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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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Ceylon should be protected from this baneful drug and from the still more hurtful bhang. We believe that "prevention is better than cure,' to check the evil in its beginnings. And we are none too soon, for Natives of Ceylon and are therefore seeking are already to some extent becoming consumers of opium and bhang, and perhaps more widely than may be suspected. These articles are easily smuggled, and it is to be feared that, besides, in the licensed houses a trade in opium is carried on illicitly. I was one day waiting in a roadside kadé in the Kandian country for a coach, whọn the coolie who had brought my box was served by the kade keeper with a black treacle-like substance which I afterwards discovered to be opium. I knew the man to be in bad health, and incapable of steady hard work, and that he was wandering from village to village. His circumstances had puzzled me, but the purchase of that opium furnished the key, to my mind, to his condition. And if that kade keeper, possessing no license to sell opium, could deal it out to one customer so readily, it is fair to infer that he was in the habit of getting other applicants for the drug, and also that he was not a solitary illicit vendor in the country. widely-spread evil to deal with than we imagine. Now, in the case of luxuries, among We may have, therefore, even now & more which opium and bhang must be classed, a supply creates a demand, and the existence of houses licensed for the sale of these noxious drugs will, without a doubt, increase the demand for them. We therefore ask that the supply be cut off, and "protest against the unrestricted sale of the drugs in any quantity at Native shops licensed by Government as leading to the entanglement of the people in the habit of using these druge." I hope that this resolution may be carried unanimously by the meeting, and that it may lead to the putting of a fence between this threatened evil and the Natives of Ceylon. (Applause).

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The Chairman then put the resolution to the meeting and it was unanimously adopted.

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SECOND RESOLUTION.

The Rev. T. C. Hillard, W.M.S., moved the following resolution: "That the case "of Ceylon, with an extremely limited population of Chinese and Malays, is much more favourable than that of Burma for the application of restrictions on the sale of opium and bhang similar to those existing in the United Kingdom, with the establishment, if need be, of a register for any regular opium consumers, who could get what they want from the Civil Medical Department." In moving the resolution Rev. Mr. Hillard said: This resolution institutes a comparison between Burma and Ceylon, in support of the argument that, if restriction of the opium traffic be now necessary as a cure for the former province, it is much more desirable as a preven- tive, on the score both of humanity and feasibility, in Ceylon. The audience will not expect to be provided, on the spur of the moment, with a detailed or exhaustive account of the national characters and conditions prevalent in Burma and Ceylon respectively, so possibly such facts an are well known may suffice for our purpose. There is reason to believe that the population of Burma is, on the whole, more robust and more able to resist the pernicious effects of opium-smoking than the people of this Island. Burma, by reason of its distance from the equator and its semi-continental position, enjoys a regular and distinct cold season, whose effect is to harden and invigorate the con- stitutions of its people. As compared with this, our climate here, noted for its perennial combination of warmth and moisture, has a constant tendency to enervate and relax our frames. A recent writer, describing the Burmese, depicts them as a naturally industrious, good-humoured, and polite people: never servile, never deceitful, except where tyranny and oppression have made them so. and these the men, in whose midst we hear of such fearful demoralisation and crime, Yet this is the country, all the result of opium. Sir Charles Aitchison, formerly Chief Commissioner of Burma, declares that "the habitual use of opium saps the physical and mental energies, destroys the nerves, emaciates the body, predisposes to disease, induces "indolent and filthy habits of life, destroys self-respect, is one of the most fertile sources of misery, destitution, and crime; it fills the jails with men of relaxed frame, predisposed to dysentery and cholera, prevents the due extension of cultiva- "tion and the development of the land revenue, checks the natural growth of the population, and enfeebles the constitution of succeeding generations." If this be the case of Burma, with its considerable climatic and racial advantages, what is to be expected for Ceylon, if ever the drug should get possession of our fellow countrymen ? Restrictions absolutely necessary for Burma! Much more so then with us. is another point. For years past, a large number of the Burmese have been accustomed But there

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to the use of the drug, while the great mass of our Ceylonese have done without it, have known nothing of it. A former speaker has referred to the adage that "prevention is better than cure"; in the case we are dealing with it would be far easier, too. Let us attempt it ere it be too late. Make proper provision, we would say, for those who are already habitual consumers of the fatal drug; but for all else make it impossible to fall into the pit which has swallowed them. I earnestly commend this resolution for your adoption. (Applause).

