OPIUM MENACE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 155, 23 February 1932, Page 7

OPIUM MENACE

CONFERENCE TO BISCUSS QUlSTION CON SIDERED ; FAILURE. REPORT FROM AMERICA. The League of Nations' conference for the suppression of opium smoking recently held at Bangkok failed to make any decision On the main points at issue, according to information obtainable at Geneva, says the "New York Times." It had been hoped that arrangements would be made for the gradual suppression of the vice during a fifteen-year period by appointing a commission of inquiry to investigate whether that period eould begin immediately or whether smuggling conditions made this plan impracticable. Why this hope was not realised remains a mystery, the minutes of the conference have not yet arrived; The conference ended in an agreement signed by all dfelegates but not by the American observer, J. K. Caldwellj on only four points — (1) banning retail saies on commission basis of opium for smoking; (2) defining minors to whom opium shall be barred; (3) providing penalties for ineiting minors to smoke, and (4) requiring opium for smoking to be sold on a cash basis only.

Mr. Caldwell, in a statement.to the conference, held that the Governments had failed to execute the Hague Convention's obligation to suppress opium smoking in their territories and urged prohibition as the only means of doing this. He made it clear that the United States was prepared actively to join in any measures to prevent smuggling, pointing out that smuggling affected its territory not only in the Philippines and Hawaii, but in other parts. Anti-opium circles attribute the failure of the conference to the fact that fourteen Governments in the Far

East received between 1919 and 1929 a total net revenue of 534,000,000 dollars from opium. According to their figures the Dutch East Indies received the greatest revenue from this source, with the Straits Settlements and Siam following. The United States whieh prohibits the sale of opium, naturally, was not included. The same circles suspect that the conference was held in the land of the White Elephant in order to escape publicity but admit that proof of this is. lacking. They agreed that since Siam officially invited the League to hold the conference there it would have been diffieult to hold it elsewhere. The results of the conference will be examined by the Advisory Opium Commission at Geneva in April. The conference was attended by delegations from Great Britain, France, Burma, Japan, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Siam, all of which derive revenue from the sale of smoking opium.