CO129-498-14 Illicit traffic in opium and drugs 4-12-1925 - 30-11-1926 — Page 120

M. SAMUEL & Co., Limited,

LONDON, E.C. 2.

-2-

3944

C

-

12 (1)

If any vessel is used for the importation

or exportation of any deleterious drug contrary to this

Ordinance or for the receipt or storage of any deleterious

drug imported contrary thereto, the master and owner of

such vessel shall be liable to a fine not exceeding five

thousand dollars, and the vessel may be detained by order

of the Court until security has been given for such sum as

the Court orders, not exceeding five thousand dollars.

(2) Such offences shall be tried by a District

Court.

(3)

Except in the case of deleterious drugs.

consigned to or by the Principal Civil Medical Officer, any

deleterious drug found on board any vessel shall be deemed

evidence that the vessel has been used for the importation

or exportation of deleterious drugs contrary to this

Ordinance, or for the receipt or storage of deleterious

drugs imported contrary thereto, unless it is proved to

the satisfaction of the Court that none of the Officers,

their servants, the crew or the persons employed on board

for the purposes of the vessel were implicated in the placing

or keeping such deleterious drug on board the vessel.

In each of the two sections there is what is called

at presumption which arises when any prohibited drug is found

in a vessel, with this difference that under Section 11 the

presumption only arises if the vessel is without port limits,

whereas section 12 says nothing about the locality or position

of the vessel.

I understood the contention of Counsel for the

Defence to be that the two sections are so closely allied

that the presumption under Section 12 must be taken to be

subject to the same conditions and circumstances as that

under Section 11.

As a matter of fact the two sections, although

similar in form, are aimed at quite different objects. Section

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