CO129-367 - Acting Governor May - 1910 [6-7] — Page 169

Ber

?

za pakoved wat ban

muddkind celld us LO:

no betoni që në và

rroqu Doorly ab and

Bu od par má ľ

W DO

20

(4)

167

an

it reaches the point of consumption, the more so as a certain

quantity of raw opium may pass through several hands, even in

Canton itself, and as each dealer is responsible for the tax on

such quantity of prepared opium as may be produced from the raw

article which is recorded in his books, the tax on a certain pack-

age of raw opium may have to be paid several times over.

Towards the end of April it became known in HongKong that

the Kwangtung Authorities proposed to bring in these new regula-

tions for governing the sale of raw opium and the British Merchants

engaged in the trade in this Colony at once communicated with the

Consul-General at Canton, asking him to take steps to prevent the

illegal taxation.

The Consul-General merely replied that he knew nothing of-

ficially of the matter, but in any case if the tax did not dif-

ferentiate against foreign opium he did not see his way to take

the matter up with the Provincial Authorities.

!

Several letters passed on the subject, but finding the Consul

General still refused to move, the Merchants appealed to the Hong--

Kong Chamber of Commerce who thereupon telegraphed to H.B.M.'s

Charge D'Affaires at Peking, requesting him to make representationa

on the subject to the Wai-Wu-Fu.

The Chamber of Commerce much regret the attitude taken up by

the British Consul-General at Canton. This Official ignores the

question of the creation of a monopoly and still adheres to the

opinion that no breach of treaty has been committed so long as

native opium is treated in a similar manner to Indian Opium.

We have no information to show that a similar tax is being

imposed on all native opium drug brought into Kwangtung, but I

would here bag to point out that so far as the information before

the Chamber of Commerce goes the bulk of the Opium consumed in

Kwangtung is Indian Opium.

When discussing this question with the representative of the

HongKong firms we are given to understand that the Consul-General

at Canton appears to have overlooked the fact that so large a

3 Y si mo

Z ALWAY

of teng

2.41 10dece

quantity