!
he must know that the poppy is grown freely in China at the present moment, and the reports that come home to this country that opium is no longer grown are mere eyewash. I do not wish to take up the time of the Committee, but I think that the aspect of the opium trade, which I bring before the House, is worthy of the attention of our Foreign Minister, whose duty it is to consider the interests of British trade quite as much as the benefits to a particular section of the people who press upon him the total suppression of a trade which they have been led to think is nothing but injurious, which is very far from being the case.
Sir Edward Grey: *
our claim in the Yangtsze?
酆 *
What is
Mr. George Lloyd: There was no self denying ordinance as regards railways or any Were we not other concessions whatever. free; or if there was such a self-denying ordinance, which was our sphere?
Sir Edward Grey: I must ask the hon. member not to interrupt. I am trying to interpret his views as a whole. Why did he bring in the Yangtsze region? We have not got any special title to the Yangtsze, except that we have already got vested railway interests-British railway interests in that region, and we therefore hold that in that particular region where British railways already exist we have the right to further We link up spheres of British railways. claim that not on treaty ground, because there are no special treaty grounds, but on general grounds of the vested interests we have already, that these new railway con cessions ought to be British Concessions. With regard to Chinese railways,
•
*
I was rather taken aback when the hon. Member for West Staffordshire said what he did about our position in the Yangisze region.
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I have had a note made, somewhat hurriedly, as to what our agreements actually are. Notes were exchanged between His Majesty's Government and the Chinese Government in 1898 by which the Chinese Government to alienate the pledged themselves not Yangtsze region to another Power. That holds good still, and there has been no question of alienating the Yangtsze region. That does not deal with the particular point of the con- cesssion. The Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the Deutsch Asiatische Bank made an agreement in 1895 for sharing loans in China, and financial operations for railways were to be the subject of spacial agreements. An ad- ditional clause was added in 1905 modifying the 1895 Agreement so as to allow greater freedom of action to either party. In 1898 an Agreement was signed between the two groups defining the sphere of interest of the two countries regarding railway construction in China, leaving the Yangtze Valley to Great Britain, and Shantung to Germany. Those were arrangements between two par- ticular commercial groups; they are not like In 1999 treaties between Governments. followed the Hukuang Railway Loan Agree- ment between the British, French, and Germans, to which the Americans were admitted in 1911. That produced various complications, and the whole matter of these arrangements, not between Governments, but between the different groups, French, Ger- man, and British in China, has been exceed- ingly complicated. All I can say without further notice is that I have been endeavour- ing recently, and the groups have been endeavouring to disentangle some of these complications to get their bands more free, and we have
now pending considerable railway concessions, and I believe the particular arrangement between the groups will now enable different countries-our-
selves amongst others to go ahead more freely in these parts of China in which they have particular interests.
Wednesday, 22nd July, 1914.
FIVE-POWER GROUP LOAN.
Sir J. D. Ress asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether any arrangement has been completed between the Chinese Government and the Five-Power Group regarding the proposed loan?
The Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Acland): The answer is in the negative.
Thursday, 23rd July, 1914.
PEKING ARSENAL.
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Mr. King asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether he has received information that an arsenal is to be con- structed for the Chinese Government near Peking; that the work is to be carried out by the firm of Krupps, and that the materials are ¦ to be entirely of German manufacture; and, if so, whether be can state whether a special loan has been obtained by China for this purpose?
Bir E. Grey: I have not received this information.
OPIUM IN SHANGHAI,
Mr. Theodore C. Taylor asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether the Shanghai Municipal Gazette of 18th June last, indicates that there are now 663 opium shops licensed in Shanghai, from which the Municipality of Shanghai derives a revenue of 10,995 dollars per
month and whether he has recently taken any, and, if so, what steps to induce this chiefly British municipality to discontinue this traffic?
Sir E. Grey: I have not seen the publication in question. As I explained to the hon. member on 14th April and 16th June last, the Municipal Council at Shanghai is an independent International body over which His Majesty's Government have no control. I have, however, instructed His Majesty's Minister at Peking to use his influence to encourage the Council to put an end to the opium licences.
Mr. T. C. Taylor asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether, at the request of certain Western Powers, including Great Britain, the Chinese Government has recently agreed to a portion of Chinese territory, known as the North Szechuan Road Extension, being added to the international settlement of Shanghai; and whether, seeing that the vice of opium- smoking is forbidden and punished in Chinese territory, while it is being encouraged in the international settlement, this is an extension of the area in which opium- smoking is practised?
:
Sir E. Grey I informed the hon. Member on the 7th instant of the present situation as regards the proposed extension of the international settlement at Shanghai and I have nothing to add to what I said then on the subject.
Mr. T. C. Taylor asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, if he would state whether the British and United States ministers in Peking have lodged protests with the Chinese Government against the imposition by the Government of the
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