CO129-406 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 14

12

ཙྩ ;iཟླ་

1.

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

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

ค

Hi ua D.

[26273]

(No. 216.) Sir,

No. 1.

13

C.O

24090

[June 9.].

TRECE SECTION 2.REG 14 JUL 13,

36 TE

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received June 9.)

I HAVE the honour to enclose copy of a despatch from His Majesty's consul-

Peking, May 23, 1913. general at Shanghai forwarding copy of agreements constituting the Shanghai opium combine.

The figures of the two corrections offered by the combine, and mentioned in the consul-general's despatch, were given in my despatch No. 204 of the 14th instant. The figures given by the importers refer, it will be noted, only to the deliveries at Shanghai and Hong Kong, and apparently do not include those at Amoy, Foochow, and other China ports.

In my telegram No. 94 of the 17th April, I represented the stocks of Indian opium at that date as amounting, roughly, to 25,000 chests, which were being worked off at the rate of about 2,000 chests a month. The total number of chests removed from bond from all China ports during March 1913 was, according to the enclosed list, furnished by the Inspectorate-General of Maritime Customs at Peking, 1,733 chests. In this list the number for Shanghai is given as 1,079 but this does not correspond with the figure 1,318 telegraphed by His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghai on the 8th April. If the figure given by the latter be correct-and it was presumably obtained from the office of the Maritime Customs at Shanghai-the total removed from bond in March 1913 was 1,972 chests (5 re-exported). According to the Customs' list the monthly average of chests removed from bond for the four months-January to April of this year-- amounted to 1,358.

In the consul-general's despatch the statement is made that the maintenance of the figure 1,100 to 1,200 chests, representing the average total disposed of at Shangbai and Hong Kong, depends on the continuance of the present feasibility of smuggling the drug into the interior of China. It should be explained that "smuggling" is not used in the ordinary sense of the word. The opium importers have an undeniable right to sell their opium, duly supported by Customs' labels and certificates, throughout China except in those provinces into which Indian opium cannot be conveyed. Owing, however, to the repeated open and flagrant violation of the additional article to the Chefoo Agreement and the Opium Agreement of 1911, it has not been possible for Indian opium to circulate freely in the manner laid down by treaty. The native dealers to whom the opium importers sell their opium have been compelled, under penalty of confiscation and severe punishment, to resort to the practice of conveying and selling it secretly to their customers in the interior, although the traffic in the drug is legitimate by treaty in the provinces which the foreign importers desire to

I have, &c.

serve.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1.

J. N. JORDAN.

(No. 64. Confidential.) Sir,

Consul-General Fraser to Sir J. Jordan.

Shanghai, May 14, 1913. IN confirmation of my telegram No. 32 of yesterday, and with reference to my letter of the 1st March, I have the honour to forward printed copy in triplicate of the agreements between the Indian opium importers here and the Chinese Opium Guild which have constituted an opium combine to dispose of the stocks lying here.*

Mr. Ezra, who brought me this pamphlet, stated that he was asked by the combine to correct two statements in the recent speech in Parliament of the Under- Secretary of State for India, which were inaccurate.

[2965 ¿-2]

• Not printed.