Letter from BRIG&DE-SURGEON-LIEUTENANT-COLONEL GEORGE KING, M.B., LL.D., F.R.S.,
C.I.E., Superintendent, Royal Botanic Garden, dated 18th June 1894, to the Secretary, Indian Hemp Drugs Commission.

I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter No. 455 forwarding, for the expression of my opinion on some of the matters touched on therein, a copy of a letter addressed to you by Dr. G. Watt, No. 422, dated 31st ultimo.

2. In the first paragraph of his letter Dr. Watt reminds the Commission that, as in the case of other cultivated plants, so in that of Cannabis saliva, there are races. The most notable of these races in Cannabis of course are the fibre-yielding race, found in Europe and in temperate parts of the B imalayas; and the narcotic-yielding race, found in the plains of India and other tropical parts of Asia. In addition to these well-marked races, I understand Dr. Watt to say that he believes that, by a prolonged and careful study of living plants of Cannabis, intermediate races might become recognisable.

3. In the second paragraph of his letter Dr. Watt expounds the methods and objects of the formation, within the tissues of living plants, of the substances which may be classified as (a) reserve materials, i.e., matters prepared by plants with the object of being consumed in the processes of growth. (Of this kind of product starch may be taken as a familiar example.) (b) Excretions, i.e., substances built up by the plant as bye-products, and containing Matters which are really as much rejections from the food-stuffs of plants as are the matters rejected by animals at the conclusion of the process of digestion. These excreta of plants are not however actually voided, as is the case in animals; but are deposited in glands in various parts of the tissues. Familiar examples of these are gums, resins, and many of the vegetable alkaloids. Dr. Watt's own opinion as to whether the narcotic matter of Cannabis saliva is of the nature of a reserve-material, or an excretion, is contained in the last two sentences of the second paragraph of his letter. I may observe that, in the first chapter of his report on ganja, Dr. Prain gives his opinion in favour of its being of the nature of a reserve-material.

4. The third paragraph of Dr. Watt's letter is occupied with the consideration of the possibility of growing hemp for its fibre profitably in India, and presumably for export; while, in his fourth and final paragraph, Dr. Watt expresses his belief that "India may one day- come forward as a valued country in the production of hemp fibre." The Commission are of course aware that, early in the century, the Hon'ble East India Company made an effort to grow hemp fibre profitably in this country in the way that still appears to afford the greatest probability of success, viz., by sowing seeds of the European fibre-yielding race. The company's experiments, which extended over several years, were ultimately abandoned, the evidence of the hopelessness of the scheme having been accepted as conclusive. Equally unsuccessful were later experiments made with the view of obtaining a useful fibre from the narcotic-yielding race ordinarily cultivated in India. Dr. Watt's present hope appears to be founded on the alleged existence of a tract of country on the Godavery "where hemp fibre is a regular article of trade," and on his expectation that there may " possibly " be "tracts of the central tableland of India similar to the Godavery district which could easily grow the fibre-yielding forms of the plant." As regards the growth of hemp fibre in the Godavery district, there should be no difficulty in finding out what the real fact is, ie., whether the " hemp " grown there is " sunn hemp," the product of a plant of the pea family named Crotalaria juncea or ganja hemp. If the latter, then it might be worth while to repeat, on a small scale, the Honourable Company's experiment of growing from European seed.

5. The inner valleys of the Himalayas appear to me to be so handicapped by the heavy cost of carriage of their produce to a seaport as to make it unlikely that hemp fibre grown in them could compete successfully in the London market with fibre grown on the continent of Europe. Moreover, when one considers the number of fibre-yielding plants which are known to be indigenous to India, one rather doubts the expediency of selecting for encouragement the cultivation of a species of which even the fibre-yielding race yields a narcotic so potent as charas.

6. I regret that I am unable to explain the precise meaning of Dr. Watt in the sentence alluded to by you and which ends as follows : "tracts of country where fibre is produced, or where bhang only can be grown as in regions of ganja or charas production." From the context, I gather that Dr. Watt suggests that excise regulations should be relaxed in regions where the Cannabis plant produces fibre, even although it may also (as it in fact does) produce charas.