CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 561

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

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CONFIDENTIAL.

REG! 16 JUN 11

[18496]

No. 1.

[May 11.]

SECTION 4.

Question asked in the House of Commons, May 11, 1911.

Mr. Theodore C. Taylor,-To ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he will state the number of chests of Indian Government opium to be sent this year to China as reduced by the 10 years' agreement of 1907; whether, under the new agreement, it is now proposed that she should this year take 21,000 additional chests; and, if so, whether that addition will bring this year's total import by China from India to a higher figure thau before the successive reductions of the past four years.

Ansiver by Mr. Montagu,

The number of chests to be exported from India to all countries in 1911 is fixed by the agreement of 1907 at 46,600 chests. Under that agreement the Government of India were under no obligation to mark off the Chinese portion from the non-Chinese portion of the total export, and the Chinese Government had no power of excluding any of the import. This year, in advance of the new agreement, the Government of India agreed to separate the Chinese from the non-Chinese portion of the export, and estimating the latter at 16,000 chests, they were certifying 30,000 chests for China. When my honourable friend asks about 21,000 chests, he is referring to the rough estimate of the quantity of opium in bond in treaty ports and in Hong Kong. It was exported from India in previous years before the certificate procedure was introduced, and had a right of entry into China on payment of import duty. But inasmuch as these stocks are not certificated, the Indian Government have agreed that in consideration of their now entering China, the authorised export of certified opium in the next three years will be correspondingly reduced. The average annual import of Indian opium into China before 1908 was about 51,000 chests. This figure may be slightly exceeded in the present year if the whole of this year's certified opium should be passed into China within the year in addition to the uncertificated stocks of former years. But the circumstances are altogether exceptional, and the China import for the year should not be confused with the Indian export to China for the year.

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