CO129-416 - Public Offices - 1914 — Page 151

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

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

C.O

8563

REC?.

RT 9 MAR 4

[February 9.]

SECTION 1.

No. 1.

148

[4765]

(No. 64.) Sir,

Sir Edward Grey to Sir F. Bertie.

Foreign Office, February 9, 1914.

I TRANSMIT to your Excellency herewith copy of correspondence as marked in the margin on the subject of the opium traffic in Kwangchauwan.*

Your Excellency will observe that the Governor of Hong Kong has enquired whether the French Government might be asked to regulate the traffic with greater strictness than is at present the case. It appears that the monopoly for the manu- facture and sale of prepared opium and for the sale of raw opium in Kwangchauwan expired on 31st December, 1913, the annual rental of the monopoly being 45,000 dollars. The number of chests of Indian opiurn imported into Kwangchauwan during 1912 was 570, and the number of chests of opium actually consumed in the territory of Kwangchauwan during the year amounted to fifty-six. It is supposed that some two-thirds of the raw opium imported is smuggled in the raw state into China, and that a considerable quantity of the opium boiled by the monopolists is smuggled through Hong Kong or Macao into the United States.

It is clear that the supply of raw opium is largely in excess of the demand for the prepared drug in Kwangchauwan, and this fact is a menace to the success of a Government monopoly opium in Hong Kong, and may prove a source of annoyance to the Hong Kong Government, through whose territory some of the surplus supply is sure to be smuggled to foreign countries.

These facts have already been pointed out to the French Minister at Peking by Mr. Alston, who urged upon him the importance of regulating the traffic with greater regard to the requirements of Kwangchauwan, and suggested the desirability of concluding an agreement on the subject similar to the agreement concluded with Portugal by His Majesty's Government in 1913 in regard to the supply of opium for Macao. M. Conty, however, appeared disinclined to take up the matter energetically, with the result that up to the present little progress has been made.

Since the receipt of their letter of the 23rd December a further communication has been received from the India Office suggesting that an arrangement might be made with the French Government by which the desired results might be achieved without resort to the more cumbersome process of drawing up a formal treaty.

I concur in this view, which has also been accepted by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, and I request that you will take an early opportunity of approaching the French Government on the following lines.

You should explain the reasons on account of which His Majesty's Government would be glad to see a stricter supervision of the Kwangchauwan traffic, and you should propose, as a most satisfactory means of attaining this end, that an enquiry should be made into the legitimate requirements of Kwangchauwan of opium for local consumption or for export, and that the import should be strictly limited to the amount so ascertained. You should add that the Government of India will co-operate as far possible in any measures taken for this purpose, either by limiting the sales of chests of opium in Calcutta for Kwangchauwan to a fixed annual number and confining the delivery of such opium to an agent appointed by the French Government, or in any other practicable manner; and you should express the hope that the French Govern- ment will be willing to fall in with these proposals.

I am, &c.

E. GREY.

* Colonial Office, June 5; to Mr. Alston, No. 177, June 27 [25838]; Mesars. Sassoon, October 2; to Mr. Alston, No. 206, Telegraphic, October 10 [45002]; Mr. Alston, No. 396, October 20; to India Office and Colonial Office, November 13 [49854]; Colonial Office, November 19 [52680]; India Office, December 28, 1913 [57916]

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