0003160 G.F. 316
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Evidence or just hearsay?
12.
In the zone of Laos controlled by the Royal Lao Government opium production is believed to be as low as twenty tons a year.
The Americans are of the view that their vigorous joint law enforcement efforts with the Laotians in the west of the country adjacent to the conjunction of Laos, Burma and Thailand have resulted in the opiate transit traffic from Burma being reduced sharply by about seventy percent.
13.
The head of the Groupe Speciale d'Investigation, (the Laotian Narcotics Bureau) General de Brigade Kham Hou Boussarath, stated that he had evidence to show that there was a considerable illicit traffic of opium products out of Southern Yunnan into Laos, but he was unable to say whether this traffic took place with the concurrence or connivance of the Chinese Government or not. Southern Yunnan in the vicinity of its border with Burma and Laos is mountainous and wild and inhabited by tribesmen little different from those across its frontier.
14.
The British Embassy in Laos believes that there is a regular movement of drug traffickers between Hong Kong and Vientiane, a journey made easy on account of the thrice weekly direct air service. This is something which will have to be examined in more detail elsewhere.
15.
Laos today is a divided country beset by uncertainty as to its future so far as the Royal Lao Government is concerned. Quite apart from the large amount of aid the Americans have given to the Royal Lao Government aimed at enabling that Government to resist Pathet Lao domination of the country, they are also very active in the anti-narcotics field from law enforcement to initiating crop substitution programmes. The Groupe Speciale d'Investigation also gives the appearance of being a good unit ably led by a tough and seasoned commander, General Boussarath. But the Americans are unsure of their future in the country and will not know where they stand until after a peace settlement has been reached. This applies to their considerable anti-narcotics effort as much as to any other sphere of their diverse spread of activities. It seems probable that their presence and thus their influence in Laos may be less in future.
16.
From a courtesy call paid on General Boussarath with the Head of Chancery, it was evident that he, and through him presumably the Royal Lao Government, is fully aware of the serious drug problem in Hong Kong and the link of Laos in the illicit traffic. H.M. Ambassador at Vientiane is agreeable to making an approach to the Lao authorities at the right time to impress upon them the seriousness of the Hong Kong drug problem in a more formal way. He is of the view that such an approach should be in a low-key and with a full appreciation of the great diffi- culties facing this war-tom country and the considerable efforts
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