CO129-498-14 Illicit traffic in opium and drugs 4-12-1925 - 30-11-1926 — Page 88

NATIONAL

Any communication on the subject of this letter

sh

be addressed to-

E UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE,

Home Office,

LONDON, S. W. 1,

and the following number quoted :—

447,190.

то

ก

1926

Copy Ser. Cory (3)-7. 27 AUG 1926

HOME OFFICE,

18

WHITEHALL.

C.15610

9th August, 1926.

10

AUG 1926

Sir,

I am directed by Secretary Sir William Joynson-Hicks to say,

for the information of Mr. Secretary Amery, that under date of the

11th February 19:6, the German Consul-General at Geneva notified the

Secretary-General of the League of Nations, for the information of the

members of the Opium Advisory Committee that the smuggling of narcotic

drugs on a large scale had recently been brought to light by the

police authorities at Hamburg. The smuggled goods had come exclusive-

ly from the chemical factory of Hoffman La Roche & Co. at Basle, and

were introduced under a false declaration as harmless chemicals into

the Free Port of Hamburg where they were placed by the smugglers

together with other goods destined for shipment to the Far East.

The Hamburg Police were able, apparently by means of an inspection

of the Store Register of the Spiero Forwarding Agency at Hamburg, to

discover that amongst other persons engaged in the traffic was a certain

Chan Sham of British nationality, who had received from Hoffman La

These cases

It is stated,

Roche 21 kilos of diacetyl-morphine in four small cases.

were seized but Chan Sham could not be discovered.

however, that Chan Sham was born on the 16th May 1883 at Hong Kong,

and that he arrived in Hamburg on the 6th of December 1924 from Genoa

with a passport issued at Hong Kong on the 15th July 1924. His

permission to stay in Germany expired on the 31st December 1924.

Mr. Amery may think fit to transmit this information to the Government

of Hong Kong.

The Under-Secretary of

State, COLONIAL OFFICE.

I am, Sir,

Your obedient Servant,

Af Eagleston