RECEIVED
29MAR 1930
COL.OFFICE
Home Office,
Whitehall,
S.W. 1.
13
76
S.0.142.
March 28th, 1930.
My dear Grindle,
In reply to your letter of yesterday (72752/30) on the question of the disposal of the large quantity of Cantonese Opium recently seized by the Hong Kong authorities in a launch which came ashure in British waters, I think it would be very unwise to return the opium to the Mayor of Canton on behalf of the Opium Suppression Bureau to which it is said to belong, except after previous consultation with the Central Government at Nanking.
Your information that the matter is one within the discretion
of the Provincial Government is not in accordance with the
свои of our representatives in Chiria
reports on the action taken by the Central Government in regard to the control of opium nor with the statements made by the Chinese representative at the recent meeting of the Opium Advisory Committee of the League. Those reports show, if I unders tand them rightly, that the opium control has been
centralised legally, if not actually, in the hands of the
Nanking Administration.
authorities desire to keep on good terms with the Canton authorities and to oblige them in this matter by sending the
opium back, but if we authorise it we shall place ourselves in
a very embarassing position because we know, and everybody knows, that the opium is intended for uses which are illegal under the Chinese law, and which the National Government is trying to
suppress, and because we shall be seen to be playing up to and
I quite realise that the Hong Kong
Sir Gilbert Grindle, K.C.M.G., C.B.