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Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Acting Governor-General of the Liang Kuang to Consul-General Jamieson.
(Translation.)
Hsüan-tung, 2:11:22 (December 23, 1910). I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch of the 14th instant regarding the prepared opium licence levy.
In reply, I would point out that the collection of this levy is fundamentally to forward the work of suppressing opium, and is essentially a matter connected with the internal administration of China, and in no way affects foreign opium imported under treaty.
As regards the additional regulations for the revision of the prepared opium levy, I have instructed the Kuangtung provincial treasurer to examine them thoroughly in conjunction with the Head Opium Prohibition Bureau, but I have so far not received a report from these officials.
The regulations referred to in your despatch are merely proposals submitted by the merchants for my approval, which they have not yet received.
This licence levy, however, is an integral feature of the work of suppressing opium, and, no matter what decision may eventually be arrived at, I regret that it will be absolutely impossible for me to suspend it.
I avail, &c.
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
(Seal of Governor-General.)
Consul-General Jamieson to Sir J. Jordan.
Canton, January 10, 1911.
(No. 1.) Sir,
I HAVE the honour to refer to enclosure No. 2 in my despatch No. 44 of the 21st December last, and to forward herewith text and translation of a communication from the newly appointed Acting Governor-General in further reply thereto, as also a copy of a despatch I have addressed to his Excellency refuting certain arguments therein advanced,
As regards the proposal to transfer the collection of the prepared opium levy to the Canton Opium Guild, which formed subject of my despatch No. 46 of the 24th December last, negotiations are still in progress. There is, however, little hope of their being carried to a successful conclusion, seeing that at a meeting between the provincial authorities and the guild held on the 8th instant the latter declined to guarantee the payment of a specific quarterly contribution, and stated that they would not be responsible for the levy in respect of opium imported at Swatow, Kowloon, or Lappa.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 4 in No. 1.
J. W. JAMIESON.
Acting Governor-General of the Liang Kuang to Consul General Jamieson.
(Translation.)
Hsian-tung, 2:12: 8 (January 8, 1911).
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your despatch of the 7th December, 1910, on the subject of the prepared opium levy, in which you state that you have been given to understand that in the renewed licences opium smokers are only allowed to make purchases at the particular shop indicated in their licence, and are not at liberty to buy elsewhere. Further, that in the allotment of customers certain prepared opium shops have been completely passed over; and that this is said to be the result of collusion between the Kuang Yuan office and certain prepared opium shops. You accordingly requested that instructions be issued for the withdrawal of these regulations.
On receipt of your despatch under acknowledgment, the late Acting Governor- General Tseng ordered the Opium Prohibition Bureau to present a report on the
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subject. I have now received their report, copy of which I have the honour to append for your information.
The regulations issued by the bureau merely provide for the restriction of smokers and prepared opium shops, and are consequently a measure of China's internal adminis- tration, with no connection with the rights of foreign merchants as safeguarded by
treaty.
I am unable, therefore, to issue instructions for their withdrawal and so to prejudice the policy of opium suppression.
(Seal of Governor-General.)
(Translation.)
Enclosure 5 in No. 1.
Report of the Opium Prohibition Bureau.
THE opium licences were renewed in the autumn of the present year. The bureau decided that, in view of the fast approaching term for the total suppression of opium, measures of reform must be commenced in Canton and that greater strictness should be exercised. Amended regulations were accordingly issued consisting of seven heads, the first of which opened by compelling smokers to take out these licences before proceeding with the licence to the particular prepared opium shop therein indicated to purchase opium for consumption. The reason for this rule was that formerly smokers holding licences used to go to any opium shop they chose and buy opium, with the result that within a single day one licence was frequently made to do duty for several purchases. Sometimes, again, after buying opium at one shop, smokers would take their licences to another establishment and make a second purchase. The smoker would shelter himself behind his licence and consume the drug up to his full capacity. Further, a third person would have the loan of a licence for the purpose of buying opium, and in particular the prepared opium shops would take advantage of this circumstance to enlarge their custom and expand profits. Evasions and abuses of all kinds existed, too numerous to mention, and most prejudicial to the rapid progress of opium suppression.
Such were the circumstances which called into being the new regulations, having for their object the restriction of opium smoking, greater facilities for investigation, and the attainment by degrees of a time limit for the eradication of the craving.
We come now to the statement that certain prepared opium shops have been completely passed over in the allotment of customers. The reason for this is that those shops had previously been found guilty of breaches of regulation in selling prepared opium, and bad, in consequence, been ordered to close their businesses and resort to other livelihoods. It was therefore impossible to include them in any of the renewed licences. The allegation of the British consul-general that this was part of a scheme whereunder the Kuang Yuan Office, in conjunction with certain prepared opium shops, hoped to establish a monopoly is from first to last merely conjecture. As a matter of fact, the rule in question has nothing whatever to do with the prepared opium levy,
The British consul-general most irrelevantly drags in the question of treaty provisions which he declares to be infringed. In this he is under a misapprehension, for the treaty stipulates that foreign opium proceeding to the interior shall, after breakage of the packages and on retail sale, be free from foreign interference. A fortiori, then, the drug, having been converted from its raw to its prepared state, is purely a Chinese article and the restriction of prepared opium shops and smokers is purely a matter of internal administration.
We must assume that the British consul-general is still in the dark as to the true circumstances of this matter, and we would therefore request that a despatch be addressed to him in this sense for his information.
Enclosure 6 in No. 1.
Consul-General Jamieson to Acting Governor-General of the Liang Kuang.
Your Excellency,
Canton, January 10, 1911.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your Excellency's communication of the 8th instant, giving cover to a report by the Opium Prohibition Bureau with
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