305
}
desire to put a stop to this traffic and to vindicate the pledges given that I now place my views before you for communication to His Excellency.
8.
In my opinion it is "beyond the wit of man" to devise any system which shall prevent the smuggling of prepared opium either to Hongkong or to the Straits so long as the price of the article remains double in those places that it is in South China. The one and only way in which this illicit traffic can be suppressed, and China keep her pledge to this Government is by raising the price of opium in China to a parity with its price here, when it will no longer be a source of great profit to import it.
The course adopted by China, presumably to this end, is to agitate for higher duties on Foreign opium, or to endeavour to create monopolies of Foreign opium contrary to treaty. I would point out that owing to the altruistic policy of Great Britain the quantity of Foreign opium which may be imported is now limited, and is annually decreasing. It forms a proportion of the total opium consumed in China of only 1/8 to 1/11 according to various estimates, and is therefore a comparatively negligible quantity. Foreign merchants however may be depended upon to secure the best price they can for their commodity, and therefore if the price of native opium is enhanced, it will follow as a certainty that the price of Foreign opium will do the same.
The object