Association, Peking, has received the following communication from the Japanese Legation with regard to opium trafic at Tsingtao "With reference to your communication of February 9 last, relative to opium importation into Kiaochou, Mr. Obata informed you in his letter dated the 5th of the same month*that the matter had been only referred to the Japanese authorities concerned with the request that a full investigation be carried out ame diately: I am now in receipt of a reply from the authorities concerned, a gist of which is as follows "The opium monopoly system in Kiaochou was abolished by the end of March, 1921, as this Legation communicated to your Association on October 14, 1920. Soon agfterwards, however, it became inevitably clear to the Japanese Government that it would be extremely inhuman so abruptly to put a stop to the supply of opium, in view of the fact that there are thousands who are so addicted to the opium habit that the sudden cutting off of the supply would almost mean death to them. In order to attain, therefore, the object of totally extinguishing this harmful habit without causing so much suffering to the habitual smokers, the Japanese Government felt constrained slightly to alter its declared policy and to devise means which. will gradually decrease the number of confirmed smokers and reach in a few years total abolition of this baneful habit.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.