111
This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governmen C. O.
[B]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
13254
RECO REG19 APR 09 [April 10
SECTION 1.
[13528]
No. 1.
Sir,
Sir C. Clementi Smith to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 10.)
London, April 8, 1909. I HAVE reported already the opening and closing of the International Opium Commission at Shanghae. I beg now to submit some observations on the proceedings of the Commission and its results.
The following countries sent delegations: United States of America, Austria, China, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Persia, and Siam. The proceedings were carried on in the English language, with occasional interpretation into French.
After the Commission had settled the Rules and Orders under which the business was to be conducted, each delegation presented a Report on the cultivation of
poppy, the production of opium and its preparation for use, the extent to which it was used, and the control exercised by Government over its manufacture and sale. These Reports were read, generally with explanatory comments, by the chief of each delegation, and discussion thereon was then invited.
It is almost needless to say that the Report which was awaited with the greatest interest was that which was presented by China. It was read by the second Chinese Commissioner, and was of a disappointing character. He admitted, with the utmost frankness, that the statistics and statements regarding the extent to which poppy cultivation and the smoking of opium had been reduced were "guesswork or "patchwork," but at the same time he was able to show with considerable satis- faction that in certain of the provinces of China steady progress had been made towards carrying out, what he aptly described, the gigantic task that the Chinese Government had taken in hand, The Report was later on sympathetically criticized in a very able Memorandum drawn up by Sir Alexander Hosie, and his criticisms remained to a great extent unanswered, and, indeed, were unanswerable.
So soon as all the Reports (except one from Russia) had been received and discussed, the Commission proceeded to consider the resolutions brought forward by the different delegations. In the first instance the American Delegates alone had attended the Commission with resolutions that had been already prepared. As you are aware, the British Delegates were not furnished with any formal proposals to lay before the Commission, and, so far as I could learn, their attitude was similar to that of all the other representatives, with the exception of those from America. I should add that at a somewhat late stage the Chinese Delegates brought forward certain resolutions, some of which were not, however, pressed, one of them dealing with the Agreement between India and China being ruled by the Commission as not within its scope.
As the time approached for considering the resolutions of the American Delegates, and we were not aware of the form they would assume, we decided to submit certain proposals on behalf of our own Commission. These were circulated in due course, and were before the full Commission when the American resolutions were intro- duced. It became manifest that the majority of the delegations were not prepared to adopt the major portion of those resolutions, and at the suggestion of the senior French Delegate an informal Conference was held between the British and American. Delegates with a view to the preparation of such resolutions as would meet with the general approval of the Commission as a whole.
This Conference was held, and I am glad to be able to add with very satisfactory results. The Commission ultimately adopted all the resolutions on which we were agreed, together with the two other resolutions which at the last moment were brought forward by China on the subject of the closing of the opium divans in the Concessions and Settlements in China, and the prohibition of the sale in the same places of anti-opium remedies containing opium or its derivatives.
The resolutions thus passed, after recognizing the sincerity of the Government
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