CO129-396 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 407

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Enclosure 2 in No. 1.

Consul Wilkinson to Sir J. Jordan.

(No. 52.) Sir,

Nanking, October 9, 1912. I HAVE the honour to enclose copies in English and Chinese of the letter which I addressed on the 20th ultimo to Governor Cheng, protesting, in the terms laid down in your despatch of the 12th September, against the proposed opium monopoly in this district and the forcible prohibition of all opium smoking at the end of the present year. To this communication I have received no reply; on the contrary, since I dispatched it, the governor has issued circular instructions to all civil administrators under his jurisdiction reminding them that the time limit fixed for the eradication of opium). smoking is the 31st December next, and ordering all raw and prepared opium shops to be closed down by the 30th of next month.

According to the local newspaper the governor is acting in the matter under direct instructions from Peking.

I am writing to Mr. Cheng to-day expressing my surprise at this circular, in view of the protest which I had addressed him, and requesting a reply, for your information, at his earliest convenience. I propose, too, to call on him as soon as the festivities celebrating the anniversary of the republic are over.

poppy was

I may mention that the

freely grown in the north of this province last spring, and that the import of native opium into Nanking continues.

A house-to-house search for opium and opium smokers was carried out in Nanking at the end of last month. The residences of opium smokers are now placarded with notices announcing the fact, to the great disgrace, from a Chinese point of view, of the occupants. The general opinion appears to be that the authorities are not really serious in their intention to prohibit smoking totally at the end of the year, and that the present campaign is in the nature of a bluff to frighten smokers into giving up the habit. The result is expected to be very lucrative in any case for the police, to whom the duty of enforcing the prohibition has been entrusted.

I have, &c.

3

"You should inform the governor that Indian opium is a legitimate article of import into China, that the importer thereof has a right under treaty to dispose of that opium to whomsoever he pleases in the port of import, and that the closing of opium shops and the establishment of official bureaux, with the exclusive privilege to sell at Nanking or elsewhere in the province would be an infringement of that right. You should also inform him that the republican Government undertook to uphold all treaties and agreements with foreign Powers, that by the Opium Agree- ment of last year the British Government agreed, on certain conditions, to diminish annually the export of opium from India to China till its extinction in 1917, that the export of opium from India should cease in less than seven years if clear proof were given of the complete absence of production of native opium in China, and that Indian opium should not be conveyed into any province in China which could establish by clear evidence that it had effectively suppressed the cultivation and import of native opium, but that there is nothing in that agreement to indicate that the import of Indian opium into China must cease at the end of the present year, and that Indian opium will continue to be a legitimate article of import and trade until the conditions named in the Opium Agreement have been fulfilled by China.

You should at the same time remind the governor that by the Opium Agreement all laws dealing with the retail trade in opium must be made by the Chinese Govern- ment, and that provincial regulations on the subject are irregular and invalid."

With reference to the question of the production of native opium I would add that I recently made a journey up the Tien-tsin-Pukow Railway as far as Linhuaikuan, in the course of which I ascertained that last spring opium was freely grown along the entire route of the line, from which the fields were plainly visible. I was also informed that there is a considerable illicit trade now going on with other provinces. In view of these facts, it would seem that it cannot even be claimed by this province that the cultivation of opium has been suppressed within its borders.

I have, &c.

(Card of Mr. F. E. Wilkinson.)

403

me

dia

F. E. WILKINSON.

(Translation.) Sir,

Enclosure 2 in No. 1.

Consul Wilkinson to the Governor of Kiangsu.

Nanking, September 20, 1912. THE attention of this consulate was recently drawn by the British merchants at Shanghai engaged in the Indian opium trade to the proposed establishment by the chief police administration in Nanking of a bureau with the exclusive right of selling both raw and prepared opium, and also to a proclamation issued by the same adminis- tration totally prohibiting the smoking of opium after the end of the present year. It was pointed out by the merchants that the establishment of a monopoly would be at variance with the existing treaties, while the forcible prohibition of opium smoking at the end of the year was a violation of the Opium Agreement of 1911. They therefore requested me to make representations to you on the subject so that the proposed monopoly might be prevented and the proclamation withdrawn.

Your Excellency will, of course, recollect that when you called at this consulate the other day I referred to the question of this proposed monopoly, of which I had already heard, and that you assured me in reply that the scheme, being undoubtedly at variance with the treaties, would not receive your sanction. In view of this assurance, which I duly communicated to the merchants, it is unnecessary for me to raise the question again. But of the issue of the proclamation fixing the end of the present year as the limit of time within which the consumption of opium must entirely cease I was not then aware. If such a step is really contemplated it cannot but very seriously affect the interests of all British merchants engaged in the Indian opium trade, and for this reason, before addressing you on the subject, I deemed it my duty to apply to my Government for explicit instructions as to the action which I should take.

These instructions have now been communicated to me by His Majesty's Minister at l'eking, and are to the following effect -

Enclosure 3 in No. 1.

Extract from "Shen Pao" of October 1, 1912.

FURTHER RIGOROUS PROHIBITION OF OPIUM BY THE SOOCHOW GOVERNOR,

(Translation.)

GOVERNOR CHENG has issued circular instructions to the civil administrators of the various districts in the following terms :---

"On the creation of the republic the most important task is to eradicate the opium poison. I have already fixed the end of the year as the time-limit by which the people of this province should have entirely given up smoking the drug, and this order" is on record in the twenty-seventh issue of the "Official Gazette.”

Now a prohibition of this sort, to be effectively carried out, requires the greatest energy on the part of the civil administrators, who should prepare various schemes, either for persuading the people or for restraining them forcibly. If the officials will co-operate with the guilds, and be active in making up for lost time, they will not be behindhand when the time-limit expires. Up to the present, various magistrates have reported that the really effective steps which they have been able to take to improve matters have been very scanty. They lay stress, however, on the difficulties to be met with, and they request me to indicate a procedure which may be promul- gated for general observance. This is really a most unreasonable attitude, and amounts to a mockery of the important work of government.

"I have already received reports from various places, but only the districts of Hua Ting and Chang Shu and the central police bureau at Nanking have settled on a scheme and avoided empty talk in their reports. The method adopted by the district of Bua Ting is fair and easy to put into operation successfully. I have therefore combined together the methods adopted in these three places, and I hereby issue circular instruc- tions to all magistrates to act in accordance therewith after a careful study as to which method is most applicable to their district.

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[2715/-1]

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