Dec, 24.
The attention of the House of Commons has been drawn to the alarming increase the tref in drugs noticed in those portions of China which are now occupied by the Japanese, A great deal of the good work which the League of Nations had been doing this matter has now been undone, the effort which the Chinese Government were making to stamp this sinister business out has been nullified, and reports from the North t the Manchoukuo Government, the close identity of that institution with the Government of Japan, the absence of that independence which Tokyo so frequently aims for Manchoukuo implicates Japan in the common guilt for so lamentable a state of affairs.
That isa responsibility which re annet be shrugged off, for outside the Great Wall Japan is just as guilty of permitting the growth of the drug traffic, as if she were the proclaimed sovereign of that territory.
South of the Wall conditions are only si lightly if any better.
The responsibility, comes closer home, for the Japanese are in de facto control, they have set up puppet governments as' supine as they are subject to Japanese instructions. Peiping sees the sale of drugs in practically very one of its streets, opium-smoking utensils are on sale openly, and the traffic in narcotics is carried on in the broad light day. Revelations which have been made recently concerning the drug trafic in the Yangtze valley show that even here the people. are being subjected to its noisome spell, and thousands of people are being ruined in body and soul through the tivities of people who could easily be sup-essed if the Japanese authorities really desired to do so. It is probably quite true is the Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, has stated in the House of Commons, that hi is no evidence that the drug trafic in China is the outcome of any deliberate plan on the part of the Japanese Government, or that it is aimed at the systematic degradati lion of the people. It is quite possible that the whole sordid business 4s just another one of those rackets which are being operated behind the Japanese lines. That does not relieve Japan of the odium which must naturally arise from the failure to destroy a traffic which she would not allow amongst her own people, or alle te that suspicion of which at the moment there no adequate proof.
What is to be said of Government which permits such a state of affairs to exist in-Peiping, as to enable Mr. Butler to report to the House that here is "scarcely a single store where drugs reveal a state of affairs which is already alarming and may be expected to increase in danger. It will be remembered that after the Japanese occupation of Manchoukuo, and their complete domination of ils Govermment, there was a surprising growth in the narcotics trade. Drugs were easily procurable in the various cities, and in Harbi particular heroin, cocaine and the were purchasable, even by children. The growth of the drug hal Manchoukuo has. been astonishing.
It spread in North China following the Japanese occupation, and there is all the evident that the trade is assuming grave pro-Portions, and that Nanking, to quale but one example is becoming riddled with the evil. "It has been stated that the Japanese Gre deliberately following the policy of permitting this trade for the purpose of destroying the morale of the Chinese people, and to bring about their degradation, that is so or not by no means clear, but it is certain that the Japanese authorities, they are not actually encouraging the spread of this evil are doing prevent, it. Even during: its membership of the League' of \N: tions, and—its tepresentation in the "narcotics department of that body, Japan was doing nothing to prevent the spread of the drug traffic in Manchou-cannot be bought openly, and indulged in?" Such a picture presents' a condition which has not been paralleled in China for many years past, and whether the Japanese Gov ernment is actually behind this trade or not, the charge is clear that it is permitting a course of action calculated as effectively to destroy the soul of the Chinese nation as Japan's armies are killing its people.
Mr. Butler is quoted as saying that conditions in Central China do not appear to be so serious. The creatures engaged in this loathsome business, whether with the consent of the Japanese or riot, have not had a8 yet so much time in which to get in their deadly work. It may very well be only a question of a few more months before this evil thing will have secured a fatal hold upon the people along the Yangtze, 2 very short time before conditions prevailing in the north are equalled in this area, There can be only two views of the matter. Either this trade is being fostered as a result of!
undeclared policy to ruin the Chinese people morally and physically, or it is merely la racket which for some reason or other the Japanese authorities do "not think A -to'" suppress. " There can be- no' doubt about' the Japanese ability to put a sudden stop to the whole business if they really wished. They would be the first to resent!
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.