289
¡
36
think we may say that the German and British delegates parted with full mutual appreciation and respect.
The leader of the American delegation, Bishop Brent, presided over the conference, and in that capacity wou the esteem and regard of all the members. He cannot, perhaps, be considered to have been at all a strong occupant of the presidential chair. He was, however, quite impartial, and never hesitated to call the members of his own delegation to order when occasion required. Of Dr. Hamilton Wright, the active leader of the delegation, we have sufficiently spoken. The third American delegate, Mr. Finger, a chemist from California, carried little weight.
The leader of the Chinese delegation, Mr. Liang Cheng, the Chinese Minister at Berlin, commanded the entire respect of the conference, and on the occasions in which he intervened in debate, his statements were weighty and to the point. Unfortunately, however, he allowed the practical leadership to rest mostly with Mr. Tang Kwo-An, a voluble, self-assertive Southern Chinaman, who was, we considered, mainly responsible, for the follies which occasionally marked the attitude of the Chinese delegation, The only other Chinese delegate of any special importance was Dr. Wu Lien Teh, who commanded respect by reason of his medical attainments and his achievements in combating the outbreak of pneumonic plague in Manchuria.
The Japanese delegation did not take a very prominent part at the conference, but when its leader, Mr. Aimaro Sato, the Japanese Minister at The Hague, intervened in our debates, he always spoke weightily and to the point, especially in regard to points
of order.
The attitude of the Portuguese delegates was very equivocal. While always professing the most lofty bumanitarian sentiments, they showed themselves most reluctant to agree to anything which would destroy the position of Macao as a centre for contraband traffic in opium, &c., and as a place where the abuse of the drugs aimed at by the conference night be indulged in.
The Persian delegate, Mirza Mahmoud Khan, was a very young man, whose permanent position is only that of third secretary at the Persian Legation at The Hague. He was quite out of place at the conference, and his foolish frivolity drew down upon him on more than one occasion severe rebuke from the chair,
The Siamese delegation ordinarily took a modest, but useful, part in the proceedings of the conference; but, with reference to the inclusion of special Chinese articles in the general convention, its active spokesman, Mr. Archer, was needlessly insistent on the special position of Siam as a non-treaty Power.
163. We desire to state in conclusion that we are much indebted to the Honourable Ronald Lindsay, first secretary of His Majesty's Legation at The Hague, who acted as secretary to our delegation, for the industry and ability with which he assisted us in our labours. Mr. Lindsay's great proficiency in French made his services specially valuable.
163. Finally, we wish to express the obligation under which we, as well as the delegates of the other conference Powers, lie to the Netherlands Government for their The conference was courtesy, hospitality, and cordial assistance in our labours. specially indebted, for most valuable advice in regned to various important matters, to M. Asser, and to its honorary president, his Excellency M. de Marees van Swinderen.
April 10, 1912.
We have the honour to be,
Sir,
Your most obedient
humble servants,
CECIL CLEMENTI SMITH,
W. S. MEYER.
W. G. MAX MÜLLER,
37
APPENDIX I.
Paper by Sir William Meyer on the Control over the Production, Sule, and Possession of Baw Opium in India, outside Burmah.
IN connection with the resolution under discussion, I should like to put before the conference a brief exposition of the situation in regard to raw opium in British India and its dependent native States, which will show how fully the Indian Government already accept and act upon the principle that there should be effective national laws and regulations to control the production and distribution of this class of opium, and the extent to which they are now rendering their system still more stringent. Speaking as I am on the subject of raw opium which, as our Programme-Committee has defined it, includes opium which has been subjected to such simple processes as are necessary to obtain a desired standard of consistence for packing, transport, and export, I shall contine my present remarks to India proper, where eating the drug in this form is the habitual method of consumption, and where the use of prepared opium for smoking, which will come before us later on, is on a relatively trifling scale, and pass over Burmah, where the use of smoking preparations is the predominant form of consumption.
Now, the reasons which render it impossible in India to confine the use of opium to medicinal purposes are admirably stated in the following extracts from a despatch recently addressed by the Government of India to the Home Government :---
"The prohibition of opium-eating in India we regard as impossible, and any attempt at it as fraught with the most serious consequences to the people and the Government. We take our stand unhesitatingly on the conclusions of the Royal Commission (for India) which reported in 1895, viz.: that the opium habit as a vice scarcely exists in India; that opium is extensively used for non-medical and quasi-medical purposes, in some cases with benefit, and for the most part without injurious consequences; that the non-medical uses are so interwoven with the medical uses, that it would not be practicable to draw a distinction between them in the distribution and sale of the drug ; and that it is not necessary that the growth of the poppy and the manufacture and sale Whatever of opium in British India should be prohibited except for medical purposes. may be the case in other countries, centuries of inherited experience have taught the people of India discretion in the use of the drug, and its misuse is a negligible feature in Indian life. Even if it were possible to suppress the cultivation of opium in India, geographical and political limitations would place it beyond our power to prevent illicit import and consumption on a serious scale. The point is one which we do not propose to labour. But some useful light is thrown upon the use of opium by the results of the latest medical enquiry, conducted under our orders, into the drug habit in India. It will be seen from the statistics of lunatic asylums in India during 1909 that, among the cases of insanity caused by the use of intoxicants, the use of opium in all its forms is scarcely responsible for any appreciable number. While 10 per cent, of the cases are due to hemp in its various forms, 3.35 per cent. to alcohol and 120 per cent. to other drugs (principally cocaine), only 0:46 per cent, are due to opium. These figures are all the more remarkable when we contrast the old-established use of opium in India with the entire novelty of cocaine, coupled with the fact that the use of the latter has hardly penetrated yet beyond the limits of the large towns.”
C
Again (I quote from a later portion of the same despatch):-
--
The great majority of Indian opium caters are not slaves to the habit. They take small doses as required, and can and do give up the allowance when the need of it is past. Opium is in virtually universal use throughout India as the commonest and most treasured of the household remedies accessible to the people. It is taken to avert or lessen fatigue, as a specific in bowel complaints, as a prophylactic against malaria (for which its relatively high anarcotine content makes it specially valuable), to lessen the quantity of sugar in diabetes, and generally to allay pain in sufferers of all ages. The vast bulk of the Indian population, it must be remembered, are strangers to the
* This paper was originally put before the conference as a speech, at the third session, with reference to the resolution which formed the basis of article 1 of the convention.
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