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thanks were not due to the chair-they were due rather to those ladies whose names were already well known to them, and whose single-minded devotion in this and other matters calculated to benefit Ceylon and her people called for the very earnest thanks of all present and of the general public-the names he need not mention, for he was sure they were well known to them all. (Loud and prolonged applause.)

[He referred, of course, we may say, for the information of those who do not know it, to the Misses Leitch, so well known for their philanthropic labours.]

The meeting then concluded, and those present signed the memorial to the Legislative Council before leaving the hall.

SIB,

No. 10.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to SI A. E. HAVELOCK. [Answered by No. 13.]

Downing Street, September 28, 1895. WITH reference to your Despatches of 4th March 1894, and 15th May 1894,* regarding the consumption of opium and bhang in Ceylon, I have the honour to draw your attention to the Reports of the Royal Commission on Opium, and of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, copies of which were recently transmitted to you.

2. I will address you in a separate Despatch in regard to opium, and will in the Despatch confine myself to the question of the hemp drugs, and for convenience of reference present I enclose a further copy of the resolution of the Government of India, dated 21st March 1895, which summarizes the conclusions of the Report of the Hemp Drugs Commission, and gives certain instructions to the several Provincial Governments of India, in general accordance with the recommendations of the Commission.

3. You will observe that the Commission draws a marked distinction between the character and uses of three kinds of hemp drugs, namely, (a) Ganja, consisting of the dried flowering tops of cultivated female hemp plants, coated with resin; (b) Charas, consisting of the resin collected separately, and (c) Bhang (or Siddhi, &c.), being the dried leaves of the plant, whether male or female, wild or cultivated. The first two kinds, ganja and charas, are ordinarily consumed by smoking, generally being mixed with tobacco, while bhang is ordinarily infused in water, and consumed as a drink. imagine that charas may be left out of account, so far as Ceylon is concerned, as it is a rare drug even in India, being chiefly imported from Yarkand and Bokbara.

4. The above is the ordinary definition and mode of consumption in India of ganja and bhang respectively, but the names appear to be interchangeable, and the manner of consuining the drugs to vary, in some parts of India; while they are also occasionally consumed, not in their pure form, but mixed with other drugs, as, judging from the samples in your Despatch of 4th March 1894,† appears to be the case in Ceylon.

5. No distinction is made in your Despatches between the practice of ganja smoking and bhang drinking, and I am not aware which is the more common practice in Ceylon. I shall be glad if in future correspondence on the subject you will, to avoid confusion and mis- understanding, observe the distinction, which is important, for the following reason. The Indian Commission unanimously regard bhang drinking to be almost harmless, needing little or no restriction, while they consider ganja smoking to be a practice attended with danger, and needing to be controlled and restricted by more or less heavy taxation and other means of regulation. Indeed, in the opinion of two of the Native members of the Commission, who dissent from their colleagues on certain points, the difference in respect of harmfulness between the two practices is so great that they recommend the removal of all taxation from bhang, while on the other hand they advise the absolute (gradual) prohibition of the use of ganja.

6. I shall be glad to know whether, after considering the Report of this Commission, you are still in favour of attempting the policy of prohibition in Ceylon of ganja, or of all the hemp drugs, following the example of Burmah and of Trinidad, as desired by the memorialists whose petition accompanied your Despatch of 15th May 1894, or whether you think it better merely to place some further restrictions upon the use of ganja, by increased taxation or otherwise.

• Nos. 6 and 9.

↑ No. 0.

* No. 9.

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7. The history of the question in Burmah is fully described in the Report of the Indian Commission, and as regards Trinidad, about which you inquire in your Despatch of 4th March 1894," I have to inform you that the law passed in 1885, which allowed the cultivation of ganja, but subject to a high license fee, is reported to have had the effect of practically stopping the cultivation and consumption of ganja for several years, but that latterly a certain amount of smuggling from Venezuela had taken place. However, in 1894 the Ordinance of 1885 was repealed, and in its place Ordinance 22 of 1894 (of which a copy is enclosed) was passed, which altogether prohibits the cultivation, sale, or possession of ganja (including under that term bhang and other varieties of the hemp drugs). This Ordinance might perhaps be followed in Ceylon, if prohibition is decided upon.

8. If, however, you no longer think prohibition desirable, I would ask you to favour me with your opinion generally upon methods of restricting the consumption, at any rate of ganja, and particularly upon the following points, which are referred to by the Indian Commission."

