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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[11622]
No. 1.
C
372
IREC
1220
[MAR 124 A 3)
SECTION 2.
Sir,
India Office to Foreign Office.—(Received March 12).
India Office, March 11, 1913. WITH reference to my letter of the 4th March, 1913, and to the letter from Senhor da Fonseca to Mr. Alston, dated the 6th March, on the subject of the desire of the Government of India to co operate with the Portuguese Government in respect of the regulation of the supply of opium for the legitimate requirements of Macao, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to inform you that he is willing that an
assurance should be given to Senhor da Fonseca, as representing the Portuguese Government, in the terms of the last paragraph of that gentleman's letter.
I have, &c.
T. W. HOLDERNESS.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Senhor da Fonseca to Mr. Alston.
Dear Mr. Alston,
London, March 6, 1913. WITH reference to your letter of yesterday's date, in which you kindly com- municated to me that the Government of India are prepared to cordially co-operate in any measures that may be found feasible for regulating the trade in opium to Macao, and that his Excellency the Secretary of State for India is prepared to consider sympathetically any proposals that may be made by the Portuguese Government for co-operation by the Government of India in the event of the Portuguese Government fixing and bringing into effect a maximum limit of importation of Indian and other opium, corresponding with the actual requirements of Macao for internal consumption and for export respectively.
I should be extremely pleased if you could answer the following question
If the Portuguese Government were to offer to fix the limit of chests of raw opium that can be imported annually into Macao, in accordance with the figures and conditions agreed on in the course of the discussion at the Foreign Office, will the Government of India undertake to permit the purchase of opium in open market at the sales in Calcutta or Bombay or any place in India for export to Macao, up to and not exceeding the limits and conditions so fixed, so long as the opium farmer at Hong Kong is permitted to obtain his supplies from this source?
Yours sincerely,
EUSEBIO DA FONSECA.
[2850 m-
-2]