[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 423
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7235
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[4035]
[February 15.]
Pro 6 MAR
SECTION 1.
No. 1.
Gentlemen,
Foreign Office to Messrs. E. D. Sassom and Co.
Foreign Office, February 15, 1911. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 2nd instaut, and to inform you that the attention of this.department has already been drawn, both by His Majesty's Minister at Peking and by the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, to the proposed transfer of the levy upon prepared opium from the Kuang Yuan Office to the Canton Opium Guild.
Sir J. Jordan considers that the position will remain the same whether the enforcement of the tax be entrusted to the guild or left in present hands. He has, however, deemed it advisable to enter a protest on broad grounds at the Wai-wu Pu against any such body being empowered to collect a tax upon an article of foreign import, and His Majesty's consul-general at Canton has also entered a protest against the action of the Provincial Government.
The whole question is engaging the serious attention of His Majesty's Government, and Sir E. Grey is at this moment in communication with Sir J. Jordan with a view to putting a stop to the illegal enactments made from time to time by the local Chinese authorities at Canton.
I ari, &c.
[1897 p-1]
F. A. CAMPBELL.