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CONFIDENTAI
RECORD OF A MEETING HELD IN UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT ON THURSDAY, 9 JANUARY, AT 3 PM
UN INVOLVEMENT IN THE PROBLEM OF ILLICIT OPIUM GROWING IN THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE
Present:
Mr P M Maxey UND
Mr ATR Oaten UND
Mr A K Goldsmith
Mr AL Wotton HKIOD
SEAD
Mr CJ Train Home Office
1. Mr Maxey opened the meeting by inviting Mr Train to give a general picture of the situation. Mr Train explained the background to opium growing in the Golden Triangle and the UN involvement so far which amounted to crop substitution pro- grammes in Thailand, (this was in only 30 or so of the 1,000 villages involved), and advice on law enforcement in the area. There has also recently been a UN mission to Burma which had received the co-operation of the Burmese Government, but crop substitution programmes would necessarily be on a small scale and not extend to the Shan States or other areas not under Burmese Government control. They would also advise on law enforcement but in the current political climate there is not really much that can be done except to intercept the supply lines. He wondered whether Mr Rolph had brought up the question of a new UN initiative as a final gesture before he retired. Although Hong Kong had had remarkable successes in drug seizures over the last 3 months Rolph wanted to encourage UN action which would get to the root of the supply; he does not however offer any suggestions himself. Mr Train went on to say that Mr Adrian Cowell, the television journalist who made the ATV film "The Opium War Lords", called on him the other day (Mr Train had agreed this with HKIOD beforehand) to discuss his experiences in the Shan States; he had asked if he thought whether the Hong Kong Government would be interested in the suggestion that there should be pre-emptive buying of opium direct from the Shan State Army. This suggestion, which comes to some extent from the Shan State Army themselves, appears to have found the support of US Congressman, Lester Woolf, who is Chairman of the Committee of Congress which is studying United States drug abuse problems. Mr Maxey said that he thought that the purchase price would rise and that the peasants would grow additional opium to supply both government buyers and the illicit traffickers (a point disputed in Mr Cowell's paper). Mr Goldsmith said that he saw pre-emptive buying as politically impossible.
If govern- ment organisations dealt direct with the Shan State Army it would make capital out of such recognition.
/2. Mr Train
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