File No. 774/33–36.
The Acting Secretary of State to Minister Rockhill.
Washington,March 28, 1907.
Sir: I have to acknowledge the receipt of your dispatch, No. 539, of the 18th ultimo, inclosing a newspaper clipping, stating the proposals submitted by the Chinese Government to the British minister at Peking, on November 29 last, looking to the suppression of the opium trade in the Far East; and also inclosing a copy of a letter signed by all the British merchants in China interested in the opium trade, to the British consul-general at Shanghai, asking to be advised as to the views of their Government, so that they may have an opportunity to be heard as to the manner in which the extinction of the Indian opium trade in China should be carried out.
You also send a copy of an imperial edict, commanding the high provincial authorities to prohibit gradually the cultivation of poppy, and you comment on the situation.
In reply I have to say that this salutary movement is being watched with interest and with benevolent wishes that reform may be effected.
For your further information I inclose herewith a copy of an instruction that was sent to our ambassador to Japan on January 31 last, and, mutatis mutandis, to the ambassador to Great Britain, and a copy of an instruction that was sent to the ambassador to Germany on the same day, and, mutatis mutandis, to the ambassador to France and the minister to the Netherlands.
[Page 153]I also inclose an extract from a telegram, dated the 15th instant, from the embassy at London in relation to the matter.
I am, etc.,