"
a
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.] 196
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[35371]
No. 1.
C
0
29999
RECO [Aug28 AUG 13,
SECTION 1.
Foreign Office to Messrs. E. D. and Messrs. D. Sassoon & Co.
Foreign Office, August 5, 1913. I AM directed by Secretary Sir E. Grey to acknowledge the receipt of your letters of the 14th May and the 15th ultimo respecting the opium question.
Gentlemen,
In reply I am to inform you that His Majesty's Government are aware of the importance of the question of the stocks which have been accumulated at Hong Kong and Shanghai, and I am to refer you to Sir E. Grey's answers to Sir J. Rees and Mr. King in the House of Commons on the 15th and 24th July.
With regard to the closing of Chinese provinces to Indian opium, to which you refer in the penultimate paragraph of your letter, I am to state that His Majesty's Government have always withheld their consent to the closing of any province unless satisfactory evidence has been furnished that the province is free from the cultivation and import of native opium.
&c. W. LANGLEY.
am,
[1836 e-1]