Turks Keep Pledge to Put Narcotics Under Close Watch

Manawatu Times, Volume LVI, Issue 5618, 6 April 1931, Page 10

Turks Keep Pledge to Put Narcotics Under Close Watch

ISTANBUL,. Turkey, Feb. 28.- • Practical moves have been tanen to stop what has been in tho last few years the greatest source of'illicit drugs in the world. The Turkish Government has sealed narcotic drug stocks through the factories of Istanbul, pending application of new district measures to suppress contraband exportation. Hencetorth, it is announced, unauthorised exportations will not be allowed. Factories must report to the Government every 24 hours the amount of production. A government official has been attached to each factory to control production and exportation. If this apparently rigid control is effective in practice, attempts of tho League of Nations to suppress the traffic in illicit drugs will be enormouslyfacilitated. For it has been drugs fabricated in Turkey by firms which had previously been expelled from France that have fed the markets in Egypt, the Near and Far East, and even the United States. . ,

During the recent session of the Opium Advisory Committee at Geneva Turkish representatives promised to im-' prove the situation at Istanbul and action has rapidly followed their words. The latest step by tho Turkish Government is further evidence on the part of the Kemalist Government to co-o].>er- ( ate with western nations.;