British policy discussions on the opium question in the federated Shan States, 1937-1948

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies

Volumn 33, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 203-224

  Maule, Robert ^a,b  

^a RYERSON UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b NONE   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DRUG; FEDERAL SYSTEM; INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENT; POLICY MAKING; STATE ROLE; TRADE REFORM;

ASIA; EURASIA; MYANMAR; SHAN; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 33646941713     PISSN: 00224634     EISSN: 14740680     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022463402000103     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. As one former British official who purchased Wa States' opium on behalf of the Government of Burma explained, it 'was much easier to transport and trade than other crops such as oranges and potatoes' (Pat Molloy, personal communication, Apr. 1994). Although opium did not cure malaria, it did help to ease pain and discomfort; malaria was endemic throughout the Shan States and accounted for more deaths than all other diseases; see Report on the State of Public Healtli in Burma during 1939, vol. I (Rangoon: Superintendent, Govt. Printing and Stationery, Burma, 1940), available in India Office Records (IOR), V/24/1017;
2. and R. K. Singh, Report on the Malaria Survey of Kengtung Town, Kengtung State, Southern Shan States (Rangoon: Superintendent, Govt. Printing and Stationery, Burma, 1940), in IOR, V/27/855/24.
3. J. Athleck, Acting Consul, Tengyueh to Miles W. Lampson, Peking, No. 7, 7 Apr. 1930, Public Record Office (PRO), FO/3275 (XC16404).
4. One British official summed up the problem in fiscal terms:'We don't control and we never will until we have an additional officer to live on the other side with a small garrison and we don't want to do that because it brings in no revenue'; 'Commission of Enquiry into the Control of Opium Smoking in the Far East', Bodleian Library (BODL), MSS Harvey, 1927-33(2).
5. See also G. Graham Dixon, The Truth about Indian Opium (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1923).
6. The Secretary, Government of Burma, Dept. of Agriculture, Excise and Forests, 'Proposals for the More Effective Prevention of Smuggling of Opium from the Shan States into Foreign Territory', 13 Jan. 1926, IOR, L/E/7/1405.
7. 'Commission of Enquiry', Twenty-First Meeting (BODL, MSS Harvey, Papers 1926-1931). Godfrey E. Harvey was in the Indian Civil Service (Burma) for two decades; later he became a lecturer in Burmese history and law at Oxford University and wrote two books on Burmese history.
8. 'Commission of Enquiry', Ibid.;
9. the problem of opium control in this area was subsequently addressed again in 1932 when Siam urged the British to halt opium smuggling from Kengtung State; Burma Office Minute, 17 June 1941, IOR, M/3/196.
10. These commitments included the following: The International Opium Convention, 1912 (The Hague);
11. the Agreement for the Suppression of the Manufacture of, Internal Trade in, and Use of, Prepared Opium, 1925 (Geneva);
12. the Convention Relating to Dangerous Drugs International Opium Conference, 1925 (Geneva);
13. the Convention for Limiting the Manufacture and Rregulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs, and Protocol, 1931 (Geneva);
14. The Agreement for the Control of Opium Smoking in the Far East, 1931 (Bangkok);
15. and the Convention for the Suppression of the Illicit Traffic in Dangerous Drugs, 1936 (Geneva).
16. Monteath to A.H. Seymour, Reforms Office, Burma, 28 Sept. 1936, IOR, M/3/533.
17. Monteath later became the Permanent Under-Secretary of State for India and Burma. One Burmese historian described him as not having 'a favourable opinion of the Burman, whom he considered incomparably inferior to the Indians whom he had ruled as a civil servant'; U Maung Maung, Burmese Nationalist Movements 1940-48 (Edinburgh: Kiscadale Publications, 1989), p. 136. Monteath may have helped to devise policy for India and Burma, but he did not 'rule' over anyone. In addition, he would have been an exception among civil servants familiar with both India and Burma if he had not believed that Indians were more politically sophisticated than Burmans.
