[Communicated to the Council
and the Members of the League.]
C. 123. M. 70 .1938. X I.
[O.C./A.R. 1936/100.]
(Issued in English only.)
Geneva, April 9th, 1938.
LEAGUE OF NATIONS
TRAFFIC IN OPIUM AND OTHER DANGEROUS DRUGS
ANNUAL REPORTS BY GOVERNMENTS FOR 1936
Report by the Chief of Police of the British Municipal
Concession at Tientsin (North China)
Communicated by the Government of the United Kingdom.
Note by the Secretary-General.
In accordance with Article 21 of the Convention for limiting the Manufacture and
regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs of 1931, the Secretary-General has the honour
to communicate herewith to the parties to the Convention and to other States the abovementioned report.
(For the form of annual reforts, see document O.C.1600.)
A.
I.
Laws and Publications.
II.
G eneral.
Administration.
Nil.
III.
Control of International Trade.
The British Municipal Administration does not apply this system at all. No dangerous
drugs of any description are allowed to be stored or sold in the British Municipal Area with
the exception of drugs required for medical and scientific purposes (pharmacists, medical
doctors, dentists, etc.). These drugs are under the control of the Nanking Government.
IV.
International Co-operation.
Nil.
V.
Illicit Traffic.
1. The British Municipal Area is very little affected by the illicit traffic and our infor­
mation is rather meagre. Our general enquiries, however, reveal th a t all opium is coming to
Tientsin from Suyuan, Jehol, Chahar and Honan provinces where it is grown and manufactured.
To the best of our knowledge drugs are derived from clandestine manufacture. Opium is
brought to Tientsin both by road and railway. No particular routes are known.
2. The opium poppy, coca plant and Indian hemp are not cultivated within the limits of
the British Municipal Area or anywhere in or around Tientsin.
3. In 1936, there was only one case, when 400 lb. (181 kg. 800 grm.) of raw opium was
seized while being transported from the Japanese Concession through the streets of the British
Municipal Area to be loaded on to s.s. Fausan, lying alongside the British Bund. The thirteen
Chinese transporters were arrested and handed over to the Chinese authorities for trial. There
is no official information of sentence in our possession, but to the best of our knowledge they
were all fined to the total sum of 20,000 Chinese dollars and released.
4. Nil.
3548 -— S. d. N . 700. 4/38, Im p . R éunies, C ham béry.
5- During the year 1936, 182 kg. of raw opium, 600 grammes of prepared opium and
50 grammes of heroin were seized.
6. The wholesale price of raw opium of standard quality was about 82 Chinese dollars
per kg. The retail price is practically the same. The price of prepared opium is about
135 Chinese dollars per kg. The wholesale price was 2 or 3 Chinese dollars cheaper.
B.
VII.
Raw Opium.
VIII.
Raw Materials.
Coca Leaf.
IX.
Indian Hemp.
Nil.
C.
X.
Manufactured Drugs.
Internal Control of Manufactured Drugs.
2.
No drugs of any description are allowed to be manufactured in the British Municipal
Area and no licences for the trade in dangerous drugs are now issued.
4. Wholesalers and pharmaceutical firms manufacturing preparations for the wholesale
trade do not exist and are not allowed in the British Municipal Area. Chemists, doctors,
dentists and pharmacists have to apply to the Public Health Department of the Nanking
Government for permission to purchase from the Central Store of the Nanking Government
small amounts of drugs in strict conformity with their needs for medical and scientific use.
This trade is controlled entirely by the Nanking Government. In practice, chemists and
doctors can freely purchase any kind of drugs from drug stores in the Japanese Concession.
D.
X II.
Other Questions.
Prepared Opium.
1.
No narcotic addicts among English nationals are known. The principal consumers
are Chinese and a comparatively small number of
Russians. TheChineseGovernment has
established special hospitals to cure narcotic addicts where all Chinese nationals and non-treaty
subjects arrested in the British Municipal Area for being addicts are sent for treatment.
Treatment, combined with severe penalties for persons once cured and sent back for further
treatm ent, has sometimes brought good results. We have no statistical data in regard to this
m atter in our possession. We wish, however, to express our strong belief th at, so long as the
clandestine manufacture of heroin (derived from opium) and the general trade in narcotics and
numerous narcotics dens flourish in the areas under the control of the Japanese and so long as
the Chinese Government is powerless to suppress the clandestine plantation of poppy and the
clandestine manufacture of opium in the areas under its control, no measures, however efficient,
can bring good results in suppressing the habit of smoking opium.
2. The cases of illicit traffic other than the case reported under V, 3, above are of no
importance and are represented by the following statistical data : Keeping a public opiumhouse, 26 cases (30 Chinese house-keepers and 47 addicts were arrested and prosecuted) ;
possession and sale of opium and heroin, 12 cases (15 Chinese were arrested and prosecuted).
In all these cases, 59 sets of opium-smoking paraphernalia, 600 grammes of prepared opium
and 50 grammes of heroin were seized. We possess no information of sentences imposed by
the Chinese court.
3.
See above
under V, 5.
4.
All seized
drugs were handed over to the
Chinese authorities, and we are info
th a t the drugs have been destroyed.
(Signed) R. H. D e n n i s ,
Chief of Police,
British Municipal Council, Tientsin.