[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[49724]
No. 1.
419
[November 22.]
SECTION 2,
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.-(Received November 22.)
(Confidential.) Sir,
Downing Street, November 21, 1912. WITH reference to your letter of the 11th November, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to transmit to you, to be laid before Secretary Sir Edward Grey, a copy of a confidential despatch from the Governor of Hong Kong, stating the grounds on which the total legitimate annual requirements of Macao for Indian opium were estimated at 440 chests.
2. I am also to enclose, for the information of your department, a copy of a memo- randum by Mr. F. M. Baddeley, the Superintendent of Government Monopolies, Straits Settlements, in which he criticises the contentions of the Portuguese authorities in this matter. It is requested that the information contained in this memorandum may treated as strictly confidential.
be
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
I am, &c.
H. J. READ,
ગ
(Confidential.) Sir,
Governor Sir F. May to Mr. Harcourt.
Hong Kong, October 15, 1912.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your telegram, in cypher, of the 26th ultimo, of which the following is a paraphrase.
"The Foreign Office require a detailed statement in support of the assertion in Sir F. Lugard's despatch of the 16th October, 1911, to the effect that the total legiti- mate annual requirements of Indian opium for Macao are 440 chests.'
ور
2. The figure given by Sir F. Lugard was derived from an estimate made in October 1911 by the superintendent of imports and exports of the legitimate exports of uncertificated opium from this colony. At that time Mr. R. O. Hutchison estimated that the legitimate annual consumption of Indian opium in Macao could not exceed 200 chests per annum, and that the legitimate requirement there for boiling for export could not exceed 240 chests per annum. In both cases the estimate was a liberal one. Mr. Hutchison had not been asked to make a careful estimate for official use, gave the figures as the expression of his opinion only. If he had known that the figures would be made use of he would have closely examined the subject.
and
3. The superintendent of imports and exports has now gone carefully into the matter. The figures quoted below are derived from records of exports of Indian opium ,to Macao from Hong Kong; records of imports there not through Hong Kong; records of re-exports from Macao; and finally from information derived from the opium
farmer at Macao.
4. On the 1st April, 1909, the export of prepared opium from Macao to San Fran- cisco ceased. This had been a large part of the Macao farmers' business. It was estimated by the Commissioner of Chinese Maritime Customs at 70 per cent. of the Macao farmers' total trade (see Imperial Maritime Customs' Trade Returns, 1909, Part II, vol iv, p. 643). On the 30th April, 1909, the Macao farmer closed his business, forfeiting his guarantee. The Government of Macao carried on the business till July 1910, when a new farm was let for three years, expiring on the 31st July, 1913. During the years 1909 and 1910 there was very little export of prepared opium from Macao, and for these two years the amount of raw opium imported into Macao and not re-exported to China (ie., practically the amount consumed in Macao) was 181 chests in 1909 and 150 chests in 1910. During the first six months of 1911 the quantity boiled in Macao for local consumption was seventy-nine chests.
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