OPIUM SMUGGLING.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 18, 20 January 1913, Page 5

OPIUM SMUGGLING.

Temptations of Customs Officers. A leading officer of the Customs Department at Melbourne, in drawing attention to the fact that China was not observing the agreement arrived at to prohibit, or at least, minimise, the cultivation and traffic in opium, asks why should Australia keep on surrendering between £50,000 and £60,000 in revenue by prohibiting the importation of the drug.

As China went on cultivating the opium, it would continue to be imported here. He said he did not wish to make any charges, but he dreaded to think of the temptations to which the small-salaried men were liable. “It is the easiest thing in the world,” he added, “to say to an officer, ‘Here is £25. Go away for 10 minutes.’ He could go away, and perhaps his absence be noticed and an explanation asked for. It would be possible for the £2 5s or the £2 10s a week man to make £SOO or £6OO a year in this way. “I certainly think, in view of the circumstance®, that the Commonwealth should reconsider the matter.”