(ii) Where this Red Lion Opium is actually prepared is unknown, but all Chinese know it as Macau opium, and the name of Macau is generally coupled with the name of the brand in the many documents from abroad which have been examined this year. Most of the seizures ascribed to Macau were found in circumstances which proved that the opium must have been placed on the importing ship in Macau.
In a minority of cases only was the assignment of Macau origin due to the mark on the tins coupled with the quality and physical appearance.
(iii) It is unlikely that more than about five per cent of the total imports for local consumption are actually seized in Hong Kong. The low state of the sales of Government Opium alone shows this. This would give some 300,000 taels as the quantity illicitly imported annually into the Colony. It is probably a good deal more, for Red Lion appears to be by far the commonest brand of opium consumed in Hong Kong, and there must be few divans which do not use this brand to a great extent, judging from the number of empty and full tins found therein. If to this figure is added the large amount which is exported in cargo through the Colony to Malaya, Java, the Philippine Islands and other countries, the probable amount of Red Lion prepared opium which was exported from Macau during last year must have reached a figure approaching 800,000 taels.
(iv) This opium comes in by every junk and steamer from Macau and especially by the steamer arriving in the evening. From the latter steamer it is sometimes thrown into the sea attached to floats near Cheung Chow Island to be picked up by specially engaged sampans, but more often it is not discharged until some hours after the steamer has reached her wharf, when the hour of 2 a.m. has been found to be a suitable time. A net of spies is thrown round the wharf both on land and sea, as soon as everything is reported safe a signal is made to a waiting sampan, motor boat or steam launch which then rushes to the side or stern of the steamer and receives the opium as it passes rapidly by. Officers of the Police and this Department have waited all through the hours of darkness, only in the end to see the opium whisked away right under their noses by a route which had been left momentarily unguarded. Sometimes officers of this Department appear to have helped the delivery of the opium and one Chinese Revenue Officer was convicted of possession of a large quantity of Red Lion Opium of which he had taken delivery from the evening Macau steamer and which he was escorting across the Harbour towards Mongkok.
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(ii) Where this Red Lion Opium is actually pre- pared is unknown, but all Chinese know it as Macau opium, and the name of Macau is generally coupled with the name of the brand in the many documents from abroad which have been examined this year. Most of the seizures ascribed to Macau were found in circumstances which proved that the opium must have been placed on the importing ship in Macau.
In a minority of cases only was the assignment of Macau origin due to the mark on the tins coupled with the quality and physical appearance.
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(iii) It is unlikely that more than about five per cent of the total imports for local consumption are actually seized in Hong Kong. The low state of the sales of Government Opium alone shows this. This would give some 300,000 taels as the quantity illicitly imported annually into the Colony. It is probably a good deal more, for Red Lion appears to be by far the commonest brand of opium consumed in Hong Kong, and there must be few divans which do not use this brand to a great extent, judging from the number of empty and full tins found therein. If to this figure is added the large amount which is exported in cargo through the Colony to Malaya, Java, the Philippine Islands and other countries, the probable amount of Red Lion prepared opium which was exported from Macau during last year must have reached a figure approaching 800,000 taels.
(iv) This opium comes in by every junk and steamer from Macau and especially by the steamer arriving in the evening. From the latter steamer it is sometimes thrown into the sea attached to floats near Cheung Chow Island to be picked up by specially engaged sampans, but more often it is not discharged until some hours after the steamer has reached her wharf, when the hour of 2 a.m. has been found to be a suitable time. A net of spies is thrown round the wharf both on land and sea, as soon as everything is reported safe a signal is made to a waiting sampan, motor boat or steam launch which then rushes to the side or stern of the steamer and receives the opium as it passes rapidly by. Officers of the Police and this Department have waited all through the hours of darkness, only in the end to see the opium whisked away right under their noses by a route which had been left momentarily unguarded. Sometimes officers of this Department appear to have helped the delivery of the opium and one Chinese Revenue Officer was convicted of possession of a large quantity of Red Lion Opium of which he had taken delivery from the evening Macau steamer and which he was escorting across the Harbour towards Mongkok.
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