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For the southern both the first and the third grade are in demand. section, the average consumption is 41 or 4'5 grammes (=6314 or 69:30 grains). As Indian opium-smoking preparations correspond mostly to the lower grade of Japanese production, the latter figure is the one that can hest be used for comparison. "In India proper the ordinary dose is not ascertain- able, but the Royal Commission on Opium took the evidence of several habitual opium smokers in Burma. Two such witnesses declared their daily dose to be 3 tolas; one gave it as 2 tolas; and another said that he took or of a tola when he did little work, but 1 or 1 tola when at heavy work. It may safely be said that under Indian conditions a tola represents little more than one or two days' average dose for a smoker of low-grade chandu. It is a good deal short of the daily dose required by a habitual and confirmed smoker. When this is further reduced in the manner indicated above, the measure will have the practical effect of prohibition.
8. We have arrived at these conclusions, after fall deliberation, in preference to an attempt at the categorical prohibition of the smoking of opium by individuals. To declare the act in itself illegal would, we are convinced, have been impracticable, impolitic and even dangerous. It would have been necessary for us, in the first instance, to ascertain and register all persons habituated to smoking, as China has endeavoured to do. This we believe would present serious difficulty unless we were to register opium eaters as But there are more well, an impossibility under present conditions in India. imperative objections to the declaring of private opium-smoking an offence. If inade effective, it would only lead to the increased use of other, and probably more deleterious, drugs. But to make it effective would mean domiciliary visits and the closest supervision over persons suspected of the practice. It would open the door to blackinail, espionage, and an amount of interference with the inner domestic life of the people which would be absolutely intolerable. As it is, the importance of dissociating the police from the fresh odium of opium detective work has constrained us to decide that the working of the new restrictive legislation shall be entrusted to excise officials rather than to the police. Nor do we believe that absolute prohibition would carry us appreciably further than the measures which we have decided to adopt. Opium- smoking is a social habit, and we cut at the root of it by prohibiting all assem- blages for the purpose of smoking. Moreover, we make prevention more effec- tive, from the point of view of legal proof, than if we attempted to deal with the private and secret practices of individuals. It is easy to prove the fact of a certain number of individuals being found together; and if, as is proposed, the presence of opium smoking pipes or other apparatus with or without opium smoking preparations, be held to raise the presumption that the assembly intended to smoke opium, there will be no difficulty in enforcing the law. Solitary smokers find the private manufacture of smoking preparations so wasteful, tedious, and expensive, and, with the reduced limit of possession, they will have to resort to it so often, that none but the most hardened individuals, who are in any case past hope, will consider it worth while to continue the habit.
If the above proposals are accepted by your Lordship, we may claim to have made a substantial advance in our prohibitionist policy. We may also compare our position favourably with the licensing systems of the Far East, which generally provide facilities for obtaining manufactured smoking paste by means of a Government monopoly, do not limit by law the quantity that may be supplied to a licensed consumer, and frequently allow social smoking in divans or places provided for the purpose.
9. So far we have been considering opium smoking with reference to India proper, excluding Burma. The case of Burma as regards opium regulation stands by itself. Historical considerations, ethnic characteristics, and local circumstances have had to be carefully weighed in the evolution of the present opium policy in Burma. When Upper Burma was annexed in 1886, the Government of India had had sufficient administrative experience of opium and its effects on Burmans in Lower Burma to warrant the application of a prohibitory policy as regards the indigenous population. This policy was supported by Buddhist public opinion, which was entirely against opium, and by
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the nominal prohibition of opium by the Burmese dynasty which preceded our rule. The prohibition under Burmese rule was not, however, very effective, and the native rulers, while punishing those who sold opium and liquor to Burmans, levied customs dues on all liquor and opium imported into Upper Burma. The British Government, having before it the proved injurious effect of opium on the Burmese race in Lower Burma, absolutely prohibited its sale to or possession by Burmans in Upper Burma except for medical purposes, and this prohibition still continues. The absolute prohibition of non-medical opium, whether for eating or smoking, to Burmans was extended to Lower Burma in 1893. In Lower Burma, however, a class of opium-smoking Burmese had grown up, and an exception had to be made in their favour. It was provided that all Burmans of 25 years or upwards who desired to continue the use of opium must register themselves, Burmans under 25 years of age not being eligible for registration. The system of registration was not entirely successful from the beginning, and the registers had to be revised from time to time, though of course no names were brought on the revised registers except those of Burmans who could prove their eligibility for registration in 1894. There were about 14,000 Burmans registered as opium consumers in 1891, and about 20,000 additional names registered in the years 1900-03, making a total of 34,000 names. The number of registered Burmans who purchased at the shops during 1907-08 was about 16,500 only, or less than one-half of the total number registered. Since 1907-08 there has been a decrease of 8 or 9 per cent in consequence of deaths or other causes, and there are now some 15,000 registered Burman consumers purchasing at the shops. These consumers were all 25 years of age or more in 1894, and are therefore above 42 years of age at the present day. The rate of decrease ought to be more rapid now, and the race of registered consumers will shortly dic out. With their extinction, there will be absolute prohibition of opium to Burmans, except for medical purposes, in the whole of Burma.
10. The case of non-Burmans in Burma is on a different footing. The principal non-Burman races concerned are the Chinese, who smoke opium, and the Indians, who mostly eat it in the form of pills. We have carefully considered whether the time has come for the absolute probibition of the use of opium in any form except for strictly medical purposes for all races throughout Burma. We consulted the Government of Burma, which after a thorough enquiry has come to the conclusion that the proposal is impracticable at present. The present sources of the supply of opium to Burma are India, the trans-border provinces of China, and the difficult country of the semi-barbarous tribes, the Shans, Kachins and Wa, within the British sphere. The licit supply from India could be stopped at once, but our local officers report that the production of opium in Chinese territory just across the border of Burma has not yet been successfully stopped. There will also be difficulty in enforcing the prohibition of opium in the tribal country, and much discontent will inevitably be caused by the attempt. Unless these supplies are cut off, there will be the strongest stimulus given to smuggling, under which even the present, protection given to Burmans will be rendered nugatory. There is considerable smuggling of opium already from India into Burma on account of the very high prices ruling in Burma relatively to India, and this will be enormously increased if the licit supply is cut off, unless the preventive staff is strengthened to an extent altogether beyond the resources of the provincial Government. Further, the only method by which a total prohibition against non-Burman races in Burma could be started with any hope of success would be by a system of registration similar to the registration of Burman opium consumers in Lower Burma. The non-Burmese population, however, consists of a large floating population of Indians and of Chinese from India and the Straits Settlements, who are not settled in Burma but come there as coolies, sepoys (Sikhs), merchants, clerks, domestic servants, or in pursuit of other callings. It would be impossible to introduce registration once for all among such a migratory population, and a proposal which ignored new-comers who are opium consumers would most certainly fail. The hill tribes of Northern Burma would have to be excepted in any case. And the danger of more deleterious drugs, such as morphia, cocaine, and derivatives of hemp, taking the place of opium is greater in Burma with its ease-loving population than in other provinces.
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