RECEIVED
* 2 APR 1930
COL.OFFICE
S.0. 146.
Home Office,
Whitehall,
74
14
S.W.1.
1st April, 1930.
My dear Grindle,
With further reference to your letter of March 27th (72752/30) and following on our conversation of this afternoon, I propose that the following procedure should be adopted with reference to the disposal of the large quantity of Cantonese Opium which was recently seized by the Hong Kong Authorities on a launch which came ashore in British Waters, viz:
That His Majesty's Minister at Peking should be
instructed to inform the Nanking Government that this quantity of Cantonese Opium had come into the possession of the British Authorities at Hong Kong in the circumstances indicated in the Hong Kong telegrams; that in view of the Chinese law on the subject of opium the Hong Kong Authorities have been at a loss to know how to deal with the opium and had referred the matter to the Imperial
Government for instructions; that His Majesty's Government, recognising the circumstances in which the opium came under their control and having regard to the direct claim to the ownership of the opium made by the Opium Suppression Bureau of Canton and the request conveyed through the Mayor of Canton for its return, proposes to instruct the Hong Kong Government to return the opium to the authorities at Canton but before doing so wishes to be assured that the Nanking Government have no objection to that
The Nanking Government should be asked to reply
course.
Sir Gilbert Grindle, K.C.M.G., C.B.
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.