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calculated to render such assistance as lay in
her power in the solution of the problems connected
with the use of prepared opius in the further East.
Nevertheless I freely admit that India has set a
fine example both to Persia and to China. My only
fear is that, perhaps Fersia, and certainly China, will
not follow suit for many years to come.
7. In connexion with the decision taken
by the Government of India you notified me in your Confidential despatch of the 25th January, 1926",
1926, that the Hong Kong Government would be at
liberty, if the necessity should arise, to supplement
restricted supplies from India by drawing from
other sources such oplum as it might require during
the transitional period, so far as this might be
consistent with the international stipulations,
to which the Hong Kong Government had already
agreed, and with the laws of the Colony and the
laws of the country from which supplies may be
drawn. I noted the authority so conveyed to me
with much relief and it encouraged me in the line
of action which I eventually decided to adopt.
8. Un taking stock of the situation in Hong
Kong itself, I found that opium, raw and prepared,
was being seized constantly on every ship plying
between this port and China. I append, as a typical
example, the record for a few months of a single
river steamer, the 7.5. Tai Hing, running between
Hong Kong and uchow on the test River. I found the
Colony's
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