Sir.
6
Inclosure 7 in No. 1.
British Opium Firms to Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce.
Hong Kong, September 29, 1909. WE have the honour to bring to your notice the fact that the opium regulations that the Kuangtung authorities attempted to bring into force last year, and which through the energetic action of His Britannic Majesty's Minister were promptly with- drawn, have been again revived. It is needless to trouble you with a recital of the details, as same are very fully set forth in a letter to Mr. Fox, His Britannic Majesty's acting consul-general at Canton, dated the 23rd September, 1908, and to the colonial secretary of Hong Kong dated the 9th December, 1908, which appear in the report of the chamber of commerce for last year.
Recently the Kuangtung authorities, contrary to the undertaking given by the Wai-wu Pu to His Britannic Majesty's Minister that the regulation would apply to native opium only, have taken definite action by imprisoning a partner in the Ch'aun Fu Chang raw opium hong in August last, and subsequently closing up the shop. Mr. II. H. Fox has been actively engaged in endeavouring to prevent this arbitrary enforcement of the regulations, but has been unsuccessful, and has had to refer the matter to His Britannic Majesty's Minister at Peking. The Viceroy at Canton, in a despatch to Mr. Fox, while ignoring the various arguments placed before him, states that it is the duty of the Chinese Government to carry out the ediets with the utmost energy, "as the foreign Powers were unanimous in their sympathetic assistance," and furthermore lays stress on the desire of the Hong Kong Government to prevent the smuggling of opium into Ilong Kong as an excuse for levying increased taxation in Canton. We beg to enclose copy of Viceroy's despatch to Mr. Fox dated Canton, the 17th September, 1909, for your information. The existence of treaties between China and foreign Powers is entirely ignored, neither is any reference made to the undertaking given barely a year ago to the British Minister by the Wai-wu Pu, to which we have referred in the first part of our letter.
The most important fact to which we beg to draw your attention is that the Indian Government have given the Chinese Government most practical support by definitely reducing shipments of opium from India to China, and in the course of a few years this trade will entirely cease, therefore these vexatious regulations of the Chinese Government are absolutely unnecessary as far as the trade in foreign opium is concerned, and we must conclude that they are being imposed by them in order to derive financial advantage from the situation.
The fact that for a considerable time the Kuangtung authorities have with impunity been infringing the treatics and ignoring the promise given to the British Minister by the Wai-wu Pu has led to these obstructive regulations being enforced in other districts, and complaints have been received from Hoihow, Nambung, and Wuting to the effect that monopolies are being established, and in Wuting (Fokien) the importation of foreign opium has been prohibited.
Only recently Sir Edward Grey, the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, stated in Parliament that, while he is prepared to give legitimate support to the Chinese Government, the treaties must be adhered to. We maintain that the British Government have given the Chinese practical proof of their desire to co-operate with them by reducing the yearly import of foreign opium into China, and in consideration of this generous arrangement the Chinese should on their part abide by the treaties and their undertaking.
We trust this chamber will bring the strongest pressure to bear on the various authorities concerned with a view to protecting the opium trade during the few years left before it totally ceases. This protection is, we think, rightly due to British merchants, who are within a brief period compelled to give up a trade in which they have been engaged for the past seventy or eighty years.
We have, &c.
David Sassoon and Co. (Limited),
E. SHELLIM, Manager.
E. D. SASSOON and Co.
S. J. DAVID AND CO.
E. PABANEY.
CAMAJEE PALLANJEE AND CO.
H. M. H. NEMAZEE (by his Attorney,
H. A. Shirazi).
F. P. TALATI,
M. H. E. ELLIAS.
ABDOOLALLY IBRAHIM AND Co.
Sir,
7
Inclosure 8 in No. 1.
Viceroy Yuan to Acting Consul-General Fox.
Canton, September 17, 1909. WITH reference to your despatch to my predecessor, dated the 27th August, 1909, on the subject of the new regulations for the limitation of the sale of raw opium, stating that you had learned that the Opium Prohibition Bureau had suddenly without warning arrested the manager of the Ch'ian Fu Ch'ang raw opium shop in the Hsing Lung Street, you requested that a careful enquiry might be made into the circumstance.
On receipt of your despatch the Acting Viceroy Hu instructed the bureau to make an enquiry and report, and a note was at the same time sent to you in reply. The officials of the bureau state that, by the order of the late Viceroy Chang, dated February-March, it became their duty to issue licences to shops selling raw opium and to individual buyers. This procedure was in accordance with the regulations submitted to the throne by the Government Council and approved. A proclamation was issued at the time, and all raw opium dealers were summoned to the bureau and commanded to observe the regulations. The statement that no warning was given is therefore difficult to understand.
The raw opium shops, however, while professing acquiescence, secretly ignored the regulations, with the result that very few people took out buying licences. For several months past, with a reckless indifference to instructions, the dealers have been illicitly selling opium in this way. The bureau had discovered that ten or more of the raw opium shops had been obeying the regulations and were willing to carry out these precautionary measures, but two shops, the Chuan Fu Chang and the Chun Fu Hsing, relying on their comparatively large capital, had attempted to monopolise the trade. Their arrest by the police officials was supported by conclusive proof, and the sentence imposed on them to stop business, which was reported to and approved by the Acting Viceroy Hu, was a measure of exceptional clemency. The man Liang Hsi Iou who was arrested was the manager of the shop in question, and the intention of the police was merely to obtain from him the licence of the shop for cancellation, when he would be released. The owner of the shop, however, in
a reckless manner was making delays and remained in hiding. The measures that had been taken were those laid down by the regulations for the punishment of recalcitrant raw opium shops, and were in no way the concern of foreigners.
The raw opium shops numbered over twenty, and all were carrying on their business as usual. No dislocation was being caused to the trade of either Chinese or foreign opium merchants. The officials of the bureau further remarked that the Imperial commands for the prohibition of opium had been in force for three years, and that confirmatory edicts had repeatedly been received. The whole nation had received these edicts in an obedient spirit, and the foreign Powers were unanimous in their sympathetic assistance. It was therefore their duty to carry out their instructions with the utmost energy, for the whole principle of controlling opium would be defeated were individuals to be allowed to buy opium without a licence, or opium dealers to sell to such persons. It would also be impossible to second in a worthy manner the friendly assistance of foreign kindly disposed Powers.
With regard to the increase in price of prepared opium, there was no violation of the terms of the Chefoo Convention, as the price was increased (ie., a tax levied) after the opium had been inported and the packages opened.
If it
In June-July of this year the British consul-general had forwarded a translation of a memorandum drawn up by the Governor of Hong Kong. The governor stated that it was beyond the wit of man to devise a satisfactory method of stopping the smuggling of opiura into Hong Kong, for the reason that the price of opium in Ilong Kong and in the straits was many times higher than in the south of China. was desired to stop this traffic and thereby fulfil the promise contained in China's undertaking with Hong Kong, the only possible method was to raise the price of opium in China and bring it to a level with the price obtaining in Hong Kong. There would then be no profit attached to the smuggling into Hong Kong. If, therefore, measures could be taken to secure this increased price, the prevention of the snuggling traffic would meet with success, and the assistance would be rendered both to their efforts to stop consumption and to the revenue of China.
This, the bureau observed, was a really intelligent and far-seeing exposition of
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