PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
3
Reference :-
C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Reduction
of cost and increase of consumption.
Cheap opium And the loss
of revenue.
Government policy wise and humane.
Considera- tion of
revenue.
Change from present system deprecated.
Smoking
shope not JiítYe4aarily!
" dens."
(Jeneral description
of Straits
Kinoking
shops
56
25. Not only am I of opinion that the suggested change of system would entail aggravated social evils which cannot be conceived by those who have not dwelt in the East in daily contact with the Native races, but also that it will carry with it evils of another description which the Government, equally with the Anti-Opium Society, would have every reason to deplore. I refer to a great reduction in the price of chandoo, and the consequent opportunity for increased and excessive consumption.
26. Smuggling operations on a gigantic scale, countenanced and encouraged on all sides, would be started with an organisation before which the holders of Government licenses would have to yield. Johor and the Dutch possessions in the South, Kedah and Sumatra in the North, would be the head quarters of an enormous illicit traffic, which our excise staff would be powerless to suppress. The farmers and rulers of these possessions would no doubt feel the benefit, but it would be at the cost of the Straits Government, whose revenues would be sadly diminished thereby. Illicit chandoo would be everywhere hawked and dealt in at considerable discount off the rates fixed upon by the Government for the reasons stated in paragraphs 17 and 18. Illicit unlicensed shops would spring up in all directions. Deleterious adulterations, unchecked by Government supervision, would be sold to the coolie at cheap rates, with little chance of detection, so that instead of, as at present, enjoying a harmless quantity of the pure article he would, under a licensing system, be able to obtain for the same money an amount much in excess of his proper requirements, and harmful in its composition, whilst the use generally would be much more extended than it is at present.
27. This would not, I may assume, be in accordance with the wishes of philanthropists who take an interest in the matter, nor would it be consonant with proper principles of government. I submit that in adopting the farming system under conditions we have taken the best step possible to discourage indulgence in opium smoking. Such a step will no doubt fail to satisfy the total prohibitionist, with whom, however, it is unnecessary in this memorandum (if indeed at any time) to join issue. The system has worked well for many years; with the same machinery the farmer also works the monopoly of the spirit duties to the satisfaction of the public and the great convenience of Government. If we attempt to assume the control of one monopoly we must also take over the other, which for very analogous reasons will also mean a further loss of revenue without any commensurate benefit either to the individual or to the community at large.
28. In connexion with this last point it has been said that the opium question should be looked at in the cause of morality without any consideration of the revenue derived therefrom. This always appears to me to border upon the absurd. The much more important question to us as the British nation, namely, that of our annual drink bill is not dealt with in that light. Opium and alcohol are, alike luxuries. Both are, under certain conditions, harmless, in moderation, noxious in excess. Both are equally proper subjects of taxation, an opinion which Lord Knutsford apparently concurs in when be implies that no change from the present system is to be thought of if it would seriously cripple our revenue.
29. I trust I have shown that our tax on opium is levied on wise, just, and humane principles; that by its imposition the consumption is limited; that the evils complained of are for the most part non-existent; that any change to a licensing system under the control of Government would be fraught with danger to the population, and with an increase to those very evils that such a change is intended to check; and that by such s change our revenue would be most seriously crippled at a time when, for want of funds, the development of our Settlements is at a standstill, and the cause of sanitation and improved civilization thrust into the background. For these reasons I earnestly advise that no modification be thought of as regards those portions of the excise Ordinances which refer to the farming out of our opium traffic.
30. When I come to the question of opium shops I do not feel the same confidence. But before discussing the subject I should wish in the first place to respectfully object to the universal application of the monosyllable
"den
to these establishments. In the Straits Settlements they are not "dens at all, either in the way of meretricious allurements of a London gin palace, or of being human pig-styes, such as possessing the the sensational writer delights to conjure up and revel in.
31. The rooms are poorly but plainly furnished; the ventilation and sanitary arrange- ments are superior to those usually existing in the houses of the smokers; the greatest order and decorum prevails. I recently made a surprise inspection of the smoking shops in this Settlement. In one out of 18 I found a Chinese female playing upon a zither at one end of the room, but in no other did I find either women or children, and I was
57
assured that such a thing was unknown. The smokers were of all ages and professions ; there was not one who did not answer my questions with intelligence and interest. Not a sign was visible of the bestial intoxication of the British pothouse. Dirt and want of whitewash were apparent, but cleanliness amongst Chinese is comparative only, and passing globe-trotters should see the squalid interior of most Chinese houses before blindly adopting the misnomer “den.'
