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A60
(c) wages of Chinese labour are not known to shew any
remarkable variation throughout British Malaya;
(d) prices of prepared opium shew no great variation; and
(e) no restrictions on the opium habit in· 80 far as
adult Chinese males are concerned obtain in any
particular territory in British Malaya.
6. We think that the explanation of the variation lies in the
variation in the degree of indulgence obtaining in the various tribes
of Southern Chinese which constitute the Chinese immigrant
population of British Malaya.
7. This variation was admitted by many of our witnesses,
but we were, perhaps naturally, not able to get them to commit
themselves to more exact statements than that the Hokkiens are
the heaviest smokers.
8. Whether this admission should be taken to imply that a
greater percentage of Hokkiens than of other tribes smokes, or that
a Hokkien smoker consumes more than a smoker of another tribe
or both, was more than we could expect to derive from the personal
observations of our witnesses.
9. We do not say that this is the only explanation of the·
difference between the per capita consumption of the adult Chinese
male population in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay
States, but we do say that it is a most important factor in the
explanation.
10. Appendix IV shows that of 1,000 of the Chinese male
population in the Straits Settlements, 589 are Hokkiens and
Tiechius-the biggest smokers according to our evidence-and 278
are Cantonese and Khehs-claimed by our witnesses to be the
smallest smokers amongst the China-born part of the community.
This contrasts remarkably with the Federated Malay States where
in 1921 the Cantonese and Khehs con.tributed 647 to every thousand
of the Chinese male population, and the Hokkiens and Tiechiu8
only 260.
11. We judge from the corresponding resolution of the
Advisory Committee of the League of Nations on the Opium Traffic
that the use of "uniform" implies a formula of general applicability,
to all territories coming within the scope of the League. We, therefore,
feel it essential to note a difference between British Malaya and
the neighbouring Colony of Hongkong.
12. We gather from the Hongkong Census Report 1921 .that
nearly all of the adult Chinese males in that Colony are Cantonese
or Khehs, and we are not surprised to observe from the slight data
before us that the per capita consumption in Hongkong is considerably
less than in the Federated Malay States and remarkably lower
than in the Straits Settlements.
13. We have referred in many parts of this report to this tribal
variation of degree of indulgence, but we think its importance in
relation to the point now under consideration cannot be overstated .
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