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CHAPTER VII.
THE POSITION OF INDIA IN RELATION TO THE WORLD'S OPIUM PROBLEM.
In view of the facts that have been related in the previous chapters, it is difficult to resist the conclusion that the attacks which have been made on the production and export of Indian opium were based on an uninformed and impatient idealism. India has been accused of failure to carry out the terms of tho Hague Convention, and of flooding the world with her opium. It is hoped that the falseness of these ideas has been clearly demonstrated, but it may be well in conclusion to summarise briefly the action that has been taken by the Government of India, and to place the production and export of Indian opium in its true perspective, a correct understanding of which is essential if any hope is to be entertained of confining the world production of opium to legitimate purposes.
The principles embodied in the Hague Convention have been accepted and acted upon by the Government of India for many years past. Long before the Convention was framed India gave a ready assent to assist the Government of China in the great task of suppressing poppy cultivation which that Government undertook in 1906, an assent that involved a sacrifice of four millions sterling annually. The sacrifice was voluntarily and willingly made, though the sum lost represented no less than 8 per cent. of India's net revenue at that time, and necessitated the imposition of fresh taxation in India. This action was taken in spite of grave doubts as to the possibility of suppressing the opium traffic in China, doubts which experience has proved only too well founded, and two years before the formulation of international opinion at the Shanghai Conference of 1909. Nor did India's co-operation end with the cessation of export to China. In order to guard against the smuggling of Indian opium into China, in 1912 she subjected her exports to markets outside China to a maximum limit of 13,200 chests, a reduction of 20 per cent. on the normal requirements of those markets, and a maximum limit has been imposed ever since.
The cessation of the China trade reduced the Indian export trade to very small proportions compared with the world supply. When all importing Governments faithfully carry out the provisions of the Hague Convention, and as the progressive suppression of opium smoking by those Governments begins to take effect, it is possible that they may take still less opium from India. In view of the fact, which cannot be too strongly emphasised, that effectual international action on the lines laid down in the Hague Convention is necessary for the attain- nent of the objects aimed at by that Convention, the Govern- ment of India would be fully justified in refusing to assent to a
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modification of the Convention in the direction of greater stringency until the results of concerted and effectual action by all the signatories have been seen.
India exports 110 opium to any country that prohibits imports, she is ready to export no opium to any country in excess of the amount which the Government of that country expresses a wish to obtain, and, in order to place the responsi- bility for regulating import directly and publicly upon the Government of the importing country, she has followed since 1915 a policy of selling her opiunt direct to foreign Govern- ments wherever that course has proved possible. Three- quarters of the amount exported is disposed of in this way, and attempts are even now being made to extend the system to the remaining considerable importers of Indian opium. Should these attempts prove successful, the Calcutta auction sales would in all probability cease, and the private merchant would be entirely eliminated. But even as regards the small quantity at present disposed of by public auction, amounting for the calendar year 1921 to 705 chests, the Governments of the importing countries have the fullest power of control. In this connection it may be noted that the Assembly of the League of Nations at its second session proposed that all Governments should adopt a licensing system for imports and exports of opium and other dangerous drugs. If this proposal is adopted responsibility for imports will be placed upon the Government of the importing country in the clearest possible
manuer.
The position as regards the import and export of the drugs other than raw opium referred to in the Convention was described in the last chapter, and can be very briefly disposed of here. The export of prepared opium is prohibited, and none has ever been exported from India. Medicinal opium is not manufactured in India, and has never been exported. The imports of morphia are small and those of cocaine negligible. No cocaine is manufactured in India or exported, nor is morphia, except in so far as certain waste products at the Government opium factory of Ghazipur are capable of being used for this purpose; until recently some of these were exported to England.
The question of consumption of opium in India was dealt with in Chapters III. and IV. Briefly summarised, the position is as follows:-
The production and distribution of opium is most strictly regulated from the time the poppy seed is sown to the time the opium reaches the consumer. Cultivation, production, manu- facture, transport, sale, possession and use are controlled with a completeness and precision probably unequalled by any other country in the world. At the beginning of the 19th century it was the wish of the East India Company entirely to suppress the consumption of opium in India, but
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