OPIUM SMOKING IN BRITISH BURMAH.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3236, 14 November 1881, Page 4

OPIUM SMOKING IN BRITISH BURMAH.

A return just published contains a copy of n memorandum by 0. TJ. Aitchinson, Chief Commissioner of British Burmah, on the consumption of opium. The Chief Commissioner says Ms attention had been specially directed to the , change which was gradually coming over the Burmese national character, of which the principal cause was said to be the growing habit of opium smoking. When on a visit to Akyab he was waited on by a large deputation of the most influential natives of the town, who presented a petition describing in very forcible , language _ the misery entailed on the population by opiam, and praying that the traffic in opium might be altogether abolished in Arakan. The Chinese population in Burmah consume opium without any apparent bad effects* and do not smoke to excess ; but the Burmese seem quite incapable of using the drus m moderation, and the dealers first tempt men to smoke by giving them at first opium to smoke. Among the Burmese the habitual use of the drug saps the physical and mental energies, destroys the nerves, emaciates the body, predisposes to disease, induces idolenfc and filthy habits of life, destroys selfrespect ; is one of the most fertile sources of misery, destitution, and crime ; fills the gaols with men of relaxed frame, predisposed to dysentery and cholera ; prevents the due extension of cultivation and the development of the land revenue ; checks the natural growth of population, and enfeebles the constitution of succeeding generations. That opium smoking is spreading at an alarming rate under our rule does not admit of doubt. On this point the testimony of all classes of officers and of the population is unanimous. The quantity of opium consumed in 1879 was more than double what it was in 1869, and the prosperity of the country was least ■where the consumption of opium was greatest.