COPY.
(F 1332/38/87)
CONFIDENTIAL.
70
MEMORANDUM.
A des patch from His Majesty's Consul-General at
Saigon to the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, dated March
16th, 1923, states that in August, 1922, Mr. M.A. Nemazee,
a municipal councillor of Singapore, was implicated with
two others in an alleged attempt to bribe the Director-
General of Indo-Chinese Customs to facilitate the passage
of opium into China. When the matter came up for trial,
the court found that there was no case against Nemazee, who,
being entirely ignorant of French, had entrusted the trans-
action to a French merchant; Mr. Nemazee himself stated that
he was quite unaware of what was happening, till he was
arrested.
His Majesty's Consul-General reported, however,
that the common opinion at the time was that Mr. Nemazee
and the other two defendants (one of whom was sentenced to
a nominal sentence of one year's imprisonment) had all been
fortunate in the outcome of the affair.
FOREIGN OFFICE, S.W.1.
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