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(5.) In opposition to Sassoons' protest some firms in Calcutta press for the sales to be continued on the ground that having done business against future sales, stoppage would cause them great loss. (6.) If sales are stopped or uncertified opium is substituted for certified at the Calcutta auctions, India will lose a large amount of revenue which can be ill afforded and which may aggregate several crores. Moreover, we cannot add to exports in future years any chests out of specified number which may not be exported this year." Revenue will not be postponed, it will be lost permanently.
(7.) Native States to whom definite promises have been made, will similarly suffer heavy loss. If traffic is stopped they will have to be Native States cultivators will also, compensated in some other way,
of necessity, lose heavily.
(8.) We are under no obligation to render assistance to merchants in regard to their indebtedness to banks. The suggestion that a financial crisis will be caused as a result of the commitments of banks is not justified by the information at our disposal.
For the reasons set out above we do not propose to discontinue auctions Our information is that suitable while reasonable prices are obtained. biddings should be obtained at present without difficulty, and we are strongly against suggestion that we should go back on assurances which have been given publicly in the financial statement and in other places. Our firm conviction is that China is making an attempt to replace Indian opium by the indigenous drug. Our earnest request is that strong pressure may be applied to China to make her act up to the Agreement for which she professed to be most grateful. We also suggest that the participation of Great Britain in the proposed national loan to China might, in addition to the methods contemplated, be used as lever.
The text of the Merchants' Memorial is as follows: ---
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We earnestly request you to bring to the notice of His Excellency the Viceroy the extremely critical position of the opium trade in China. Chinese merchants having already bought opium express their inability to take delivery because they are obstructed by several provincial authorities who un- reasonably refuse to admit Indian opinm in defiance of existing treaties. The consequence is that our stocks go on accumulating and we are unable to to effect sales. We are obliged to go on buying so long as opium is put up for sale by Government in order to keep up rates, otherwise China markets It is on the would collapse and our losses would then be unbearably great. faith of explicit treaties entered into between British and Chinese Govern- ments, particularly that of May 1911, that merchants have hitherto been buying opium. It is notorious however that those treaties have been in many ways defiantly disregarded, the resumption of cultivation of opium in China is unchecked, and in several most important provinces free and unrestricted cultivation is decidedly in evidence. Repeated efforts have been made to secure fair play for opium trade in China in accordance with existing treaties. These efforts have hopelessly failed because present Chinese Government is evidently unable to secure observance of treaties by its own provincial authorities. Unless the British Government will at once come to our rescue and give us strong support a grave financial crisis will follow which will result in widespread dislocation of trade in general. There are several ways of averting a crisis. May we venture to make a suggestion which is that some arrangement should be arrived at whereby our present stocks can be taken over by the Chinese Government and dealt with as the exigencies of
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