643
122
treatment of opium addicts. I note that the experience of the medical authorities has been that practically no patients seem to have regarded the opium habit as a vice, but rather as an expensive habit on which they spent money which they would prefer to save, particularly in times of economic depression; and further that many patients were attracted by the prospect of spending, three weeks in comfortable. This view is borne out by the fact that during the period quarters with good food. of the slump in trade, the opium wards were overcrowded; while with the return of prosperity in Malaya, the numbers applying for treatment rapidly decreased.
"
I fear, therefore, that not only must the experiment be regarded as not having achieved any material success, but that it provides further evidence (if such be needed) of the disinclination of those sections of the Chinese population which are addicted to the habit, to respond to the efforts of the authorities to assist them in relinquishing it voluntarily.
11. This review of the steps taken by the Malayan Government since the date of the Geneva Conferences would not be complete without a reference to the setting The Straits Settlements up of the Opium Revenue Replacement Reserve Funds.
Fund was inaugurated in 1925 by an initial contribution of $30,000,000, and it is the declared policy of the Colonial Government (to which effect has in fact been given in the intervening years) to allocate annually to the Fund 10 per cent. of the total revenues of the Colony. The Fund of the Federated Malay States Government was inaugurated by an initial allocation of $10,000,000, and it is proposed to set aside each year not less than 15 per cent. of the opium revenues of the Federation. While of course the mere existence of these Funds can do nothing to affect the problem of reducing the consumption of opium, it is believed that (apart from the purely domestic financial issues involved) the fact that they have been set up has already done much to remove the unfounded impression which has undoubtedly existed in the past in certain quarters, that the Malayan Governments have been deterred by financial considerations from adopting such measures of control and repression as may be practicable.
12. I turn now to a review of the existing situation as disclosed by statistics of consumption, &c. For convenience the sales of Government chandu in the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, and in British Malaya as a whole (i.e., in- cluding the Unfederated States) for each year since the War, are set out in the following table. The "index numbers" have been worked out so as to show at a glance the fluctuations which have occurred. The sole reason for allocating the index number of 100 to the year 1922 is that this was the year taken as the basic year for the purpose of the tables in Chapter V (paragraphs 6 and 13) of the Report of the Malayan Opium Committee, 1924, and so facilitates comparison with previous years.
SALES OF GOVERNMENT CHANDU.
Federated Malay States
British Malaya
(including
Straits Settlements.
Year.
Unfederated States).
Actual Sales Inder
Actual Sales
Index
Actual Sales
Index
1918
(Tahils). 1,579,861
No.
(Tahsis).
No.
(Tahils).
No.
116
1,783,555
210
4,255,135
154
1919
1,694,133
125
1,650,938 194
4,303,482
156
1920
1,810,164 134
1921
1,511,422 112
1,579,521 186 989,168 116
4,400,107
160
3,131,413
114
1922
1,353,245
100
850,267 100
2,755,769
100
1923
1,329,248
1924
1,183,120
1925
1,225,481
98 87 91
118
1926
1,416,639 105
1,007,192 1,025,707 121 1,156,334 136 1,464,002 172 3,841,002
107 2,963,650
102 2,821,357
113 3,122,705
140
123
power of the individual, should be reflected in the sales of Government chandu. The effects of these two factors are illustrated in the following brief table in which the figures relate to British Malaya as a whole :—
Estimated Comsumption
Year.
1920
1922
1926
Estimated Chinese
adult male
population,
658,530
644,863 753,623
Index Number.
102
100
117
per caput. (Tahils). 6.68
4.27
5.1
On comparing this table with the one given in paragraph 12, it will be seen that the fall in total consumption during the period of the trade depression was mainly caused by a general decrease in individual purchases. On the other hand, increased individual purchases have contributed to a markedly smaller extent to the subsequent increase in total consumption, the consumption per head in 1926 being much less than in 1920. I understand further that as many of the private retail shops are believed to have carried on a traffic in smuggled opium in addition to their legitimate business their suppression is thought to some extent to have disorganized at any rate one of the channels of distribution of smuggled opium. This it is suggested may have driven consumers to purchase more opium at the Government shops, and so contributed to the particularly noticeable increase in 1926.
+
14. From your telegram of the 17th of June,* giving the sales during the first three months of this year it is possible to construct the following supplementary table :-
Sales during first three months of 1927: Tahils Assuming that consumption continues at this rale for the whole year, these sales can be repre- sented by the following Index Nos.
Straits Federated Settlements. Malay States. 323,297 362,164
British Malaya.
014,689
170
96
133
These figures appear to indicate that the peak of the recent increase in total consumption has now been passed. The figure is the more satisfactory seeing that the Chinese adult male population was still rapidly increasing, and in July reached the estimated figure of 785,058. There seems accordingly to be some ground for hoping However this that the general downward trend in consumption will be resumed. may be, His Majesty's Government recognize that, at any rate until circumstances in connexion with the smuggling traffic, &c., have so changed that the pledge contained in the Protocol to the Geneva Agreement becomes operative, variations in total con- sumption in accordance with changing local conditions must be expected, and that it is impossible to guarantee that there will not be an occasional increase in some one
year.
15. I turn now to a review of the extent to which Chinese opium is still intro- duced illicitly into Malaya, as indicated by the seizures made by the customs authorities at Singapore and Penang.
It will be recalled that the following striking figures illustrating the growth in recent years of the amount of the smuggling traffic from China were coinmunicated to the First Geneva Opium Conference by the British Delegate:
1921 1922
1923
1924 (first eight months)
Seizures on Ships coming from Europe. India. China.
14
9
43
23
18
2
21
7
15 8
220
345
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
PELLIC.O.882/11
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON
13. It will be seen that the general downward trend in consumption, to which attention was drawn in the Report of the Malayan Opium Committee, was interrupted in the period of the trade boom which succeeded the Great War, the peak of the temporary increase in consumption being reached in the year 1920. It now appears that the general downward trend has again been interrupted by the revival in trade You will readily understand that this recurrence which began to be manifest in 1923.
of an increase in consumption has been the occasion of much concern to His Majesty's Government. It is, however, recognized that in the absence of a system of control over the individual consumer, it is natural and inevitable that an improvement in economic conditions in Malaya, attended as it has been by a great increase in the numbers of Chinese attracted to the country, and also by an increase in the purchasing
The quantities of opium (practically all of Chinese origin) seized at Singapore and Penang in the last four years are given in the following table :—
Opium
Chandu
Total.
(Tahils).
(Tahils).
(Tahils).
Tons.
1923
6,887
29,438
36,325
1.35
1924
12,613
90,539
103,152
3.84
1925
36,656
275,089
311,745
11.58
1926
18,558
165,685
184.243
7.00
(nearly).
* 28157/27 [No. 4]: not printed.
*124