CO129-371 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 129

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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.T

JRECO

Race 28 JAN 10

2

Inclosure 2 in No. 1.

Consul-General Fraser to Sir J. Jordan.

(No. 70.)

Hankow, November 23, 1909. Sir,

IN continuation of my despatch No. 69 of yesterday's date, I have the honour to inform you that I have to-day received a note from his Excellency the Viceroy, stating that he has given instructions to the Educational Association, the Provincial Council, the Wuchang and Hankow Chambers of Commerce, the police and customs taotais, and the Anti-Opium Bureau, for the immediate correction of the allegation that the Indian Government would exact an indemnity from China if investigation proved that the latter had failed to fulfil her promise honestly to reduce the growth and consumption of opium during the years 1908, 1909, and 1910.

I have, &c.

Your Excellency,

Inclosure 3 in No. 1.

Consul-General Fraser to Governor of Hu-Kuang.

E. H. FRASER.

His Britannic Majesty's Consulate-General, Hankow, November 20, 1909.

stated at our interview, I HAD the honour yesterday in a note to confirm what namely, the falsity of the anti-opium societies' allegations regarding the exaction of damages by His Majesty's Government in case China did not effectually suppress opium smoking and growing concurrently with the reduction of the export from India to China.

In the "Kung Lun Hsin Pao of the 15th November I find, in a report to be submitted to your Excellency by the Hupei Provincial Council, the following among the ways suggested to your Excellency for opium suppression :-

"The issue of orders to all prefects and magistrates to notify leading gentry of good character to divide up their jurisdiction into areas, and therein organise anti- opium societies and establish watching, first of all expatiating on the evils of opium together with the intolerable hardship which will befal the people through the certainty, in case of our failure after the expiry of the ten years' limit to effect complete suppression, of international complications over the British exaction of a heavy indemnity," &c.

Your Excellency is, of course, aware that so soon as China expressed her determination to suppress opium Ilis Majesty's Government, out of friendly feelings, agreed to reduce the export from India by 10 per cent. annually, and took upon themselves the heavy loss of revenue thus to be incurred by India. In view of the doubts freely expressed of the genuineness of China's resolve, His Majesty's Govern- ment felt bound to stipulate that, if after the first three years there were not satisfactory evidence that the growth and smoking of the drug in China were being honestly checked, Great Britain should be released from the voluntary obligation to continue the yearly reduction of the export from India; but there was never any mention of the possibility of any claim for compensation at any time, nor was it even stated that in case of China's failure to carry out her resolve India would not voluntarily go on reducing the export until after ten years it should cease altogether.

I do not know how the story of compensation arose, nor who is responsible for it, but that the statement is widely current is evident from the fact of the provincial council's representing it as a fact to your Excellency.

It is manifest that the circulation of such a story among the people must breed in all classes a feeling of resentment against Great Britain and prove as pernicious to friendly relations as the charge against the Powers of plotting to dismember China, which has been revived by two students from Japan and accepted by the provincial council and the educational and commercial associations in the three cities, which have mainly on the strength of it founded a renewed anti-loan society for Hupei.

Your Excellency has doubtless appreciated the serious trouble that such fostering of the anti-foreign spirit is liable to produce, and I have the honour to suggest the advisability of your Excellency's publicly correcting the erroneous information of the council and the various societies in the three cities.

I avail, &c.

E. H. FRASER.

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[219]

[January 3.]

SECTION 1.

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 3, 1910.)

(No. 466.) Sir,

Peking, December 16, 1909. IN my despatch No. 448 of the 2nd instant I said that I had stated verbally at the Wai-wu Pu that the result of the enforcement of vexatious regulations at Canton had been a total cessation of the foreign opium trade for over three months, while the Ministers present had asserted, upon the authority of the Canton Viceroy, that there had been no diminution in the import of foreign opium.

I now have the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a note from the Wai-wu Pu quoting a further telegram from the Viceroy to the same effect.

I am sending a copy of this note to His Majesty's consul-general at Canton with instructions to keep me fully informed of further developments.

Enclosure in No. 1.

I have, &c.

J. N. JORDAN.

Note communicated to Sir J. Jordan by Wai-wu Pu.

December 14, 1909.

WITH reference to the import of opium into Kwangtung, the board has had the honour to forward memoranda. A further telegram has now been received from the Canton Viceroy as follows :--

From the 5th month to the 8th month of this year (middle of June to the middle of October) 160,000 catties of foreign opium were imported. The statement of the British minister that foreign opium cannot be imported is not correct. I have recently again sent officials to make a secret investigation in the city of Canton, and it is entirely Chinese merchants who bring the opium in from Hong Kong, and foreign merchants have hitherto not declared any opium for import.

"The reasons for the import this autumn being less than usual are two in number, viz. (1) on account of the large import into Canton during the summer months, the native dealers had not sold off all their stocks, and (2) because at the end of the autumn the import of foreign opium through the maritime customs at Samshui and Kongmoon. had suddenly increased several-fold. It can thus be easily seen that opium is coming into the province through circuitous routes."

Sir John Jordan was recently speaking about this matter, and the board has therefore the honour to communicate the above telegram.

[2606 c-1]