31
597
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :--
TILLIC.O.882/11
| |
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC. COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
30
29. It has to be borne in mind, though I have no desire to lay undue stress on on the point, that the Governments of the Protected Malay States are not bound by the original signature of The Hague Convention or by the subsequent ratification.
Enclosure in No. 19.
I have, &c.,
L. N. GUILLEMARD.
EXTRACT FROM A REPORT By the British Malaya Opium COMMITTEE, DATED 22ND FEBRUARY, 1924.
#
XVIII.
*
SUMMARY OF CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS.
We have satisfied ourselves that the consumption of prepared. opium in British Malaya has diminished very appreciably in recent years.
2. We have doubts, however, as to whether under existing measures of control
a further steady reduction of consumption of prepared opium may be anticipated.
3. We feel that educational propaganda may be sufficient to eradicate the opium habit amongst the Straits-bom Chinese, but its progress amongst the China-born, however sure, must necessarily be slow, owing to steady influx of adult Chinese immi- grants.
4. We have accordingly been forced to the conclusion that eventual elimination of opium smoking in British Malaya can only be achieved, without causing unnecessary hardship, through control over smokers individually.
5. We have throughout our Report insisted that local circumstances are such that immediate embarkation on an individual rationing system would be disastrous, but we cannot avoid the conclusion, that all steps which are taken should have such a system as their eventual objective.
6. We think that the recommendations which we have made pave the way for an attempt at rationing individual smokers without dooming that attempt to failure.
7. We hold that the primary step is for the Governments to take charge of the entire retailing of prepared opium whether sold for consumption on or off the premises.
8. Concurrently with this abolition of licensed shops, we recommend a change
in the system of packing prepared opium for retail sale.
9. We think that prepared opium should only be sold retail in hermetically sealed machine filled tubes which cannot be used more than once.
10. We hold that the ease of recognition of receptacles containing licit pre- pared opium and the impossibility of tampering with those receptacles will be of assist- ance in detecting smuggled opium when more stringent measures are introduced. We also think that the difficulty and expense of counterfeiting these tubes will be of great advantage over the present system.
11. Incidentally, we recommend the replacement of the present 3-hoon (174 grains) packet, which is the most commonly purchased by a 2-hoon (11 grains) tubes. We hope that this experiment will result in an appreciable diminution in con- sumption by smokers of the poorer class.
12. We think that further increases in the price of prepared opium, although they might cause some further reduction of consumption of prepared opium, would certainly cause an increase in the swallowing of dross, and we hold that such a result should at all costs be avoided. We recommend, therefore, that no change be made in the price except in so far as is necessary to make it uniform throughout British Malava.
13. We view the swallowing of dross as the most deplorable phase of the opium habit in British Malaya, and we recommend an exhaustive exploration of the ways in which dross swallowing can be reduced to a minimum. As a first, but not necessarily effective, step in this direction, we recommend a considerable increase in the price offered by the Governments for dross returned.
14. All the measures and investigations which we have suggested in the previous paragraphs can and, in our opinion, should be put in train during the transitional stage from licensed retailers to retail sale by the Governments themselves.
15. We have not been able to avoid adverse comment on the number of licensed shops for the sale of prepared opium in some of the territories of British Malaya. We consider that in some administrations drastic reduction in the number is possible even before the assumption of control of retail sale by the Governments in question.
16.
We have expressed a hope that Government management of retail sales will be universally in force in British Malaya by the middle of the year 1926, and the next step of attaching observers to each Government retail shop to take records of purchasers at such shops should then be universally in operation also.
17. We do not anticipate that it will be necessary to wait for the end of the transitional stage to Government control before commencing the observer system.
18. We have advocated the appointment of a permanent Advisory Committee on matters connected with opium in British Malaya. We think that this Committee should be appointed in the near future, and should guide experiments in connexion with the observer system during the transitional stage.
19. With the knowledge gained during the transitional stage, this Committee should be in a position to prescribe the duties and records of the shop observers, in such manner that a year of this system in full and universal working order should give reliable data, and, such experience as would justify embarking on a measure of com- pulsory simple registration of smokers.
20. The Committee's experience during the period so far covered, which goes to the middle of the year 1927, should enable that measure of registration of smokers to be framed in such a manner as to cause a minimum of friction and result in a maximum of efficiency.
21. We recommend that the system of registration of smokers (without any rationing provisions) should be given an exhaustive trial before any further steps are
taken.
22.
This trial should be recognized by the Advisory Committee as intended to be the preliminary step towards an individual rationing system, and should enable the Committee to frame the provisions of the extended measure of individual rationing in such a manner as to give that measure a reasonable chance of success.
23. We have examined the proposal to fix a maximum limit to the amount of prepared opium placed on sale on the basis of X tahils per head of the adult Chinese male population, and we hold that the variation in degree of indulgence amongst the various tribes included in that population renders such a formula inappropriate to British Malaya.
26080/24.
No. 20.
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO COMPANY to COLONIAL OFFICE.
SIR,
37, Threadneedle Street, London. E.C.2, 30th May, 1924. I AM to refer to the letter from the Secretary of State dated 27th September, 1923,* and to the Court's reply of the 19th October, 1923,† regarding suggestions made by the Advisory Committee of the League on Traffic in Opium.
2. I am now instructed to transmit for the information of the Secretary of State
a memorandum embodying the views of the Court on the subject.
Enclosure in No. 20.
MEMORANDUM.
I am, &c..
A. C. PEARSON,
Secretary.
In conformity with the request contained in a letter from the Secretary of State dated 27th September, 1923, the Court of Directors of the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company issued instructions to the Governor of North Borneo by despatch dated 18th October, 1923, that he should give the fullest possible consideration to the suggestions of the Advisory Committee of the League of Nations on Traffic in Opium with a view to determining what further measures can be taken to give a more effective application to Chapter II of the International Opium Convention, 1912.
* No. 10.
† 51075/23: not printed.