CO129-417 - Public Offices - 1914 — Page 119

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

A

114A

OPIUM

CONFIDENTIAL.

[27898]

No 1.

27449

REC

REG 28 JUL 14.

[June 15.]

SECTION 1.

Question asked in the House of Commons, June 16, 1914.

Mr. Theodore Taylor,-To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the city known as the International Settlement of Shanghai, though consisting mainly of Chinese, is governed by a Municipal Council of foreigners, mainly British; whether he is aware that Mr. Landale, the chairman of that Council, at the annual ratepayers' meeting in March 1908, expressed on behalf of the foreign residents his sympathy with the Chinese in their desire to dissipate the opium habit, and assured them that the community had every intention to assist them; whether, in spite of that declaration and of the drastic suppression of the opium habit in the surrounding country by the Chinese Government, the Shanghai Municipality has since steadily increased the number of licensed opium shops from 87 in 1908 to 628 in 1912, with corresponding evil effects upon the Chinese population of the city and neighbourhood; and, if so, what steps he is taking to put an end to such a state of things.

Answer

I am aware that there has been an increase in the number of licensed opium shops in the International Settlement at Shanghai during the years mentioned, though I am not in possession of the figures which would enable me to estimate its extent. As I informed the honourable member on the 14th August last, I believe the majority of the members of the Municipal Council to be British subjects, but the Council is an independent international body over which His Majesty's Government have no control. It appears to be matter of regret that the number of opium licences in this settlement has been increased at a time when the consumption is being extinguished in the rest of China, and I hope the Municipal Council will soon reverse the policy.

[2183 q-1]