SOFT
10. 10208/1906.
Sir,
Colonial Secretary' a Office,
Hongkong.
9th March, 1921.
336
I am direated to acknowledge the receipt of
Your letter of the 20th December, addressed to His
Excellency the Governor, in which you ask for certain
information regarding the importation of opium into the
Colony of Hongkong, and to expressregret that this reply
has been delayed.
In answering your everal questions I shell
is intended "import assume that by import for use in the Colony".
1.
The importation of raw opium has decreased
from 620 chests in 1914 (when the monopoly was establishe
to 180 cheats in 1920 and 120 chests for the current
year.
2. There is no importation of Turkish or Persian
opium. I enclose a copy of the Annual Report of the
Superintendent of Imports and Exports for 1919, on pages
11 to 14 of which will be found an explanation of the
figures which you quote.
3. The reduction of the revenue from opium is
the result not of a policy directed towards extinguishing
consumption in a set term of years, but of the policy of
regulating of consumption pursued by this Government.
The selling price of Government monopoly has been kept
at a height whic precludes its use in any large
quantities by the consumer of ordinary means,
the Reverend Arthur Sowerby,
General Secretary,
International Anti-Opium Association,
PEKING.
4.
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