HC Deb 06 February 1893 vol 8 cc541-2
MR. CAINE

I beg to ask the Under Secretary of State for India if he is aware that by a Resolution, September 25th, 1891, No. 4033, the Government of India Prohibited the smoking or the consumption of opium and its preparations in any other form on the premises; that in Clause 6 of the Resolution his Excellency the Governor General points out that The adoption of this measure involves the risk of unlicensed places being established, trusts that Local Governments will adopt the preventive measures best calculated to minimise this risk, and expresses the hope that The orders should be brought into force everywhere on the first opportunity"; has the India Office received front the Government of the North West Provinces and Oudh a copy of a Circular headed "Confidential, No. I of 1892, D. 26," issued by T. Stoker, Esquire, Civil Service Commissioner of Excise, North West Provinces, to all the Commissioners and Collectors of the North West Provinces and Oudh, stating that it is the opinion of the Board of Revenue that it is not altogether advisable that opium smoking dens should be suppressed, that— The known conditions of opium smoking render the maintenance of some common place for the consumption of the drug an almost absolute necessity, and no effort should be made to suppress such places, as it is better that they should be known, and thus be liable to supervision"; on what date did the Confidential Circular reach the India Office and is it the custom for Provincial Governments in India to set aside, by Confidential Circulars to Commissioners and Collectors, the Gazetted Resolutions of the Viceroy and his Council?

*MR. GEORGE RUSSELL

The passages glinted by my hon. Friend from the Blue Book of January, 1892, on the "Consumption of Opium in India," are given with practical accuracy. The Circular to which he refers has not been received from India. On the 23rd of November last my hon. Friend called my attention to the matter, and on the 25th of that month a letter was sent to the Government of India asking for information respecting it. No reply has yet been received. The answer to the last question is, No.