This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[36206]
No. 1.
15
[September 15.]
SECTION 1.
$2749
9 OCT 11
Sir,
India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received September 15.)
India Office, September 14, 1911. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of Sir Francis Campbell's letter of the 31st August, enclosing copy of a telegram from His Majesty's Minister at Peking reporting that he has given his formal assent to the Chinese proposal for the exclusion of Indian opium from the provinces of Manchuria, Szechuan, and Shansi. I am to enclose, for Sir E. Grey's information and consideration in this connection, a copy of a telegram from the Government of India, under date of the 31st August, in which it is urged, with reference to an alleged intention of the Chinese Government to demand the closing of Chihli and Fukien to Indian opium, that the clearest evidence of the stoppage both of cultivation and of import of indigenous opium from other provinces should be insisted on before assent is given, and that the right under article 4 of the agreement of May 1911, of local enquiry by British officers, should be enforced.
In the cases of Shansi and Szechuan, tours of enquiry have been made by Sir A. Hosie, and ovidence is available in his reports of October and March last. Lord Crewe does not doubt that Sir J. Jordan, in giving his assent in these cases, was satisfied that Sir A. Hosie's statements as to the cessation of cultivation in those provinces still held good, and he has stated in his telegram of the 20th August last his belief that the decree which has now been promulgated will be effective in securing the permanent suppression of cultivation and import.
As regards Manchuria, it would appear that, as stated in Sir J. Jordan's telegram No. 193 of the 2nd September, copy of which was forwarded with your letter of the same date, this province imported practically no foreign opium, so that the direct effect of assenting to the exclusion of the Indian drug may be small. But there does not appear to have been any independent investigation by a British officer, and we have to rely, as regards the cessation of the production of the province (which was considerable in past years) and of imports from other Chinese provinces, on reports which are presumably less authoritative, but which have been held by Sir J. Jordan sufficiently to establish the case for closing the province to Indian opium.
Having given due weight to the above considerations, the Marquess of Crewe concurs in Sir E. Grey's proposal to approve Sir J. Jordan's action in assenting to the exclusion of Indian opium from these three provinces.
As regards Chihli and Fukien, no proposal on the part of the Chinese Government has as yet been received. I am to urge the necessity for demanding, in these or any future cases when they arise, strict proof as regards the stoppage of cultivation and of import from other provinces. So far as Lord Crewe is aware, no organised investigation has recently been made by a British officer in either province, and his Lordship feels doubtful whether the " clear evidence" required, under clause 3 of the agreement, to make a case for the exclusion of Indian opium from a province is likely to be forthcoming, having regard to the area and other circumstances of a Chinese province, without such an investigation.
I am to suggest that the purport of the Government of India's telegram and of these remarks should be communicated to Sir J. Jordan, and that his observations should be invited on the proposal contained in the last sentence of the telegram.
I am,
&c.
R. RITCHIE.
*It is estimated at 15,000 piculs in Mr. Leech's report forwarded with Sir J. Jordan's despatch No. 555 of the 27th November, 1907.
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