HC Deb 22 December 1938 vol 342 cc3194-206

3.29 p.m.

Lieut.-Commander Fletcher

My hon. Friend the Member for Derby (Mr. Noel-Baker) apologised at a late hour last night to the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for having kept him out of his bed for the third night in succession. I myself apologise to the hon. Gentleman if I have delayed his starting upon a well-earned holiday. No doubt many officials of the Foreign Office also are looking forward to their holiday. I mention that because I ask a great many questions on Foreign Office matters, although I never ask one merely for the sake of doing so, and I know that those questions involve a great deal of additional work for a staff which must already be very hard at it, although they now have the benefit of the assistance of an official from the Ministry of Labour to help them with the more responsible work of the office. I should like to make my acknowledgment for my share of the work imposed. I admire the ability with which the hon. Gentleman answers the questions put to him, more especially when he is compelled to evade or suppress the point at issue and thank him for his courtesy and for coming here.

To-day I want to raise some matters which arise out of the work of the Advisory Committee on Drugs at Geneva, matters which, the Advisory Committee says in its report, give cause to the entire world for serious apprehension. If I have to refer to somewhat sensational matters it is not in the least because I wish to make a sensational affair out of these matters—indeed, I shall only refer to official reports—but the facts are so sensational that it is not possible to avoid dealing with them in that manner.

The position arises out of the fact that the Treaty of Versailles places the general supervision of the drug traffic in the hands of the League of Nations. Arising out of that responsibility, there was a plan devised by the Bangkok Conference in 1931 which by 1937 had been ratified by 61 countries, including Japan. This plan was that a Central Supervisory Body was set up, which has a British chairman, to which countries submit estimates of the medical and scientific but not of Governmental requirements of drugs. The subsequent manufacture of drugs is, I presume, supposed to be roughly in accordance with those requirements. It is a plan which has many imperfections, but it does mark a great advance, and, if administered honestly and with good will, it would be very effective. That good will has been shown to be generally forthcoming from the nations of the world, but year after year statements at Geneva show that the Japanese Government have not shown good will in this matter.

The British delegate at Geneva has said that information at the disposal of his Government tended to confirm the view of the United States delegate that the situation was such as to cause grave anxiety to the rest of the world. The situation had grown worse and the Committee could only ask the Japanese Government to do all in their power to suppress the horrible traffic in drugs which, the British delegate said, was so alarming as to constitute a menace to the rest of the world. The Indian delegate—and India has a great interest in this matter—referring to Japan, said: year after year the indictment had been drawn up in ever increasing detail; year after year the policy of the responsible Government"— that is, Japan— had been declared to be one of co-operation. The only change in the actual situation appeared to be one for the worse. The Chinese delegate—and China is a member of the League of Nations, and we, as a fellow-member, are pledged to assist her in all proper matters—spoke about the poisoning of the Chinese population in all the parts of China to which Japanese influence penetrates. He went on: we can fairly say that Japan is combining with her military invasion of China an invasion by drugs which is just as deadly and again in Chinese territory subject to Japanese influence the production and consumption of drugs are not merely tolerated but encouraged by the Japanese military authorities. In Nanking, where the Chinese Government had succeeded in abolishing opium, drugs have been openly sold since the Japanese occupation. The Japanese concessions in China constitute centres of illicit traffic. Manchuria and Jehol have been transformed into a regular narcotics arsenal. Japanese consulates have acted as distribution centres for drugs. Japanese lorries transport drugs ail over China. And in connection with that sinister work of the Japanese Army the American delegate referred to huge quantities of opium, reliably reported to have arrived in Shanghai, consigned to the Japanese Army. The Japanese delegate, very naturally, was compelled to make some reply to these statements at Geneva, but it is fair to say that his reply was laughed aside by the other delegates. The only good point in it is that he did admit his Government's obligations in this matter. The reply, however, was considered "inadequate," and the other delegates, including the British delegate, passed a resolution reiterating that the situation in China was deteriorating under Japanese influence and which called upon the Governments concerned to take vigorous action to remedy the situation in the Far East. We are one of the Governments concerned, and I ask the hon. Gentleman, what is the vigorous action which we are taking in accordance with that resolution? The Foreign Office, I know, admits the gravity of the situation. We have had replies to questions on the subject which show that the Foreign Office has the matter under close consideration and that it is willing to take any steps to check the traffic in co-operation with any Government. Year after year the experts at Geneva, including Great Britain's experts, issue warnings of this world evil being fostered by Japanese influence. The Japanese Government are charged with fostering traffic in morphine, heroin and opium not merely for consumption in China, but for export all over the world, including the Dominion of Canada. The Canadian delegate spoke of the flood of drugs from the Far East and said that Canada was suffering the consequences,

