Peiping, May 30.
One of China's oldest trades, for so long carried on under cover, is out in the open again in Peiping—opium is now sold as openly and freely as are vegetables and meat. The seal of authorization of such sales was set on it today when the Ministry of Administration of the Provisional Government issued an order imposing à general welfare tax of 20 cents per ounce on all raw opium sold in Opium shops.
The new tax is to be collected by the Finance Bureau of the Municipality and presumably the money from this course is to swell the coffers of the Municipal Government, This new tax follows two other significant announcements this month The first was the statement of the Consolidated Tax administration on May -11 that it had decided to permit the establishment of 300 opium dens in the city and 100 opium shop:
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.