18. W. Johnston, Burma Office to E. G. S. Apedaile, Defence Department, Government of Burma, 13 July 1940, IOR, M/3/196.
19. A. J. M. Lander, Additional Secretary, Defence Department, Government of Burma to Monteath, 16 Dec. 1938, IOR, M/3/99. Captain Hon. Sir Archibald Cochrane was Governor of Burma during 1936-41. His message to London is in Cochrane to the Marquess of Zetland, the Secretary of State for India and Burma (1935-40), Despatch No. 21, 15 July 1938, IOR, M/4/2532.
20. Monteath to Sir Hugh Stephenson, John Clague, Burma Advisers to the Secretary of State, 21 Nov. 1938, IOR, M/3/533. Stephenson had been Governor of Burma between 1933 and 1936. Sir John S. Clague held a number of positions in the Indian Civil Service (Burma) from 1906-31and was Commissioner of the Federated Shan States (1931-37) before becoming Adviser to the Secretary of State for Burma in 1937.
21. Minute by R. M. J. Harris, Assistant Principal Secretary, 22 Oct. 1938; Minute by A. F. Morley, 24 Oct. 1938 (IOR, M/3/533).
22. Monteath to Stephenson and Clague, 21 Nov. 1938. The Chiefs administered themselves with Assistant Superintendents assigned to provide advice. However, with so few administrators and much area to cover, the British had to make concessions and overlook some illegal activities unless there was a destabilising or international issue at stake.
23. Dixon, Assistant Secretary, Burma Office to Major W. H. Coles, Home Office, Drugs Branch; Dixon to M. J. R. Talbot, Foreign Office, 20 Dec. 1938, IOR, M/3/533. The draft Official Letter, Burma Office to the Government of Burma, is dated 20 Dec. 1938. Clague's and Stephenson's Minutes, dated 23 and 24 Nov. 1938 respectively, are in the same file, as is Morley's 2 Dec. Minute.
24. Beckett, Foreign Office to Dixon, 6 Feb. 1939, IOR, M/3/533.
25. Morley to Monteath, 1 Mar. 1939, IOR, M/3/533. His comments on Beckett are in a Minute dated 4 March in the same file.
26. This meeting, held on 3 Mar. 1939, is discussed in Morley's Minute of 4 March; for Coles' earlier remarks, see Coles to Dixon, 22 Feb. 1939, in the same file.
27. Monteath to Zetland, 6 Mar. 1939, IOR, M/3/533.
28. J. B. Marshall, Excise Commissioner, Government of Burma, Report on the Bangkok Opium Conference (Rangoon: Superintendent, Govt. Printing and Stationery, Burma, 1932), IOR, M/3/196. French colonial officials were said to be either users or traders of opium who would only criticise the British from a fiscal, not a political, point of view (F. G. Gorton, Consul-General, Saigon to Sir Edward Stubbs, Governor of Hong Kong, 8 Sept. 1924, IOR, L/E/7/1231).
29. Zetland to Cochrane, Despatch No. 14, 16 Apr. 1940. His earlier remarks are in his Comments dated 6 and 10 Mar. 1939. For the message to Rangoon, see E. P. Donaldson, Principal Secretary, Burma Office to D. C. P. Phelips, Secretary, Defence Dept., Government of Burma, 15 Mar. 1939 (all documents in IOR, M/3/533).
30. Lander to Monteath, 16 Dec. 1938, IOR, M/3/99.
31. Minute by Morley, 18 Jan. 1939, IOR, M/3/99.
32. On the earlier proposal see Robert B. Maule, 'The Opium Question in the Federated Shan States, 1931-36: British Policy Discussions and Scandal', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 23, 1 (1992): 17-19, 24-8.
33. Chief Secretary's Office, Home and Political Dept., Government of Burma to Foreign Secretary, Government of India, 23 Dec. 1936, IOR, M/1/181.
34. A viss is a Burmese unit of weight equivalent to 3.64 lbs or 1.65 kg. The earlier estimate is from G. E. Harvey, 1932 Wa Precis. A Precis Made in the Burma Secretariat of All Traceable Records Relating to the Wa States (Rangoon: Office of the Superintendent, Govt. Printing and Stationery, Burma, 1933), p. 99, IOR, MSS Eur. E 252/26, Clague Collection.
