PUBLIC RECORD
OFFICE
Reference :-
TITLC.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
5368.
(No. 60.) MY LORD,
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No. 27.
SIR C. C. SMITH to the MARQUESS OF RIPON.
(Received April 3, 1893.)
Government House, Singapore, !
February 27, 1893. VARIOUS circumstances have prevented me from replying earlier to Lord Knutsford's Despatch of the 9th of April 1892,* on the subject of the opium traffic in this Colony. I was desirous especially of not only stating my own views on the different questions that have been raised in the correspondence, but also of being able to furnish your Lordship with the views of the Executive Council, and it is only quite recently that I have been able to assemble all the members at Singapore.
2. I do not propose to discuss at any length the alleged evils of opium smoking. It may be admitted that there are real evils consequent on excessive indulgence in such smoking, exactly in the same way that injury indisputably results elsewhere in regard to a similar indulgence in drinking spirits. But after an experience of over 30 years among the Chinese in this Colony and in Hong Kong, I have no hesitation in saying that in proportion and in character the evils occasioned by opium-smoking are slight compared with those which are the consequence of spirit-drinking in the United Kingdom. In endeavouring to mitigate the harm done to the physical and moral condition of the members of any community, care must be taken by every prudent Government not to create a state of affairs which will have in its train greater evils, so far as social order is concerned, than those which it is desired to suppress.
3. Assuming, as I trust I may do, that there is no intention to attempt to prohibit the smoking of opium, the use of which drug, in malarious countries particularly, is of extra- ordinary value, I may proceed at once to discuss whether the system under which opium reaches the consumer can be improved in order to check excessive consumption. That system is known as the farming system, by which a monopoly is granted to certain persons who, in the exercise of the privileges they enjoy, provide the checks which are necessary and practicable to prevent the illicit possession of opium, whether in the crude or in the prepared state, called, in this Colony, chandu. The alternative to the farming system is apparently the issue of a limited number of licenses by the Government to dealers in opium, the Government itself undertaking the duties of establishing and maintaining an efficient preventive service against smuggling.
4. I unhesitatingly advise your Lordship that, owing to the geographical and other circumstances of this Colony, the adoption of this alternative system would be fraught with greater evils than those which it is endeavoured to lessen. The drug, in the form of chandu, is exceedingly easy to conceal on anyone's person, or in anyone's baggage, or in cases or boxes containing articles of trade. So easily, indeed, is it smuggled that a few years back in this Settlement even one of the partners in the farm was ascertained to have been carrying on a regular system of smuggling, defrauding, for his own benefit, the syndicate of which he was a member. If it was and is difficult for the farmers to prevent smuggling, it may be very safely deduced that the Government would be incapable of doing so. The Chinaman is, as it were, a sealed book to the great majority of Europeans. They understand neither his language, nor his motives of action, nor his methods. The Government could only employ Chinese informers, the depth of whose corruptibility has never yet been fathomed. It would be involved in a mass of dirty work from which it is happily now quite free.
5. If the map of this part of the world is studied, it will be seen that there are on all sides places outside our control, from whence smuggling can easily be carried on. Singapore is close to numerous islands, more or less inhabited by Chinese, belonging to the Dutch. The farming system is in vogue in those islands, and the only protection that the farmer of Singapore enjoys is obtainable from holding the farms of those islands, which he has frequently to purchase at a higher rate than they are really worth. Not- withstanding this, he has to maintain a strong preventive service. Penang, too, is in much the same position, but the source of danger to the interests of the farm is to be found not so much in the Dutch island of Sumatra as in the islands adjoining the mainland of the Peninsula, such as the Langkawi Islands, and in States on the mainland, such as Kedah and other places under Siamese jurisdiction. The Government of the Colony will never, of course, be in a position to hold the neighbouring farms to which I have referred, and, as a consequence, it would be obliged to keep up a preventive force against
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smugglers of a size and at a cost out of all proportion to the fiscal advantages to be derived. And not only so, but there would be intensified all those evils which arise from the very fact of having in our midst and on our borders large bands of smugglers, whose very presence would be the cause of crime of many descriptions from which the Colony suffers at present only to a slight extent, I venture to quote here the views of Her Majesty's Government, to which Lord Kimberley, in November last, gave utterance on the subject of smuggling. His Lordship is reported to have said :—
"I cannot conceive anything more disastrous to any people than to have an army of informers watching and blackmailing everyone and causing, possibly, evils greater than you intend to suppress. It may be necessary to have this army of informers, but if it is necessary, I still cannot conceive a greater curse, and I must say that I am very glad to have the point mentioned, because it is a point which weighs very much with the Govern- ment of India. They have an extreme fear of endeavouring to impose restrictions more severe than are supported by public opinion itself in India, and to put into the hands of informers and police powers which may cause very great evil and very great annoyance, and possibly discontent."
