CO129-437 - Public Offices - 1916 — Page 161

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

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

6.0

[January 20.]

159

SECTION 1.

[12131]

0

Sir,

No. 1.

Colonial Office to Foreign Office.—(Received January 20.)

Downing Street, January 19, 1916.

I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, for the information of Sir Edward Grey, copy of certain papers on the subject of the opium traffic in China and Hong Kong.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1.

I am, &c.

JOHN ANDERSON.

Governor Sir F. May to Mr. Bonar Law.

(Confidential.) Sir,

Hong Kong, November 30, 1915. I HAVE the honour to transmit the enclosed memorandum drawn up at my request by the superintendent of imports and exports on the subject of the operations of a syndicate which has been formed to establish an opium monopoly in the Kwangtung province, together with a copy of an agreement made between Tsai Nai Huang, delegated from Peking, in connection with what is termed the prohibition of the sale of native opium in Kwangtung, and certain raw opium merchants in this colony.

2. Nothing very definite has been done as yet in furtherance of the monopoly, but negotiations for the purchase of uncertified opium are widespread. An increase in smuggling from Europe to China is to be anticipated, and apart from the nuisance caused in this port by such traffic there is the danger to the colony that if the syndicate forming the monopoly, or some of its sub-companies, can get a sufficient supply of opium, it would pay to "dump" prepared opium here.

3. I have sent a copy of this despatch to His Majesty's Minister at Peking and to His Majesty's consul-general at Canton.

I have, &c.

F. H. MAY.

Enclosure 2 in No. 1.

Memorandum respecting Canton Opium Syndicate.

IN April 1915 an agreement was come to between the Opium Combine and the Chinese Government. It was of a more or less private nature. The Opium Combine held practically the whole stock of certified Indian opium lying in Hong Kong and Shanghai, which under the various treaties and agreements was destined for the China market. By this semi-private agreement the Opium Combine agreed to collect and pay to the Chinese Government 3,500 dollars on every chest of opium sold by them on the understanding that the provinces of Kiangai, Kiangsu, and Kwangtung were left open to the circulation of opium. This at once hastened the absorption by China of the stock of opium in Shanghai, but for a number of reasons there was very little movement of Hong Kong stocks.

2. A new agreement was then made with the Hong Kong Opium Combine. The commissioner for the suppression of opium in Kwangtung made an agreement with the Opium Combine to purchase the whole of the stock of certified opium in Hong Kong, and to take delivery within eighteen months from the 1st October, 1915. The price

[2537 u―1]

B