CO129-465 - Public Offices & Others - 1920 — Page 118

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All

117

Grerada

Jamaica

Montserrat

St.Kitts

St.Lucia

St.Vincent

Trinidad

Virgin Islands

TII.

Far Eastern Colonies

Seychelles

St.Helena

Kenya

Nyasaland

Somaliland

Tanganyika

Uganda

Zanzibar

In Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States, Hong Kong and Weihaiwei where, owing to local circumstances, the use of prepared opium is permitted under strict Government control, measures were taken during the period since the signing of the Hague Opium Convention, 1912, to ensure that the provisions of the Convention (though not yet binding upon the Governments concerned) should be effectively complied with. As a result of the signing of

the Versailles Treaty, the Secretary of State invited the

Officers Administering the Governments in July, 1919, to

consider what further steps, if any, it was necessary or

possible to take in order to ensure full compliance with

the Convention, with especial reference to Artiole 6.

The replies from the Officers Administering the Covernments

may be briefly summarized as follows:

Ceylon.

As the consumption of opium was fully

under control, no further local legislation appeared to

be necessary,

Having regard to the fact that the importation

of raw opium which in 1913 amounted to 12,000 lbs.only,

had been reduced by over 30% during the next 6 years, the

Secretary of Stete expressed his concurrence with the

Governor's opinion.

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4.

Straits Settlements and Federated Malay States

D. A

The Governar stated that he proposed to

carry out the following additional measures to

regulate further the trade in Opium:-

(a)

Raising of the wholesale price of

Government chandu (prepared opium) from $10 to $12

per tahil (In (qthe price was $3 per tahil). Further increases in price to be imposed at irregular

intervals.

(b) Rationing of Retail Chandu shops and

public smoking rooms, so as to reduce the normal

consumption of the drug.

(c) Limitation of the quantity of chandu

droes which a person might legally have in his

possession.

(d)

Prohibition of export of opium to places

other than the United Kingdom, other parts of the

British Empire, Siam and French Indo-China.

He urged the necessity of proceeding gradually and with caution towards the object in

view, viz. total suppression of the drug; and thought

it not unlikely that if the licit traffic was

prematurely abolished, all efforts to cope with opium smuggling and the use of deleterious drugs (morphia, cocaine &c.) must prove abortive, until such time as the production of opium and the manufacture of

morphia and cocaine were Bo controlled in all

producing countries as strictly to correspond with what the world actually required for medical and

other legitimate purposes.

Hong Kong,

0.AG.

The Governor stated that since 1914,

when

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