Empires of Vice by Diana S. Kim;

Author:Diana S. Kim;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2019-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

Lasting Significance

The problem of fiscal dependency in British Malaya was thus solved internally, and swiftly; the colonial administration introduced a set of reforms that demonstrated the British Empire’s resolve to suppress opium consumption in accordance with the 1925 Geneva Convention. In 1926, the Straits Settlements’ Monopolies Department declared the end of its licensing system for opium smoking shops and assumed control over the colony’s opium retail shops, reducing the number from more than 500 to 70.145 These remaining shops were to operate under close government supervision, selling opium only to Chinese users who would voluntarily register as habitual consumers with the Monopolies Department. By 1929, this registration system became mandatory, and coupled with a rationing system, it strictly limited the quantity that an individual could obtain.146 Non-Chinese inhabitants were required to seek special permissions for registration—in 1929, there were approximately 40,000 registered users, of whom fewer than 150 were Malays and Indians; the rest were of Chinese origin.147

However, the rise of opium prohibition across the Malay Peninsula through these restrictions on opium consumption was also a limited process. On the one hand, the international pressures in the mid-1920s had provided an opportunity for metropolitan authorities to address abstract problems of reputation on a diplomatic stage, dealing with embarrassing criticism of their vested interests in the Far East trade. As officials in the Colonial Office later acknowledged, “[w]hile of course, the mere existence of these Funds can do nothing to affect the problem of reducing the consumption of opium, it is believed that the fact that they have been set up has already done much to remove the unfounded impression … that the Malayan Governments have been deterred by financial considerations from adopting such measures of control and repression as may be practicable.”148 Diplomats at Geneva now had sufficient evidence to demonstrate the British Empire’s resolve and practical plans to reduce reliance on opium revenue across Malaya.149

On the other hand, for some local administrators on the ground, anti-opium reforms in the 1920s represented necessary inconveniences accompanying their solution to the long enduring problem of fiscal dependency in the colony. The opium revenue reserve fund was used to request reductions to the Straits Settlements’ military contributions. Pountney and Guillemard argued that the sort of “voluntary curtailment” that these funds brought were analogous to “taxation imposed to build railways and other productive works,” specifically to raise loans to pay for permanent public works.150 Although he thought it was a tenuous analogy, the Secretary of State for the Colonies Leo Amery nonetheless asked the War Office to approve the reduction.151

Yet, at the same time, this was a solution that all had agreed to but one that pleased no one. Officials in both the metropole and colony complained about the state of opium prohibition and the reserve funds that they had achieved together. “Hope you will realise [sic] what a difficult position I am in,” Governor Guillemard complained to Amery: “Malaya has accepted on Imperial grounds an opium policy which on local grounds is considered unnecessary and likely to cause trouble.

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