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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON |

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be taken of the names, addresses, and occupations of persons purchasing opium at the new Government depots, and from this it is hoped to extract some general data regard- ing opium smoking in the Colony. More than this is not practicable while the flood . of illicit opium remains at its present level.

'S. Resolution No. IV.-The Medical and Health Services of the Colony continue to expand as fast as the Colony's income will permit. It is hoped to start work on a new General Hospital (Government) for the Island at an early date and extensions to the Government Hospital on the Mainland are already in progress, while the draft Budget for 1933 includes several new appointments to the Senior Staff of the Medical Department for the purpose of extending and developing the Medical and Health Services of the Colony. Further, it has been made a point of fixed policy in connexion with town-planning and development schemes, whatever the class of population for whom they are intended and regardless of the land-value sacrificed, to provide open spaces and recreation grounds on a generous scale.

In connexion with this subject it seems relevant to record that the estimated expenditure of the Medical and Sanitary Departments for 1932 apart from all building construction is $2,850,000 and education calls for a further $2,000,000, while the net opium revenue is estimated at $2,277,000 only. The opium revenue is expected to fall further in 1933, but the public services indicated must expand if money can be found for them.

9. Resolution No. V.-An annual account in the form suggested by Mr. Max Léo Gérard in his note dated 18th January, 1931, and printed at the end of the second volume of the Commission of Inquiry's report to the Council of the League of Nations will in future be included in the annual reports made by this Colony to the League, but it is to be observed that there will be considerable difficulty in assigning an expenditure value to such measures as the reservation of open spaces and recreation grounds which are nevertheless very real sacrifices to the cause of public health.

10. Resolution No. VI.I am advised that the law of the Colony provides and its Courts inflict adequate penalties on organizers of the illicit opium traffic. Attention is invited to Sections 38 and 39 of the new Ordinance, particularly to Sub-sections 1 (d), (2), (3) and (4) of Section 38. The chief obstacle to the punishment of organizers lies in the difficulty of securing legal evidence of the principal's complicity. The actual offence is patent; but even if an agent is willing to implicate his principal (and it is believed that there is a definite tariff of compensation extending to the prisoner's dependents designed to prevent this) his evidence, being that of an accomplice, is insufficient for a Court of law. Executive action in the shape of deportation is, however, frequently employed, although here again there is reason to believe that Hong Kong-born agents are systematically selected with a view to defeating this method of cleaning the Colony of traffickers.

11. Resolution No. VII.-Hong Kong has long since abandoned all attempts to recover dross. Apart from constant adulteration with other substances, it was found impossible to distinguish between the dross of pure Government opium and the dross of illicit opium, provided the latter had a small admixture of Government dross contain- ing the secret test substance. The result was that purchases of dross by Government tended to benefit the illicit traffic by providing a drawback substantially increasing an already overwhelming advantage in price. It is understood that the experience of Malaya has been similar, and that even with Government smoking-shops it has been impossible to prevent fraud in connexion with dross.

The difficulties of the situation are recognized in the later part of the resolution dealing with the provision of a simple test for dross, and I may say that investigations in this direction have already been made by the Analyst of the Hong Kong Monopoly but without success.

12. Resolution No. VIII.-It must be remembered that so far as the illicit traffic in opium is concerned while the basic factor, i.e., uncontrolled growth importation and exportation of opium by China, is the same for all territories concerned, the results of this factor are to a large extent sui generis in each. It is necessary therefore not to over-estimate the advantages likely to be gained by conferences and by the exchange of information. In accordance with Article VIII of the Geneva Agreement the Hong Kong Government has for many years past made it a practice to communicate to all administrations likely to be concerned reports on any cases of special interest connected with the illicit traffic in opium and dangerous drugs that have come under its notice. In addition to this practice, which will be continued as occasion arises, arrangements have already been instituted in accordance with the scheme mentioned in the closing paragraph of the Final Act of the Bangkok Conference for the preparation of quarterly bulletins dealing with important seizures and their dissemination to the administrations

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of all those territories in the Far East where opium smoking continues to be authorized and of the Philippine Islands. Conferences could add little of value to the information so disseminated. The arrival in China of large illicit consignments of raw opium from the Persian Gulf may affect the supply and price of well-known brands of illicit opium in Malaya and Netherlands East Indies, but knowledge of this fact will not place the authorities of those territories in any better position for dealing with its results and discussion would carry them no further.

"

Similarly as regards the proposed extension of the information to be exchanged, the problem of Hong Kong in the matter of " to those of such other administrations as have territory actually marching with the remedial measures is comparable only territory of China. Theoretically, at any rate, territories separated from China by considerable distances may have some hope of remedying opium smoking out of existence despite the opium position in China. But whatever sums Hong Kong may spend on public health and education there can be no hope of making any real impression on the opium-smoking habit within its borders while a daily tide of many thousands of persons ebbs and flows between these borders and a territory where the opium addict is encouraged to cure himself by the purchase of opium under the name of anti-opium medicine.

In emphasizing the peculiar nature of Hong Kong's problems, however, I do not wish to appear in opposition to the claims of periodical conférences, and I agree that Singapore would be the most suitable venue. But conferences are not unattended by expense, and in the case of Hong Kong loss of the services of her representatives for three weeks or more, and as these a conference at Singapore will mean the representatives would presumably be the Superintendent of Imports and Exports and the Director of Medical and Sanitary Services and possibly the Head of the Sanitary Department as well, the dislocation of the public service might be appreciable. For these reasons I venture to suggest that the conferences need not by more frequent than once a year at most, and that the first need not take place till 1933, as the situation existing at the end of 1931 was fully explored at the conference, and it will not be till 1933 at the earliest that the fruits of any measures taken as a result of the con- ference can be assessed.

13. Resolution No. IX.-Hong Kong is about to allocate special accommodation in its General Hospital for the care of opium addicts. The provision of these facilities will be brought to the notice of the Chinese public and the results carefully watched. Past experience in Hong Kong and elsewhere does not encourage the hope that any real impression will be made on the opium-smoking habit, but if the results of the new measures should belie these doubts, the Government will not be slow in extending the scope of the facilities, though it must be observed that free maintenance in hospital even though accompanied by the discomforts attending a cure of a genuine addiction is not without its attractions among a population drawn from a country where millions live literally from hand to mouth.

14. The foregoing explanations will suffice to show that in respect of the Bangkok Agreement, as with its predecessors, Hong Kong is exerting itself to the full extent permitted by existing conditions to carry out the decisions and recommendations reached and can welcome the application of the Agreement to its territory.

I have, &c.,

W. T. SOUTHORN,

C. 92871/32 [No. 63].

(No. 39.)

SIR,

Officer Administering the Government.

No. 45.

BORNEO (SARAWAK).

THE BRITISH AGENT to THE SECRETARY OF STATE. (Received 10th October, 1932.)

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your Sarawak despatch No. 60 dated the 20th June, 1982,* and to inform you that the Sarawak Government replies

King's House, Kuala Lumpur, 13th September, 1932.

* C. 92871/32 [No. 33]: not printed.