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prepared Opium owing to the high prices, but have found the supply of illicit ample for their needs.
The only real argument for the continued existance
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of the Monopoly is that there is a possibility of obtaining
a certain amount of revenus from a vice which would still
flourish, probably more 30, after the abolition.
In the event of abolition the present objectionable
methods of house to house search on the word of rascally
informers should be abandoned and reliance placed on
Customs precautions only. Chinese tolerate methods where the revenue is being robbed when they would raise strong objections where the offence was really only against the
well being of the offender himself.
It is useless to wait for China, the position
there will take years to clear up, meanwhile Opium
#ill have fastened itself on the Country as never
before. It can, I think, with justice be claimed that Hong Kong has done its best, but has been completely
defeated by the anarchical state of China and the
resultant icecase in the growth of opium. If the Lonoply is abolished no one can say we have not carried out our obligations to the letter, even if we have failed owing to circumstances beyond our control in decreasing in any way the consumption of Spium.
The maintenance of the Monopoly must have a
reason, the Hong Kong Government have denounced all financial considerations, and it is certain that its
existence at any rate for the last 4 years has not hindered in any appreciable way the illicit trade, or tended to decrease in any way consumption. In 1914 the Monopoly was taken over by the Government with the object of decreasing the consumption of Opium that
object
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