CO885-11 — Page 588

CORRESPONDENCE (1923-1931)

RELATING TO

OPIUM.

(1) PAPERS (1923–1925) RELATING TO THE "FIRST" OPIUM CONFERENCE, GENEVA, 1924.

21523/23.

No. 1.

582

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

[Answered by No. 2.]

MY DEAR GRINDLE,

Home Office, Whitehall, S.W.1, 28th April, 1923.

THE Opium Advisory Committee of the League of Nations will be meeting on the 24th May, and it is high time therefore that I should be sending in, for circulation to the members: (a) the memorandum as to the requirements of Hong Kong (see Paskin's note to me of the 9th April*) and (b) our proposals for securing a more uniform and effective application of the provisions of Part 2 of the Opium Convention. As a result of conversations which I have had with Mr. Smith of the Hong Kong Opium Service, Mr. McElderry, and the Governor of Hong Kong, and with Mr. Swettenham, the head of the Opium Department of the Federated Malay States, and others, I think we might submit for the consideration of the Committee the following proposals, to be recommended for adoption by all Powers having Possessions in the [Far] East where the consumption of prepared opium is still permitted :—

(1) That the farm system where it is still in operation, should be abolished, and that the opium business should be made a Government monopoly and kept entirely in the hands of the Government.

(2) As a corollary of (1), that the retail sale of prepared opium should be made only from Government shops, and that all private shops should be abolished. Persons in charge of the Government shops should be paid a fixed salary without any commission on the amount of business done, and therefore would have no temptation to push the sales.

(3) That opium smokers should be registered and licensed; that registration should be limited to males [Chinese] over 21 years of age who are bona fide residents in the Possession and can show that they are habitual smokers. Mr. Swettenham made the following suggestions as to registration and licensing:-- A licence will be issued to each registered smoker which would contain for means of identification his photograph and finger-print, and would specify both the daily amount of prepared opium he was to be allowed to purchase, and the shop at which the prepared opium was to be purchased. Applicants for a licence would be required to specify their daily rate of consumption, and would not be allowed more than the normal ration (see below) except on special grounds. As only registered smokers would be able to buy prepared opium, no further names would be added to the register after its first completion, except possibly in the case of new smokers coming to the Possession who could show that they were habitual smokers. Year by year therefore the number of smokers would steadily diminish, and in course of time the practice would be extinguished. Care would have to be taken, of course, to see that the names of those who died or went away were expunged from the register.

(4) That a normal ration for each opium smoker should be fixed, which should be observed as nearly as possible in all the Far Eastern Possessions; and that by this, and the number of registered smokers in the Possession, the amount to be imported each year should be determined. Information is already available for several of the Possessions as to what is regarded as a normal or

* 16880/23: not printed.

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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