35. In 1891 a British official estimated that 10,000 acres were under poppy cultivation in the Kokang with an acre producing 40 lbs (18.2 kg) of opium and 'almost all of this is sold in China....' He added, 'without its opium Ko Kang would be no better than the thinly inhabited and poverty stricken hills usually inhabited by the Kachins'; J. George Scott, 'Revenue Inspection Reports, Northern Shan States, Season 1891-2', IOR, MSS Eur. E 254/26.
36. Minute by Clague, 15 Aug. 1939, IOR, M/3/395.
37. In 1938-9, it was reported that 5,000 viss of opium reached Hsenwi town by mule transport from Kokang; G. E. Fane, District Traffic Superintendent, Burma Railways. Burma-Yunnan Trade Survey with Notes on the Roads and the Various Railway Projects, Dec. 1938-Jan. 1939, 6 Feb. 1939 (Rangoon: British Burma Press, 1939), p. 9 (IOR, M/3/363). See also Minute by H. H. Craw, 23 Mar. 1943, PRO, FO 643/51/4J1.
38. Proceedings of the Sixteenth Session of the Federal Council of Shan Chiefs held at Taunggyi on the 24th to the 29th January 1938 (Rangoon: Superintendent, Govt. Printing, Burma, April 1938), pp. 21-2, IOR, M/3/485.
39. Johnston to Phelips, 25 Aug. 1939, IOR, M/3/196; the Shan States, however, had always sourced their licit opium locally. Morley's remarks are in his Minute dated 17 Aug. 1939, IOR, M/3/196.
40. Apedaile to Monteath, No. 458D(M), 14 Dec. 1939, IOR, M/3/196.
41. By the 1920s, China was the world's largest producer and distributor of both opium and heroin. On China's role see J. Pratt, 'Memorandum respecting the Opium Problem in the Far East', F 4749/4749/87, dated 10 Aug. 1929, reproduced in The Opium Trade, 1910-1941, vol. VI (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1974), part XXVI
42. ('Further correspondence respecting opium' 1929), pp. 11-41;
43. R. H. Clive, British Legation, Peking to Lord Curzon, Foreign Office, No. 67, 29 Jan. 1923, IOR, L/E/7/1274;
44. Alfred W. McCoy, The Politics of Heroin. CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Brooklyn: Lawrence Hill Books, 1991), pp. 96, 266;
45. Martin Booth, The Dragon Syndicates. The Global Phenonemon of the Triads (London: Bantam Books, 1999), pp. 145,154-7.
46. Apedaile to Johnston, D.O. No. 123D(P)40, 18 Mar. 1940, IOR, M/3/196. The 'dead letter' remark is in Governor's Fortnightly Reports, No. 15, 3 Nov. 1937, IOR, M/5/46.
47. Apedaile to Johnston, 18 Mar. 1940. For the earlier letter, see Secretary, Government of Burma to Dep. Secretary, Finance Dept. (Central Revenues), Government of India, Excise Dept., No. 81X30, 2 May 1930, IOR, M/3/196.
48. Apedaile to Johnston, 18 Mar. 1940; Comment by Morley, 16 Mar. 1940, IOR, M/3/196.
49. Minute Paper, B1826(1941), 17 June 1941, IOR, M/3/196.
50. Minute by W. W. Nind, 23 Apr. 1940; Monteath to Stephenson, 10 July 1940; Minutes by Morley, 16 Mar., 19 Apr., 17 June 1940 (all documents in IOR, M/3/196).
51. Minutes by Morley, 16 Mar., 19 Apr., 17 June 1940.
52. Johnston to Apedaile, B1661/40, 13 July 1940, IOR, M/3/196.
53. It was estimated that the Wa States produced about 58 tonnes of opium annually of which two-thirds were available for export. When Clague was Commissioner of the Federated Shan States, he had observed that 'the Wa States are...the most important aspect in the frontier opium problem' (Clague to Booth-Gravely, 19 Sept. 1932, IOR, MSS Eur. 252/27). His wartime comments are in Clague to Monteath, 25 Feb. 1941, IOR, M/3/196.
