Letters and Papers Concerning the Trans-Persian Railway and Other Railways in Persia [‎163v] (326/442)

2014
2013 Supply (Committee). HOUSE OF
COMMONS Foreign Office.
[Sir G. Toulmin.]
in any Province we undertake not to ask
for its reintroduction. If we object to her
closing her retail shops, how can she carry
out her part of the agreement l It appears
to me rather to savour of cant to come here
and appear to be sorry for the poor Chinese
opium smoking classes, because they
have to smoke an inferior kind of opium.
The superiority of Indian opium is held up
here, and I suppose we are to go on en
couraging this vice in order that this
superior opium, which belongs to British
merchants, may find a sale. So long as
the Government will aid in forcing the
• traffic, so long will merchants have stocks.
I hope the Foreign Secretary will have
great regard to the difficulties of the new
Government before he takes any strong
step against them, if he ever does attempt
any such thing.
There is one thing the Foreign Secre
tary can do, which might have the effect of
requiring the possessors of this £5,000,000
or £6,000,000 of opium to reduce the stocks,
that is to encourage the Indian Govern
ment to stop the growth of opium in India
more rapidly than they are doing. So far
as I understand the figures, the number
of acres has been reduced from 614,000 in
1905-6 to 203,000 in 1911-12. That appears
to be quite equal to, if not in advance, of
the arrangements which we undertook, but
still there are large stocks, and if the re
duction has not taken place sufficiently
rapidly to let these stocks move off, then
let us increase the rate at which the pro
duction of cotton takes place in India. It
would be a matter of profound regret if
opium were used as a political obstacle
to China’s regeneration. Surely it would
be a sound argument for the Chinese to
say that the existence of the Indian opium
traffic in China sanctions the native
growth, and it may add a patriotic reason
to their desire for growing opium in that
they desire to secure profit for the home
growers of an article the import of which
is enforced. I think it would be bad
policy, for which we might have to pay
a heavy price in years to come, if, in a
moment of the new birth of a people, we
fix our position in their minds with refer
ence to such a thing as the opium traffic.
This is the hour of China’s extremity.
There has been there carried out a revolu
tion which is unexampled in known his
tory. We cannot make too great demands
upon the Republican leaders that they
should carry out the arrangements which
have been suggested as if they w T ere in the
position of the Government which had
been settled in its seat for a thousand
years. I do not think there are any
grounds whatever for doubting the sin
cerity of the Republican leaders. They
have been the leaders in opposing the
opium traffic, and it is pretty certain, both
from their declarations and their past his
tory, that as soon as they have consoli
dated their power they will carry out
China’s obligations to the uttermost. I
do urge the Government to bring to an
end the policy of brutally forcing degrada
tion upon a weaker people, and I hope
no step will be taken which would enforce
in their minds the main idea of this coun
try being selfish, at least on a matter of
foreign policy.
Mr. HOARE: I desire to call the atten
tion of the Committee to the question of
indentured labour in the Portuguese De
pendencies in West Africa. I am afraid I
must plead guilty to coming within the
orbit of the criticism of my hon. Friend,
the hon. Member for East Nottingham (Sir
J. D. Rees), for I cannot claim any of that
personal knowledge which he possesses in
such a full degree with regard to the ques
tions that we have been considering this
afternoon, but certain facts have been
brought to my notice. I have no desire to ^
state them with anything but moderation.
I have every reason to believe
10.0p.m. they are correct, and if they
are, I hope the Foreign Secre
tary will be able to give us a satisfactory
answer. It is the last thing in the world
that I desire to do to meddle in any way
in the internal affairs of any foreign
Power, particularly of a friendty foreign
Power, but it seems to me that in regard
to the Portuguese Dependencies we have a
very special responsibility. Members of
the Committee may remember that under
a series of treaties we virtually guarantee
the integrity of the Portuguese Colonies.
Side by side with that guarantee there is
a number of other treaties and conventions
in which Portugal has undertaken to co
operate with the other great Powers in
extinguishing the slave trade in the basin
of the Congo and in the area of West
Africa. If it can be shown that at the
present moment in these Portuguese De
pendencies there is in existence in the first
place the slave trade, and in the second
place a system of contract labour that is
virtually akin to slavery, we are indirectly
guaranteeing that system in our guarantee
of the integrity of the Portuguese Colonies
and Dependencies. It therefore seems to
me to be of the utmost importance that J
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