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4. In the present state of Chinese public opinion the only way to diminish or to put a stop to the use of opium is to diminish or to put a stop to the production of opium. The first Article in Chapter I of the Opium Convention requires the con- tracting Powers to enact effective laws or regulations for the control of the production and distribution of raw opium, and, except in so far as India is concerned, this obligation is for practical purposes entirely disregarded. There is no effective control over the production and distribution of Chinese, Persian, and Turkish opium. The enforcing of Article I of the Convention must be autecedent to the enforcing of Article 6 of the Convention, and, while China continues to provide its population with opium in limitless quantity, Hongkong, in attempting to prevent consumption by those Chinese who happen to be within its borders, is merely beating the air.
5. The Committee estimates that approximately equal quantities of Government and illicit opium are consumed in the Colony. An increase in the Government selling price would probably result in a pro tanto substitution of illicit for Governnient opium, Any substantial decrease in the Government selling price would almost certainly result in a substantial increase in consumption generally, as Government opium is of much superior quality, and, if it were available at the price of illicit opinu, the demand would be very greatly increased.
6. The Committee has carefully considered the question of increasing the number of Revenue Officers and of providing more drastic penalties for trafficking in and using illicit opium, and it is satisfied that the measures already taken by the Government go as far as is reasonably possible in this direction. The Chinese Community has objected time and again to the methods of search now employed, methods far more drastic than any used in the United Kingdom. It is notorious that bribery and corruption are rampant among Revenue Officers and Police engaged in searching for opium, and a recent investigation has shown that, unless such officers are allowed to receive rewards, the number of seizures shows a most significant reduction. Public opinion is at least not emphatic against the smuggler, and the Chinese searcher declines to make himself unpopular, except for an adequate consideration. It is known that the smuggler not infrequently outbids the Government for the Revenue Officer's services. As regards penalties, these are already of exceptional severity, including heavy fines, long terms of imprisonment, and frequent banishment.
7. The first two resolutions of the Advisory Committee are to the effect that the opium business should be a Government Monopoly and that retail sales should be made only from Government shops, by persons on a fixed salary, without any com- mission on the amount of business done.
It is understood that the Government, which already controls the opium business in Hongkong, is making arrangements on the lines suggested in connection with retail sales.
8. The third resolution of the Advisory Committee recommends "that a uniform maximum limit should be fixed for the amount of prepared opium placed on sale for consumption, calculated according to the number of the adult Chinese male population." A measure such as this would result in the buying up and hoarding of stocks by speculators, who would re-sell at an enhanced
Persons unwilling to pay price. the price would substitute illicit for Government opium. It would be preferable to linit sales by raising the price rather than by restricting the quantity on the market, but neither expedient would diminish consumption, as illicit opium would take the place of Government opium.
The Committee understands that in 1920 the Government of the Straits Settlements attempted to reduce consumption by limitation of supplies and that after a few months it found it necessary to abandon this policy. The Government of the Punjab's experienco in this connection is set out in paragraph 31 of the Report on the Excise Administration of the Punjab during the year 1921-22. It is there stated that measures such as the restriction of supply of excise opium lead to smuggling "and simply aggravate the situation. The Financial Commissioner has accordingly decided recently to change the policy in this respect with the object of ensuring that there shall in each district be a sufficient supply of opium so that the needs of the people may be satisfied without their having recourse to smuggling".
9. The Advisory Committee, in its fourth resolution, recommends "that the possibilities of the system of registration and licensing, which has already been introduced in some of the Far Eastern territories, should be thoroughly explored".
In a Chinese community of the size of that in Hongkong it would not be possible to keep a check upon licences, if they were issued in any considerable number. Licences would be bought and sold, impersonation would be rife, and licensees would corner stocks and profiteer. It has been suggested that licences should be confined to persons permanently resident in the Colony. Some ten to twelve thousand Chinese pass daily between Hongong and China: a large part of the population, having permanent homes in China, is in the Colony for a longer or shorter period according to the prospects of remunerative work: and there are periodical in-rushes of refugees who escape from dis- order in China and dribble back at varying intervals as quiet is restored to their individual village or district. This large unstable population would bring in the opium to which it is accustomed in China, and its more wealthy members would purchase the much superior HongKong brand from the licensed permanent residents; which permanent residents would probably be men of the coolie class put forward as figure beads by profiteering syndicates.
It has been put before the Committee that smokers are already registered and licensed in the Netherlands East Indies. The Netherlands East Indies are at a consider- able distance from China, reached only after a long sea voyage. The Chinese are there au alien and not an indigenous race, and they form a very small fraction of the total population. Hongkong is geographically and racially an integral part of China, and, with the exception of a mere handful, the whole of its population is Chinese. The task proposed to Hongkong may be compared to the task of preventing the use in Manchester of an article which is in common use throughout the rest of England. The task before the Netherlands East Indies may be compared to the task of, for example, the Argentine Authorities in preventing the use by Englishmen within their territory of an article to which these Englishmen are habitually accustomed in England.
The argument formerly advanced in support of registration and licensing was based upon the desirability of gradually weaning from the habit smokers who have long been accustomed to the drug. There would be no necessity to license in Hongkong score, as, if Government opium was not available, smokers would use illicit opium.
on this
10. The Advisory Committee proposes, in its fifth resolution, that the retail price of prepared opium and the penalties for the infraction of the law in regard to its import, export, sale, and use, should be made uniform in the various territories concerned.
I would hardly serve any useful purpose to discuss this question while present conditions obtain in China. As far as Hongkong is concerned, it would be unwise to reduce the present retail price of opium or to relax the existing penalties for infringe- ment of the law. It is most improbable that certain territories could be persuaded to adopt a standard of severity equal to that established in Hongkong. In a recent case in Shanghai the Press commented on a sentence of four months imprisonment and a fine of $500 in respect of a seizure of 645 pounds of opium, as being one of the severest sentences on record in Shanghai. In a similar case in Hongkong the Magistrate would probably impose a sentence of twelve months' hard labour without the option of a fine and the offender would probably be banished on coming out of gaol. The suverest sentence on record in Hongkong is a fine of $50,000, and a fine of $10,000 is not
unusual.
11. The Committee has considered the despatch of the 13th December, 1923, From the Secretary of State for the Colonies, in which it is argued that the official figures of opium consumption in the Colony bear no relation to the actual rate of consumption, and that, in view of recent revelations as to smuggling, there is no really effective control of the consumption of opium in the Colony,
The official figures show that during the years 1919-1922 the consumption per head of the population averaged tael 53. Figures in this connection are of doubtful value, but, as this particular figure has been queried, it will be as well to examine the point in detail.
The consumption of tael 53 refers to Government opium. In paragraph of this report it is suggested that the consumption of illicit opium equals the consumption of Government opium, and on this basis the total consumption is taels 1.00 per head.
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