CO129-395 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 352

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4. I can therefore claim on behalf of the Indian Government that, by their severe and salutary measures, they have effectively checked the possibility of opium- smoking becoming a feature of Indian life, and have doomed the vice to practical extirpation.

5. The case of Burmah (as stated by the Government of India in the despatch from which I have so freely quoted) in regard to opium regulation stands by itself.

"Historical considerations, ethnic characteristics, and local circumstances have had to be carefully weighed in the evolution of the present opium policy in Burma. When Upper Burmah was annexed in 1885 the Government of India had had sufficient administrative experience of opium and its effects on Bumans in Lower Burmah to warrant the application of a prohibitory policy as regards the indigenous population. This policy was supported by Buddhist public opinion, which was entirely against opium, and by the noininal prohibition of opium by the Burmese dynasty which preceded our rule. The prohibition under Burmese rule was not, however, very effective, aud the native rulers, while punishing those who sold opium and liquor to Burmans, levied customs dues on all liquor and opium imported into Upper Burmah. The British Government, having before it the proved injurious effect of opium on the Burmese race in Lower Burmah, absolutely prohibited its sale to or possession by Burmans in Upper Burmah except for medical purposes, and this prohibition still continues. The absolute prohibition of non-medical opium, whether for eating extended to Lower Burmah in 1893. In Lower Burmah, however, a class of opium- or smoking, to Burmans was smoking Burmese had grown up, and an exception had to be made in their favour. It was provided that all Burmans of 25 years or upwards who desired to continue the use of opium must register themselves, Burmans under 25 years of age not being eligible for registration. The system of registration was not entirely successful from the beginning, and the registers had to be revised from time to time, though of course no names were brought on the revised registers except those of Burmans who could their eligibility for registration in 1894, and there are now some 15,000 registered prove Burman consumers purchasing at the shops in a population of about 10 millions. These consumers were all 25 years of age or more in 1894, and are therefore above

years of

age at the present day. The rate of decrease ought to be more rapid now, and the race of registered consumers will shortly die out. With their extinction there will be absolute prohibition of opium to Burmaus, except for medical purposes, the whole of Burmab," that is, to the great mass of the population of the province.

6. The consumption of opium by non-Burman races is allowed as in India proper, but subject, as I shall presently explain, to still more stringent restrictions. It is principally confined to Chinese who smoke, and Indian immigrants belonging to classes who eat opium in moderation in India proper and who continue to do so in Burmah.

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Taking the province as a whole, however, smoking is the prevalent form of consumption, and consequently the shop-keepers in Burmah are allowed to make up the raw opium supplied to them into smoking preparations, and to retail such preparations to persons entitled to make use of then. The limit of private possession by such persons, whether as regards raw opium or smoking preparations, is 3 tolas or a little more than 1 oz.

7. The policy of forbidding opium consumption to Burmans other than registered smokers in Lower Burmali proved very difficult to carry out in practice owing to the large amount of smuggling and illicit sales which it provoked. These difficulties arose mainly from the following circumstances: As has been above explained, the registration of confirmed Burman smokers in 1894 had been very incomplete, largely owing to the ignorance of the people in regard to the new restrictions to which they were to be subject. It became a profitable industry to supply the cravings of smokers thus excluded, and this category was further swelled by licit consumers (non-Burmans and registered Burmans) whom a too drastic limitation in the number of licensed shops had deprived of a legitimate source of supply. The extensive seaboard of the province facilitated snuggling from India proper, while the high rate of taxation-far exceeding that in India, which the Burmah Government had imposed in order to diminish consumption made it profitable not merely to send over illicit opium from India, but to add stuff which had been licitly procured at Indian shops. In Upper Burmah, again, the contiguity of opium-producing tracts in Yunnan and the Shan States, and a long and difficult frontier provoked smuggling from those areas. Lastly, it was found that the licensed shop-keepers themselves were largely joining in the contraband traffic, adding smuggled opium to their licit supplies, and sending out hawkers to vend the stuff outside the shops, while legitimate possessors were being tempted to dispose

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of some of their purchases to non-registered Burmans. And I need hardly add that the development of this contraband industry threatened to infect the rising generation of Burmans, who could in no case have claimed registration in 1894, with the smoking habit.

