CO129-471 - Public Offices - 1921 — Page 784

185

VELKALUZİV ROTOW!

782

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

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[November 29.]

SECTION 1.

t:

[F 4398/330/10]

No. 1.

Sir B. Alston to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.—(Received November 29.) (No. 594.) My Lord,

Peking, October 13, 1921. WITH reference to my telegram No. 361 of the 17th ultimo, I have the honour to transmit herewith a copy of the Wai-chiao Pu's reply to the protests addressed to them on the subject of opium cultivation in the name of His Majesty's Government, a copy of which was forwarded to your Lordship in my despatch No. 364 of the 30th June. To the comments contained in my above-mentionel telegram I need only add the observation that, whereas the Chinese Government, in so far as they admit the existence of the evil at all, represents the cultivation as being carried out only in remote districts by ignorant peasants and despite the strenuous efforts of the Govern ment officials. The majority of reports received by this Legation from the various provinces show that the recrudescence of opium growing has occurred in the immediate proximity of some of the larger provincial towns with the connivance and in some cases with the encouragement, and even under the orders, of the military and civil authorities.

It was to be expected that the Chinese Government would answer our protest with some such paltry excuses and extenuations as they have used in the enclosed note, and indeed it is hard to see what other reply was open to them short of a straightforward admission of their total inability to control the officers who are responsible for the state of affairs. I confess, however, to a feeling of astonishment that the Chinese representative on the League of Nations Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium, and the Chinese Minister to Great Britain, who it might have been supposed would have been genuinely interested in forwarding any international action for the eradication of the opium evil in China as well as in other parts of the world, should have permitted themselves to indulge in such misrepresentation, and indeed sheer mendacity, as is evidenced in the reports of the committee's proceedings which your Lordship was good enough to transmit to me in your despatches Nos. 608 and 754 of the 1st July and the 12th August respectively.

I notice that in his attempt to minimise the extent of opium cultivation in China, his Excellency Tang Taai-fou states that there are only two provinces in China in which opium is being grown, and again, that Kuangtung is the only province outside the control of the Central Government. Comment on such statements as these is superfluous.

The

Worse, however, than the delegates' verbal inaccuracies appears to me to be the insidious attempt of Dr. Wellington Koo to hoodwink the Council of the League into the belief that the resuscitation of opium cultivation and traffic in China is of such a temporary and fortuitous nature that the remedy can safely be left to the Chinese Government themselves, and that the execution of the measures suggested by Sir John Jordan and recommended by the advisory committee "may be wisely deferred." Presidential mandate and the appointment of the investigating commissioners, which Dr. Koo would have the Council believe to be a practical and sufficient remedy, represent, of course,

in reality, nothing more than the usual Chinese practice of throwing dust in the

eyes of foreigners who appear to them to be peering too closely into their own affairs.

I reported to your Lordship on the subject of the opium commissioners in my despatch No. 447 of the 5th August. Since that date nothing more has been heard of these gentlemen's activities, and the Wai-chiao Pu have contented themselves with notifying ine periodically of the departure of fresh commissioners to the provinces. On the other hand, several letters have been received from the (Chinese) Students' Anti- Opium Society, and from individual Chinese in the provinces, emphasising the unsuit- ability of the persons selected as commissioners, and the absence of any results from their mission.

Your Lordship will recollect that I mentioned in a former despatch (No. 238 of the 5th May) that there was strong suspicion of large cargoes of opium being smuggled down the Yang-taze in vessels controlled by the Chinese military authorities, and

[7307 #1]