wickedness of sending opium to China, and second, that while the amor. phous Government of that country could not control its affairs very efficiently, other countries could, as they knew how, like India, to realise a maximum of a revenue from a minimum of consumption." He added, "if you send opium to a country like that you are really promoting the cause of Temperance, because the people get less under high taxation than they would under smuggling." It might have been supposed that views like those, reminiscent as they are of the Royal Commission of 1895, would, like that discredited instrument, have become obsolete now after the Philippine success, the triumph of China, the resolutions of Shanghai and the the following Articles of the Hague. But they are still alive, as letter from the present Secretary for India to the Edinburgh Anti-Opion
which the Convention provides, as stated in the preamble thereto; and they 555
have endeavoured in all cases to give effect to these provisions in the manner best calculated to secure the ultimate object of the Convention, which is the gradual suppression of the abuse of opium' and of allied and cognate drugs.
The Dangerous Drugs Bill does not apply to India. I am to explain, however, that the Government of India were requested some time ago to examine their laws, regulations, departmental rules, and practice, and arrange for such emendations and alterations, if any, as might be necessary in order to bring their laws, rules, and procedure into exact Conformity with the provisions of the Hague Convention. It is believed
years been in accord with the principles of that Convention.—I am, sir, your obedient servant,
"H. J. TOZER,
Committee proves. The moral and humanitarian aspect of the question ba hat no alterations will be necessary, as the Indian law and practice have for
been pointed out to him, and the opinion expressed that the Hague Articles if carried out, would necessitate the reduction of the opium manufactur India to medical requirements. He had also been asked if the Dangerout: Drugs Bill included India. The date of bis reply is 26th June:—
"SIR,I am directed by the Secretary of State for India in Council to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th May, 1920, on the subject. of the opium traffic, as affecting India.
"for Secretary, Revenue and Statistics Dept."
It is well to note, in connection with India being declared outside the cope of Mr. Shortt's Bill, that this seems contrary to the declaration which appears below the signatures of the three British delegates to the Hague Convention. It runs thus: "The Articles of the present Convention,
"z. Mr. Montagu takes strong exception to the statement that the ratified by His Britannic Majesty's Government, shall apply to the Govern-
measures adopted by the Government of India for controlling and regulating.
ents of British India, Ceylon, the Straits Settlements, Hong-Kong, and
this traffic are by no means in consonance with the spirit' of the Hagu Wei-bai-Wei in every respect in the same way as they shall apply to the
Opium Convention.
"As the preamble states, that Convention was concluded with the obje
nited Kingdom and Ireland."
If the view taken in the above letter of the objects of the Hague
of achieving certain ends set forth therein, and the provisions of the onvention is to prevail, Britain will continue to lead in an opium
Convention embody, in precise terms, the considered decisions of the varionic which is every whit as
morally indefensible as that which she
Governments represented as to the most suitable means to be adopted nandoned for her own sake and China's a traffic which the League of order to attain those ends. The Government of India have accepted, anations in Article 23 couples with that in "women and children." We have acted on, the provisions of the Convention; they have invariate, in order to raise £2,000,000 or £3,000,000 of revenue, to continue construed these provisions in the manner most consonant with the avasing 200,000 acres of the best land of India (and the number has risen objects of the signatory Powers; and, as has already been pointed out, rain lately) for growing opium, 8000 chests of which are consumed have in certain cases gone further than the provisions of the Convex India, several thousands more than what is needed for medicine, the export of opium which the terms of the Convention neither den hich cannot be indulged in without setting at naught one of the plainest required, and have imposed, or have attempted to impose, restrictions Pad 13,000 of which are exported to countries for a "pernicious luxury"
nor suggested as desirable. In these circumstances, Mr. Montagu cur
ovisions of the Hague Convention, and which our own Dangerous Drugs
that the Government of India are certainly not open to the charge that the visits with severe penalties. But eating opium is as bad as smoking it.
have failed to act in consonance with the spirit of the Convention.
the two have long been mutually recriminative. It is a case of the pot and
"3. The views of your Committee, and of the Government of India, he kettle. Still, if smoking is worse than what was recently described in the as you point out, widely divergent. The Government of India do not at Legislative Assembly, it must be bad indeed. Frijut Barua, as that the opium used in India, or exported, is 'abused'; they do not consorted in the Calcutta newspaper Capital, said in May: "Since 1903 the it advisable to limit the export of opium from India to the amount resumption of the drug has been steadily increasing. Though the price is solely for 'medicinal' purposes; and they do not accept the suggestions och higher, the victims pay it freely, at the cost of comforts and the bare India should prohibit the export of opium in order to force, or to attempt Jessaries of life. They are fully aware that they are in the grip of a most force, the countries which now receive their supplies from India to abar diy poison, which they cannot get free from even if they wish to, but their present opium policy. In this connexion, I am to point out that by would welcome any measure which would save their children from it. Hague Convention contemplates, and provides for, the use of opium rish I could convince the European members of this House, as well as the other than purely medicinal purposes; it does not stigmatise the umbers from the other Valley, of the most appalling moral, intellectual, opium for such purposes as an 'abuse; and it places the responsibility spinal, and economic deterioration of these victims. There is no mean- regulating the import of the drug, and the derivatives, upon the impas, no humiliation, which a needy opium-eater will refuse to stoop to, in country. The Government of India have complied with all the pro order to get a dose of the drug. How many useful persons have been
of the Convention; they fully accept the ultimate object of the mea
oughly spoilt. How many happy homes have been ruined for good."
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