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"extension from three days to one month boiling period will
"be useless, that as has been contended by yourself
C
"Government of China cannot tax even prepared foreign
"opium in a Treaty Port and that Waiwupu admits illegality
"of Tax In accordance with instructions from Secretary
•
"of State for the Colonies request you will treat as
"Confidential my Despatches to you of the 19th. November
"and 28th. December". The last sentence of this telegram
was added in compliance with your telegraphic instructions
dated the 6th. instant.
5.
You will thus observe that the
only result of the strenuous protests which have been made
since last May against the additional taxation on Fo-reign
Opium imposed by the Canton Government has been the
doubling by that Government of the illegal tax imposed. It
is also admitted that the object of the tax is to replace
the loss incurred by the Provincial Revenue owing to the
decrease in the consumption of prepared opium, and the
abolition of the Gambling Monopoly in Kuangtung.
6.
I forwarded to you under cover o-f
do
my Despatch No. 437 of the 28th. of last December a summary
of the correspondence relating to this Tax, which,
as I
F. 3890-0710
have pointed out in my Despatch No. 391 of the 14th. of
last