Opium-policy in the Dutch East Indies.
I.
The use of opium has been introduced in the Dutch East Indies from elsewhere. In the last century it was limited in some districts to a few Chinese smokers, and was unknown, as it were, to the natives; but in others it spread more and more. It is used, nearly exclusively, by smoking of chandu, whether or not mixed with fine cut leaves of various plants. Other methods of use, as for instance, the eating of opium are very rare. The clandestine use of morphine however increased in the present century.
During the Dutch East India Company regime opium was commonly viewed as a substance, with which one could get great profits, though there were some laudable exceptions. Therefore the Company monopolized it, where such was possible.
After the downfall of the Company the different Governments of the Dutch East Indies have been keeping in mind, that it should be their duty to oppose the use of opium, where that is possible. A rigid policy in this direction however was rarely followed.
The circumstances in the beginning and the middle of the last century did not lend themselves well to it. In different parts of the Dutch East Indies some autonomous States still existed, which had not ceded the opium-monopoly to the Go- vernment. The attitudes of those States in regard to the opium differed very much. In some the use of opium was unknown to the inhabitants. In others the prince forbade the use of opium to the majority of his subjects But in other States, the use was very extensive, and there the opium was viewed as a good source of revenue.
In the Governmental districts and the Native States, where the opium was ceded to the Government, the Government farmed it out. The farmers were nearly all Chinamen. During the 19th
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