CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 10

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undoubtedly be an offence to the Governor-General, und it is highly probable that he would proceed to take steps that might call for strenuous protest from the consul concerned.

I do not say that such an enterprise is contemplated, and I sincerely trust that no British subject would engage in it. Still the contingency is possible, and I would venture to submit that we should be doing a friendly and a gracious act if we could assure the Governor-General beforehand that any such attempt on the part of a British subject would be reprobated. In provinces such as Kuangtung or Kiangsu, where Indian opium has hitherto been consumed, the situation might present some difficulty; but in Szechuan the plea could not be urged that a market, which has never existed, is being prematurely closed, in contravention of the understanding that this trade should be gradually, not abruptly, extinguished.

I have, &c.

W. II. WILKINSON,

Yorcejn

1910

14 May

Last previous Paper.

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