CO882-(4-5) — Page 369

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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Reference :-

C.O. 882

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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amending Ordinance now in course of preparation, for greater control over the number of opium-smoking shops, by requiring that they shall be actually, and not theoretically, licensed by the Government, that the fee may be raised from $12 to $25; and that the fees shall be paid into the Treasury and not, as at present, to the farmer.

The oppor- tunity will also be taken of providing in the amending Ordinance that only male Chinese shall be admitted to the licensed opium shops. These arrangements will necessarily be of a tentative and experimental character, and, should they be successful in abating the evils of an excessive use of the drug, it will be a matter for sincere rejoicing on the part of this Government.

8. In conclusion, I would ask your Lordship's attention to the minutes of the members of the Executive Council, which are enclosed in this Despatch. I add also the extract from the minutes of the meeting of the Executive Council, when the various questions raised in Lord Knutsford's Despatch to the Governor of Hong Kong were discussed.

I have, &c.

No. of Shops.

Enclosure 1 in No. 27.

OPIUM SMOKING SHOPS.

CECIL C. SMITH,

Town.

Country.

Apcom- moda- tion.

Daily

Average No. of of Shope. Smokers.

A.coom. moda-

Percentage of Daily 8mokers Average to

of Population. tion. jamokers.

Opium Smoking among Malays.

Singapore

384

3,456 7,680

67

485

957

4.6

Malacca

8#

166

808

84

71

876

1-9

Penang

Province Wellesley

Dindings

2

070

1,045

1.8

4

24

†11

• There are no opium-smoking shops.

† All employés of the shops. "No outsiders smoke in the divans,

15th October 1892.

in

A

The superintendent of police reports that about 800 Malays (including Javanese) Singapore smoke opium. The Protector of Chinese states from 400 to 600. The District Officer, Jada, reports that there are only reven Malays in the district who smoke opium. In the town there are a few who frequent the divans, they are mostly sea-faring men. few consume it in their own houses. The District Osser Alor Gajah, reports that the practice can hardly be said to exist. There are not more than half a Cosen smokers in the district. The District Ofoer, Balik Pulau, reports that there are scarcely any amokers in the country district. The Buper- intendent of Police reports that about 280 Malayu smoke in the divaas daily.

The sumber of opium smokers

is very small, less than per cent., most of them live near the frontier of Kedah, where the habit la mid to be more common,

The District Officer reports that there are about 25 Malays who use opium in one forma or another.

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Enclosure 2 in No. 27.

MEMORANDUM on the OPIUM TRAFFIC, STRAITS SETTLEMENTS, by the Colonial Engineer (Major McCallum, R.E., C.M.G.)

The enclosures which accompany Lord Knutsford's Despatch of 9th April would Importance appear to call for careful attention from those officers of the Government who have been of subject. daily associated for many years with Chinese labour in the Colony, and it is with less hesitation, therefore, that I venture to expand my remarks upon the suggestions which have been advanced therein to a length beyond the range of an ordinary minute.

Barily evil.

2. Reference was made in Lord Knutsford's Despatch of 18th August, to the evils of the Consumption opium traffic, and we were invited to consider any modification which would diminish the not necee- same, without seriously crippling the revenue. I would, in the first place, with every submission, take exception to the idea that trade in opium and consumption of opium must necessarily lead to evil results. local experience of 17 years allows me to express an entirely contrary opinion. The idea has come about chiefly through the medium of visionary enthusiasts, and once started it has unfortunately become a popular belief, to be expressed on all opportunities, without its having been fully combatted by those most qualified to judge. One swallow does not make a summer, nor should one "opium sot," held up to opprobrium and contempt in the columns of a missionary journal, suffice to sweepingly condemn the consumption of opium in any form by any nation or by any class.

its

3. I do not pretend to judge of the question as applicable to a country like India, with Opium in many and varied nationalities. From a perusal of the parliamentary papers [C.-6,562], India.

I observe that able officers who have spent their lives amongst the Natives (including Sir

W. J. Moore, K.C.I.E., late Surgeon-General to the Government of Bombay), testify to the beneficial effects derived in many cases from the consumption of opium, and point out that some of the bravest, finest, and most energetic of the races have habitually followed the practice, generation after generation, without any evil effects whatever.

from

4. I quite conceive that to many races in India the consumption of opium is an Malay artificially acquired habit, which is attended with serious evil, and which is fair subject different for philanthropic and legislative effort. It is the same in the Straits Settlements, where Chinese. the indolent Malay cannot indulge in the habit of chandoo smoking without moral and physical deterioration. It is not for the Malay that I claim that opium is a harmless and even beneficial stimulant, but for the principal consumer in this part of the world, namely, the hard working, thrifty Chinese coolie.

5. It must be remembered that our large Chinese population is essentially a working Coolie one; the comparatively well-to-do men of to-day are, generally speaking, but coolies of population. yesterday, or their fathers were before them, whilst the vast majority of our plodding industrious Chinese aliens will continue to be labourers and humble artisans all their lives.

of Chinese

6. During my experience as Colonial Engineer, thousands of these "busy bees" have Practical come under my observation. I have on one work had as many as 6,000 Chinese experience employed at one time, as sturdy, steady a lot as I would wish to meet, but practically, opium every man an opium smoker. Among such men moderate smoking is the rule, excessive smokers. smoking the exception, and seldom or never was a coolie so intoxicated from the drug that he could not leave his lines to perform a heavy daily task.

coolies.

7. Let the well meaning but irresponsible people in England, who write and speak at Stimulants great length on this subject, compare this state of things with any engineering scheme necessary to which is being carried out in their neighbourhood by a similar number of beer-drinking Chinese British workmen. Let them consider that the labour of a coolie in these Settlements has to be performed under the exhausting heat of the tropical sun; that his daily surroundings are too often reeking with fever and malaria, that his constitution has to be kept up mainly on a vegetable diet. They will then, perhaps, agree that some sort of stimulant is necessary to him under peculiar conditions of life and climate.

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1

8. Now, no action should be taken which would tend to promote the substitution of Opium pre- the shamsu bottle for the opium pipe. If stimulant a Chinaman must have, let it by all ferable to means take the innocuous form which it does now rather than the more harmful" and "pirits. dangerous form of alcohol.

9. I say, then, that for the class for whom I plead and who constitute the great Opium in majority of our industrial population opium consumed to the moderate extent it is by moderation

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not an evil