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Title: The Opium Monopoly
Author: La Motte, Ellen Newbold, 1873-1961
Language: English
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THE OPIUM MONOPOLY
* * * * *
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS
ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO
MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED
LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA
MELBOURNE
THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD.
TORONTO
* * * * *
[Illustration: Wrapper of packet of opium, as sold in licensed opium
shops of Singapore. Each packet contains enough opium for about six
smokes.]
THE OPIUM MONOPOLY
by
ELLEN N. LA MOTTE
Author of "Backwash of War," "Peking Dust,"
"Civilization," Etc.
New York
The Macmillan Company
1920
All rights reserved
Copyright, 1920
By The Macmillan Company
Set up and electrotyped. Published January, 1920.
"If this was our battle, if these were our ends,
Which were our enemies, which were our friends?"
_Witter Bynner_, in The Nation.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
INTRODUCTION ix
I. GREAT BRITAIN'S OPIUM MONOPOLY 1
II. THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY 6
III. JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR 11
IV. SINGAPORE 18
V. THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM COMMISSION 23
VI. OPIUM IN SIAM 26
VII. HONGKONG 30
VIII. SARAWAK 35
IX. SHANGHAI 37
X. INDIA 44
XI. TURKEY AND PERSIA 54
XII. MAURETIUS 56
XIII. BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 58
XIV. BRITISH GUIANA 62
XV. HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA 65
XVI. CONCLUSION 73
INTRODUCTION
We first became interested in the opium traffic during a visit to the
Far East in 1916. Like most Americans, we had vaguely heard of this
trade, and had still vaguer recollections of a war between Great
Britain and China, which took place about seventy-five years ago, known
as the Opium War. From time to time we had heard of the opium trade as
still flourishing in China, and then later came reports and assurances
that it was all over, accompanied by newspaper pictures of bonfires of
opium and opium pipes. Except for these occasional and incidental
memories, we had neither knowledge of, nor interest in the subject. On
our way out to Japan, in the July of 1916, we met a young Hindu on the
boat, who was outspoken and indignant over the British policy of
establishing the opium trade in India, as one of the departments of the
Indian Government. Of all phases of British rule in India, it was this
policy which excited him most, and which caused him most ardently to
wish that India had some form of self-government, some voice in the
control and management of her own affairs, so that the country could
protect itself from this evil. Without this, he declared, his country
was powerless to put a stop to this traffic imposed upon it by a
foreign government, and he greatly deplored the slow, but steady
demoralization of the nation which was in consequence taking place. As
he produced his facts and figures, showing what this meant to his
people--this gradual undermining of their moral fiber and economic
efficiency--we grew more and more interested. That such conditions
existed were to us unheard of, and unbelievable. It seemed incredible
that in this age, with the consensus of public opinion sternly opposed
to the sale and distribution of habit-forming drugs, and with
legislation to curb and restrict such practices incorporated in the
laws of all ethical and civilized governments, that here, on the other
side of the world, we should come upon opium traffic conducted as a
government monopoly. Not only that, but conducted by one of the
greatest and most highly civilized nations of the world, a nation which
we have always looked up to as being in the very forefront of advanced,
progressive and humane ideals. So shocked were we by what this young
Hindu told us, that we flatly refused to believe him. We listened to
what he had to say on the subject, but thinking that however earnest he
might be, however sincere in his sense of outrage at such a policy,
that he must of necessity be mistaken. We decided not to take his word
for it, but to look into the matter for ourselves.
We did look into the matter. During a stay in the Far East of nearly a
year, in which time we visited Japan, China, Hongkong, French
Indo-China, Siam and Singapore, we looked into the matter in every
country we visited. Wherever possible we obtained government reports,
and searched them carefully for those passages giving statistics
concerning the opium trade--the amount of opium consumed, the number of
shops where it was sold, and the number of divans where it was smoked.
We found these shops established under government auspices, the dealers
obtaining their supplies of opium from the government, and then
obtaining licenses from the government to retail it. In many countries,
we visited these shops and divans in person, and bought opium in them
freely, just as one goes to a shop to buy cigarettes. We found a
thorough and complete establishment of the opium traffic, run by the
government, as a monopoly. Revenue was derived through the sale of
opium, through excise taxes upon opium, and through license fees paid
by the keepers of opium shops and divans. A complete, systematic
arrangement, by which the foreign government profited at the expense of
the subject peoples under its rule. In European countries and in
America, we find the governments making every effort to repress the
sale of habit-forming drugs. Here, in the Far East, a contrary attitude
prevails. The government makes every effort to encourage and extend it.
Two notable exceptions presented themselves. One was Japan. There are
no opium shops in Japan, and the Japanese Government is as careful to
protect its people from the evils and dangers of opium as any European
country could be. It must be remembered, however, that Japan is a free
and independent country. It has never been conquered by a European
country, and perhaps one explanation as to why the Japanese are a
powerful, virile people, is because Japan is the one Oriental nation
that has never been dominated by a European power, and in consequence,
never drugged.
The other exception is our own possession of the Philippines, which
although a subject country, has never had the opium traffic established
as part of the machinery of an alien government.
On our return to America, we were greatly exercised over these facts
which we had unearthed. We continued our researches as to the opium
traffic in the New York Public Library, and in the Library of Congress,
in Washington, in both of which places there is a rich and abundant
literature on the subject. We obtained ready access to official blue
books and government reports, issued by the British Government, and it
is from these sources that the material in this book is largely drawn.
We were somewhat hampered in our investigations by the fact that
because of the war, these blue books have not always been of recent
date, some of them being two or three years old. For this reason, it
has not always been possible to give the most recent figures as to
opium consumption and distribution in the various countries. However,
we feel that we have obtained enough information to uphold our case,
and in any event, there is no doubt that the opium traffic, as fostered
by the British Government, still continues. In looking over the list of
British colonies where it is established, we may find here and there a
diminution in the amount of opium consumed, but this is probably due to
the exigencies of war, to the lack of shipping and transportation,
rather than to any conscientious scruples or moral turnover; because
the revenue derived from the opium trade is precious. In some
instances, as in the case of the Straits Settlements, the local British
Government derives from forty to fifty per cent of its revenue from
this source. Yet, taken in relation to the whole, it is not large.
However valuable it may be, however large the percentage in the case of
any particular colony, it can surely never be large enough to
compensate for the stigma attached. It is a blot upon the honor of a
great nation to think that she deliberately runs her colonies on opium.
No revenue, whether large or small, can be justified when coming from
such a source as this.
In all these blue books and official reports, the question of the Opium
Monopoly, as it is called, is dealt with freely. There is no attempt to
hide or suppress the facts. The subject is reported frankly and fully.
It is all there, for any one to read who chooses. How then, does it
happen that we in America know nothing about Great Britain's Opium
Monopoly? That the facts are new to us and come to us as a shock? One
is because of our admiration for Great Britain. Those who know--and
there are a few--hesitate to state them. Those who know, feel that it
is a policy unworthy of her. We hesitate to call attention to the
shortcomings of a friend. There are other reasons also for this
conspiracy of silence--fear of international complications, fear of
endangering the good feeling between the two countries, England and
America. Consequently England has been able to rely upon those who know
the facts to keep silent, either through admiration or through fear.
Also the complete ignorance of the rest of us has been an additional
safeguard. Therefore, for nearly a century, she has been running her
Opium Monopoly undisturbed. It began as a private industry, about the
time of the East India Company, but later on passed out of the hands of
private individuals into the department of Opium Administration, one of
the branches of the colonial government. But, loyal as we have been all
these years, we can remain silent no longer. The time is now rapidly
approaching when the two countries, England and America, are to become
closely united. How can we become truly united, however, when on such a
great moral question as this we stand diametrically opposed?
There is still another reason why we should break silence. The welfare
of our own country is now at stake. The menace of opium is now
threatening America, and our first duty is to ourselves. Little by
little, surreptitiously, this drug has been creeping in over our
borders, and to-day many thousands of our young men and young women are
drug addicts, habituated to the use of one of the opium derivatives,
morphia or heroin. The recent campaign against drug users, conducted by
the New York Department of Health, has uncovered these addicts in great
numbers; has brought them before us, made us see, in spite of
ourselves, that thousands of them exist and that new ones are being
created daily. The question arises, how do they obtain the drug? It was
the fortune of the writer to be present during the first week of the
opening of the Health Department Clinic for Drug Addicts, and her work
consisted in taking the histories of these pitiful, abject wrecks of
men and women who swarmed to the clinic in hundreds, seeking supplies
of the drug which they could not obtain elsewhere. The history of these
patients was almost invariably the same--there was a monotony in their
tragic, pathetic recital as to how they became victims, how they first
became acquainted with the drug. As a rule, they began in extreme
youth, generally between fifteen and twenty years of age, one boy
having begun at the age of thirteen. In nearly every case they had
tried it as a lark, as an experiment. At "parties," they said, when
some one of the company would pass round a box full of heroin, inviting
them to snuff it. To snuff it, these children, very much as a small boy
goes behind the barn to try his first cigarette. In many instances
those who produced the box were peddlers, offering it as a gift at
first, knowing that after a dose or two the fatal habit would be formed
and another customer created. These peddlers doubtless obtained their
supplies from smugglers. But that takes us back to our argument,
namely, the part played by that great nation which grows and
distributes opium to the world. For that nation produces an over-supply
of opium, far more than is needed by the medical profession for the
relief of pain. Opium is not profitable in its legitimate use. It is
only profitable because of the demands of addicts, men and women
deliberately debauched, either through the legalized machinery of
colonial governments, or through the illegal activities of smugglers. A
moral sentiment that will balk at this immense over-production, the
sole object of which is to create drug victims, is the only weapon to
fight it. In giving this book to the public, we are calling upon that
moral sentiment. We feel that we shall number among our staunchest
supporters that great body of men and women in England who have for
years been vainly fighting the opium traffic. No more bitter opponents
of this policy are to be found than amongst the English people
themselves. From time to time, in Parliament, sharp debates have arisen
as to the advisability of continuing it, and some of the greatest men
in England have been steadfastly opposed. The great Gladstone has
described it as "morally indefensible." The time has now come for us,
people of both countries, to unite to stop it.
THE OPIUM MONOPOLY
I
GREAT BRITAIN'S OPIUM MONOPOLY
In a book shop in Shanghai, we came upon a small book with an arresting
title, "Drugging a Nation," by Samuel Merwin. It was published in 1908,
eight years before we chanced upon it, shabby and shop worn, its pages
still uncut. The people of Shanghai, the great International Settlement
of this largest city and most important seaport of China, did not have
to read it. They knew, doubtless, all that its pages could disclose.
We, however, found it most enlightening. In it there is this
description of the British Opium Monopoly:
"In speaking of it as a 'monopoly' I am not employing a cant word for
effect. I am not making a case. That is what it is officially styled in
a certain blue book on my table which bears the title, 'Statement
Exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress of India during the year
1905-'6,' and which was ordered by the House of Commons to be printed,
May 10, 1907.... Now to get down to cases, just what this Government
Opium Monopoly is, and just how does it work? An excerpt from the
rather ponderous blue book will tell us. It may be dry but it is
official and unassailable. It is also short.
