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mittee, together with a despatch containing a full expression of your views on the suggestions which have been made, and submitting any alternative suggestions which you may consider to be of value.
It can I think be taken for granted that no [To Straits Settlements: 12. system of registration and licensing of opium smokers could be effectively adminis- tered except in accordance with a general scheme embracing the whole of Malaya, though it might well be, of course, that differential treatment of (say) thickly and These considerations will probably thinly populated areas would be necessary. render it convenient for you to appoint a joint Committee to inquire into the question from the point of view of Malaya as a whole, though this is of course a matter for your own discretion.]
[12.] [13.] It has also been suggested to me (and I agree) that the British Delegation should include officers from the Far Eastern Colonies and Protectorates, who are fully acquainted with the problem as it exists in their various territories and with the views of their respective Governments. I should accordingly be glad if you will nominate such [an officer] [officers] to hold [himself] [themselves] in readiness to attend the Conference as the representative of [your Government] [the Governments of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States] in the British Delegation. [To Straits Settlements: Though here again you may perhaps consider it sufficient to appoint one officer to represent British Malaya as a whole.] The officers selected should be fairly senior, and (I need hardly add) their value will be the greater if they have been members of the local Committees.
I have, &c.,
DEVONSHIRE.
13
cultivators will be allowed to sell opium and there will be no opium shops, opium dealers or transport of opium from one part to another. The opium trade at the present time is centred at the old Lashio and is monopolised by the Chinese who are reputed to hold considerable secret stocks. Unless they can dispose of these before the regula- tions are enforced or arrange to sell them to Hsipaw, &c., they will be unable to find a market without breaking the laws.
It is expected that the non-producing States will obtain what they require from the trans-Salwen districts. It is not intended to apply the regulations to these dis- tricts, Kokang and East Monglem, because of the difliculty of enforcing them. Apart from what is consumed locally and smuggled into China, it is calculated that in ordinary years Kokang can supply 4,000 to 5,000 viss (1-1,000-18,006 lb.) annually. It is apparent that once the regulations are enforced no more frontier cases con- cerning opium can arise except in Kokang and Monglem, and to this extent that source of embarrassment at the frontier meetings is removed. Old cases, however, remain to be settled. My confidential opinion about Kokang is that while it is certainly moro remote than other parts of North Hsenwi there is no other reason why control should be more difficult. To argue that the population there. Chinese by race, is more dependent on the opium crop and might create a disturbance if deprived of this source of income would hardly appeal to impartial judges if opium suppression is admitted as right.
No figures are yet available as to the total production of opium in the Shan States or the proportionate amount exported to China.
O. R. COALES,
Consul.
SIR,
(No. 1.)
Enclosure 2 in No. 9.
British Legation, Peking, 24th January, 1923.
IN continuation of my despatch No. 30 of 12th December, 1922, I have the honour to report further on opium cultivation on the Burma-China frontier.
In Burma itself the Indian Opium Act is applied and no opium is grown. In the Kachin Hill Tracts of Myitkyina and Bhamo districts and the Kodaung in the Northern Shan States the Kachins have been used to cultivate the poppy for their own con- sumption, but in 1921 orders were given to prohibit it and the prohibition has been Genuine residents, but no others, strictly enforced during the past two cold seasons. are allowed to have in their possession a half viss (1.8 lb.) of opium. The production of opium in these districts has always been insufficient and supplies were and are smuggled from China or brought in from the Northern Shan States. On the Myitkyina frontier the smuggling is considerable, for opium, if it can escape the excise officers, is sent all over the unadministered territories, even as far as the Hukong Valley in the Chindwin district. It is possible that Shan opium passes through China to reach its destination.
In the Northern Shan States cultivation has for years been restricted to north and south Hsenwi and Monglem, none being allowed in Hsipaw and Taungpeng. In these two States a modification of the Indian Opium Act is in force. Similarly with Panghai, while Lashio and the railway zone are controlled by the Excise. districts obtain their opium from the opium-growing States.
These
In the latter States the population was warned in 1920 that measures to restrict cultivation would be introduced in the autumn of 1922. In the interval the registration of growers and consumers has been proceeding and is now complete. The inauguration of the new Federation of the Shan States has made it necessary to delay enforcing the proposed restrictions until they have been considered by the Advisory Council in March next. The proposed measures in brief were (1) cultivation to be restricted to those farmers who have cultivated opium during the whole five years prior to the enforcement; (2) the annual requirements of the registered consumers having been calculated, cultivation to be restricted to an area sufficient to supply them. Each circle to be permitted to produce only sufficient for its consumers; (3) no new con- sumers to be registered; (4) there will be no fixed limit to the amount of opium in anyone's possession but no one not registered may possess it; (5) import, export, and transport of opium to be forbidden; (6) no opium shops but free sale at the bazaars by registered persons; (7) cultivation and consumers restricted to natives; (8) Chinese passing through to be allowed to carry a small quantity for personal use. It is intended that by the operation of the rules cultivation will become less and less as the registered consumers die off until it ceases altogether. Only registered
Annexure to No. 9.
EXTRACT FROM A REPORT OF THE ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON TRAFFIC IN OPIUM AND OTHER DANGEROUS DRUGS, DATED 16TH JUNE, 1923.
**
Resolution 2.
THE Advisory Committee, having regard to the large amount of detailed informa- tion now available, recommends the Council to invite the Powers with Far Eastern territories where the use of opium for smoking is temporarily continued in pursuance of Chapter II of the Opium Convention, to enter into immediate negotiations, by means of calling a special conference of representatives of these Governments, or otherwise, to consider what measures could be taken to give a more effective application to Chapter II of the Convention and to bring about a reduction of the amount of opium used, and whether, on the lines of the suggestions set out below or on other lines, an agreement or understanding could not now be reached for the adoption of a uniform policy on the matter :—
(i) That the farm system, where it is still in operation, should be abolished and that the opium business should be made a Government monopoly and kept entirely in the hands of the Government.
(ii) As a corollary of paragraph (i) that the retail sale of prepared opium should be made only from Government shops, and that all private shops should be abolished. Persons in charge of Government shops should be paid a fixed salary without any commission on the amount of business done, and therefore would have no temptation to push the sales.
(iii) That a uniform maximum limit should be fixed for the amount of pre- pared opium placed on sale for consumption, calculated according to the number of the adult Chinese male population, e.g., x taels per 10,000 adult, Chinese males in the territory, and that the annual imports of raw opium should be limited to the amount required for that rate of consumption.
(iv) That the possibilities of the system of registration and licensing, which has already been introduced in some of the Far Eastern territories, should be thoroughly explored.
(v) That the possibility should be considered of making uniform, so far as circumstances permit:
(a) the price at which prepared opium is retailed in the different territories, and (b) the penalties for infraction of the law in regard to the import, export, sale,
and use of prepared opium.
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
།༨་
Reference :-
CO.882/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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