Enclo. in Mr Wingfield's No.133 of September 16th, 1912.
TRANSLATION.
Private.
6.C.
33
87
29834
GF 27 SEP 12
Ministry of the Colonies
Colonies
-
7th Department.
-
23 SEP
Directorate General for the
Lisbon September 6th, 1912.
To His Excellency the Director meneral of Commercial and
Consular Affairs. In continuation of the despatch from
this Department of the 24th of August last and in reply to
Your Excellency's despatches of July 6th and August 22nd
(Case 112 11), I am instructed by His Excellency the Minis -
ter of the Colonies to inform you that a careful examina-
tion of the Vacao Opium question has given rise to the fol-
lowing observations and considerations. On the part of the
British Government it is stated that for local consumption
and exportation from vacao 440 chests of opium are suffi-
cient. On the part of the Governor of Macao it is asserted
that during the period of the previous contract (1903-1909)
the monthly average for local consumption was 53 chests and
for exportation 153, amounting to 630 for local consumption
and 1830 for exportation per year. At the present moment,
however, owing to the adoption of the restrictive measures
taken in accordance with the resolutions of the Shanghae
Conference, a large reduction took place both in the local
consumption, which dropped to an average of 38 chests per
month, and in the exports, which dropped to a monthly aver-
age of 61 chests, that is, 450 chests for consumption and
732 for exportation annually. In the meanwhile the limit
of the existing contract (1910-1913) was 20,000 "bolas"
(500 chests) of opium for local consumption and 60,000
(1,500 chests ) for exportation, with a successive annual
reduction of 10 and 15 per cent respectively. Notwithstan-
ding the relative extent of the monopoly concession, it is,
however,