"'The opium revenue'--thus the blue book--'is partly raised by a
monopoly of the production of the drug in Bengal and the United
provinces, and partly by the levy of a duty on all opium imported from
native states.... In these two provinces, the crop is grown under the
control of a government department, which arranges the total area which
is to be placed under the crop, with a view to the amount of opium
required.'
"So much for the broader outline. Now for a few of the details: 'The
cultivator of opium in these monopoly districts receives a license, and
is granted advances to enable him to prepare the land for the crop, and
he is required to deliver the whole of the product at a fixed price to
opium agents, by whom it is dispatched to the government factories at
Patna and Ghazipur.'
"The money advanced to the cultivator bears no interest. The British
Indian government lends money without interest in no other cases.
Producers of crops other than opium are obliged to get along without
free money.
"When it has been manufactured, the opium must be disposed of in one
way and another; accordingly: 'The supply of prepared opium required
for consumption in India is made over to the Excise Department ... the
chests of "provision" opium, for export, are sold at monthly sales,
which take place at Calcutta.' For the meaning of the curious term,
'provision opium' we have only to read on a little further. 'The opium
is received and prepared at the government factories, where the
out-turn of the year included 8,774 chests of opium for the Excise
Department, about three hundred pounds of various opium alkaloids,
thirty maunds of medical opium; and 51,770 chests of provision opium
for the Chinese market.' There are about 140 pounds in a chest.... Last
year the government had under poppy cultivation 654,928 acres. And the
revenue to the treasury, including returns from auction sales, duties
and license fees, and deducting all 'opium expenditures' was nearly
$22,000,000."
As the blue book states, this opium is auctioned off once a month. At
that point, the British Government, as a government, washes its hands
of the business. Who buys the opium at these government auctions, and
what afterwards becomes of it? "The men who buy in the opium at these
monthly auctions and afterwards dispose of it are a curious crowd of
Parsees, Mohammedans, Hindoos and Asiatic Jews. Few British names
appear in the opium trade to-day. British dignity prefers not to stoop
beneath the taking in of profits; it leaves the details of a dirty
business to dirty hands. This is as it has been from the first. The
directors of the East India Company, years and years before that
splendid corporation relinquished the actual government of India,
forbade the selling of its specially-prepared opium direct to China,
and advised a trading station on the coast whence the drug might find
its way 'without the company being exposed to the disgrace of being
engaged in illicit commerce.'"
"So clean hands and dirty hands went into partnership. They are in
partnership still, save that the most nearly Christian of governments
has officially succeeded the company as party of the first part."
You will say, if the British Government chooses to deal in opium, that
is not our concern. It is most emphatically our concern. Once a month,
at these great auction sales, the British Government distributes
thousands of pounds of opium, which are thus turned loose upon the
world, to bring destruction and ruin to the human race. The buyers of
this opium are not agents of the British Government. They are merely
the distributors, through whom this drug is directed into the channels
of trade. The British Government derives a certain portion of its
revenue from the sale of opium, therefore depends upon these dealers to
find a market for it. They are therefore, as distributors, the
unofficial agents of the British Government, through whom it is sold
legitimately, or smuggled around the world. In seeking to eradicate the
drug evil, we must face the facts, and recognize clearly that the
source of supply is the British Government, through whose agents,
official and unofficial, it is distributed.
America, so they tell us, is now menaced by the drug evil. Now that
prohibition is coming into effect, we are told that we are now
confronted by a vice more terrible, far more deteriorating and
dangerous. If that is true, then we must recognize our danger and guard
against it. Some of the opium and morphia which reaches this country is
smuggled in; the rest is imported by the big wholesale drug houses.
There is an unlimited supply of it. As we have seen, the British
Government encourages poppy production, even to the extent of lending
money _without interest_ to all those who are willing to raise this
most profitable crop. The monopoly opium is sold once a month to the
highest bidders, and some of these highest bidders are unscrupulous men
who must find their markets how and where they can. That fact, of
course, is of no moment to the British Government. It is of deepest
concern to Americans, however. To the north of us we have the Dominion
of Canada. To the south, the No-Man's Land of Mexico. At the present
moment, the whole country is alarmed at the growing menace of the drug
habit, which is assuming threatening proportions.
II
THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY
Let us quote from another dry official record, of unimpeachable
veracity--the Statesman's Year-Book, for 1916. On page 140, under the
heading of The British Empire: India and Dependencies, we read: "Opium.
In British territory the cultivation of the poppy for the production of
opium is mainly restricted to the United Provinces, and the manufacture
of the opium from this region is a State monopoly. A limited amount is
also grown in the Punjab for local consumption and to produce poppy
seeds. In the monopoly districts the cultivator receives advances from
Government to enable him to prepare the land for the crop, and he is
bound to sell the whole of the produce at a fixed price to Government
agents, by whom it is despatched to the Government factory at Ghazipur
to be prepared for the market. The chests of manufactured opium are
sold by auction in Calcutta at monthly sales. A reserve is kept in hand
to supply the deficiencies of bad seasons, and a considerable quantity
is distributed by the Indian excise departments. Opium is also grown in
many of the Native States of Rajputana and Central India. These Native
States have agreed to conform to the British system. No opium may pass
from them into British territory for consumption without payment of
duty.
"The bulk of the exports of opium from India has been to China. By
arrangements with that country, the first one being in 1907, the
exports from India have been limited, and provision made for the
cessation of the export to China when the native Chinese production of
opium shall be suppressed. The trade with China is now practically
suspended."
The important things to notice in the above statement are these: The
growing of poppies, the manufacture of opium, and the monthly auction
sales continue. Also, the opium trade with China is practically at an
end. The history of the opium traffic in China is a story complete in
itself and will be dealt with in another chapter. At present, we must
notice that the trade with China is practically suspended, but that the
British Government is still auctioning off, once a month at Calcutta,
great quantities of opium. Where does this opium go--who are the
consumers? If not to China, then where?
The same reliable authority, the Statesman's Year-Book for 1918, has
this to say on the subject. On page 130 we read: "Opium: In British
territory the cultivation of the poppy for the production of opium is
practically confined to the United Provinces, and the manufacture of
opium from this region is a State monopoly. The bulk of the exported
opium is at present either sent to the United Kingdom, or supplied
direct to the Governments of consuming countries in the Far East; a
certain quantity is also sold by auction in Calcutta at monthly sales.
Opium is also grown in many of the Native States of Rajputana and
Central India, which have agreed to conform to the British system." The
following tables, taken from most reliable authority, give some idea of
the exports to the "consuming countries of the Far East." Note that
Japan began buying opium in 1911-12. We shall have something to say
about the Japanese smuggling later. Also note that it was in 1907 that
Great Britain and China entered into agreement, the outcome to be the
suppression of the opium trade in China. But see the increasing imports
into the treaty ports; up till almost the very last moment British
opium being poured into China. In the second table, observe the
increasing importation into England, (United Kingdom), synchronous with
the increased exports to Japan, which will be discussed later.
STATISTICAL ABSTRACT RELATING TO BRITISH INDIA 1903-4 TO 1912-13
EXPORTS OF OPIUM
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1903-4 | 1904-5 | 1905-6 | 1906-7 | 1907-8
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
| 1908-9 | 1909-10 | 1910-11 | 1911-12 | 1912-13
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
China | 1,610,296 | 1,504,604 | 1,130,372 | 1,031,065 | 1,215,147
Treaty | | | | |
Ports | 2,703,871 | 1,234,432 | 2,203,670 | 3,614,887 | 3,242,902
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Hongkong | 3,576,431 | 4,036,436 | 3,775,826 | 3,771,409 | 3,145,403
| | | | |
| 2,230,755 | 3,377,222 | 3,963,264 | 3,019,858 | 2,400,084
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Straits | 1,365,743 | 1,262,834 | 1,163,529 | 1,150,506 | 1,169,018
Settlements | | | | |
| 1,032,220 | 1,234,763 | 1,692,053 | 1,099,801 | 704,870
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Java | 63,402 | 78,383 | 70,960 | 78,117 | 113,343
| | | | |
| 88,410 | 138,035 | 386,825 | 362,120 | 383,408
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Siam | 93,323 | 58,000 | 47,062 | 30,150 | 4,383
| | | | |
| 17,533 | 0 | 10,217 | 190,657 | 263,177
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Macao | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
| | | | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 236,420
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Japan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0
| | | | |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 76,817 | 129,545
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
French | 212,247 | 76,333 | 50,345 | 52,673 | 84,742
Indo-China | | | | |
| 118,933 | 207,287 | 207,722 | 325,500 | 99,018
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Other | 58,668 | 65,705 | 76,418 | 82,361 | 49,616
Countries | | | | |
| 41,107 | 17,366 | 45,565 | 36,420 | 15,659
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Total | 6,980,110 | 7,082,295 | 6,314,512 | 6,205,281 | 5,781,652
| | | | |
| 6,232,829 | 6,209,105 | 8,509,316 | 8,726,060 | 7,481,088
------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+
Page 196 Table 170 Congressional Library HA 1713-A3-Ref.
FROM STATISTICAL ABSTRACT RELATING TO BRITISH INDIA, 1905-6 TO 1911-15.
PAGE 181. TABLE 164. EXPORTS OF OPIUM TO VARIOUS COUNTRIES.
1910-11 1911-12 1912-13 1913-14 1914-15
French Indo-China £ 129,502 291,425
Java 472,199 282,252
Siam 164,030 204,328
China-Hongkong 1,084,093 110,712
Straits Settlements 226,500 80,572
United Kingdom 927 2,907 1,180 18,433 58,148
Treaty Ports, China 27,833 0
Macao 18,295 0
Japan 119,913 100,659
Other countries 19,223 47,543
---------- ----------
Total £2,280,031 1,175,639
III
JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR
In an article which appeared in the _New York Times_, under date of
February 14, 1919, we read: "A charge that the Japanese Government
secretly fosters the morphia traffic in China and other countries in
the Far East is made by a correspondent in the _North China Herald_ in
its issue of December 21st last. The correspondent asserts that the
traffic has the financial support of the Bank of Japan, and that the
Japanese postal service in China aids, although 'Japan is a signatory
to the agreement which forbids the import into China of morphia or of
any appliances used in its manufacture or application.'
"Morphia no longer can be purchased in Europe, the correspondent
writes. The seat of industry has been transferred to Japan, and morphia
is now manufactured by the Japanese themselves. Literally, tens of
millions of yen are transferred annually from China to Japan for the
payment of Japanese morphia....
"In South China, morphia is sold by Chinese peddlers, each of whom
carries a passport certifying that he is a native of Formosa, and
therefore entitled to Japanese protection. Japanese drug stores
throughout China carry large stocks of morphia. Japanese medicine
vendors look to morphia for their largest profits. Wherever Japanese
are predominant, there the trade flourishes. Through Dairen, morphia
circulates throughout Manchuria and the province adjoining; through
Tsingtao, morphia is distributed over Shantung province, Anhui, and
Kiangsu, while from Formosa morphia is carried with opium and other
contraband by motor-driven fishing boats to some point on the mainland,
from which it is distributed throughout the province of Fukien and the
north of Kuangtung. Everywhere it is sold by Japanese under
extra-territorial protection."
