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C. 73017/1/30 [No. 3].

No. 257.

MR. J. J. PASKIN (COLONIAL OFFICE) to SIR M. DELEVINGNE (HOME OFFICE).

DEAR SIR MALCOLM,

[Answered by No. 259.]

Downing Street, 10th February, 1930. This letter will accompany a letter addressed to you by the Tuan Muda of Sarawak which, I understand, arrived at the Home Office this morning.

The Tuan Muda sent a copy of his letter to the Special Commissioner for Sarawak in London who showed it to me this morning. I have discussed it with Grindle who has asked me to explain that he would have written to you personally, but that as he is engaged on Committees all day he has asked me to write to you instead.

The Tuan Muda's letter throws new light on the proposal that the Sarawak Govern- ment should buy their prepared opium from Singapore, and it seems clear that it would be very useful if we could get the proposal through without the delay which would be involved by your deferring the matter (as suggested in your letter to Bottomley of the 8th of January†) until after the Far Eastern Commission of Inquiry has reported. If therefore circumstances were propitious and you were able to manage it without too much trouble we should, of course, be very grateful if you could carry the proposal through the Advisory Committee during its present session as this would remove a load of anxiety from the minds of the Sarawak Government.

On the other hand, of course, we fully appreciate the fact that the Agenda for the present meeting of the Advisory Committee is very heavy, and that you probably have enough on your hands without having this additional item to discuss with your colleagues. We therefore do not wish to press you to take up this question if it is not convenient.

Moreover, we should, of course, prefer you not to raise the question at all at present if, in your opinion, there would be any risk of its not being agreed to by your colleagues. Rather than risk that we would very much prefer that it should be left. over to be raised at a more propitious moment.

Grindle also asked me to say that assuming you did not raise the question now and assuming that the worst came to the worst (ie., that the Sarawak packers went strike and left the Sarawak Government stranded without any supplies of chandu) we assume that we could consider ourselves free as an emergency measure to authorize the Straits Government to supply prepared opium to Sarawak to tide them over the interval before they could engage a new staff of packers.

Our idea would be that you would not raise the question of such an eventuality in advance at the Advisory Committee, but that if such an emergency should occur we should take this action on our own responsibility and report what we had done after- wards to the Advisory Committee. If we should have to take action on these lines the occasion of reporting it to the Advisory Committee would, we imagine, be a suitable time for you then to raise the whole question of regularizing such supplies from Singapore to Sarawak, and the fact that we had had to adopt such an emergency measure would, we imagine, assist you in inducing the Committee to agree to the procedure of direct supply of prepared opium from Singapore to Sarawak being adopted systematically.

We have not yet consulted the British North Borneo Company as to whether they would like us to get authority for their Monopoly to be supplied with prepared opium from Singapore, and there is now not time to do this before you return from Geneva. If therefore you feel disposed during the present session of the Advisory Committee to raise the question in regard to Sarawak, we suggest that you should include North Borneo in the proposal provisionally, so that if ever the question, of supplying them from Singapore arose we should already have had the necessary covering authority.

Yours, &c.,

J. J. PASKIN.

* No. 256.

+ C. 73017/1/30 [No. 1]: not printed.

C. 73017/1/30 [No. 11].

No. 258.

SIR G. GRINDLE (COLONIAL OFFICE) to SIR M. DELEVINGNE (HOME Office). MY DEAR DELEVINGNE,

Downing Street, 22nd February, 1920.

I UNDERSTAND that Paskin's letter of the 10th of February,* and the lettert from the Tuan Muda of Sarawak reached you too late to enable you to raise the question of the supply of chandu from Singapore to Sarawak.

The Special Commissioner for Sarawak telegraphed to his Government, telling them that you were being asked to raise this question at the Advisory Committee if circumstances were propitious, and he received the following cable from Kuching in reply

--

Referring to your telegram 11th have noted contents with satisfaction. If waiting for another Session how long will it be delayed? Suggest that you request him to make every endeavour to submit proposal this Session since situation here continues urgent.

This telegram did not reach us until you were on the point of leaving for home, so we did not send it on to you.

The Special Commissioner for Sarawak has called here several times about this matter, and has impressed upon us how seriously the situation is regarded in Sarawak, and he has urged that it would be very undesirable to leave the matter over until it can be raised at the next session of the Advisory Committee. We have accordingly promised him to consult with you as to whether any other, procedure could be adopted for getting authority for the direct supply of chandu from Singapore.

I imagine that all that is required is the concurrence of the Governments which are parties to the 1925 Opium Agreement. If that is the case. would it not be possible for you now to write to those of your colleagues on the Advisory Committee who repre- sent those Governments? If they were agreeable, it would then presumably be an easy matter for the Foreign Office to obtain the formal consent of the Governments themselves.

I must say that the case for this exception from the provisions of the Agreement seems to me to be so strong that it can hardly fail to convince your colleagues.

We have now heard from the North Borneo Company, to the effect that they agree to the proposal being widened to cover North Borneo. They are not at present contemplating drawing their supplies from Sinapore, but it certainly seems worth while to provide for the possible contingency instead of leaving us with the possibility of having to raise the question again in respect of North Borneo only.

I should also be glad to learn that you agree with the suggestion which I asked Paskin to put to you that we might consider ourselves free, as an emergency measure, to authorize the Straits Government to supply prepared opium to Sarawak in the event of Sarawak being temporarily stranded without any supplies.

C. 73017/1/30 [No. 12].

Yours, &c.,

G. GRINDLE.

No. 259.

SIR M. DELEVINGNE (HOME OFFICE) to SIR G. GRINDLE (COLONIAL OFFICE).

MY DEAR GRINDLE,

Home Office. Whitehall. S. W.1, 24th February, 1930 PASKIN's letter of the 10th instant and the Tuan Muda's letter of the 10th January on the question of the supply of prepared opium from Singapore to the Sarawak Government came too late for me to raise the matter at the recent meeting of the Opium Advisory Committee. We were already through our agenda, and it would not have been a good moment for raising the question, even if the Com- mittee had been willing to take up a fresh subject at that very late stage of its pro- ceedings. There would have been no peg to hang the subject on and it would have given undue and undesirable prominence to it if it had been raised in so very special a manner There was the further consideration that an expression of opinion favour- able to the proposal on the part of the Advisory Committee, though very useful to us, would not have removed the difficulty arising out of the terms of the Convention.

* No. 257.

↑ No. 256.

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :--

C.O.882/11

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

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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