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export trade in prepared opium from Macao might be.
But he told me that he had urged his Government
not to extend the existing Farm for another 2 years,
as recommended by certain Portuguese in Macao, in
league no doubt with the opium Farmer there. He
informed me that he had been summoned to Lisbon
by his Government to discuss important affaire,
the nature of which was not disclosed. He thought
the subject was the opium question in which he,
as a member of the recent Hague Convention, was
well instructed. I thereupon urged H.Sanches de
Miranda, who is as far as I can judge an honest
man, to consider carefully the facts I had put
before him and to remember that the efforts this
Government was making to suppressethe smuggling
of opium, which was conducted at present on a
large scale both from Hongkong and from Macao,
would be neutralised unless the extravagant
imports of the drug into Macao were cut down with
an unsparing hand.
Finally I told him that the Macao Farmer
would in 1914 probably have nothing to fear from
a rival in Hongkong because I was considering
whether I should advise my Government to abolish
the Hongkong opium Farm in that year. I considered
it expedient to give him this information as it
would strengthen his hands in dissuading his
Government from granting an extension of the Macao
Farm.
5.
In conclusion I wish to emphasize the
fact
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