ILLICIT TRAFFIC IN DANGEROUS DRUGS.
[To the Editor of the SencrATon.] SIR,—By the covenant of the League attached to the Treaty of Versailles the signatory Powers agreed to take steps to control the traffic in dangerous drugs.
The League of Nations has appointed an Advisory Com- mittee on the Control of the Traffic in Opium, which aims at establishing effective control of the distribution and restriction of the production to legitimate medicinal and scientific needs. The Committee has collected statistics which show, inter alia, that the import into and manufacture in Japan of morphine are most excessive, amounting to 64,000 lbs. in 1920. The League has asked Japan to co-operate with the Chinese Maritime Customs in the suppression of the import of these drugs into China.
The question of enlarging the scope of present international legislation is to be considered at the next meeting of the Committee in April.
In the meantime the British Government has only taken steps to increase the penalties for smuggling. My twenty- eight years' experience in Hong-Kong, including twelve years as Crown Solicitor, has satisfied me as to the futility of penalties, as the rewards of successful smuggling arc enormous. The British Government has a special responsibility in these matters, as enough morphia and cocaine to poison a large proportion of the population of China is exported annually from the British Isles to China. It is surely the duty of England to afford an honest lead to the other nations in this matter before half China is poisoned.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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