they had for some years been heavy sufferers from the narcotic situation in the Far East. Consider the situation in Hong Kong. The local government there cannot cope with the traffic. There are between 2,000 and 3,000 opium and heroin dens in Hong Kong, upwards of 300,000 opium or heroin pills are consumed daily, and there are 40,000 opium addicts there. That is the situation in Hong Kong. The Japanese Government have also failed to penalise the Japanese smuggling of cocaine into India, a matter of most urgent importance to us.

All this is no new story. It has been brought out repeatedly at Geneva by the head of the Narcotics Bureau, Sir Thomas Russell, an official whose work and services in this matter, I feel, have never received the full recognition that is due to them although I know that a somewhat belated honour has recently been awarded him. He is a man who has done wonderful work. I have seen him described as that rare being—a man who is the master as well as the servant of his office. He has fought his campaign with the gay ruthlessness which wins a forlorn hope. He certainly has powers of narrative which bring his work home to the mind. Sir Thomas Russell said as long ago as 1936:—

The fact is now beyond dispute that the world source of illicit white drugs is in areas under direct or indirect Japanese control. After many years of hard work the League of Nations has closed down all the European sources of illicit drugs only to be threatened by mass heroin export from the Far East. As the leaks are stopped up and dammed in the West, so the traffickers move out to the East.

In 1937 he said: The world supply of heroin to-day is coming, through the Suez Canal, from the Far East. The extent of heroin manufactured in Manchuria can only be described as staggering. In 1936, after that passage to which I have referred, Sir Thomas went on to speak of the good work of the League being undone and the world repoisoned for the monetary profit of a mob of rascals living under the protection of the political chaos of the Far East. That mob of rascals to whom Sir Thomas Russell referred enjoys the active support of the Japanese Government, a Government of poisoners. That is the simple position. The good work that the League has done is being undone by one nation, and that nation is Japan, which is charged with fostering illicit drug traffic throughout the world, and with using drugs as an instrument of policy to promote the degradation of the Chinese. If those charges, which have been repeatedly made, are true, and so far they have gone uncontradicted, I would ask, How far we can call Japan a civilised nation? I have never greatly admired the British slogan that trade follows the flag, but I prefer it to that of the Japanese that drugs follow the flag.

The Japanese reap a two-fold benefit from this drug traffic. The revenue they draw from the drugs helps them to defray the cost of their aggression upon China, and the use of the drugs demoralises the Chinese upon whom they force them. Pestilence and war are historically associated, but it has been left to the Japanese to find a way of making pestilence pay for war. If Gilbert were writing the "Mikado" to-day, he would have to make the Wandering Minstrel sing: Where'er our country's banner may be planted, All decency and honour are defied. Drug-taking was once common in Japan, but it was suppressed by rigorous laws. Japan knows what is good for herself. All the more shame that she fosters this drug traffic in China. It is interesting to note that almost the only restriction that is imposed on the drug racketeers by the Japanese Government is that they must not sell to the Japanese fighting forces. While that restriction is imposed they are deliberately promoting the degradation of the Chinese by forcing upon them more powerful drugs than opium, and using those drugs as an instrument of policy to undermine Chinese manpower, and sharing in the profits of the trade. It is a ghastly crime against international decency to drench another nation with drugs in this fashion.

In the 1937 invasion every town taken by the Japanese immediately became an open market for drugs. Drug shops, dens and pedlars all arrived with the Japanese Army. Every means are being taken to promote drug taking in China. The poor can get drugs on credit. Drug saloons are everywhere. The Central Japanese Opium Companies have opened chain agencies throughout the country. Japanese newspapers advertise drugged pills as longevity pills. Japanese police are seen on duty regulating the queues outside the drug saloons. Cigarettes are made up with heroin in them, without the fact being stated, in order to create the habit. Medicine containing these harmful drugs are sold at village fairs as a cure for tuberculosis. Touts, cabarets, brothels, women pedlars, are all employed to foster the traffic. You can have your drug supplied along with your milk and your newspapers. Opium and other narcotics are forced upon non-addicts. Chinese workers have even been forced to receive part of their wages in drugs. This business is in the hands of Japanese and Korean rings working in close touch with the Japanese Government and making huge profits. Heroin costing £5 per lb. to manufacture may be sold at anything up to £1,500 per lb., the profits are very great indeed. In Manchuria and Jehol the annexation was immediately followed by the establishment of an opium monopoly. Laws were enacted to secure to the Government a monopoly of the profits from drugs. I have spoken of profits. Sir Thomas Russell has stated that in 181 cities in Manchuria and Jehol there are 3,840 licensed opium dens and 8,400 heroin dens, and each one of them pays £15 a month for a licence, which gives an annual revenue of nearly £2,250,000—to the Government from that source alone.

Mr. Fuller, the United States delegate, speaking of conditions, said: The province of Hopei has become the seat of the world's most extensive manufacture of heroin. The conditions in Pekin, Tientsin and Eastern Hopei are beyond description. The traffic is engineered and controlled by Japanese and Koreans. In 1935 in Manchuria nearly 6,000 died of addiction. Sir Thomas Russell says: The Japanese Concession in Tientsin is now known as the nerve centre of heroin manufacture of the world. The dens number well over 1,000. Not less than 200 heroin factories are scattered over the concession, which is about four miles square. New factories are starting daily. The factories are working perfectly openly. It is from here that not only the Chinese but all other countries of the world are being debauched. The Japanese Government is at present controlled by the Army clique, and it is the Army which has fostered this deliberate demoralisation. The Japanese policy shows that, given a sufficiently base motive, the government of a great Power can lend itself in cold blood to the poisoning of the people it rules. As regards poisoning it is a shocking commentary that the Japanese authorities have stopped anti-narcotic hospital work. Sir Thomas Russell, speaking of Tientsin, which has two trusts exporting heroin and where the world traffickers meet publicly to buy and ship their cargoes, quotes an eyewitness, who says: Words fail when I attempt to describe the revolting and terrible conditions. The dens are dark, the scenes ghastly, children of two and three years old already drug addicts, with swollen heads. The injections are done with dirty syringes, the needles are never disinfected or changed, syphilis is freely spread from one addict to another. I have seen addicts with their chests a mass of gangrenous flesh, and it is into these putrefying, barely living bodies that the needles of dope are alternately pushed. It is out of these conditions that the Japanese Government raise revenue.

The matter has been taken up in the columns of the "Times," which said that the action of the Japanese Government paralysed the efforts of the Chinese Government in repressing the illicit traffic and rendered inoperative in advance any effort made by the League of Nations. I quote two more most significant passages from the "Times," which we would do well to bear in mind: When the Northern Chinese have been demoralised and impoverished the manufacturers of heroin will no doubt send consignments to poison richer peoples in other countries. and the danger to other countries if this vast production of narcotics is allowed to continue unchecked need hardly be emphasised. As a commentary on this the "Times" might well have quoted a statement by the Japanese delegate to Geneva, who said: We are a nation of Samurai. With us honour is more important than anything else. Well I do not know the language, but I imagine that "Samurai" is Japanese for dope peddlers. The civilised nations of the world are trying to stamp out this illicit traffic in drugs, with all the horror and degradation that that traffic spells. One nation, and one nation alone, in the world, labours to extend the traffic, and that nation is Japan, a nation which boasts of a ruler descended from the gods, and pursuing the foulest campaign imaginable.

I appeal to the Under-Secretary to give this matter his personal attention. He has had Ministerial connection with India, his Noble Friend has been an illustrious Viceroy of India; they are, therefore, in a position to appreciate the dangers of the consequences of Japanese policy. The spread of white drugs in India would be terrible to contemplate. The half-starved, over-worked millions there, suffering from debilitating tropical diseases, are very prone to the temptation of a little ease from their miseries. This problem is a serious one in relation to India. I ask for an answer from the Minister which will condemn in no uncertain terms the policy of fostering the drug traffic and express determination to prevent the spread of the evil to British spheres of influence; and I hope that our Ambassador at Tokyo may be instructed to explain to the Japanese Government the disastrous effects upon British public opinion in relation to Anglo-Japanese relations of the matters to which I have called attention to-day.

3.51 p.m.

The Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Butler)

I feel sure that the House will have been impressed by the sincerity of the hon. and gallant Member for Nuneaton (Lieut.-Commander Fletcher) in bringing this subject before the House this afternoon. His Majesty's Government view with grave concern the drug situation such as it was described by the Opium Advisory Committee last June and reviewed by the League of Nations this autumn. I will give to the House the information that we have derived from various parts of the Far East. I think that this will indicate the extent of the growth of the drug traffic in the Far East, and I hope that it will give an indication of the extent to which we think responsibility should be attached to any particular quarter. One very serious feature of the growth of the traffic has been referred to by the hon. and gallant Member, and that is the growth in the use of heroin. The use of opium in itself is a terrible and gripping vice, but heroin is something far more serious. I expect the House will remember the manner in which the De Quincey contrasts the difference between the use of alcohol and the use of opium. He says: The pleasure given by wine is always rapidly mounting and tending to a crisis, after which as rapidly it declines. That from opium, when once generated, is stationary for eight or ten hours. The one is a flickering flame, the other a steady and equable glow. We must remember the difficulty which De Quincey had in escaping from this terrible vice, and therefore we may take it that he did not exaggerate his feeling of the glow which he derived from it on occasions. When we consider heroin and the terrible effect it has on its victims—how they tremble and shake—and the deplorable condition which is immediately produced by this drug and which breaks down all the barriers of morality and leads to the most terrible acts; when we realise from our information that this heroin is getting a greater hold upon the youth in the Far East—youths even of the age of 12—we can understand the grave extent of the problem which faces us.

Before I indicate the information that we have on the subject in relation to the Far East, I would like to describe the action that was taken at the League of Nations this autumn. I would like here to pay a tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Wallsend (Miss Ward) who represented this country on the committee which considered the traffic in opium and other dangerous drugs. I should also like to reinforce the tribute paid by the hon. and gallant Member to Sir Thomas Russell for the work he has done in this connection. Hon. Members will have seen from the White Paper which was presented to the House on 19th December (Command Paper 5899), that the hon. Member for Wallsend said at the League that there was much ground for satisfaction in the steady progress of the League's work for the control of the opium traffic, and that this work had been of a pioneering character. She drew attention to the fact that the number of annual reports from Governments had increased very considerably and went on to support the final resolution which was passed and which has been sent to various Governments including His Majesty's Government.

The committee was asked to address an urgent appeal to the Japanese Government and proposed a resolution stating that the Assembly had taken note of the report of the Seventh Committee relating to the illicit traffic in the Far East, particularly in the areas of China under the control of the Japanese forces, and noting that the situation had grown worse during the past year; that the Assembly associated itself with the resolution adopted by the Advisory Committee at its twenty-second and twenty-third sessions, and with the appeals made therein to the Governments concerned. That resolution was sent from the League in the autumn of this year to various Governments, and it has been received by His Majesty's Government. The matter is having our immediate attention. I go further than the word "consideration" which the hon. and gallant Gentleman used and say that it is having our immediate attention. We are in communication with the other Governments and not only those Governments which are members of the League and I can assure the hon. and gallant Member that the matter will not only have my personal attention but the close personal attention of my Noble Friend, both for the reasons to which he referred, and also because of the gravity of the issue itself.

So much for the action taken at Geneva and the immediate attention which is being given to the problem by His Majesty's Government. I am able to tell the House that a further step is being taken. There was signed in 1936 an Anglo-Japanese Drug Traffic Agreement. It was not possible to take definite action on that Agreement until the autumn of this year when we arranged for closer co-operation between His Majesty's diplomatic and consular officers and similar representatives of the Japanese Government. Our officers have been instructed to co-operate with the appropriate Japanese authorities by mutually communicating information regarding the proceedings and movements of persons known to be engaged in the illicit drug traffic. This new co-operation has just been put in motion, and although it may not amount to an immediate solution of this grave problem, it does at least mean that we are in closer touch with the representatives of Japan, and that we shall thus be able to make clear the gravity which we attach to the matter. I trust that any information which may emerge from these contacts will help us to arrive more quickly at some satisfactory decision.

