:
478
admission which would justify a Foreign Power in herself
taking stops to enforce them. The disingenuousness of His
Excellency Na Tung's remark has, I believe, been exposed by a
statement made later by the Wai-wu-pu in support of a pro-
-position of their own to the effect that if the British
Government would agree to it there would be no difficulty
in satisfactorily settling the Canton difficulty.
I submit that the way in which the
Hwangting Government has flouted alike the protests of His
Majesty's Government and the orders from Feking has had a
very serious offect on the prestige of Great Britain in
South China. I may add that Xwendun
cung is the only Province
in which this tax has been made effective, and that except
in one occasion when the French Consul was away from Canton
no attempt was made to levy it on Opium sold in Canton by
the French house of Messrs. Sales and Company.
2.
The next point to which I would
invite your attention is the attitude in this matter taken
Conf
up by Consul-General Jamieson at Canton. Sir Edward Grey in
3079085
his Despatch of 19th. September, 1910, (enclosed in yours
of 27th. September, 1910) has already taken cognizance of
the accusation made against hin that he approved the
Regulations when submitted to him by the Provincial
Covernment
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