CO129-368 - Acting Governor May - 1910 [8-9] — Page 451

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AY

J

CONFIDENTIA L.

Hongkong.

My Lord,

C.0.

30677

RECE

(REG2 6 DCT-10

1447

Goverment House,

Hongkong, 5th.September,1910.

With reference to my Confidential

20

Despatch of the 13th. ultimo forwarding a Resolution by

nine Banks in the Colony on the subject of the disorganiz-

-ation of the Opium Trade, the following information which

I have been at some pains to collect and for the accuracy

of which I can vouch shows the magnitude of the financial

crisis which the action of the Viceroy has induced.

2.

Since the imposition of the new

Regulations and Tax in the Kwangtung Province clearances

of Indian Opium had been on a very small scale and at the

date of the Resolution sales of the drug had practically

ceased with the result that the accumulation of Indian

Opium in Hongkong and Shanghai amounted to 24,000 chests

representing a value at current quotations of over

$40,000,000 though the actual cost was probably consider-

-ably higher. Of this accumulation about 25 per centum was

RIGHT HONOURABLE

held

THE EARL OF CREWE,

80.1

&C...

B&C • >

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