CO129-396 - Public Offices - 1912 — Page 454

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since, on terms even more favourable to China. The agreement between the British and Chinese Governments which was signed at Peking on the 8th May 1911 is the clearest earnest of our goodwill towards China and of the sacrifices which will thereby be entailed upon us. We have agreed to shut down our supply of opium to China in less than the original ten years' period if she can expedite her reforms correspondingly. We have agreed, without waiting for the general extinction of the trade, to close down our exports to any individual province in which the production and consumption of indi- genous opium is proved to have ceased; and in pursuance of that promise Indian opium is no longer sent to the whole of Manchuria and to the We have further agreed to important provinces of Shansi and Szechuan. a large special reduction in our exports-amounting altogether to 11,459 chests-in addition to the normal annual reduction of 5,100 chests which will take place during the next three calendar years. Finally, and, quite independently of the Peking agreement, we have voluntarily reduced our exports for our extra-China markets by 2,000 chests in the current year, not because we believe that the genuine demand for our opium in these markets has diminished, but because we desire to help China, in the only way in our power, against smuggling from other countries under the stimulus of the enormously high prices now prevailing within her borders. A further reduction of 800 chests will take place next year; so that instead of selling 16,000 chests, as was our wont, for the markets outside China, we shall in 1912 sell only 13,200 chests.

3. What this policy of active co-operation will mean to India may be realized from the fact that the net revenue derived by the Indian Government from the export of opium for the three years ending with 1906-07, before the restrictions on exports came into force, averaged £3,792,663 per annum. In round figures the China opium trade yielded £22 millions. All of this will be lost to us in the next few years, as well as the revenue accruing from that part of our exports to our non-China markets which we have sacrificed as an unsolicited and indirect contribution to China's success. In view of that loss we have bad to increase the scale of taxation (stamp duties and customs tariff) in India, and to embark on retrenchments all along the line of our administration, in the course of which we are driven to abandon some of the efficiency, and many of the public amenities, which a great country like India may reasonably claim.

4. We have seen suggestions that our estimate of financial sacrifice is exaggerated. The criticism is based on the very high revenue which the great rise in opium prices since the end of 1909 has brought to us in spite of our diminished exports. As your Lordship is aware, the windfall has been treated by us as such; the unexpected and abnormal receipts of the last two years have been excluded from the disposition of our normal resources and employed, so far as possible, in expenditure which is outside our current administrative charges. But the windfall" must soon cease; and any criticism which ignores its purely transient character is short-sighted and unjust. We are committed, by our practical and unhesitating co-operation witli China, to a large permanent re- duction in our revenue, and to a sharp contraction of our external trade. Our peasantry, over a wide area of country, will suffer from the prohibition of a which had no small share in their rural prosperity. And a number of our feudatory States will find themselves embarrassed by the loss of an industry which they have at present nothing to replace, and for which apparently they will look in vain for compensation unless it be from our revenues. The total of the direct and indirect losses which the Government and people of India will suffer is heavy; and it gives us a right to ask that our good faith in dealing with the opium problem as a whole shall be recognized by the other countries represented at the Conference, and that irresponsible demands shall not be made for imposing on us greater or earlier sacrifices than those to which we are already committed.

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5. In their second Resolution the Shanghai Commission recommended "that each Delegation concerned move its own Govern- ment to take measures for the gradual suppression of the practice of opium smoking in its own territories and possessions,

Second Resolution.

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with due regard to the varying circumstances of each country concerned. In this question we are concerned, to a large extent in Burma, but to an almost microscopic extent in the rest of India. In India proper the habit has never taken root. It is strongly condemned by public opinion, and the existing law practically amounts to a prohibition. "Absolute prohibition," as it was put by our colleague, Sir Guy Fleetwood Wilson, in his Financial Statement for 1910-11, "is virtually our ideal, and we are prepared to take every reasonable step towards enforcing it, as our action in the past has clearly shown, The history of opium smoking regulation in Bengal is typi- cal of such regulation in Indian provinces generally, and may be briefly recapitulated. The restriction has been continuously and progressively stringent since 1892. The first step was to prohibit the smoking of opium on licensed premises, and to reduce the limit governing the retail sale of intoxicating drugs from five tolas to one tola.* In 1893 the manufacture of madak or chandu (opium prepared for smoking) for domestic use, except *A zola 180 grains.

under a license, was prohibited. The licensing system was subsequently found open to abuse and was abolished, and manufacture was allowed to the extent of one tola, In 1895 the licensed sale of madak and chandu was forbidden; and more recently the total quantity of opium preparations which may be possessed by a party of five or more persons assem- bled together for the purpose of smoking has been limited to five tolas. This limit also obtains in Eastern Bengal and Assam, and in the Central Provinces. 6. Under the present law the sale of smoking preparations of opium is absolutely prohibited throughout India proper. There were formerly 600 shops for such sale; now there is not one recognised by law, and vigorous measures are enforced by the police and the excise preventive service for punishing infractions of the law, such as are occasionally attempted in large and cosmo- politan centres like Calcutta and Rangoon. Private manufacture of smoking preparations is only allowed by the smoker himself or on his behalf from opium lawfully in his possession, and only to the extent of one tola at a time. As we have previously explained in connection with this branch of the subject, the quantity of opium daily used by an opium smoker is so large in comparison with that required by an opium eater, and the inconvenience and difficulty involved in the repeated preparation of opium for smoking are so great, that these restrictions hardly fall short of legal prohibition. We have now, in consultation with provincial Governments, carefully examined the question whether direct and unqualified prohibition of opium smoking is possible, and whether measures can be devised in this direction which offer a real prospect of success. In the result we have come to the conclusion that the time is ripe for suppressing all public gatherings for the purpose of smoking opium, whether they are called saloons, clubs or social assemblies or by any other name whatever, and for prohibiting all manufacture of opium-smoking preparations save by an individual of a small quantity for his own private consumption. In other words, opium-smoking dens in every form are to be made illegal, and the Governments of provinces which have Legislative Councils are being in- structed to introduce legislation with that object. For areas without Legislative Councils of their own, similar legislation will be introduced in the Imperial ¦ Council.

7. We have also decided that the maximum limit of private possession of opium-smoking preparations shall be reduced to a quantity to be determined for each province by its own Government with regard to local circumstances. The provincial authorities are fully in favour of this step; and the maximum which they suggest goes as low as 90 grains, and in some cases even 45 grains. The quantity at present allowed is already low, being one tola or 180 grains in all the Indian provinces except Madras, where it has just been reduced to 90 grains. The daily dose for smoking purposes has been much disputed and varies no doubt in different localities and with different individuals. In the Far East, both the Portuguese Delegation and the Chinese Delegation assumed a daily average of 2 mace (-1086 grains) per smoker in their reports to the Shanghai Opium Commission. The Japanese Delegation gave a daily average of 3'5 grammes (=539 grains) for Formosa on eleven years' figures, but in regard to recent statistics they distinguished between the northern section where first grade paste is mostly in favour and the southern section where