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In order to prevent the smoking of chandu dross it is necessary that all dross be recovered by Government. If it is to be collected from each individual smoker the examination of it under existing conditions is impossible. There are probably in the

•Colony 100,000 smokers. If each returns his dross once a week or once a month who is to provide the staff even to weigh each contribution?

J. C. COWAP,

Government Analyst, Straits Settlements.

71

after a fixed date to new applicants, and fixing a ration for those already registered. That is the aim which the Straits Government on the recommendation of the Malayan Opium-smoking Committee of 1913, have ultimately in view. whether you consider that the present circumstances of the Colony afford an I shall be glad to learn opportunity for taking these further steps.

I have, &c..

P. CUNLIFFE-LISTER.

236

14044/33 [No. 1].

(No. 52.) SIR,

No. 47.

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS,

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR.

[Answered by Nos. 53 and 59.]

Downing Street, 8th February, 1933. I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No. 574 of the 18th November,* on the subject of the Opium Revenue Reserve Replacement Fund, and to inform you that, in view of the financial position of the Colony, I agree that the interest on the Fund should be credited to Revenue for the three years 1933, 1934, and 1935. It will be no doubt a convenience to the Straits Government to know definitely that for these three years the interest will be credited to revenue, and I consider that in existing circumstances the step can be justified.

2 I regret, however, that as at present advised, I am unable to agree that the interest should be credited permanently to revenue, or that part of the capital of the Fund should be transferred to the general surplus balances of the Colony. The position which has arisen is not, as it appears to me, the position which the Fund was intended to meet. The heavy fall.in the consumption of opium would seem to be due, so far as I am able to judge, not to the working of a policy under which complete cessation of the traffic is undertaken within a definite period of fifteen years from a determinate date, but to the repatriation of large numbers of Chinese, and to the general trade depression. Opium consumption has diminished, largely because consumers have left the Colony owing to the depressed state of the rubber and tin industries, and because those who remain have much less money available for this expenditure. If the fall in opium revenue. had been due to administrative and other measures taken by the Government, it seems reasonable to suppose that it would have been much more gradual.

3. In these circumstances, I hesitate to acquiesce in your view that the Colony has been deprived permanently of half its opium revenue. Chinese immigration is resumed, it seems fair to anticipate that, unless special measures When trade revives, and can be taken by Government to prevent it, the consumption of opium will again largely increase. I agree that it is unlikely that the old rate of consumption will be reached, but I question whether means exist at present of estimating, with any precision, the extent to which there has in fact been a permanent reduction of the opium revenue.

4. You will recall that the Opium Revenue Replacement Reserve Fund was created in a large measure to meet the charge that the attitude of His Majesty's Govern- ment as regards the suppression of opium smoking in the Far East was influenced by revenue considerations; and that a full account of the Fund and its objects is given on pages 72 and 73 of Volume 2 of the Report to the Council of the League of Nations by the Commission of Inquiry into the Control of Opium Smoking in the Far East. It might produce a very unfortunate impression if, so soon after the publication of that Report, the Straits Government were to appropriate half the capita of the Fund.

5. As it is not possible to determine the extent to which the opium revenue has heen permanently reduced, I am forced to the conclusion that the only ground on which at the present time an appropriation of part of the Replacement Fund would be justified, would be if the Straits Government saw its way to propose new measures of control which would guarantee that the opium consumption would remain at its present tovel, even after the return of prosperous times; such measures, for example, as preventing the entry into the Colony of opium smoking immigrants, closing the registers

* C. 92150/32 [No. 1]: not printed.

14012/33 [No. 11].

No. 48.

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

MALAY STATES.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE to THE GOVERNOR. [Answered by No. 49.]

(Confidential.)

SIR,

Downing Street, 8th April, 1933.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your Confidential despatch of the 30th of January,* on the subject of the Agreement and Final Act of the Bangkok Opium Conference. The Opium Advisory Committee of the League of Nations meets at Geneva about the middle of May, and I am advised that Sir M. Delevingne, who will represent His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, should, if possible,

be more fully informed as to the measures which can be taken in Malaya, on the lines indicated in the recommendations of the Bangkok Conference.

2. I note from paragraph 4 of your despatch that you are not in favour of legis- lation prohibiting minors from smoking opium, but the enactment of such legislation appears to be required to give effect to Article 2 of the Bangkok Opium Agreement. That agreement has now been ratified by His Majesty's Government. and it is most desirable that the representative of His Majesty's Government should be able to inform the Opium Advisory Committee that, where legislation is necessary in any Malay State to give effect to any of the provisions of that agreement, it will be passed at an early date. I do not consider that the Malayan Governments would be expected to enforce the prohibition of smoking by minors by house to house visitation.

3 note from paragraph 6 of your despatch that a system of licensing and rationing is now being tried at Christmas Island but that it is too early to predict whether the experiment will be a success. due course.

I shall be glad to receive further information in

4. In paragraph 7 of your despatch you refer to an improvement in the system of registration which it is proposed to introduce, and which, in the Federated Malay States at any rate, should provide a possible basis for a system of rationing. It would be most helpful to Sir M. Delevingne if he could be supplied with fuller details on this matter. He would be glad to know whether a system of rationing has been started in any Federated State, and if not, whether it can be done at once. when he met you and your officials at Penang in October and November, 1931, he was I understand that informed that measures for improving the registration system (means of identifying the registered person, limitation of a registered person to a specified shop, elimination of dead registrations, &c.) were under consideration. He referred to these measures at the Bangkok Conference, and would be glad to know whether these improvements have already been introduced (1) in the Colony, (2) in the rest of Malaya, or whether they constitute "the improvement referred to in paragraph 7 of your despatch. He will be in a difficult position in meeting

which it is proposed to introduce criticism at the May meeting of the Opium Advisory Committee unless he has definite information as to what has already been done in this direction, what is being done now, and what is proposed.

5. Resolution No. IV is the most important of all, and it would be most helpful

if you could say something more definite and in greater detail than that " the development and extension of this work will not be relaxed."

efforts for

6. As regards Resolution No. VI. I am of opinion that it would be desirable to amend the Malayan legislation to provide for imprisonment without the option of a fine.

* No. 46.

PUBLIC

PECORD OFFICE

Reference

C.O.882/12

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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON