CO129-406 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 284

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THIRD PLENARY SESSION.

Friday, July 4, 1913.

Presidency of Mr. J. T. Cremer.

The Session opened at 11 a. m.

All the Delegations were present except that of Colombia.

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The minutes of the first Session, on July 1st, 1913, were approved.

Dr. Wu Lien-Teh made the following statement:

Mr. PRESIDENT,

Permit me to make a statement supporting the weighty words which my Honorable colleague, the Chinese Minister to Germany, expressed last Wednesday. I had the good fortune to be present as one of the Delegates at the last Conference, which sat in this Hall 18 months ago, and can testify abundantly to the ear- nestness and goodwill with which all the nations assembled at that gathering treated the several points of this difficult problem. Particularly was I impressed with the unanimity with which the five Chinese resolutions, embodied later on in Chapter IV of the Convention, were received and passed. Our Government, encouraged by the sympathy shown everywhere in our national struggle against a great evil, have since the signing of the Convention made still greater strides than before in suppressing both the growth and abuse of opium throughout the country, and we have come to this Conference prepared to ratify this Convention of last year at the earliest possible inoment.

In this connection, I may add a few words since there appears to be still some doubt among the minds of a few of my colleagues in this Conference as to the efficacy of the measures which China has adopted and enforced in the suppression of the cultivation and abuse of opium.

Far from being backward in our national campaign against the vice since the signing of the Convention, our Government have done all in their power, in the way of Presidential mandates, enactment of laws, imprisonment, fines, uprooting of thousands of acres of poppies, and even death penalties to recal- citrant law breakers, in order that our object may be attained for the happiness of our people.

I could quote to you pages of foreign consular reports, newspapers and other independent sources to support my statements, but perhaps two facts are sufficient.

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The first is that 18 months ago, when we assembled here, five of our Provinces, viz. Szechuen thitherto the largest opium producing Province in China), Shansi, Fengtien. Kirin and Heilungkiang had been declared by the British Opium Commissioner to be free from opium. Since then five more Provinces, namely, Shantung, Chihli, Anhui, Kuangsi and Hunan have been examined by other British Opium Commissions and declared closed to opium.

The second fact is that the British Government have decided to cancel further exportation of Indian opium to China from May last, and the Under- Secretary of State for India, in his speech in the House of Commons said: "There cannot be the slightest doubt of the earnestness, sincerity, steadfastness and courage of the Chinese Government and the Chinese people as a whole in ridding themselves of opium. All the evidence points to that conclusion with all sense of responsibility on this question, that there is no room for cynicism and scepticism, and no work for the scoffer or sneerer. China has shown to the world an example of moral courage which is rare in the annals of the human race...

I say,

We are the more desirous to see the early and successful culmination of a great humanitarian work, in which almost all the nations of the world are now taking part, because we are convinced that the longer it is delayed the greater will be the danger of new evils arising. As my Hon. colleague on my left pointed out on Wednesday, the President of our Republic, our National Assembly, our Governors and our people have, one and all, without consideration of loss of revenue to the Government or means of livelihood to the masses, united in translating into action the letter and spirit of the Convention.

We ask for early ratification also because the Convention contains Articles which specially apply to China. These Articles are practically dead letters at the present moment; of these our Government have instructed us to call the particular attention of the Conference to Article 18, which says:

"The contracting Powers having treaties with China shall take effective measures for the gradual reduction, pari passu with the effective measures which the Chinese Government shall take with the same object, of the number of shops in which raw and prepared opium is sold, which may still exist in their leased territories, settlements, and concessions in China. They shall adopt effective measures for the restriction and control of the retail trade in opium in the leased territories, settlements, and concessions, unless regulations on the subject are already in existence."

Now, in Tientsin a city of over a million inhabitants, and industrial capital of Chihli: one of the provinces which is supposed to be closed to opium, although no opium selling shops or smoking dens are to be found anywhere throughout the Chinese city, there are at present ten opium shops in the French Con- cession, openly selling the drug and doing more business than they have ever done before.

In Shanghai, although the Chinese city has many years ago closed all its opium selling shops and smoking dens, the Municipal Council of the International Settlement issued last year 374 licences for opium selling shops. It is even asserted in the papers by one who saw him, that the Secretary of the Municipal Council declared that there was no intention of carrying out Article 18 of the Convention about reducing the number of shops in the foreign concessions pari passu with China.

In view of the above the Chinese Government, therefore, earnestly hopes that the Powers represented here, particularly those having Treaty relations with her, will exert their utmost to adopt measures whereby the Convention both in letter and spirit can be enforced.

The Secretary of the Chinese Delegation then read a French translation of the foregoing statement.

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