I
21/21.
481
The Chinese Government having received information
to the effect that, at the request of the Hongkong Government, the Indian Government had agreed to renew the Agreement for a direct supply of opium at a fixed price for five years beginning from 1921, the Chinese Minister is instructed to enquire of His Majesty's Government whether the information is accurate and to inform them that the Chinese Government views the reported renewal of the above-mentioned Agreement with
concern.
In view of the proximity of Hongkong to the mainland of China and of the absence, as far as the Chinese Government is aware, of any prohibitive laws in Hongkong against the export of opium therefrom into the leased territory of Kowloon which is on the mainland itself, the Chinese Government apprehend lest such continued supply of opium to places in the immediate neighbourhood of large communities which were once the centres of the opium illicit traffic before prohibition was enforced in China should encourage the lawless elements to smuggle opium into Chinese jurisdiction either through the leased territory of Kowloon or along the Pearl River, and thereby add to the difficulties which the Chinese Government have lately experienced and is still experiencing now, as a result of the present unsettled condition in China, in their work of opium suppression. The Chinese Government, which is at present negotiating with the Indo-Chinese Authorities with a view to the effective
prevention of opium smuggling across the Tongking borders, earnest-
ly hopes that His Majesty's Government, whose friendly co-opera- tion in the past has contributed so largely to the success of China's efforts to eradicate the evil of opium from China, may see their way so to limit the supply of opium to Hongkong and
regulate...............