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on with solving its own heroin problem. Our presence at the meeting was, therefore, from the American point of view an essential and I believe we created a great deal of good will by our willingness to attend and make a positive contribution.
6. The meeting was of use to the United Kingdom delegation for other reasons than this.
Both Mr Huntley and Ir Jordan were able to reaffirm and strengthen their contacts with the police and the proventive services, Kr Huntley, in particular, was able to follow up the recent Gerrard Street case with an appeal for assistance in the arrest of a Hong Kong Chinese who had been involved in the case and was now in Hong Kong. So far as I personally was concerned, the meetings gave me an insight into the problems of South East Asia which I had not obtained from reading the literature; they enabled me to meet responsible officials in Hong Kỏng which is likely to be of general use in the future; and they provided me with excellent back- ground for my work on the Ad Hoc Committee,
AD HOC COMMITTEE FOR THE FAR EAST
7, So far as the Ad Hoc Committee was concerned Rolph and I agreed that it would be preferable for Hong Kong not to be associated with it. The possible political disadvantages of Rolph's appearing in Burma, Malaysia or nepal, for example, and the difficultics of explaining his presence seemed far to outweigh any advantage that might accrue from his particular knowledge of the problems in these areas. Certainly my visit to Hong Kong had filled in many of the gaps in my own knowledge and to that extent made it less necessary for me to have expert local advice.
HONG KONG DRUG SCENE GENERAL IMPRESSION
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As to the general situation in liong Kong, I was impressed by the obvious desire of the Hong Kong Government (from the Governor downwards) to tackle their problem from a new perspective. This was welcomed expressly by the American delegation, Rolph admitted that for too long they had looked inwards, hoping by their own resources to break the syndicates in Hong Kong and by sitting on their borders to prevent opiwa and morphine base coming in. They were now aware that they had failed by these means to check the base drugs entering Hong Kong and being used there. They admitted that per head of population (but this was only an estimate) they had the nost serious addiction situation in the world. They now saw that they had to look outwards; that it was necessary to become involved in international initiatives to try to stop the drugs coming into Hong Kong by attacking every point on the line of supply from the "Golden Triangle"; and that it was necessary, if they were to do this, to involve the United Kingdom Government with its responsibility for their foreign affairs in the countries concerned. This has been the theme of Rolph's reports and it was re-emphasised at our meetings.
9.
I was however not so impressed either by the quality of the officials who were in charge of the various activities or by their attitudes. It seemed to me that Rolph, though full of ideas and good will, was too uncritical and too ready to accept new ideas simply because they were new. The police officers gave the impression (perhaps false) that they were too ready to wring their hands when faced with a difficulty and to dismiss new suggestions on the lines of "we have already tried that and it has failed". Chief Superintendent Rumbelow, who has only recently taken over the Narcotics Bureau, may, however, with growing experience, develop a firmer and more resolute sproach. The Preventive Service officers were certainly full of zeal and determination, but I thought it disturbing to hear comments which indicated a considerable jealousy and rivalry between the two services. This, in so small a community, seems likely to do more harm than good. The Preventive Service openly takes pride in its success in raiding opium divans, which seems an area of responsibility which is for the police.
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