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which I read to the Commission.
The conditions & regulations under which the Opium Farmer & his licensees would have sold under the first draft Ordinance, would have been such that there would not have been much room for smuggling; but the present arrangement is less complex, and will be more satisfactory to the Chinese Government, whilst it is not more restrictive on the sale of Opium than the law existing in the Straits Settlements, for many years.
It will moreover at no distant date - if the Opium Farmer is as well supported by the Police here as he is at Singapore - prove of enormous advantage to the Colonial Revenue.
I should perhaps add that the draft Memorandum of the Agreement of the Commission (which, as Your Excellency is aware, was prepared by me) was discussed at a special meeting held on the 10th Sept. for that purpose, & adopted, scarcely any alterations - and those only verbal - were made in the form in which it was when I submitted it to Your Excellency for approval before discussing it in Commission.
Copies were made from the draft and formally signed in triplicate on the 11th Sept., Member of the Commission taking one each.