Note 184 — Chapter XX · TRINCOMALEE TO GALLE
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I have here spoken only of the pushing of the trade in arrack. A very much graver danger lies in the recent licensing of several opium dens. Here we have indeed ‘a little cloud no bigger than a man’s hand,’ but in view of the appallingly rapid extension of the use of opium in India and Burmah, the small beginning may well alarm all who desire the prosperity of Ceylon.
On the mainland, England, for the sake of ill-gotten revenue, is actually creating and diligently propagating the fatal habit of opium smoking. Even in Bombay (though the cultivation of the poppy is prohibited in that Province as being an industry resulting in widespread demoralisation) upwards of 800 persons hold Government licenses for the retail sale of opium, and each licence represents several shops, the licensee being further required, under penalty of a heavy fine, at once to open new shops at the bidding of the chief magistrate of the district, should the latter see any new openings in which the trade may be pushed.
On each licence is stated the lowest number of lbs. of duty-paid opium which the licensee undertakes to sell per annum. Month by month he gives in his report, and if the quantity sold is less than the amount specified, he is fined five rupees per lb. on the deficiency. If in the following month he can succeed in so pushing his sales as to dispose of an equal amount in excess of his contract, the fine is remitted. Should a rival offer to sell a larger quantity per annum, his licence may be taken from him at three months’ notice, and given to the more energetic salesman. Thus he is literally goaded on by the paternal government to force the extension of this iniquitous traffic.
For instance, in the small district of Broach, with a total population of 326,930 men, women, and children, the licensee undertakes annually to sell by retail 12,492 lbs. (five and a half tons!) of poison. Two years ago his sales were 2,000 lbs. less than his quantity, and the consequent fine was 10,000 rupees.
In England a chemist may only sell an infinitesimal quantity of opium without a doctor’s order. In India, any child may purchase ten tolas, which is equal to 1,639 grains—a quantity sufficient to kill 270 men!
Well may Ceylon pray to be left free from so great a curse!
Copies of the Indian Opium Licence, with explanatory notes, may be obtained gratuitously from Messrs. Dyer Brothers, 31 Paternoster Square, London, E.C.