CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 344

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

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

CO

27520

341

Rce?

[July 31, 22 AUG 1

SECTION 1.

[30068]

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 31.)

Peking, July 12, 1911.

(No. 285.) Sir,

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 196 of the 16th ultimo relative to restrictive measures imposed on the passage of Indian opium in the provinces of Kiangsu and Fukien.

In regard to that portion of your despatch which relates to the Fukien regulations I have the honour to state that, after a reconsideration of the despatch of the 28th March from His Majesty's consul at Foochow, I saw reason to protest against clause 3 of the regulations which required merchants, on pain of confiscation of the drug, to take out extra-treaty permits for conveying Indian opium into the interior. On the 27th April I accordingly furnished Mr. Werner with the text of the note which I had addressed to the Wai-wu Pu on the preceding day (see my despatch No. 181 of the 27th April) and instructed him to renew his representations to the Viceroy in the sense of that communication. Copies of the correspondence which passed between His Majesty's consul and the Viceroy were enclosed in my despatch No. 268 of the 1st instant, and in this connection I would draw attention to Mr. Werner's note of the 19th May, enclosure 6 in his despatch No. 10 of the 16th June.

In my despatch No. 168 I was able to report that the Wai-wu Pu had been successful in securing the amendment of the various local proclamations to which we had taken exception, and in these circumstances no further representations on the subject appear to be necessary for the present at least.

As regards the seizures in the Wing Ting district I am awaiting a report with which I have requested His Majesty's consul at Amoy to furnish me, as to the correctness of the inference I drew from Prince Ch'ing's note of the 27th April, that there was no opium now detained in that district (see my despatch No. 189 of the 29th April last).

I have, &c.

J. N. JORDAN.

P.S.-Since I wrote this despatch I have received a further report from His Majesty's consul at Foochow, copy of which I have the honour to enclose. Mr. Werner appears to have succeeded in impressing upon the Viceroy the necessity of observing the terms of the agreement and carrying out the instructions of the Wai-wu Pu, but the reluctance on his Excellency's part to do so is only too evident.

J. N. J.

* Not printed.

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