CO129-476 - Acting Governor Claud Severn & Governor Sir Stubbs - 1922 [8-12] — Page 189

....

!

C

185

10th November, 1922.

35

ur 153173

35-787

[~(882)

Dear Grindle,

..

I see from Severn's dispatch of the 14th September, enclosed with your letter (53213/22) dated" november" and received here on the 4th, that the Hong Kong Government now put the amount

al

of opium required to meet legitimate demands, from 28 to 52 chests a month, and suggest that they should be allowed a maximum amount of 400 chests a year, so as to be in a position to meet all legitimate demands. In earlier correspondence on the subject the 1923 requirements of Hong Kong were put at 20 chests per month (see, for example, the Colonial Becretary's letter enclosed with the Governor's dispatch of 2nd June), and in the Colonial office latter of 26th April last to the Foreign Office the amount of opium actually boiled by the Government Monopoly in 1920 is put at 228 chests, and in 1921 at 200 ckrests. Your letter received here on the 4th does not enclose a copy of your reply to the acting Governor of the Colony, nor state what action you have taken on hia letter. I do not know what the explanation of the difference between the earlier and the later estimates of the Hong Kong Government can be, unless it is that they have made allowance for the additional demand which is likely to arise as a result of the reduction in the consumption of smuggled opium due to the

stricter preventive measures taken by the Government. If this is

so, it would not be in accordance with the pledge given by the British Representatives at Geneva during the meeting of the

*

Bir Gilbert Grindle, K.O.M.G.... Ģ.B.