CO129-516-5 Policy of Hong Kong government on the purchase and supply of opium 25-2-1929 - 10-5-1929 — Page 18

NO SECRE

GOVERNMENT HOUSE,

HONG KONG.

10th May 1929.

62836

18

Y

Sir,

I have the honour to acknowledge with much

regret the receipt of your telegram, dated the 2nd Tay,

informing me that is Majesty's Government cannot

approve the recommendations made in my secret despatch

of the 25th February, 1929, for reducing to some extent the loss of revenue inflicted upon this Government by

opium smugglers.

2. In order that you may realize how serious

this loss is and how the position has deteriorated, I enclose a table showing the actual opium revenue of Hong Kong week by week for the first 18 weeks of

the years 1926 to 1929, both inclusive. It shows

that for the first 18 weeks of this year the total was $947,684 as against $1,101,658 for the same period in 1926, when the Colony was being intensively boycotted by Canton and when the population was

certainly less than it is now. It also shows the

much higher figures in the early weeks of 1920, when this Government had reduced prices; for example in

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

TIEUTENANT COLO EL T.C..S. AERY, K.P.

C.

C. 2

the