Jan. 3, Ir seems indisputable that there is a distinct recrudescence of opium growing in China. In one day's issue our columns tell of smugglers sentenced Hi. M. Police Court Shanghai, of officials in Kueichow issuing proclamations forbidding the planting of the drug and at the same time letting it be known that these warnings are not to be taken seriously; in fact, inciting the people to plant t. And from Szechuan comes news that the authorities had notified some foreign residents in a certain district that an English official was making a tour of the province and requested them to use their good offices to persuade this real or mythical visitor to return whence he came without proceeding to a place where something might be seen to their disadvantage. Now, all this is disheartening to those who would fain see some signs of progress in this country. We remember when the press contained daily jeremiads about the ruin of China that was proceeding apace because Britain forced the poor Chinese to smoke opium when he would much rather have been drinking tea. Calculations were made showing the immense sum of money that was being wasted and it was foretold that within a limited time the country would' be drained of silver. Some, indeed, fathered the brilliant idea that the importation of opium was a deep laid scheme
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.