CO129-455 - Acting Governor Claud Severn - 1919 [7-9] — Page 440

will also

give

Sir E. Stubbs an

pattion

a

statement of

of his

wish to do

So

The

formation

of the

of portunity of

brown

iy

he

the League of Nation, of

and the submission of the whole question t

+ CONFIDENTI AL.

CC 64146

I WW

434

Zetter

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONGKONG. 26th September, 1919.

them

proposed,

are

Dan

ching hop of

My Lord,

excape from being hunted into premature

and

over-dratic

action.

JEC:

Gar

63991

2-4.11.19.

4.4.27.19 2.4

Juu You

With reference to my public Despatch

No. 308 of even date, I have the honour to inform Your Lord-

-ship that I have naturally used language of a guarded nature

in that Despatch with reference to the proceedings of the

Government of Macao; the complete inability of the Chinese

Government to contro peppy cultivation in the remoter

provinces; and the wholesale smuggling that would take place

into this Colony in the event of the control of the opium monopoly being removed.

2.

Since the signing of the agreement with

Macao in the year 1913, the Government of that Colony has made

no effort to reduce the consumption of opium. On the contrary it has imported the full amount of 500 chests allowed under the agreement, and has attempted to justify its action by creating an entirely fictitious export trade to cover exten- -sive smuggling into China. I would refer to the case of the alleged export of 132 chests in the S. S. "China" reported in 232 Sir Henry May's Confidential Despatch of 26th July, 1916, and

to a very recent and still more flagrant case of the export

Dr 232 5/16.

of about 140 chests to Chile in the S. S. "Amherst". This

vessel was unexpectedly compelled to put into Hongkong, where it was thoroughly searched and no opium found. The attention

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

VISCOUNT LILNER, G.C.B.,

&c.,

&C.

&0...

tention