GC.
460
What would be the probable
necessary to the Colony's finance. results if the Hong Kong Government abolished the Monopoly and made opium smoking illegal?
The
Mr. Fletober said that the discontimance of the Government Monopoly would mean an increase of smuggling and, consequently of the use of the drug. The Hong Kong Goverment was not in favour of a system of rationing; it would prefer to close the monopoly at once rather than by progressive restriction. smoking and eating of opium might be entirely prohibited, but the Hong Kong Government was not in a position to enforce measures, to give effect to such prohibition, which would be substantially more severe than those now used against illicit opium. The preventive measures now in force were of a severity unknown in European countries, and it was possible to reach a limit in this matter beyond which the Government could not go. The Colony was not necessarily as permanent a British possession as was generally imagined; and if the Government made itself sufficiently unpopular with the Chinese, the loss
The Seamen's of the colony would be only a matter of time. strike was an object lesson, showing the Colony's absolute
If opium smoking dependence upon the good will of the Chinese. were prohibited, they would be in the daily position of being able to arrest 20% of the population. As it would be impossible
to do this, and in order that the law might be vindicated, there would have to be discrimination as to who was to be arrested. This would mean even more corruption than there was at present. There was another consideration which should be borne in mind. Discontinuance of opium smoking would probably mean a very large increase in worse habits, such as cocaine and
He did not agree with drug-taking, and the eating of opium. Sir James Jamieson that the rising generation disapproved of
There was a period, when the agitation was at ite
opium.
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