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8 and 9, as late as 10th September, 1974 the Inspector-General of Police, Sri Lanka, told me that neither his Government nor the Police Force yet has a Narcotics Bureau, though he was thinking of establishing a small one if the Force could obtain the necessary funds,
The Colombo Plan Drug Adviser attended at Geneva last February as recorded at paragraph 11. To the best of my recollection he never opened his mouth once. I have commented above in a general way on the remaining substance of this paragraph, most of which appears to be concerned with P.A. attempting to justify his existence.
Paragraphs 13 and 29 need to be taken together.
In the light of the countries who will be invited to Pakistan, it is not clear to me what constructive purpose will be achieved by the proposed Teheran meeting a few months later, or which countries will be invited to attend different to those in paragraph 29. On the face of it, this gives the impression of another instance of wasteful duplication, promoting a conference at Teheran for little purpose other than holding a conference, Although Bangladesh, and perhaps India, have a small opium smuggling problem emanating from the Chin Hill tracts of northern Burma, nevertheless Burma's predominance in the golden triangle places it firmly in the South East Asia and Far East group. However, Burma is very unlikely to attend in the event in accordance with its policy in such matters. I detect here an Interpol-U.N. vacuum in central Asia which P. A. may be endeavouring to exploit. Following the U.N. Ad Hoc Committee for South East Asia and the Far East, perhaps there is a need for something similar with resident Interpol and U.N. Narcotics Liaison Officers in central Asia, but this is a bit beyond the scope of current considerations vis-a-vis the Colombo Plan Report.
Hong Kong sent a Chief Inspector from the Police Narcotics Bureau as a s tudent on the course mentioned in paragraph 21 mainly to assess the value of such courses in the future for Hong Kong officers. His report was to the effect that the course was good, but designed primarily with developing countries in mind and therefore unfortunately not what we were after.
You know all about the Colombo Plan meeting at Bangkok in July outlined in paragraphs 23 to 28 so I need say little about it here. The poppy to pipe agenda is again readily apparent. Hong Kong being a world pioneer in the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts and far and away the leader in this discipline in South East Asia and the Far East, I was surprised that no one on this side of the house was invited to Bangkok. A bit of regional politics involved I suspect, or maybe just plain forgetfulness.
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