8. Difficult as the problem thus was, the Government of India can claim to have dealt with it in a satisfactory and efficient manner.

In the first place, as already explained, Burman opium-smokers who might have been registered in 1894, but had not been so, were brought on the registers, thus enabling them to get their opium in a lawful instead of in an unlawful manner. The number of sanctioned shops was at the same time somewhat increased, though it still amounts to only 120 for the whole of the vast province.

Secondly, the strength and efficiency of the preventive staff has been enormously increased-at a cost which has severely strained the financial resources of the Provincial Government.

Thirdly, the shop system has been entirely recast on lines which all but amount, in practice, to a policy of official vend. The method is thus described in the Government of India's despatch :----

"Each shop, though let to a private licensee, is placed in the charge of a separate resident excise officer, who is required to take charge of the opium when the shop is closed, to be present at the shop throughout the hours of sale, to see that the name of each purchaser and the quantity sold to him are correctly recorded in the shop registers by the licensed vendor or his staff, and to restrict the quantities sold month by month to each purchaser to the purchaser's probable consumption and means of purchase. This latter restriction on sales was introduced in order to stop the sale of opium to men buying for resale to Burmans who cannot under the law purchase opium. Careful enquiry has been necessary in order to eliminate purchasers who were not consumers, and to restrict allowances to consumers so as to afford them little or no margin for sale to others. In addition to the record kept in the daily sale registers, personal ledgers have been opened in the shops for all consumers whose daily allowance is fixed above one-eighth of a tola. Each consumer, non-Burman or (in Lower Burmah) registered Burman, is given a page in the register, the total quantities of opium purchased by him both at the shop within whose sphere he resides and at other shops, are recorded month by month under his name, and note is made of the man's occupation and income, with other information bearing on the allowance of opium made to him. The whole of these operations are carried on under the closest official supervision, though the profits on the sales, after payment of a fixed licence fee, accrue to the licensed vendor."

9. The retail price to consumers is fixed at 1 rupee per tola (or, say, 38. 6d. per oz) for raw opium and 14 rupees (or 3s. 10d. per oz.) for smoking preparations, save at a few special shops where it has been pitched lower owing to the special facilities for smuggling. Further, in four districts in which "foreign opium" (a term I shall presently explain) is supplied the rates at present are 10 annas (10d.) per tola for raw and 15 anuas per tola for prepared opium. The cost of the drug has tlms been made much higher than in India proper, where it is by no means low. Thus, comparing like with like the amount of taxation which the Government levies on each seer (about 2 lbs.) of opium-this, as I stated in my previous paper, amounts on the average, on the last statistics available, to 26 rupees in India proper, while in Burmah it is 65 rupecs per seer, or more than double.

The "foreign opium" above referred to is the product of Chinese areas and Shan States bordering on Upper Burmah, which has been allowed in for licit consumption, under strict Government control, in four districts of the province into which it could otherwise be easily smuggled; and in this category has to be included opium grown in certain Kachin villages where poppy cultivation is allowed because, though the villages are nominally within British Burmah, their situation in remote hills has hitherto rendered it impossible to make any prohibition of such cultivation effective. Subject to these exceptions the cultivation of the poppy is prohibited throughout Burmah, and the sole source of licit supply is Bengal opium obtained from India by Government channels.

10. Lastly, steps have been taken to cope with the smuggling into Burmah of opium licitly procured by private persons in India proper by restricting the supply to shops in certain districts of Bengal, where this method of contraband supply was found to prevail, to quantities rigidly fixed with reference to estimated local requirements.

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