'य'
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 882
5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
80
(6.) Is it correct to say that there cannot be such thing as moderation in the consumption of opium ? Do you know any, or many, cases of consumers who have taken
opium for
years without harm to themselves? If so, please give description of one
their or two such cases in detail ?
(7.) Do a majority of the labourers, or of the merchants, or of the artisans, belonging to any Asiatic race with which you are conversant, consume opium? If so, what is generally the effect of the opium habit on their efficiency in their calling.
If possible, give details and examples in reply to this question?
(8.) How does the use or abuse of opium among any Asiatic races with which you are conversant compare with the use or abuse of alcohol among such races, in regard to the
effect on consumers!
(9.) Is the habit of consuming opium condemned as degrading, or injurious, by the general opinion of the Chinese, Malay, or other Asiatic race? How would such races regard the opium habit as compared with the alcohol habit ?
(10.) Can, and do, opium consumers break themselves of the opium habit ?
(11.) If the supply of Indian opium were to be cut off, what would be the effect on opium consumers, and on the Asiatic population of your neighbourhood? Would they supply themselves with opium from elsewhere, or would they take to alcohol or to some narcotic other than opium, or would they abstain altogether ?
(12.) What proportion of your Colony's revenue accrues from opium? If the opium revenue were extinguished, could your Colony raise the needful revenue otherwise ! What would the people say to the loss of the opium revenue, and the obligation to make up the deficit ?
(13.) Do people of European race contract the opium habit in any numbers ? If not, why not? And what makes Asiatics more liable to contract the habit!
(14.) How are opium consumers led to use the drug? Do they usually, or often, take it in the first instance to allay physical pain? Is opium, within your knowledge, a prophylactic against fever, or rheumatism, or malaria ? Or is it so regarded commonly by any Asiatic race with which you are conversant ?
(15.) Do opium consumers themselves usually desire to get free of the opium habit? (16.) Is there among any Asiatic race in your Colony a feeling of hostility against England for allowing opium to be exported from India?" If how does that feeling display itself?
80,
(17.) Have you any other remark to make in regard to opium consumption among the people around
you? (18.) Special to Singapore and Penang Witnesses.-Please state how far opium consumption is common among the Native States around the Colony? Do the rulers of those States discourage its use, or do they raise revenue from it? What is the public or general opinion of the Native States regarding the drug, its use or abuse, and its effects on the consumers and on the people at large.
N.B.-It is desired that gentlemen who kindly undertake to deal with these questions should answer as many as they can.
By order of
October 1893.
81
would be able and willing to give information on the subject, including, if possible, (a.) the most intelligent and trustworthy gentlemen of Oriental races; and (5.) officials, medical men, merchants, and others who are specially conversant with Chinese and other Asiatic consumers of opium; and in making your selection, you will, of course, do so with the utmost impartiality, with a view to obtaining the best possible opinion on all sides of the question.
3. They should be invited to send in their answers to you as soon as possible, and the answers should be transmitted by you direct to the Secretary, Royal Commission on Opium, c/o the Finance Department, Calcutta. I request you also to furnish me with copies of the answers obtained.
4. Printed copies of
Sir C. Smith's Despatch, No. 60 of the 27th of February your Despatches, No. 59 of the 6th of March last, and No. 63 of the 11th of March,
have already been supplied to the Royal Commission, [*together with a copy of the Colonial Surgeon's Report for 1891, dated the 21st of June 1892, and I have to request you to send to the Commission 10 further copies of that Report, or fewer, if so many as 10 are not available.]
the Straits Settlements,
last,
5. In the event of any members of the Commission visiting Hong Kong,
I shall be glad if you will afford them every facility in your power for conducting the inquiry upon which they are engaged.
21998.
(No. 227.)
No. 32.
I have, &c,
RIPON.
STR WILLIAM ROBINSON to The MARQUESS OF RIPON. (Received December 30, 1899.)
MY LORD MARQUESS,
Government House, Hong Kong,
November 98, 1893.
In reference to Mr. Meade's Despatch, No. 168, of the 28th ultimo,† I have the honour to transmit for your Lordship's information the enclosed copy of a letter addressed to the Secretary, Royal Commission on Opium, by the Colonial Secretary.
I have, &c.
WILLIAM ROBINSON.
THE ROYAL COMMUNION ON OPIUM.
Sn,
17080.
No. 31.
THE MARQUESS OF RIPON to ACTING GOVERNOR MAXWELL (Straits) and SI WILLIAM ROBINSON (Howa Kowa).
(Straits, No. 272.) (Hong Kong, No. 164,)
Sia,
Downing Street, October 12, 1893.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you the enclosed copy of a letter from the Royal Commission on Opium, regarding their desire to obtain information as to the consumption of opium in Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements.
Enclosure in No. 32.
COLONIAL SECRETARY to the Secretary, Royal Commision on Opium, Calcutta.
(No. 1646.)
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hong Kong,
November 28, 1893.
WITH reference to the Despatch of which a copy is annexed, from the Secretary of State for the Colonies, I am directed to acquaint you, for the information of the Royal Commission on Opium, that it is not possible to state with precision the amount of opium annually consumed in Hong Kong.
The following amounts of raw opium have been boiled by the farmer (who has the monopoly of prepared opium in Hong Kong) during each of the last six years, viz. :—
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892
-
3,771 chests. 1,746 "9
2,511
·
2. I shall be glad if you will be good enough to submit the list of questions enclosed therein to such persons in
(1) the Straits Settlements or the Native States (2) Hong Kong
as you think
1,878 1,620
"
1893, January to October inclusive
-
1,467
#
• No. 30.
• To Hong Kong only.
But it is open to the farmer to export any quantity of boiled or prepared opium that he pleases without rendering any account or return thereof, and there are therefore no
† Not printed.
U 76470.
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