The following statement is issued by the International Anti-Opium Association, Peking:—In the press reports of the Opium Conference at Geneva, Mr. Koku of Japan is credited with "making statement in Japanese, showing. the progress made in the suppress on of opium in Formosa." I would suggest that this word "suppression" is hardly the most suitable to apply, When in 1894 Japan. after the Pouce treaty with China took over Formosa, various measures for controlling opium were tried, and those finally consolidated yee been termed the Taiwan Opium Law. By this law opium became a Goverment monopoly, and smokers wore licensed and registered after medical certification the effect that they wore coi-firmed addicts. In 1900 the mumber of rqzistered smokers was 189,064 Dut at the and of 1920 it had fallen to 49,036. The yearly average number of deaths during the last 10 years was about 4,000: The average mortality amongst the non-opium= smdiaing population in Formosa is approximately 20 per thousand whilst amongst' opium smokers it is 80 per thousand. On this basis i¢ is estimated that in 16. years from now all Ieensed smokers will have died and all licenses have become extinct.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.