[Nore.—The following report has been handed us for publication. The two letters which follow will explain the appearance of the report in China.—Ep.J
War Department, Bureau of Insular Affairs, Washington.
My pra Sexator Moxoax,—I have your letter of the 25th instant, addressed to the Secretary, ich you inclose a letter, returned herewith, from Rev. H.
Clu Bose, of Soochow, China, requosting to be furnished with a copy of the report of the committee appointed by the Government of the Philippine Islands to make a report on opium conditions in the Orient.
In reply I bog to inclose herewith a typewritten copy of the report in question, the only form in which the same able at present as it has not been pt ed as yet.
Very sincerely, R. Epwarns.
Hon. Joux Moncax, United States Senate.
28th January, 1905.
Dear Mr. Clu Bost,—I send you the report on the opium trade in the Phil-pines, (not yet printed) In typewriting. thi cml in China, but I bel that you are trying to suppress that it will take a long time yo stamp work in Chinn is very noble, and your career is worthy of a noble ancestry and will be rewarded by the Master.
With kind regards 10 your family I am, sincerely, Your friend, Jum T. Mercan.
United States Sena'e, Jan 31st 1905, Report.
The Committee found that five months was too brief a time in which to cover the territory required and to secure anything like full evidence. If conditions in Japan and Formosa seem to have been more thoroughly investigated then those elsewhere, it is because nearly two months of the entire period were given to the work there. Six months for the remainder of the itinerary would have been none too long. Much time was consumed in going from place to place, and on several occasions there was delay in getting passage from one' port to another. It was not always possible to begin work upon val; official relations bad to be established with due formality, interviews arranged for and various preliminaries attended to. The difficulties of language were an obstacle, especially in Japan and China. Though records and other official documents in the former country were at ange thrown open to the Committee, and translations made with expedition, the amount of literature was so groat five months elapsed before the completion of the translators work. Again, in other places laws were undergoing @ change, as, e.g., in the Steait Settlements and Burma, and the Committee were unable to secure copies until their return to Manila. But whatever impediments were met with grew out of the nature of things. In every instance foreign officials and representatives of American government extended interested, prompt, and efficient aid, It is largely duo to them that this report has that measure of value which it has attained. The same may be said of all the Filipino officials in the different provinces whose response to the request of the Committee for information and statistical aid was uniformly serviceable and courteous. We regret that this was not so of the Chinese in Manila, Only two, one a professional man and the other a merchant, presented themselves before the Committee to give testimony, though the opportunity was given others to ro-present their view of the case. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce, which was asked to give aid by expressing its mind, declined to do so except under conditions such as no government committee could accept.
In arranging interviews the utmost impartiality was observed. Of course there were conditions in which the Committee had but little choice; in the limited time at their disposal they were compelled to secure the testimony at hand. Otherwise such persons were interviewed as soamed to be best equipped by reason of length of residence, of occupation, or of force of character, to give accurate and useful information. No evidence has been suppressed; even that which is obviously of little or no fands in the the Committee y given was contributed in such a way as to make any effort to reproduce it for publication a breach of manners.
As far as the Committee has knowledge, this is the first time in which any attempt has been made to collate the opium legislation of a number of countries where the uso of the drug is dealt with asa matter of large concern; though it ought to be added that time and means are lacking to digest and arrange in an orderly manner the information and facts obtained, so as to be easily available to an individual.
The Report of the Royal Commission to H. B. M. in 1895 was chiefly a study of the Indian problem in response to the following resolution of the House of Com-. the Government of India to continue their policy of greatly diminishing the cultivation of the poppy and the produetion and sale of opium, and desires that an humble address be presented to Her Majesty praying hor Majesty to appoint a Royal Commission to report as to: I.—Whether the growth of thofpoppy and the manufacture and sale of opium in British India should be prohibited except for medical purposes, and whether this prohibition could be extended to the Native States; IL—The nature of the.existing arrangoments with the Native States in respect of the transit of opium through British territory, and on what terms, if any, these arrangements could be with justice terminated
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.