CO129-373 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 85

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preparations' should be omitted.

only but upon all countries.

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This would put the pressure not upon one country He also ventured to suggest to the United States it is the duty of all delegation that the paragraph in question should read countries to adopt reasonable measures to prevent, etc.'

"Dr. Hamilton Wright accepted these amendments, and the resolution in its altered form was adopted unanimously by the House.

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(Note. The Portuguese delegation asked permission to reserve its vote on each and all of the resolutions).”

Extract (E).

(a.) "The Chinese delegation demonstrated that there had been an opium question in China since the beginning of the eighteenth century, and that though many efforts had been made by the Emperors to suppress the habit, they had signally failed. This appeared to be largely due to the fact that at the critical moment when China was putting forth berculean efforts to suppress the evil---that is, at the end of the eighteenth and in the early part of the last century-the vice was fixed on her because of her inability to contend against or control the large amount of Indian opium smuggled or otherwise introduced into the country.

"As the result of the clandestine introduction of Indian opium and the final legalisation of the opium traffic by the Tien-tsin treaties (1858), negotiated after the Arrow war, general indifference prevailed throughout China, and the internal production of the drug, which had for many years been large, now assumed huge proportious." (P. 66.)

(b.) "Although no formal declaration was made as to further international action in regard to opium production, traffic, and misuse, it was, nevertheless, recognised that such action was necessary before the Powers could con- gratulate themselves on having solved the problem that has loomed so large and so long in the Far East, causing war and other evil consequences not

(P. 71.) outstripped by the evil consequences of slavery."

The following passage from the report presented by the Chinese delegation shows what they actually said on these questions (" International Opium Commission," vol. ii, P. 45):

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Foreign opium was first imported from Goa by the Portuguese in the beginning of the eighteenth century, and the first prohibiting edict against opium smoking was issued by the Emperor Yung Chêng in 1729, enacting severe penalties on the sale of opium and the opening of opium-smoking divans, and from this time on the sale of In 1729 the arrivals of opium for the purpose of smoking became a criminal offence. foreign opium were but 200 chests, but a constant increase followed each

and by year, In 1796 an edict 1790 the importation had reached the figure of over 4,000 chests. formally prohibiting the importation of all opium was issued, and in 1800 this prohibitory edict was issued anew. From that date all trade in opium became contraband. Instead of diminishing, the trade flourished in spite of the prohibition, and by the year 1820 the importation amounted to 5,000 chests. By 1830 it had increased to 16,877 chests, by 1838 to 20,619 chests, by 1850 to 50,000 chests, and in 1858 to 70,000 chests. In November of the last-mentioned year the trade was legalised by China, and a tariff rate of Efaikwan taels 30 per pical on opium was chargeable thereafter. While there can be little doubt that this legalisation of the opium traffic was contrary to the wishes of the Imperial Family and the enlightened classes in China, the country was then in the throes of the greatest rebellion ever experienced in its history, and revenue was badly needed. It was recognised that as the contraband trade continued in spite of the Imperial disfavour, it would be best to legalise it as the choice of two evils, and this was accordingly done.

"The next step in the history of opium is found in the Chefoo Convention of 1876, by which the British Government accepted in principle a proposal that inland taxation (li-kin) on the drug should be collected simultaneously with the import duty, i.e., by the Imperial, and not the provincial, authorities. This was made effective by an additional article, signed on the 18th July, 1885, by which the amount of li-kin was settled at Haikwan taels 80 per picul, making, with the import duty, a total of Haikwan taels 110 per picul, which the Chinese Government now collects."

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Appendix 2.

Extracts from Dr. Wright's Report.

Extract (F).

"The British delegates presented data showing that

in the Crown colony of the Straits Settlements and in the protected Federated Malay States a commission recently appointed had reported on the opium vice as seen there, the report being somewhat favourable to the continuance of the opium farm by which the Government disposed of opium and acquired a large revenue." (P. 67.)

The following is an extract* from the Straits Settlements Commission's own summary of its findings. (Report, vol. i, paragraph 342) :-

"We find that the vast majority of smokers indulge to an extent that may properly be called moderate, and that excessive indulgence occurs only in isolated

instances.

"We find that there has been no increase in the prevalence of the habit, and in this we include use in moderation and use in excess, during the past decade.

"We do not find it proved that the evils arising from the use of opium have in any way increased during the past decade, We consider, however, that the circum- stances surrounding the use of opium justify the Government in maintaining a closer and stricter control over it and we therefore recommend that the present system of farming the opium revenue be abolished and that a Government monopoly of the preparation and distribution of chandu be substituted.”

The following is also extracted from the same report (paragraph 310):- "We have up to the present refrained from consideration of the purely fiscal side of the opium question, and our arguments on the question of prohibition are based entirely on consideration of the facts that the evils arising from the use

of opium in the areas with which the commission has had to deal are not sufficiently widespread or acute as to justify legislative prohibition of the use of opium and that popular desire for such legislation has not yet reached such an advanced stage as to render a policy of that nature desirable."

Extract (G).

"Resolution 6 was unfortunate in that it declared that the International Coni- mission was not constituted in such a manner as to permit the investigation from a scientific point of view of anti-opium remedies, and the properties and effects of opium, for there were several delegates in the commission who were competent to pronounce on the subject. The Japanese Government anticipating such an investigation had sent as part of its delegation two eminent scientists who for many years have beeti in charge of the Japanese Government monopoly for the manufacture of opium and its preparations used in medicine. However, it developed that the principles of the moral and economic dangers of the misuse of opium were not to be endangered by this resolution, and opposition was waived for the sake of harmony. (Pp. 70-71.)

This question in a somewhat different form was first voted upon in the sixth session (see "International Opium Commission," vol. i, p. 31).

It was again discussed and voted upon in the eighth and ninth sessions (see pp. 36-38, ibid.) on the following resolution moved by the Chinese delegate :

"That a committee consisting of five delegates be appointed to consider and report on the medical aspects of the opium question, including the best methods of curing the opium habit without recourse to the drug or any of its derivatives."

* There was one dissentient from the principles adopted in this report. The portion of the summary of recommendations not reproduced in this extract relates to the use of opium in brothels, the arrangements for shops, sales to women and children, and the price of chandu.

+ The commission then proceeded to deal separately with financial considerations, finally recording (paragraph 321), that these also led them to a conclusion adverse to prohibition.

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