REPORT BY ASST. SECY. TO FINANCIAL COMMR., BURMA.
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No. 18 20/26, dated the 24th January 1894
From—The Deputy Commissioner, Mergui,
To—The Secretary to the Financial Commissioner, Burma.
In reply to your reminder No. 145—116-E., dated the 5th January 1893, directing atten-
tion to paragraph 2 of letter No. 335—116-E., dated the 11th November 1893, calling for an
opinion as to the success of the system of prohibition of ganja which has been adopted in
Burma, I have the honour to state that, as far as the general public are concerned, the use of
ganja is practically extinct. A few of the natives of India still manage to smuggle it in for
their own use, and detection is difficult.
2. Owing to my absence on tour, the reply to your reminder has been somewhat delayed.
No. 464—136, dated 30th January 1894.
From—The Commissioner, Tenasserim Division,
To—The Financial Commissioner, Burma.
I have the honour to state in reply to the 2nd paragraph of your Secretary's letter
No. 335—116-E., Financial Department, dated 11th November last, that I have never, as far as
my recollection serves me, come across a single instance of a Burman using or possessing ganja.
In every case with which I have had to deal in my 31 years' experience in this province the
offender was a native of India. The effect of the prohibitory system has undoubtedly been to
render it somewhat difficult and dangerous for any one to possess the drug, and this must have
very largely tended to keep it out of the hands of Burmans. In my opinion, if this system
had not been adopted, the results would have been disastrous. Burmans would very certainly
have taken to use ganja, for which they have now no desire, and from their national character
those who took to it would have used it to excess, as is the case with opium, which, taken in
moderation, does no harm.
2. It is most important to remember that the markedly characteristic feature in the
Burman character is want of self-control. A Burman is, as a general rule, unable to deny
himself anything obtainable. He won't work if he can get natives of India to work for him;
he no sooner makes money than he spends it on silk clothes or in gambling at boat, cart, and
pony races. Naturally happy and good-natured and by religion and training careful of life, Le,
on comparatively slight provocation, attacks his own friend with any weapon on which he can
suddenly lay his hand, and will cause death without a thought and because he cannot control
himself sufficiently to think. Long-premeditated crimes of violence are comparatively rare:
a dacoity is got up in a day or two and is carried out often enough by men who are ordinarily
fairly honest peasants, but perhaps gamblers or opium-smokers, or most rarely, if ever, drunk-
ards in want of money to satisfy what by indulgence has become an uncontrollable craving.
If a Burman once takes to gambling, to drinking, or to opium-smoking, he is for this very
reason lost, and he, by his want of self-control, turns what is a harmless amusement or pleasure
into a vice that utterly ruins him and makes him still more recklessly self-indulgent than he
is by nature. It is for this reason that opium-smoking is for Burmans such a monstrous evil.
If a Burman took to ganja in a similar way as he would were its consumption and even pos-
session not prohibited, the effects would be terrible.
3. I regret that the very fact of the prohibition renders it impossible for me to furnish
you with any statement of fact, except that I have never known a case of a Burman using
ganja
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