A certain section of the American [press has been devoting a good deal Jof space to the belief that China is tree of opium. The idea gained currency, I believe froma exiled report from-Geneva which said that 'Mr. Chu Chaoshsin (the Chinese delegate). had refuted statements that poppy cultivation was universal China." One has only to go back' fever the files of the "Herald" to discover for himself that north south, east and west opium has! been grown for a very long time and Mr. Chu Chao-hsin is, re, either a. very. ignorant man or deliberately endeavouring to which is quite true; opinion in China supported the antiopium movement, which is not true meant Chinese public opinion (for there is no Chinese—publie jcpinion): and that a Chinese gover-or had enforced the death penalty Jon all persons found in possession }four ounces of narcotic drugs. This [latter statement may be true, but, nothing was said of the governors an the large army of smaller'
ials and hangers-on who not only regard the law, but openly en-|Indeper courage, and sometimes enforce, wth of the poppy.
A great deal of nonsense has been' written about opium from time to time, and will be again. But a {bargain is a bargain, and it is little ies. than useless for Mr. Chu. Chao-hsin to endeavour to prove {that China is doing what she agreed to do by treaty with other nations who are carrying out their part of the contract,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.