Sir HERBERT ROBERTSasked the Secretary of State for India whether he will state the amount of opium cultivated and prepared in India under Government monopoly for the use of British subjects in India and Burma in each of the last five years; whether he will state the number of shops licensed for the common sale of opium during the same period; and whether, in view of the prohibition of the exportation of the drug, he can give an assurance that, subject to any existing obligations affecting the Native States, the future supply of opium in India will be limited to medical purposes?
§ Mr. CHAMBERLAINA statement will be circulated with the OFFICIAL REPORT showing for the last five years for which figures are available the amount of opium issued for consumption in British India and the number of shops licensed for retail sale. There is no such general prohibition of export of opium in force in India as is implied in the last part of the question. The question of confining the production 977W and use of opium in India to medical purposes was examined by the Government of India in connection with The Hague Opium Conference and dismissed as impracticable.