§ Order of the Day for the Second Reading read.
§ THE CHANCELLOR OF THE DUCHY OF LANCASTER (VISCOUNT CECIL of CHELWOOD)My Lords, this Bill is not, I think, a contentious matter at all, and it is being introduced by the Government 458 in order to render possible the ratification of the Opium Conventions agreed to at Geneva in February last. It is necessary because the Conventions cannot be ratified without some slight changes in the English law, and, as your Lordships are aware, it is the practice of British Governments to put themselves in a position to carry out Conventions before the Conventions are ratified. It is very important that the measure should be passed as soon as possible because the Government are very anxious to ratify these Conventions at the very earliest moment. They cannot be ratified before September 30, however, because, until that date, the Conventions are open for signature. The Government are very anxious to ratify as soon as that period is over, and desire therefore, if possible, to obtain the passage of this Bill before the adjournment next month.
I do not think I need detain your Lordships more than a very few minutes on the clauses of the Bill. The Bill proposes to do four things, none of them, I think, is any way contentious or of very great moment. The first clause proposes to extend the Dangerous Drugs Act to coca leaves and hemp. That is necessary if we are to ratify the Convention dealing with those substances. As it is proposed to make a small change in the machinery of the Hague Convention, under which these things have hitherto been governed, a small change is necessary in our legislation on the point, and that is made in Clause 2. I need not detain you on that matter at all. By the third clause it is proposed to bring up to date, in accordance with scientific opinions, the divisions of certain alkaloids—morphine, cocaine, ecgonine, diacetylmorphine, etc. —which have been very carefully defined with the assistance of the experts assembled at Geneva. The fourth point, dealt with by Clause 5, is to give power to strike out of the list of dangerous drugs those drugs which by experience have been found not to be capable of being used by addicts and therefore are no longer really classified as dangerous drugs. Those four relatively small changes are all the changes introduced by this Bill.
Perhaps I ought to say one word as to the main reasons why the Government are anxious to ratify these Conventions at the earliest possible moment. They regard them as constituting a very valuable advance in the struggle to bring 459 under control the illegitimate use of the drugs or substances referred to in these Conventions. There are three broad divisions of the subject dealt with by the Conventions. There is raw opium, used for eating in India, which really is not an international question at all. It is concerned only with what the Indian Government allows its Indian subjects to do with opium grown in India. Then there is opium smoking, which, apart from a few relatively unimportant exceptions, is purely a Chinese question. Practically it is only the Chinese who indulge to any extent in opium smoking, and there I am bound to say that comparatively small advance was made by the Conventions because of the immense difficulty of dealing with the thing in any way satisfactorily so long as there is a very large growth of opium in China, while the unhappy condition in which that country is renders it impossible in any way to control the illegitimate export of that drug from China.
By far the most important subject dealt with by these Conventions was the question of the use of those very dangerous and formidable drugs heroin, morphine, cocaine and the like. That is an evil which your Lordships will require no words of mine to emphasise. It is a very serious evil even in this country and a still more serious evil in other countries in the world. In some countries, indeed, it has reached the point that those who traffic in these drugs have been found pushing their pernicious wares even in the schools of the country and leading the unhappy children—for they are little more than that—into vice before they know what vice really means. It is a formidable evil, rendered all the more formidable by the fact that there are behind it, apparently, syndicates with considerable financial resources which drive this horrible trade and batten on the vices of their fellow creatures.
The most important way of dealing with this vice is by the efforts of the national Governments and I am glad to be able to assure your Lordship on the authority of the Home Office that, owing to the great efforts we have made, the evil certainly is not a growing one in this country. It is to a very large extent under control here. But in addition to what can be done by the Governments of the countries concerned there are some ways in which international effort can be 460 of service. There is no doubt that an international control of the traffic in these drugs would make it far less easy for the fiends who deal in them to have the means of pushing their iniquitous traffic and the main purpose of the greater part of the provisions of these Conventions is to institute an international supervision and control over the traffic in these drugs. It is not so hopeless or so difficult a matter as one might assume at first because, fortunately, the drugs are only manufactured in a very small number of factories. I am speaking from recollection, but I think there are not many more than ten. If proper national control can be obtained over these factories and international control over the traffic problem then a good deal might be done to assist in diminishing, or even extirpating, this vice.
