The League of Nations
Handicaps in the Fight Against Opium THE League of Nations Opium Advisory Committee has just begun its regular half-yearly session. There is a good deal of romance and excitement behind that arid and formal state- ment, for the newspaper headlines telling of a raid on a Chinese opium den in Lirnehouse, or the tragedy of a West End drug-taker, or the exposure of some elaborate under- ground organization for illicit traffic in morphine and heroin, link up directly with the prosaic discussions of a dozen or so delegates—British and Italian and Japanese and French and American and Dutch and the rest—at Geneva.
Illardly any League organ is faced with- a more formidable ta ;lc than the Opium Committee, for none is working in a field w iere the way- of the law-breaker is as easy and the tempta- tions to the law-breaker so great. Without the League the opium evil would hardly be worth fighting, for it is only by cloneerted international action that it can be fought at all. The profits made by smugglers of cocaine or heroin or other narcotics are so substantial, and the volume of the smuggled article is so insignificant by comparison with its value, that any ordinary national customs organization is powerless to frustrate the traffickers. When the drugs can be concealed, as they constantly are, in the heels of boots or hollow canes or bars of soap or bedposts or stuffed animals—in short, in any receptacle large enough to hide a package of a cubic inch or so—Customs officers would have to search every piece of baggage they saw, and destroy a good many of them, before they could be sure smuggled drugs were not getting through.
As things are a good part of the time of the delegates at each meeting of the Opium Committee is occupied with reports of seizures, almost all of them involving contraband activities across three or four national frontiers.. The following extract from the minutes of the Committee's last meeting furnishes a sufficiently instructive illustration :— " 173. Illicit Traffic : Case of Mme. Statnigross. • Dr. Anselmino (Germany) said that Mane. Statnigross had been arrested in Berlin and that the Berlin police had asked the Court at Hong-Kong to forward copies of the evidence in the case against her husband. It had been necessary for the Berlin Court to take steps to verify the facts, as Mme. Statnigross had at first denied all the accusations brought against her.
Pending, however, the receipt of evidence from Hong-Kong, the Berlin police had discovered the keys of a safe and had found in the safe all the correspondence regarding the transactions of Mine. Statnigross and the code used by the smugglers. The sources from which the drugs had been obtained were in France and Switzerland, and the whole affair had been brought to light by close collaboration between the authorities of Germany, Switzerland and Great Britain. The successful discovery of these operations was evidence of the value of international collaboration.
He hoped very shortly to have further particulars in regard to the case. Meanwhile, he would invite the authorities of France to join the authorities of Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan in the necessary researches. Mme. Statruiross had since undertaken a number of journeys to Switzerland and France to visit those who delivered the drugs. She had found a skilful go- between to travel with the consignments, in the person of Helen Roguvoi.
The Berlin police had-discovered that Mine. Statnigross had made two extensive journeys in December, 1926, and February, 1927. On the first occasion, she had provided herself with a large wardrobe. trunk, which was no longer among her luggage when she returned to Germany. On, the second occasion, she had acquired another tisignilar trunk, built with a double wall. There was no doubt that both of these trunks had been used for the transport of large quantities of narcotics. - - - To accompany the trunks, Mine. Statnigross had obtained the services of a thirteen-year-old Russian-boy from Paris. This boy had encountered difficulties in getting. the trunk through the Customs at Marseilles, but had reported that m the end he was able to do so by a lavish distribution of tips. The boy had been traced to China
and there lost.- -- . . . Dr. Corriere (Switzerland.) stated -that the Swiss authorities had been able to trace Mine. Statnigross and her accomplices in Switzer- land, but they had as yet been unable to obtain exact information with regard to their doings. The Swiss authorities were awaiting the result of the investigation opened in Germany before pursuing their investigations."
If there is decisive evidence here of the international character of the illicit drug traffic there is evidence equally of the international character of the agencies now In action against it The Gertaan delegate "invites the authorities of France to join the authorities of Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Japan in the necessary researches." At last the battle can be joined on equal terms.
That is the League method. Rigid and loyal control must be exercised over both the raw material of narcotics and the manufactured narcotics themselves at every point on the journey from the poppy-field to the chemist's shop. Countries that produce the opium-poppy must agree so to limit cultiva- tion that between them they produce no more than an amount equal to the world's ascertained requirements for medical and scientific purposes only. There must, that is to say, be no surplus available for smoking or smuggling. That is the first stage. The second is represented by the import and export certificate system, whereby an exporting country undertakes not to grant an export licence except in exchange for a certifi- cate from the Government of the importing country guaran- teeing that the consignment in question is genuinely needed for legitimate purposes. There must, of course, in addition be the strictest national control of the processes of manufac- ture and sale of all narcotics. If in all these respects every Government did all that could be expected of it the illicit traffic in drugs would be vastly diminished, though even so not completely stamped out.
Unhappily the League to-day is fighting one-handed. The essential part of the campaign just described is the limitation of poppy production, for that means attacking the evil at its source. Now the producing countries of the world are four in number—China, India, Persia and Turkey. Consider these.
The state of China to-day makes the idea of limiting the supply of raw opium derisive. At one moment, after the foundation of the Republic in 1911, China succeeded by heroic efforts in practically stamping out poppy cultivation everywhere. Now every province except one is ablaze with poppy fields, and the product is pouring out illicitly across the frontiers of every other State in Eastern Asia. Turkey, by the Treaty of Lausanne, undertook to ratify the Hague Convention of 1912 on the Drug Traffic. She has never done so, and no one can make her. Poppy-growing in Turkey proceeds unimpeded. Persia, home of a large production and a prosperous smuggling industry, has after lcmg negotia- tion with the League decided to reduce her poppy cultivation from 1930 by 10 per cent, a year for three years and then consider her future action. India alone, which in 1917 abolished export to China altogether, and is now reducing her export of smoking opium to any destination by 10 per cent. a year till it disappears altogether, can be said to be living up to League standards.
Meanwhile, the League is concentrating at present on checking and regularizing the output of the factories. The German delegate, Dr. Anselmino, introduced last time, and will elaborate next week, a very interesting plan for associating all existing factories in an international cartel, and giving the League representation on the board. In this way if the different Governments agreed not to license new factories the control would be really effective. Meanwhile, the League has its own plan, embodied in a convention signed in 1925, whereby a Central Board would be established at Geneva to receive on the one hand annual estimates from every country of its legitimate requirements of drugs in the forthcoming year, and in the other full statistics quarterly of all imports and exports of drugs everywhere. It would therefore be seen at once which countries, if any, were receiving drugs in excess of their declared requirements. Such publicity would almost certainly be effective. Unfortunately, the convention is not yet in operation because too few States have ratified. The ratifications must include seven members of the League Council, and at last month's meeting only Great Britain, France, Poland and Finland had done what was required. Rumania is understood to have just followed suit, and Holland, Canada and Japan are under pledge to act forthwith. The road therefore should be clear for action by June. But that affects manufactured drugs only. For any effective control of making opium we must wait till China settles down.—I am, Sir, &c., YOUR GENEVA CORRESPONDENT.
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