CONFIDENTIAL
No. 741 (19/37A)
Copy to Shanghai.
sir,
BRITISH LEGATION,
PAKING.
May 13th 1929.
40
With reference to my despatch No. 587 of April 19th,
I have the honour to transmit to you herewith a copy of a despatch from the Acting British Consul-General at Shanghai, concerning the seizure of a quantity of salt on board the s.s. "Kwaisang" belonging to Messrs.Jardine Matheson and Company, and enclosing a copy of a letter from the Yangtsze Preventive Officers of the Chinese Government Salt Revenue Department, in which they draw attention to the increasing trade in illicit salt carried on by the crews of British ships and request that facilities be accorded them for searching vessels flying
the British flag.
2. The question of the carriage of contraband
on British ships continues to perplex me and it must,
I think, be treated as a whole, since to accord the
right of search to any one of the various Chinese preven- tive services which claim from time to time to usurp the functions of the Maritime Customs in this matter, would make it very difficult to refuse similar facilities to other bodies. In my despatch No. 9% of January 16th I transmitted oopies of despatches from H..Consuls at Chungking and Iohang on the seriousness of the situation with regard to the carriage of opium, as well as of a despatch which I had addressed to Mr. Garstin instructing him to call the attention of the Shipping Companies to the situation and request them to state what steps they
The Right Honourable
Sir Austen Chamberlain, P.C., K.G.,
were..
etc.
etc., etc.
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