CO129-360 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 63

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

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[45564]

No. 1.

C.O.

[Decembe545

SECTION 2

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received December 31.)

(No. 557.) Sir,

Peking, December 11, 1908. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a despatch from the Acting Consul-General at Canton respecting the anti-opium remedies sold in that city.

An analysis of these remedies by the Government Analyst at Hong Kong has revealed the fact that they all contain opium or morphia, and I have communicated this information to the Wai-wi Pu in a Memorandum of to-day's date.

I have, &c. (Signed) J. N. JORDAN.

Inclosure 1 in No. 1.

Acting Consul-General Fox to Sir J. Jordan.

(No. 65.) Sir,

Canton, November 23, 1908. ON the 26th October last the Governor of Hong Kong wrote to me asking if any fresh instructions had been sent to the Viceroy with regard to the use of morphia in the manufacture of opium remedies.

In my reply, copy of which I have the honour to inclose, I informed his Excellency that all opium remedies on sale in Canton were subject to Government inspection and approval, and I forwarded samples of some of the most widely advertised pills with a suggestion that the Government Analyst should be asked to examine and report on their composition.

I have now received a despatch from the Governor inclosing the results of analysis, from which it would appear that in every case these pills contain opium or morphia.

I have the honour to inclose copy of the Governor's letter and the Analyst's reports.

I propose to take an early opportunity of drawing the Viceroy's attention, in an informal manner, to the nature of the anti-opium remedies now being sold in Canton.

I have, &c. (Signed) HARRY H. FOX.

Inclosure 2 in No. 1.

Acting Consul-General Fox to Governor Sir F. Lugard.

(No. 143.) Sir,

Canton, November 2, 1908. In reply to your Excellency's despatch No. 139 of the 26th ultimo, I have the honour to state that, as far as I can learn, no fresh instructions have been sent to the Governor-General of the Two Kwang on the subject of morphia in anti-opium remedies.

The Regulations now in force are those contained in Article 6 of the Rules for the Eradication of Opium Smoking published under the Imperial Edict of the 20th September, 1906. Article 6 provides that the high provincial authorities shall appoint efficient and experienced medical officers to make a careful study of opium remedies with a view to the manufacture of pills, and that such pills shall not contain opium ash or morphia.

It is possible that, in view of the arrangement recently come to between China and the Treaty Powers whereby the import of morphia into China except for medicinal purposes will be prohibited from the 1st January, 1909, instructions may have been sent to the provincial authorities to exercise stricter supervision over the sale of opium remedies.

I am informed that in Canton all medicine shops retailing opium pills and drugs

[2050 hh-2]

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