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160,000,000 adults to the Empire, and assuming, for the sake of argument, that there were 13,455,699 smokers, as stated in the Memorandum, in China in 1906, the centage of smokers to adults would be 84, and considerably less than 16 to adult per- males, for, while women are frequently alluded to as smokers in the reports contained in the Memorandum (and to my knowledge they are numerous in the Western provinces) they have not been taken into account when the percentage was struck. If, as I believe, my figures are as, if not more, reliable than those given in the Memo- randum, the percentage of smokers to adults would be 6'64, and, taking women into account, under 13 per cent. in the case of adult males. This, of course, is assuming that the Customs estimate for 1906 is correct. In the same way the Customs estimate of production for 1908 with light and heavy classed smokers, but with five the family (a more reasonable allowance than eight) would give the percentage of persons to smokers to population as 21, of smokers to adults 5'4, and in all probability less than 10 per cent. to adult males. If 2 mace per day be taken as the average allowance of a smoker, the percentages would be less; but actual percentages will remain unknown quantities until China is able to produce reliable information regarding production, or better still, the numbers of smokers registered under the Regulations. Whether such information, if furnished, will be convincing, or whether differences of opinion as to production and consumption will remain, such differences are immaterial to, and should not be allowed to obscure, the main issue that opium in China is a great evil, and that the removal of the temptation is the only cure.
I repeat that I have made these remarks in no carping spirit. They have been offered to show that we are still much in the dark regarding the actual production, consumption and reduction of opium in China, and also in the hope that criticism and analysis at this stage may do something to obviate the difficulty and possible contro- versy which may occur, if towards the end of 1910 the Chinese Government are not in a position to demonstrate with some approach to precision the actual progress that has been effected Meanwhile, in spite of the absence of any well organized uniform scheme for accomplishing the task which China has set before her, there can be no doubt that fair progress has been made in several provinces. Much still remains to be done; but the Chinese Government, whose sincerity is beyond question, have the sympathy of the British delegation, and I am sure of this Commission, in their efforts to eradicate the opium evil from the Empire.
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
INTERNATIONAL OPTUM COMMISSION.
Summary of the Explanatory Remarks offered by Mr. J. B. Brunyate when presenting the Report of the British Delegation on the Opium and Morphine Questions in India. DEALING first with the question of morphine, Mr. Brunyate stated that the morphia habit was of comparatively recent growth in India, and as soon as the attention of the Government had been attracted to the use of the drug for other than medicinal purposes, steps were taken to hinder any further expansion. Its use was confined principally to the large centres of population, and it did not seem to grow in favour with such rapidity as cocaine, against which, it might be mentioned, prohibitory action had also been taken. The quantity of morphine which any one individual might legally possess--and then only for medicinal purposes-was now limited in India to 10, and in Burma to 5, grains. The possession of morphia by medical practitioners and druggists had also been regulated.
Turning to opium, Mr. Brunyate, after a preliminary reference to the activity of recent opium administration in India, began his analysis of the subject by an examination of the conditions of production, manufacture, and trade. He distinguished between opium grown in territories under the direct control of the Government and that which is produced in those native States who have continued to exercise the right of cultivating the poppy. In the former case, steps had been taken in the direction of reducing cultivation in anticipation of and during the currency of the expected Agreement with China, and a more than proportionate diminution of area had already been effected. In the latter case, the action of the Government is confined to regulating exports within the permitted limits. He alluded to the difficulty of finding remunerative crops in substitution for poppy in the Malwa States, and to
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the fact that the large stocks of opium in the hands of traders at the time that the Agreement became operative, further enhanced the difficulty in dealing with the question of cultivation in that area, the existing supply being sufficient, without further production, to provide the exports for a large part of the ten-year period.
The purchase of the Bengal (ie., Patna and Benares) drug from the licensed cultivator, and its subsequent manufacture, were in the hands of the Government, and trading interests did not arise until the sale of the drug for export at Calcutta, or for consumption in India to licensed vendors. In the case of Malwa opium, a succession of important commercial interests was involved in the passage of the drug from the cultivator, until it reached the hands of the large export firms in Bombay, and was thence distributed to associated firms in the Far East.
In giving the recent figures for the quantity of opium exported from India to foreign countries, Mr. Brunyate pointed out that these were no longer an index to the future dimensions of the trade, as by the Agreement which became operative from the 1st January, 1908, between His Majesty's Government and China, the total volume of exports was limited to-
61,900 chests in 1908. 56,800 51,700
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1909. 1910.
"
It had further been agreed that if during these three years the Chinese Govern- ment duly carried out their arrangements for diminishing the production and consumption in China itself, His Majesty's Government undertook to continue this annual dimination in the same proportion after the period in question, the restriction of the imports of Turkish, Persian, and other opium into China being separately arranged by the Chinese Government, and carried out simultaneously. Thus, at the end of ten years, when the Agreement would have produced its full intended effect, the permissible export of Indian opium to countries other than China would stand at a fixed maximum of 16,000 chests a year.
This Agreement had been accepted by the Chinese Government in January 1908, with an expression of deep gratitude to Ilis Majesty's Government; and the Wai-wu Pu, after a year's experience, had recently communicated to His Majesty's Minister at Peking their continued and entire satisfaction with the arrangement.
Mr. Brunyate next dealt with the questions of the Excise Administration and the consumption of opium in India, first sketching the main provisions of the Opium Act of 1878, by which, and the Rules made thereunder, the use of the drug in India was now regulated. Summarizing the general restrictions more or less uniformly applicable in all provinces, le mentioned that the sale of smoking preparations was absolutely prohibited [exception, Burmah, as also the consumption of opium in any form in a licensed opium shop. The private possession of opium by individuals was limited in the majority of provinces to 540 grains, and in a few provinces to 900 grains, while no person was allowed [exception, Burmah] to possess smoking preparations of opium, even prepared by himself, in excess of 180 grains weight.
After mentioning that the common method of using opium in India was by swallowing the crude drug, Mr. Brunyate stated the broad facts connected with the distribution of the habit in India and the purposes for which opium was employed in addition to its use as an indulgence. He next subjected the statistics of recorded consumption of opium in each province for a series of years to analysis, and pointed out that a large part of the increase which had occurred in the last two or three years could be definitely accounted for by the smuggling of opium into Burmah, where a policy of prohibition is in force in regard to the Burman population. The total recorded annual consumption of British India, excluding Burmah, now stood at the equivalent of about 8,000 chests of export opium.
Mr. Brunyate then proceeded to describe more fully the stages through which the policy of prohibition adopted by the Government of Burmah had passed, and its results. The experiment, which seemed to him an exceedingly interesting one, bad now extended over fifteen years, and its results, as exhibited in the statistics of recorded consumption, had been an immediate and heavy fall in consumption at the outset, followed by a large and rapid increase, extending up to a few years ago. Since then the figures had shown a definite tendency to progressive decline. Smuggling, it was explained, had existed with little check in the beginning, but revised arrange- ments, including strict supervision over sales, and the creation of a strong preventive establishment, had subsequently led to an increased resort to licit modes of supply. These measures, however, had still left it possible for opium to be purchased by those
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