§ *SIR JOSEPH PEASE (Durham, Barnard Castle)I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether his attention has been directed to the declaration made in the opium debate in 1891 by the right hon. Member for North-east Manchester, who was then Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, that if the Chinese Government thought proper to raise the duty on opium to a prohibitive extent, or shut out the article altogether, this country would not expend £1 in powder and shot, or lose the life of a soldier, to force opium upon the Chinese, and whether Great Britain has formally informed the Powers that she will not consent to China's increasing the duty on imports of opium and rice.
§ *THE UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Viscount CRANBORNE, Rochester)My attention has been directed to the declaration of my right hon. friend, to which reference is made in the question. As I have already stated in answer to the hon. Member for the Holmfirth Division of Yorkshire, the question of an increase in the Chinese duty on opium has not arisen.