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C 243
The Hon'ble Mr. H. W. THOMSON was called.
3964. Chair11la1l.-Wpat .is your full name ?-HENRY WAGSTAFFE
THOMSON .
. 391>5. You joined the Federated Malay States Civil Service in I8g6?­
Yes.
3966. And are now British Resident, Pahang?-Yes.
391>7. You have spent a considerable portion of your service in
Kelantan ?-Yes, nearly ten years of it.
3968. And the rest in which of the States ?-4 years in Selangor, then
2 years and a bit in Kuantan in Pahang, then 6 years in Kelantan;then 3 years
again in Klang, then 6 years mostly in Perak, then 3 years again in Kelantan
and now a year and a bit in Pahang.
391>9. H;tve you seen any scheme that has been proposed for the
purpose of registering and licensing 'opium-smokers ?-I have seen the two
schemes that were circulated, CHEAH CHEANG LIM'S and the Federated Malay
States Committee one of 1919. .
3970. Speaking generally, which do you think the more feasible, if
either was feasible ?-I do not think either is feasible, but the one I prefer,
if you are going to take a scheme of that sort, is the Federated Malay States
Committee one. It seems to me a fairer thing.
3971. As to the feasibility of the preferable one, speaking in regard
to the State of Pahang at present, do you think you could make .it feasible ?­
I do not think the District Officers can take it on. I do not think they have
the time. I do not mean they could not do it. If they were given the
staff I think they could do it.
3972. Carry that one step further. If you agree that it is feasible,
do you think that the degree of feasibility would amount to effectiveness?­
May I explain. I think you can make this thing feasible as an open scheme;
but if you make it as feasible as you can and as effective as you can, unless you
are also going to be able to prevent the consequent smuggling that is going
to ta.,ke place, then I say no, it would be. useless. I can get my District
Officers to work this scheme with clerks and make it exceedingly efficient;
but I think then you will want such an enormous staff that the nett result
to the country will not be much use. You can take a dry sponge and you
can hold it in your hand and keep it dry in the air; but you keep it ina
basin of water and you cannot keep it dry any longer. . Chandu is so
very easy to smuggle in that if you make. this scheme too tight you are
simply going to induce them to bring it in in other ways.
3973. Would you say that this scheme was a distinct interference with
the liberty of tlW subject ?-I think so.
3974. Do you think the opium position in the Federated Malay States
is such as to call for this interference with the liberty of the subject ?-No,
I do not. From my own personal knowledge I cannot honestly say that I
know of anybody who has been really ruined by the use of opium. I have
seen lots of wrecks whom I am told are heavy opium-smokers, but I have
never had enough personal knowledge of those cases to say whether they
are physical wrecks because they took opium or whether they took opium
and increased the amount of opium because they were physical wrecks,
and as a layman it has always been at the back of my mind that that is why
many of them increased their dose of opium .. As against that, I have known
plenty of clerks, interpreters, mining coolies and 'others who took· their
opium regularly in reasonable quantities and 1 cannot see personally that it
has done them any more hann than it does a man to have a ste1lga'h whisky
and soda. .
3975. 'We have been told that opium smokers lose 50 per cent·of their
physical efficiency as a general proposition. Would you accept that as. a