CO129-482 - Public Offices - 1923 — Page 474

i

!

TOLL

ちこ

す

AR.

HÄMNÍ VY",

→ YAJ

[

: J. JN

AN CANŲ S

T

י זי

وم

3

TR 4

472

4.

of Bangkok. There was scnsiderable prejudice, to begin with, against the new method of packing; for this reason the sale of opium in this ferm was confined to Bangkok for the first year. But in B.E. 2457 (1914-1915) opium in tubes was sup- plied to all the inner Provinces and in B.E. 2458 (1915-1916) throughout the kingdom.

16. During this transitory period, epium was still seld through sub-Farmers, the person undertaking te dispose of the largest quantity of opium to be sold in each district and of appointing as sub-Farmer, the person bidding the high- est sun for the sale of the assessed quantity. It was in- tended to deorease the assessment year by year, but the quan- tities fixed were necessarily not always correct and in con- formity with the real consumption, and towards the end of B.E. 2460 (1917-1918) this mothad was altogether upset by outside causus, as explained below,

17.

At the second Conference at the Hague Siam positud her ratification of the Convention of 1912.

18. In the meantimo, nogotiations between Great Britain and China had resulted in the former agrowing to lus- sun the production of raw opium in British India in conson- ance with the measure taken by China to reduce the cultivation of the opium poppy. A given number of chests of opium wore, accordingly, curtified" for import into China, and it was

duclared that the number of artified chests would be du- creased by 10% ammually, so that at the end of 10 yours, the import of ray opium into China from India would ocasc. China, on hor part, took vigorous measures to suppress the cultivation of the opium poppy within her borders, and in 1912, shu duclared that it had been entirely stopped. Con- sequently, upon a report from the British opium Commissioner confirming this declaration, the Government of India, in 1913, cuascd to put up for auction any further number of "certified" ohosts and raw Indian opium could thenceforth only enter China as illicit opium.

19.

The stocks of Indian opium in China naturally began to get exhausted and an increas-ing demand, at high priecs, arcse for opium from other countrics, prepared by this Government for salo, is of a high quality, The drug, 18 and the sub-Farmer could not resist the temptation of in- creasing their profits by surreptitiously disposing of some of their assessed quantity (soc para. 16) for export to China. The natural consequence was that the balance available for sale in this country was insufficient, and as it would have caused great