The article is rather long, and proves beyond doubt the existence of a
well-organized and tremendous smuggling business, by means of which
China is being deluged with morphia. In the body of the article we find
this paragraph:
"While the morphia traffic is large, there is every reason to believe
that the opium traffic upon which Japan is embarking with enthusiasm,
is likely to prove even more lucrative. _In the Calcutta opium sales,
Japan has become one of the considerable purchasers of Indian opium....
Sold by the Government of India, this opium is exported under permits
applied for by the Japanese Government_, is shipped to Kobe, and from
Kobe is transshipped to Tsingtao. Large profits are made in this trade,
in which are interested some of the leading firms of Japan."
This article appears to be largely anti-Japanese. In fact, more
anti-Japanese than anti-opium. Anti-Japanese sentiment in America is
played upon by showing up the Japanese as smugglers of opium. The part
the British Government plays in this traffic is not emphasized. "In the
Calcutta opium sales, Japan has become one of the considerable
purchasers of Indian opium ... sold by the Government of India." We are
asked to condemn the Japanese, who purchase their stocks of opium as
individuals, and who distribute it in the capacity of smugglers. We are
not asked to censure the British Government which produces,
manufactures and sells this opium as a State monopoly. We are asked to
denounce the Japanese and their nefarious smuggling and shameful
traffic, but the source of supply, which depends upon these smugglers
as customers at the monthly auctions, is above reproach. A delicate
ethical distinction.
However, there is no doubt that the Japanese are ardent smugglers. In
an article in the March, 1919, number of "Asia" by Putnam Weale, we
find the following bit:[1] "At all ports where Japanese commissioners
of Maritime Customs (in China) hold office, it is undeniable that
centres of contraband trade have been established, opium and its
derivatives being so openly smuggled that the annual net import of
Japanese morphia (although this trade is forbidden by International
Convention) is now said to be something like 20 tons a year--sufficient
to poison a whole nation."
[1] "A Fair Chance for Asia," by Putnam Weale, page 227.
Mr. Weale is an Englishman, therefore more anti-Japanese than
anti-opium. We do not recall any of his writings in which he protests
against the opium trade as conducted by his Government, nor the part
his Government plays in fostering and encouraging it.
However, there are other Englishmen who see the situation in a more
impartial light, and who are equally critical of both Great Britain and
Japan. In his book, "Trade Politics and Christianity in Africa and the
East," by A. J. Macdonald, M.A., formerly of Trinity College,
Cambridge, we find the facts presented with more balance. Thus, on page
229: "... In the north of China another evil is springing up. The
eradication of the opium habit is being followed by the development of
the morphia traffic...." The morphia habit in northern China, especially
Manchuria, is already widespread. The Chinese Government is alert to
the evil, but their efforts to repress it are hampered by the action of
traders, mainly Japanese, who elude the restrictions imposed by the
Chinese and Japanese Governments.... China is being drenched with
morphia. It is incredible that anything approaching the amount could
possibly be devoted to legitimate purposes. It is said that in certain
areas coolies are to be seen 'covered all over with needle punctures.'
An injection of the drug can be obtained for three or four cents. In
Newchang 2,000 victims of the morphia habit died in the winter of
1914-15. Morphia carries off its victims far more rapidly than
opium.... Morphia is not yet manufactured in any appreciable quantities
in the East, and certainly even Japan cannot yet manufacture the
hypodermic injectors by means of which the drug is received. The bulk
of the manufacture takes place in England, Germany and Austria.... In
this traffic, two firms in Edinburgh and one in London are engaged. The
trade is carried on through Japanese agents. The Board of Trade returns
show that the export of morphia from Great Britain to the East has
risen enormously during the last few years--
1911 5-1/2 tons
1912 7-1/2 "
1913 11-1/4 "
1914 14 "
"... The freedom which allows three British firms to supply China with
morphia for illicit purposes is a condemnation of English
Christianity."
This book of Mr. Macdonald's was published in 1916. Mr. Weale's article
was published in 1919, in which he speaks of an importation of about
twenty tons of morphia. Apparently the three British firms which
manufacture morphia, two in Edinburgh and one in London are still going
strong. Japan, however, appears to be growing impatient with all this
opprobrium cast upon her as the distributor of drugs, especially since
much of the outcry against this comes from America. Our own country
seems to be assisting in this traffic in a most extensive manner. The
Japan Society Bulletin No. 60 calls attention to this:
NEW TURN IN MORPHIA TRAFFIC
The morphia traffic in China has taken a new turn, according to the
_Japan Advertiser_. It quotes Putnam Weale to the effect that
whilst in recent years the main distributors have been Japanese,
the main manufacturers have been British. The morphia has been
exported in large quantities from Edinburgh to Japan, but as the
result of licensing the exports of this drug from Great Britain,
the shipments to Japan dropped from 600,229 ounces in 1917 to
one-fourth that amount in 1918. _The Japan Chronicle_, speaking
from "absolutely authentic information," states that 113,000 ounces
of morphia arrived in Kobe from the United States in the first five
months of 1919. These figures are not given as the total shipments
received in Kobe, but merely as the quantity of which _The
Chronicle_ has actual knowledge. It states further that this
morphia is being transhipped in Kobe harbor to vessels bound for
China. Dr. Paul S. Reinsch, who has resigned his post as Minister
to China, has stated that he will use every resource in his power
to stop the shipment from America of morphia intended for
distribution in China, in defiance of the international convention
which prohibits the sale of the drug in that country.
* * * * *
If sufficient publicity is cast upon the distributors, Japanese,
English and American, public sentiment may in time take cognizance
of the source of all this mischief, namely, the producer.
IV
SINGAPORE
In January, 1917, we found ourselves at Singapore, a British
dependency, situated at the end of the Malay Peninsula, and one of the
greatest seaports of the Orient. We were stopping at the Hotel de
l'Europe, a large and first class hotel. The first morning at
breakfast, the waiter stood beside us, waiting for our order. He was a
handsome young Malay, dressed in white linen clothes, and wearing a
green jade bracelet on one wrist. We gave him our order and he did not
move off. He continued to stand quietly beside our chairs, as in a
trance. We repeated the order--one tea, one coffee, two papayas. He
continued to stand still beside us, stupidly. Finally he went away. We
waited for a long time and nothing happened. At last, after a long
wait, he returned and set before us a teapot filled with hot water.
Nothing else. We repeated again--tea, coffee, papayas. We said it two
or three times. Then he went away and came back with some tea. We
repeated again, coffee and fruit. Eventually he brought us some coffee.
Finally, after many endeavors, we got the fruit. It all took a long
time. We then began to realize that something was the matter with him.
He could understand English well enough to know what orders we were
giving him, but he seemed to forget as soon as he left our sight. We
then realized that he was probably drugged. It was the same thing every
day. In the morning he was stupid and dull, and could not remember what
we told him. By evening his brain was clearer, and at dinner he could
remember well enough. The effects of whatever he had been taking had
apparently worn off during the day.
We learned that the opium trade was freely indulged in, at Singapore,
fostered by the Government. Singapore is a large city of about 300,000
inhabitants, a great number of which are Chinese. It has wide,
beautiful streets, fine government buildings, magnificent quays and
docks--a splendid European city at the outposts of the Orient. We
found that a large part of its revenue is derived from the opium
traffic--from the sale of opium, and from license fees derived from
shops where opium may be purchased, or from divans where it may be
smoked. The customers are mainly Chinese.
I wanted to visit these Government-licensed opium shops and opium dens.
A friend lent me two servants, as guides. We three got into rickshaws
and went down to the Chinese quarter, where there are several hundred
of these places, all doing a flourishing business. It was early in the
afternoon, but even then, trade was brisk. The divans were rooms with
wide wooden benches running round the sides, on which benches, in
pairs, sharing a lamp between them, lay the smokers. They purchased
their opium on entering, and then lay down to smoke it. The packages
are little, triangular packets, each containing enough for about six
smokes. Each packet bears a label, red letters on a white ground,
"Monopoly Opium."
In one den there was an old man--but you can't tell whether a drug
addict is old or not, he looked as they all do, gray and emaciated--but
as he caught my eye, he laid down the needle on which he was about to
cook his pill, and glanced away. I stood before him, waiting for him to
continue the process, but he did not move.
"Why doesn't he go on?" I asked my guide. "He is ashamed to have you
see him," came the reply.
"But why should he be ashamed?" I asked, "The British Government is not
ashamed to sell to him, to encourage him to drug himself, to ruin
himself. Why should he be ashamed?"
"Nevertheless, he is," replied the guide. "You see what he looks
like--what he has become. He is not quite so far gone as the others--he
is a more recent victim. He still feels that he has become degraded.
Most of them do not feel that way--after a while."
So we went on and on, down the long street. There was a dreadful
monotony about it all. House after house of feeble, emaciated, ill
wrecks, all smoking Monopoly Opium, all contributing, by their shame
and degradation, to the revenues of the mighty British Empire.
[Illustration: Packet of opium, actual size, as sold in licensed opium
shop in Singapore. The local government here derives from forty to
fifty per cent of its revenue through the sale of opium.]
That evening after dinner, I sat on the wide verandah of the hotel,
looking over a copy of the "Straits Times." One paragraph, a dispatch
from London, caught my eye. "Chinese in Liverpool. Reuter's Telegram.
London, January 17, 1917. Thirty-one Chinese were arrested during
police raids last night on opium dens in Liverpool. Much opium was
seized. The police in one place were attacked by a big retriever and by
a number of Chinese, who threw boots and other articles from the
house-top."
Coming fresh from a tour of the opium-dens of Singapore, I must say
that item caused some mental confusion. It must also be confusing to
the Chinese. It must be very perplexing to a Chinese sailor, who
arrives in Liverpool on a ship from Singapore, to find such a variation
in customs. To come from a part of the British Empire where opium
smoking is freely encouraged, to Great Britain itself where such
practices are not tolerated. He must ask himself, why it is that the
white race is so sedulously protected from such vices, while the
subject races are so eagerly encouraged. It may occur to him that the
white race is valuable and must be preserved, and that subject races
are not worth protecting. This double standard of international justice
he must find disturbing. It would seem, at first glance, as if subject
races were fair game--if there is money in it. Subject races,
dependents, who have no vote, no share in the government and who are
powerless to protect themselves--fair game for exploitation. Is this
double-dealing what we mean when we speak of "our responsibility to
backward nations," or of "the sacred trust of civilization" or still
again when we refer to "the White Man's burden"?
Pondering over these things as I sat on the hotel verandah, I finally
reached the conclusion that to print such a dispatch as that in the
"Straits Times" was, to say the least, most tactless.
V
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM COMMISSION
From time to time, certain people in England apparently have qualms as
to Great Britain's opium traffic, and from time to time questions are
raised as to whether or not such traffic is morally defensible. In
February, 1909, apparently in answer to such scruples and questionings
on the part of a few, a very interesting report was published,
"Proceedings of the Commission appointed to Enquire into Matters
Relating to the Use of Opium in the Straits Settlements and the
Federated Malay States. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by
Command of His Majesty." This document may be found in the New York
Public Library and is well worth careful perusal.
