CO129-384 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 44

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

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[22093]

23533

(June 7.]

SECTION 3.

Sir,

India Office to Foreign Office.--(Received June 7.)

India Office, June 6, 1911. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, dated the 24th May, 1911, relative to the anti-opium regulations in the province of Fukien.

It is observed that the third regulation of those enclosed in Mr. Consul Werner's letter No. 7 of the 28th March, 1911, to His Majesty's Minister states that opium may not be conveyed from an outport to the interior except under a transit pass obtained from the Anti-Opium Association, and that opium not so protected will be confiscated.

If this regulation extends to sealed chests of opium passing into the interior under Customs transit certificate, it would seem to impose restrictions on the wholesale trade. And that it has been so applied by the Fukien authorities would seem to be clear from the incident of the seizure of thirteen chests of Indian opium in the Wing Ting district described in the correspondence accompanying your letter of the 24th May, 1911. In that case Sir John Jordan has addressed a protest to the Chinese Government.

I am to suggest that before the view provisionally taken by His Majesty's Minister of the character of the regulations in his despatch No. 2 of the 17th April, 1911, to Mr. Consul Werner is accepted and approved the correspondence which he has called for from the cousul should be awaited, and also the result of his protest in the matter above referred to. Sir John Jordan's attention meanwhile might be drawn to the regulation with regard to passes to be issued by the Anti-Opium Association.

I am, &c.

R. RITCHIE.

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