9. The best system from the point of view of securing the greatest amount of revenue to the Government, combined with the least encouragement to the use of the drug, might be a Government monopoly, worked through a body of official vendors drawing fixed salaries. The Commission, in paragraph 589 of their Report, point out certain practical difficulties in the way of introducing a Government monopoly of these drugs in India, but most of their objections do not seem to apply to the case of Ceylon, where I gather that the hemp drugs are for the most part imported, and not to any great extent produced locally. It would probably be better that a monopoly of this sort should be in the hands of the central Government, and not of the municipalities, as the latter authorities might be more subject to the temptation of unduly stimulating the sale for the sake of increasing their local revenues.

10. If, however, such a monopoly should not appear to you to be practicable or desirable, an alternative course is that recommended by the Indian Commission in paragraph. 635 of their Report, namely, to impose a comparatively high fixed duty, (higher upon ganja than upon bhang), and to sell by auction, as is already done in Ceylon, licenses for the privilege of retail sale. Such licenses should be strictly limited in number so a merely to meet an existing demand, and not to create a new demand, this limitation being brought about, as the Commission suggests (paragraph 683), by refusing to sell or renew licenses, unless a sufficient sum is bid for them. You will observe that the Commission also suggests that licenses for opium and for ganja should be sold separately, and that retail licenses should never be sold to wholesale vendors.

11. I shall be glad if you will also consider and report upon the questions referred to in paragraph 63 (d.), (è.), and (ƒ.) of the enclosed Resolution of the Indian Government.

Pending the receipt of your reply to this Despatch, I will defer coming to any

definite decision upon the policy to be adopted in connection with this question.

I have, &c.

No. 11.

J. CHAMBERLAIN.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to the OFFICER ADMINISTERING THE

GOVERNMENT. [Answered by No. 13.]

SIR.

Downing Street, October 16, 1895. I HAD the honour to address you in my Despatch of the 28th ultimo,† regarding the consumption of bhang and ganja, and I now desire to ask you for a further report on the question of restricting the consumption of opiam, with special reference to the following points suggested by the Report of the Royal Commission on Opium (C. 7723), copies of which have already been communicated to you.

2. I should be glad to know whether opium is more commonly consumed in Ceylon (a) by smoking or (b) by eating or drinking, and whether any difference of treatment of these two practices is called for in Ceylon. The evidence as to the comparative harmful- ness of the two methods of consumption is divided, and you will observe that Sir W. Roberts, M.D., in his memorandum on the medical aspect of the opium habit (pp. 99-119 of

• No. 6.

↑ No. 10.

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Report) does not seem able to come to any definite conclusion on the question whether opium smoking is more harmful or less harmful than opium eating or drinking. In the Straits Settlements (see par. 81 of Report), and also in Hong Kong, the opinion is very generally held that eating preparations of opium is much more dangerous than smoking opium, while, on the other hand, in India "Native public opinion generally "condemns the habit" of opium smoking "as disreputable, mainly perhape from its associations, and this opinion is shared by the great majority of European witnesses, “official and private, including the medical practitioners" (par. 80).

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3. The Commissioners draw a marked distinction (par. 195) in the case of India between "the common and old established habit of taking opiam in the form of pills and "infusions and the comparatively rare and novel habit of smoking preparations of opium," and they recommend the imposition of further restrictions upon the latter practice by abandoning in all parts of India, as has already been done in some provinces the system of licensing shope for the manufacture or sale of these smoking preparations, and by limiting the quantity allowed to be possessed by any individual.

4. On the other hand, the Commissioners are not in favour of prohibiting the tion of opium in the form of pills or infusions, and they consider that the existing conxump- arrangements in India for the retail vend of such drugs are "sufficiently restrictive par. 194). Those arrangements are described in paragrapha 34-37 of the Report, and you will observe that, while there are modifications of details in different parts of India," the general lines of all the different systems now in force are identical, being designed to * place the habit under restriction, and to raise the maximum revenue from the minimum

consumption" (par. 33).

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5. One of the Commissioners, Mr. H. Wilson, M.P., recommends a change of system, namely, that "the present opium contractors or vendors who profit directly in proportion to the amount of opium they sell should be replaced by official vendors with fixed “salaries" (page 147); but this proposal is not supported by the rest of the Commissioners, for the reasons given in paragraph 194 of their Report. Some of those reasons, however, are peculiar to the couditions ruling in India, and would not apply altogether to the circumstances of Ceylon, and therefore I should be glad to learn your views as to the practicability and desirability of introducing the system of official salesmen in Ceylon on the principle of the Gothenburg plan for the control of the liquor traffic. On this point I would refer you also to paragraph 9 of my Despatch, of the 28th ultimo,* on the subject of the hemp drugs,

6. If

you are not in favour of the adoption of this system, the present plan of selling the licenses for the retail sale of opium by auction should probably be maintained, and in that case I should be glad to know whether you would advise the introduction of a rule, such as is suggested in paragraph 10 of my Despatch of 28th ultimo,* for limiting the number of licensed shops, by refusing to sell or renew licenses unless a sufficient sum is hid for them.

