633
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.882/11
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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(c) Paragraph 31.-The total amount of illicit opium and chandu seized at Singapore in the first nine months of 1926 was 4.81 tons;
(d) Paragraph 35.-The Straits Settlements Government has received information of a syndicate which was preparing to land opium from Amoy, at some unguarded spot on the east coast of Malay, by fast launches;
(e) Paragraph 34.-Local expert opinion attributes the increase in the consumption of Government chandu largely to the suppression of the private retail shops, which are thought to have been the main channels for the distribution of illicit chandu. The dislocation of an elaborate system of distribution based on the retail shops, drove many consumers to buy more Government chandu.
6. In addition, mainly in order to relieve His Majesty's Government from the accusation that it is being deterred by financial considerations from taking such steps as may be possible to suppress opium smoking in the Far Eastern Colonies, the Straits Settlements Government in 1925 set up an Opium Revenue Replacement Fund. The Fund was inaugurated by an initial contribution of 30 million dollars, and it is the declared policy of the Colonial Government to allocate annually to the fund 10 per cent. of the total revenues of the Colony. The amounts to be so allocated, which were provided in the Estimates for 1926 and 1927, were dollars 2,813,074 and dollars in 3,509,004 respectively. Funds on somewhat similar lines have also been set up the Federated Malay States and in the various Unfederated Malay States.
7. At the meeting of the Interdepartmental Committee in November it was urged that the Malayan Governments should be pressed to consider whether (now that they have taken the whole of the retail trade into their own hands) it would not be possible to put a maximum limit on the amount of opium to be imported into Malaya.
As my colleagues are aware, the implications arising from my unwillingness to take this course (or, indeed, to press the Governments of the Far Eastern Colonies to go beyond what they have already undertaken to perform) are the main considerations which have led to the appointment of this Committee.
S. An arbitrary restriction on the amount of opium imported into Malaya would carry with it, as a necessary corollary, a similar arbitrary restriction on the amount of chandu to be placed on sale at the retail shops. My colleagues are aware that an experiment on these lines in 1920 had to be abandoned after a few months' trial in view of the discontent and even disorders which it provoked. They are also aware that the suggestion of a "wholesale ration" was among the measures suggested by the League of Nations Advisory Committee in 1923 for consideration at the Geneva Con- ference. This suggestion with others was examined by the local Committees set up to explore the ground in preparation for that Conference, and was emphatically rejected on grounds whichi, in 1924-1925, were accepted as adequate.
9. I understand that it is suggested that the situation has now changed; and that with the complete control of the retail trade in their hands, the Malayan Governments system to (with the experience gained through the operation of the "Observer " guide them) might well now be able to impose an arbitrary restriction on the con- sumption of opium. I must say that I, personally, cannot see that anything has happened since 1924 to invalidate the conclusions of the Malayan Opium Committee, that regis- tration of smokers must precede any further attempt at rationing.
10. I have been reinforced in this view by opinions expressed by officers who have recently arrived from Malaya, but who were not available for consultation in November. These officers are:-
(a) An officer who for many years has been head of the Chinese Secretariat in the Straits Settlements, who was present at the Geneva Conferences in the capacity of adviser to the British Delegation, and who for a year prior to his recent retirement, has been Chairman of the Standing Opium Advisory Committee in Malaya. His experience, therefore, has been mainly in the big cities in the Colony;
(b) An officer whose entire service has been spent in the more backward States of Kelantan and Pahang, of which latter State he is now British Resident.
11. These officers are both emphatically of opinion that any attempt, at this stage, to fix an arbitrary limit to the amount of chandu to be placed on sale, would give rise to serious disorders. The danger of such disturbances is very much more serious now than it was in 1920 since there are now in Malaya disaffected elements (communist emissaries, &c.) which would be only too eager to take advantage of any feeling of discontent to foster violent outbreaks for their own ends.
12. In these circumstances, I presume that my colleagues will agree with me that no useful purpose would he served by my asking the Governor to reconsider this suggestion.
