CO129-382 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 316

[This Docurrent is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[January 23.]

3443

SECTION 1.

LC?

No. £ 3 EB

(

[2591]

(No. 4.) Sir,

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received January 23.)

Peking, January 4, 1911. IN continuation of my despatch No. 463 of the 24th ultimo, and in confirmation of my telegram No. 211 of the 30th, I have the honour to transmit herewith the translation of the note addressed to me by the Wai-wu Pu in reply to mine of the 23rd December, in which I laid before them the situation which would arise if the Chinese Government definitely set aside the proposals, embodied in the memorandum from His Majesty's Legation of the 1st November, for renewing the agreement for the annual reduction of the opium exported from India.

Whilst disclaiming any wish to reject those proposals or to make unreasonable modi- fications, the Board state that it becomes necessary to reconsider the question in the light of the present situation. Whether the suggestions which follow are put forward as a basis on which to continue discussion of the proposals which were on the point of being agreed to, or whether they are intended to be distinct and alternative proposals, is not clear. This and certain obscure points in the suggestions themselves will doubtless be elucidated when the official who is being appointed by the Chinese Government to continue negotiations, reopens the discussion.

The points made in this note may be briefly recapitulated. It asserts that the reduction of the native plant during the last three years has exceeded the annual proportion of one-tenth. If before the lapse of seven years total extinction (I presume by this is meant in the cultivation and consumption) is effected, foreign opium, if it continues to come into the country, will find no sale. The note next states formally, that until such total extinction is secured, Indian and foreign opium imported into China may temporarily continue to be treated in accordance with the agreement for proportional annual reduction.

His Majesty's Government are then requested to take immediate steps to carry out their promise to earmark the chests, so as to tally with the number of chests which it has been agreed should be imported on the reduced scale. But, the note states, if native opium shall have been extinguished in a province, the importation of Indian and foreign opium into that province must be prohibited. On this point His Majesty's Government are requested to give a definite undertaking.

I venture to think that we might agree to the suggestion that the importation of foreign opium should cease in less than seven years on condition that China can produce clear proof of the total extinction of native opium.

I still adhere to the view that His Majesty's Government are under no obligation to commence earmaking until the Chinese Government have accepted the proposals of the 1st November, and thus fulfilled the conditions on which the offer was made. Our experience of the methods of the provincial authorities in enforcing the Kuangtung regulations make it desirable, in my opinion, to retain the lever we hold. Even now we have no guarantee that the Indian opium trade will not continue to be hampered as in the past year.

The proposal for prohibiting the import of Indian opium into a province which has extinguished native opium will have to be considerably elaborated before its feasibility can be estimated. In its present vague form it would meet with great practical difficulties. I presume that extinction would include the prohibition of the import of native opium, and this we should find it very hard to check. I cannot help thinking that it might be made an excuse by the authorities for further illegal interference with foreign trade. It is, of course, natural that a province, such as Shansi, which has totally abolished the cultivation of the plant, should feel keenly the position in which it finds itself vis-à-vis other provinces, and should resent the importation of the Indian drug. It might, perhaps, be agreed that transit certificates should not be issued for the conveyance of opium to inland provinces in which total extinction has been effected, but even this concession would probably prove difficult in practice.

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