CO882-(4-5) — Page 373

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

5 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

Excessive

number of

In calling attention, however, last July to an excessive number of so-called "

dens" in- Singapore he has, I consider, touched a point which deserves our close attention and opiam shops. investigation. Being absent from Singapore, I am unable to make such inquiries as to enable ine to express an opinion as regards that port. As regards Penang, however, I believe the number could be reduced without exposing ourselves or the farmers to any of the evils and losses attendant on the illicit traffic to which I have referred and against which we must be carefully guarded.

Fees on licenses.

Control of

Govern-

40. In addition to the 18 smoking shops referred to in paragraph 31 within the Municipal limits proper, there have been 27 off-licenses issued for the current year. By section 58 of the Excise Ordinance of 1870 the sum of $12 per annum is charged for each license, and by section 72 this goes into the pocket of the farmer. The consequence is that the different shops are in nearly every case held by and worked by employés of the farmer who thus pays the license fees to himself. A large smoking establishment of three storeys pays the same fee as a small one with one floor only.

41. By clause 53 of the Ordinance, licensed shops shall be only in such numbers and numbers by in such situations as the licensing officer shall, with the approval of the Governor, determine. We have, therefore, perfect control in the matter, a control which, I con- sider, we could exercise somewhat more closely as regards numbers.

ment.

Increased

42. The modifications which I would propose are two in number, viz., one of principle, the other of detail.

I consider that sections 55 and 72 of the Ordinance should be amended so that all license fees. fees for the opening of farm shops should be paid into the Treasury and not to the farmer. In order that licenses shall not be applied for in situations where there is no great need for the same, I would increase the annual fee for every shop from $12 to $50. Where smoking is to be carried on in addition to sale, an additional fee should be paid commensurate with the size of the establishment which could best be calculated on the number of opium lamps for which bench accommodation is provided.

Public

■moking to be confined

to Chinese.

Sound policy of Govern-

ment.

43. The other modification can be carried out under section 56 of the Ordinance which allows of rules being made for the management of farm shops and maintaining order therein. I would, as a tentative measure, advise an additional rule to those already in force, viz., a rule prohibiting consumption on the premises by any Malay, Indian, or any nationality except Chinese. The smoking shops will then be worked by Chinese for Chinese exclusively. As regards consumption by the Malays, I have already alluded to it in paragraph 4. It is with them a vicious and pernicious habit which we should oppose by every legitimate means short of entire prohibition. As regards Indians I am in more doubt, but I consider that, as the Government of India have determined, though with some reluctance, on the experiment of stopping consumption in public it will be but a courteous act on our part to adopt a similar policy in respect to their subjects in these waters until such a time as they may find it necessary to make an alteration.

44. With these changes I feel sure that when the arguments for and against the so-called opium traffic are laid before those capable of reasoning and competent of judging, they will be satisfied that the Government of the Straits Settlements is working on a wise and beneficent policy, calculated to restrain indulgence in opium and to promote the greatest happiness of the greatest number.

Penang, May 30th, 1892.

H. E. MCCALlum,

Major, R.E, Colonial Engineer, S.S.

Enclosure 3 in No. 27.

MINUTE BY THE GENERAL OFFICER COMMANDING, S.S.

I think that the orders issued by the Governor-General of India, as given in his letter to the Secretary of State, 14th October 1891 would be applicable to the Natives of India in the Straits Settlements, but I do not know to what extent they could be adopted with regard to the Chinese.

In a Colony where there are two Native races so different in habits of mind and body as the Natives of India and the Chinese, it seems to me that great caution would have to be adopted in any legislation affecting the consumption of opium.

(Signed) CHARLES WArken.

June 30th, 1892.

59

Enclosure 4 in No. 27.

MEMORANDUM UPON THE OPIUM QUESTION IN THE COLONY, BY THE ACTING AUDITOR- GENERAL, S.S.

evils result-

A fundamental error seems to me to underlie all statements and reports of the philan- A. thropists in England who look upon the consumption of opium by the Chinese as a vice, As to the and, as such, desire that such Government control may be exercised over traffic in the ing from the drug as to render its habitual and non-medical use impossible to the Chinese in this consumption Colony.

of opium in

2. The literature and speeches upon the subject which I have had the opportunity of the Colony. reading come from varied sources, all of them no doubt conscientious, but all of them without exception, in my opinion, in error, insomuch as they compare the babit of opium smoking by the Chinese with the "opium habit" as known in Europe and America.

3. "Opium eating" in all its forms (including the practice of morphia injection) when once established as a habit, produces an invariable bodily and mental condition which imperatively calls for a constant, if graduated, increase of the drug used.

4. Now this is not the case with opium smoking, and pute the practice on an entirely different platform from the other forms of abuse of opium. Chinese are opium smokers, not opium eaters, with exceptions so few that they may be disregarded.

5. I am quite aware that chandu smoking, when pursued to excess, produces all the deplorable results which we know are, with white people, invariable in cases of excess in opium

taken in other forms (though after a far longer period of indulgence).

6. But in the class for whose protection from themselves in this regard legislation is now so loudly clamoured for, excess is not only not the rule, but is very infrequently to be met with.

7. The reason for this lies on the surface. The working man of the Chinese in the Colony cannot afford a harmful amount of opium under existing circumstances, viz., farm control.

8. Curiously enough, it would seem to be to the existence of an opium farm that philanthropists have taken most exception.

9. It is to the direct interest of a farm, and, indirectly, to the interest of the Govern- ment, that the local price of opium should be as high as is compatible with its moderate consumption by the bulk of the population. If the price is raised above the purchasing power of the coolie, the farm must suffer, while if it be reduced to a cost which enables the coolie to indulge to excess, his producing power becomes impaired, and, with the consequent and inevitable decrease in his wages, his value to the farmer also lapses.

10. I am prepared to admit that the average Chinese coolie will smoke all the chandu that he can get, but, owing to its local cost, he cannot, under ordinary circumstances, get enough to harm him, and, although, if from any cause, the supply to which he is accustomed were cut off, he would be very uncomfortable, and probably for a time inca- pacitated from work. Still, as I have already said, there is in his case no insistency of uncontrollable craving for more than the modicum to which he has become habituated. ·

11. I have had personal experience of numbers of Chinese who have smoked the same amount of chandu for many years without any impairment of bodily or mental power. I have known cases extending over 40 years under these conditions, where a working man has smoked from the beginning of manhood, and is to-day smoking the same amount as he did in early life.

12. I do not care to enter into the question of the actual benefit of opium under the conditions of life to which the Chinese coolie in this Colony is subjected, although the view of real advantage is supported by medical opinion which cannot be disregarded (both here and in India).

13. But that the debilitating effect of the drug when consumed in moderation as chandu in a pipe is not of the extreme or permanent character which is sometimes ascribed to it is clear from the numberless cases of opium smokers who find their way into the prisons of the Colony.

14. There the drug is absolutely and at once cut off, and although the prisoners are to a varying degree quite uncomfortable, yet I found that all are able to take food on the second day of abstention, and that as a rule all are at work on the third day.

Only one death up to last year had occurred in the Singapore jail for 10 years from privation of opium, and that was a case of opium eating, and was not a Chinaman.

15. The statements by various speakers and writers to the effect that the abuse of opium acts as an incentive to indulgence of another nature I can only characterize as diametrically opposed to fact.

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