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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE Reference ——
TEC.O.882/11
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
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of smuggled Chinese opium in Malaya. The position was thus gradually approxi- mating that in Hong Kong, where there was as much smuggled opium as Government opium, and where the Colonial Office memoranduin practically admitted the system had broken down. He added that the measures recommended by the Malaya Opium Com- mittee were being honestly put into force by the authorities. Unfortunately, since the time of the Geneva Conference the whole situation had changed.
LORD CECIL said that the trouble was that he would be able to convince nobody, not even an audience in this country, that His Majesty's Government had done their best. We were selling 30 per cent. more opium than before, and in our own shops. No one would believe that His Majesty's Government could not force the Malayan It was true that the situation now Governments to improve this state of affairs. differed from that of 1912, when we became parties to The Hague Convention, for in 1912 there was a possibility that China might suppress the opium traffic, but the situation was not different from that of 1919, when we pressed for the bringing into force of The Hague Convention, for the opium situation in China had already deteriorated by then. It was the national policy to suppress opium consumption, and that being so, the colonial authorities must comply. And, in any case, something must be done, if only to avoid bad appearances.
MR. ORMSBY GORE asked whether it would meet Lord Cecil's point if the Colonial Office were to write to Sir L. Guillemard, asking him to take into consideration the very grave international reactions of the new opium situation in Malaya, and to urge him to make an effort to devise some means of dealing with the situation. He might be asked to consider whether, now that the retail sale of opium was very largely under (iovernment control, it would not be possible to limit to a definite ligure the amount of opium to be sold in Government shops.
MR. ORMSBY GORE and MR. PASKIN pointed out that the Government had not yet eliminated all private shops, and that it was slow business getting their scheme into working order. It was unfortunate that things were in a state of transition when the boom came.
LORD CECIL suggested that, if supplies were limited and the price remained as at present, regular customers might give orders in advance, and this would in itself be a form of registration. Would there be any advantage in this?
MR. PASKIN said that the Malayan Governments were agreed in principle upon registration, but they did not want to proceed too quickly. Registration would have to come very gradually, and the observer system was only a first step and was still in its first stage.
SIR G. GRINDLE said that the answer of the Malayan Governments to the sug- gestion for limitation would be that it would increase both smuggling and the eating of dross, which was a very grave abuse.
SIR M. DELEVINGNE suggested that it might be possible to compel regular customers to bring back their dross before a new supply of opium was delivered to them.
It was agreed that the Colonial Office should examine this suggestion.
SIR G. GRINDLE said that, if it would ease the position of His Majesty's Repre- sentatives at Geneva, there would be no harm in consulting Sir L. Guillemard on the question of limitation, but it should be understood that there is very small likelihood of anything emerging out of it.
MR. ORMSBY GORE said that it might at the same time be impressed upon Sir L. Guillemard how serious was the effect of their figures on the public opinion of the world.
LORD CECIL said he wished he could be certain that the Malayan Governments realized that they were bound by international agreement, and were therefore under an obligation to do something. They might be informed of the suggestion made at the present meeting, and they in their turn might be asked if they had any suggestions to make to meet the situation.
It was agreed that this should be done.
MR. ORMSBY GORE said that the Colonial Office would take action accordingly, and that consideration of the question might be resumed when the Colonial Office were in a position to report.
(The meeting then adjourned.)
C. 20941/26 [No. 12].
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No. 81.
MR. LS. AMERY (SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES)
10
SIR A. CHAMBERLAIN (SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS).
MY DEAR CHAMBERLAIN,
Downing Street, 21st December, 1920 SINCE the meeting of the Interdepartmental Committee on the opium situation in Malaya, two things have happened which have made me even more disinclined than my representatives were at the meeting, to press the Straits Settlements Government to reconsider a measure which was so emphatically rejected so recently as 1924.
2. In the first place I have had the enclosed despatch from Guillemard, which shows that there is a growing resentment in the Colony at dictation from home on matters on which the Colony feels that local circumstances are not sufficiently appre- ciated by His Majesty's Government.
3. We have known for a long time that there is a strong feeling among the high officials (in Hong Kong as well as in Malaya) who have had to deal with this business, that the Far Eastern Colonial Governments have, in the past three years, been most unduly "harried" over this opium question. They are all so definitely convinced that, in existing circumstances, to try to bring about effective suppression of opium smoking is like beating the air, and they cannot understand why other people cannot be made to see it. They strongly resent being constantly urged to take measures which they feel can have little, if any, real effect, and which if imposed prematurely and without due and careful preparation, are liable to be bitterly resented by the people they are governing. There is ever present in their minds the possi- bility of disturbances (such as occurred in 1920) when illiterate coolies are arbitrarily denied their accustomed supplies. They are also conscious of the more insidious danger to the good government of their territories which is threatened by the almost inevitable growth of corruption among the Asiatic staff of the opium control depart- ments (you will find this theme constantly appearing throughout the Report of the 1924 Malayan Committee).
4. On top of all this there is the growing resentiment of the educated part of
the unofficial community, which is referred to in the enclosed despatch.
5. The other of the two events is the arrival on leave of Beatty, who was with Lord Cecil at the Geneva Conference as the expert sent home to represent Malaya. For the past year or so he has been Chairman of the Malayan Standing Opium Advisory Committee.
were
6. The whole position has been discussed with him. He is quite satisfied that there is a very real danger that if anything in the way of "bulk rationing attempted now, there would be serious disturbances among the coolie population similar to those which occurred in 1920. But whereas in 1920 the agitation was a spontaneous one caused solely by the failure of coolies to obtain their accustomed supplies, there are now in Malaya disaffected elements (communist emissaries and illegal political organizations) which would be only too eager to take advantage of any feelings of discontent to foster violent outbreaks for their own ends. He sees no reason to revise the conclusion of the 1924 Committee that it would be fatal to attempt anything of this sort until the consuming population is registered, and that there is a lot of prejudice still to be broken down before registration will be possible. He is also satisfied that it would be absolutely impossible in practice to evolve a plan by which restricted supplies could be apportioned by encouraging coolies to "
KC observer in advance for their rations. (Incidentally we learn that though the system was introduced in the Federated Malay States in 1924, it has not yet been introduced in the Colony-I have more to say about this point later.)
indent
"1
7. He is also unable to see how it would be possible to insist on a coolie return- ing his dross as a condition of being given a fresh supply. The ordinary coolie buys packet. This is little more than a smear his day's supply in the form of a 3" hoon "
of chandu, and the amount of dross produced is infinitesimal. To encourage smokers to buy several days' supply, so as to have enough dross to return in the way suggested, would be contrary to the present policy of reducing the smallest purchasable quantity to a 2 hoon tube (paragraph 12b of the Colonial Office memorandum*). There is also the difficulty that the dross returned has to be tested, in order to avoid subsidizing the smokers of illicit chandu. The tests cannot be carried out by an Asiastic salesman
over the counter.”
* Enclosure in No. 79.