CO129-479 - Governor Sir Stubbs - 1923 [1-3] — Page 313

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by the Formosan or any other Monopoly in the Far East.

In the Foreign Office letter of the 11 th

4.

July, 1921, which was enclosed in Mr. Churchill's Confidential.

Lido 7 despatch of the 31st July, 1921, it was suggested that steps

should be taken to prevent the transhipment in Hongkong of

Turkish opium consigned to Formosa. In my Contidential

despatch of the 12th October, 1921, I suggested reasons why

such a course would be inexpedient, but, at the date of the

shipments now in question, no reply had been received to thet

despatch, and Mr. Severn was confronted with the position

either that he must offend the Japanese Government by

refusing permission for shipment, or that he must contravene

the instructions of His Majesty's Government, which dated

back, it is true, to 1913, but the enforcement of which had

recently been suggested by the Foreign Office.

5.

If I understand the position correctly the

Foreign Office approves Mr. Sever's action in permitting

the export to Formosa, but it deprecates his consigning it to His Majesty's Consul at Tamsui. It is the long-established

rule of this Government that warlike stores and opium,

landed in Hongkong for transhipment and not on through consignment, are to be consigned to the British Consul er Authorities at port of destination, as an elementary precaution that they do not fall into unauthorised hands. The opium under discussion was not on through consignment, and Mr. Severn had at first merely the word of a Japanese shipping company that they would carry it to the Formosan Monopoly the existence of which is, I need hardly say, known to this Government as may be seen from the correspondence referred to in the preceding paragraph. The fact that this opium was intended for the Monopoly was but subsequently confirmed by the Japanese Consul -General,

well

I submit that, in the absence of convincing evidence at the time Mr. Severn was fully justified in requiring the ordinary precaution of consignment to a British Consul ar

Authority