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4277. What do you mean by compulsorily cultivating ?-The officers
there force them to plant at that rate, in default of which a fine of twenty·
five dollars is imposed upon them.
4278. Do you think that that is happening in any other province ?-It
is only hearsay, but I was told it was so in Yunnnan and Kwangsi. I
could not say how far that is true.
4279. Do you think the position in China affects the question down
here at all or not ?-I think it does.
4280. If there is unlimited compulsory production of opium in China
do you think that we ought to go slow with our measures or ought we
to go ahead as hard as we can ?-Go slow. If you take drastic measures
for the abolition of opium in this country I am afraid there will be smuggling
in from China. .
4281. Amongst the coolies you have employed have you ever found it
necessary to get rid of a coolie because he smoked opium 7-The wood
cutter's life is generaliy Epent in the jungle, which is full of sickness, and
as far as I could know the opium smoker resists such sickness. That
was my personal experience. Some ten years ago I got a prospecting
licence for about three hundred acres about fourteen miles from Tronoh.
After I got the prospecting licence I set out with two gangs of prospecting
coolies composed of ten men each. Out of the twenty I found that twelve
were opium smokers and eight non-smokers. They were fourteen miles frnm
the nearest town and in thick jungle. After two months I found that six
of my coolies fell sick. Out of the six four were non-smokers and two were
smokers. I could not say whether it was due to the smoking of opium
or not.
4282. But they think it is?-Yes.
4283. Supposing the Government decided to register and- licence all
opium smokers, do you think the coolies would willingly come in and
register ?-I do not think so. The trouble will be that once they have
registered you will have to fix a minimum quantity, either daily, weekly or
monthly. If it is fixed as the minimum quantity per day, and they have to
buy daily, it will cause hardship and great inconvenience, as they could not
work in the mines the proper time. Supposing it is six miles from the
nearest village or town. The working day is eight hours. If they have to
walk from the kongsi to the nearest town, six miles, it will take them about
four hours for the return journey, which with half an hour in town means
four and a half hours out of eight hours, leaving three and a half hours,
which is less than half a day's work. .
- 4284. Supposing you did not fix any quantity that they should buy,
merely that they had to be registered to be the possessors of opium, would
that create any difficulty? That would mean walking in once a year to
get registered only?-Another trouble would come. They might have lost
their licence, or their licence might be stolen. That would cause great
trouble in coming over to the place where they were registered, and it might
take days to get it.
4285. The loss or theft of licence would not be .an every-day
occurrence ?-It is only an example I am giving.
4286. You have never smoked opium ?-Never in my life. Neither am
I directly or indirectly interested in the opium business.
4287. But you have not got a down against the opium-smokers, not
very hot against them ?-No.
4288. You do not want it suppressed ?-I wish to give them the time.
4289. What sort of time are you thinking of ?-To get rid of it, make
it twenty years.
4290. How do you fix tliat ?-In twenty years, the reduction. of the
importation of opium at the rate of five per cent, each year, and an mcrease
of the price at the rate vf five per cent per year.