54. Minute by Clague, 27 Feb. 1941; Stephenson to Monteath, 27 Feb. 1941; production figures are in W. H. Turner, Economic & Overseas Dept., Burma Office to Coles, 11 Mar. 1941 (IOR, M/ 3/196).
55. Turner to Coles, 11 Mar. 1941.
56. E. Felkin, Secretary, Permanent Central Opium Board to the Under Secretary of State, Home Office, Drugs Branch, 21 July 1941; the Home Office's comments are in S. W. Harris to Turner, 9 May 1941 (IOR, M/3/196).
57. Burma Office Minute paper, B 1826(1941), 17 June 1941; on the boundary resolution, see Secretary of State, Foreign Office to the Government of Burma and to HM Ambassador, Chungking, 18 Feb. 1941, PRO, FO 371/27677; and A. J. Clark Kerr, British Embassy, Chungking to the Governor of Burma, 23 June 1941, PRO, FO 371/27677/319.
58. Cochrane to L. S. Amery, No. 18, Confidential, 12 Apr. 1941, IOR, M/3/196. Amery was Secretary of State for India and Burma.
59. Secretary, Dept. of Agriculture, Excise and Forests, Government of Burma, No. 333-X25, File 4660, 13 Jan. 1926, IOR, L/E/7/1405.
60. Harvey explained that Kokang had not been part of Burma when the British annexation took place: 'It is Chinese, none of our officers spoke Chinese, and opium is the life of the population, 30,000 people. It would be very hard to stop it ... We have no crop to substitute which they would accept' (Commission of Enquiry). Kokang was ceded to Britain by China under an agreement in 1897; nevertheless, in 1923 Chinese officials crossed over the border from Yunnan and destroyed opium crops in Kokang (O. F. Grant, Chief Secretary, Burma to Secretary, Foreign and Political Dept., India, 30 May 1923). Furthermore, the British Consul at Tengyueh did not understand why opium control would be difficult to enforce in Kokang: 'To argue that the population there, Chinese by race, is more dependent on the opium crop and might create a disturbance if deprived of this source of income would hardly appeal to impartial judges of opium suppression' (O. R. Coales, British Consul, Tengyueh to HM Minister, Peking, No. 1, 24 Jan. 1923, IOR, L/E/7/1231). In 1941, H. N. C. Stevenson of the Burma Frontier Service was sent to destroy the opium crop in Kokang at a time when an official visit was unexpected. The Kokang Myosa seemed mystified by this action; he wondered why, if opium was such a destructive force, the government continued to buy it from India and permitted it to be sold in licensed shops throughout Burma. Stevenson admitted that he could not convince the Myosa of the justice behind his actions.
61. H. N. C. Stevenson, 'Nuances of Loyalty', in Tales of Burma, ed. Alister MacRae (Paisley: James Paton Ltd., 1981), pp. 121-2. Stevenson worked in the Kachin, Naga, Chin and Shan areas; he later served as Director of the Frontier Areas Administration after the war. He was strongly disliked by Aung San and the Anti-Fascists People's Freedom League owing to his position that the people of the frontier areas should have an administration separate from an independent Burma.
62. Cochrane to Amery, No. 18, Confidential, 12 Apr. 1941, IOR, M/3/196;
63. on the Chinese and Thai reaction, see Burma Office Minute Paper (E&O 2710/41), 17 June 1941, in the same file.
64. Proceedings, 22, 26 Feb. 1941, pp. 8, 20, IOR, M/3/485. Sao Shwe Thaike was selected as Sawbwa of Yawnghwe State in October 1927 and confirmed in that position in 1929. He later became the first President of the Union of Burma and served as Speaker of the Upper House; he died in jail under mysterious circumstances after the 1962 military coup.
65. Reginald Dorman-Smith, Governor of Burma to Amery, No. 18, Confidential, 12 Apr. 1941, IOR, M/3/196.
66. Clague to J. Walton, India Office, 12 Aug. 1941, IOR, M/3/19;
67. on commercial crops see Burma Office Minute Paper, B1826(1941), 17 June 1941.
68. 'Memorandum respecting the Opium Problem', p. 24.
