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such a way that it easily leaks out from its receptacle and so is difficult to smuggle. Purchasers are limited to one tael at a time, except in the case of registered persons who may buy three tael tine; and no one may have more than five taels in his possession. The consumption of the monopoly's opium amounts at the present time to something less than one ounce per tnmm por head of the Chinese population.
4.
The question of further restrictive measures is one which has for a long time past been most carefully considered by this Government. The essential difficulty lies in the fact that an enormous amount of amuggling takes place, and experience has shown that any material increase in the monopoly's selling rate or decrease in its output is counteracted by a corresponding activity on
tha
the part of illicit traders. I may mention some of the difficulties which this Government has contended with in its efforts to check the smugglers' operations.
5.
It was pointed out in Sir Henry May's Despatch No. 232 of the 23rd June, 1915, that raw opium could be purchased without restriction in London at about $1,200 a chest and could be sold in China at about 89,300 a chest; and it was shown that seizures had been made, in the first four months of 1915, of opium amounting to nearly fifty chests which had been smuggled from England. His
Majesty's Government are in possession of a memorial which
was presented by Messrs. Alfred Holt and Company in 1916 on
the subject of the smuggling of opium from the United King-
-dom. Restrictive measures were subsequently taken, with the
result that such smugling has been entirely stopped.
6.
I enclose copies of correspondence with
the Goverment of India regarding the smugling of opium
from India to China. It will be seen that this Government
suggested
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