CO129-476 - Acting Governor Claud Severn & Governor Sir Stubbs - 1922 [8-12] — Page 188

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21st November, 1922.

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Dear Grindle,

Many thanks for your note of the 17th on the subject of the opium requirements of Hong Kong. I did not write to you about the pledge given by the British representative at Geneva during the discussion on Steel-Maitland's motion in the Fifth Commission because I understood from Parkinson that he had reported fully to you. The Minutes of the Fifth Commission as finally approved have not, I believe, been issued yet, but the passage in the Report of the Commission on the subject, which is to the following effect: "The British Government gave an undertaking that, if the Advisory Committee should so recommend it next Spring, the supply of opium placed on sale in Hong Kong would be so limited that the average consumption from now until the end of 1913 would not exceed the average consumption of the last few years, on the clasat estimate which could be made," was not questioned by anybody, and may be taken as substantially accurate. By "average consumptio the Commission was meant to understand, and did, I think, in fact understand, the consumption of opium legitimately placed on sale, that is exclusive of the consumption of smuggled opium,

Yours sincerely,

malcole Delerigne

Sir Gilbert Grindle, K.C.M.G., C.B.