7. I should also be glad to know whether you think it desirable to increase the duty on imported opium, if that course can be taken without increasing the risk of smuggling.

Sta,

No. 12.

I have, &c.

J. CHAMBERLAIN.

MR. CHAMBERLAIN to Sm J. WEST RIDGEWAY.

[Answered by No 13.]

Downing Street, August 21, 1896. WITH reference to my Despatches of the 28th of September and the 16th of October last,† I have the honour to enclose, for your consideration and report, a printed statement by Mr. John Ferguson on the sale of opium and hemp drugs in Ceylon, which has been handed to me by the representatives of the Anti-Opium Societies.

I have, &c.

J. CHAMBERLAIN.

• No. 10.

† Nos. 10 and 11.

TI

Enclosure in No. 12.

To the Right Hon. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M.P., Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies.

SIR,

*

We desire to call your attention to the annexed statement of Mr. John Ferguson, editor of the Ceylon Observer," who has resided for 35 years at Colombo, with regard to the sale of opium and hemp drugs in Ceylon.

We earnestly hope that you will grant the request urged by the people of Ceylon, as represented by Mr. Ferguson, for a measure of protection against the common sale of these narcotic drugs not less stringent than those in force in Burma and in the United Kingdom.

On behalf of the Representative Board of the Anti-Opium Societies of the United

· Kingdom ----

JOSEPH W. PEASE,

JOSHUA ROWNTREE,

August 12, 1896.

President.

Chairman.

PRÉCIS of the CASE of CEYLON for the Application of the same REGULATIONS 18 in ENGLAND to the SALE of OPIUM, BHANG, and other DauGs, within the ISLAND; or at least for the same PROTECTION to ita PROPLE as has been afforded in this matter to the BURMESE,

1. The people of Ceylon (two-thirds of whom are Budhists) have never been known

to grow the poppy or prepare opium, bhang, or gunja for sale or local use.

2. Until of late years the use of these drugs (as imported from India to a limited extent) was almost entirely confined to a certain number of Malays and their descen- dants, originally from the Eastern Archipelago, and a few immigrants from Central or Northern India; but latterly (in Colombo especially), through the facilities offered by opium shops, licensed by order of Government and municipalities, and kept open by Native owners in the most crowded parts of the town, Sinhalese (Budhists), Tamils, and even some Eurasians have been tempted and are found among the regular customers and users of these drugs, and more particularly as smokers of opium.

3. Reliable inspection of the Colombo opium shops and conversations with the owners have shown that opium is sold, not only to be smoked on the premises, but indiscrimi- nately to men, women, and children, to take away to their homes, the rule being, in one licensed dealer's words, that "children under 10 years of age are not allowed to smoke the opium on the premises, but children of any age may buy and take away.”

4. The licensed sellers naturally use their best endeavours to keep their customers and to get fresh ones, and it is quite certain that, under the present system the number of habitual victims must increase, to the serious injury, moral and physical, of a naturally effeminate people like the Sinhalese, who have been described as the "women of the human race," and who, as occupying what may be called the sacred land of Southern Budhism, are deserving of even more care than their fellow Budhists in Burma.

5. In 1893, after inquiry and inspection of the Colombo opium shops and the publication of the results, a very remarkable public meeting was held in the Public Hall (December 9th) to petition the Legislative Council, and to urge the Government to apply restrictions on the sale of opium and similar drugs. This meeting (of which the writer was chairman) was attended by leading representatives of all the races and classes in the community-Sinhalese, Tamil, Mahomedan, Eurasian, and European, the Budhist High Priest Sumanagala and fellow priests, equally noted Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Christians, supporting resolutions to the effect that the Sinhalese, Tamil, and Mahomedan population of Ceylon “ strongly desire the restriction of the sale of opium " and bhang and the suppression of the existing Native licensed shops in Colombo and

throughout the Island."

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6. The memorial to the Legislative Council was one of the most widely and influentially signed of any ever drawn up in Ceylon-bearing the names of 18,953 Sinhalese, 11,878 Tamils, 1,250 Eurasians, 265 Europeans, and 458 other residents of the Island-the signatories being confined to those who could write for themselves. It stated that "in the opinion of the petitioners there was nothing in the case of Ceylon or

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