[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[45289]
[December 22.]
C
622
ECTION 1.
REC
Rent 7 JAN !!
No. 1.
Memorandum communicated to Li Ching-fong.
HIS Majesty's Government have learnt with great surprise and regret the recent change of attitude on the part of the Chinese Government with regard to the opium proposals, all the more so, as they had been accepted by the Chinese Government in principle and were indeed mainly their own suggestion.
The telegram from the Wai-wu Pa, communicated by Sir J. McLeavy Brown on the 7th instant, seems to imply that the discussion which the Chinese Government have thus summarily and unceremoniously terminated originated in a memorandum addressed by the British chargé d'affaires in November to that Government. This, however, is not the case. On the 25th September the Wai-wu Pu communicated a memorandum 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 from India to countries other than China- with regard to which his Government were not satisfied with the existing arrangements. This point, however, was specifically provided for in the Wai-wu Pu's memorandum of the 25th September.
The memorandum communicated in November by Mr. Max Müller to the Chinese Government, so far from originating new proposals for an extension of the present opium arrangement, was expressly intended to give effect to those already made by the Chinese Government themselves. Even if as stated in the Wai-wu Pu's telegram it is the case that the Chinese Government have not actually accepted the text of the memorandum, they have accepted in principle the prolongation of the present arrangement for a further period of seven years, and they themselves 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 Government 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
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