CO129-457 - Public Offices - 1919 — Page 547

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.10

RECEIVED

25SEP1:1

55664

COL OFFICE

OPIUM.

REC Rre 26 SEP 3 [January 22.]

537

CONFIDENTIAL

SECTION 1.

[8489]

No. 1.

Sir,

Foreign Office to India Office.

Foreign Office, January 22, 1919. WITH reference to my letter of the 11th instant, I am "directed by Earl Curzon of Kedleston to transmit to you herewith copy of a telegram from His Majesty's Minister at Peking on the subject of the Chinese Government's suggestion for an exchange of notes declaring that the Opium Agreement of 1911 had terminated.

Lord Curzon desires me to enquire whether the Indian Government are in a position to refute the statement as to the excessive sale of opium in Calcutta for medicinal purposes and the import into Yunnan of opium grown in the border country between China and Burma.

I am to add that, in spite of the arguments now put forward by Sir J. Jordan, Lord Curzon is inclined to agree with the India Office that the moment is not opportune for an exchange of notes as proposed, and he proposes, subject to Mr. Secretary Montagu's concurrence, to instruct Sir J. Jordan so to inform the Chinese Government, giving as a reason the recrudescence of opium cultivation in China, against which His Majesty's Government wish to enter a protest as constituting a failure on the part of China to observe her share of the 1911 Agreement.

I am, &c.

J. A. C. TILLEY.

[876 y-1]