CO129-483 - Others & Individuals - 1923 — Page 323

sobe sirculated by British representative as to the legitimate

eplum requirements of Hong Kong.

317

This note is sirouladed to nembers of the Opium Advisory Committee is consequense of the discussion which took place in the Fifth Committee of the Assembly last September, and in view of the undertaking then given by the British Delegation with regard to the proposed increase in the import of

The object of the note is to ex iain the

circumstanoon in which, and the grounds on which, the increase was propo sad by the Government of Hong Kong. The question will have to be considered

in connection with the guneral question of the aplication of Part II of

the Convention, which is the fifth item on the Agenda.

The quantities of raw opium imported and boiled, and of chandu seld, for the years 1915–1922 are given in the following table;-

No. of chests

Imported.

/mount boiled by deverint nonepély

mount of prepared

yim solà.

1916

260

1917

1918

1919

140

352 $59 377

1920

200%

1921

2943 76 252806 70332

1928

It will be noticed that a great reduction took place in 1920.

vas mode in view of the greatly reduced sales.

This

(Bote:- In addition to the opium imported from India, the Hong Kong Government uses a certain amount of confiscated õpim.)

Arrangements were made for the same amount of opium to be auglied in 1922 as in 1921 (1.0. 10 chests per month), but in June the Govermet of Hong Kong asked for an additional mpply of 50 chests in that year and 20 chests a month in 1923, on the ground that, for some times past, the Government had been boiling considerably more than the 10 chesta per month supplied by India, and had thus bem reducing stocks accumlated in 1919. The madden reduction from 45 chests to 10 chests a month at the begiming of 1920 had proved to be too ɛrest, and it had been found that the greatly rednõed sales which then justified it were due (though partly to decreased consumption) in the main to the smuggling of ilileit opium into Heng kong

This illicit traffic was on a scale which was not sufflelently realised.

new less prevalent swing partly to the masttled conditions in the neighbour. ing provinces of Chim, and the tempo mry interruption of commn Lestless