CO129-395 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 432

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

C. O.

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

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[26578]

No. 1.

JJune 17

SECTION 2,

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Question asked in the House of Commons, June 17, 1912.

Sir J. D. Rees, To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, in view of the greater moral obligation under which the British Government lies to the British-Indian subjects of the Crown as compared with their obligation to the Chinese, His Majesty's Government propose to delay the operation of the agreement between India and China until the provisional Government in the latter empire is succeeded by a settled administration, which can formally adopt and successfully enforce the obligations of the late Imperial Chinese Government in respect of the cultivation of opium.

Answer by Mr. Montagu.

It is true that the welfare and interests of British subjects everywhere are a first charge upon the care of His Majesty's Government, and they have in this sense greater moral obligations to British-Indian subjects than to subjects of foreign nations, but it does not follow that these obligations will be best discharged by delaying at this moment the operation of the Opium Agreement with China, and I cannot therefore answer the question in the affirmative.

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