CO129-406 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 346

(Juozavarod) zwojem alcastiti Bid to phagori apt at day 2

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governme

C.O

36672

OPIUM.

RECE (Reg 23 OCT 13

[October 2.]

CONFIDENTIAL.

SECTION 2.

[44922]

(No. 361.) Sir,

No. 1.

Mr. Alaton to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received October 2.)

Peking, September 17, 1913. WITH reference to your despatch No. 244 of the 19th August, I have the honour to forward herewith copy of a memorandum which I have addressed to the Wai-chiao Pu informing them that His Majesty's Government are unable to assent to their proposal to remove the stocks of Indian opium from Shanghai.

I have, &c.

B. ALSTON.

344

Enclosure in No. 1.

Memorandum communicated to Wai-chiao Pu.

HIS Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires had the honour to inform the Wai-chiao Pu on the 17th July that he was transmitting to the Foreign Office their request that he would ask His Majesty's Government that efforts should be made to consent to the cancellation of the Opium Agreement of 1911, and cessation of import, together with transport back to India, of the opium stocks at Shanghai, and he has now received their memorandum of the 5th September on the same subject.

Mr. Alston has, by despatch received on the 6th instant, been instructed by His Majesty's Government to reply on the subject of the proposal to remove the stocks of Indian opium from Shanghai. It appears to His Majesty's Government that the statement that the great obstacle to prohibition by China is the Indian supply is not borne out by the information available regarding certain of the provinces which have been closed to Indian opium, since it is reported that in those provinces there had been a recrudescence of poppy cultivation in spite of the exclusion of Indian opium. Nor does it appear how, as long as the cultivation of poppy exists in a province, the suppression of such cultivation can be facilitated by cutting off an alternative source of supply. On the other hand, His Majesty's Government have shown their readiness on all occasions when it has been proved that the native supply has been cut off by the discontinuance of the cultivation and import of native opium, immediately to assent to the exclusion of Indian opium. For these reasons, His Majesty's Government, who have shown by their past action that they do not shrink from making considerable sacrifice in order to put an end to the export of Indian opium to China, are unable to assent to the present proposal.

Peking, September 13, 1913.

[1903 b--2]

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