(The following petition was sent from the Changsha Branch of the International Anti-Opium Association to the Hunan Provincial Assembly and has been received by the Assembly.)
This petition desires the Provincial Assembly to bring to the notice of the executive government of the province the way in which the regulations for the suppression of opium traffic are being openly set aside in order that the offenders may impeached and the minds of the people made quite clear in regard we this matter.
There are none who do not know the evil of opium. In the National Code of Crime, one section is voted to this subject and amongst the commands of the executive government are various stringent orders according with the Code. In the new Hunan Provincial Constitution, it is enacted that those who use opium shall be deprived of their fore. This is quite clear in its opposition to opium. But there are those who have been betrayed into using the drug and those who have enabled them to get hold of opium should be blame ed more than their victims, for if there were no opportunities of getting opium, there would, of course, be none who would acquire the habit of smoking it. In name, Hunan forbids the use of opium, but the very organization which has been established to carry out this purpose has become turned into one for carrying on the trade in opium, When those who are at the head of the government like opium, those who are below them follow them and the poison spreads in all directions. Let us give you a few examples to show that what we are saying is not rumour.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.