CONFIDENTIAL.
Hongkong.
My Lord,
447 14351 Rece Rro° 28 APR OC
Government House, Hongkong, 29th March, 1909.
I notice from Foreign Office Print No. 43022 of the 9th December last that in a letter of the 4th December from the Colonial Office to Sir C. Clementi Smith the unauthorised publication of Mr. Clementi's Calculation of the Percentages of Opium Smokers in China, Ssuchuan and Hongkong, copy of which was enclosed in my Confidential Despatch of the 13th June last, is referred to.
2. I regret that through an oversight the circumstances of this publication, which are fully explained in the enclosed copy of a minute by the Colonial Secretary written at the time, have not previously been reported to Your Lordship.
I have the honour to be, My Lord, Your Lordship's most obedient, humble servant,
Hughes Governor, &c.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE EARL OF CREWE, &c., &c.,
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