December 3.
ALL who are convinced that the world will be the better when China is able to take her place as a self-respecting and respected bor of the family of nations wish to see her freed from many of her present vices and endowed with the corresponding virtues in their stead. Among the national shortcomings, Chinese public opinion has picked out for special execration, almost to the exclusion of all others, the indulgence in opiam-smoking. No right-minded observer, actuated by moral considerations alone, has ever wavered in his desire to see China freed from the degradation of opium, provided always that she does not de iberately adopt in its place a worse vice. But there must be many, who, either by precept or by practice, are trying to leave that part of China with which they have been brought in contact better than when they first came here, who if able to command the cure of ten thousand opium smokers and the reform—thorough regeneration on modern lines—of five Chinese officials, would; in the interests of the nation unhesitatingly bring about the latter first. In other words a sense of proportion would not allow the level-headed reformer to exhaust the country's reserve of energy in only one direction, and least of all in regard to what can only be termed a secondary reform. Given the complete abolition of opium this year, next year or seven years hence, thes country in the absence of other reforms bids fair to be as ill-governed as it was ten years ago, its resources equally squandered, its people as poverty-stricken and equally exposed to floods, famine and riots. A reformed bureaucracy, on the other hand, would not only seal the fate of opium smoking, but would mean in due course a prosperous Eh feel impelled to these remarks, as others have elsewhere, by the sudden recrudescence, in a more aggressive and more violent form than before, of the anti-opium campaign. No one secks to deny the good done in calling public attention to the increasing evils of opium-smoking in China. The success of that movement was marked by the summoning of an Internati Opium Cormission in Shanghai in February 1909, and from that point it was expected that the leaders of the movement would retire, making way for those who would be charged with the arduous and responsible suppression. At the first session the President of the Commission, Bishop Brent, who was also Chief Commissioner of the American Delegation, pointed out that "great problems go through two distinct stages." He continued, " We have been passing through this prelim-mary stage—what I have termed the emotional stage. The emotional stage finds expression in agitation. We have had agitation. Now I believe we are at least midway in the second or scientific stage, when men deal with ascertained fact." Unfortanately these shrewd remarks, which were not without their influence at the time, have now been forgotten. Agitation has revived. " Ascertained fact" is entirely lost sight of, and conclusions are set forth by irresponsible people, who entirely ignore the practical problems that have to be solved in the course of the work of opiam suppression. We re no grave quarrel with the signatories of the memorial to the British Government from the World Missionary Conference. The memorial is couched in moderate terms and does not commit itself to more than "the now unquestioned sincerity of the Government of China in their endeavour to suppress the opium evil." A large number of the memorialists have nothing to do with India, China or the British Empire. Not one, we venture to think, bad the least sense of administrative responsibility in signing] of the document. They ignore the fact that the British Government is committed to the suppression of the opium trade, and only stipulates such margin of time as is consonant with the interests of many thousands' who are dependent on the trade—until recently regarded as honest and legitimate, Their one concern is that opium-smoking should cease, and they do not pretend to give any thought to practical details in connexion with the suppression.
Of a different natare, though equally irresponsible, is another agitation that is being carried on in China itself. We have referred to the fact that the suppression of opium smoking will leave Chil politically, financially, edacationally and materially where it is today. Her need for reform in these directions is urgent, but we have the spectacle of an organization setting out virtually to persuade the country that opium suppression and nothing bat opium suppression counts. The tactics employed are most reprehensible. In a country where difference of opinion is met by the boycott and @ grievance by riots, where self-control is despised and discipline in educational in-task of carrying out the work of|stitutions practically non-existent, 573 no attempt should be made to encourage the youth of the nation to league together for interference in politics, even under the guise of a moral reform. If a crusade is to be preached and worked up among the student classes in China, let: it be in the cause of discipline and self-preparation for civic duties. The International Reform Burean—a modest title that might equally well be spelt in six letters, we believe—thinks otherwise. When its activities emanated from Honolulu, it was harmless, though annoying transplanted to Tientsin, it may prove, albeit with the best intentions, thoroughly pernicious. If the British Government were to take seriously the Bureau's lucubrations, as enunciated through the mouths of Chinese students, and allow its ordinary human instincts free play, the cause of opium suppression would fare ill in China. The kindest course it can pursue is to continue its negotiations with the Chinese Government on the principle that an immediate spectaclar success in the abolition of opium is probably the greatest disservice that the cause enn be rend The spirit of the nation is against the practice and it will die out. A too violent suppression, as there is already reason to fear, entails the substitution of other drugs, which will find a wider clientele than even opium before the Edict 1906.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.