This Commission consisted of about a dozen men, some English, some
natives of the Straits Settlements. They apparently made an intensive
and exhaustive study of the subject, carefully examining it from every
angle. Countless witnesses appeared before them, giving testimony as to
the effects of opium upon the individual. This testimony is interesting,
in that it is of a contradictory nature, some witnesses saying that
moderate opium indulgence is nothing worse than indulgence in alcoholic
beverages, and like alcohol, only pernicious if taken to excess. Other
witnesses seemed to think that it was most harmful. The Commission made
careful reports as to the manner of licensing houses for smoking, the
system of licensing opium farms, etc., and other technical details
connected with this extensive Government traffic. Finally, the question
of revenue was considered, and while the harmfulness of opium smoking
was a matter of divided opinion, when it came to revenue there was no
division of opinion at all. As a means of raising revenue, the traffic
was certainly justifiable. It was proven that about fifty per cent of
the revenues of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States
came from the opium trade, and, as was naïvely pointed out, to hazard
the prosperity of the Colony by lopping off half its revenues, was an
unthinkable proceeding.
The figures given are as follows.
1898 Revenue derived from Opium 45.9 per cent
1899 44.8
1900 43.3
1901 53.2
1902 48.3
1903 47.1
1904 59.1
1905 46.
1906 53.3
There was one dissenting voice as to the conclusions reached by this
Opium Commission, that of a Bishop who presented a minority report. But
what are moral scruples against cold facts--that there's money in the
opium trade?
This Commission made its report in 1909. But the opium business is
apparently still flourishing in the Straits Settlements. Thus we read
in the official Blue Book for 1917, "Colony of the Straits Settlements"
that of the total revenue for the year, $19,672,104, that $9,182,000
came from opium.
What per cent is that?
VI
OPIUM IN SIAM
Bangkok, Siam, January, 1917. Siam, an independent kingdom. As a matter
of fact, "protected" very sternly and thoroughly by Great Britain and
France, so that its "independence" would about cover an oyster cracker.
However, it is doubtless protected "benevolently" for what protectorate
is anything but benevolent? The more rigorous the protectorate, the
more benevolent its character. The Peace Conference seems to have given
us a new word in "mandatory." We do not know as yet what adjective will
be found to qualify mandatory, but it will doubtless be fitting and
indicative of idealism--of sorts. Therefore, all will be well. Our
suspicions will be lulled. It is high time that a substitute was found
for "benevolent protectorate."
The particular form of benevolence noted in Siam was the total
inability of the Siamese to exclude British opium. They are allowed, by
the benevolent powers, to impose an import duty on all commodities
imported--except opium. That is free. The treaty between Siam and Great
Britain in 1856 says so. We rather fancy that Great Britain had more to
say about this in 1856 than Siam, but maybe not. Anyway, poor old Siam,
an independent kingdom, is bound to receive as much opium as may be
imported, and is quite powerless, by the terms of this treaty, to enact
laws to exclude it. In the last year or two, the Government of Siam has
been obliged to put the opium traffic under government control, in
order to minimize the worst evils in connection with it, although to
restrict and regulate an evil is a poor substitute for the ability to
abolish it.
All this, you will see, is rather tough on the Siamese, but good
business for the British Empire.
However, opium is not bad for one. There are plenty of people to
testify to that. We Americans have a curious notion to the contrary,
but then, we Americans are so hysterical and gullible. An Englishman
whom we met in Bangkok told me that opium was not only harmless, but
actually beneficial. He said once that he was traveling through the
jungle, into the interior somewhere. He had quite a train of coolies
with him, carrying himself and his baggage through the dense forests.
By nightfall, he found his coolies terribly exhausted with the long
march. But he was in a hurry to press on, so, as he expressed it, he
gave each of them a "shot" of morphia, whereupon all traces of fatigue
vanished. They forgot the pain of their weary arms and legs and were
thus enabled to walk all night. He said that morphia certainly knocked
a lot of work out of men--you might say, doubled their capacity for
endurance.
The night we left Bangkok, we got aboard the boat at about nine in the
evening. The hatch was open, and we looked into the hold upon a crowd
of coolies who had been loading sacks of rice aboard the ship. There
they lay upon the rice sacks, two or three dozen of them, all smoking
opium. Two coolies to a lamp. I rather wondered that a lamp did not
upset and set the boat on fire, but they are made of heavy glass, with
wide bottoms, so that the chances of overturning them are slight. So we
leaned over the open hatch, looking down at these little fellows,
resting and recuperating themselves after their work, refreshing
themselves for the labor of the morrow.
Opium is wonderful, come to think of it. But why, since it is so
beneficial and so profitable, confine it to the downtrodden races of
the world? Why limit it to the despised races, who have not sense
enough to govern themselves anyway?
The following figures are taken from the Statistical Year Books for the
Kingdom of Siam:
Foreign trade and navigation of the port of Bangkok, imports of opium:
1911-12 1,270 chests of opium
1912-13 1,775
1913-14 1,186
1914-15 2,000 Imported from India and Singapore.
1915-16 2,000
1916-17 1,100
1917-18 1,850
Also, from the same source, we find the number of retail opium shops:
1912-13 2,985
1913-14 3,025
1914-15 3,132
1915-16 3,104
1916-17 3,111
VII
HONGKONG
"The Crown Colony of Hongkong was ceded by China to Great Britain in
January, 1841; the cession was confirmed by the treaty of Nanking in
August, 1842; and the charter bears date April 5, 1843. Hongkong is the
great center for British commerce with China and Japan, and a military
and naval station of first-class importance."
Thus the Statesman's Year Book. This authority, however, omits to
mention just exactly _how_ this important piece of Chinese territory
came to be ceded to Great Britain. It was the reward that Great
Britain took unto herself as an "indemnity" following the successful
prosecution of what is sometimes spoken of as the first opium war--a
war of protest on the part of China against Great Britain's insistence
on her right to deluge China with opium. China's resistance was in
vain--her efforts to stem the tide of opium were fruitless--the might,
majesty, dominion and power of the British Empire triumphed, and China
was beaten. The island on which Hongkong is situated was at that time a
blank piece of land; but strategically well placed--ninety miles south
of the great Chinese city of Canton, the market for British opium.
The opposite peninsula of Kowloon, on the mainland, was ceded to Great
Britain by treaty in 1861, and now forms part of Hongkong. By a
convention signed at Peking in June, 1898, there was also leased to
Great Britain for 99 years a portion of Chinese territory mainly
agricultural, together with the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay, and
the island of Lan-tao. Its area is 356 square miles, with about 91,000
inhabitants, exclusively Chinese. Area of Old Kowloon is 3 square
miles. Total area of colony, 391 square miles.
The population of Hongkong, excluding the Military and Naval
establishments, and that portion of the new territory outside New
Kowloon, was according to the 1911 census, 366,145 inhabitants. Of this
number the Chinese numbered 354,187.
This colony is, of course, governed by Great Britain, and is not
subject to Chinese control. Here is situated a Government opium
factory, and the imports of Indian opium into Hongkong for the past
several years are as follows:
1903-4 3,576,431 pounds sterling
1904-5 4,036,436
1905-6 3,775,826
1906-7 3,771,409
1907-8 3,145,403
1908-9 2,230,755
1909-10 3,377,222
1910-11 3,963,264
1911-12 3,019,858
1912-13 2,406,084
1913-14 1,084,093
1914-15 110,712
These figures are taken from "Statistical Abstract Relating to British
India, 1905-6 to 1911-15," and "Statistical Abstract Relating to
British India, 1903-4 to 1912-13." The falling off in imports of opium
noticed in 1914-15 may be due to the war, lack of shipping, etc., or to
the fact that the China market was due to close on April 1, 1917. The
closing of the China market--400,000,000 of people destined no longer
to have opium supplied to them (except illegally, by smuggling, etc.)
is naturally a big blow to the British opium interests. That is where
the menace to the rest of the world comes in. Opium has been proved
such a profitable commodity, that if one market is shut off, others
must be found as substitutes. The idea of closing the trade altogether
naturally does not appeal to those who profit by it. Therefore, what we
should hail at first sight as a welcome indication of a changed moral
sentiment, is in reality but the pause which proceeds the casting about
for new markets, for finding new peoples to drug.
The Colonial Report No. 972, Hongkong Report for 1917, gives the
imports and exports of opium: Page 7--
"The imports and exports of certified opium during the year as follows:
Imports 7 chests
Export 224 chests
Of these, however, the imports all come from Shanghai, and of the total
export of 224 chests, 186 went to Shanghai."
Opium received from other sources than Shanghai makes a better showing.
"Seven hundred and forty chests of Persian opium imported during the
year, and seven hundred and forty-five exported to Formosa. Nine
hundred and ten chests of uncertified Indian opium were imported: Four
hundred and ten chests by the Government Monopoly, and the remaining
five hundred for the Macao opium farmer."
Macao is a small island off the coast of China, near Canton--a
Portuguese settlement, owned by Portugal for several centuries, where
the opium trade is in full blast. But somehow, one does not expect so
much of Portugal. The most significant feature of the above paragraph,
however, lies in the reference to the importation of Persian opium.
"Seven hundred and forty chests of Persian opium imported." Query, who
owns Persia?
Nevertheless, in spite of this poor showing, in spite of the decrease
in opium importation as compared with the palmy days, all is not lost.
The Crown Colony of Hongkong still continues to do an active trade. In
the Colonial Office List for 1917, on page 218, we read:
"Hongkong. Revenue: About one-third of the revenue is derived from the
Opium Monopoly."
VIII
SARAWAK
Near British North Borneo. Area, 42,000 square miles, many rivers
navigable. The government of part of the present territory was obtained
in 1842 by Sir James Brooke from the Sultan of Brunei. Various
accessions were made between 1861, 1885, and 1890. The Rajah, H.H. Sir
Charles Johnson Brooke, G.C.M.G., nephew to the late Rajah, born June
3, 1829, succeeded in 1868. Population estimated at 500,000, Malays,
Dyaks, Kayans, Kenyahs, and Muruts, with Chinese and other settlers.
Thus the Statesman's Year Book, to which we would add a paragraph from
an article in the National Geographic Magazine for February, 1919.
Under the title: "Sarawak: The Land of the White Rajahs" we read: "With
the recent death of Sir Charles Brooke, G.C.M.G., the second of the
white rajahs of Sarawak, there came to an end one of the most useful
and unusual careers among the many that have done credit to British
rule in the Far East. For nearly 49 years he governed, as absolute
sovereign, a mixed population of Chinese, Malays, and numerous pagan
tribes scattered through the villages and dense jungles of an extensive
territory on the northwest coast of Borneo.
"Constant solicitude for the welfare of his people won the sympathy and
devotion which enabled this white man, supported by an insignificant
army and police, to establish the peaceful occupations of civilization
in place of barbarous tyranny and oppression." How thoroughly this
"civilizing" process was accomplished may be judged somewhat by turning
to the Colonial Office List for 1917, where on page 436 we read:
"Sarawak: The principal sources of revenue are the opium, gambling,
pawn shops, and arrack, producing:
1908 $483,019
1909 460,416
1910 385,070
1911 420,151
1912 426,867
1913 492,455"
In the Statesman's Year Book for 1916 we find the total revenue for
this well-governed little colony as follows, given however in pounds
sterling, instead of dollars, as in the above table. Thus:
Revenue--1910 221,284 pounds sterling
1911 159,456
1912 175,967
1913 210,342
1914 208,823
It would seem as if forty-nine years of constant solicitude for the
welfare of a people, establishing the peaceful occupations of
civilization, might have resulted in something better than a revenue
derived from opium, gambling, pawn shops and arrack.
