[ 1 October 1839 ] On 1 October 1839, the Cabinet decided on a war with China after the Emperor’s Special Commissioner at Canton, Lin Zexu, enforced an imperial decree banning the trade in opium and took several traders and British officials hostage until the 20,000 chests of the drug on the ships anchored offshore…
3 June 1839 On 3 June 1839, Lin Zexu, an imperial commissioner of Qing China, ordered the destruction of illegal opium imports, which were being smuggled in increasing quantities by British traders. China had banned the import of opium in 1800, but until 1839, traders had been able to purchase supplies from the British East…
18 April 1945 Today in 1945, in a memorandum from the British War Office to Allied Land Forces South East Asia (ALFSEA), instructions were issued to ensure that opium be supplied in vast quantities to Malaya once it was liberated from the Japanese, who had also found the drug essential to keep the population pacified….
BRITISH OPIUM EXPORTS TO CHINA SOAR [ 31 December 1879 ] By this day in 1879, 105,000 mango wood chests full of opium had been exported by Britain to China during the year.1Â Each contained 160 lbs (72 kg) of opium, which would mean a total for the year of 16.8 million lbs or 7.6 million…
BRITISH BOMBARD CANTON TO PROTECT THEIR OPIUM TRADE [ 28 December 1857 ] On 28 December 1857, twenty five British and French gunboats commenced a heavy bombardment of the Chinese port city of Canton. Prime Minister William Gladstone had dispatched a punitive military expedition, after a Chinese owned and crewed pirate ship, flying a British…
CABINET BACKS WAR WITH CHINA AFTER OPIUM TRADERS ARE HELD HOSTAGE [ 1 October 1839 ] Today in 1839, the Cabinet decided on a war with China after the Emperor’s Special Commissioner at Canton, Lin Zexu, enforced an imperial decree banning the trade in opium and took several traders and British officials hostage until the…
THE TIMES – HALTING THE OPIUM TRADE WOULD HARM OUR FINANCIAL INTERESTS [ 1 June 1906 ] On 1 June 1906, an editorial in The Times strongly supported John Morley, India Secretary, who had cautioned parliament against any legal sanctions on Britain’s opium trade with China. Since the early nineteenth century, the East India Company had…
LORD PALMERSTON JUSTIFIES MILITARY PROTECTION FOR BRITAIN’S OPIUM TRADERS [ 9 April 1840 ] Today in 1840, Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston, justifying Britain’s determination to defend its opium traders from any interference from Chinese officials, told parliament that it was not Britian’s responsibility to protect ‘the morals of the Chinese people who were disposed to…
