It is believed that the reports of British Consular Officers in
China, which form an enclosure17 to the Aide-Mémoire under
reference, and the information already in the possession of this
Government offer a [Page 427]
reliable basis for similar representations by the Government of the
United States and, accordingly, the Government of the United States
is prepared to make such representations to the Japanese
Government.
It is believed that the evidence in the possession of this Government
would sustain a contention that any such approach by this Government
to the Japanese Government would be a measure of self-defense
against the infiltration of narcotic drugs into the United States
for reasons as follows:
There are also appended hereto, for convenience of reference, copies
of the statements made by the American representative at the Opium
Advisory Committee at Geneva18 on June 13 and 21, 1938.19
The Department of State believes that the basis of its intended
representations to Japan should not be restricted to one of
self-defense against the infiltration of narcotic drugs into the
United States, but should include the broader grounds that the
Japanese Government shares with the American Government and with
other governments the well-recognized obligations under the
International Drug Conventions to control the production and
distribution of raw opium, to render effective the limitation of
manufacture of narcotic drugs to the world’s legitimate requirements
for medical and scientific purposes, to use its efforts to control
or to cause to be controlled all those who manufacture, import,
sell, distribute and export narcotic drugs, and to cooperate in
other ways provided for in those Conventions. It is self-evident
that the growing of opium, the sale of opium, and the [Page 428] sale of opium derivatives
in amounts greater than needed for medical or scientific purposes
constitute a threat, active or potential, to no one people alone but
to the peoples of all countries.
The Department of State is issuing instructions to the American
Ambassador at Tokyo20 in which he is
authorized, after consulting with his British colleague, to make at
such time as he may consider opportune, representations to the
Japanese Government along the lines indicated. It is being suggested
to the American Ambassador that he consider and decide the question
whether, from the point of view of bringing about effective action
by the Japanese Government, it would be advisable for his approach
to be synchronized with the approach of his British colleague or for
the two approaches to be separated substantially in point of
time.
[Enclosure]
Memorandum by the Department of
State
[
Washington
,] January 14,
1939.
Subject: The Narcotics Situation in the Japanese
Controlled Areas in China.
The representative of the United States at the Twenty-third
Session of the Opium Advisory Committee at Geneva in June 1938
presented information in regard to the traffic in narcotic drugs
in Manchuria and Jehol and in other parts of China. This
information was based for the most part on official reports and
was substantially corroborated by the Japanese representative on
instructions from his Government.
The representative of the United States stressed points as
follows:
- (1)
- With regard to Manchuria and Jehol, there had been no
real or effective improvement during the past year in
the conditions obtaining in respect of addiction,
illicit import, illicit traffic or opium
production.
- (2)
- In China between the Yellow River and the Great Wall,
which has for some time past been controlled by the
Japanese Northern Army, conditions were worse than they
were the year before. Legal control lapsed in August
1937 and the illicit traffic increased. The Peiping
“Provisional Government”, set up and maintained by the
Japanese Army, took a hand in the narcotics situation
soon after the establishment of that regime. It
rescinded by its Order no. 33 of February 24, 1938, the
Chinese Central Government’s provisional anti-opium and
anti-narcotics laws and regulations and all persons who
were being detained under those laws and regulations
were promptly released from prison. The narcotics
situation became progressively worse.
- (3)
- In a period of fifteen months, 650 kilograms of heroin
were exported to the United States from the Japanese
Concession in Tientsin [Page 429] by a group operating in this trade
there. This amount was sufficient to supply some 10,000
addicts for a year.
- (4)
- In Shanghai, control appeared to have broken down
completely except in the French Concession and in the
International Settlement.
- (5)
- Huge quantities of Iranian opium were reliably
reported to have arrived in North China and in Shanghai
consigned to Japanese firms and intended, in some
instances, for Japanese army officers, while further
large consignments were en route to those destinations
under similar auspices and still others were on
order.
Since last June, the American Government has continued to receive
from official sources additional alarming information in regard
to the traffic in narcotic drugs in those parts of China
controlled by Japan, as follows:
Manchuria and Jehol:
The Director of the Opium Section of the Municipality of Harbin
informed the press on May 4, 1938 that the number of unlicensed
opium dens in the city of Harbin was estimated at about 1,000 as
against 76 that were licensed.
The authorities in Pinkiang Province (in which Harbin is located)
estimated in June 1938 that in the Province there were
approximately 2,000 Japanese and Koreans addicted to opium,
morphine or heroin.
The Opium Administration Section of the Department of People’s
Welfare of “Manchukuo” announced on August 23, 1938 that reports
received from provinces and cities, in connection with the
10-year anti-opium campaign, showed that the total number of
registered addicts in Manchuria and Jehol was 585,267.
Tientsin:
In a report from the American Consul General at Tientsin dated
November 3, 1938 it is stated that, notwithstanding an
announcement in the local press to the effect that all opium
dens in the Japanese Concession of Tientsin had been closed on
October 1, many small places in that Concession continue to
dispense opium, that the larger dens in the Japanese Concession
were closed, but that those dens which had been operating in the
Japanese Concession are now operating in the areas nominally
controlled by Chinese outside the Japanese Concession, and that
the number of such places operating is conservatively estimated
at 500. According to a reliable informant at Tientsin, all
varieties of habit-forming drugs known to the Japanese trade
continue to be readily purchasable in numerous places in the
Japanese Concession.
