CO129-483 - Others & Individuals - 1923 — Page 412

possibly some form of registration

of consumers, these difficulties

would no doubt be considerably

1essened. A any rate the Advisory

Committee's suggestion is well worth

i

sympathetic consideration.

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406

could be devised which could be

effectively administered at a reason-

able cost and without unduly anta-

gonising the Chinese population, a grea

step would have been taken towards the

really effective control of the use of

(IV) The British representative had

hoped to be able to propose definitely

at the meeting of the Advisory Committee

that the interested powers should be

recommended to adopt a system of regis-

tration and licencing of opium smokers;

but His Grace did not feel justified

in assenting to such a proposal, on

behalf of the Govern@ghts of the Far

Eastern Colonies and Protectorates until

it had been carefully considered by the

Governments concerned,

He consented, however, to Sir

Kalcolm Delevingne raising the question

of registration of smokers, in the

form in which it appears in the

Committee's resolution, because he is

convinced that if some such system

could

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the drug. His Grace trusts, therefore,

that the local Committee, the appointzu

ment of which has been suggested, will

examine the question with care and

without prejudice.

As the Court is no doubt aware

opium smokers are already registered

and licenced in various Territories

in the Far East, notably in the

Netherlands East Indies, and His Grace

would suggest that the system in

operation there should be carefully

studied. His Grace realises that the

conditions in the Netherlands East

Indies are not altogether comparable to

those in the Company's Territory, but

they are probably not so dissimilar

that the experience of the Netherlands

4

East