Ber
?
za pakoved wat ban
muddkind celld us LO:
no betoni që në và
rroqu Doorly ab and
Bu od par má ľ
W DO
20
(4)
167
an
it reaches the point of consumption, the more so as a certain
quantity of raw opium may pass through several hands, even in
Canton itself, and as each dealer is responsible for the tax on
such quantity of prepared opium as may be produced from the raw
article which is recorded in his books, the tax on a certain pack-
age of raw opium may have to be paid several times over.
Towards the end of April it became known in HongKong that
the Kwangtung Authorities proposed to bring in these new regula-
tions for governing the sale of raw opium and the British Merchants
engaged in the trade in this Colony at once communicated with the
Consul-General at Canton, asking him to take steps to prevent the
illegal taxation.
The Consul-General merely replied that he knew nothing of-
ficially of the matter, but in any case if the tax did not dif-
ferentiate against foreign opium he did not see his way to take
the matter up with the Provincial Authorities.
!
Several letters passed on the subject, but finding the Consul
General still refused to move, the Merchants appealed to the Hong--
Kong Chamber of Commerce who thereupon telegraphed to H.B.M.'s
Charge D'Affaires at Peking, requesting him to make representationa
on the subject to the Wai-Wu-Fu.
The Chamber of Commerce much regret the attitude taken up by
the British Consul-General at Canton. This Official ignores the
question of the creation of a monopoly and still adheres to the
opinion that no breach of treaty has been committed so long as
native opium is treated in a similar manner to Indian Opium.
We have no information to show that a similar tax is being
imposed on all native opium drug brought into Kwangtung, but I
would here bag to point out that so far as the information before
the Chamber of Commerce goes the bulk of the Opium consumed in
Kwangtung is Indian Opium.
When discussing this question with the representative of the
HongKong firms we are given to understand that the Consul-General
at Canton appears to have overlooked the fact that so large a
3 Y si mo
Z ALWAY
of teng
2.41 10dece
quantity