Rev. W. Hankinson, B.M.S., in seconding the resolution said: Not having been resident in Colombo much more than six months I can only speak upon this matter with limited experience, but I take as the basis of my remarks facts which have been brought to light, and which there is no attempt to deny. It is a well authenticated fact, from statistics which have not been denied, that the use of opium is not by any means confined to the Malays and Chinese, but that the habit is gradually increasing among the various classes and nationalities native to the country. These statistics show without doubt that, whatever was the case a few years ago, the Sinhalese users of this drug are in a decided and increasing majority. Now we do not pretend that in regard to this we are to-day face to face with a gigantic evil, or a long-existent ourse; but we are here to deal with an incipient evil, the danger of which we are bound to infer from the sad experience of other countries, such as India and China. If there is any truth in the old proverb that "prevention is better than oure," this movement is on right lines. Most evils may be dealt with in their incipient stage successfully, but if allowed to grow they baffle all efforts of reform. Now, in order that I may show you the danger of this incipient evil, permit me to refer briefly to the history of the opium curse in China. It is a fact which cannot be disputed that widespread and terrible results have followed the traffic in that vast country. As we are not dealing with that particular country, I will not venture to bring before you details of the history of the traffic in opium between India and China. Suffice it to say that the details of that history are abhorrent in the extreme. But my object in referring to China is to show you the evil results of the habit, the rapid growth of the habit, the danger of not dealing with it in its earliest stages, and the duty which lies before us in view of these sad experiences of other countries. Now, I think most reasonable men are agreed as to the insidious and destructive nature of this habit. It is quite true that you may find cases where men have been, habitually, smokers of this drug without apparent ill effects; but when each case is more closely examined, it is, I believe, invariably found that the man is weakened and demoralised and unmanned. Moreover, in the majority of cases the opium-smoker finds himself a real slave to the habit, his will-power is destroyed, and he becomes a useless member of society, constantly urged by the craving for opium to spend all his time and money in trying to satisfy that oraving. Of course, we do not by any means see the worst developments of the vice in this land; you have not yet had generations of the weakening and demoralising effect of this vice. Those who take the drug have, in the majority of cases, not inherited the weakness and craving, as in the case with so many in China and even in India. And so yet you do not find that abject alavery to this vice which is to be found in those countries. But not only missionaries, but travellers, and merchants, and ambassadors, can testify that, when this vice gets a man fairly under its power, nothing short of medical assistance and the help of a power outside himself can make it physically possible for him to be delivered from it. The drug is a poison, and is used by physicians to allay suffering, which it does very speedily and effectually. Under given circumstances, it may thus be regarded as a blessing. But someone has said that man's greatest curses lie naxt door to his chief blessings. Opium, perverted from its right use under the direction of the physicians into a means of vicious pleasure, is proving itself the curse and destruction, morally and physically, of thousands in India and Chins; and we are here to try to do our part in preventing its extension in this land. Now, in referring to the experience of other countries, I wish to point out as a warning the rapid growth of the habit. I would take you back more than 130 years, to the time when the quantity of opium sent to China rarely exceeded 200 cases, each weighing about 140 lbs. Before the year 1820, the importation never reached a higher amount than 5,000 sheets. But the habit grew, and with it not only did the importation of opium increase to 80,000 or 90,000 chests, but the poppy began to be cultivated in China itself. Whatever was the motive which impelled him, the fact remains that the Chinese Emperor resisted its importation, and refused for many, many years to make the traffic a legal one. It is reasonable to suppose that the chief motive in this resistance was to save his people from the destructive effects of this vics, The Chinese Government observed the insidious H 8