CO129-395 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 413

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

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OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[21833]

No. 1.

3

[June 6.]

SECTION 1.

Sir,

Foreign Office to Messrs. Sassoon and Co.

Foreign Office, June 6, 1912. WITH reference to your letters of the 21st and 23rd ultimo relative to the restrictions placed by the provincial authorities in China on the importation of Indian opium, I am directed by Secretary Sir Edward Grey to inform you that he has for some time past been in communication with His Majesty's Minister at Peking on the subject, and that the latter has made repeated representations to the Chinese Government with a view to putting an end to the restrictions in question.

At the beginning of this year two cases occurred of seizure by the provincial authorities of Indian opium in transit in Chekiang. Sir J. Jordan addressed a protest to the Chinese Government, and as a result of this the opium seized was released.

Subsequently Sir J. Jordan received information to the effect that proclamations had been issued by the authorities of Chekiang and Fukien ordering the closing of all prepared opium shops, and in some cases the destruction of all opium in stock after a certain date. Sir J. Jordan at once protested to the Chinese Government. The replies given by the latter were unsatisfactory. At one time they alleged that the proclamations in question had never been issued; at another they maintained that the action of the provincial authorities was justified in as much as it was taken with a view to facilitate the suppression of opium smoking. Sir J. Jordan pointed out to the Wai Chiao Pu that while the opium agreement of 1911 entitles the Chinese Government to publish laws to suppress the smoking of opium and to regulate the retail trade in the drug in general, it does not entitle provincial authorities to make laws to prohibit the retail trade.

In spite of these protests, no satisfactory settlement of the question has yet been arrived at, and it is still under consideration. The present state of affairs is, however, largely due to the independent attitude of the provincial authorities of Chekiang and Fukien, who, in the present unsettled condition of the country, are beyond the control of the Central Government.

The question of the alleged smuggling of uncertificated opium from Macao is engaging the attention of His Majesty's Government.

I am, &c.

W. LANGLEY,

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