CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913 — Page 364

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

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363

RECO

R 12 APR 131

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[10400]

No. 1.

[March 5.]

SECTION 1,

Sir,

India Office to Foreign Ofice.—(Received March 5.)

India Ofice, March 4, 1913. WITH reference to your letter of the 28th June, 1912, on the subject of the imports of opium into Macao, I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to inform you that he has received a further communication from the Government of India, in which they state that they are prepared cordially to co-operate in any measures that may be found feasible for regulating the trade in opium to Macao. Such regulations, they add, requires the effective co-operation of the Portuguese authorities, which they trust that His Majesty's Government may find it possible to obtain.

It is understood that the supply of opium for Macao has recently formed the subject of informal discussions with a representative of the Portuguese Government at the Foreign Office, and that there is a prospect that definite conclusions will be arrived at on the subject of the maximum opium requirements of Macao for internal consumption and for export respectively. I am to state that, should the Portuguese Government fix and bring into effect a maximum limit of importation of Indian and other opium corresponding with the actual requirements thus estimated, the Marquess of Crewe is prepared to consider sympathetically any proposals that may be made by the Portuguese Government for co-operation by the Government of India.

I am, &c.

T. W. HOLDERNESS.

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