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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL
March 18.]
27902 SECTION 1.
[12432]
No. 1.
TRET":
RF 9 MAY 19
Sir J. Jordan to Earl Curzon.-(Received March 18.)
(No. 45.) My Lord,
Peking, January 29, 1919. IN my despatch No. 530 of the 5th December, 1918, I had the honour to review the position respecting the remaining stocks of Indian opium lying at Shanghai, and to acquaint you of the decision finally reached by the Chinese Govern- meat to effect their destruction. This decision has now been carried out; the 1,200 odd chests of opium have been publicly burnt in specially constructed kilus at Pootung, and the ashes have been dissolved in the waters of the Yang tsze River. The contents of the chests were carefully re-examined by native and foreign experts, and, with the exception of a small number of balls which had obviously been mctured some years ago, there was found to be no shortage. Accusations of fraud which have been brought against the authorities by interested persons have been proved to be without foundation, and there appears no doubt that the work of destruction was carried out with thoroughness.
As your Lordship is aware it had always been anticipated that on the expiration of the 1911 agreement surplus stocks would be left at Shanghai, the disposal of which in China could no longer be permitted. It was the wish of Lord Grey, as conveyed to me in his despatch No. 268 of the 24th September, 1914, that these surplus stocks should be entirely removed from Chinese territories, and a warning to this effect was conveyed to the opium merchants. Agreements made behind the lacks of His Majesty's legation between ex-President Feng Kuo Chang and the opium combine at Shanghai greatly complicated the problem. Full particulars of these transactions were reported from time to time; I would refer more especially to the despatches from this legation No. 74 of the 26th February, 1917, No. 224 of the 24th July, 1917, No. 451 of the 30th September, 1918, and No. 490 of the 1st November, 1918. There is no doubt that it was the personal avarice of Feng Kuo Chang that was responsible for this backsliding from the steady policy of suppression followed by Yuan Shih-kai. Eventually, after the assumption of office by Hsu Shih Chang rendered more hopeful the prospects of a clean policy in this matter, I made the offer reported in my despatch No. 530 of the 5th December last to take back the 1,200 odd chests on behalf of the Government of India at the price of 3,000 rupees cheat. Hsu Shih Chang, who has shown himself to be an enlightened ruler, is doing his utmost to return to the policy initiated by President Yuan, and rigorously enforced during the first seven or eight years of the suppression campaign. In spite of opposition he has maintained firmly his decision to make the full sacrifice of public destruction. This means a loss to the Chinese Government, at a time when they can ill afford it, of over 4,000,000l., representing the present value of the drug inside China. No such wholesale destruction of opium has taken place since the burning of 20,291 chests seized from foreign merchants by Commissioner Lin in 1839. A protest was made against the burning by certain sections of the community, who considered it would have been better to present the stocks to the Allied Red Cross, but this appeal was rejected as being unnecessary, the world supply of opium being already sufficient for legitimate demand. It was also pointed out that the Chinese Customs have been for some time handing over to the Allied Red Cross large quantities of the drug seized by them, and were continuing to do so. The Commissioner of Customs at Shanghai stated he had presented to the Allied consuls-general 126 lb. of morphia, 150 oz. of cocaine, and 4,589 catties of opium, which had been confiscated from smugglers. But the main reason of the Chinese Government in adhering to its decision was to make a decided impression both in China and abroad, to give an effective reply to the official protests of Great Britain and America, to convey a warning to the Chinese themselves that the Government was in earnest in its policy of suppression, and to demonstrate to the Powers assembled at the Peace Conference that China had done with the sins of the past, and was prepared to co-operate in the future work progress and reform. The 5,000,000 taels of bonds issued to the combine in payment for their stocks, which the Chinese Government are pledged to redeem at
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