CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 210

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5120 209

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

TRECE

REGE 12 FEB 13 [January 27.]

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

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[4949]

No. 1.

SECTION 4.

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Minutes of a Meeting held on the 27th January, 1913, at the Foreign Office, to discuss further the Opium Trafic at Macao with a Representative of the Portuguese Government.

THE meeting was held in resumption of the adjourned meeting of the 13th January, and the same persons were present as on that occasion.

M. DA FONSECA made a formal statement that his Government accepted the measures as to which an agreement had been arrived at on the 13th January, viz., that the Maçao farmer should be permitted in the new contract a maximum of 260 chests for local consumption, and that the Macao Government would adopt any regulations for checking consignments of opium to Mexico which the Government of Hong Kong might impose as a result of negotiations now in progress with the Mexican Government.

The discussion of the export trade from Macao was then resumed.

MR. ALSTON read a telegram which had been received from the British Minister at Mexico to the effect that the Mexican Government stated that the legal consumption of opium might be approximately estimated at 6,180 kilog. annually, and that that amount might be taken as Mexico's annual requirements. This, at 2.2 lbs. to the kilog., and 1,000 taels to the chest, is equivalent to 163 chests a-year.

M. DA FONSECA said that if the system of certificates proposed by Hong Kong came into force, there would be a practical and efficient check on the export of opium to Mexico, and he therefore did not consider it necessary to alter the maximum limit, which he had previously proposed, of 500 chests.

MR. DRAKE pointed out that the Indian Government was ready to assist Macao, if desired, by limiting the export from ludia, but that it would naturally expect that the limit should be fixed with some approach to the actual requirements. The Indian Government would probably not think it worth while to make special arrangements if

a limit of 500 was to be fixed for export when the total requirements of Mexico and Panamá at a liberal estimate were 181 chests a-year. M. da Fonseca repeated his view that the certificate system, accompanied by severe penalties for breach of the regulations, would be a sufficient check, and he stated that, up to November 1912, 556,000 taels of opium, say 556 chests, had been returned as exported to Mexico.

MR. SEVERN pointed out that on the figures supplied by the Mexican Government, Macao, even if the whole export trade was in the farmer's hands, could not export more than 200 chests a-year at the utmost; that the Hong Kong farmer had a right to export not more than 120 chests a-year which formed part of the trade with Mexico; and that Macao might well reduce its figure to that of Hong Kong, viz., a maximum of 120 chests a-year. He added that if the certificate system showed that more than 120 chests a-year could legitimately be supplied from Macao, the farmer could be allowed to export the number required on payment of a fixed sum to the Macao Government for every additional cheat thus exported.

M. DA FONSECA thought that the farmer would pay more for the right to export 500 chests, even though this amount was not reached, than for the right to export merely 120, and he considered this an additional reason for retaining the 500 chest maximum. He failed to see any reason for reducing Macao's output to the level of Hong Kong, though Mr. Severn pointed out that there must necessarily be an accumulation of stock on a 500 chest basis, and possibly an accumulation from the liberal figure of 260 chests for local consumption, and that the accumulation would be a great temptation to smuggle.

M. DA FONSECA, however, saw the force of Mr. Drake's statement that the real object of the discussion was to fix the amount of opium which might properly be imported into Macao; and that to arrive at that amount it was necessary to fix, if possible, the amount that might legitimately be exported from Macao.

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