This statement is, in my opinion, wholly applicable to the Government of the Colony of the Straits Settlements.
6. The next portion of the subject to which I have to refer relates to the price at which prepared opium is sold to the public. It is recognized here as being the duty of the Government to ensure that no action is taken by it which will in any way tend to increase the consumption. Attempts have been made by the farmers to fix the price of prepared opium so high that public disorder has ensued. Hence, some few years back, the Government fixed a maximum price, which in effect, as experience has shewn, settled the ruling price at which the prepared drug is purchased. It may be advisable to raise to a small extent the maximum or selling price at the next letting of the farm, which will be in 1894. I am not yet satisfied that it is advisable. There is a prospect, by so doing, of driving the poorer classes of Chinese to eating preparations of opium, containing still more deleterious substances, and it would be deplorable if, as a result of Government action, any section of the community should be induced, in order to satisfy their craving for sedatives or stimulants, to adopt the most harmful practice of eating preparations of opium in lieu of the comparatively harmless and often beneficial practice of smoking the same drug.
It will be seen, therefore, that the dangers arising from increasing the sale price of prepared opium are not limited to the encouraging of smuggling, which would inevitably take place, but they include such as will seriously affect the physical welfare of the population.
7. It only remains for me to deal with the question of the opium-smoking shops. These are now licensed by the Government on the application of the farmer. There has hitherto been no limit to the number of such shops. So long as they are conducted respectably and in an orderly manner, the Government has not placed any restrictions upon them. So far as I am aware, no single complaint has ever been made by the police or Chinese Protectorate against any one of the licensed shops. I enclose a Return which I have had prepared, after careful inquiry, showing the number of shops for opium smoking and the number of persons on an average in there shops in each of the three Settlements. There is an extraordinary difference in the number of those in Singapore as compared with those in Penang. In the former Settlement they amount to 384 in the town and 87 in the country district, while in Penang it is reported that there are only 18 of such shops. The percentage of smokers to population in these shops is 46 in Singapore, 13 in Penang, and 1-2 in Malacca. But the character of the population differs considerably in each Settlement as well as the number which congregates in the towns. There is a far larger Chinese population in the town of Singapore than in the town of Penang, and the Chinese in Singapore being (in a larger proportion than is the case in Penang) contributed by districts and towns in China where the practice of opium smoking is most prevalent. The percentage, however, is inconsiderable, yet may of course be reduced. I do not consider that these opium shops are any actual source of harm to the community. I do not believe that they have any tendency to promote the smoking of opium. Their total or partial abolition will only lead to more smoking in private houses where, most likely, those who are non-smokers of opium may, from the facility offered for smoking-the pipe, the lamp, and the drug being at hand-acquire the habit of smoking. Many men, who have no inclination to go to an opium-smoking shop." which are ordinarily only frequented by the poorest classes, will not refrain from smoking if the paraphernalia for so doing is, as is the case in the houses of the well-to-do Chinese, available for their use. Nevertheless, in view of the expression of opinion in Lord Knutsford's Despatch, this Government will take steps," by making provision in an
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