3
87
due, in some part, to the attacks which have been made upon him by the Anti-Opium League and in the Japanese press, attacks which he obviously feels very strongly
about.
+
Mr. Kaku commenced by alluding to the request for an export permit for 20 tons of Turkish opium dealt with in the enclosures to your Excellency's despatch, and said that the expression for medicinal purposes only the Mitsui firm without his authority and against his instructions. This statement had been employed by conflicts with the wording of the Japanese Ambassador's note to the Secretary of State for Foregn Affairs of the 15th January last, but I naturally did not discuss the matter.
I then asked the average consumption of opium per licensed smoker per diem, and Mr. Kaku gave this as 11 momme (say, 1296 oz.), which he said was much less than in Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements, where consumption was over 20 momme (say, 1750 oz.) At the present time there are approximately 48,000 to 49.000 licensed smokers in the island, and the number is decreasing at the rate of about 5 per cent. per annum. I give below statistics showing the number of licensed smokers and consumption of opium in each of the years 1915 to 1919-
1915
1916
1917
1918
1919
Total
Smokers.
Import.
Consumption.
lbs.
Ibe.
253,857
70.278
87,158
307,888
65,528
226,622
288,572
60,732
204,592
262,918
54,958
178,714
278,088
50,528
160,657
1.337,253
1,002,748
Import figures relate to crude opium and consumption figures to opium paste. On my asking the loss in weight on manufacture, Mr. Kaku replied that this was a technical secret of his Department.
I then asked for statistics showing the quantity of opium which the bureau had now in stock and the quantity on order, and it was here that we began to get on difficult ground. Mr. Kaku stated that his was a business and trading bureau and that the last two questions I had asked dealt with matters regarding which he was compelled to maintain great secrecy. He would like to know why I desired the information. I replied that I thought my objects must be clear to him. The British Government, under existing conventions, felt that they could not permit opium to be exported without knowing exactly to what purposes it was to be put, and my instructions from your Excellency were to furnish a report on the situation in Formosa. Mr. Kaku then declared that if he thought that the British Government was really anxious to put a stop to the opium traffic with China, he would be prepared to give not only this but much more information: all he asked was that Formosa should be treated in the same manner as Hong Kong and Singapore, and that measures taken in regard to this island should also be applied to the British colonies. Here again I declined a controversy for which Mr. Kaku was apparently anxious, and finally elicited the information that at the present time the Monopoly Bureau have on stock or order from one and a-half to two years' supply of opium. Mr. Kaku said that in his business it was necessary to look ahead and avoid the possibility of running short of stocks. quantity in stock and on order because exceptionally low prices in Persia and Turkey Just now they had an unusually large, made this a very advantageous time to buy. As to Indian opium, on the contrary, they were doing nothing because prices in that country were ridiculously high. Early this year the Indian Government had offered the Monopoly Bureau opium at 3.000 rupees per 100 kin (as compared with nearer 5,000 rupees the price ruling at the auctions), an offer which he had naturally accepted with alacrity. Since then, however, he had heard nothing more from the Government, and if, as he understood, I was shortly returning to London, he would be grateful if I would look into the matter. Mr. Kaku seemed very anxious to obtain this Indian opium at the price mentioned, and he referred to the matter several times.
In passing on to the question of morphine, I was well aware that I was on delicate ground with Mr. Kaku, but I hardly expected the outburst which I evoked. On my asking for the latest information regarding the manufacture and disposal of
*
this drug by the Monopoly Bureau, Mr. Kaku declared that these were questions which I had no right to ask, and that the matter affected the integrity of the Formosan Government and of his bureau. To this I replied that the
opium from which the drug was obtained was imported from British sources, and in view of the world-wide agitation regarding the morphine traffic in China, it seemed quite illogical to refuse to see the interest which the British Government had in the matter; in any case, statements had been made in the Japanese Diet and press regarding the very matters with which I was concerned, so that there would not appear to be any secrecy or need to take affront. Finally, Mr. Kaku said that his bureau produced about 300 kin of very inferior morphia per month, and that it was sold to the Hoshi Drug Company. None of it could be consumed in Formosa, for medicinal or any other purposes. In reply to a further question, Mr. Kaku said that the whole of this morphia was exported by the Hoshi Company to Japan for medicinal purposes, but that he could not be held responsible for the disposal of the drug when once it had passed out of the control of his bureau and out of this island. I venture to think that this admission is not without interest.
As I pointed out in my despatch No. 70. Confidential, of the 11th October, 1919, the customs returns of trade between Formosa and Japan include no item which could possibly cover this annual export of approximately 3,500 kin to 4,000 kin of morphia to Japan. I could, of course, ask the Commissioner of Customs for an explanation of this unusual omission, but the whole question is such a delicate one in Formosa that persistent investigations by this consulate might antagonise the authorities and spoil the usefulness of the office in other directions, and I venture therefore to suggest that it would be more advisable for this step to be taken by His Majesty's Embassy. Mr. Kaku's statement that his responsibility ceases when the morphia has been handed over to the Hoshi Drug Company and exported from the island shows that the Formosan authorities take much too narrow a view of the obligations they undertake when they assure His Majesty's Government that opium consumption in Formosa." "The inference is that they accept responsibility For the opium as such, but not for any drug produced therefrom. It should be possible to devise a form of undertaking by the Government which would at least fix responsibility. if it did not close a loophole for illicit export.
is for
Mr. Kaku stated that in his opinion there is only one method by which the traffic in opium and morphia can be suppressed, What that method is he declined to tell me, but he said that he had drawn up a long memorandum on the subject (1,200 typewritten pages in length) some years ago. This memorandum he had entrusted to one of Japan's highest diplomatic officials with a request that, when the proper time should come, it might be submitted to the British Government. I said that it seemed a pity to withhold a document which might have an important bearing on such a burning question, and that the present time, when the League of Nations was interesting itself in the opium problem, seemed an opportune moment for its publication. Possibly Mr. Kaku's idea of the proper time at which to give the world the benefit of his reflections will coincide with the long-awaited date when opium-smoking is finally suppressed in Formosa.
I venture to think that the crux of the Formosan opium question lies in the disposal of morphin by the Hoshi Drug Company, but the smuggling of opium from this island to the mainland of China is also not without importance. Kong papers contain frequent allusions to the seizure of opium cargoes at that port. The Hong The delinquent vessels appear to be mainly Japanese, usually auxiliary motor- schooners, of which a large number ply between Formosa. South China ports and Hong Kong. It is said that smuggling is the principal business of many of these craft. Whether they pick up their contraband cargo in Formosa or at Chinese ports is uncertain in many cases.
I have, &c.
P. D. BUTLER. PS-Imports of opium up to the end of August 1920 amounted to 77.766 kin valued at 1.893,359 ven, and a few days ago the 6 tons of Turkish opium (about 10.0×0 kin) imported through the Hoshi Drug Company reached Keelung
P. D. B.
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