IX
SHANGHAI
In the New York Library there is an interesting little book, about a
quarter of an inch thick, and easy reading. It is entitled: "Municipal
Ethics: Some Facts and Figures from the Municipal Gazette, 1907-1914.
An Examination of the Opium License policy of the Shanghai
Municipality. In an Open Letter to the Chairman of the Council, by
Arnold Foster, Wuchang. For 42 years Missionary to the Chinese."
Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, is of two parts. The native or Shanghai
city, under the control and administration of the Chinese. And the
foreign concessions, that part of the city under the control and
administration of foreigners. This is generally known as the
International Settlement (also called the model settlement), and the
Shanghai Municipal Council is the administrative body. Over this part
the Chinese have no control. In 1907, when China began her latest fight
against the opium evil, she enacted and enforced drastic laws
prohibiting opium smoking and opium selling on Chinese soil, but was
powerless to enforce these laws on "foreign" soil. In the foreign
concessions, the Chinese were able to buy as much opium as they
pleased, merely by stepping over an imaginary line, into a portion of
the town where the rigid anti-opium laws of China did not apply.
Says Mr. Arnold, in his Open Letter: "It will be seen that the title of
the pamphlet, Municipal Ethics, describes a situation which is a
complex one. It concerns first the actual attitude of the Shanghai
Municipal Council towards the Chinese national movement for the
suppression of the use of opium. This, we are assured by successive
Chairmen of the Council, has been one of "sincere sympathy," "the
greatest sympathy," and more to the same effect. Certainly no one would
have guessed this from the facts and figures reproduced in this
pamphlet from the columns of the "Municipal Gazette."
"The second element in the ethical situation is the actual attitude of
the Council not only towards the Chinese national movement, but also
towards its own official assurances, protestations and promises.
"It is on this second branch of the subject before us that I specially
desire to focus attention, and for the facts here stated that I would
bespeak the most searching examination. The protestations of the
Council as to its own virtuous attitude in regard to opium reform in
China are made the more emphatic, and also the more open to criticism,
by being coupled with some very severe insinuations made at the time,
as to the _insincerity_ and _unreliability_ of the Chinese authorities
in what they were professing, and in what _they_ were planning to do in
the same matter of opium reform. It so happens, as the event proves,
that these sneers and insinuations were not only quite uncalled for,
but were absolutely and utterly unjust. When a comparison is instituted
between (a) 'official pronouncements' made two years ago by the Chinese
authorities as to what they then _intended_ to do for the suppression
of the opium habit, and (b) the 'actual administrative results' that in
the meanwhile have been accomplished, the Chinese have no cause to be
ashamed of the verdict of impartial judges. What they have done may not
always have been wise, it may sometimes have been very stern, but the
outcome has been to awaken the astonishment and admiration of the whole
civilized world! When, on the other hand, a comparison is instituted
between (a) the fine professions and assurances of the Shanghai
Municipal Council made six or seven years ago as to its _own_ attitude
towards the 'eradication of the opium evil' and (b) the 'actual
administrative results' of the Council's own proceedings, the feelings
awakened are of very different order. Here, not to mention any other
consideration, two hard facts stare one in the face: First, in October,
1907, there were _eighty-seven_ licensed opium shops in the
International Settlement. In May, 1914, there were _six hundred and
sixty-three_. In 1907 the _average_ monthly revenue from opium
licenses, dens and shops _combined_, was Taels 5,450. In May, 1914, the
revenue from licenses and _opium shops alone_ was Taels 10,995. The
Council will not dispute these figures."
At the beginning of the anti-opium campaign in 1907, there were 700
dens (for smoking) in the Native City, and 1600 in the International
Settlement. The Chinese closed their dens and shops at once. In the
Settlement, the dens were not all closed until two years later, and the
number of shops in the Settlement increased by leaps and bounds. Table
I shows an outline of the Municipal opium-shop profits concurrent with
the closing of the opium houses--and subsequently:
_Year_ _Month_ _Dens_ _Shops_ _Monthly revenue,_
_shops only_
1908 Jan. 1436 87 Taels, 338
Oct. 1005 131 623
1909 Jan. 599 166 1,887
Oct. 297 231 2,276
1910 Oct. Closed 306 5,071
1911 Oct. 348 5,415
1912 Nov. 402 5,881
1913 Dec. 560 8,953
1914 March 628 10,188
April 654 10,772
Mr. Arnold quotes part of a speech made by the Chairman of the
Municipal Council, in March, 1908. The Chairman says in part: "The
advice which we have received from the British Government is, in brief,
that we should do more than keep pace with the native authorities, we
should be in advance of them, and where possible, encourage them to
follow us." It must have been most disheartening to the native
authorities, suppressing the opium traffic with the utmost rigor, to
see their efforts defied and nullified by the increased opportunities
for obtaining opium in that part of Shanghai over which the Chinese
have no control. A letter from a Chinese to a London paper, gives the
Chinese point of view: "China ... is obliged to submit to the ruthless
and heartless manner in which British merchants, under the protection
of the Shanghai 'Model Settlement' are exploiting her to the fullest
extent of their ability."
There is lots of money in opium, however. The following tables compiled
by Mr. Arnold show the comparison between the amount derived from opium
licenses as compared with the amount derived from other sorts of
licenses.
1913. Wheelbarrows Taels, 38,670
Carts 22,944
Motor cars 12,376
Cargo boats 5,471
Chinese boats 4,798
Steam launches 2,221 Total, 86,480
Opium shops 86,386 Opium, 86,386
Another table shows the licensed institutions in Shanghai representing
normal social life (chiefly of the Chinese) as compared with revenue
from opium shops:
1913. Tavern Taels, 16,573
Foreign liquor seller 19,483
Chinese wine shop 28,583
" tea shop 9,484
" theater 8,714
" club 3,146
------
Total 85,983
Opium shops 86,386
Treaty Ports are those cities in China, in which the foreign powers
have extra-territorial holdings, not subject to Chinese jurisdiction.
Shanghai is one of them, the largest and most important. The
Statistical Abstract Relating to British India for 1903-4 to 1912-13
shows the exports of British opium into these Treaty Ports.
1903-4 1,610,296 pounds sterling
1904-5 1,504,604
1905-6 1,130,372
1906-7 1,031,065
1907-8 1,215,142
1908-9 2,703,871
1909-10 1,234,432
1910-11 2,203,670
1911-12 3,614,887
1912-13 3,242,902
It was in 1907 that China began her great fight against the opium evil,
and enacted stringent laws for its prohibition on Chinese soil. On page
15 of his little book, Mr. Arnold quotes from Commissioner Carl, of
Canton: "The 1912 figure (for the importation of foreign opium) is the
largest on record since 1895. The great influx of Chinese into the
foreign concessions, where the anti-opium smoking regulations cannot be
enforced by the Chinese authorities, and where smoking can be indulged
in without fear of punishment, no doubt accounts for the unusual
increase under foreign opium."
X
INDIA
India is the source and fount of the British opium trade, and it is
from Indian opium that the drug is chiefly supplied to the world. As we
have said before, it is a government monopoly. Cultivators, who wish to
plant poppies, may borrow money from the Government free of interest,
the sole condition being that the crop be sold back to the Government
again. It is manufactured into opium at the Government factory at
Ghazipur, and once a month, the Government holds auctions at Calcutta,
by means of which the drug finds its way into the trade channels of the
world--illicit and otherwise.[2]
[2] This description of the Opium Department is to be found in
Statistics of British India, Financial Statistics, Vol. II, 8th
Issue, page 159:
OPIUM. The region in which the poppy was cultivated in 1916-17
for the manufacture of "Bengal opium" comprises 32 districts of
the United Provinces of Agra and Ouhd. The whole Department has,
with effect from the 29th September, 1910, been under the control
of one Opium Agent, with headquarters at Ghazipur. At Ghazipur
there is a Government factory where the crude opium is
manufactured into the form in which it passes into consumption.
The cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium are
regulated by Act XIII of 1857, as amended by Act I of 1911, and
are under the general control of the Lieutenant Governor and the
Board of Revenue of the United Provinces, and the immediate
supervision of the Opium Agent at Ghazipur. The possession,
transport, import and export of opium are regulated by rules
framed under the Indian Opium Act. Cultivation is permitted only
under licenses granted under the authority of the Opium Agent.
The area to be cultivated is fixed by the license, and the
cultivator is bound to sell the whole of his production to the
Opium Department at the rate fixed by Government.... Advances, on
which no interest is charged, are given to licensed cultivators
at the time of executing the agreement and from time to time
(though ordinarily no more than two advances are given) until
final delivery. In March, April and May the opium is made over to
the officers of the Department, and weighed and tested, and as
soon as possible afterwards each cultivator's accounts are
adjusted, and the balance due is paid him. After weighment the
opium is forwarded to the Government factory at Ghazipur, where
it is manufactured in 3 forms--(a) opium intended for export to
foreign countries, departmentally known as "provision opium"--(b)
opium intended for consumption in India and Burma, departmentally
known as "excise opium" and (c) medical opium for export to
London. Provision opium is made up in the form of balls or cakes,
each weighing 3.5 lbs., and is packed in chests, each chest
containing forty cakes, weighing 140 1/7 lbs. It is generally of
71° efficiency. Excise opium is made up in cubical packets, each
weighing one seer, 60 of which are packed in a case. It is of
higher consistency than the "provision opium." Medical opium is
made up into cakes weighing 2 lbs. Provision opium is sold by
public auction in Calcutta. A notification is published annually,
generally about the month of June, stating the number of chests
which will be put up for sale in each month of the next calendar
year, and the quantities so notified are not altered without
three months notice. Sales are conducted month by month by the
Bengal Government; 7,000 chests were notified for sale in 1917
for shipment to non-China markets. The number of chests actually
sold was 4,615. In addition to this, 4,500 chests were sold to
the Government of the Straits Settlements, 2,200 to the
Government of Netherland Indies, and 410 to the Government of
Hongkong. The duty levied by Government on each chest may be
taken to be the difference between the average price realized and
the average cost.
The following facts are taken from "Statistics of British India.
Financial Statistics, Volume II, Eighth Issue," to be found at the New
York Public Library:
AREA UNDER POPPY CULTIVATION
Acreage: 1910-11 362,868
1911-12 200,672
1912-13 178,263
1913-14 144,561
1914-15 164,911
1915-16 167,155
1916-17 204,186
In the hey-day of the China trade, 613,996 acres were under cultivation
in the years 1905-6, consequently this is a drop in the extent of
acreage. But, as we have said before, the closing of the China market
simply means that other outlets must be found, and apparently they are
being found, since from 1914 onwards, the acreage devoted to poppy
planting is slowly increasing again.
The opium manufactured in the Government factory is of three
kinds--provision opium for export; excise opium, for consumption in
India, and medical opium, for export to London. It is this latter form
of opium which, according to Mr. MacDonald, in his "Trade Politics and
Christianity in Africa and the East" is being manufactured into morphia
by three British firms, two in Edinburgh and one in London, which
morphia the Japanese are buying and smuggling into North China.
The "Statistics of British India" shows the countries into which Indian
opium has been exported: we will take the figures for the last five
years, which show the number of chests sent out.
