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BRITISH BULLETIN, No. 38.
nations titat
waiting anxiously to dre
see the international peril of these destructive drugs dealt with at Geneva, without the constant bickerings and ob- structive tactics which have marked the proceedings since the Conferences at the close of 1924, and the be- ginning of 1925?
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We do not ignore the valuable work done by the Committee is reporting so fully on the illicit traffic. Sir Malcolm Delevigne deserves unlimited praise for the elaborate exposure of the traffic in drugs in startling quantities to many parts of the world by secret agencies. Neither Persia nor Turkey furnish to the League any report of their production of opium, while distributing more than two million pounds annually. Soviet Russia is also an offender, but neither Russia nor Turkey is even a member of the League. It has to be remem- bered, too, that one-half of the States which are mem- bers of the League, including six which are represented on its Council, have neglected, up to the present, to ratify the Geneva Convention of 1925. All this is a grave hindrance to the League's control of the traffic, and especially of the secret illicit portion of it.
Sir Malcolm made the following proposals: An en- quiry by the new Control Board into each case where suspiciously large quantities of drugs are being handled; thus tracing to their sources of illicit con- signments; the withdrawal of licences from all culprits; the exaction of severe penalties for those engaged in illicit take; the watching, and, where necessary, punishment, of transport and forwarding agencies tak- ing part in illicit traffic; and rigid observation of new factories for the preparation of heroin.
He urged also that steps should be taken to bring home to the various Govenments the gravity of the present situation. He declared that many Governments had not yet awakened to the necessity of suppressing the trade in narcotics. Licences should be withdrawn from all factories found to be associated with the illicit traffic. He said that an English morphine factory which had been found supplying the illicit trade had not only had its licence withdrawn, but had also been pilloried. He could not see why certain firms in other countries, whose names had been freely mentioned during the present enquiry, should not be similarly treated. Their names ought to appear in the report of the Committee.
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These admiral proposals, we presume, commended themselves to the members of the Advisory Committee. Therefore we should like to know why, when mention was made of the offenders, an endeavour was made to hush the matter up. Why did the delegates of four countries demand that the names should not be pub- lished to the world? And why should it have been left to the Journal de Genève to give us the names and details of the misdeeds of the offenders?
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We referred to the very lengthy statement of Mr. Wang King-Ky, the Chinese Minister at Brussels, and the first delegate to Geneva of the Nationalist Govern- ment of China. There was so much that was valuable
in it that it was a great pity it contained a variety of political allusions which marred it to such a degree that it was impossible for the Committee to place it on their minutes. When an attempt was made to persuade the writer to withdraw the political reflections, he de- clined. It was an unfortunate conclusion to a state- ment otherwise worthy of respectful consideration.
Briefly, the Chinese delegate insisted on five points which, in discussion, would probably have been treated with the courtesy they demanded.
I.
That the League should declare itself for the im- mediate and absolute prohibition of opium smoking in the Far East-not only in China, but elsewhere.
2.
The abolition of consular jurisdiction, and the cessation of protection by foreign consuls of their nationals who trade illicitly in drugs.
3.
Collaboration of other nationalities with the Chinese police for the suppression of the illicit trade.
4. The general limitation of narcotic drug manu- facture.
5. The extension of the task of the League's Com- mission of Enquiry in the Far East, as proposed at the instance of the British Government, to all opium pro- ducing and drug-manufacturing countries.
It may be necessary to mark the point in No. 5. The proposed Commission of Enquiry was to be sent to the East only; whereas China maintains, with some show of reason, that it is just as important for the enquiry to be pursued in the West, seeing that her people are grievously afflicted by the narcotic drugs poured in upon her from the West. Mr. Wang King-Ky claims that the drug-manufacturing and distributing countries should be brought under review by the Commission.
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There we leave our brief attempt to sum up the leading points in the January meeting of the Advisory Committee. It is not altogether cheerful reading, but some progress has been made, especially in the ques- tion of dealing with the illicit traffic.
The Naarden Factory Scandal.
re-
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What that illicit traffic is was ported on in many ways in the minutes of the Advisory Committee, but have space only for the most conspicu- ous instance. The President described it as the most important document of the kind ever put before the Committee. The disclosure as made by Sir Malcolm Delevigne of the doings of the Naarden Fac- tory, at Bussum, near Amsterdam, involved Holland, Switzerland and Austria. Holland received large quantities of morphine, heroin and cocaine from Swit- zerland, and through agents at Vienna distributed them in the Far East. These illicit operations amounted to 35,600 ounces of morphine, 113,000 of heroin, and 3.350 of cocaine, of which the greater part of the mor- phine and heroin, and half the cocaine, were consigned to China. The Japanese delegate calculated that the medicinal needs of the whole of China would be only a fraction of the morphine and heroin so consigned. The Swiss delegate agreed that his Government had been imprudent, but had regarded the Dutch firm as one to
BRITISH BULLETIN, No. 38.
be relied upon.