That is the main purpose of the Opium Conventions. I will not attempt to describe the detailed provisions of them. A Parliamentary Paper, Command Paper No. 2461, has been presented to Parliament very recently, and your Lordships will find there a full account of the whole proceedings at the Conferences on the subject. An untoward incident that occurred was the difference of opinion that arose between the American and Chinese Delegations and the rest of the Delegations assembled at Geneva. I regret that difference as much as anybody, but it is a satisfaction to me to remember that it was a difference which had really nothing whatever to do with the control of the drug traffic on which a very general agreement was reached, and though, owing to the withdrawal of those two Delegations they did not sign he Convention, it is to be hoped that that does not mean that they will not be ready to co-operate in every way in which they can in carrying the policy of those Conventions into effect. I think your Lordships will agree with me if you read the Paper that this is really a very considerable advance that has been made and that it is urgent for Parliament at the earliest possible moment to give effect to those Conventions. I should not like to close these very few observations without paying a tribute to the great services of the gentleman who preceded me as the representative of this country in those Conferences and has done more, I think, probably than any living man to carry forward the struggle against the illegiti- 461 mate use of these drugs—I mean that exceedingly able member of the staff of the Home Office, Sir Malcolm Delevingne. I beg to move.
§ Moved, That the Bill be now read 2a. —(Viscount Cecil of Chelwood.)
§ VISCOUNT HALDANEMy Lords, a Bill of this kind has necessarily to be taken by the House to a large extent on trust. It deals with a highly technical subject and it is impossible to form any judgment on the details of the Bill. I can only say that, having read it, I see no reason to doubt it, but that is the furthest to which I can go. That brings one at once to the principle. The principle is whether it is possible by international convention to regulate the use of dangerous drugs throughout the world. That is no new principle. It originated with regard to opium, if my memory does not deceive me, at the Hague Convention in 1912. It is pushed forward in this Bill to a number of other drugs which I should think were as important as opium, although not so widely used. It is one of the most valuable and least controversial functions of the League of Nations that, apart from what it does with regard to questions of peace, it deals with social questions of this and other kinds which affect all parts of the world. That is a valuable side of the League of Nations which I think we ought to encourage and the noble Viscount is well entitled to lay stress on it in connection with this Bill as an example. Speaking for myself I see no reason why your Lordships should not give a Second Reading to the Bill.
§ On Question, Bill read 2a, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.
§ VISCOUNT CECIL OF CHELWOODBefore your Lordships pass from the Bill I should be very glad if the House would allow me to take the Committee stage to-morrow. It is, as the noble Viscount has said, not a controversial matter and the end of this part of the Session is now so close that if there is to be any chance of getting it through the other House I am afraid I must suggest to your Lordships that it would be desirable to proceed quickly.
§ VISCOUNT HALDANEIn the circumstances I think you might.
§ EARL BUXTONMy Lords, I certainly have no objection to the Bill because I think it is a most admirable one, but I do not quite understand why there is this sudden urgency for it. There was plenty of opportunity to introduce the Bill earlier so that we might have had an opportunity of considering it properly.
§ VISCOUNT CECIL OF CHELWOODI shall be very glad to consult with my noble friend on the subject. I did make a communication to some of his noble friends before I ventured even to suggest this course. I am, however, entirely in the hands of your Lordships. It is evident that, whether the Government has or has not been to blame in the past, now we are in a difficulty unless we can induce your Lordships to take the Bill rapidly.
§ EARL BUXTONI think the noble Viscount might have given reasons.
§ THE MARQUESS OF SALISBURYThe Government will not put the Bill down definitely at this moment, if the noble Earl will be good enough to confer with my noble friend.
§ EARL BUXTONI was not objecting to the Bill itself.