_1912-13_ _1913-14_ _1914-15_ _1915-16_ _1916-17_
China 19,575 4,061 1,000 734 500
Straits
Settlements 5,098 1,537 755 605 239
United Kingdom 11 115 498 199 0
Mauretius 10 19 23 65 120
Ceylon 50 105 80 65 80
Cochin-China 805 875 2,690 2,035 3,440
Java 3,010 3,265 2,650 1,835 1,965
Other
countries 2,815 1,929 3,160 3,248 2,366
Total 31,374 11,906 10,858 8,786 8,710
In some countries we see a falling off, as in China. Cochin-China, the
French colony, shows a considerable increase--the little Annamites,
Tonquinese, Cambodgians and other inhabitants of this colony of the
French Republic being shown what's what. Mauretius, a British Colony
five hundred miles off the coast of Madagascar, in the Indian ocean,
seems to be coming on. The falling off in shipments to the United
Kingdom may possibly have been due to the war and the scarcity of
ships. "Other countries" seem to be holding their own. With the end of
the war, the increase in ships, and general trade revival, we may yet
see compensation for the loss of China. With the increase of drug
addicts in the United States, it may be that in time America will no
longer be classed under "other countries" but will have a column all to
itself.
In another table we find a comparison as to the number of chests of
provision or export opium and of excise opium, or that intended for
consumption in India. Thus:
_Provision Opium_ _Excise Opium_
1910-11 15,000 chests 8,611 chests
1911-12 14,000 9,126
1912-13 7,000 9,947
1913-14 12,000 8,307
1914-15 10,000 8,943
1915-16 12,000 8,391
1916-17 12,000 8,732
Each chest contains roughly about one hundred and forty pounds.
REVENUE
The revenue of India is derived from various sources, and is classified
under eight heads. Thus: for 1916-17.
I. Land
Forest
Tribute from Native States Total £25,124,489
II. Opium 3,160,005
III. Taxation:
1. Salt
2. Stamps
3. Excise
4. Customs
5. Provincial rates
6. Income tax
7. Registration 32,822,976
IV. Debt Services 1,136,504
V. Civil Services 2,364,985
VI. Military Services 1,575,946
VII. Commercial:
1. Post
2. Telegraph
3. Railways
4. Irrigation 51,393,566
VIII. Miscellaneous Receipts 1,221,497
Grand total £118,799,968
Out of these eight classifications, opium comes fourth on the list.
But in addition to the direct opium revenue, we must add another item,
Excise, which is found under the third heading, taxation. In the "India
Office List for 1918" we find "Excise" explained as follows: Page 383:
"Excise and Customs: Excise duties in India are levied with the two
fold object of raising revenue and restricting the use of intoxicants
and narcotics." In the same book, on page 385, we also read: "Excise
and Customs Revenues: The total of the excise and customs revenues on
liquors and drugs in 1915-16 was in round figures ten million pounds.
This total gives an average of rather more than ninepence a head on the
whole population of British India as the revenue charge on drink and
drugs during the year."
These excise duties are collected on spirits, beer, opium and
intoxicating drugs, such as ganja, charas, and bhang, all forms or
preparations of Indian hemp (Cannabis Indica), known in some countries
as hashish. In 1917-18 there were 17,369 drug shops throughout India.
The excise duties collected from these sources was pretty evenly
distributed. Excise revenue for a period of years is as follows:
_Excise_ _Opium_ _Total Revenue_
1907-8 £6,214,210 £5,244,986 £88,670,329
1908-9 6,389,628 5,884,788 86,074,624
1909-10 6,537,854 5,534,683 91,130,296
1910-11 7,030,314 7,521,962 97,470,114
1911-12 7,609,753 5,961,278 100,580,799
1912-13 8,277,919 5,124,592 106,254,327
1913-14 8,894,300 1,624,878 105,220,777
1914-15 8,856,881 1,572,218 101,534,375
1915-16 8,632,209 1,913,514 104,704,041
1916-17 9,215,899 3,160,005 118,799,968
The "Statistics of British India for 1918" has this to say on the
subject of Excise (page 218): "Revenue: During the ten years ending
with 1916-17 the net receipts from Excise duties increased ... at the
rate of 47 per cent. The receipts from opium (consumed in India, not
exported) being at the rate of 44 per cent. The net receipts from
liquors and from drugs other than opium ... the increase at the rate of
48 per cent. This large increase is due not merely to the expansion of
consumption, but also to the imposition of progressively higher rates
of duty and the increasingly extensive control of the excise
administration. The revenue from drugs, (excluding opium) has risen in
ten years ... the increase being at the rate of 67 per cent."
A national psychology that can review these figures with complacency,
satisfaction and pride is not akin to American psychology. A nation
that can subjugate 300,000,000 helpless people, and then turn them into
drug addicts--for the sake of revenue--is a nation which commits a
cold-blooded atrocity unparalleled by any atrocities committed in the
rage and heat of war. The Blue Book shows no horror at these figures.
Complacent approval greets the increase of 44 per cent of opium
consumption, and the increase of 67 per cent in the use of other
habit-forming drugs. Approval, and a shrewd appreciation of the
possibilities for more revenue from "progressively higher rates of
duty," knowing well that drug addicts will sell soul and body in order
to procure their daily supply.
XI
TURKEY AND PERSIA
Next to India, the greatest two opium-producing countries in the world
are Turkey and Persia. The Statesman's Year Book for 1918 has this to
say about it. On page 1334: "The principal exports from Turkey into the
United Kingdom ... in two years were:
_1915_ _1916_
Barley £156,766 £49,413
Raisins 127,014 34,003
Dried fruit 375,519 540,633
Wool 36,719 143,216
Tobacco 149,100 3,711
Opium 262,293 48,090"
These are the only articles mentioned in this list of chief exports.
There are others, doubtless, but the Statesman's Year Book is a
condensed and compact little volume, dealing only with the principal
things exported. In 1915 we therefore notice that the opium export was
second on the list, being exceeded by but one other, dried fruit. In
1916, the third year of the war, the opium export is decidedly less, as
are all the other articles exported, except dried fruit and wool--which
were articles probably more vital to the United Kingdom at that time
even than opium.
PERSIA
The same authority, the Statesman's Year Book for 1918, gives a table
on page 1162, showing the value of the chief exports from Persia. The
values are given in thousands of kran, sixty kran equaling one pound
sterling.
_1914-15_ _1915-16_
Opium 41,446 kran 41,732 kran
Since the war, both Turkey and Persia are more or less under control of
the British Empire, which gives Great Britain virtual control of the
world's output of opium. With this monopoly of the opium-producing
countries, and with a million or so square miles added to her immense
colonial Empire, one wonders what use Great Britain will make of the
mandatory powers she has assumed over the lives and welfare of all
these subject peoples! Will she find these helpless millions ready for
her opium trade? Will she establish opium shops, and opium divans, and
reap half the costs of upkeep of these newly acquired states by means
of this shameful traffic?
XII
MAURETIUS
Another British colony is Mauretius, acquired by conquest in 1810, and
formally ceded to Great Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. This
island is in the Indian Ocean, 500 miles east of Madagascar, with an
area of about 720 square miles. The population is about 377,000, of
which number 258,000 are Indian, and 3,000 Chinese. Opium appears to be
sold in the colony, since the Blue Book mentions that licenses are
required for opium sellers. As far as we can discover, by perusal of
these Government Reports, the sale of opium is not conducted by the
Government itself, as in India, the Straits Settlements, Hongkong,
etc., but is carried on by private dealers who obtain licenses before
they can open opium shops. A part of the revenue, however, is derived
from opium; thus, according to the Blue Book for the Colony of
Mauretius for 1915, page V 73, we read that the imports of opium for
the year amounted to 1,353 kilos, with a duty collected of 54,126
rupees. The Blue Book for 1916 shows a gratifying increase. Thus, the
import of crude opium from India amounted to 5,690 kilos, with a duty
collected of 227,628 rupees. (See page V 64.)
_1915_ _1916_
Imports of opium 1,353 kilos 5,690 kilos
Duty on opium 54,126 rupees 7,628 rupees
Total duty on all imports 3,765,677 rupees 4,143,085 rupees
Statistics for British India, Eighth Issue, gives these figures:
OPIUM EXPORTED TO MAURETIUS
1912-13 10 chests
1913-14 19 "
1914-15 23 "
1915-16 65 "
1916-17 120 "
This is a poor little colony, but has its possibilities. The
consumption of opium appears to be increasing steadily in a most
satisfactory manner. Congratulations all round.
XIII
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO
British North Borneo occupies the northern part of the island of
Borneo. Area, about 31,000 square miles, with a coast line of over 900
miles. Population (1911 census), 208,000, consisting mainly of
Mohammedan settlers on the coast and aboriginal tribes inland. The
Europeans numbered 355; Chinese 26,000; Malays, 1,612; East Indians
about 5,000 and Filipinos 5,700. The number of natives cannot be more
than approximately estimated, but is placed at about 170,000. The
territory is under the jurisdiction of the British North Borneo
Company, being held under grants from the Sultans of Brunei and Sulu
(Royal Charter in 1881).
Like many other British colonies, opium is depended upon for part of
the revenue. The Statesman's Year Book for 1916 observes on page 107:
"Sources of revenue: Opium, birds' nests, court fees, stamp duty,
licenses, import and export duties, royalties, land sales, etc. No
public debt."
In this frank manner, our attention is called to opium, which appears
first on the list of sources of revenue.
Going over the files of the Government reports, we will begin with
the "Supplement to the Official Gazette for British North Borneo.
Administration Report for the Year 1910." Published June 1, 1911.
On page 3 we read: "Customs and Trade: The import and export trade
of the state shows a healthy expansion.... It is interesting to note
that imports show an increase at every station. Out of the 47 headings
of Tariff, there are only 7 which show decreases.... The largest
increases appear under cloth, $147,106; opium, $132,692, and iron
ware, $118,620.... The general all round increases ... are of course
due to the demand for supplies of all kinds in connection with the
opening of rubber estates."
The Supplement to the Official Gazette, Report for 1912 (published in
December, 1913) is also a report of general prosperity. Page 4: "Trade:
The volume of trade for the year 1912 was $11,139,122, giving an
increase over 1911 of 18 per cent.... Imports: As in 1911, all stations
show an increase of imports. Out of 47 headings, 33 show increases, 12
show decreases, and 2 remain stationary. Increases: There was an
increase under rice, flour and grain ... the increase under other
headings include sundries, opium, machinery, etc."
The next Government Report is not so happy. Opium imports show no
"healthy expansion." Thus, the Supplement to the Official Gazette,
Report for 1913 (published 1 February, 1915) says on page 4: "Other
decreases in imports were opium, $109,180. The decrease in opium was
due to the abolition of the Opium Farm, which also held the Labuan
Farm, and opium was therefore no longer imported from Labuan for use in
the West Coast and the Interior."
Still more bad news as to opium, in the report for 1914, (published 1
February, 1916). All imports drop. Page 4 records "Decrease in
imports.... Railway and telegraph material, rice, flour, grain and
opium." In this year the opium imports only amount to $58,464. This
general falling off in all imports may have been due to the war. But
the opium situation was apparently growing serious. On page 17 of this
same report we read that "Thirty-two ordinances were passed by the
Council and became laws during the year. Among them the Opium and
Chandu."
