CO129-456 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1919 [10-12] — Page 345

•

326

8

opinion that the Government of Macao does not display any excess of zeal for the prevention of such irregularities.

4.

In the S. S. "China" case, which formed the subject of correspondence ending with Mr. Bonar Law', Confidential Despatch of the 15th November, 1916, the pretended destination of the 132 chests of propared opium shipped from Macao was Mexico; and this Government was at some pains to ascertain from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires in Mexico and to inform the Government of Macao that the

importation of opium into Mexico was prohibited. In this "Amherst" case, as Mexico could hardly be chosen again,

Chile was selected; and, there being no Consul for Chile in Macao, the matter was probably arranged through Mr. Gonsalez de Bernedo, Chilean Consul in Hongkong. Mr. Gonsalez de Bernedo was some years ago concerned in the smuggling of

opium in the back of a safe, and it is rumoured that be

still takes interest in the illicit traffic. I enclose a

copy of a letter which was obtained with some difficulty from him in reply to an enquiry whether the import of

prepared opium into Chile was prohibited. It will be seen that he does not refer to prepared opium, which presumably

is not exported to Chile, at least in smoking form, from

England, France, Italy, or Turkey.

5.

It is of course no direct concern of

this Government that Macao should smuggle opium, as long as

the drug is legitimately available in Hongkong. But I draw

attention to the methods of that Colony in order to point

the argument in Mr. Severn's Despatch No. 308 of the 25th September, that Hongkong should not stand alone in a policy of suppression, and so become the dumping ground for super- -fluous supplies from China, Indo-China, and Macao.

Condomure 12.

689979

6.