CO129-510-8 Policy on sale of Opium 12-1-1928 - 24-7-1928 — Page 35

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called the "Opium Suppression Bureau", and that

opium itself is referred to in the Cantonese official

documents as "anti-opium medicine". Nor does the

bare-faced hypocrisy end here. From the enclosures

in kr.Erenan's despatch it appears that the raw

material for Canton is obtained from the provinces

of Yunnan and Kweichow and that the transportation

of raw material has been farmed out by the Canton

Bureau to Chinese merchants, viz., the Hing an

Company. As regards the conditions in Shanghai,

the most recent report I have seen is Sir S.Barton's

Confidential despatch No.88 of the let ecember, 1927.

to His Majesty's Minister at Peking, from which it

is clear that the thirst for money is the chief

incentive of the regional authorities in the Kiangsu

and Chekiang provinces and that they are determined

to make the most of so profitable a source of revenue.

For particulars of the flagrant trade in opium

now going on at Hantow I rafer you to the enclosures

in your Confidential despatch of the 10th December,

1927:

5. Now in this matter, as in so many others,

it is important to remember that geographically

speaking Hong Kong is a part of (uang-tung. Hong Kong

is a small Eritish Colony with less than one million

inhabitants, situated on the sea coast of a large

Chinese province which is estimated to contain

thirty-seven million inhabitants. The (uang-tung

province is somewhat smaller than Italy in area,

but

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has

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