Correspondence respecting the opium question in China.

Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Correspondence respecting the opium question in China. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    54/58 (page 46)
    “pursuance of the understanding that each Government should take measures to prevent smuggling into its own territories, they intimate that Regulations are being drawn up to prevent the smuggling of boiled opium in China. - es we Under the fifth heading His Majesty’s Government agreed that, if effective steps have been taken by the Chinese authorities for the prohibition of opium shops, &c., outside the limits of foreign Settlements or Concessions, the municipal authorities of these localities should also take effective steps on their own initiative before being approached by the Chinese authorities on the subject. : This declaration the Board accept as evidence of the intention of His Majesty’s Government to accord the fullest measure of support to the efforts of the Chinese Government, and they then proceed to state the steps which they have themselves taken for the suppression of opium beyond the limits of Settlements and Concessions. With regard to the prohibition of the importation of morphia and instruments for its injection, the Wai-wi Pu state that they have secured the co-operation of all the Powers with the exception of Japan, whose reply will- be communicated as soon as it is received. | : In conelusion, the Board affirm that it is their earnest hope, with the assistance of Great Britain, to effect the complete eradication of the opium habit, and they hold it to be their duty to send still more stringent instructions to the local authorities for the energetic enforcement of the prohibitive measures. 2 misige 1 Esai I am forwarding copies of this despatch to his Execllency the Viceroy of India and his Excellency the Governor of Hong Kong. = & LOUSEE TG HG] I have, &c. Oss 0s (Signed) ~ J, N. JORDAN. Inclosure in No, 29. Wai-wu Pu to Sir J. Jordan. (‘Translation.) ae Sir, Peking, December 2, 1907. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Excellency’s various communications on the subject of opium prohibition, in which the views of His Majesty's Government, in response to the detailed proposals of the Board, are conveyed, and to express to your Excellency. my high appreciation of the cordial AUB rY which His Majesty’s Government have lent in the accomplishment. of this ASK, ; Aa “vba Kins I have now the honour to eommunicate to your Excellency seriatim the present proposals of the Board :-—.: ; | ese still _, 2: Our assent to the proposal to commence from January 1908 the annual diminution of the quantity of opium exported from India to China, with a view to its now the month of December 1907, and January 1908, the period from which the annual diminution of the export is to commence, is already close at hand. == The Board are willing to accept the present proposal of His Majesty’s Government to put the arrangement experimentally into effect fora term of three years, with the proviso that, if during that period the Chinese Government shall have duly carried proportion this annual diminution of the export after the three years’ trial period. fhe number of chests given as the annual import into China of Indian opium Returns, during the five vears 1901 to 1905, inclusive, the average total import :was diminished may be based upon that figare. corresponding manner, . 9 , erik rw ; 1 ies Sore See ae pice, ae dispatch of an officer to Calcutta to watch the opium auctions and the » Se s merely with a, view to ascertaining the exact quantity exported, and ne : v purpose whatever. The proviso with which His Majesty's Government will of course be notified by the Board to the officer sent,