69. For the historical background see Andrew D.W. Forbes, 'The Yunnanese "(Ho)" Muslims of North Thailand', International Conference on Thai Studies, Bangkok, 1984;
70. Terry B. Grandstaff, 'The Hmong, Opium and the Haw: Speculations on the Origin of their Association', Journal of the Siam Society, 67, 2 (July 1979): 75-8.
71. In 1862 the Chief Commissioner for Burma noted that Chinese Muslims were bringing opium to Rangoon from Yunnan for overseas export. They notified him that it would be possible to transport 7,000 lbs (3,182 kg) of opium to Mandalay annually; see Lieut. Col. A. P. Phayre, Chief Commissioner, British Burmah and Agent to the Governor General to Col. H. M. Durand, Secretary Foreign Dept., Government of India, No. 162/1738, 30 July 1862; Phayre to Durand, No. 34/458, 10 Feb. 1863 (IOR, L/P&S/18/B104).
72. Harvey, Wa Precis, pp. 99, 112.
73. Minute by Clague, 6 Mar. 1939; Phelips to Monteath, No. 136D(P), 29 Apr. 1939, IOR, L/E/7/1555.
74. Ralph Paget, British Chargé d'Affaires, Bangkok to Chief Secretary, Government of Burma, 7 Aug. 1903; W. R. D. Beckett, British Consul, Chiengmai to Chief Secretary, Government of Burma, No. 46 (Confidential), 14 Aug. 1903; F. C. Gates, Officiating Chief Secretary, Government of Burma to Scott, No. 696-4S.-3, 27 Oct. 1903 (IOR, P7519).
75. Maule, 'The Opium Question in the Federated Shan States, 1931-36', pp. 19, 28. The 1906 incident is in B. S. Carey, Officiating Superintendent, and Political Officer, Southern Shan States to Gates, No. 89, 27 Feb. 1906; Gates to Carey, No. 801-4S.-19, 20 July 1906 (IOR, P7519).
76. Captain Robert, Asst. Superintendent, Kengtung, Summary of Events, Jan. 1937, PRO, FO371/21052(171233). This view was supported by another Superintendent:'The Chief & his family traded in opium & to my knowledge there was a regular trade in opium between Kengtung & China & Kengtung & Siam' (Note by J. Mitchell, 6 Aug. 1943, PRO, FO 643/51/4J1).
77. Report on the Federated Shan States for the year 1936-37 (Rangoon: Superintendent, Govt. Printing and Stationery, Burma, 1938), p. 38, in IOR, M/3/226.
78. Phelips to the Under Secretary of State, 29 Apr.1939.
79. Report on the Federated Shan States for the year 1939-40, p. 41.
80. It was estimated that 2,782 viss of opium were produced, and 438 viss of opium consumed, in Kengtung town during 1939-40. The State obtained Rs.10, 455 from taxes placed upon licensed opium gardens and from fines derived from unlicensed gardens. In total, the Federation received Rs. 412,781 in opium receipts during the fiscal year. On the fining of unlicensed gardens, see also 'Summary of events in the areas specified in Part I of the Second Schedule to the Government of Burma Act, for the month of January 1939', IOR, M/3/395.
81. Prince Varnavaidya, Adviser to the Siamese Foreign Office to Sir Josiah Crosby, Bangkok to the Foreign Office, 25 Jan. 1939; Direck Jaiyanama, Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Crosby, 3 Apr. 1940; Luang Bhadrawadi, Thai Chargé d'Affaires, London to Coles to Morley, 30 Apr. 1940; W.A.M. Doll, Office of the Financial Adviser, Ministry of Finance, Siam to Crosby, 5 June 1940 (IOR, L/E/7/1555).
82. Scott to Crosby, 25 July 1940. For the favourable responses of other offices, see Note by Clague, 6 Mar. 1939; Phelips to the Burma Office, 29 Apr. 1939; Crosby to Viscount Halifax, Foreign Office, 7 June 1940; W. Johnston, Burma Office to A. L. Scott, Under Secretary of State, Foreign Office, 17 July 1940 (IOR, L/E/7/1555).
