>
452
:
within the territorial waters of the Colony.
His operations in the Persian Gulf will no doubt be hampered somewhat by the proposed issue of King's
Regulations empowering British Consula at ports in the Persian Gulf to refuse clearance to British Ships until their Masters have declared the destination of their cargo of opium and have entered into a bond to deliver it there. But it will presumably be a simple matter for Nemazee to register his ships under a foreign flag and so evade
this control.
As to the difficulty of taking action against Nemazee himself, the Superintendent of Imports and Exports HongKong minuted on 27/2/22 as follows:
But
"It is hard to draw the line between licit and illicit cargoes in such cases. Where the manifest specifies opium, it may be presumed to be so far above-board. the more unscrupulous among the Governments naturally do not advertise such transactions. The ships seem to keep clear of Singapore and HongKong, and it is hard to see what we can do. The "Mansang (also Nema.zee's) case
last summer was very similar.
•
Opium is presumably a legitimate cargo even for a British ship, and no offence seems to be committed until
which the master wisely she comes within a jurisdiction
avoids"
-
In his covering despatch the Governor observed as
follows :-
"As Mr. Smith observes, it does not seem possible for this Government to take any action even if the traffic
in opium is illicit, which is not clear".
That there are other wealthy and powerful men concerned in the trade is sufficiently indicated in
the
59 (187558) Wt. 20112/36 Gp. 14 60,000 11-25 W & S Lad,
: