§ SIR H. COTTON (Nottingham, E.)I beg to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the mooting of the anti-opium societies of the Malay Peninsula, held at Ipoh on 8th March last, at which resolutions were carried demanding the abolition of all opium farms and the substitution for them of Government depôts and complete Government control, and also urging that compulsory registration of all opium smokers, as in Formosa and the Philippines, should be enforced by law; and whether the Government will take any action in the direction indicated.
I beg also to ask the Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies whether his attention has been drawn to the resolution recorded at the conference of the anti-opium societies of the Malay Peninsula, held at Ipoh on 8th March last, to the effect that the Government be requested to pass additional rules under the chandu shops enactment forbidding the sale of opium to any person under twenty-one years of age, and also forbidding the sale and use of opium in brothels, jinriksha depots, and other such public places; and whether the Government will take any action in the direction indicated.
§ THE UNDER - SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES (Mr. CHURCHILL,) Manchester, N. W.I have seen a newspaper report of this meeting. His Majesty's Government are giving careful consideration to the opium question.