CO129-478 - Public Offices & Others - 1922 — Page 587

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Persia and Turkey.

It has occurred to me that panding a complete

suppression of the use of opium for smoking, to w ich the

signatory Powers are committed by Article 6 of the Convention,[

it might be possible to find a solution of both questions on

the lines of an arrangement between the States chiefly

interested as to what should be regarded provisionally as the

proper average amount of consumption per head per annum;

rom all sources that the amount of raw opium to be imported for the purpose of

smoking should be strictly based on the agreed consumption

figure; and that the agreed consumption figure should be

periodically reviewed. To reach such an agreement, each of

the Powers concerned would have to supply particulars of the

amount of opium at present consumed (they have already been

asked by the Council of the League, on the recommendation of

the Opium Advisory Committee, to state their annual require-

ments of raw opium for this purpose among others), and the

number of smokers, where there is a system of registration or licensing in force, or where there is no such system, the

number of the class amongst which the practice of smoking

prevails, i.e. in most cases the number of Chinese residents, These figures would be collated and it ought not to be difficult, I should imagine, to arrive at a decision as to what would be a reasonable figure to start with in the first

instance/

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