PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PLEC.O.882/11
afixion
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC“ COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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diately to any other Government concerned and also (by despatch) to the League of Nations. The German delegate in particular asked me personally to see if the labels of any drugs seized in Hong Kong, if of German origin, could be sent to the proper authorities in Germany, as that country insists on the serial numbering of all packets of dangerous drugs produced there.
I have, &c.,
31940/23.
(No. 178.) MY LORD DUKE,
No. 6.
HONG KONG.
N. I. SMITH.
THE GOVERNOR to THE SECRETARY OF STATE.
(Received 26th June, 1923.)
[Answered by No. 9.]
Government House, Hong Kong, 16th May, 1923. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of Your Grace's telegram of the 6th [? 5th of May,* with regard to certain proposals for the more effective applica- tion of Part 2 of the Opium Convention. I have replied briefly to that communication by my telegram of 11th May.t
2. The first suggestion in Your Grace's telegram is that the entire opium business including retail sales should be a Government monopoly. To this proposal I see no objection. It will not materially change the present practice of this Colony where the import and manufacture is a Government monopoly. At present retail sales are managed on behalf of the Government by private individuals who sell the Government manufactured article under Government supervision at a fixed price, and all that would be required is to substitute salaried Government vendors for these private tradesmen. The change would necessarily take a little time as suitable premises would have to be obtained, a matter of some difficulty in this over-crowded city, and it would be desirable to show some regard to the vested interests of the present sellers in order not to arouse a hostility which would probably take the form of illicit trading in smuggled opium, but I do not suppose that there would be any difficulty in establishing the new systein in a year's time at most.
3. The remaining suggestions require the introduction of a system of registra- tion of consumers. I regret to say that I consider that the adoption of any such system in Hong Kong is absolutely impossible. The circumstances here are altogether different from those obtaining in any other British Colony or in any foreign country or foreign colonial possession. Hong Kong is geographically an integral part of China and prac- tically the whole of its population is Chinese. With a total area of only 376 square miles it has a coast and frontier line of more than 400 miles over any part of which Chinese may come and go without let or hindrance. It is estimated that between 10,000 and 12,000 persons pass daily between the Colony and China, and there are countless cases of people who live for a few weeks or months in Hong Kong, then return to their native towns or villages in China, and again come to Hong Kong for a lenger or shorter period.
If therefore a system of registration were introduced for permanent inhabitants of Hong Kong only and no provision at all were made for temporary residents, a very large proportion, probably a considerable majority, of the population of the Colony would find themselves deprived of the possibility of obtaining the opium to the use of which they are habituated in their own country.
4. Chinese from Kwangtung who have been in the habit of dividing their time between Hong Kong and their native country would have three possible courses open to them.
(a) They might decide to remain in Kwangtung altogether. The result of the widespread adoption of this course would be to deprive Hong Kong of the greater part of its labour supply, which would mean ruin to a flourish- ing Colony and disaster to British trade in South China.
(b) They might give up opium smoking. This they would certainly not do,
and the course which would undoubtedly be adopted would be- (c) Consumption of opium smuggled from China instead of the Hong Kong
Government product.
* No. 3.
+ No. 4.
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5. It is probably difficult for any one who does not know this Colony to appre- ciate the impossibility of preventing smuggling The constant seizures made by the revenue officers show the great amount of smuggling which is attempted, and I fear that we cannot flätter ourselves that we stop anything like the whole of the opium which smugglers, professional and amateur, attempt to bring in. At present, the severe penalties imposed on convicted smugglers or persons in possession of illicit opium act as a considerable check since, while opium can be obtained legally though at a high price, many people will prefer to buy at that price rather than risk iletection in the use of the cheaper smuggled article.
If, however, it becomes a question of using smuggled opium or going without opium altogether, the situation will be completely changed The market for smuggled opium will be enormously increased and the supply will rise to meet the demand.
6. All along the coast line of hundreds of miles there is scarcely a place where it would not be possible for a native boat to land supplies of opium and, even if, by the establishment of an enormously costly system of patrols, it were possible to prevent any landing of opium in bulk there would still be the insuperable difficulty of stopping its being brought in in small quantities by individuals. Opium, it must be remembered, is an article of which the bulk is extraordinarily small compared with its value, and any traveller by train or boat can easily carry on his person or in his baggage enough of the drug to supply his requirements for weeks.
The records of the Chinese Customs will afford countless illustrations of methods by which the drug can be introduced. The inside of a camera, a child's toy, a hollowed walking-stick, or boot-sole will contain several ounces. A pumpkin or a few oranges in any basket of fruit can be hollowed out and filled with opium, and it is obvious that the chance of detection of the one or two ** doctored " fruits in a large basket are practically nil. Even if it were possible to examine every article brought into the Colony, as it obviously is not, there would remain the method of importation on the person-e.g., concealed in a woman's hair or in bags hidden by her trousers. Nothing in fact can stop smuggling unless we are to adopt methods of rigorous search of the property and person of every entrant into the Colony such as would not be tolerated for a moment in any civilised country, and to which even the extraordinarily law-abiding Chinese race could not be expected to submit. The methods of search which we already employ, though they fall very far short indeed of such a drastic process as would be necessary in the situation which is now under consideration, are intensely unpopular, and have been the cause of constant protests by the representa- tives of the Chinese community. An extension of them which would make them thoroughly efficient would result in setting the whole Chinese population against us, and, in my opinion. would lead in no long time to the loss of Hong Kong as a British Colony. The days when the Chinese would patiently submit to treatment which it would not be possible to apply to the inhabitants of a European country are over.
7. The difficulties of detecting small consignments of smuggled opium are such that it is probably safe to say that in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the seizures which are made are due to information received, and it is obvious that the opportunities of corruption of preventive officers are very great. This point is one which is already causing me considerable anxiety (I would refer Your Grace in this connexion to my despatch No. 122 of 6th April*), and Sir Francis Aglen has been so impressed with the disastrous effects of the present system on the moral of the Chinese Customs. which employs a far larger proportion of Europeans than we could ever afford to do, that he has advocated the unpopular cause of legalizing the consumption of opium in China as the less of two evils.
If the use of smuggled opium became a practical necessity, as it would do if none but permanent residents of Hong Kong could otherwise obtain supplies, the bribes offered would be such as no revenue officer could resist. The force would be hopelessly demoralized, and opium smoking would probably be increased rather than diminished.
8. For these reasons I submit that the introduction of any system of regis- tration of consumers in Hong Kong is impracticable, and that altempts to introduce it will not reduce consumption.
I regret that I cannot suggest any practical scheme for the restriction of con- sumption while conditions remain as they are. As I have previously observed in many despatches the problem is, in my opinion, one that can only be properly tackled at the source hat is in the countries where the
poppy is grown.
* 24098/23: not printed.
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