297
:
reason the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the Charter- -ed Bank of India, Australia and China, and the Hongkong General Chamber of Commerce have taken the matter up, and have requested
me to make representations to you on the subject.
4.
I am informed that the upset price of opium at the auctions held by the Government of India is very low. If therefore the opium merchants refrain from bidding at the July or any subsequent auctions, they fear that some outside firm may as a speculation purchase at a very low price such opium as is put up for auction and then undersell the stock previously purchased at very high prices for the China market. On the other hand, the more
the opium merchants buy at the monthly auctions in India, the more capital is tied up in stocks which lie idle and can only be dispos- -ed of gradually, and the greater is the risk of ultimate loss owing to the uncertainties of the opium trade and the instability of the political situation in China.
5.
The opium merchants argue, as it seems to me with great cogency, that they purchase their opium from the Bri- -tish Government on the faith of treaties now existing between Great Britain and China, but that owing to the chaotic state of China these treaties are for the time being inoperative. They con- -tend, therefore, that it is the duty of the British Government
either to compel the Chinese Covernment to observe the opium treaties, or, if that is impossible, to suspend the auctions of
certified opium in India until such time as the treaties can be
made effective.
closure
2.
6.
The situation in Bacau is most unsatisfactory
and I enclose copies of correspondence which has recently passed. There can be little doubt that the smuggling of opium into China is being conducted on a very large scale, and so long as the Government of Macau allow their Opium Farmer to import a number of chests so much in excess of the legitimate requirements of the
Colony
}
C
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.