عا
S.0.209.
29 APR 1329
Ause by 8
Home Office,
Whitehall,
S.W.1.
26th April, 1929.
6
My dear Grindle,
I have read carefully the secret despatch
from the Governor of Hong Kong which you enclosed with your
letter of yesterday, and I entirely agree with the lines
of the answer that you propose to send. Apart from the
fact that the Governor's proposals are highly controversial,
any considerable departure from the settled policy at the
present moment seems quite out of the question when the
League Commission is about to proceed to investigate the
existing situation at the special request of the British
Government.
To avoid any possibility of misunderstanding,
however, I would suggest that the last part of the answer
should follow more closely the terms of the exact assurance that
was given before, namely, that the Government of Hong Kong
would be permitted to buy Persian opium to make up for the
reduction in the supplies obtained from India.
The wording
you suggest would seem to imply that the Governor would be
allowed to purchase opium in excess, or even greatly in excess,
of the present or recent normal rates of consumption, provided
there was a demand for the opium at the rate approved for the
time being by the Government. The Home Government has not committed itself to this policy and I think that, put in this way
it would be regarded simply as an abandonment of the obligations
Sir Gilbert Grindle, K.C.M.G., C.B.
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