to spread from one province to another, resulting in a state of affairs which brought about the agreement of 1911, amending existing treaties very much in favour of China, and to the detriment of British interests. The success of the provincial authorities in obtaining by this illegal and unrestrained action such beneficial terms for China, encouraged them to at once set about making the new agreement nugatory, with the tacit consent of the late central authority, and the same attitude towards these breaches of treaty is adopted by the new government.
The Central Governments, past and present, being alone responsible for the disregard of treaties, should be held liable for the result, and we would urge His Majesty's Government to bring such pressure to bear upon the Chinese authorities as will induce them to make good to the merchants the losses inflicted upon them.
We have, &c.
E. D. SASSOON AND Co.
DAVID SASSOON AND CO. (Limited).
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[27825]
0.
[July 1.
SECTION
562
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey. -(Received July 1.)
(No. 255.) Sir,
Peking, June 12, 1912. WITH reference to my despatch No. 251 of the 10th instant regarding the restrictions on the trade in Indian opium in the provinces of Chekiang and Fukien and at Canton, I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a copy of a despatch which I have received from His Majesty's consul-general at Canton, forwarding a translation of regulations dealing with opium smoking issued by the police commissioner of the province of Kwantung and published in the native press on the 8th May, and a summary of other regulations which were submitted to the tutu by the Opium Prohibition Bureau on the 27th May and approved but not issued. The second of these latter regulations had for its object the closing of all prepared opium shops at the end of 1913; but, as reported in my despatch No. 251 of the 10th instant, Mr. Jamieson informed me by telegraph on the 7th instant that the administration, while prepared to abandon this objectionable regulation, insist on the domestic right to deal with smokers,
Mr. Jamieson's despatch contains a translation of an important telegram, dated the 16th May, sent by the Cabinet to the Vice-President at Wuchang and to all provincial tutus, stating that telegrams were daily being received from the various provinces calling for a revision of the Opium Agreement, but pointing out that in the early days of the Chinese Republic the Central Governinent expressed their intention of observing all treaties already entered into by the Ching dynasty with foreign Powers, that in accordance with articles 3 and 4 of the agreement the eradication of the poppy and the cessation of the import of native opium are sine quâ non to the prohibition of the import of Indian opium, and that as the Chinese Republic is still in its infancy and not yet recognised by the foreign Powers it would be inopportune to suggest a revision of the agreement at the present time. The whole purport of the Cabinet's circular telegram is that the terms of the agreement should be upheld.
I have, &c. (For His Majesty's Minister),
B. ALSTON..
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Consul-General Jamieson to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 17.) Sir,
Canton, May 29, 1912. IN conformity with the instructions contained in your telegram No. 9 of the 25th instant on the subject of restrictions placed on opium smoking in Kwangtung, I have the honour to report as follows:---
On the 8th May, the superintendent of police for the province issued a set of regu- lations (copy and précis enclosed), having reference to the renewal of permits to smokers, the most important of which was that the new May permits would only run until the 31st December, when they would determine absolutely. Others subjected smokers to vexatious modes of registration.
It was at the same time reported that a movement was on foot to close down opium shops at the end of the year. The regulations appeared to those concerned of so drastic a nature that they evoked a storm of protest, and have so far been almost completely ignored by the main body of permit holders, that is to say, the poorer classes. The well- to-do and rich smokers do not trouble to take out permits at all, their supplies being furnished them stealthily by the prepared opium shops, who, in addition to their purchases of certificated opium, smuggle in uncertificated opium, in which a lucrative trade is known to be carried on across the Tonquin frontier, through Kwangchou Wan and along the coast.
When I received your telegram of the 21st, instructing me to lodge a protest
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