P. S. Some years ago, wien in Ceylon, we inaugurated a movement for the closing of the licensed opium shops of the Island. This. movement was carried until every licensed opium shop the Istand was closed. When visiting the opium shops, the thing else und if the curse is to be eradicated, it must be done here in China, where an efficient policing could' stop smuggling and where public opinion could do much to stop growing, On February 13, 1925, our correspondent in Mienchow, Szechuan, sent us an account of opium grow.
ich he says is to a large in Szechuan, He says: "The people generally seem to be unwilling to plant; but we are told that in Hopachang five-sixths who plant are forced to In that article, he coser bes a system of taxation which has come into effect which virtually legalizes opium growing and which provides an extensive revenue for the officials, The "Ching Peo" in Peking, commenting on the Geneva Conference said "Toward the close of the monarchy there varas considerable regress prohibition, but after the citablish:
of the Republic a noticeable Various provinces Feat connived atthe growth Poppy. and then openly encouraged. it ud. finally "compelled the people cultivate opium' under threat Penalties. The result. to-day. is there isnot a single province under. the Republic free from opium cultivate tion and not a single "militarist or cian of importance the greater will cultivate. the all troops in China revenues "derived from opium; in fact, opium and soldiers hhaye become close allies, mere waste of words. Even if conference were able" to agreement on the limitation of the production of opium and the prohi ing, it would val conven: anything Anti-Opium Martyrs An account \in the "New York Evening Post" appears of 200 Fukien Chinese Christians who "sacrificed their lives last year (1924) as a protest st the Government edict ordering them to plant opium and pay a tax of In April, the International An Opium Association published a report of the seizure at Peking of opium from Suiyuan brought down to the city under the protection of railway men. In May, the Feng. tien commander in Shanghai qu: relled over opium which was being taken from Chinkiang to Soochow under military protection—thus ex. posing the traffic Wuchang correspondence in May recounts how opium. has affected the price of rice in that city. The correspondent says: "The most serious pro-Diem at present for the people in this contre is the high price of rice, which has risen from 20 strings to 25 strings per ton. Scandalously enough, the price of opium in the
gash to 3,800 cash per ounce, and it is said that more opium will soon be arriving on the market and will send the price down still further.' (This is natively grown opium.)
During the month of May, the Chinese press and Chinese organizations in Shanghai were much concerned over the open sale of opium in the Eh ity. In one of the telegrams, a Chinese ergal zation said
-oficially. in =publie a are of, shops. the very eyes of the ace ful. It'is a breach fof the opium conventions and. cannot bbe allowed to pass unnoticed, The evils and. harm cannot be overestim fated. "The writers therefore ask those feoncerned to. order the officials Shanghai to take the proper steps as their' previous. protests have been of no. avail. They" state that they will the evil to the end.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.