This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(
[45289]
622
[December 15.]
SECTION 1.
7 JAN ||
No. 1.
Sir,
India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received December 15.)
India Office, December 14, 1910. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letters dated the 6th and 8th September respectively, giving cover to Sir John Jordan's telegram No. 194, dated the 5th December, and to the Wai-wu Pu's telegram of the same date to the Chinese Minister in Londou, on the subject of the opium agreement with China.
In reply, I am to say that the Wai-wu Pu's telegram seems to imply that the dis- cussion which the Chinese Government have summarily and unceremoniously terminated originated in a memorandum addressed by the British chargé d'affaires in November to that Government. That that is not the case can be readily established from the documents accompanying Mr. Max Müller's despatch No. 338 dated the 28th September, 1910, to the Foreign Office. Ou the 25th September the Wai-wu Pu communicated a menuorandum to Mr. Max Müller, in which proposals were made that the three years' agreement--which provided for the simultaneous reduction in the production of opium in China and in the import from India at the rate of one-tenth per annum should be extended (with effect from the 1st January, 1911), for a further period of seven years, and that certain measures should be taken for the ear-marking in India of the opium consigned to China, and for preventing the import into China of opium not so certificated. In a previous letter dated the 21st September to Mr. Max Müller, Prince Ching had expressed his sincere and grateful appreciation of the action of His Majesty's Government in not insisting on the production of proof on the part of the Chinese Government that China had fulfilled her share of the three years' agreement, and he mentioned only one point-that relating to the 16,000 chests exported to countries other than China---with regard to which his Government were not satisfied with the existing arrangements. This point, as already stated, was specifically provided for in the Wai-wu Pu's memorandum of the 25th September.
The memorandum communicated in November by Mr. Müller to the Chinese Government, so far from originating proposals for an extension of the present opium arrangement, was intended to give effect to the proposals made by the Chinese Government themselves. It may be the case that the Chinese Government have not actually accepted the text of the memorandum, but they have accepted in principle the prolongation of the present arrangement for a further period of seven years, and have made proposals for modifying its detailed working which His Majesty's Government have accepted and undertaken to adopt. The memorandum was thus the final stage of what was understood to be a complete understanding between the two Governments on essential points. Its rejection, and the proposed substitution of an entirely new basis for negotiation, after the Chinese Government had expressed their gratitude for the generous attitude of His Majesty's Government, tend to show that their new proposals have not received full consideration.
It may be well to recall the fact, which the Chinese Government appear to have lost sight of, that the existing restrictions on the exports of Indian opium are not imposed by treaty, but have been voluntarily accepted by the Indian Government as part of an informal arrangement between the Chinese Government and His Majesty's Government. This arrangement will terminate on the 31st December, 1910, in default of an understanding between the two Governments as to its renewal.
One of the conditions of the expiring agreement is that the Chinese Govern- ment should furnish proof that the production of opium in China had been reduced proportionately to the reduction in the export from India. The Chinese Government have admitted their inability to furnish this proof. When the present agreement expires, the Indian Government will therefore be without the evidence that would require them to continue the policy of progressively reducing the export. On the other hand, they will be entitled to insist that the provisions of existing treaties, with regard to the import of opium into China and to freedom of trade, shall be strictly observed by the Chinese Government, and that if the Chinese Government wish to modify, those
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