Sept.
AN interesting pamphlet on the opium traffic and cultivation' in China during the years 1925-6 has been issued by the International Anti-Opium Association of, Peking. In view of the crass and a prion statements made by [such propagandists in Europe a3 the Chinese Minister to Rome it is interesting to note that with the exception of Shansi and Suiyuan, opium cultivation has been absolutely free in every province, the farmers following their own inclinations in the matter. China iving the impression abroad, ularly before the League of Nations, that, in the first place, opium consumed in China is largely of British origin, and that, in the second place, if opium is grown in China, it is a's business and—riy right to inter-fore with what Mr. Chu Chao-hin calls sovereign rights.
In both instances, the Chinese protagonists are wrong. Most of the opium smoked in China is of Chinese origin, about 15,000 tons of the drug being grown in the country annually. Secondly, the suppression of opium grow-in China is as much the business of Great Britain as it is of China, for Britain suppretsed the trade in the export of opium from India to China. on would suppress the growing.of opium in China. This was al legitimate contractual arrangement. Britain adhered to her part of the agreement. China, for a moment, entered upon the motions of suppression, but in {the long period of. military despotism, following the revolution, not only was opium growing not suppressed but the quantity grown was increased. In some arts of the country, in fact, the military have forced the forme to grow the poppy and in Fukien, farmers have been shot for conscientiously objecting to using their land and labour in this way.
The fact of the matter is that} the army and the navy of every province require opium for revenue purposes and they care nothing for the national honour or dignity. Opium suppression bureaux are organized for the purpose of increasing the revenue from opium, the various fines imposed being little less than taxes upon the crop. Tha! International Anti-Opium As [sociation finds that only in the two provinces indicated have! there been any genuine efforts towards suppression: everywhere else, opium has been as free a crop as rice or wheat.
Summarizing conditions in the whole of China, the report] states:
1. Production limited only by the inclinations of the people on the one hand, the varying degrees of mili and civil compu other.
2, "Absolutely no restric. tion imposed on any branch] of the traffic except by a few] magistrates here and_ there and in the two provinces! (Shansi and Suiyuan).
3. Every transaction opium taxed to its breaking] point, 4, "Public opium smoking on steamers, in trains, military and civil yamens, restaurants} and country inns, is more in evidence than in any year since national prohibition was declared.
5. If 1925 produced less opium than 1924 or previous years, it was entirely due to the previous glut and higher price of food.
The above summary is a condemnation, not so much of the national Government, which should enforce the opium prohibition in conformity with an international agreement, but of those Chinese in China and abroad who will not realize that! the whole fault in the matter is with the Chinese. For we all know the weaknesses of the! Chinese Government; its authority does not even contro! the city of Peking: its voice outside of Peking is like a whisper in a typhoon. But that public opium in China which makes st on all que tions, on matters of broad nation-_ al principle and on matters of the pettiest local detail, is silent on the opium question because isa question about which China is so wrong. Those leaders of opinion who become so quarrelsome with foreigners on every picayune issue, whether the foreigners be right or wrong, say nothing about the utilization of rice lands in Anhui and other provinces for the growing of opium. "They complain not at fall about the suffering of the (Chinese people in the large cities from the high cost of rice be-[cause the poppy flourishes where for centuries the paddy was tilled. They are silent, because to admit all the facts which are true, would be to admit that} there is something evil in China, which they are never willing to admit.
This opium question has been discussed for many years and little but statistical details can be added to the volume of information on China's negligence ta live up to its promises and agreements. More important is it to realize the political signi. ficance of opium. There are no wars in China which are not opium wars. There are no militarists who are not fighting for provincial opium revenue. Even in the two provinces where opium growing has been suppressed, there are reports that money has been made by letting the drug pass through to other provinces. Every military official is trying to get into a province where the opium revenue is /good; he wants to fight for opium taxes, for the drug itself which is transported about the country under military and naval escort, The navy of China has come to finance itself entirely on the opium revenue. In a word, the jous governments of China exist on a foundation of opium, they thrive by forcing upon the Chinese people the growing and smoking of opium. They are opium governments, If the Chinese people are' opposed to opium, let them face this issue, If they dare not face it, let their representatives abroad hide their faces in shame and not question the integrity of a great Power which has given up a lucrative trade to help China to overcome an evil. If the Chinese people want an issue over which they can quarrel with the—military usurpers, here it is, Opium the paramount issue in Chinese polities, for as long as it can he utilized to finance internal strife there can be no peace or unity in the country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.