CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907 — Page 102

99

:

entirely ceases, at the end of nine years.

Infringe-

ments of the rule are to entail confiscation of the

land and rewards are offered to officiels who suc-

ceed in putting an end to the cultivation of the

poppy before the time specified.

Articles II and III are concerned wich measures

for reducing the consumption of opium by issuing li-

cences to smokers without which no one will be per-

mitted to buy opium, and by instituting punishments

for those who persist in smoking after a certain

specified time. After stating that between thirty

and forty per cent. of the population,say,100,000,000

of the people, are addicted to the opium habit, the

Articles make a distinction between officials and

persons of high rank who will be dealt with very se-

verely, for sake of example, the lower classes who re-

ceive less strict treatment, and persons of all classes

over 60, in whose case the question of giving up the

habit is not to be pressed.

The licences issued to consumers will prescribe

in each case a limit of time within which the habit

must be given up and will also fix the amount of con-

consumption which must be diminished by twenty or

thirty per cent. annually. The registration and

rigorous inspection of these licences must be en-

forced and no fresh licences will be granted after

the first registration. The names of emokers of the

i

lower classes who are not cured of the habit at the

end of the specified time will be posted in a public

place, while official offenders will be deprived of

their office and graduates of their diploma.

Articles IV and V relate to opium shops and a

distinction is drawn between opium dens which are tO

be compulsorily closed within six months and ordin-

ary shops which are to be registered, kept under

observation, and gradually done away with during the

time limit fixed for the aboli sion of the drug. No

shop will be permitted to sell opium to any person

who does not produce his licence, no restaurant or

eating house may provide opium for its guests or

allow them to bring opium appliances with them. A

return of annual sales is to be made and any shop

attempting to continue in the trade after the expiry

of the time limit will have its goods confiscated

sump Lion

and

3.