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From Malaya--Mr. G. E. Cator, Superintendent of Government Monopolies in the Straits Settlements, and Mr. A B. Jordan, Acting Secretary for Chinese Affairs in the Federated Malay States.
Mr. J. M Martin of the Colonial Office acted as Secretary to the Delegation The Conference which took place in pursuance of Article 12 of the Geneva Opium Agreement of February, 1925, was attended by Delegates of all the Powers who are parties to that Agreement. Invitations to take part in the Conference were also sent by the Council of the League to the Governments of the United States of America and China. The United States Government sent Mr. J. Caldwell of the State Department, who attends the meetings of the League's Opium Advisory Committee at Geneva as an Observer, to attend the Conference in the same capacity. The Chinese Government replied regretting its inability to accept the invitation. A list of the Delegations* is annexed to this report.
The Conference lasted from the 9th to the 27th November and resulted (a) in the signature of a short agreement* supplementing the agreement of February, 1925; (b) Final in the adoption of a number of recommendations* which are included in a Act"; (c) in the preparation, for the information of the League and of public opinion, of a declaration* as to the present position in regard to the illicit opium traffic. Copies of these documents are also annexed. The Minutes of the Conference are not expected to be available for some months.
The First Siamese Delegate, Phya Srivisar Vacha, Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was unanimously elected to be the President of the Conference, and Mr. Van Wettum, the First Netherlands Delegate, who presided over the First Opium Conference at Geneva in 1924-25, was elected Vice-President. Phya Crivisar, who was familiar with the subject from his attendance at the Geneva Con- ferences of 1924-25 and at meetings of the Opium Advisory Committee, made an admirable President.
The Conference was the first of the periodical Conferences which it was agreed at the First Geneva Conference should be held to review from time to time the situation It was originally intended that it in regard to the suppression of opium smoking should take place in 1929, as provided in Article XII of the Agreement; but it was postponed in consequence of the proposal of the British Government that before it took place an exhaustive study should he undertaken on the spot in the several territories affected by an independent commission of the League of Nations. The report of the Commission was not received until the beginning of the present year (1931).
The President of the Commission, M. Einar Eckstrand, has since the inquiry been appointed Chief of the Social Section in the Secretariat of the League, and in that capacity acted as the Secretary-General of the Conference. His presence made it possible for the Conference to obtain explanations on certain points on which the views of the Commission and the grounds and purport of their recommendations were not altogether clear.
The first week of the Conference was spent in reviewing the existing situation in the several territories and in considering the question of the illicit traffic in opium. In stating the position in the British territories, I was able to say that so far as regards Malaya, the registration system which had been introduced after the Agreement of 1925, though still far from complete, had worked satisfactorily and provided the Ciovernment with useful information, and measures for improving the system (means of identifying the registered person, limitation of a registered person to a specified shop, elimination of dead registrations, &c.), were under consideration. The Govern- ment had also had a considerable measure of success in dealing with the illicit traffic in opium. The Preventive Service had been reorganized, the pay and personnel had A number of hig been improved, and the European supervision strengthened. smuggling organizations had been broken up and smuggling on a large scale appeared to have been stopped; at any rate, the seizures now being made were of small amounts only. The authorities were confident that they now had a much better grip on the traffic. It may be noted here that almost all the illicit traffic is through the ports of. Singapore and Penang; the other parts of Malaya are not troubled with it to any extent.
I was able also, in the case of Malaya. to point to the marked decrease in the sales of Government opium. This is no doubt in part due to the facts that in con- sequence of the depression in the tin and rubber industries, many of the Chinese have Not printed here
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returned to China, and the immigration of Chinese is being restricted by the Govern- ment, while the Chinese labourers who remain have less to spend; in part to the adoption of new administrative measures such as the reduction in the size of the containers in which prepared opium is placed on sale; but it is also in part the result of a general improvement in the conditions of life, to which reference will be made later, and so far as that is the case the decrease should be both permanent and pro- gressive. The representative of the Straits Settlements Government, who accom- panied me, believes this to be the case.
As regards Hong Kong, I was unable to record any improvement in the situation since the Conference of 1924. The Colony was flooded with illicit opium and the position had gone from bad to worse, and was in fact, desperate.
In these opening statements, 1 indicated the attitude of the British Government as laid down in the Instructions in your letter of the 29th September, and made some suggestions as to the further action which the Conference might recommend.
In the discussion on the illicit traffic in opium, which took place in secret session, the position as regards the production of opium in China and its export to the neigh- bouring territories was gone into fully. Drawing on the information which was supplied in the reports furnished during the last two years by our Consuls in China, but without mentioning its sources, I was able to lay before the Conference a state- ment of facts which amply confirmed the conclusion reached by the League's Com- mission (Volume I of Commission's Report, pages 37, 38). I was followed by the French representative (M. Touzet of the Administration of Indo-China) who, besides other particulars, gave some striking details of the transport of large quantities of opium by armed caravans past the French posts on the frontier between Indo-China and China, and of the extent of the smuggling across the border into the northern part of Indo-China.
It will be recalled that the conclusions of the League Commission on the subject were publicly challenged by the representative of China at the Council Meeting in January last. The Commission,' he said, "had severely criticized the opium situation in China without having made any investigation on the the statements made in the report were groundless
spot,
many of The truth was that during 1929 considerable improvements had been achieved in the suppression of poppy culti- vation and opium smoking in many provinces of China, except in a few restricted areas or in foreign concessions and leased territories." And, in a letter of the 15th of the same month addressed to the Secretary-General of the League, he denied the allegation that opium manufactured in China is illicitly exported.
The production of opium on an extensive scale in China and the export of large quantities illicitly to the neighbouring territories continues to be (as it was at the time of the Geneva Conferences in 1924-25) by far the most important factor in the situa- tion so far as regards the fulfilment by the Powers of the obligation undertaken by them in The Hague Convention of 1912 to suppress the practice of opium smoking in their territories. (The illicit traffic in Persian opium exported to the Far East is far from negligible, amounting in 1930 to over 160 tons; and some of this opium has been finding its way recently into the territories of Great Britain and other Powers, but this, by itself, would not be important enough to embarrass the Governments, and the Persian Government has announced to the Council its intention of putting a stop to the traffic. It should be observed that the Persian opium finding its way into the territories of Great Britain comes on ships from China.)
The conclusion of the League Commission (which is the same as that reached by the Geneva Conferences of 1924-25), namely, that "in face of the unlimited supplies of opium and the extensive illicit traffic, the final suppression of opium smoking
is not yet within sight.” (Volume I, page 135) was accepted by the Conference. The United States representative, Mr. Caldwell, did not question the conclusion. In statement which was moderate in tone he declared that his Government adhered to the policy of prohibition and believed that under that system they had a better control and less illicit traffic than under the system of Government Monopoly, but admitted that the illicit traffic would continue to constitute a problem whether the policy followed were that of a monopoly or that of absolute suppression; and that "no system will bring the desired result so long as the classes of the people, affected have not been sufficiently educated or the supplies of smuggled opium remain at their present level."