cases daily are disposed of by the Opium Company, while as a matter of fact less than three cases are required for Hong Kong consumption, the remainder being illicitly exported into China."

This statement is incorrect. If the Board of Finance had consulted the Report of the Commissioner of Customs for Kowloon for 1907 they would have seen that the Hong Kong opium farmer boiled only 725 cases during the year, and that 41 of these cases contained Chinese opium. That is to say, the Hong Kong opium farmer boiled less than two cases of raw opium per day, and the Commissioner of Customis states that part of the opium so prepared was exported to Annam and the Straits Settlements.

Sir John Jordan requests that the facts may be brought to the notice of the Board of Finance and the Chinese members of the Shanghae Opium Commission, and that steps may be taken to rectify the error in the public press.

Peking, December 11, 1908.

Sir,

Inclosure 3 in No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Governor Sir F. Lugard.

Peking, December 19, 1908.

I DREW the attention of the Wai-wu Pu to the complaint made in your Excellency's letter of the 25th November, in a Memorandum of the 11th December, copy of which is inclosed. I also made verbal representations at the Wai-wu Pu, and I have been informed that the facts have been brought to the notice of the Board of Finance and the Chinese members of the Shanghae Opium Commission.

I should mention that the text of the Board of Finance's Memorial as published in the Official Gazette here did not contain the passage complained of.

I have, &c.

(Signed) J. N. JORDAN.

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[3508]

[January 27.]

SECTION 2. C. 0.

5086

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 27.)

RECE (Rege || FED 09 (No. 13.) Sir,

Peking, January 6, 1909. WITH reference to my despatch No. 547 of the 8th December, regarding restric- tions on the raw opinm trade in parts of Canton Province, I now have the honour to inclose copy of a further despatch from His Majesty's Acting Consul-General reporting some modification of the rules originally issued by the Chinese authorities.

I also have the honour to inclose copy of a despatch from His Majesty's Consul- General at Shanghae, transmitting a complaint by British firms dealing in opium against the steps taken by the Kiangnan authorities to control the sale of the drug.

The Regulations, though generally similar to those issued at Canton, differed sufficiently from them to preclude uniformity of practice, and appeared to me to go further in disclosing a tendency towards monopolizing the trade amongst a few Chinese dealers. I accordingly addressed a note to Prince Ching, of which a copy is inclosed, on the 4th January, pointing out that British firms were still entitled to trade in opium as before, and requesting that foreign opium should be excluded from the various restrictive measures which the provincial authorities were introducing,

On the following day I mentioned the subject to his Excellency Liang at the Wai-wu Pu, and reminded him that any measures which China may desire to take in excess of the arrangement concluded between her and Great Britain in 1907 must be made the subject of negotiation between the two Governments, and could not be imposed by China alone. They had, I added, an opportunity at the Shanghae Con- ference to bring forward proposals, and if they did so they could rely upon a synpa- thetic hearing from the Powers.

The degree of success which has hitherto attended the efforts of local authorities in another part of China-namely, Kansn-to carry out the Imperial Decrees commanding the suppression of opium, and the value of Chinese official returns are severely com- mented on in a memorial by the Tartar General at Ninghsia, of which I have the honour to inclose a translation. The Memorial of the Board of Finance, to which allusion is therein made, was inclosed in translation in my despatch No. 494 of the 29th October.

I have, &c. (Signed)

J. N. JORDAN.

(No. 70.) Sir,

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

Acting Consul-General Fox to Sir J. Jordan,

Canton, December 8, 1908. IN continuation of my despatch No. 66 of the 24th ultimo, I have the honour to inclose copy and translation of the Viceroy's reply to my letter on the subject of the restrictions placed on the raw opium trade by the local authorities in the Swatow and other prefectures,

In forwarding a translation of this reply to Messrs. David Sassoon and Co. in Hong Kong, I stated that while the Viceroy's despatch was anything but clear, and left one in some doubt as to what action he had taken in the matter, I had reason to believe that instructions had been privately sent for the new Regulations to be less rigorously enforced,

[2090 dd--2]

I have, &c. (Signed)

HARRY H. FOX.

B