0003160 G.F. 316
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accompany any increased contribution to the Fund the United Kingdom may fecl itself able to make in order that this can be reflected locally as an earnest of the British Government's concern over the serious drug situation in Hong Kong. Altern- atively, if the United Kingdom feels itself unable to increase its contribution and make it recurrent annually until about the end of the decade when the position can be reviewed, then the possibility of the Colony making contributions to the Fund on its own account, or through the United Kingdom Government, should be examined. As approximately three quarters of the original financial resources of the United Nations Fund for Drug Abuse Control are being deployed in Thailand and thus are of direct benefit to Hong Kong, it is important that the British Government lends its wholehearted backing to the Fund and supports it financially as far as it is able to do so that it is known and seen to do so - and that it associates Hong Kong closely with its backing for this important United Nations project.
32.
The other two ways in which Britain and Hong Kong can demonstrate their concern are interrelated and involve the posting of officers to Thailand for drug control duties connected with interdicting the illicit traffic. In order to improve liaison at working level with Thai Government Agencies whose responsibility it is to detect narcotics in transit for export, and those officers of the United States Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs who arc in Thailand for the same purpose, it is suggested that an officer from the Hong Kong Government should be attached to the British Embassy in Bangkok at the expense of the Hong Kong Government. In practice such an officer would probably be a member of the Royal Hong Kong Police Force. There is a great need to know a lot more about the Thai end of the export business to Hong Kong than it is possible to ascertain locally, or by occasional visits to Thailand. The presence of a narcotics control officer at the Embassy would be material to developing intelligence about the narcotics trade in Bangkok and along the south coast of Thailand which in turn should lead to greater success against clandestine trawler and other smuggling operations, while at the same time facilitating the detection and prosecution of international traffickers both in Thailand and in Hong Kong.
33.
As explained earlier in this paper, arising from a bilateral agreement entered into by the Thailand-United States Governments, an American sponsored and organised Special Narcotics Operation Northern Thailand (the S.N.O. programme) has become operational, its purpose being to interdict illicit trafficking as far forward as possible and before consignments of drugs disperse into the numerous smuggling routes south of the frontier regions. The United States Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs has intimated at senior level that it would welcome the attachment of a Hong Kong officer to this programme in order to impress upon the Thai Government that countries other than the United States are deeply concerned about the illicit drug traffic stemming from opium production in 'The Golden Triangle' area, and in furtherance generally of Anglo-American cooperation in the anti-narcotics field. There would appear to be merit in this
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