2
Briefly, this penal confiscation of merchandise resulted entirely from the merchants' questionable practices, and is purely a question of regulation of the trade, nor can the Wai-chaio Pu admit any liability of Anhui province for payment of compensation. As regards the twenty chests of Indian opium detained at the time in consequence of discrepancies in the dates on the certificates, should it be subsequently ascertained that the discrepancies were occasioned by clerical errors on the part of the maritime customs, the opium can be returned.
Peking, November 2, 1912.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Memorandum communicated to Wai-chiao Pu by Sir J. Jordan.
HIS Majesty's Minister has the honour to acknowledge the receipt of the Wai-chiao Pu's memorandum of the 2nd instant on the subject of the destruction of Indian opium at Anching.
That the Wai-chiao Pu should seriously continue to argue this case in face of the conclusive evidence of the flagrant illegality of the seizure obtained on the spot by His Majesty's consul-general has caused Sir John Jordan considerable surprise, and he accordingly decided to await the arrival of the original documents before replying finally to the excuses put forward on the tutu's behalf.
The Wai-chiao Pu contend that the confiscation of this opium resulted entirely from the merchants' questionable practices in connection with the production of the transit certificates,
The baselessness of this contention is sufficiently demonstrated by the letters addressed by the chief of police to the keeper of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company's hulk at Anching on the 14th and 15th September, in which he states that the seizure of the opium had been ordered by the tutü on the ground that it had been imported in contravention of his, the tutu's, proclamations on the subject. Copies of these letters are enclosed herewith, together with a specimen of one of the numerous proclamations referred to. The attention of the Wai-chiao Pu is invited particularly to articles 5 and 7, which prohibit the import of opium into the province and provide penalties for any customs officer who allows such import.
What customs officers are meant may be gathered from the enclosed copy of a notification issued by the officer in charge of the Li-kin station at Wan Chih, in which he indicts the Wuhu customs-house for daring to issue in accordance with treaty transit certificates for twenty packages of Indian opium. How differently this official's own statement reads from the story put into his mouth by the tutu and accepted by the Wai-chiao Pu, who now ask His Majesty's Minister to believe that those twenty packages were detained "in consequence of discrepancies in the dates on the certificates."
Although, therefore, there is no longer any reason to treat seriously the contention that the burning of the seven chests or the detention of the twenty packages was due to any supposed irregularity in connection with the documents accompanying the opium, His Majesty's Minister deems it desirable to refute also the further contention of the Wai-chiao Pu that the question as to whether the merchants had or had not taken out certificates for all the opium transported must be determined by whether or no they produced them for examination at the time.
Had the Anhui authorities really desired to ascertain whether the opium seized had complied with the requirements of the additional article to the Chefoo Convention enquiry of the customs authorities at Shanghai who passed the opium for shipment, or of the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company, which transported it to Anching, would have dispelled any doubt on this point, and the failure to make these enquiries constitutes further proof, if any were needed, of the bad faith of the officials responsible for the destruction of the consignment.
As a matter of fact, the whole of this opium was, in accordance with regular customs practice, labelled in packages of two or three cakes in order to prevent the substitution of other drug and to establish its Indian provenance. (A copy of the labels used is enclosed.) It was also provided with two sets of transit certificates, viz., four certificates dated the 11th September and numbered 772-775 for the four chests shipped by steam-ship "Kianghua," and twenty-two certificatss dated the 12th September and numbered 542 and 543 and 581-600 for the three chests shipped by steam-ship "Kiang Kuan."
3
These certificates, which are now in the possession of His Majesty's Minister, were, in accordance with the usual procedure, handed to the ship's compradore for delivery through the bulk-keeper to the consignee. The opium under ordinary circumstances would have remained on the hulk until it suited the consignee to take delivery, but in this case the steamers arrived at Anching on the 14th and 15th September respectively, on which dates the chief of police wrote to the hulk-keeper the letters above referred No notice was given to the consignees, one of whom sent his bills of lading to the hulk, where they were seized by the police, who removed both lots for destruction on the 16th September.
to.
The enclosed copy of a telegram from the hulk-keeper sent to the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company at Shanghai on the 17th September corroborates the facts
of the seizure.
Hail transit certificates therefore accompanied the opium at the time, the only result would have been the destruction of those documents equally with the customs labels, which themselves were sufficient to identify the drug and disprove any charge of irregularity; apparently, however, the tutu never even took the trouble to see whether the opium was labelled or not.
In conclusion, His Majesty's Minister must remind the Wai-chiao Pu that in his memorandum of the 20th September last he requested that an independent enquiry should be held into this case in order to guard against the making of a garbled and evasive report by the tutu such as has now been actually received and endorsed by the Wai-chain Pu in the only reply which they have vouchsafed to his representations after
lapse of six weeks.
a
He is therefore compelled to place ou record his opinion that the Wai-chaio Pu have by their conduct of this case supported the Anhui tutu in a flagrant breach of treaty, and he accordingly repeats his demand for the payment of compensation for the opium destroyed, and the publication in the province of Anhui of a proclamation embodying the terms of the former Wai-wu Pu's telegram to the province of June 1911.
Peking, November 21, 1912.
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