83. Amery to Cochrane, No. 29, 19 Aug. 1941, IOR, M/3/196; Cochrane to Amery, No. 32, 1 May 1941, IOR, M/3/997.
84. The North Hsenwi economy had initially stagnated with the prohibition of opium cultivation in 1923/24 (Commission of Enquiry).
85. Lord Hardinge, Viceroy of India to the London Office, P.&J. 3202(1915), 11 Nov. 1915, IOR, L/P&J/6/1393. The Hkampti Long, Hsawngsup and Singkaling Hkampti Shan States were not part of the Shan States Federation, but were under the charge of the Deputy Commissioner, Myitkyina District and Sagaing Commissionership respectively.
86. Kokang, however, was effectively taken over by China after starting 'a rebellion against the Myosa' in Sept. 1942. He was arrested in Jan. 1944 and held until the British were able to gain his release in April. By June 'Chinese officials were collecting taxes ... they flew the Chinese flag and incorporated the Kokang Defence Force into the Chinese Army, making it salute the Chinese flag and sing the Chinese National Anthem every day.' A British military officer who was in Kokang for administrative and intelligence purposes had to leave in October 1944 after the Chinese made it impossible for him to perform his duties (Secret, 'Chinese Infiltration into Burma', undated document [probably mid- to late 1945], PRO,WO 203/4833).
87. Kokang sold opium in exchange for Yunnan rice. Lt. Col. John Leedham, SCDO, Yunnan Forces, 'Review of Events in the Kokang', 26 June 1944, PRO, HSI/17 (XC15288).
88. Aide-memoire, US Dept. of State, 21 Sept. 1943, IOR, L/E/9/732.
89. F. K. Roberts, Foreign Office to Under Secretary of State, Colonial Office, 15 June 1943; Telegram, Foreign Office to Washington Embassy, 31 Oct. 1943; Halifax to A. G. M Cadogan, Deputy Under-Secretary of State, 17 Apr. 1944, IOR, M/3/1324.
90. Dorman-Smith to Amery, No. 4, 13 Mar. 1944.
91. The proposal to set up an opium factory in Burma was first raised by the Government of Burma in 1932 and rejected by the Secretary of State (Burma Office Minute Paper, 17 June 1941). Meanwhile, it was admitted that 'a drastic limitation of cultivation in British territory was necessary'; H. Craw, 'Post War Opium Policy in Burma', 28 Mar. 1943 (both documents in IOR, M/3/1324).
92. Halifax to A. M. Cadogan, 17 Apr. 1944, IOR, M/3/1324.
93. Lord Mountbatten, London (Supreme Allied Commander, Southeast Asia) to Amery, 21 Aug. 1944;
94. University of Southampton Library, Papers of Lord Mountbatten, South-East Asia Command, 1943-36, MB1/C8.
95. Amery to Dorman-Smith, No. 15, 22 Aug. 1944, IOR, M/3/1324.
96. F. W. Pethick-Lawrence, Secretary of State for India and Burma to Dorman-Smith, 13 July 1946, IOR, M/4/2515.
97. 'Extracts relevant to Opium Cultivation and Trade in the Frontier Areas from the Monthly Reports of Residents and District Commissioners', Jan., Mar., Apr., May 1947, IOR, M/4/ 2514; quotation from January issue.
98. The shipment to Bangkok is mentioned in McCoy, The Politics of Heroin, pp.104-5.
99. The text of the announcement is in Burma. The Struggle for Independence 1944-1948, vol. II (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1984), pp. 209-10.
100. See the documents in 'Extracts relevant to Opium Cultivation', Dec. 1946, Jan.-Apr., July 1947; and A. W. H. Breakey, Resident, Southern Shan States, 6 Feb. 1947, IOR, M/4/2819.
101. Minute by F. J. Neary, 13 Sept. 1947, IOR, M/4/2514.
102. Minute by R. W., 13 Sept. 1947, IOR, M/4/2514; for the comment on the Burmese Government's task, see Minute by Ledwidge, 16 Sept. 1947, in the same file.
103. Ernest Apedaile, personal communication, 10 Oct. 1993.
104. Minute by Morley, 19 Sept. 1947, IOR, M/4/2514.