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APPENDIX L VI.-Contd.]
6. The 1921 census in Kedah showed­
Malay males, 20 years and over
Chinese do. do. do.
Siamese, all ages and both sexes
There are no data to show bow many of each of these nationalities are
opium smokers, but after taking the opinions of various persons whose advice
is likely to be of value 1 hazard the estimate that 10,000 Malays, 20,000 Chinese
and 1,000 Siamese are consumers. I confess that these figures are little
more than guess-work, but after allowance is made for even a wide
inaccuracy, it will be at once apparent that the problem in Kedah presents
a different aspect from that in the Straits Settlements and the Federated
Malay States. There the opium smoking habit is almost entirely confined to
the Chinese; here it is shared by a considerable number of Malays and
Siamese. In 1921 an attempt was made to take a census of the Malay opium
smokers in Kedah, and the total number was returned at 7,468. This i.
certainly much below the true figure, for the fear of public opinion and the
suspicion of possible registration to follow must have combined to deter
many who were not confirmed smokers from admitting their addiction to the
habit. Legislation was contemplated to make opium smoking by Malays
illegal, but it was felt that without registration and licensing of smoken it
would have little effect, and in view of the difficulties attending such a
system the proposal was abandoned.
7. The registration and licensing of smokers is a vexed question. In
theory it is attractive but in practice its success would be more than
doubtful. I understand that it was tried in Burma, with a view to checking
the opium habit among Burmans, and that it did not prove an unqualified
success there. Such a system would entail an intrusive domestic espionage
which would be deeply resented, and it would bring into being an army of
informers who would readily succumb to bribery or descend to blackmail.
At the present time only adult Chinese males are allowed in licensed smoking
shops, and it is questionable whether the adoption of a system of registration
and licensing of smokers would result in any advantage which would
outweigh the evils which it would, in this country, inevitably bring in its
train.
8. It would be quite possible to fix an annual maximum limit of opium
to be consumed in the State, but it would, for the reasons I have stated, be
impossible to base such a maximum on the number of the adult Chinese
popUlation. Even i! there were no Malay or Siamese opium smokers, the
Chinese population is so variable and so dependent on the condition of the
industries in which the Chinese are locally engaged that the popUlation
figure might very easily become widely fallacious almost as soon as it had
been adopted. Individual rationing in this country would present difficulties
analogous to those of rationing whisky in Scotland: there would always be
people ready to pay highly for the rations of others.
9. I can see no objection to having a uniform price fixed tor prepared
opium in neighbouring territories; indeed such a procedure seems to have
every atgument in its favour. But a "uniform price" could not be fixed
without full account being taken of the purchasing value of local currency;
it could not be equitably fixed, for instance, in sterling, for the whole of the
Far East, although in Siam and Malaya it might possibly be identical.
10. These brief remarks are, as already stated, offered after a very brief
experience of local conditions in this State, but they contain, for what they
may be worth, the opinions which I have so far been able to form on this
admittedly difficult question.
THE SECRETARY,
OPIUM COMMI'I'Ti:E,
SIIfGAPOU.
I have, etc.,
E. C. rI. WOLFF,
Acting British Advise,.
'0 'he Kedah G01Ie,.nmtnt.