[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[August 6.]
SECTION 3.
{33646]
No. 1.
Question asked in the House of Commons, August 6, 1912.
Sir J. D. Rees-To ask the Under-Secretary of State for India whether he has any information to give the House before it rises regarding the action of the Chinese Government in respect of the cultivation of the poppy; whether circumstances point to the probability that that Government will in the immediate or near future be able to control such cultivation, and, if not, whether the agreements with China regarding opium are necessarily voided or should be revised in order that an international arrangement may not run to the disadvantage of the subjects of one party thereto; and whether, in view of the expenditure to which the Indian Government stands committed in respect of the move of the capital to Delhi, some basis of negotiation less onerous to the Indian taxpayer should be devised.
Answer.
His Majesty's Minister has received repeated assurances from the provisional Chinese Government that they will pursue a policy of rigorous suppression of the cultivation of the poppy, and the President, Yuan Shil-kai, bas issued a proclamation couched in the strongest terms enjoining on all provincial governors and local officials the necessity of enforcing the restrictions on smoking and cultivation of opium with the utmost stringency. In the present unsettle condition of China I cannot attempt to determine the date at which the Central Government will be in a position to exercise the necessary control in all the provinces of China, and it would be premature to consider the possibility of a revision of the agreements with China concerning opium.
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