sobe sirculated by British representative as to the legitimate
eplum requirements of Hong Kong.
317
This note is sirouladed to nembers of the Opium Advisory Committee is consequense of the discussion which took place in the Fifth Committee of the Assembly last September, and in view of the undertaking then given by the British Delegation with regard to the proposed increase in the import of
The object of the note is to ex iain the
circumstanoon in which, and the grounds on which, the increase was propo sad by the Government of Hong Kong. The question will have to be considered
in connection with the guneral question of the aplication of Part II of
the Convention, which is the fifth item on the Agenda.
The quantities of raw opium imported and boiled, and of chandu seld, for the years 1915–1922 are given in the following table;-
No. of chests
Imported.
/mount boiled by deverint nonepély
mount of prepared
yim solà.
1916
260
1917
1918
1919
140
352 $59 377
1920
200%
1921
2943 76 252806 70332
1928
It will be noticed that a great reduction took place in 1920.
vas mode in view of the greatly reduced sales.
This
(Bote:- In addition to the opium imported from India, the Hong Kong Government uses a certain amount of confiscated õpim.)
Arrangements were made for the same amount of opium to be auglied in 1922 as in 1921 (1.0. 10 chests per month), but in June the Govermet of Hong Kong asked for an additional mpply of 50 chests in that year and 20 chests a month in 1923, on the ground that, for some times past, the Government had been boiling considerably more than the 10 chesta per month supplied by India, and had thus bem reducing stocks accumlated in 1919. The madden reduction from 45 chests to 10 chests a month at the begiming of 1920 had proved to be too ɛrest, and it had been found that the greatly rednõed sales which then justified it were due (though partly to decreased consumption) in the main to the smuggling of ilileit opium into Heng kong
This illicit traffic was on a scale which was not sufflelently realised.
new less prevalent swing partly to the masttled conditions in the neighbour. ing provinces of Chim, and the tempo mry interruption of commn Lestless