We have received the following statement on the licensing of opium shops in Shanghai by a Committee of the Shanghai Missionary Association.
The Committee appointed by the Shanghai Missionary Association to act in the matter. of the Opium Shop Licenses, greatly regrets the necessity of taking a position antagonistic to the Council, and only does so under a strict sense of duty.
In publishing its views on what is doubtless s very complex question, it only attempts to deal with two or three of the most important features. There is no need at this i day to discuss the measure of evil attached to the opium habit, or to dwell on the action or lack of it that has led to the existing conditions, Both the Council and those who oppose their policy are open to blame for not taking the matter in hand long ago.
The Missionary Association is specially interested in the moral aspects of the question, but at the same time its Committee has sought carefully to weigh the commercial arguments.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.