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11. Although the control exercised over sales of opium in Burma to non- Burmans by methods which we shall describe later is already so strict that it practically fulfils the purpose of registration, we consider that it would be unwise and impracticable to attempt complete prohibition in Burma at present. We are however inviting the Government of Burma, along with the other provincial Governments, to undertake legislation against opium-smoking dens and to reduce the limit of private possession of opium-smoking preparations, which at present stands at 3 tolas (540 grains).
12. The third Resolution of the Shanghai Opium Commission was as
Third Resolution,
follows:-
"That the International Commission finds that the use of opium in any form otherwise than for medical purposes is held by almost every participating country to be matter for prohibition or for careful regulation; and that each country in the administration of its system of regulation purports to be aiming, as opportunity offers, at progressively increasing stringency. In recording these conclusions the International Opium Commission recognises the wide variations between the conditions prevailing in the different countries, but it would urge on the attention of the Governments concerned the desirability of a re-examination of their systems of regulation in the light of the experience of other countries dealing with the same problem.”
We have treated this Resolution as recognising-
(1) That there is not complete agreement among the conferring Powers as to the desirability or practicability of a prohibition of the use of opium except for purely medical purposes.
(2) That there is practical agreement on the necessity for a progres-
sively stringent policy in the matter of opium regulation.
(3) That the conditions prevailing in different countries are so different that a uniformity of system is impossible in all countries. (We may substantiate this from our own experience that an absolute uniformity of system has been found impossible in all the provinces of British India.)
(4) That the experience of one country may help another in re- examining its own system of opium regulation, but that such re-examination is purely a domestic concern.
13. We cordially accept these propositions. Our control over the employ. !ment of opium in India has been marked by increasing vigilance and increasing strictness, and it comes under our review at least once a year, in concert with the provincial Governments and in the light of such outside experience as promises to be helpful. The future development of our control is essentially là matter to be dealt with by our Government under your Lordship's orders, land we have the fullest belief that His Majesty's Government will object unconditionally to any suggestions of international interference in a question which the Shanghai Commission recognized as one of purely domestic policy.
14. On the broad merits of the question our position is simple. The prohibition of opium-eating in India we regard as impossible, and any attempt at it as fraught with the most serious consequences to the people and the Govern- ment. We take our stand unhesitatingly on the conclusions of the Royal Commission which reported in 1895, viz., that the opium habit as a vice scarce- ly exists in India; that opium is extensively used for non-medical and quasi- medical purposes, in some cases with benefit, and for the most part without injurious consequences; that the non-medical uses are so interwoven with the medical uses that it would not be practicable to draw a distinction between them in the distribution and sale of the drug; and that it is not necessary that the growth of the poppy and the manufacture and sale of opium in British India should be prohibited except for medical purposes. Whatever may be the case in other countries, centuries of inherited experience have taught the people of India discretion in the use of the drug, and its misuse is a negligible feature in Indian life. Even if it were possible to suppress the cultivation of
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opium in India, geographical and political limitations would place it beyond our power to prevent illicit import and consumption on a serious scale. The point is one which we do not propose to labour. But some useful light is thrown upon the use of opium by the results of the latest medical enquiry, conducted under our orders, into the drug habit in India; cide Appendix VII to this letter. It will be seen from the statistics of Lunatic Asylums in India during 1909 that, among the cases of insanity caused by the use of intoxicants, the use of opium in all its forms is scarcely responsible for any appreciable number. While 10 per cent of the cases are due to hemp in its various forms, 3:35 per cent to alcohol, and 1.26 per cent to other drugs (principally cocaine), only 0.46 per cent are due to opium. These figures are all the more remark- able when we contrast the old-established use of opium in India with the entire novelty of cocaine, coupled with the fact that the use of the latter has hardly penetrated yet beyond the limits of the large towns,
15. Turning now from prohibition to regulation, we have the latter under our constant attention, and we may briefly enumerate some of the more recent measures which we have adopted. They may be of assistance to the other countries which are dealing with similar problems, as the experience of the Government of India in these matters is longer and on a far more extensive scale than that of any European or American Government. At the outset, we may refer to one reform which was specially urged on the attention of the Shanghai Commission by the Netherlands delegates. It relates to a system of the retail sale of opium by salaried vendors who have no interest in forcing sales. The proposal is by no means a new one in India, as your Lordship will see from the past literature on the subject, but we have given it again our most careful consideration.
16. The system of official vend already obtains, to all intents and purposes, in Burma, where the special difficulties of a direct prohibition policy has forced special measures upon us. In that province 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 pre- sent 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 re-sale 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 addi- tion 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 Burma) registered Burman, is given a page in the register, the total quantities of opium pur- chased 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 allow ance 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 license fee, accrue to the licensed vendor. We cannot recommend a system of official sale, either entirely in Burma or to any extent in the other provinces, as we do not wish to identify ourselves so closely with the trade in opium, and the existing systems have been found to work well.
17. Nor can the system of licensing opium eaters in India (as opposed to Burma) be recommended. Such a system can only be justified on the ground that opium eating per se, as practised in India, is injurious. To such a pro- position we find ourselves entirely unable to assent, in face of the overwhelming testimony, medical and lay, against it. The great majority of Indian opium eaters are not slaves to the habit. They take small doses as required, and can and do give up the allowance when the need of it is past. Opium is in virtually universal use throughout India as the commonest and most treasured of the household remedies accessible to the people. It is taken to avert or lessen fatigue, as a specific in bowel complaints, as a prophylactic
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