Modular Infotech Pvt. Ltd. - DSpace

C 147
2510. This is a return of the imports of bulk chandu from the Colony
How do you reconcile the sales in 19II, 1912, 1913 and 1914 with the imports
-of bulk chandu ?-By the fact that Perak made all their purchases in Penang,
and the return I sent to you for those years, of bulk chandu imported, only
represented that imported for Se.'angor, Negri Sembilan and Ulu Pahang.
2511. Raw opium is not imported into the Federated Malay States
1l0w?-No. .
2512. Chandu is imported from the Straits Settlements and packed in
packets and pots in Kuala Lumpur?-Yes.
2513. Is that packing in Kuala Lumpur done for the whole of the
Federated Malay States or only part of it ?-The whole of the Federated
.Malay States, excluding the East Coast of Pahang.
2514. The East Coast of Pahang imports packed chandu direct from
Singapore ?-Yes.
2515. The majority of the packing in your factory is into 3-hoon
packets ?-Yes:
2516. Would you agree that the 3-hoon packet in its present form is
·rather a rough-and-ready contrivance ?-Yes.
l!517. Do you think that the present form of packing, in regard to
packets at any rate, lends itself to a certain amount of ease in opening and
tampering with the contents and re-closing the packets?-That entirely
,depends upon whether they are properly stamped when they are packed.
If they are correctly stamped and no packets are missed, it is not easy to
-open and re-close them.
2518. How would you describe the stamping ?-The bamboo leaf is
-wrapped in paper which is perforated with a needle by a machine. If the
-needle perforation is done properly,. it would be impossible to re-c1ose in
the same form after opening.
2519. But then, do you think the purchaser of a 3-hoon packet looks
-very carefully at the needle perforation ?-No, I do not.
2520. So that if a packet were tampered with and re-c1osed in a manner
that did not show the needle perforation, it would still pass muster?-Yes.
2521. I suggest that that possibility enables people to get rid of illicit
ehandu in a licit cover?-Yes.
2522. You know that in the Netherlands· East Indies they have got
-a system of packing in hermetically sealed tubes?-Yes.
2523. Have you ever seen them ?-Yes.
2524. What do you think about the proposal to introduce such a system
into British Malaya ?-I think it is a very much more satisfactory method
than the present one.
2525. Even though you realise that packing would then have to be
-done at a central factory to save cost of machinery and plant in more than
-one place?-Yes.
2526- In the Ft!derated Malay States, anybody other than a Chinese
-male adult has to get a permit to be able himself to purchase chandu ?-Yes,
2527. You have got records of the number of permits issued ?-Yes.
I hand in a statement.·
2528. . The total number is 70 permits. Do you think that that in any
way represents the real consumers. other than Chinese male adults. in the
Fedel'ated Malay States ?-I do not think it does. I think quite a number
-buy illicitly through Chinese.
2529. At the present time that would not be at all difficult ?-Not at all .
• Appendix XXV.