CO129-502-10 Macao opium traffic 6-12-1926 - 7-12-1927 — Page 33

ENCLOSURE NO. 1.

REPUBLICA PORTUGUESA

Governor da Provincia de Macau

14th August, 1927.

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Dear Sir Cecil,

I have just received by a private message from Lisbon

in the last mail which states that the Minister for Foreign Affairs in Lisbon in accordance with the telegrams received

from myself, solicited the Portuguese Ambassador to the

Court of St. James to renew, with every endeavour, his

requests of His Majesty's Government to permit Hong Kong

to supply, as a minimum 120 chests of Indian opium per

annum for manufacture at Macau.

I am informed that it is hoped that our efforts to

secure the necessary authority may be successful, due in no

small measure to Your Excellency's kind efforts to help us.

With regard to this matter I am not in doubt in any way

and am fully conscious of the great assistance rendered by Your Excellency to our cause, which resulted in your being

able to so graciously supply us with the 10 chests we received

from Your Government.

We are entering upon the second month of the official

administration of opium supplies, however, and I have

ascertained with the greatest strictness that the sale of

opium has proceeded with the utmost care and the manufacture

of prepared opium has proceeded as slowly as possible, and

I am restricting the quantity of Indian opium to 9 or 10 chests per month against a population at Macau, as Your Excellency can ascertain, of over 150,000 persons as revealed

His Excellency,

The Governor

Hong Kong.