[This Document to the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[June 10.]
SECTION 1.
546
C. 0.
A
[24605]
No. I.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 10.)
(No. 234.) Sir,
Peking, May 23, läfé WITH reference to my despatch No. 197 of the 29th ultimo, I have the honour to transmit herewith copies of further correspondence between the Wai-chiao Pu and myself on the subject of the illegal restrictions imposed on the opium trade in Chekiang and Fukien provinces, and more recently at Canton.
In replying, on the 29th April, to the Wai-chiao Pu's memorandum of the 20th instant, I took exception to the terms of the proclamation issued at Chekiang, the unsatisfactory nature of which I pointed out in my despatch to you above referred to. I also enclosed copies of the incendiary proclamations, the issue of which at Shaohing-fu and Hangchow had been denied, and I urged that the instructions drawn up in.connection with the agreement on the 8th May, 1911, should be enforced upon the authorities of Chekiang and Fakien.
The reply of the Wai-chiao Pu, dated the 1st May, was, it will be seen, exceedingly unsatisfactory; and my answer was to embody in a communication to the Wai-chiao Pu, dated the 6th instant, the substance of your despatch No. 111 of the the 12th ultimo, stating that all losses occasioned by the conduct of the provincial authorities in violating the Opium Agreement would be claimed from the Central Government.
On receipt from His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai of particulars of the losses suffered by the importers on account of the detention of their opium by the Chekiang authorities, I addressed to the Wai-chiao Pu, on the 9th instant, the memo- randum which forms the fourth enclosure in this despatch, formulating a specific claim for the payment of suns amounting to 7,181 taels and 500 dollars. To this communica- tion no reply has yet been received.
My last communication to the Wai-chino Pu of the 21st instant deals with a similar obstructive action at Canton which has been brought to my notice by telegrams from the Government of India and from His Majesty's consul-general at Canton. The most serious part of this action consists in a proposal to close all the prepared opium shops at the end of this year, a proposal which appears to have been raised in a sufficiently concrete form to elicit a protest from the dealers, and which of course strikes directly at the wholesale trade in raw opium. In writing to the Wai-chiao Pu, I have taken the opportunity to dwell on the disappointing retrograde movement in regard to the opium question, which has set in since the republic was established, and have drawn from the facts of the situation the inference that the policy of the present authorities aims, not at the extinction of the opium habit but at the eventual substitution of the native for the foreign drug. At the same time I have instructed His Majesty's consul-general at Canton by telegraph to protest strongly against the proposal to close the shops for the sale of prepared opium. I have also pointed out to Mr. Jamieson that the Central Chinese Government is alone competent to issue restrictive regulations, and that all such regulations by the local authorities should be protested against.
At interviews which I have had with the President, with the Premier, with the Acting Minister for Foreign Affairs, and with other officials, I have repeatedly urged the considerations advanced in my written communications, and have pointed out the grave danger to which the whole policy of opium reform is exposed by the failure of the Central Government to impose their will on the provinces, a failure which I have hinted, might materially retard the formal recognition by Great Britain of the Republican Government, In the present state of affairs, however, the Peking Govern- ment seems to be powerless to control the irresponsible vagaries of the provincial
I have, &c.
authorities.
[2519 k-1]
J. N. JORDAN.
B
AUG 12
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