"2
32. These smoking shops being each subject to a separate license which carries with it Public proper regulations as to hours of closing, prohibition of gambling, harbouring of bad smoking characters, &c., are actually under Government control, and in them the farmer is more
ahope a
over obliged to sell chandoo of proper quality, as prescribed by his contract with the necessity. Government. Smoking shops are a virtual necessity to a large section of daily consumers. A jinricksha coolie, for example, coming in from Jelutong is exhausted on dropping his fare in Beach Street, and is, moreover, possibly dripping with rain. He goes to a smoking shop, consumes his 5 cents worth of chandoo, checks any chance of getting fever, and is ready once more to ply for hire. It would, I consider, be an intolerable tyranny and an undue interference with personal liberty to prohibit consumption on the premises to hard working industrious citizens to whom such consumption does no harm whatever.
33. As already explained the circumstances of India and its inhabitants are in no way Hesitation applicable to the Straits Settlements with its large Chinese population. The Government of Indian of India have with great besitation, and against the advice of some of their best officers, Government. issued regulations against the consumption of opium in the premises on that continent, but in doing so they regard it as an experiment, and have expressed themselves as alive to the risk that the "immediate and direct result of closure may not be in the interest "either of the classes addicted to the practice or of the general public."
shops
34. Under no consideration should this Government entirely prohibit consumption on State of the premises. The organisation of the Chinese is so far-reaching that in every part of affairs if our Settlements would be found a friend, a clansınan, or a guildsman, who would give the smoking would be smoker a place on an opium mat were he not allowed to smoke at the place of closed. purchase-a transfer of location of doubtful social advantage. The insuperable daily difficulty we experience in rooting out gambling (another inherent Chinese propensity) will give us some idea of what we would have to go through in endeavouring to suppress the innumerable private establishments which would spring up in all directions. In the same way as at Calcutta (but in an intensified degree) we would have to wage constant war, with indifferent success. In spite of all the spies and informers we might employ it would be most difficult to get sufficient evidence to secure a conviction before a Magis- trate, and even if such conviction were obtained the punishment would generally be insufficient to have any deterrent effect.
35. Clubs of all descriptions under different names, and under guise of being friendly Bogus clubs. or benevolent institutions, would be freely opened and resorted to, chiefly for that opium which the members had been prohibited from smoking in public.
36. To attempt to limit the supply to be possessed by a coolie at one time would be Limitation equally futile and would lead to endless breaches of the law, and traffic in illicit opium, of supply. One tola, such as has been suggested in India, is the equivalent of 30 hoons only, or about six days' supply to the ordinary abstemious coolie. Employers (especially in agricultural districts) would not stand their labourers going off to the shops every six days. The regulation would, I feel sure, be in every sense an intolerable nuisance to the employer and lead directly to the deterioration of his servant.
excessive
37. There can be no question that all this private smoking would much favour the Cheap operations of the smuggler; chandoo, though not so pure, would be cheaper; the con- smuggled sumption, therefore, would be correspondingly larger, and any evil evolved therefrom opium and would be greater than it is now. It is for the private consumer only that it is worth consumption.. while at the present moment for the smuggler to run the gauntlet of all the elaborate preventive ramifications of the opium farmer. Given the whole consumption conducted in private, the greater would be the amount with which the smuggler could deal, the greater the risk he would venture on, and the greater his profits. Profit to him would mean loss to the farmer and reduced revenue to the Government, whilst the amount of harm done would be incalculably greater than under the present system.
38. With the principles, therefore, of those portions of the Excise Ordinance which No inter- deal with the retail of chandoo and opium 1 would on no account interfere, but in the ference with details I consider there are grounds for modification and improvement.
39. The information, upon which Mr. S. Smith, M.P. bases his questions in the House of Commons, is not always as sound or trustworthy as he and we would wish it to be.
U 76470.
H
principles of
retail.