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authorities were able to establish prohibition effectively on their own side. It was requested that recommendations should be submitted as to the measures which should be adopted to enforce prohibition within a limited period of, say, three or five years. The extension of a similar prohibition was contemplated to the Kachin Hill Tracts in the Ruby Mines District. As regards smuggling of opium into China it was) pointed out that smugglers could be dealt with under the Upper Burma and Arakan Hills Frontier Crossing and Disturbed Districts Regulation I of 1907.
6. Mr. Lewisohn's proposals with these objects were submitted in his letter dated the 14th February, 1914. It was, however, intimated in a letter from the Assistant Secretary to the Financial Commissioner, dated the 24th February, 1916 (a copy of which was forwarded with your Revenue Department endorsement, dated the 6th March, 1916), that the Local Government proposed to take no further action to regulate opium cultivation on the Burma-Yunnan frontier and to prohibit it in the Bhamo and Myitkyina districts during the continuance of the war.
7. It remains to allude to two separate though connected branches of the corre- spondence. The first is that terminating with your Revenue Department endorse- ment, dated the 27th September, 1915, which discussed the treatment by the Chinese authorities of poppy-fields cultivated by British subjects in Chinese territory. The Local Government agreed, subject to certain safeguards, that they should receive no more liberal treatment than that applied to Chinese cultivators. It was suggested that the frontier villages should be informed accordingly. Mr. Lewisohn, in carrying out these orders, added an intimation that he and the Assistant Superinten- dent, Sinlum, would carry out in the Kachin Hills a vigorous anti-opium campaign on the same lines as the Chinese authorities declared their intention of adopting. This, of course, was prior to the orders conveyed in the letter of the 24th February, 1916, from the Assistant Secretary to the Financial Commissioner quoted in the preceding paragraph. The other line of correspondence was that which commenced with your Revenue Department endorsement, dated the 14th December, 1914, and discussed the orders of the Local Government conveyed in separate Revenue Depart- ment letter from the Assistant Secretary to the Financial Commissioner, dated the 23rd April, 1901, directing that until further orders Chinese British subjects residing in the Kachin Hill Tracts should as regards the cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture, possession, transport and sale of opium be subjected only to the restrictions for the time being in force in the case of hill tribes to which the Kachin Hill Tribes Regulation applies. With your endorsement of the 14th December, 1914, quoted above, were forwarded orders reaffirming these instructions. Mr. Lewisohn represented that, as efforts were being made under executive orders to stop cultivation in the Kachin Hills, it was desirable to restrict as narrowly as possible the privileges enjoyed under the Regulation by members of hill tribes, and requested that these orders, which have no legal basis, should be abrogated. This proposal was supported by you in your letter dated the 15th April, 1915, but without result, as this correspondence was closed with the letter of the 24th February, 1916, cited in paragraph 6 above, intimating that the Local Government proposed to take no action in the matter during the war.
8. In this office letter, dated the 10th January, 1917, Mr. Lewisohn urged a reconsideration of the Local Government's decision. He pointed out that the war might last two or three years more and that every year that passed without poppy cultivation being declared illegal would add enormously to the difficulty of enforcing prohibition, and added that no disaffection was to be feared, as destruction of poppy cultivation had been carried on without any contretemps for three years. It was, however, intimated later that the Local Government declined to modify the decision already reached to take no action during the war, ride your Revenue Departinent endorsement, dated the 12th February, 1917,
9. There so far the matter has rested, but there are very potent reasons why it should again be examined and pressed to a definite conclusion. I have refrained from raising the question. although it attracted my attention as soon as I came to the district, until I should have acquired adequate personal knowledge on which to base my conclusions. My unhesitating opinion is that it behoves the Government to decide on definite action without further delay, and I propose in the following paragraphs to set out as clearly as possible the grounds on which consider this course necessary.
