CO129-439 - Others - 1916 — Page 329

with red pencil in the warped.

The stom Office

will do

the work.

2.7.16

D

G.G.

7

A.

Coppie's circulated bu

orament to

RESTRICTION OF CPIUM TRAFFIC.

REC

✓

32157 324

REG 8 JUL16!

An Inter-Departmental Conference met at the

Colonial Office on the 19th of June to consider the

possibility of taking measures to prevent illicit dealing in opium, especially as regards the smuggling of opium prepared for smoking (known as chandu) from the United Kingdom to the Dominions, Colonies, and Foreign

Countries.

There were present:-

Mr. G.E.A. Grindle, C.M.G., Colonial Office,

Hr. M. Delevingne C.B.

Home Office,

Mr. W.G. Max Kuller, C.B., M.V.O., Foreign Office.

Mr. H. Fountain, C.M.G.

Mr. G.E. Baker

Fr. E.C. Cunningham, C.B.

Mr. J.C. Ledlie

}

Board of Trade

Board of Customs

Privy Council Office.

Mr. J.R.W. Robinson (Colonial Office) acted as

Secretary.

The Conference had before them a memorial from lessre. Alfred Holt and Company, in which strong evidence was adduced of the prevalence of smuggling, usually by the Chinese seamen on board the Company's ships, and of the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of checking the traffic by individual seizures.

The Conference agreed with the memlists in thinking that the only method which offered a prospect of success in dealing with illicit transactions in opium was to control the raw material from its first entry into the United Kingdom. At present there

ig