The daily newspaper, Yungpao, published in
the Chinese language at Tientsin and controlled by the Japanese
authorities, contained the statement in its issue of November
12, 1938 that the Tientsin Branch [Page 430] Consolidated Tax Office had received
instructions from its head office in Peiping to permit the
operation of an additional 25 opium dens, bringing the total of
licensed opium dens in the nominally Chinese-controlled areas of
Tientsin to 189.
Peiping:
It is reliably reported that the only restriction existing in
Peiping in regard to establishing shops for the sale and/or
smoking of opium is the payment of taxes. As a result, there
were estimated to be some 300 such establishments in Peiping in
October 1938. Heroin was also being sold at that time at many
places in the city with no evidence of any effort being made to
stamp out the trade.
Tsinan:
At Tsinan, since the Japanese occupation, the Tsinan Branch of
the Consolidated Tax Bureau has permitted the sale of opium
publicly upon the payment of certain taxes. At the end of
September 1938 there were four shops authorized to sell raw
opium and 40 shops authorized to sell opium paste. By the end of
November 1938 the number of shops selling opium paste had
increased from 40 to 136. It was reported that, during November
1938, raw opium to the amount of 100,000 taels arrived at Tsinan
via the Tsin-pu Railway from the north and that 10,000 taels of
that amount were transshipped at Tsinan to other large cities
and towns in the interior.
Nanking:
The American Embassy at Nanking has forwarded copies of a letter
dated November 22, 1938 by Professor M. S. Bates, in regard to
the narcotics situation in Nanking. In the opinion of the
Embassy, Dr. Bates is an experienced investigator and a man of
unquestioned integrity. He states that, prior to 1938, the
present generation had not known large supply and consumption of
opium in Nanking nor open sale in a way to attract the poor and
ignorant, especially during the five years preceding 1938, and
that heroin was practically unknown. Dr. Bates’ investigation
disclosed that, as a result of changes brought about in 1938,
legalized opium sales in Nanking amounted to $2,000,000 monthly
and that heroin sales in the area of which Nanking is the center
amounted to $3,000,000 monthly (Chinese currency). Dr. Bates
reported that, according to a private estimate, there were at
least 50,000 heroin addicts in a population of 400,000. He
stated that there were many young people of both sexes among the
addicts; that the public opium system in Nanking, the major
supplies for which are reported as coming from Dairen through
Shanghai, was controlled by the “Opium Suppression Bureau” which
is under the Finance Office of the Nanking Municipal Government;
and that the Bureau’s regulations and by-laws were concerned
mainly with bringing [Page 431]
all private trade and consumption into the revenue net. Dr.
Bates also stated:
“It is commonly reported that the Special Service
Department of the Japanese Army has close and protective
relations with the semi-organized trade in heroin.”
He further pointed out that:
“There is general testimony that a good deal of the
wholesale trade is carried on by Japanese firms which
outwardly deal in tinned goods or medicines, but handle
heroin through rooms in the rear.”
Shanghai:
The American Consulate General at Shanghai, in forwarding copies
of a series of articles by Mr. C. D. Alcott which were published
in The China Press on December 4, 5, 6,
and 7, 1938, observed that the articles were believed to give a
fairly accurate picture of the present narcotics situation in
Shanghai, as much of the factual matter contained therein was
understood to have been obtained from the Narcotics Section of
the Shanghai Municipal Police and from the records of the
Special Municipal Police and from the records of the Special
District Courts. The Consulate General added that the traffic
was most active in the areas controlled by the Japanese; that no
visible efforts were being made by the Japanese or the new
administrations to suppress the traffic; and that the traffic
appeared likely to increase in Japanese controlled areas around
Shanghai.
Pointing out that the application and enforcement of the drastic
anti-narcotic laws and regulations promulgated by the National
Government during the latter part of 1936 had resulted in a
marked diminution in the traffic in heroin and morphine and in
some decrease in the opium trade, Mr. Alcott writes that, since
the Shanghai area came under Japanese control, heroin, morphine,
and similar derivatives have been reintroduced into the area;
that the importation and distribution of these drugs have been
steadily increasing; that between 60 and 70 stores located in
areas immediately adjacent to the International Settlement and
the French Concession are now selling these drugs; that a total
of about $1,500,000 (Chinese currency) is being spent monthly by
the addicts for narcotic drugs, of which $250,000 is spent for
heroin; that an increasing number of coolies and poor laborers
are using heroin and derivatives; that Jehol opium is now the
chief source of supply for cheap drugs in the Shanghai area and
that most of the heroin comes from Dairen and Shanhaikwan; that
no effort is being made by the Japanese authorities or the
Chinese administrations under their direction to suppress the
traffic in narcotics in the areas controlled by them; and that,
in fact, there is considerable evidence to show that many
Japanese are deeply involved in the importing and sale of opium,
heroin and other derivatives, [Page 432] including, according to some authorities
on the subject, a group within the Special Affairs Organ of the
Japanese military.
The alarming description given by Mr. Alcott of conditions in the
Shanghai area is in large measure substantiated by information
received from other reliable sources.