10. In the first place there are treaty obligations to fulfil. This point is fully set out in the Revenue Secretary's letter of the 25th April, 1913, referred to in paragraph 3 above, and I need not refer further to it except to observe that I under-
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stand from Mr. A. E. Eastes, late British consul, Tengyueh, that the Chinese authorities have once more within the last year or two made remonstrances on the subject of our dealings with opium similar to those of 1913. It appears to me that, apart from impugning the motives and sincerity of the Yunnan Government, we are not in a position to defend our dealings in the matter of opium cultivation along, and its export across, the frontier,
11. My second point is the harm which the spread of the opium habit does to the Kachins. This has been strongly represented in the past and the Local Government is not unaware of the opinions held on this subject by Messrs. Rae and Scott, whose knowledge of the Kachins is unrivalled, and by Mr. Lewisohn who studied the question closely and was long enough in Bhamo to form an authoritative opinion. I would only add the observation that anyone who wishes to view the effect of opium en the Kachins has only to compare the Kachins of the Sinlum Hills with his brethren who live in the plains or in the Shwegu hill tracts. I am quite certain that true kindness to the Kachins lies in denying them opium.
12. The third of my reasons is connected with the great increase which is taking place in opium cultivation. Right along the frontier from Myitkyina into the Northern Shan States cultivation has grown by leaps and bounds. In the Sinlum hill tracts this increase has assumed large proportions though measures to check it have always been in force. In the Northern Shan States where, I believe, repression is not in force, the increase is enormous. During the current season there has been a large immigration of Chinese into British territory for the purpose of cultivating opium and exporting it. If they do not themselves cultivate it they use the Kachins as their instruments in doing so and shelter themselves behind them. It is obvious that this enormous increase in cultivation is accentuating the harm which opium does to the Kachins and it is also seriously complicating the problem which we have to face sooner or later of suppressing cultivation. Every year that passes without interfering is bound to render interference, let alone prohibition, more difficult.
13. Fourthly, I would emphasise that opium cultivation in the hills stimulates smuggling to the plains which gives our excise officers trouble which they ought to and can be spared.
In
14. Finally, I would strongly urge that harmful economic results are ensuing from this opium cultivation. It is displacing the cultivation of ordinary staple crops, because the bait of the extraordinary prices realised for opium is not to be resisted. This has not yet become marked in the Bhamo Kachin Hills, no doubt owing to the fact that the Kachins well know that their poppy crop may be destroyed refore it is ripe; but I have good reason to believe that it is already a very serious problem in parts of the Northern Shan States and if things are left alone the Bhamo Kachin Hills will fall into the same condition. With this point is intimately connected the great rise in prices which has occurred along the frontier. Pangkham, a considerable paddy centre, the price of paddy is now four and five times what it is in normal circumstances. The rise is not so great at Lwejé, further north, but is only less marked there, and in my opinion the reason is that Pangkham is nearer to the areas in the Shan States where the cultivation of staple crops has been displaced by opium. The reasons for the rise in price are partly that certain areas are suffering from practically a famine of paddy and partly that with the enormous influx of money paid for opium the purchasing power of money has diminished. For this reason the rise in prices extends to other articles, and it is seriously felt and complained of in my jurisdiction. Apart from these particular facts it seems to me economically unscund and unhealthy that a population normally supporting itself more or less laboriously and hardly knowing the meaning of wealth should suddenly cease to support itself and become possessed of what is relatively unlimited money, more especially as this is based on conditions which are probably ephemeral. To come down to more particular considerations I would observe that the high level of food prices makes the position of the men in our frontier posts extremely difficult, and the battalion commandant has been compelled to consider whether it is possible to retain mounted infantry in Pangkham simply because it is unreasonable to require the men to maintain their ponies there. Similarly the Kachins in the infantry, who are rice-consumers and have to supply their own rations, will have to be withdrawn from Pangkham for the present,
15. It will be seen from the preceding paragraphs that I base my argument mainly on considerations of the direct disadvantages which opium cultivation involves for our own people, and I have purposely chosen that as the most suitable ground on which to base my recommendations; but I recognise that it may and
[5201 s-1]
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