[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C O
24839
[July 28.]
SECTION 1.
Rece
(25950]
Sir,
R12 AUG 10,
No. 1.
Foreign Office to India Office.
Foreign Office, July 28, 1910. I AM directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to transmit to you, to be laid before the Secretary of State for India, the accompanying copy of a despatch from His Majesty's chargé d'affaires at Peking, enclosing correspondence which has passed between Mr. Barr, the British vice-consul at Ningpo, and His Majesty's Legation respecting a protest on the part of Messrs. Sassoon and Co. against the application of certain opium licensing regulations.
Sir E. Grey agrees in thinking that, in requesting the taotai to order the local branch of the Opium Prohibition Bureau to grant licences, in accordance with the regulations, to shops both inside and outside Ningpo, Mr. Barr acted to some extent. contrary to the views of His Majesty's Government, who have never in previous similar cases questioned the right of China to regulate as she thinks fit the licensing of retail shops for the sale of foreign opium. He therefore proposes, if Viscount Morley concurs, to approve of Mr. Max Müller's decision not to interfere with the Chinese control of native retail opium dealers nor to urge the Chinese authorities to issue licences to traders who do not possess the qualifications required, and of the instructions which he has addressed to Mr. Barr in regard to his future conduct in similar cases.
* Mr. Max Müller, No. 213, June 29, 1910.
[2812 ee-]
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I
am, &c.
W. LANGLEY.
504
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