Nevertheless it is open to the Opium Farmer in this Colony to export prepared Opium to China if he is able to produce the drug sufficiently cheaply, and it is conceivable that after securing a profit on his undertaking by sales in Hongkong at the high prices his monopoly enables him to command, he might put his surplus produce on the market in China at rates that would enable it to compete with the native prepared drug.
The prohibition, therefore, would entail a curtailment of the rights of the Opium Farmer under the existing grant made for a period of three years from the 1st March last, copy of which is enclosed, and might actually diminish his legitimate business under the grant. The prohibition could not, therefore, be imposed without exposing this Government to a claim for compensation on the part of the Farmer.
In order to avoid any such claim and to obtain the consent of the Opium Farmer to the legislation necessary to impose the prohibition, I have to suggest that the Chinese Government should undertake on its part to prohibit the exportation of prepared Opium from China.
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