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no restriction on the wholesale trade; but, as Sir John Jordan pointed out in his memorandum of the 29th April, the proprietors of prepared opium shops are wholesale dealers, and the compulsory closing of their shops means a compulsory stoppage of the wholesale trade, while the proclamation of the civil administrator, which declares opium smoking to be a punishable offence, puts au immediate stop to all trade in Indian opium contrary to the terms of the Opium Agreement of the 8th May, 1911, which provides for regulation of the retail trade with a view to gradual but not immediate prohibition.
In concluding their most unsatisfactory reply to His Majesty's Minister's request that they should exercise their authority and immediately instruct the Chekiang as well as the Fukien authorities by telegraph that all obstruction of and interference with the Indian opium trade in these provinces must at ouce cease, the Wai-chiao Pu, instead of complying with Sir John Jordan's request, content themselves with stating that, in regard to the question whether the regulations governing permits for the export of opium do or do not involve the Indian drug, and whether the closing of the prepared opium shops can or cannot be effected gradually and at different dates, they must again telegraph to the Chekiang provincial authorities to investigate and devise some arrangement, and their memorandum ends with the platitude that the only ideal scheme will be to ensure that no serious panic affects the trade of opium merchants, and that the opium suppression laws are in no way checked.
On his part His Majesty's Minister has to state that no new scheme is necessary, that the only scheme acceptable to His Majesty's Government is the withdrawal of all provincial restrictions on the trade in Indian opium, a strict adherence to the terms of the additional article to the Chefoo Agreement and of the Opium Agreement of the 8th May, 1911, which fully provide for the conduct of that trade, and the regulation of the retail trade in accordance with the instructions telegraphed by the Wai-wn Pu to the high provincial authorities in June 1911,
In
Sir John Jordan has already informed the Wai-chiao Pu that as soon as he is in receipt of the details of the losses sustained by the imposition of these illegal restrictions in the province of Chekiang claims for compensation will be lodged, and he has since received information from His Majesty's Government that any losses occasioned by the conduct of the provincial authorities will be claimed from the Central Government. bringing this decision on the part of His Majesty's Government to the notice of the Wai-chiao Pu, His Majesty's Minister would urge the necessity for immediate action with a view to the prevention of future claims, which must inevitably be brought should the present restrictions in the provinces of Chekiang and Fukien be allowed to continue.
Peking, May 6, 1912.
Enclosure 4 in No. 1.
Memorandum communicated to the Wai-chiao Pu by Sir J. Jordan.
IN his memorandum of the 10th April His Majesty's Minister informed the Wai-chino Pu that claims for compensation would be made for losses sustained owing to the illegal seizure and detention of Indian opium in the province of Chekiang. Details of these losses have now been furnished by His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai, and they are as follows:-
1. In the case of the nine chests of Indian opium illegally seized at Chiang-t'ou the contract value of the opiura was 33,348 taels. On the 5th April, the date of release, its value had fallen to 26,999-675 taels, the difference representing a loss of 6,348-325 taels. The interest on the value of the opium (33,348 taels) from the 5th January, 1912, the date of seizure, to the 5th April, 1912, the date of release, at 7 per cent. for ninety-one days, amounts to 581-990 taels, while miscellaneous expenses connected with the case amounted to 194 400 taels. These three items represent a total loss of 7,124'715 taels, and to this sum has to be added 500 dollars, the amount of the fine illegally imposed on the pretext that the opium was not accompanied by local permits to import.
2. In the case of the 14 piculs of Indian opium illegally seized and detained at Hangchow, the interest on 4,980 taels, the value of the opium, from the 24th February, 1912, the date of seizure, to the 14th March, 1912, the date of release, at 7 per cent.. amounts to 18:15 taels, and the expenses incurred in connection with this case amounted to 38 40 taels, or a total loss of 56'55 taels.
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548
The total loss in these two cases of illegal seizure and detention of Indian opium was, therefore 7,181-265 taels and 500 dollars, and Sir John Jordan has now, in accordance with instructions from His Majesty's Government, to request immediate payment of these sums so that the losses sustained by the illegal action of the Chekiang authorities may at once be made good.
Peking, May 9, 1912.
Enclosure 5 in No. 1.
Memorandum communicated to the Wai-chiao Pu by Sir J. Jordan.
HIS Britannic Majesty's Minister begs to inform the Wai-chiao Pu that he has received telegrams from the Government of India and His Majesty's consul-general at Canton reporting the renewal at that port of the obstructions to the foreign opium trade which it was the express object of the agreement of the 8th May, 1911, to
remove.
The provinces of Chekiang and Fukien have for months past deliberately violated the provisions of the Opium Agreement, and Sir John Jordan's repeated represen- tations, both written and verbal, have had no effect. The Chinese Government have either been unable or unwilling to enforce the treaty, and His Majesty's Minister has been instructed by his Government to demand compensation for all claims arising out of its violation. Encouraged by the example of Fukien and Chekiang and the inaction of Peking, Canton has now returned to the irregular practices which the agreement negotiated by His Majesty's Minister and the Wai-wu Pu a little over a year ago expressly forbade, and the whole situation is now one full of disappointment to those who had hoped for a final solution of the question within a measurable distance of Under the Empire both sides endeavoured to work the agreement in the spirit in which it was framed, and the result was that very considerable progress was made towards the end in view. Manchuria, Shansi, and Szechuan were placed on the prohibition list, and steps were on the point of being taken to investigate the conditions in other provinces aspiring to similar exemption.
time.
Under the Republic all this has been changed, and a retrograde movement has set in which threatens to stultify all engagements. Opium is being widely cultivated everywhere, and provinces like Szechuan and Shansi, which were declared free a year On the other hand, Fukien, for ago, are now in many districts ablaze with the poppy. instance, where opium fields are to be seen close to the treaty port of Amoy, has the effrontery-and, His Majesty's Minister regrets to add, the hypocrisy-to claim the right to prohibit foreign opium, on the ground that the native cultivation has been stopped. The only inference that can be drawn from a general survey of the present situation--and it is an inference based on a far wider knowledge of the facts than any which the Chinese Government possess at present--is that the enormous increase of cultivation, coupled with the arbitrary measures of prohibition against foreign opium, denotes a deliberate policy, which aims, not at the extinction of the opium habit, but at the eventual substitution of the native for the foreign drug.
Peking, May 21, 1912.
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