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people really have any sort of strangle-hold upon the
Persian supply, I think we should be fully convinced that
Messrs Bellairs Atkinson are in a position to cope with
it, and that by employing them and paying them a 24%
commission, we really are assuring ourselves of a supply
on more favourable terms than would be obtainable by us
without their aid. I am admittedly writing this to you
on the strength of rumour, upon the truth or reliability
of which I am not in the least prepared to bank; and it is
certain that the Department is better informed concerning
this matter than are the Governments of the Straits or of
the F.M.S., I am very reluctant, however, to see us bound
by an agreement with any European firm, merely because
it is "respectable", while certain native firms are held
to be "disreputable", if -- as there seems to be some
reason to apprehend the latter are likely, after all,
to be the real suppliers, the European firm enjoying no
special means of obtaining the opium it requires for us,
save through their agency or through dummies put up by
them to pose as being independent of them.
I will deal with your telegram by despatch as
soon as the papers come back to me from Kuala Lumpur, but
I have thought it as well to write this letter to you in
the mean time, in order that the accuracy or otherwise of
the suspicions which we entertain can, if possible, be
tested by the Department.
In this connection I might me nt ion that Mr.Elias
of the firm of Elias, Manasseh and Co. recently showed
Cator, the Acting Superintendent of Government Monopolies,
a telegram from an European firm, the name of which he
would not disclose, inviting him to tender for the supply
of 100 chests of opium per mensem required for the
Straits Government.
Elias also said that though his
firm
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