Let me give a short review of the position to which I referred in my opening remarks. From the information in the possession of my Noble Friend there is no evidence that the increased drug traffic in China is the outcome of any deliberate plan on the part of the Japanese Government, or that it is aimed at the systematic demoralisation of the Chinese people. I think the diagnosis which most correctly fits this extremely serious position is somewhat as follows. The reports which we have received from North China seem to confirm the statements made at the meeting of the Opium Advisory Committee last June. In North China, before the Japanese occupation in 1937, an attempt was being made by the Chinese Central Government to enforce the drastic opium and narcotic laws which had been promulgated by them in 1935. There were indications that they were to some extent being successful. They had reached a position in which an attempt was being made to carry out stiff enactments against these drugs.

Since the Japanese occupation of this region these deterrents, whether they were in the form of legislation or ordinances, or whatever you like to call them, have to a large extent disappeared, so that the position seems to us to have become worse. That, I think, is a correct diagnosis which explains the trouble which we are going through at the present time. To take an example, in February, 1938, Government ordinances were repealed by the Peking Provisional Government and in May it was announced that the Peking Consolidated Tax Administration had decided to allow the opening of 300 opium dens. That is an example of the extent of the growth of the traffic. On the other hand, certain ordinances have been issued by the Provisional Government for the control of the traffic, the effect of which it is not yet possible to estimate, but I can assure the hon. and gallant Member that we shall watch the effects of the new ordinances of the Provisional Government. I am bound to give the House the information in my possession, and it appears to us that since the formal repeal of the Chinese Government's ordinances opium pipes and smoking accessories appear to be offered for sale openly at stalls and markets in the Chinese city of Peking. Innumerable drug shops were opened until at the present time there is scarcely a street without one or more shops where drugs may be obtained and even indulged in as well.

As regards Manchuria, my Noble Friend has no definite information other than the published budget figures for 1938 which indicate that the amount of opium handled by the monopoly has increased. It is recently reported that new ordinances aimed at the control of the narcotic trade have been issued, but it is as yet too early to state how they will operate. A report on the drug situation in Manchuria has been called for from His Majesty's representatives, as I think I informed the House in answer to one of the many questions to which the hon. and gallant Member referred. The position in Central China does not appear so serious. Ordinances have recently been promulgated by the Nanking Provincial Government aiming at the control of the drug traffic, but again I am not able to give the House any definite information as to their likely result. Taken together with the information which I gave the House about heroin, I think hon. Members will see that there has been a definite increase in various parts of the Far East, that there have been some ordinances passed but that the repeal of the previous ordinances of the Chinese Government has resulted, in our view, in an increase in the traffic. The actual increase in the traffic in heroin chiefly emanates from the City of Tientsin. Trade in this drug is largely confined to Korean pedlars who have followed in the wake of the Japanese armies, but my Noble Friend has no information as to the attitude of the Japanese military authorities to this trade. In other towns in North China it appears that there has also been an increase in this traffic, but, as I said, the main source of the drug is Tientsin.

So much for the general review of conditions in the Far East in relation to the drug traffic. The hon. and gallant Member will appreciate that I have given him the facts as far as we have them in answer to the rather lurid and terrible picture which he was obliged to paint. He asked me whether the British Ambassador would make a protest to the Japanese authorities. I trust he will have observed the reference in the course of my remarks to our attitude in this matter. We have preferred the international approach, the method of collective action. We believe that in this matter of the drug traffic there is a real opportunity for the League of Nations, and we do not intend that that opportunity shall be lost. We intend to continue our close examination of the matter, and wherever possible, in company with other Governments, to use the international method, and, we hope, to solve this terrible problem. When we discuss this subject, and when we realise the terrible toll which this drug takes on so many people in the Far East, let us remember the difficulties of a man who did escape from the power of opium, De Quincey himself, who said: I did accomplish my escape. I triumphed. But infer not, reader, from this word triumphed' a condition of joy or exultation. Think of me as one, even when four months had passed, still agitated, writhing, throbbing, palpitating, shattered; and much perhaps in the situation of him who has been racked. Many of these victims have been on the rack, and the Governments of the world feel shattered themselves by the immensity of the problem. It is our wish now to escape.