[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
C O 8653
[February 14.]
SECTION 2.
[4932]
(No. 24.)
(Telegraphic.) R.
Rec 17 MAR
No. 1.
Sir Edward Grey to Sir J. Jordan.
Foreign Office, February 14, 1911.
YOUR despatch No. 16 of the 10th January: Opium.
Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce telegraph that new arrangement will mean additional increase of 200 dollars per chest, making present total illegal tax 480 dollars per chest. Guild guarantees 24,000 dollars a-month, and Viceroy admits tax levied covers loss caused by abolition of gambling monopoly.
You should make it clear to the Chinese Government that our willingness to resume negotiations of course implies the immediate suspension of inequitable regulations, such as those in question imposed by the Canton local authorities in defiance of our admitted treaty rights.
Please acknowledge the receipt of telegram above referred to, and informa Chamber of Commerce that the whole question is engaging the serious attention of His Majesty's Government, who have already protested against the particular point they raise both to the Central Government and to the Viceroy at Canton.
[1897 -2]
459
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