CO129-478 - Public Offices & Others - 1922 — Page 101

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with the prevention of export to countries whose Governments prohibit import.

China produces seven times as much opium as India; Persia exports 30 per cent, more than India, and Turkey in normal times exports about the same amount as India which is, there- fore, responsible for less than one-third of the world's exports, apart from the smuggling abroad of Chinese grown opium. Moreover, India has signed, ratified and carried out the Hague Convention, and has gone far beyond what is demanded by the terms of the Convention in order to safeguard her exports from being abused, while Turkey has not signed, and Persia remains outside the scope of the Convention's most important article. India would be thoroughly justified in refusing to agree to the modification of the terms of the Convention in the direction of greater stringency until she is convinced that such modification will lead to beneficial results. The proposal at present most favoured by international idealists is to bind the nations to restrict the production of opium to medicinal and scientific needs, and an attempt to obtain international approval of this ideal was recently made by the representative of China on the Council of the League of Nations. As her critics are aware, India alone among the producing nations could give practical effect to such a decision, which, apart from causing unimaginable sufferings in the East, would result in enormously stimulating the production of opium in Persia, China, and Turkey. This opium would be sold in thousands of chests to the highest bidder, and exported without hindrance to mysterious destinations all over the world. India demands to see the terms of the Opium Convention translated into action by others, and would no doubt return an emphatic negative to any proposal which aimed at suppressing Indian cultivation in order to provide a scapegoat for the rest of the world.

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China. Imperial Maritime Customs, II-Special Series No. 13.

(Historical Note on the Poppy in China, by Dr. Edkins.) Dictionary of the Economic Products of India: Sir George

Watt.

Commercial Products of India, Sir George Watt. Proceedings of International Conferences and of the League of

Nations.

Colonial Reports: Hong Kong, Ceylon, Straits Settlements and

Federated Malay States.

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

C. E660 of 1911.

and China. (7052 of 1914. Agreement between the United Kingdom and Portugal for the regulation of the opium monopolies in the Colonies of Hong Kong and Macao. ('mnd. 1520 of 1921.

Agreement between the United Kingdom

The International Opium Convention, 1912, and subsequent relative papers.

China C. 4735 of 1886, C. 3881 and C. 4316 of 1908, C. 4702, C. 4898 and C. 4967 of 1909, C. 5658 of 1911, C. 6876 of 1913.

Miscellaneous: C. 6448 of 1912-13.

China: Chid. 1531 of 1921. Papers regarding poppy cultiva

tion in China.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Statistics of British India. Vol. II. Financial Statistics.

Annual Statement of the Sea-borne Trade of British India.

Vol. I.

Statistical Abstract relating to British India.

Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. IV., Chap. viii.

The Report of the Royal Commission on Opium, 1895. Seven

volumes.

The Moral and Material Progress of India. Decennial Reports. Government of India Despatches Nos. 14 and 28, dated 24th and 18th March 1921. Pablished in the Supplement to the Gazette of India, dated the 17th September 1921.

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