2
Government had let it be known that in order to prevent unsold stocks at the end of the fixed term exportation of certificated drug would probably cease at the end of 1913. Even if he had sold cheap, he would have been in no better position since the native dealers did not take delivery and pay for the opium for which they had contracted and had no means to meet judgments, if such were obtained in the Mixed Court, owing to their up country customers' fear of being caught with stocks on hand when other provinces should imitate Chokiang.
Moreover, the sudden and absolute closing of that important outlet was a risk not reasonable to foresee and implied a large surplus stock here of consignments previously arranged from India in contemplation of China's performing her part of the agreement loyally carried out by India and Great Britain.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
I have, &c.
E. H. TRASER.
Extract from the "North China Daily News" of May 11,
OPIUM AND THE REPUBLIC.
1912.
AMONG many questions awaiting settlement but temporarily obscured by the all important needs of the financial stability of the new Government, it is clear that opium is destined to take a prominent place. During the past week two notable manifestoes have been published on the subject, the one an appeal to the British people by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the other to the Chinese by General Li Yuan-hung. The purpose of both appeals is the same; on the one hand to Great Britain to grant a revision of the existing treaty with a view to prohibiting the entire importation of Indian opium; on the other hand, an exhortation to provincial assemblies, futuhs and people to urge the central Government to press for the said revision. It is also remarkable to notice that both manifestoes base their claim on the same argument; it is to be feared a fallacious one, as judged by actual experience during the past nine months.
So long, says Dr. Sun Yat-sen in effect, as the importation and transport of foreign opium is allowed, it will be almost impossible to check the cultivation of opium in China. The high prices prevailing offer too strong a temptation to the farmer. "We must make its sale and traffic illegal and we can then stop its cultivation, At present we are hindered in this because of a treaty with your country." It should not be necessary to remind Dr. Sun that if prices are high it is because the Indian Government has faithfully odhered to its undertaking for the past five years to reduce the annual import of opium into China up to the point of total extinction, and that that undertaking was given in return for a pledge by China for concurrent reduction of cultivation. A pledge which the Manchu Government felt itself able to perform, and did perform, should not prove impossible for the Republic administration.
But leaving for one moment the general aspect of the case, it is of interest to direct attention to a particular instance, as shown in the case of the trade in Chêkiang, Some time last January the Republican authorities in that province seized nine chests of Indian opium, the property of British merchants in Shanghai. Representations were made through the British Consuls in Nanking and Hangchow, but the only immediate result was that about a week later a notification was issued in Chékiang prohibiting the entry of Indian opium into the province; and here it may be noted that the nine chests, which had now become somewhat of a subsidiary matter as compared with the general principle of the notification, were not recovered by the owners for nearly three months from the date of seizure, It also be noted that, according to
may clause 7 of the agreement of the 8th May, 1971, China had bound herself to remove provincial restrictions on the sale of opium: the right to prohibit the entry of opium into any given province was made, by clause 3 of the same agreement, to depend upon proof that cultivation in that province had ceased. It is of course notorious that the very reverse of this state of things now prevails in Chekiang. The course of negotiations, during which the Nanking authorities showed satisfactory willingness to do their best to secure respect for the agreement, drew from the Chekiang military governor a statement to the effect that the notification did "not extend to the sale of Indian opium," and a promise that a proclamation should be issued to that effect.
C
3
This statement was dated the 19th March. In spite, however, of further efforts and representations to the Tutub personally by the British consul in Hangchow, the new proclamation has not been seen by those interested, and there is no lack of evidence that the original notification remains in full force.
The seriousness of the position from the foreign merchants' standpoint is shown by the fact that the value of opium stocks at present in Shanghai is estimated at 10,000,0001; and at the same time there is the consideration, sentimental but none the less appealing, that to ask China to purchase so much of the drug when there is already little enough money in the country for necessary purposes, is a most ungracious task. But viewing the problem dispassionately, it must be admitted that the agreement of May 1911 was more than generous, and was recognised as such by the Chinese. Moreover, experience sadly contradicts Dr. Sun's argument that the abolition of foreign opiun will immediately facilitate the abolition of native. For example, in Szechuan Sir Alexander Hosie reported last September that opium cultivation had ceased to exist, and in accordance with the agreement, the British Government notified merchants that the importation of opium into Szechuan must cease. Yet in November the poppy was being planted again, and according to recent trustworthy reports the harvest this year is expected to yield a "bumper" crop. Similarly discouraging reports come from Shansi, also a closed province with a record of cultivation once abolished, from Chokiang, Fukien and Yünnan. The answer will be, of course, that the Republic has not yet had time to check the licence which the farmers allowed themselves in the general upheaval of revolution, but that is scarcely an argument for the instant cessation of importation and the consequent damaging disarrangement of the plans made by foreign merchants to adapt themselves to the new conditions of the agreement. According to the scale of reduction set by the Indian Government, the importation of certificated opium is 6,700 chests this year and 1,720 next, not including the amounts taken from the uncertificated opium in China at the time when the agreement was signed, the gradual clearance of which is covered by a special clause; and the remaining four years for which the treaty runs are intended to allow the merchants time to dispose of their accumulated stocks. That arrangement cannot be considered unfair to China. The weak point at present in her campaign is the virtual inability of the capital to control the provinces and of the provincial governors to control the farmers. When there is more evidence of practical authority ainong those who profess to rule, it will be time to talk of repealing an agreement to which only one of the parties hitherto has adhered.
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
Extract from the "North China Daily News" of May 15, 1912.
THE OPIUM TRADE.
LAST Saturday we dealt with that phase of the opium question which relates to the treaty rights of the foreign merchants and the inability of the Republican Govern- ment to deal effectively with the subject of the suppression of poppy cultivation in the provinces, in spite of the professions of Dr. Sun Yat-sen and other prominent personages; but, in so far as that article contained certain misunderstandings, a brief reference to the position of the trade is necessary to prevent misconceptions as to the responsibility for the present deadlock in the trade. The Chinese authorities have been responsible for a number of petty annoyances as these at Nanking and Cantou in the past, and at Hangehow at present. But it is only fair to state that the measures taken by the authorities of Chêkiang are aimed at the complete suppression of opium, and not merely to embarrass the trade in Indian opium.
It is very unfortunate, and to a certain extent serious, that such heavy stocks as 18,122 chests should have accumulated in Shanghai, besides about 6,500 chests in Hong Kong and 1,500 chests in India. During the past eighteen months, especially during the latter part of that period, there has been a large and unhealthy inflation in opium prices. This inflation was caused by the reduction of certified opium put up in the Calcutta auctions as a consequence of the new convention of last May, and by the competition of the merchants "themselves. Ever since the treaty of 1907, which provided for a 10 per cent reduction in the quantities put up at the Calcutta auctions year after year, the market has been unduly pushed up; and whatever the price there
551
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.