CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 535

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then travel as far as practicable in border districts to Ping-chiang, and proceed westerly to Yi-yang.

At Ch'en-chou, Li-ting, Ping-chiang, and Yi-yang are mission stations.

The two parties should endeavour, as far as possible, to avoid main roads, as it is unlikely that the poppy will be found in their vicinity.

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It may be found necessary to divert from the itinerary outlined above, as a result → your information and observation on the spot. In that event, you and Mr. King are at liberty to make the requisite modifications without further reference.

A diary should be kept recording briefly the results of each day's search from Ch'i-yung onwards. If the poppy is found in any particular locality, every endeavour should be made by you and Mr. King to obtain the joint attestation of the Chinese deputies, to which I attach great importance. The reports based on these diaries should deal with opium matters and nothing else. Special prominence should be given to the questions of opium cultivation and the import or export of native opium; these are matters of the utmost importance. The prevalence of opium smoking and the success or failure of the official repressive measures should also be dealt with. It is not unlikely that smoking may have been largely replaced by eating upium, and this point should be examined.

The joint investigation will be conducted in accordance with article 4 of the Opium Agreement of May 1911. It will be as well, therefore, for you and Mr. King to have at hand copies of this article in English and Chinese, in the event of any difficulties with the Chinese deputies as to procedure. Copies of Mr. Giles's despatch of the 6th February, giving the latest information of opium conditions in Hunan, are also being furnished to you and Mr. King for your confidential information.

I am, &c.

J. N. JORDAN.

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

OPIUM.

20085

RECE Red 13 JUN 13 [April 25.]

CONFIDENTIAL.

[19108]

No. 1.

SECTION 1,

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey-(Received April 25.)

(No. 99.) (Telegraphic.) R.

YOUR telegram No. 119 of 23rd April.

Peking, April 25, 1913.

Despatch goes to-day via Siberia, but will, I fear, be too late for debate. Following are briefly my views:-

Although the Chinese Government have probably no intention of proceeding withi their proposal for purchasing stocks, the official position is that we have accepted the principle of this proposal and are waiting for their promised statement of financial arrangements, and to this I think we should adhere.

Unless conditions are altered the stocks will be worked off within two years, but we must always be prepared for renewed obstruction, and in that case may eventually have to reship a portion of them to non-China markets. Any attempt to revive Indian sales would raise an outcry in China which we should be unable to resist. We should either have to maintain trade by force or submit to the indignity of seeing the treaty system almost violated.

When the stocks are cleared off we should, I think, express to the Chinese our willingness to modify the 1911 agreement in accordance with article 9. The modifics- tion should take the form of retaining such portions of article 3 and article 4 as refer to investigation and cancelling the remainder. Although investigation of the provinces would then become meaningless as a measure for testing the right to import Indian opium, it would be most valuable precaution for ensuring the extinction of native cultivation, and our continued co-operation in this matter would be cordially appreciated by the Chinese Government, to whom we owe it as a moral duty.

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