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It is understood that the system was tried in the Federated Malay States and was there found unsuccessful and was accordingly abandoned.

14. Control and disinfection of opium pipes.-If the view of the Government that the institution of smoking establishments is impracticable is accepted, then the question of the effective disinfection of opium pipes will not arise as it would clearly be impossible to exercise effective supervision over the pipes in the possession of indi- vidual smokers.

15. Control of dross.-The Commissioners at pages 33 and 34 of their Report direct attention to the necessity for scientific research before the harmfulness of the use of dross can be established, and until the harmfulness is conclusively proved it would appear inadvisable to incur the expense and labour which the Commissioners show to be involved by the collection of dross.

Salaried retailers keep no records of sales to individuals and could not be relied on to make any serious attempt to collect from their customers.

Until the introduction of Government shops and rationing nothing effective can be done to control dross.

Even after the institution of rationing adulteration of the dross would prove a serious obstacle to effective control and would have to be prohibited by law.

A Government-owned retail shop might issue opium to and receive dross from 500 persons in one day. In the case of the coolie class the purchase would usually be limited to .03 of a tael and the resultant dross to be returned would not exceed .01 of a tael.

It would clearly be impossible to earmark and analyse more than a few samples. If the dross were found to be adulterated the courses open to the Government would be prosecution and/or revocation or suspension of the individual's licence.

Revocation or suspension of the licence would drive the former licensee to obtain opium from illicit sources.

Prosecution would in most cases mean fining a member of the labouring classes who would not be able to afford to pay the fine and therefore would have to be main- tained in prison at the cost of the State.

The weighing of dross received from an individual, the checking of the weight against the previous issue of opium, the recording and disposal of the amount received and the analysis of selected samples would involve clerical and other labour rendering necessary greatly increased clerical and specialist staffs.

16. Cure of opium smokers.-Demands on the present hospital accommodation are so great that there is no possibility of setting aside wards for the treatment of opium addicts, and there seems no likelihood of space for this purpose being available in the near future.

The constant movement of population between China and the Colony would aggravate the danger, which the Commissioners point out, of smokers taking advantage of the opium wards in times of depression.

It is probable that if it became known in the neighbouring provinces of China that any opium addict who presented himself at the hospitals of this Colony would be sure of accommodation and food the position would become untenable.

It is understood that a serious attempt was made in Malaya to cure addicts by treatment in hospitals. The failure of this attempt goes to show that efforts in this direction are likely to be fruitless.

Under existing arrangements any addict suffering from the use of opium who presented himself at a Government hospital would receive treatment, and the Govern- ment feels that any attempt to persuade addicts to present themselves for treatment would result only in abuses.

17. Opium Revenue.-Transference of the grose opium revenue to a special section of the budget would present no difficulty and no legislative measure would be necessary to enable this to be done.

The Government is prepared to concur in the proposal to charge against the opium revenue every expense in connexion with opium, including approximate pro- portionate parts of the cost of the preventive service, of the cost of gaols and hospitals, of the administration of justice, of education, propaganda, cure of addicts, scientific research, &c.. and of grants-in-aid of our Government expenditure upon measures directed towards the improvement of social and hygienic conditions, utilizing the balance, if any, for social and sanitary purposes.

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The net revenue from this source was approximately five million dollars in 1922, but had fallen to approximately two million dollars by 1930. Future loss of revenue from opium will have to be replaced gradually, as has been done in the past, by income

from other sources.

The whole question of opium revenue and the method of its disposal is so inti- mately bound up with the question of the extent to which the Commissioners recom- mendations are to be adopted that it is impossible at this juncture to forecast whether there will be any net revenue whatsoever from this source.

It is clear that unless the Government is to be at liberty to purchase cheap opium, the only available source for which is China, any such reduction in the price of Govern- ment-prepared opium as would enable it to be marketed at a price competitive with that of the illicit article will immediately bring about the loss of a substantial portion, if not of the whole, of the revenue derived from this source. Until fixation of the retail price it is impossible to say whether the increased sales which one might expect to result from low prices would to any degree make up for the loss of a higher rate

of profit. At present it appears probable that any effective reduction of price would entail losses on sales which would only be increased by larger sales.

Any general adoption of the measures suggested by the Commissioners in con. nexion with the establishment of Government shops and smoking establishments would in all probability result in the complete disappearance of any net revenue from opium. 18. League of Nations Central Bureau in the Far East for Opium Smoking affairs. The proposed Central Bureau might perform a useful function by receiving and circulating information. particularly as regards the illicit traffic, but there seems to be no obstacle in the way of achieving the same end by direct communication between the Governments of the territories concerned under the arrangements which already

exist.

The institution of the Bureau would be a costly matter, and it is doubtful whether the expenditure would be justified by results.

19. Annual Reports to the League of Nations.-The annual reports now ren- dered contain very detailed information and could readily be supplemented by further information as to the progress of control measures.

20. Revision of The Hague International Opium Convention and the Geneva Opium Agreement. The difficulties foreseen in connexion with the suggested revision

are:-

(a) complete Government monopoly of retail sales-the heavy cost of estab-

lishing and carrying out the system;

(b) the prevention of opium smoking by minors-the difficulty of procuring

satisfactory evidence of the breach of prohibition laws;

(c) the necessity for the withdrawal of dross from the market-the difficulty and expense attendant on earmarking dross returned by individuals, analysis, recording of returns and effecting punishment of adulterators;

(d) the undertaking of education and propaganda-the difficulty of reaching

effectively the illiterate labouring classes.

The foregoing difficulties have already been dealt with in detail elsewhere in these observations.

C. 83085/31 [No. 5].

MY DEAR DELEVINGNE,

No. 18.

SIR G. GRINDLE (COLONIAL OFFICE)

to

SIR M. DELEVINGNE (GENEVA).

Downing Street, 5th June, 1931. THANK you for your letter of the 1st June.* We should see no objection to the presence of Mr. Herbert May as an observer on behalf of the Permanent Central Opium Board at the Bangkok Conference.

* No. 15.

Yours, &c.,

G. GRINDLE.

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C.O.882/12

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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