It is satisfactory to know that the Naarden factory will no longer be permitted to operate in this way, nor to make and handle dangerous drugs; It was and the agents at Vienna have been arrested. a curious fact, however, that the Naarden factory was declared not to have broken the law, but was only now o be compelled to refrain from this kind of business by the adoption both by Switzerland and Holland of the system of export and import certificates.
We will just add that, in the course of the state- ment of this case, it was said that there is a close relation between this illicit traffic and the "White slave traffic, cocaine being one of the means used syste- matically to demoralize and secure the victims of pros- titution. An instance was given of the ingenuity of smugglers-a cripple in Naples being arrested for hav- ing his crutches stuffed with cocaine. The Italian delegate further mentioned that pharmaceutical chemists were found participating in the illicit trade. One of them was discovered to be purchasing cocaine at about £6 105. per kilogramme, and selling it in large quantities at about £245 per kilogramme.
League Inquiry Commission.
In our October issue we described at length the proposal to send a Commis- sion of Enquiry to the Far East to obtain information by close personal touch with the conditions that prevail. It was thought that such Enquiry would assist the work of the Central Board, and prepare the way for the new Conference which had been foreshadowed by the Con- vention of February, 1925, and which is to be held in 1930, instead of 1939, as at first intended. Several countries gave their support to the proposal, but when the question of expenses was discussed, the difference of opinion became accentuated. Thirteen delegates only (of whom six are within the British Common- wealth) voted that the Inquiry should proceed, China voted against it, because it was not proposed to include the examination of the drug-producing countries of the West; and seventeen abstained from voting, including such countries as France, Germany, Spain, Italy, and nine other European States.
The difficulty of financing the Enquiry has now been -Overcome. All Governments concerned have replied, with the result that financial obstacles have disappeared, Great Britain, France, Holland, Japan and Siam have all offered hospitality to the Commission. Japan has made a specially gracious offer of help. Great Britain is to pay £2,960, Holland £1,400, France £1,240, and Siam £400. With the sum offered by the League Assembly the contribution may now be regarded as sufficient. America, promises special facilities in the Philippines, but has not been asked for a contribution or for hospitality. The president of the Enquiry Com- mission is M. Ekstrand, the Minister of Sweden in the Argentine. A Belgian expert in economics and finance, and a Czecho-Slovakian diplomat with Far Eastern experience have joined the Commission, which will leave Europe in September. The Enquiry is expected
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to occupy nine months, and will then submit its report to the Council of the League.
This is all to the good. It keeps things moving. And the Commission's work will continue to awaken inte- rest, and may do something to restrict the illicit traffic.
The Central Board.
The permanent Board of Control has at last been appointed. The Council of the League in its session at Lugano on December 14th selected eight names,
which are as follow:-
Dr. O. Anselmino (Germany). M. C. S. S. Borin (France). Prof. Guiseppi Gallavresi (Italy), Mr. L. A. Lyall (Britain). Mr. H. S. May (New Zealand)
M. M. Miyajima (Japan). Sir B. K. Mullick (India).
(for the U.S.A.).
M. Henrik Ramsay (Finland).
A session of this Board was held in January, and is to meet in this current month to report on the lines of work it proposes to follow. It will present its state- ment to the Council in June. The most hopeful aspect of the whole matter seems to us to be that Mr. Lyall is chairman of the Board.
Take special note of the position in Hung-Kong. Hong-Kong. We have often called attention to it in recent years. Some-
times things looked bright, but soon they became over- shadowed once more. On January 19th a report was given to the Advisory Committee on "the alarming situation at Hong-Kong, where the quantity of opium consumed is from five to ten times greater than the quantity authorised for sale by the Government. It was added that it would be the duty of the Commis- sion of Enquiry to find a remedy-which we hope they may do. Of course the simplest way would be to cut off the tail of the snake just behind the ears; in other words, to prohibit opium smoking in the Colony, as the National Government of China proposes to do through- out the length and breadth of the land. In that case the illicit traffickers will find their market gone.
The report to the Committee was in these words: **The Hong-Kong Government states in its annual re- port that, in order to cope with the enormous quantities of opium that are smuggled into the country, it tried the experiment of placing on the market a cheap Gov- ernment brand manufactured out of confiscated opium in its possession. This experiment, the object of which was to drive the smuggler out of the market, had the temporary effect of increasing considerably the sales of Government opium. The experiment had to be dis- continued when the supply of confiscated opium was exhausted."
Is it not curious that trade in narcotics has a de- teriorating effect on the common-sense of officials and statesmen, as the use of them has on the morals of addicts? It is pitiful to see a council, composed of British subjects (some of them Chinamen), wasting
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