The brevity and meagerness of these official reports often leave one
puzzled as to their meaning. The Supplement to the Official Gazette for
1915 (published October, 1916), shows still more discouraging news as
to opium. Imports that year amounted to only $31,299. But, in spite of
this discouragement, hope still remains. The same report shows optimism
under the head of Excise. "Excise: $627,225, against $467,078, an
increase in the net revenue of $160,147, due to Government taking over
the sole control of the sale of chandu (smoking opium) and the
collection of other Excise duties, formerly farmed."
This explains the Ordinance passed by the Council the preceding year,
regarding Opium and Chandu. Since the Government has taken over "sole
control of the sale of chandu" and will collect the excise duties
systematically and thoroughly, we may still hope for some future report
which will show once more a "healthy expansion" in the opium revenue.
XIV
BRITISH GUIANA
Situated in South America. Area, 89,480 square miles. Population at
census of 1911, excluding aborigines in the unfrequented parts of the
colony, 296,000. The Statesman's Year Book, which gives us these brief
facts, has very little to say about this British colony in our Western
Hemisphere, and gives no dates or information as to how and when it was
acquired. The Government reports are also meager and unsatisfactory,
and there is no wealth of detail as to exports and imports. The
country, however, is rich in gold, mining having commenced in 1886.
Diamonds have also been discovered.
The chief sources of revenue, however, are customs, excise and
licenses. With the word "excise" we have come to have unpleasant
associations. From "The Statistical Abstract for British Self-Governing
Dominions, Colonies, Possessions and Protectorates" we find a table
showing the imports of opium into the various countries under British
rule. The opium imports into British Guiana are as follows:
1910 1,251 pounds sterling
1911 1,270
1912 2,474
1913 4,452
1914 5,455
1915 4,481
These figures would seem to indicate that even on the Western
Hemisphere the taste for opium may be cultivated. It need not
necessarily be confined to the Oriental peoples. The population of much
of South America is a mixed lot, the result of mixed breeding between
Spanish settlers, Indians, native tribes of all sorts. All this jumble,
including the aborigines referred to, might, with a little teaching
become profitable customers of the Opium Monopoly. Time and a little
effort, given this fertile field, ought to produce a "healthy
expansion" in the opium trade.
And that this insidious habit is indeed taking hold, in at least one
more country in South America, one may infer from the following
paragraph which appeared in the New York Times, 4 October, 1919:
DRUG EVIL IN ARGENTINA
Buenos Aires Opens Fight on Use of Narcotics
The city government of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has begun a
determined fight to wipe out the drug evil by the enactment of
stringent laws governing the sale of narcotics. This step was taken
after an investigation by the authorities had disclosed that not
only was the narcotic habit strong among the poor, but that it was
spreading throughout virtually every class in the city.
Until the passage of the laws druggists were permitted to sell
cocaine, morphine and opium to any purchaser. The new laws forbid
the sale of these drugs except in filling prescriptions prepared by
registered physicians. The city also has established dispensaries
for the treatment of drug addicts.
XV
HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA
In a vague way, we are familiar with the "opium evil" in China, and
some of us have hazy ideas as to how it came about. The China Year Book
for 1916 has this to say on the subject: "The poppy has been known in
China for 12 centuries, and its medicinal use for 9 centuries.... It
was not until the middle of the 17th century that the practice of
mixing opium with tobacco for smoking purposes was introduced into
China. This habit was indulged in by the Dutch in Java, and by them
taken to Formosa, whence it spread to Amoy and the mainland generally.
There is no record to show when opium was first smoked by itself, but
it is thought to have originated about the end of the 18th century.
Foreign opium was first introduced by the Portuguese from Goa at the
beginning of the 18th century. In 1729, when the foreign import was 200
chests, the Emperor Yung Ching issued the first anti-opium edict,
enacting severe penalties on the sale of opium and the opening of
opium-smoking divans. The importation, however, continued to increase,
and by 1790 it amounted to over 4,000 chests annually. In 1796 opium
smoking was again prohibited, and in 1800 the importation of foreign
opium was again declared illegal. Opium was now contraband, but the
fact had no effect on the quantity introduced into the country, which
rose to 5,000 chests in 1820; 16,000 chests in 1830; 20,000 chests in
1838, and 70,000 chests in 1858."
The China Year Book makes no mention of the traders who carried these
chests of opium into China. The opium came from India, however, and the
increase in importation corresponds with the British occupation of
India, and the golden days of the East India Company. "Opium was now
contraband, but that fact had no effect on the quantity introduced into
the country,"--smuggled in wholesale by the enterprising British
traders.
China was powerless to protect herself from this menace, either by
protests or prohibition. And as more and more of the drug was smuggled
in, and more and more of the people became victims of the habit, the
Chinese finally had a tea-party, very much like our Boston Tea Party,
but less successful in outcome. In 1839, in spite of the fact that
opium smoking is an easy habit to acquire and had been extensively
encouraged, the British traders found themselves with 20,000 chests of
unsold opium on their store-ships, just below Canton. The Chinese had
repeatedly appealed to the British Government to stop these imports,
but the British Government had turned a persistently deaf ear.
Therefore the Emperor determined to deal with the matter on his own
account. He sent a powerful official named Lin to attend to it, and Lin
had a sort of Boston Tea Party, as we have said, and destroyed some
twenty thousand chests of opium in a very drastic way. Mr. H. Wells
Williams describes it thus: "The opium was destroyed in the most
thorough manner, by mixing it in parcels of 200 chests, in trenches,
with lime and salt water, and then drawing off the contents into an
adjacent creek at low tide."
After this atrocity, followed the first Opium War, when British ships
sailed up the river, seized port after port, and bombarded and took
Canton. Her ships sailed up the Yangtsze, and captured the tribute
junks going up the Grand Canal with revenue to Peking, thus stopping a
great part of China's income. Peace was concluded in 1843, and Great
Britain came out well. She recompensed herself by taking the island of
Hongkong; an indemnity of 21 million dollars, and Canton, Amoy,
Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were opened up as "treaty ports"--for the
importation of opium and the "open-door" in general.
Mr. Wells, in his "Middle Kingdom" describes the origin of this first
war with England: "This war was extraordinary in its origin as growing
chiefly out of a commercial misunderstanding; remarkable in its course
as being waged between strength and weakness, conscious superiority and
ignorant pride; melancholy in its end as forcing the weaker to pay for
opium within its borders against all its laws, thus paralyzing the
little moral power its feeble government could exert to protect its
subjects.... It was a turning point in the national life of the Chinese
race, but the compulsory payment of six million dollars for the opium
destroyed has left a stigma upon the English name."
He also says, "The conflict was now fairly begun; its issue between the
parties so unequally matched--one having almost nothing but the right
on its side, the other assisted by every material and physical
advantage--could easily be foreseen" and again, after speaking of it
as being unjust and immoral, he concludes "Great Britain, the first
Christian power, really waged this war against the pagan monarch who
had only endeavored to put down a vice harmful to his people. The war
was looked upon in this light by the Chinese; it will always be so
looked upon by the candid historian, and known as the Opium War."
Within fifteen years after this first war, there was another one, and
again Great Britain came off victorious. China had to pay another
indemnity, three million dollars, and five more treaty ports were
opened up. By the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin, the sale of opium in
China was legalized in 1858.
From a small pamphlet, "Opium: England's Coercive Policy and Its
Disastrous Results in China and India" by the Rev. John Liggins, we
find the following: "As a specimen of how both wars were carried on, we
quote the following from an English writer on the bombardment of
Canton: 'Field pieces loaded with grape were planted at the end of
long, narrow streets crowded with innocent men, women and children, to
mow them down like grass till the gutters flowed with their blood.'" In
one scene of carnage, the _Times_ correspondent recorded that half an
army of 10,000 men were in ten minutes destroyed by the sword, or
forced into the broad river. "The Morning Herald" asserted that "a more
horrible or revolting crime than this bombardment of Canton has never
been committed in the worst ages of barbaric darkness."
Naturally, therefore, after the termination of these two wars, China
gave up the struggle. She had fought valiantly to protect her people
from opium, but the resources of a Christian nation were too much for
her. Seeing therefore that the opium trade was to be forced upon her,
and that her people were doomed to degradation, she decided to plant
poppies herself. There should be competition at least, and the money
should not all be drained out of the country. Thus it came about that
after 1858 extensive tracts of land were given over to poppy
production. Whole provinces or parts of provinces, ceased to grow grain
and other necessities, and diverted their rich river bottoms to the
raising of opium. Chinese opium, however, never supplanted Indian
opium, being inferior to that raised in the rich valley of the Ganges.
The country merely had double quantities of the drug, used straight or
blended, to suit the purse or taste of the consumer.
Then, in 1906, the incredible happened. After over a hundred years of
steady demoralization, with half her population opium addicts, or worse
still, making enormous profits out of the trade, China determined to
give up opium. In all history, no nation has ever set itself such a
gigantic task, with such a gigantic handicap. China, a country of
immense distances, with scant means of communication; with no common
language, a land where only the scholars can read and write, suddenly
decided to free herself from this vice. The Emperor issued an edict
saying that in ten years' time all opium traffic must cease, and an
arrangement was made with Great Britain whereby this might be
accomplished. To the honor of America be it said that we assisted China
in this resolution. We agreed to see her through.
A bargain was then made between China and Great Britain, in 1907, China
agreeing to diminish poppy cultivation year by year for a period of ten
years, and Great Britain agreeing to a proportional decrease in the
imports of Indian opium. A three years' test was first agreed to, a
trial of China's sincerity and ability, for Great Britain feared that
this was but a ruse to cut off Indian opium, while leaving China's
opium alone in the field. At the end of three years, however, China had
proved her ability to cope with the situation. Thus, for a period of
ten years, both countries have lived up to their bargain, the amount of
native and foreign opium declining steadily in a decreasing scale.
April 1, 1917, saw the end of the accomplishment.
China's part was most difficult. In the remote, interior provinces,
poppies were grown surreptitiously, connived at by corrupt officials
who made money from the crops. However, drastic laws were enacted and
severe penalties imposed upon those who broke them. If poppy
cultivation could not be stopped, England would not hold to her end of
the bargain. Not only was there a nation of addicts to deal with, but
these could obtain copious supplies of opium from the foreign
concessions, over which the Chinese had no control. We shall show, in
another article, to what extent this was carried on. Yet somehow, in
some manner, the impossible happened. Year by year, little by little,
one province after another was freed from poppy cultivation, until in
1917, China was practically free from the native-grown drug, and
foreign importation had practically ended.
In this manner, first by large smuggling, then by two opium wars, was
China drugged with opium. And in this manner, and to this extent, has
she succeeded in freeing herself from the curse. But in one way, she is
not free. She has no control over the extra-territorial holdings of
European powers, for in each treaty port are the foreign concessions
already mentioned--German, Austrian, British, French, Russian. And in
these concessions, opium may be procured. Simply by crossing an
imaginary line, in such cities as Shanghai and Hongkong, can the
Chinese buy as much opium as they choose. China will never be rid of
this menace till she is rid of these extraterritorial holdings. Opium
shops, licensed by foreign governments, are always ready to supply her
people with the forbidden drug.
