CO129-502-10 Macao opium traffic 6-12-1926 - 7-12-1927 — Page 106

TRANSLATION.

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Inclosure in Sir L. Carnegie's despatch No.147 of May 6th,1927

Ministry for Foreign Affairs,

Lisbon. April 27th, 1927.

Your Excellency,

In Your Sxcellency's Note of the 22nd April last,

after mentioning the general conditions governing the

exportation of opium from India to countries which have

contracts with the Government of that country for the

supply of this drug, you call my attention to the monthly

summarises in the official bulletins of Macau, which show

an importation of 451 1/2 cases of opium from Benares

(India) from the 1st January 1925 to the 31st December 1926,

there having been imported 30 cases in December last. His

Majesty's Government desire to know how it came about that

the concessionaires of the opium monopoly in Macao managed

to obtain, through unknown channels, such large quantities

of opium in spite of the restrictions placed upon this

trade by the Government of India; and they request the

Government of the Republie to take the necessary steps to

ascertain whence and in what manner this opium has passed from

the Indian market into that of Macao.

2. The Government of the Republic are pleased to inform

Your Excellency that they will send instructions to their

representatives to enquire into this matter without delay

and they hope to be able to inform you of the result.

3. In the meantime this Government cannot fail to

mention at once the difficulty of making these enquiries

since they will be begun so long after the alleged

irregularities,