564
And again clause 4 reads:----
"During the period of this agreement it shall be permissible for His Majesty's Government to obtain continuous evidence of the diminution of cultivation by local enquiries and investigation conducted by one or more British officials accompanied, if the Chinese Government so desire, by a Chinese official."
From the above two clauses it is evident that the eradication of the poppy plant and the cessation of the import of native opium is a sine quâ non to the prohibition of the import of Indian opium.
Now, whereas last year the cultivation of the poppy plant in Manchuria, Shansi, Szechuan and other provinces had, as a result of the prohibition, been entirely given up, it has now come to our ears that in the two provinces of Shansi and Szechuan the illicit cultivation is gradually extending while the drug finds an outlet and market on every hand. Should His Britannic Majesty's Government-as clause 4 of the convention fully entitles them to do-delegate officials to conduct local investigations, they will indubitably find good ground for dissatisfaction.
The Chinese Republic is still in its infancy; foreign Powers have not yet accorded recognition; it would, therefore, be altogether out of place at the present time to suggest a revision of the existing treaty convention.
The question as thoroughly discussed at a recent meeting of the Kuo Wu Yuan and this body's unanimous opinion is that while the import of native opium cannot be completely checked so long as the cultivation of the native plant continues, the prohibition of opium smoking must precurse both measures. If any province can prove that its inhabitants are free from the vice of opium smoking, that no opium is cultivated therein and that there is no import of native opium, the prohibition of the import of Indian opium will, in accordance with the terms of the convention, become practicable.
We would wish you to instruct your subordinates to institute the most careful enquiries in this respect, for, in order to cope successfully with foreign Powers, we must rid our home administration of all defects.
The above is telegraphed for your information; telegraphic instructions have, apart. from this, been sent to the tutus of Szechuan and Shantung provinces to conscientiously prohibit the cultivation of native opium.
Enclosure 5 in No. 1.
Memorandum for the information of the Tutu.
HIS Britannic Majesty's consul-general has perused in the columns of the native press, under date the 27th May, a set of eight regulations on the subject of opium, said to have been submitted by the Opium Prohibition Bureau, and, according to an accompanying minute, to have received the sanction of the administration, which has enjoined upon all concerned the carrying into effect thereof.
Regulation No 2 contemplates a complete closing down of all prepared opium shops. at the end of eighteen months, or, say, the end of 1913.
Should the text, as published, be authentic, it is evident that the Opium Agreement of 1911 between Great Britain and China, together with Mr. Jamieson's protest of the 22nd May, have been completely disregarded. As has already been pointed out, it is not competent for an individual province or local authority to initiate measures of this kind. Such initiative rests solely in the Central Government and His Majesty's representative in Peking, and a continuance, on the part of Kwangtung, thus to ignore international engagements may have very serious consequences.
His Britannic Majesty's consul-general, therefore, whilst reiterating in the strongest. possible terms his previous protest, earnestly hopes that, in the interests of amity between the two nations, such attempts---doubtless well meant, but infringing the 1911 agreement to deal with the opium evil will at once he abandoned.
Canton, May 29, 1912.
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[27919]
No. 1.
India Office to Foreign Office.-(Received July 1.)
Sir,
0.
[July 1.]
SECTION 2.
FG 2 AUG 12
India Office, June 29, 1912. WITH reference to your letter of the 24th June, 1912,"transmitting a draft memorandum which Sir E. Grey proposes to hand to the Chinese Minister regarding the non-observance of the opium agreement of the 8th May, 1911, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to say that he concurs generally in the terms of the memorandum.
The following suggestions are offered for Sir E. Grey's consideration.
In the second paragraph the province of Yunnan might perhaps be mentioned as one of the provinces in which the cultivation of opium on a large scale has been resumed. Chekiang another province in which, as Sir J. Jordan stated in his memo- randum to Wai-wu Pu of the 27th February, 1911, opinn is freely cultivated in several prefectures.
It may be desirable to amplify the paragraph beginning with the words "A pro- clamation was issued, &c.," by prefatory words to the following effect :--
"In Chekiang for months past the local authorities have obstructed and virtually extinguished the trade in Indian opium on the pretext that the cultivation and use of opium had been completely prohibited in the province. After repeated remonstrances had been made by His Majesty's Minister to the Wai-wu Pu, the Tu-tu of Chekiang, finding the position he had taken up untenable, undertook to safeguard by proclamation the treaty rights of traders in Indian opium. But the proclamation issued by him has had precisely the opposite effect. It enjoined the strictest observance of measures, as announced by him in a proclamation dated the 17th February, for the total suppression of opium, and made a brief and vague reference only to treaty stipulations governing the wholesale Indian opium trade which remain for the present in force as before, thus ignoring the point that they had been systematically broken. As the Chekiang province, in consequence of the continued cultivation of opium in it, has not qualified' (as in the draft).
I am, &c.
R. RITCHIE,
[2549 a-
2]
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