[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]” 398
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL
C.O.
39493
[October 28.]
SECTION 2.
Rec?
RFGF 13 DEC 12!
No. 1.
[45560]
).
Sir,
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.--(Received October 28.)
Downing Street, October 26, 1912. WITH reference to the letter from this department of the 4th October, I am directed by Mr. Secretary Harcourt to request you to lay before Secretary Sir Edward Grey the accompanying copy of a telegram from the Governor of Hong Kong regarding the consumption of opium at Macao.
2. Mr. Harcourt would suggest that enquiry should be made of the Mexican Government as to the annual requirements of that country.
3. I am also to enclose a memorandum with regard to certain points raised by Colonel Freire d'Andrade. Mr. Harcourt fears that it will not be possible to deal with the Portuguese statements as to the legitimate requirements of Macao until the arrival of the despatch mentioned in the enclosed telegrain.
4. I am to take this opportunity to transmit copies of despatches from Sir F. IL May with reference to the shipments of opium to Macao and of Persian opium to Hong Kong.
I am,
&c.
H. J. READ.
me
rdia
ITTY
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
Memorandum,
IN the private note by Colouel Freire d'Andrade it is stated that from September 1903 to April 1909 the average monthly requirements of Macao were 53 cases for local consumption and 153 for export, but that after 1909 the consumption dropped, as a consequence of the Shanghai commission, to 38 and 61 cases respectively. Colonel d'Andrade fixes the minimum requirements of Macao at 380 cases for local consumption and 460 for export, and he suggests that if Portugal moves incautiously "we shall sacrifice the revenue of Macao with no means of replacing it, but Hong Kong will maintain her revenue and continue to take the best advantage of the situation." In a second private memorandum Colonel d'Andrade says that his department would be ready to modify his minimum of 840 chests by bringing it nearer to Hong Kong, in view of the fact that while Hong Kong consumes more than it exports, the exports from Macao exceed the local consumption, but he asks whether the limit imposed on the Hong Kong farmer has ever been exceeded, and whether this accounts for the much greater revenue derived by the Government of Hong Kong.
Under clause 2 of the present Hong Kong contract the farmer may not draw more than 900 chests of raw opium in each completed year of the farm "unless the special permission of the Governor to exceed that amount is obtained." This special permis- sion has never been given.
From 1895 until the 1st March, 1910, when the present contract began, the farmer had been allowed an annual inaximum of 1,800 chests. In 1907 he withdrew from bond 725 chests, and in 1908, 969, while the average withdrawals over the period 1895 to 1908 were 1,231 chests a-ycar. When His Majesty's Government decided in 1908 to restrict the consumption of opium, it was considered necessary to reduce the maximum annual amount from 1,800 to 900 chests, since a reduction to 1,200 chests, which the farmer had suggested, would have had practically no effect.
Again, while the farmer had only drawn some 1,230 chests a-year out of a possible 1,800 under the previously existing contract, he has signified his readiness to continue the present contract (which allows a maximum of 900 chests) for a further year from the 1st March, 1913, on the condition that he may boil 45 chests a-month for local consumption, and 15 chests a-mouth for export, a total of 720 chests a-year, and to pay the same rent as he has hitherto paid for the right to boil 900 chests a-year. It must be conceded that the farmer would not be likely to consent to such an alteration in the
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