CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 419

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

C.O

15078

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[10684]

No. 1.

Pert

5 MAY [March 7.

SECTION 2,

Sir,

India Ofice to Foreign Ofice.—(Received March 7.)

India Office, March 6, 1913. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of the letter from your Office of the 10th February, enclosing a copy of a letter from the China Association, dated the 3rd February, regarding the opium stocks in the Far East, and to state that his Lordship considers it most desirable that the view expressed in the penultimate paragraph of the Association's letter as to the liability of the Government of India, should be met at once by an explicit repudiation of such liability,

He would, therefore, suggest, for Sir Edward Grey's consideration, that the Association should be informed that the certificates issued by the Government of India included no guarantee on the part of that Government that the chests concerned would be admitted into China, and that that Government was not in point of fact in a position to give any such guarantee. They are, therefore, under no liability to compensate the merchants for the failure of China to admit the opium. They have, on the other hand, by fixing a high upset price, relieved the merchants from the necessity of supporting the market, and have practically suspended the sale of certificated opium with effect from the beginning of this year. They have further announced that sales of certificated opium will be formally suspended after the 1st April next, and they have also reduced the amount of uncertificated opium to be offered for sale in the year 1913 from 13,200 chests to 9,000 chests.

I ami, &c.

[2850 g-2]

T. W. HOLDERNESS,

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