This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
10.
[176603]
No. 1,
296
[September 10.]
SPOTTO 1. C. 0
50850
REC
A20° 16 OCT 17
(No. 242.) Sir,
Mr. Alston to Mr. Balfour.-(Received September 10.)
Peking, August 6, 1917. WITH reference to my despatch No. 88 of the 13th March, and in accordance with the instructions contained in your telegram No. 57 of the 23rd February, I have the honour to transmit herewith the reports received from the consular officers appointed to inspect the provinces of Kuangtung, Yünnan, Kueichow, Kiangsi, and Kiangsu for opinm cultivation under the 1911 Agreement. The formal report of the remaining province of Shensi has not yet reached me but the inspecting officer informed me by telegraph on the 28th ultimo that he had completed the inspection and had found no opium cultivation.
In the province of Yunnan alone was any cultivation of opium actually found and that in one spot. It will be remembered that when applying for the inspection of Yunnan, the Wai-chiao Pu, in their note of the 15th March (of which copy was forwarded in my despatch No. 109 of the 28th March), expressly alluded to the continued cultivation of opium in the tribal districts in the south-west of the province. It should also be borne in mind that the political relations of the provinces of Kuangtung, Yunnan, and Kueichow to the Central Government have for some time past been of the most uncertain description, while the Enancial relations of the two last named have been prejudiced by the loss of their opium revenue to a far greater extent than is the case in any other provinces.
In view of all the circumstances, therefore. I am of opinion that the results shown in the report are-if anything-better than could reasonably have been expected.
Judged by the standards applied in the case of the inspections of other provinces held in previous years, the investigations just completed with their clear evidence of drastic suppressive action on the part of the local authorities, would suffice to support the claim of the Chinese Government, that these six provinces should be added to the list of those into which the entry of Indian opium is prohibited.
No such claim is however advanced by the Chinese Government owing to the misguided notion of the late Cabinet that article 5 of the 1911 Agreement had already lost its validity.
The subsequent communications received on the subject from the Wai-chiao Pu, of which copies are enclosed, merely place on record the fact that the inspecting officers in Kiangai, Kiangsu, Kueichow, and Kasngtung found no opium cultivation; and no communication in reference to the provinces of Yunnan and Shensi has yet been received.
Whether or no the Chinese Government will ask for the formal closing of these provinces in accordance with the Agreement and precedent would appear to depend on the solution or otherwise of the problem of the stocks on which I had the honour to report in my despatch No. 224 of the 24th ultimo.
The late Cabinet having in effect closed the whole of China to Indian opium on the 1st April last, the present Government can hardly apply to us now to fix a date for the closing of certain provinces without serious loss of dignity and it is this which they are anxious to avoid by completing some arrangement for the taking over of the stocks which will enable them to represent their premature action as part of an agreement with the opium merchants,
I shall have the honour to forward the Shensi report as soon as I receive it.
I have, &c. (For His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires),
MILES W. LAMPSON.
[2729 -1]
B
Page 300Page 301
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.