CO129-396 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 280

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to register opium-eaters as well-an impossibility under present conditions in India. But there are more imperative objections to the declaring of private opium-smoking an offence. If made effective, it would only lead to the increased use of other, and probably more deleterious, drugs. But to make it effective would mean domiciliary visits and the closest supervision over persons suspected of the practice. It would open the door to blackmail, espionage, and an amount of interference with the inner domestic life of the people which would be absolutely intolerable. As it is, the importance of dissociating the police from the fresh odium of opium detective work has constrained us to decide that the working of the new restrictive legislation shall be entrusted to excise officials rather than to the police. Nor do we believe that absolute prohibition would carry us appreciably further than the measures which we have decided to adopt. Opium-smoking is a social habit, and we cut at the root of it by prohibiting assemblages for the purpose of smoking. Moreover, we make prevention more effective, from the point of view of legal p oof, than if we attempted to deal with the private and secret practices of individuals. It is easy to prove the fact of a certain number of individuals being found together; and if, as is proposed, the presence of opium-smoking pipes or other apparatus with or without opium-smoking preparations will be held to raise the presuniption that the assembly intended to smoke opium, there will be no difficulty in enforcing the law. Solitary smokers find the private manufacture of smoking preparations so wasteful, tedious, and expensive, and, with the reduced limit of possession, they will have to resort to it so often, that none but the most hardened individuals, who are in any case past hope, will consider it worth while to continue the habit.

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 Burmah, When Upper Burmah was annexed in 1885 the Government of India had had sufficient administrative experience of opium and its effects on Burmans 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 nominal prohibition of opium by the Burmese dynasty which preceded our rule. The prohibition under Burmese rule was not, however, very effective, and 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 or smoking, to Burmans was extended to Lower Burmah in 1893. In Lower Burmah, however, a class of opium- 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 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 40 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 Burmans, except for medical purposes, in the whole of Burmah," that is, to the great mass of the population of the province.

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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.

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 them. The limit of private possession by such persons, whether as regards raw opium or smoking preparations, is 3 tolas, little more than 1 oz.

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7. The policy of forbidding opium consumption to Burmans other than registered smokers in Lower Burmah 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 tou drastic limitation in the number of licensed shops bad deprived of a legitimate source of supply. The extensive seaboard of the province facilitated smuggling 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 end 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 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 would 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 systein 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 purchase, 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 customers whose daily allowance is fixed above one-eighth of a tola. Each consumer, non-Burman, or (in Lower Burmah) registered Burian, 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 tolu (or, say, 3s. 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

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