CO129-471 - Public Offices - 1921 — Page 359

358

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Excliac's from

بالممتل

Sir C Blists Report Cliot's

Formosa Island (June 22)

opuim.

ANNEX (A).

Opium in Formosa is a Government monopoly, and the drug is sold only to licensed smokers who can produce a ticket. According to official statistics, the number of smokers was about 170,000 in 1900, but had decreased to about 77.000 in 1914. The Government have repeatedly declared their intention of gradually suppressing smoking and issuing no new licences, and it is certain that stringent measures are taken to prevent Japanese from acquiring or indulging the habit. Foreign observers are of the opinion that the same energy is not shown in dealing with Formosans and that if the Government had strictly carried out their programme of issuing no new licences the number of smokers ought to be smaller.

It appears that opium comes to Formosa from Persia, Turkey and India. In 1920 the Japanese Embassy in London applied, at the instance of the Formosan Government. for permission to import no less than 20 tons of opium from the United Kingdom for medicinal purposes. Permission for the export of 6 tons only was granted, but no satisfactory explanation has ever been given of the enormous quantity demanded.

Since there have been opium scandals at Dairen, in consequence of which Japanese officials were convicted by Japanese courts, there is nothing unreasonable in suspecting similar malpractices in Formosa on the part of individual officials, It is, however, excessive to accuse the Formosan Government as a whole of conspiring to obtain opium for secret export to China. Malpractices of three classes probably

occur :--

1. In return for bribes the police issue licences to new smokers.

2. Opium is removed from the Government factory and sent to China. I was informed by missionaries at Tainan that the police had discovered and seized a large consignment which was being despatched to the Chinese coast in this way. They could not give details, but were sure that this general outline of the facts was

correct.

3. It is alleged that when crude opium is converted into opium paste in the Government factory at Taihoku, morphia is produced as a by-product: that this morphia is sold to the Hoshi drug company, who profess to export it to Japan for medicinal purposes: that it is really exported secretly to China, because the official figures showing the amount of drugs exported to Japan are not sufficiently large to cover the amount of morphia which is admittedly handed over to the Hoshi company.

A detailed examination of this charge would be tedious and unsatisfactory, since many technical questions are involved, for instance, to what extent can the bulk of morphia be reduced by concentrating processes. I have little doubt, however, that there is something not straightforward about the business. consul and myself have both had the same experience. On several occasions the His Majesty's authorities were anxious and, indeed, insistent that we should see and investigate the work of the opium monopoly bureau, but whenever this particular question of the manufacture and disposal of morphia came up, the officials concerned became confused and irritable. I believe that the head of the bureau, who is probably responsible for whatever irregularities may have occurred, has been dismissed.