}
in Macao to local consumption and to the export trade.
After some argument in which I referred him to the
comparative population of Macao and Hongkong and to
the ascertained local consumption of the latter
place, while he argued that local purchases in Macao
were swelled by those of Chinese visitors who took
prepared opium away with them for their own use or
for presents to their friends, he admitted that the
estimate of local consumption at Macao was perhaps
not very far out. He then proceeded to argue that
the Macao Farmer held the export trade: that it was
very large and that it was just this trade which the
Hongkong Farmer wished to wrest from his rival in
Macao. I admitted that formerly the Macao Farmer
had practically the monopoly of the export trade to
the Chinese communities in Australia, in America and elsewhere. But I reminded him that these markets
were now closed, that the legitimate export trade
must now be very small and that the Hongkong Farmer
would be limited in 1913-14 to a maximum of 10 chests
per mensem and that before he could get a single
chest for export he would have to satisfy this
Government that the Government of the country of
destination desired and permitted it's port. I
pointed out that in such circumstances it was
unreasonable for the Macao Farmer to allege that the
Hongkong Farmer wished to kill his competitor's export
trade.
4.
M. Sanches de Miranda would not commit
himself to any estimate of what the legitimate
export
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