CO129-394 - Governor Sir May & Public Offices - 1912 [12] — Page 15

}

in Macao to local consumption and to the export trade.

After some argument in which I referred him to the

comparative population of Macao and Hongkong and to

the ascertained local consumption of the latter

place, while he argued that local purchases in Macao

were swelled by those of Chinese visitors who took

prepared opium away with them for their own use or

for presents to their friends, he admitted that the

estimate of local consumption at Macao was perhaps

not very far out. He then proceeded to argue that

the Macao Farmer held the export trade: that it was

very large and that it was just this trade which the

Hongkong Farmer wished to wrest from his rival in

Macao. I admitted that formerly the Macao Farmer

had practically the monopoly of the export trade to

the Chinese communities in Australia, in America and elsewhere. But I reminded him that these markets

were now closed, that the legitimate export trade

must now be very small and that the Hongkong Farmer

would be limited in 1913-14 to a maximum of 10 chests

per mensem and that before he could get a single

chest for export he would have to satisfy this

Government that the Government of the country of

destination desired and permitted it's port. I

pointed out that in such circumstances it was

unreasonable for the Macao Farmer to allege that the

Hongkong Farmer wished to kill his competitor's export

trade.

4.

M. Sanches de Miranda would not commit

himself to any estimate of what the legitimate

export

13

1