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V
S
January 21st and His Excellency subsequently informed
me that a note of my observations had been communicated to the Minister of Colonization who had sent the
necessary instructions to Formosa.
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Your Lordship will remember that in March 1890
when the importation of opium into Formosa was suddenly prohibited; at the instance of the Governor
of Hong Kong and of Messrs. Sassoon and Company,
I obtained permission from the Japanese Government
for the introduction of two shipments stated to
have been already despatched from Hong Kong before
the prohibition became known there. In Formosa the
price rapidly rose, and a little speculation was indulged in by some members of the British firms at
Anping. This furnished a stimulus to smuggling,
and so much opium was surreptitiously introduced
from Amoy, that the speculators were unable to sell.
As the fact of smuggling being carried on was officially brought to the notice of the Japanese Authorities at Anping by Mr. Longford and by myself here,
without anything being done to stop it, a claim
might possibly be made by the holders against the
Japanese Government for loss of market owing to the
laches