CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 159

Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government)

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[8517]

C.0.

13969

[March 12.]

RECR RecP 24 APR OC

SECTION 1.

No. 1.

Sir,

Foreign Office to India Office.

Foreign Office, March 12, 1909. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd instant on the subject of the action of the Provincial Government of Canton in placing restrictions on the sale of opium, and to transmit to you, to be laid before the Secretary of State for India, a copy of a despatch which has been addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Peking on the subject.*

With regard to the last paragraph of your letter, I am to refer you to Sir J. Jordan's despatch No. 464 of the 21st October, 1908, which was communicated to your Department on the 7th December, 1908. In this despatch Sir J. Jordan expressed the view that some form of licensing was necessary to carry out Article 5 of the Imperial Regulations of 1906, and that the new Licensing Rules, although requiring careful watching, could not be objected to ab initio.

I am, &c. (Signed) F. A. CAMPBELL.

* To Sir J. Jordan, No. 70, March 10, 1909.

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