CO129-498-14 Illicit traffic in opium and drugs 4-12-1925 - 30-11-1926 — Page 5

U

See also 34112/28

38816/25

5,5

Home Office, the Government have attempted to

mitigate this unfairness by extending the liability

to the Chief Engineer and the Super-cargo. I

propose to go into the question of whether this

amendment is sufficient in connection with the new

draft Ordinance and it seems unnecessary to discuss

it further here.

It is

The reason why it has been necessary in

the past to prosecute Masters of ships carrying

smuggled opium or drugs is given in 30533/25.

that, in view of the terms of Section 36 of the

Ordinance, smuggled drugs cannot be confiscated

unless someone is convicted, der the Ordinance

as it stands the only person who can be convicted is

the Master, that is, of course, unless the Straits

authorities can get hold of the actual persons

involved. In our telegram of the 15th of July on

32183/25 we told the Straits Govemment that we

thought that Section 36 ought to be amended in order

that an illicit consignment could be confiscated even

if no

one were convicted. They have embodied

to give effect to this

ese amendment in the new draft Ordinance

referred to above. But until that is passed, the

position still remains, in my opinion, very

unsatisfactory.

I understand that the reason for making a

Master liable, as is done under Section 12(3), is

that in many cases Masters have been hand in glove

with the smugglers, though it is often impossible to

prove this.

In