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Great Britain should go to the Conference with a settled policy,
In this and agree that this policy should be enforced at once. way
the danger of procrastination would be avoided and the Commission's report night provide a means of making further progress later on.
Sir Malcolm Delevingne said that Malaya presented a different aspect from Hong Kong. Hong Kong had admitted that it could ignore the revenue derived from opium. This he believed was not the case in Malaya. The fact that a large proportion of the general revenue in Malaya was derived from the opium monopoly was a constant object of attack, especially in
the United States of America.
Mr. Pountney said conditions were entirely different in Malaya. For one thing, if the opium revenue were done away with, there would be difficulty in maintaining the Preventive Service. While it was just possible that the Straits Settlements could discard their opium revenue within say ten years, as their finances were now in order, it was quite impossible for the Malay
He States to do away with the opium revenue in the same time. had examined every source of revenue, and had been unable to discover an alternative. He had examined with interest Sir Malcola Delevingne's private suggestion to him that the opium revenue should be divorced from general revenue and devoted to the good of the natives. He thought that this could be done. The opian reveme could, for instance, be devoted to medical
services and education.
Sir Halcolm Delevingne wanted to make clear that the suggestion which he had asked Mr. Pountney to consider was that - assuming suppression in present circumstances to be regarded as impracticable the general revenue should surrender the profits of the opium monopoly in stages, spread over a period of years (the period of 10 years mentioned by Mr. Pountney had been in his mind a longer period could no
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