CO129-367 - Acting Governor May - 1910 [6-7] — Page 170

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quantity of opium was sent through Canton into the interior, he appeared to consider that even though the City might not actually be the "place of consumption" still the drug would be used within a very short period of time and therefore the regulation enforcing preparation of the opium, within three days of passing through the Bureau, would prove no hardship to the Merchants.

that

The Consul-General also seemed to be under the impression

the opium once boiled must be consumed immediately and

that the intention of the Authorities in insisting on boiling with-

in three days of purchase was to prevent hoarding on the part of

wealthy Chinese.

Once opium is boiled, if

This, however, is a mistake.

carefully packed, it can be kept for years.

The real reason presumably why this prompt boiling is insis-

ted upon is to justify the levying of the tax in Canton, as the

Consul-General we understand has given it as his opinion that the

place where the opium is boiled is to all intenta and purposes the

place of consumption, and the Chinese are therefore committing no

breach of the Chefoo Agreement by imposing this extra tax on opium

in Canton, which is already covered by a transit peas.

+

The Consul-General states that the new regulations will not

affect oplum for transit to the interior, but while writing this

despatch a letter has been received from one of the opium firms

showing that all raw opium purchased in Canton is governed by the

same regulations. (See Enclosure No.24).

The Chargé D'Affaires has not yet fully replied to the various

telegrams the Chamber has despatched, but in a private letter has

given it as his opinion that he must be very greatly guided by the

deolaion of such an experienced official as the Consul-General.

From a later private letter we learn that "Mr. Jamieson has warned

"the Governor General that objection will be made

"to any differential treatment in regard to the

"imposition of this tax and has pointed out that

"additional taxation on unbroken packages cannot be

"levied on foreign opium in a Treaty Port".

'' ཨ ཙི ཙ ནུ ཙ,, སཱི ཏི ཏྟཾ, ཨཝཱནཾ

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