COPY.
Enclosure 3.
CA 21539
Government House,
Hongkong, 9th May, 1907.
Sir,
I have had under my consideration Your Excellency's despatch of the 17th of December last enclosing copies of despatches which you have addressed to His Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs on the subject of the Opium Decree of the 20th of September last and of the Regulations made by the Chinese Government to give effect to that Decree.
2. In reply I beg leave to point out that Tong Shao-yi is mistaken in thinking that the original object in establishing the Opium Farm in this Colony had been to regulate the supply of Opium to the Chinese population. This Colony has since the institution of the Opium Farm always done and still continues to do a considerable trade in the export of prepared Opium.
3. The Chinese Government now propose that this Government should renounce that trade as far as the export to China is concerned, and should adopt fresh measures to prevent the smuggling of prepared Opium into China. I observe, however, that the Chinese Government offers no consideration whatever in return for the concession and assistance for which she asks and in view of the fact that her proposals would involve this Government in considerable expense and entail executive action fraught with no little trouble, I am unable to recommend them to His Majesty's Government for consideration unless the Chinese Government...
To
His Britannic Majesty's Minister,
PEKING.