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At Shanghai already the representative of the Netherlands Indian Government declared:
1. That the Netherlands Government, being convinced of the desirability of restricting the use of opium, will never be prevented by financial considerations from taking such measures as will in its opinion genuinely effect a gradual decrease in consumption.
2. That the Netherlands Government would not object to such alterations in the Régie-system, as might be likely in its opinion, to check the use of opium, or to the extension of the means of preventing smuggling by land and sea.
Accordingly, when the Convention was concluded, the statutor: provisions met the requirements thereof, so that no alterations of important measures were required.
In accordance with article 6 of the Convention, the endeavours of the Netherlands Indian Government have for ultimate object the total suppression of the use of opium. Primarily it will try to restrict the use to such as, at the present moment, are habitual smokers, and to prevent others from taking to the drug. The Government is of opinion that, for the present, it can take no further steps and that only by degrees it will be able to attain its end. A sudden prohibition, namely, might lead to the licit use of opium being supplanted by a surrept- itious one and would no doubt give rise to a large-scale contrabani traffic with all the resultant drawbacks of corruption and vexation This illicit traffic would very likely cause an increase of the actual use of opium and could not possibly, under the present circumstances be kept within reasonable bounds in a vast empire of islands like that of the East Indies. Such a prohibition cannot be contemplat unless the production of and the trade in opium should be complete controlled by the Governments by means of international measures In order to gain this end, the Netherlands Delegacy moved on the International Opium Commission at Shanghai in 1909 a resolution: „lo recommend to the various Governments, after having establis such a system, that nobody concerned in its management is interest in the amount of sale, to enter into diplomatic deliberations to purpose that henceforth the wholesale trade in opium be allowe only between the Governments of opium producing and opium suming countries and be forbidden to any private person".
This resolution, however, encountered various difficulties at the t Only in the event of there being no further danger of any extc? ive contraband traffic, could the Government give due considerati to the question in how far more vigorous measures might bring nearer to the end in view: total suppression of the use of opium::
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§ XII. Locally, good results have occasionally been achieved with the measures adopted to fight the opium habit. In the island of Madura, for example, the consumption totalled in 1903 6194 tahils and in 1921 no more than 1753 tabils; in the districts of Bali and Lombok 311,333 tahils were sold in 1909 (the first year after the introduction of the Régie), as against 45,095 tahils in 1921; in the island of Banka, the consumption had in 1914 increased to 82,554 tahils and was reduced to 21,145 tahils in 1921. These figures seem more gratifying at first sight than they actually are, a falling off in the licit trade being attended with a growing contraband traffic, especially as far as Banka is concerned.
The aggregate quantity, however, consumed in the Netherlands Indies, has not fallen off to such an extent as had been anticipated. In 1914 (the first year when the Régie was in operation throughout the Netherlands Indies) it amounted to 2, 559, 832 tahils, then showed several fluctuations until 1920, without ever being in excess of the above quantity, but grew in 1920 to 2, 607,, 840 tahils. In 1921, however, the total sales had again fallen off to 2, 194, 729 tahits and will no doubt show a considerable decline for 1922.
According to the late census (in November 1920), the number of inhabitants in the Netherlands Indies was 49, 350, 834, so that in 1921 the consumption per capita averaged 4.44 mata or about 26 grains. The treasury is still deriving considerable revenues from the con- sumption of opium. The gross proceeds, influenced by the steady increase of the selling price, amounted in 1921 to f 53,264,761.-, being 7,52 per cent of the receipts of the Government, which in that year totalled f 708,592,111.
The receipts aggregated in 1914 f 281,403,431.—, the gross proceeds of the monopoly f 34,987,868.-, or 12,43 per cent of the total. For various reasons, however, this comparison does not altogether hold good. The following is a more reliable one. The net revenues of the Netherlands Indies (by which is understood the revenues decreased [by the expenditure standing direct overagainst same) amounted in the first-mentioned year to f 383.396,606, while the net proceeds of the monopoly were f 44,209,371.-, which is 11,53 per cent.
For 1914 the net revenues totalled f 175,537,695.-, inclusive of the net proceeds of opium at t 28,814,637 or 16.42 per cent.
It should be remembered that, in order to calculate the net receipts
of opium, the gross receipts have been decreased by the direct expen- diture only. Indirect expenditure, among which the cost of reinforce- ment and extension of the police takes a prominent place, has not been taken into account,
It must be put down to various causes that the attempts at reducing
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