CO129-396 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 281

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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 annas per tola for prepared opium. The cost of the drug has thus 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 lb. 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 rupees per seer, or more than double.

The "foreign opiun" 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.

11. Though the smuggling trade still constitutes a grave danger, against which the utmost precautions are necessary, and though, in spite of these precautions, it is believed that there is still a considerable smuggling trade between India Burmah, the fact remains that the special measures which I have described, the proper and vigilance of the excise staff, and the frequent seizures they make have produced a very salutary effect. Thus I find from the last Excise Administration Report of Burmah that the enquiries of the preventive staff lead to the conclusion that the price of illicit opium at Rangoon, the chief entrepôt of the smuggling trade from India, which was 75 or 80 rupees per seer in the early part of 1909, had risen to 125 rupees per seer in 1911, and this immense increase in price clearly indicates a materially diminished source of supply. And, as in the case of India proper, every diminution of the area under poppy cultivation there, consequent on the shutting down of the trade with China, must diminish the sources from which this contraband traffic is supplied. I may further mention that while the consumption of licit opium in Burmah was about 83,000 seers seven years ago, it had shrunk to 52,000 seers in 1910-11.

12. I now turn to the further measures which the Government of India have been considering since the Shanghai Commission reported. In the first place, as has been already pointed out, the number of Burmans specially permitted to consume opium forms a factor which is progressively diminishing to total extinction.

As regards the non-Burman consumers, the Government of India have carefully considered whether the time has come for the absolute prohibition of the use of opium, except for medical

purposes, throughout Burmah, but have had to reply to the question in the negative in the light of present-day conditions. "We consulted," to use their own words, "the Government of Burmah, which after a thorough enquiry has come to the conclusion that the proposal is impracticable at present. The present sources of the supply of opium to Burmah are India, the trans-border provinces of China, and the difficult country of the semi-barbarous tribes-the Shans, Kachins, and Wa-within the British sphere. The licit supply from India could be stopped at once, but our local officers report that the production of opium in Chinese territory just across the border of Burmah has not yet been successfully stopped. There will also be difficulty in enforcing the prohibition of opium in the tribal country, and much discontent will inevitably be caused by the attempt. Unless these supplies are cut off there will be the strongest stimulus given to smuggling, under which even the present protection given to Burmans will be rendered nugatory. There is considerable smuggling of opium already from India into Burmah on account of the very high prices ruling in Burmah relatively to India, and this will be enormously increased if the licit supply is cut off, unless the preventive staff is strengthened to an extent altogether beyond the resources of the Provincial Government. Further, the only method by which a total prohibition against non-Burman races in Burmah could be enacted with any hope of success would be by a system of registration (of persons already addicted to the habit) similar to the registration of Burman opium consumers in Lower Burmah. The non- Burmese population, however, consists of a large floating population of Indians and of

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Chinese from the Straits Settlements, who are not settled in Burmah, but come there as coolies, sepoys (Sikhs), merchants, clerks, domestic servants, or in pursuit of other professions. It would be impossible to introduce registration once for all among such a migratory population, and a proposal which ignored new-comers who are opium consumers would most certainly fail. The hill tribes of Northern Burmah would have to be excepted in any case. And the danger of more deleterious drugs, such as morphia, cocaine, and the derivatives of hemp taking the place of opium is greater in Burmah than in other provinces," owing to the greater wealth and relatively luxurious habits of the population there.

It should be noted, however, as evidence that everything is being done short of prohibition which existing circumstances permit that, as the Government of India observe, "the Government of Burmah has, as lately as 1910, completely recast its opium rules in the direction of greater stringency as regards the possession and sale of opium. Again, under the Burmah Opium Law (Amendment) Act (Burmah Act VII of 1909), persons who are believed to earn a livelihood in whole or in part by unlawfully trafficking in opium or by abetting such traffic can be dealt with in a similar manner to that provided for under section 110 of the Criminal Procedure Code. That section empowers magistrates to require security from habitual thieves, burglars, and other criminals, and in default of security to send them to prison. Under the same Burmah Act the powers of oxcise and other officers to arrest and search for opium have been enhanced," while it may be mentioned that a similar attempt is being made to strengthen the law in respect of cocaine and other intoxicating drugs which show a tendency to take the place of opium with every increase in the stringency of the opium regulations. Further, the Government of Burmah along with the other Provincial Governments is about to reduce the limit of private possession of smoking preparations.

13. In short, while the Government of India consider that circumstances as vet preclude total prohibition in Burmah, since this would drive traffic at present checked and limited by very severe restrictions into the subterranean channels of contraband, and would leave the way open to more deleterious drugs, they are doing everything in their power, by preventive and fiscal checks, to reduce consumption to a minimum. And if, as the result of this conference, international measures be taken which will check the smuggling of morphia and cocaine into countries which desire to exclude them--when, again, Chinese production on our borders shall have permanently disappeared the time will have come once more to consider the possibility of a still more drastic anti-opium policy in Burmah.

W. S. MEYER.

Appendix III.

Administration of the Traffic in Opium, and in Morphia and other Drugs, in British Colonies since the Meeting of the Shanghai Opium Commission in February 1909.*

BY far the greater part of the traffic is carried on in the British Colonies and protected States in the Far East, and the questions involved are of little importance elsewhere. It is accordingly considered best to dispose first of the few changes which have been made in the legislation of other British dominions since the meeting of the Shanghai Commission and then to state the alterations of the system of control in the Far Eastern possessions.

I.

The Government of New Zealand, which prohibited by law the importation of opium in any form suitable for smoking, added a further restriction by statute No. 30 of 1910, which enacts that opium in any form which, though not suitable for smoking, may yet be made suitable, may only be imported by permit issued by the Minister of Customs.

Canadian legislation in 1908 declared the importation, manufacture, sale, or possession for sale of crude opium or powdered opium for other than medicinal purposes, or of opium prepared for smoking, to be an indictable offence.

* The information here given in regard to Canadian legislation was received too late for insertion in the memorandum as communicated to the conference.

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