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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

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MMMMC.O. 882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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fact that leading Straits-born Chinese have subscribed to a very gradual programme is to my mind a clear indication that after careful examination they realize that in view of local circumstances gradual progress only is possible.

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10. I would call your attention to Section XIII of the Committee's Report, Chinese Community in British Malaya and the Anti-Opium Movement," which throws light on the extent to which willing co-operation or at any rate the acquiescence of the Chinese themselves " may be relied on in connexion with measures taken locally, and especially to paragraph 17, which runs as follows: "We feel impelled to utter" a warning that Government cannot rely on the active and continuous support of the Chinese community in carrying out measures which will be distasteful to an appreciable portion of that community." It is quite possible that when the Report is published this particular section of it will evoke much comment in the local Press, but I believe that it represents the real position accurately and reasonably, and it has a very definite bearing on the whole question of the action to he taken.

11. I agree with the Committee that hasty and ill-considered measures would have deplorable results, but in its desire to avoid an appearance of bias it has not gone as far as I myself should go.

12. I am afraid that, in the Colony at any rate, with its large element of ignorant Chinese, the introduction of measures of registration and licensing is bound to cause disturbance, and if I were instructed to introduce such measures in the near future I should be bound to protest on the grounds that to add the difficulties of such a measure to the present state of unrest would be a serious danger to the country from the point of view of good and orderly Government.

13. I compliment the Committee on the delicate way in which they have dealt with the present position in China, but again I say that they have not put that part of the case as strongly as I myself should put it.

14. The extraordinary recrudescence of the cultivation of the poppy in China, the consequent increase in the habit in that country and the absence of any semblance of effective and permanent Government react in the closest and most remarkable manner on the opium position in British Malaya, owing to the close economic relations between the two countries and the constant interchange of population.

15. The references by the Committee to the smuggling situation vis-à-vis China as an opium producing country are made in a most moderate spirit. The Committee does not in its summary express the hope that by the time registration, licensing and rationing of smokers is introduced order and effective Government will have been restored in China and that the danger of smuggling of prepared opium from that country will have become negligible, but that must I think he assumed to be the Committee's view.

16. 1, on the other hand, am by no means so sanguine. I feel, and I am not alone in that opinion, that the position in China in this respect will not appreciably improve for a considerable time to come, and the reservation in Article VI of The Hague Con vention which reads "having due regard to the varying circumstances of each country concerned "acquires a significance and weight which it has not hitherto borne. This clause was first enunciated at the International Commission, Shanghai, by the late Sir Cecil Clementi-Smith and it is a legitimate inference that he had in mind the Colony in which he had served as Colonial Secretary, and, later, as Governor. I believe that if rationing of individual smokers is attempted while the position in China remains much the same as it is now, the result will be a disastrous failure with lasting adverse effects on the country.

17. Whatever China can carry out effectively I feel that we could also carry out in Malaya, and for this reason I confess that I regret that the steps to be taken in countries as near to and as closely connected with China as is Malaya are not to be confined to a policy of proceeding pari passu with effective measures adopted in China. I have referred in paragraph 14 to the close connexion, in respect of the opium problem, between Malaya and China, and it is I think to be regretted that Article 18, Chapter IV, of The Hague Convention does not apply to the steps to be taken in Malaya.

18. I have not had time to obtain the opinions of the various Governments in British Malaya on the proposals of the Committee, but when I have done so I will communicate further on the question. The Committee laid stress on the variation of circumstances in these Administrations, and I can hardly expect that all its proposals will be welcomed by or even acceptable to all the different Governments concerned.

19. I consider that the proposal to appoint a Standing Advisory Committee for British Malaya on measures connected with opium is sound, and in accepting it I shall take care that when it is set up the very best and least hiassed men available are appointed to it.

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20. It seems to me that the advice of an experienced Committee on protests from various Governments either by way of pressing for longer time limits or by way of objections to measures in whole or in part will be of the greatest advantage to me as head of all the Governments concerned.

21. I venture to take the liberty of suggesting an extension of the idea to the Advisory Committee of the League of Nations and that they should invite China and those other Powers the proximity of whose territories to China makes the opiu problem one of great difficulty, to set up Standing Committees not merely to direct their own internal opium affairs hut to confer with each other from time to time free from the limitations which are attached to the suggestions conveyed on page 209 (2) of the Minutes of the Fifth Session.

I should anticipate that the deliberations of a Committee or Committees of men conversant with every phase of the subject would have notable effects.

22. I feel that the anticipations of the Committee as regards final abolition of licensed shops are too sanguine, and here again I think that the Standing Advisory Committee will be in a better position to weigh the possibilities of attaining the end in view.

23. The Committee lays great stress on the position with regard to opium dross, and to my mind states the case in a convincing manner. The dross question is one that has long been present to the minds of those with real knowledge of the opium problem, and it will not be out of place if I quote from the despatch of Governor Sir Cecil Clementi Smith of the 27th February, 1893, which is cited in the Report of the Royal Commission on Opium of 1893-

"I am not yet satisfied that it is advisable to raise the price of chandu. There is a prospect by so doing of driving the poorer class of Chinese to eating preparations of opium containing still more deleterious substances, and it would be deplorable if, as the result of Government action. any section of the community should be induced, in order to satisfy their craving for sedatives or stimulants, to adopt the more harmful practice of eating opium in lieu of the comparatively harmless and often beneficial practice of smoking the drug " The view stated above was shared by the Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States Opium Commission, 1908, who state in their Report we consider that the price of chandu at present obtaining in the Straits Settlements ($3 per tahil) is sufficiently prohibitive."

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24. In view of the prevalence and harmfulness of the dross habit, 1 am doubtful whether if I could put the clock back ten years, I should bring the retail price of pre- pared opium up to its present high level of £1 3s. 4. per ounce (avoirdupois), but I realize that any step by way of reducing the present price, justifiable as it might be, would provoke an outery from the prohibitionists.

25. It is to my mind somewhat curious to reflect that the Committee indicates from the morphine aspect the danger of swallowing dross (with a morphine content of under 6 per cent.), while the 1923 Conference at Geneva did not condemn the swallowing of raw opium (with a higher morphine content) in India. The local Com- mittee has, I think, wisely refrained from this comment and confined itself to a comparison between the habits of swallowing dross and smoking chandu, but it is clear that, if morphine is the danger, the comment cannot be avoided.

26. The attempt to handle the dross question on the lines that the Committee propose is bound to be a very costly affair, but the difficulty must be faced, and as soon as the Advisory Committee is appointed, I will instruct it to take this question up immediately.

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With regard to the special request in the fifth section of paragraph 9 (IV) of the Duke of Devonshire's despatch under reply, it would appear that the results attained under the system of registration and licensing in vogue in the Netherlands Indies, are similar to those attained under the systems which have been in use in Formosa and in the Philippines, viz., a limited success as regards the indigenous peoples and non- success amounting practically to failure when it is sought to impose the same measures on the Chinese. That race form one per cent, of the total population in Netherlands Indies and rather less than that in Formosa and in the Philippines In Malava the indigenous population are not a factor in the opium equation, while, on the other hand, Chinese form 35 per cent. of our total population. It will thus be evident that the conditions in Netherlands India and here are not even remotely comparable.

28. Reviewing the Report as a whole. I repeat that its moderation of tone is entirely in its favour, and I feel that I cannot do otherwise than urge all the Govern- ments of British Malaya to accept the recommendations of the Committee.