CO129-385 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 116

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

OPIUM.

CO

[October 1988

CONFIDENTIAL.

[41342]

No. 1.

SEOBLOX 3.

Rrat 17 NOV 11

(No. 384.) Sir,

Sir. J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received October 21)

Peking October 4, 1911. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch. No. 292 of the 16th September, transmitting, for my information and guidance, a copy of a letter from the India Office urging the necessity of demanding strict proof as regards the stoppage of cultivation and of import of opium from other provinces before His Majesty's Government give their assent to the exclusion of Indian opium therefrom, forwarding a copy of a telegram from the Government of India advocating the enforcement of the right of His Majesty's Government to local enquiry by British officers under article 4 of the opium agreement, and animadverting on the quality of the evidence upon which His Majesty's Government have to rely as regards the cessation of production and of imports from other provinces in the case of Manchuria.

As regards Manchuria, I would point out that Mr. Leech's estimate of opium production referred to in the letter from the India Office was made in 1907, and that subsequent reports respecting the opium question in China by Mr. Leech, Sir A. Hosie, and Mr. Max Müller, forwarded in my despatches Nos. 285 and 517 of the 24th June and the 14th November, 1908, and No. 387 of the 21st October, 1909, all called attention to the increasing diminution of production. The anti-opinm campaign in Manchuria was initiated in 1908, when Tong Shao-yi, the originator and for a time the guiding spirit of the whole suppression movement, was Governor of the Fengtien or southern province, and it has since been carried to such complete success by the two Viceroys Hsi Liang and Chao Erh-hsün, who had already achieved remarkable results in the provinces of Yunnan and Szechuan respectively, that not a poppy plant has been seen for the last two seasons in any of the three provinces. Manchuria is visited yearly by travellers of many nationalities, all of whom have borne unanimous testimony to the complete disappearance of the poppy, and in these circumstances independent investigation by a British officer would, in my opinion, have been a work of superero- gation, a view in which Sir A. Hosie unhesitatingly concurred. Moreover, the import of foreign opium into Manchuria has been insignificant for many years, and according to the returns of the Imperial Maritime Customs the total net import in 1910 amounted to only 90 odd pounds.

Sir A. Hosie's examination of Shansi and Szechuan was the latest that could have been made, and proved the cessation of cultivation in both provinces, and I that the conclusion at which that officer arrived has been fully endorsed by reports add may that have subsequently reached this legation.

Before giving any assent, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, to the exclusion of Indian opium from these provinces I required a definite, tangible pledge, and an Imperial decree was the best guarantee that could be devised to secure the continued absence of cultivation and import of native opium.

As regards Chihli and Fükien, instructions have already been sent to His Majesty's consular officers in both provinces to watch the situation carefully, and furnish the fullest information they can obtain. No organised investigation has, as Lord Crewe states, been made recently in either province. but, as my despatch No. 343 of the 2nd ultimo will have shown, the Chinese Government have requested us to co-operate with them in investigating these and other provinces, and no application to exclude Indian opium from any one of the remaining provinces will be entertained until it has been thoroughly investigated by a British officer.

I have, &c.

J. N. JORDAN,

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