}
11
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by the Formosan or any other Monopoly in the Far East.
In the Foreign Office letter of the 11 th
4.
July, 1921, which was enclosed in Mr. Churchill's Confidential.
Lido 7 despatch of the 31st July, 1921, it was suggested that steps
should be taken to prevent the transhipment in Hongkong of
Turkish opium consigned to Formosa. In my Contidential
despatch of the 12th October, 1921, I suggested reasons why
such a course would be inexpedient, but, at the date of the
shipments now in question, no reply had been received to thet
despatch, and Mr. Severn was confronted with the position
either that he must offend the Japanese Government by
refusing permission for shipment, or that he must contravene
the instructions of His Majesty's Government, which dated
back, it is true, to 1913, but the enforcement of which had
recently been suggested by the Foreign Office.
5.
If I understand the position correctly the
Foreign Office approves Mr. Sever's action in permitting
the export to Formosa, but it deprecates his consigning it to His Majesty's Consul at Tamsui. It is the long-established
rule of this Government that warlike stores and opium,
landed in Hongkong for transhipment and not on through consignment, are to be consigned to the British Consul er Authorities at port of destination, as an elementary precaution that they do not fall into unauthorised hands. The opium under discussion was not on through consignment, and Mr. Severn had at first merely the word of a Japanese shipping company that they would carry it to the Formosan Monopoly the existence of which is, I need hardly say, known to this Government as may be seen from the correspondence referred to in the preceding paragraph. The fact that this opium was intended for the Monopoly was but subsequently confirmed by the Japanese Consul -General,
well
I submit that, in the absence of convincing evidence at the time Mr. Severn was fully justified in requiring the ordinary precaution of consignment to a British Consul ar
Authority