THE “DOPE” TRAFFIC.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XIII, Issue 19, 5 January 1923, Page 5

THE “DOPE” TRAFFIC.

A NEW JAPANESE “ENTERPRISE.”

PLANTATIONS IN PERU

Cocaine and other alkaloids which are obtainable from' the coca leaf are being manufactured on a huge scale by a Japanese syndicate which has acquired large estates lor this purpose in the interior of Peru, despite the vigorous protest of some of the Lima newspapers (states th© Lima correspondent of the Christian Science “Monitor”). Th a project is so large that it is enabling the Japanese to gain an everincreasing control of the local market for coco leaves, the chewing of which is a vice among some of the South American Indians that has reduced what was once a strong race to an almost unbelievable depth of degradation. Although this exploitation of the coca tree by the Japanese has been going on lor two years, it has been attended by such scerecy hat the correspondent was surprised to find that well informed business men and Government officials in Lima, who are supposed to be in close touch with commercial developments, do not eyen know that such an enterprise exists in Peru to-day. It was only after careful investigation that a few details were uncovered., and, once the Japanese methods of working were unearthed, there was less cause to be surprised at |he general lack of knowledge. To, begin with, the Japanese have gone far into the interior of Peru to carry on their drug-making, and even then they are using roundabout shipping routes so that their products will not pass through any large port. The estates are situated in the province of Huanuco, several hundred miles from Lima, and are further separated from the coast by the high steep Andes range. Communication between Huanuco and the capital ie slow and difficult. and the people who live in Lima know little of what goes on beyond the mountains.

The Japanese estates are in that rich agricultural section of Peru along the upper head waters of the Amazon, which has only very recently been cleared of the tropical jungles which have covered it for centuries. In addition to the natural secrecy that is afforded by the absence of easy means of communication between this region and the capital the Japanese ship their products through a small port where the Customhouse returns are not as accessible to the public as those at! Callao, which is the natural port of exit for the region in which the Japanese'are located. The cocaine and other alkaloids manufactured by the Japanese are exported from Eten a little port in the north of Peru, which is farther from the Japanese estates than is Callao. Instead of sending the products to the railhead of the Central of Peru Railway, the Japanese send them overland and down the jMaranon River to a place near Eten, and then cross the mountains on pack animals. It is a long and difficult journey, but once arrived in. Eten there is little possibility of the outside world learning what was shipped. Gue shipment of unrefined cocaine was exported quite recently, but it was proved impossible to learn in. Lima what the value of the annual export is. although it is said here that the shipments are large and regular. A great part of the drugs exported by the Japanese are sent to Germany for refining, and there are also large shipments to Japan. The shipment already mentioned went to Germany. The Japanese are not working a Government, concession, but are on land which they bought outright from a 'wealthy property owner in Lima. It is understood that an effort was made to get Government land but the effort was not successful, so the Japanese bought the property outright at a good price. The purchase was made in the name of a large drug firm of Tokio, and the negotiations in Peru were in the hands of S. G. Kitsutani and Company, a big Japanese import and export, house of Lima.

The Japanese attempted to keep the negotiations .secret, but the newspapers of Lima learned that a large drug-mak-ing scheme was on foot, and some of them, specially El Tiempo, very bitterly attacked the idea, both on the ground that it meant the exploitation of a deadly drug and that it would increase the immigration of low-class Japanese coolie labour. It is said in Lima that this newspaper criticism was largely responsible for the fact that the Government did not grant the concession which, the Japanese were after., However, when they offered to buy land outright from a private owner no amount of protesting from those who know what was being planned could prevent the sale.

The Japanese moved into the country through the small ports of the north, where .their entry would not be commented upon in Lima, and for the last two years little has been learned of their activities except that they are cultivating the coca tree yti a big scale and shipping cocaine in quantities that 4iiat indicate.the enterprise is a big one.

Cocaine is extracted from the coca Ueaf, which/ in a raw state, has done for the Indians of South America what opium has clone for the Chinese. More 'than 8,000,000 Indians in Peru, Columbia. Ecuador, and Bolivia chew the coca leaf as a stimulant to such an extent that the race has become degraded to a plane, very slightly above that of animals. In Chile, where.the coca leaf is unknown, the Araucano Indian is a strong virile race that has never been conquered, even by white armies. But the protests that have been made against this Japanese enterprise do not arise so much for an altruistic interest in Europeans or Asiatics who may become drug victims, as they do from a close interest in the effect of coca on the South American Indians. Almost all the labour in Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, and Eduador. is furnished by Indians, and the efficiency of these Indians, even as burden bearers, is reduced almost to zero by their continual chewing of coca leaves. Every Indian carries a small pouch of coca leaves tied to his belt, and chews the leaves continually while at work. Everyone of these Indians chew from 2oz to 3oz of coca leaves every day, and the importance of the Japanese product becomes apparent when it is

realised that the chewing of 2oz of leaves a day by 8,000,000 Indians means a consumption of 16,000,000 ounces, or 1,000,0001 b of coca leaves every day in the countries of the central part of South America. This consumption reaches the huge total of 365,000,0001 b. or 182,500 tons a year. As one travels through the interior lof South America in soon becomes apparent that the coca leaf is one of the most common articles of trade throughout the land, in the large cities, as well as the tiny settlements. After being dried in the sun, the leaves are shipped to market in gunny sacks, and half-filled sacks with their tops rolled down are seen in front of every small store in every settlement jn Bolivia, Peru, and the neighbouring countries. In La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, where the population is 75 per cent, pure Indian, coca leaves are displayed in large numbers on the sidewalks in the heart of the city; and appear to be a much better article, of trade than potatoes or any other foodstuff. In the Big central market of Lima, the capital of Peru, a sack of of coca leaves forms part of The stock in trade of every stall, and. as m La Paz, the leaves are displayed on tho sidewalks, where they tempt oveiw passing Indian.

The cheapness of Japanese labour has enabled the Japanese to push aside even the cheap Indian labour in several lines of endeavour in Peru, and as the Japanese coolie is more efficient that the coca-chewing Indian, it is very probable that the Japanese will be able to gain complete control of the coca leaf market in the near future. This is not a market that can be enlarged, as the Indians alreadv use the leaf to their full consuming capacity, but if the Japanese can undersell their competitors and control the business of supplying dried leaves to the Indian, this will give them the strong foothold and financial resources that will enable them to compete to better advantage in supplying cocaine and other alkaloids to the foreign drug markets,