13. There is another aspect of this matter which I wish to place before my colleagues. I have been aware for a long time that there is a strong feeling among
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high officials, both in Malaya and Hong Kong (a feeling which was particularly manifest in the period leading up to the Geneva Conferences in 1924-1925), that the Far Eastern Colonial Governments have been subjected to constant and unreasonable pressure to take measures which they feel can have little, if any, real effect towards the suppression of opium smoking, and which, if imposed prematurely and without due and careful preparation, are liable to be bitterly resented by the people they are governing, government of their territories which is threatened by the almost inevitable growth 14 Apart from this, they are also conscious of the insidious danger to the good of corruption among the staffs of the Police and Opium Control Departments, these staffs being necessarily recruited from various Asiatic races. This theme constantly appears throughout the Report of the 1924 Malayan Committee.
15. Further, they feel much anxiety at the multiplication of punishable offences I can perhaps best illustrate in connexion with the repression of opium smoking. this by giving the following quotation from the Report of the long Kong Opium Committee, which was appointed in 1924 :—
**In 1923 the Senior Revenue Officer alone captured 716 illicit divan keepers, 3.359 illicit opium-smokers, 386 traffickers in illicit opium, and (50) boilers of illicit opium. My colleagues will no doubt be surprised to hear that in the small Colony of Hong Kong, even in 1926 when the activities of the Ginvernment were fully occupied in other direc tions, there was a daily average of no fewer than 300 persons in gaol, convicted of offences against the opium laws.
16. In short, even the present measures of control entail the crowding of the gaols, the banishment of numerous persons who are in no other way a danger to the Colony, the nourishment of a parasitic class of informers, the prevalence of blackinail. the corruption of Government servants, and the evils attendant on the inevitable system of the payment of rewards to informers. Further measures of control or repression aust necessarily entail the creation of more punishable offences and more corruption. It is obvious that if this process is allowed to continue beyond a certain point. the result will be disastrous to the prestige of Government. My own firm conviction is that this danger point has almost, if not quite, been reached. With the facts mentioned in the last paragraph before them, I feel that my colleagues can hardly fail to shore this view. Personally, I would go so far as to say that the evils arising from the repressive measures are much greater than the evils which the Convention aims at repressing.
17. The conclusion is obvious. The Far Eastern Colonial Governments should not be pressed to undertake any further obligations in this matter, or to adopt further measures of repression, or indeed to proceed with the measures which they have already undertaken, at a faster rate than they consider reasonably practicable.
18. So far, I have referred only to official opinion. As my colleagues are aware, the Committees set up in 1924 contained also prominent unofficials. The fact that the Reports were unanimous indicates that the official views were fully shared by the unofficial members. In Malaya recently unofficial opinion has substantially hardened, mainly in connexion with the arrangements for the constitution of Opium Revenue Replacement Funds. Some indication of this was given in the telegram from the Governor to which my representative drew attention at the meeting of the Interdepart- mental Committee in November. Since then I have received a despatch of which I need quote no more than the following paragraphs :—
"Another grievance, which is being strongly ventilated, is the provision of the Opium Revenue Replacement Fund, which has had to be introduced in consequence of the policy of the Imperial Government with regard to opium.
The general consensus of opinion among those who have studied the question out here is that opium smoking as practised in Malaya does little harm, and some good: that it can never be stopped entirely, and that its stoppage, so far as it can be enforced, will lead to far worse evils from drink and drugs.
This being the general and I believe well-founded belief, it is easy to understand the public resentment when as a result of this policy Government has passed legislation which cramps the Colony's finances and necessitates the postponement of much needed works of development.
In both these matters the Unofficial Members of Council have come in for organized attack. They have been abused as subservient slaves of the official Government and traitors to the interests of the public which they are supposed to represent.”
19. At the interdepartmental meeting in November it was urged that it would
be difficult to maintain at Geneva that the recent increase in consumption in Malaya (in contrast to the progressive decline in consumption, to which it was possible to point at the Geneva Conference in 1924-1925) is consistent with the discharge of our obligations under The Hague Convention; and that it could, and probably would, be