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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government)
2764
128
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[46752]
No. 1.
[December 28.]
28 JAN 10
SECTION 2.
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(No. 448.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey. (Received December 28.)
Peking, December 2, 1909. IN my despatch No. 367 of the 6th October last I had the honour to report that I had addressed a further representation to the Wai-wu Pu respecting the continued interference with the foreign opium trade at Canton, and had instructed His Majesty's consul-general at that port to await the result of this step before making a renewed protest to the Viceroy.
A telegram having, however, reached me shortly afterwards from the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce complaining that the position was unchanged, I telegraphed to His Majesty's consul-general, who wrote on the 18th October to the Acting Viceroy protesting against the vexatious restrictions, and requesting the release of the Chinese dealer who had been arrested at the instance of the Opium Prohibition Bureau.
In his reply of the 31st October the Acting Viceroy stated that the regulations under which all native opium shops were obliged to register themselves and take out licences had been issued with the Imperial sanction, and were of universal application throughout the Empire; that he had no power to alter or abrogate them; and that the Chinese dealer liad been arrested for having violated these regulations by selling opium to persons not duly licensed.
In replying to the Viceroy's note on the 2nd November, Mr. Jamieson pointed out that the spirit of the arrangement providing for the progressive decrease of the import of Indian opium was being violated, and again asked for the removal of the restrictions that had been placed on legitimate British trade.
A copy of Mr. Jamieson's despatch forwarding this correspondence is enclosed
herewith.
I have discussed the question at repeated interviews with the Wai-wu Pu, but have been unable to obtain the fulfilment of the promise that foreign opium would be excluded from the operation of the regulations. The Ministers state that the regulations apply to foreign and native opium alike, and that they form a necessary part of the Government programme for the suppression of the opium habit. They were not intended in any way to restrict or embarrass the foreign opium trade, and the Ministers contend that what is happening in Canton is nothing more than a temporary derangement incidental to their enforcement. The retail opium dealers at that port have, they assert, assumed a recalcitrant attitude and declined to accept regulations of any kind, and this assertion, I may remark, is confirmed by His Majesty's consul-general at Canton. They add that the dealers are relying upon our support in the contest they have entered into with their own authorities, and cite telegrams from the Viceroy, one of which I have the honour to enclose, intended to prove that there has been little or no diminution in the import of foreign opiùm.
Against all this I have urged that, no matter what the intention of the regulations may have been, the practical effect of their enforcement at Canton has been the total cessation of the trade for over three months. When the triennial arrangement for the gradual reduction of the foreign import was made, it was naturally assumed that the trade would continue to be carried on, as before, under treaty conditions, and it was never anticipated that the regulations would be enforced in such a way as to expose the foreign importers, who had already incurred a serious sacrifice by the diminution of their business, to the still further hardship of seeing it harassed by vexatious and unnecessary restrictions. I disclaimed any intention of assuming any protection over the native sellers of opium or of interfering between them and their own authorities, but appealed to the Ministers to see that the arrangement which I had made with them three years ago was carried out in the spirit which animated both contracting parties at the time.
The Ministers acknowledged the reasonableness of this appeal, and fully
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