CO129-385 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 50

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[38656]

No. 1.

RECO

CO 33819

Rroe20 OCT robebber 3.]

SACTION 1.

India Office to Foreign Office.- (Received October 3.)

Sir,

India Office, October 2, 1911. IN continuation of Mr. Montagu's letter of the 30th June last on the subject of the arrangements for numbering the chests of opium exported from India, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India to forward, for the information of Sir Edward Grey, a copy of a letter from the Government of India of the 31st August,

1011.

Enclosure in No. 1.

I am, &c.

LIONEL ABRAHAMS.

Government of India to the Marquess of Crewe.

My Lord Marquess,

Simla, August 31, 1911. WE have the honour to refer to our telegram dated the 29th June, 1911, on the subject of the consecutive numbering of opium chests in accordance with the provisions of clause 1 of article 8 of the recent opium agreement with China.

2. We have now arranged to mark the chests of Malwa opium exported to China in 1912 with consecutive numbers from 1 to 14,980, and those of Bengal opium with numbers from 14,981 onwards. It has not been found possible to number the Calcutta and Bombay chests in one series according to the date of export, but we trust that with the proposed arrangement the identification of chests will present no difficulty.

3. In this connection we would invite attention to paragraph 2 of Sir John Jordan's despatch No. 286 dated the 14th July, 1911 (a copy of which has been forwarded to us direct), and would observe that we should be glad to communicate to Mr. Aglen, the acting inspector-general of the Imperial Maritime Customs, China, any information that he may require to facilitate the identification of chests exported to that country from India.

A copy of this despatch is being communicated to Sir John Jordan,

We have, &c.

HARDINGE OF PENSHURST.

O'M. CREAGH.

G. FLEETWOOD WILSON.

J. L. JENKINS.

R. W. CARLYLE,

S. H. BUTLER.

W. H. CLARK.

[2226 c-1]

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