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

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I submit draft herewith after

discussion with Sir Malcolm Delevingne and

Mr. Nichols of the Foreign Office. The

difficulty presented by Article 6 of the

Geneva Agreement had not occurred to any of

us before in connection with the previous

supplies allowed by the Government of Hong

now

Kong, but it had occurred to Sir Malcolm

Delevingne and the Foreign Office

simultaneously.

The Foreign Office

are very anxious indeed to do what they

can to help Macao.

As Mr. Nichols put it,

for almost the first time they found

themselves in sympathy with Sir C. Clementi.

They recognise the difficulty as to

prohibition of export from a Far Eastern

smoking territory, but nevertheless would

be prepared to submit to the authorities in

the Foreign Office that Hong Kong should let

Macao have, say, another five chests at the

end of this month and another five at the

end of September, with a clear intimation

that that would be the end and that, in the

meantime, Macao must make satisfactory arrangements of their own.

Sir Malcolm Delevingne would not

oppose such an arrangement absolutely, but,

as he points out, it is he who will have to

defend the transactions at Geneva, if they

are called in question, and he could only

agree