[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
0.0
[A]
10608
OPIUM.
RECO
May 15.]
16 JUN 11
CONFIDENTIAL.
SECTION 1.
[18353]
No. 1.
(No. 179.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received May 15.)
IN continuation of my despatch No. 138 of the 27th ultimo, I have the honour to
Peking, April 25, 1911. report further to the progress of the opium negotiations to date.
As stated in that despatch the only outstanding questions of principle were those of the prohibition of import by provinces, and of the treatment to be accorded to existing stocks of opium in the treaty ports and Hong Kong, and in view of the fact that these two questions alone have protracted the negotiations over one month, it may be well to recapitulate briefly the circumstances which have combined to bring about this difficulty.
At the commencement of the negotiations the Chinese idea of prohibition by provinces was to provide against Indian opium taking the place of native in provinces which had formerly produced opium when such production should have ceased." apparent from the wording of article 2 of the Chinese memorandum (enclosure 2 in my This is despatch No. 90 of the 27th February) which refers to the extinction of “ and this object--even if difficult of practical attainment-was a reasonable one, and was production," met as far as possible at the outset of our proposal to exclude such provinces from the scope of transit-pass privileges.
Owing to the difficulties which arose in connection with other points, it was not until a month had elapsed that the clause providing for the prohibition by provinces came to be discussed in detail, and during this time provincial agitation had rendered the central Government more than usually nervous of concluding any agreement which might appear to discriminate between different provinces. This agitation has now spread from Fuhkien in the south to the central and northern provinces whose delegates have recently come in person to impress their views on the Wai-wu Pu and incidentally on myself.
The same element of delay which has increased the difficulties of this question has also operated to enhance those surrounding the question of stocks. The amount of Indian opium in bonds at Hong Kong and Shanghai at the commencement of these negotiations was some 17,700 chests, but the amount has since increased to some 21,300 chests, and although this increase is to some extent to be attributed to the effect of the restrictions placed on the trade by the provincial authorities in impeding normal consumption, the Chinese Government becomes not unnaturally more and more apprehensive of the criticism which their explicit admission of these large stocks will provoke.
Throughout the prolonged discussions on these two questions, I have insisted that as regards their comparative importance, precedence must be given to a solution of the provincial prohibition difficulty, but I found that the Chinese delegate was equally persistent in refusing to yield on this point.
It was in vain that I pointed out that such prohibition in any form was really unnecessary inasmuch as the main object of the Chinese Government had already been attained through the undertaking given by His Majesty's Government to cease the export of opium to China at any time on the extinction of native production, the fear of provincial agitation was too strong, and Dr. Yen professed to be unable to see that this great concession covered all the reasonable requirements of the opium-suppression policy--the inclusion of the part in the whole was to him a mathematical axiom and nothing more.
When I pressed him again to accept our transit-pass proposal on trust, he suggested that I should give a written assurance as to the limits within which we would be prepared to make it effective. I demurred to this on the ground that it would certainly become known sooner or later, and that the existence of unpublished understandings would give rise to criticisms in an agreement of this nature. 1 offered, however, to give
[2011 p-1]
B
565
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.