We say that the China market is closed. So it is, in one way. But the
British Opium Monopoly is not ended. The year 1917 saw a tremendous
blow dealt to the British opium dealers, but other markets will be
found. There are other countries than China whose inhabitants can be
taught this vice. The object of this discussion is to consider these
other countries, and to see to what extent the world is menaced by this
possibility.
XVI
CONCLUSION
There are many people who advocate the use of opium, and who defend the
policy of the Opium Monopoly. They argue that it is not harmful--if
taken in moderation. They even assert that it is no more objectionable
than alcohol or tobacco. Leaving out of account, therefore, the
consensus of opinion of the medical profession as to the evils of
habit-forming drugs, and accepting the theory that opium is harmless,
we should then like to ask why the use of opium is so carefully
restricted to the peoples of subject states, who have no voice in their
own affairs? Why should the benefits of opium be confined to Oriental
races, and why should not the white race be given the same
opportunities for indulgence? Is there any reason for this
discrimination? As a source of revenue, it certainly has advantages.
Yet curiously enough, those European countries which derive much profit
through the sale of opium to their subject races, seem to have an
aversion to introducing it to their people at home. And there is a
further coincidence in the fact that none of the self-governing
colonies of European countries--Australia, New Zealand and
Canada--permit this traffic. It appears to be only the subject peoples,
whose well-being has become the White Man's Burden, who receive the
blessings of this peculiar form of altruism. Is it because the white
race is worth preserving, worth protecting, and because subject nations
are fair game for exploitation of any kind?
Another argument advanced by advocates of Government opium is that the
Oriental peoples are "different"--that opium does them no harm. Every
writer on the subject of opium in China, produces evidence to show the
shocking results upon that country, during the hey-day of the deluge.
The complete moral degradation, and economic ruin of thousands of
helpless individuals. Nor do we think the medical profession would
agree with this assumption that opium is harmless to Orientals, because
they are "different." Their only real difference lies in their
helplessness to protect themselves from foreign aggression.
Another argument advanced by the upholders of the Monopoly is that the
Orientals have always been users of opium, that they like it, it suits
them, it would be unfair to deprive them of it. We have seen to what
extent the Chinese liked it, and how it was forced upon them by two
wars. Not until they were completely crushed, and had to accept the
terms of the conquerer, did they submit. It can hardly, therefore, be
called a vice indigenous to the Chinese. Japan is another Oriental
nation that disproves this argument. As we have said before, there are
no opium shops in Japan, and the sale of opium is not conducted by the
Japanese Government. On the contrary, the Japanese have the same fear
of this drug that a European nation has, and exercises the same
precautions to protect its people. But, as we have said before, Japan
is the only Oriental nation that has not been subjugated by a European
nation, and therefore has never had opium thrust upon her. She is the
only country in the Far East that has managed to preserve her
sovereignty, and has never been subject to certain blighting influences
of European culture.
Another exception to this assumption that the Orientals cannot do
without opium lies in the Philippines. When America acquired those
islands some twenty years ago, our first act was to eliminate the opium
traffic, which had been established there by our predecessors. It had
been in existence for decades, but we immediately set about to abolish
it. Root and branch we did away with it, and shed no crocodile tears as
to the "hardship" this would be to the people who had come under our
protection. We wished no revenue coming from such a source as this. Yet
we might have cut in half the cost of our Philippine budget had we
followed the example set by other nations. We have seen that certain
British colonies, Hongkong and the Straits Settlements, for example,
derive from one-third to one-half of their upkeep expenses from this
traffic. But we refrained from treating our Filipinos in this manner.
We are called sentimentalists out in the East--at such times as we are
not called money-getters. To-day, the Philippines are very nearly ready
for self-government. Would they have been so nearly ready had we
continued to drug them as they had been drugged before we took
possession? Drugged peoples are usually docile and submissive--perhaps
that is the secret of much of the successful colonizing, about which we
hear so much.
But let us leave aside the question of the Orientals, and whether or no
opium is good for them. We recognize quite clearly that it is not good
for ourselves, for Americans. We recognize that fact quite as clearly
as England realizes that it is not good for the inhabitants of the
British Isles. Quite as clearly as France, while setting up opium shops
in her colony of Indo-China, refuses to establish them in Paris or
Marseilles. America is unique in the fact that although we have
colonial possessions, we do not have a double standard of morality. We
attempt to throw around our colonies the same safeguards that we throw
around ourselves at home. But the question arises, how successful are
we in protecting ourselves at home? Not particularly so, according to
the daily press.
How great the danger to ourselves was recognized some thirty-seven
years ago by an Episcopal missionary to China, the Rev. John Liggins.
In 1882 he published a small book, already referred to, entitled:
"England's Coercive Opium Policy and Its Disastrous Results in China
and India." The preface to this unheeded warning runs thus. "Our aim in
this sketch is to present, as briefly as possible, the most important
facts and testimonies concerning a traffic which is as disgraceful to
England as it is ruinous to China and hurtful to India.... It is also
of the highest importance that the people throughout our wide domain
should be aroused concerning the new, fascinating and deadly foe which
has entered our country through the Golden Gate, and which already
numbers its victims by the thousands, and will soon do so by the tens
of thousands."
The Rev. Mr. Liggins saw it coming--that danger which is almost ready
to overwhelm us to-day. He recognized clearly that the Opium Monopoly
of that great nation which rules nearly one-third of the world--the
British Empire--would in time reach further and further afield for new
victims. It is too lucrative a trade to be confined to only a few
countries. Markets must not only be created and legalized in subject
states, but new ones added in outside countries, through smuggling. All
too fatally easy of accomplishment, and so profitable, financially, as
to be worth any risk and effort. The prediction as to our own danger,
made in 1882, seems to be abundantly realized.
The number of drug addicts in America to-day are fairly startling. The
number is variously estimated in New York City alone as from ten
thousand to one hundred thousand. It is said that there may be a
million in the country. Yet these figures are the merest guesswork, by
no means substantiated. Certain it is that the campaign of the New York
Health Department has uncovered thousands of them, and any other city
that chose to do so, could produce facts equally startling.
The laws on our statute books concerning the prescription of narcotic
drugs are powerless to deal with the situation. It is shooting into the
air to try to "regulate" this condition. It is as thoroughly well
"regulated" as it can ever be by the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act, a
Federal Law whose enforcement is in the hands of the Internal Revenue
Department. By the provisions of this Act, every pound of opium or its
derivatives that comes into this country, legitimately, is accounted
for, and its distribution, both wholesale and retail, made a matter of
record. Thus, the Board of Trade returns show the amount imported by
the big wholesale drug houses. These must account for their sales to
the retail drug stores, and the amounts must tally. The drug stores can
only sell narcotic drugs on a physician's prescription, and the
prescriptions are kept on file, and the quantity sold must correspond
to the quantity called for by these prescriptions, as well as to the
amount obtained from the wholesale drug house. In prescribing
narcotics, the physician is obliged to write his prescription in
triplicate--one copy for his own protection, one copy for the local
druggist, and one copy to be filed with the health department. Nor is
he allowed to prescribe narcotics for an addict without decreasing the
dosage. His prescription cannot call for thirty grains of morphia day
after day--it must show, in a chronic case of this kind, a daily
diminution of the amount prescribed, thus indicating a desire to get
the patient off the drug, eventually. All these records are kept on
file, open to inspection whenever an accounting is demanded,
consequently any leak can be instantly accounted for. This Harrison Act
is as comprehensive and as nearly perfect as possible, yet it does not
cover the situation. By this means, violations can be detected, whether
on the part of an unscrupulous physician or druggist, or even the
wholesale house, but these violations are only occasional. The root of
the evil remains untouched.
At one time, it was believed that carelessness on the part of the
physician was chiefly responsible for creating drug addicts, but the
recent campaign against violators of the Harrison Act seems to have
completely exonerated him of this charge. For one patient who becomes a
drug addict while under a doctor's care, through the accidental misuse
of morphia, there are a hundred who form the habit through other ways.
It is not the occasional, accidental victim, given morphia for the
relief of pain, which is creating our thousands of drug users. It is
not the occasional unscrupulous physician who is responsible. If this
was all, we could easily cope with these unwitting abuses, or even
deliberate instances of misuse. But the question goes deeper than this.
The Opium Monopoly was not established for any humane or altruistic
purpose. It was not established to provide the medical profession with
a drug for the relief of pain, to ease the agony of the injured and
wounded, or to calm the last days of those dying with an incurable
disease. This, which may be called the legitimate use of opium, is not
the object of the Opium Monopoly. Used only in this manner, there would
be no money in it. It is only when opium is produced in quantities far
in excess of the legitimate needs of the world that it becomes worth
while--to the Opium Monopoly. That Monopoly was established not to
relieve pain and suffering, but with the deliberate intention of
creating pain and suffering, by creating drug victims by the thousand.
It is these hundreds of thousands of customers that are profitable. The
menace to America lies in the large amounts of opium which are smuggled
into the country for this purpose. Boys and girls of sixteen and
seventeen first acquire this habit through curiosity, through
association with what they call "bad company," peddlers who first offer
it free, as a gift, well knowing that after a few doses the fatal habit
will be formed. Where do these vendors obtain their supplies?
The daily papers often contain suggestive paragraphs. Thus the "New
York Times," under date of February 28, 1919: "Seize Opium in
Schenectady. Opium, valued by Federal officials at $10,000 was seized
in Schenectady, and four Chinamen were arrested in a raid on Chinese
places of business on Centre street to-day. The Federal officials
expressed the belief that opium had been smuggled, and that Schenectady
is the distributing point for this part of the State."
An item in the "Seattle Union Record," of June 24, 1919, gives us cause
for further consideration.
BRITISH DRUG SHIP HELD BY UNITED STATES
FINE OF $49,265 ASSESSED FOR BRINGING "DOPE" TO AMERICA
LINER ALLOWED TO MOVE UNDER BOND
NO ARRESTS MADE, THOUGH BOOZE IS FOUND ABOARD
No arrests were made up to Tuesday noon in connection with the
enormous seizure of opium, cocaine and liquor on the Blue Funnel
liner Cyclops, although the investigation is being continued by
federal officials. The ship has been seized and a fine of $49,265
has been assessed against her for having drugs not listed in the
ship's manifest.
United States District Attorney Robert C. Saunders filed a libel
Monday night against the Cyclops, the boat being seized later by
the customs service. Bond was fixed at $100,000, or twice the fine.
The Fidelity Surety Company filed the bond Monday. The ship was
released Tuesday morning.
A civil libel suit may be filed against Capt. W. Duncan, holding
him responsible for the liquor found on the ship. Captain Duncan,
questioned Monday by customs officials, claimed to know nothing
about the contraband.
The result of Monday's checking of the opium and cocaine showed
that the seizure amounted to 778 tins of opium, 670 ounces of
cocaine and 16 ounces of morphine.
A small paragraph in a New York paper, dated June 12, 1919, reads thus:
"Two New Yorkers jailed for smuggling opium. Pleas of guilty to charges
of opium smuggling were entered in the Federal Court to-day by Albertus
Schneitzer and Maxwell Auerbach, of New York. They were fined $500
each, and sent to Atlanta penitentiary, the former for two years, and
the latter for one year. The men were arrested in connection with the
seizure of opium on the Canadian border."
We cannot grapple with our problem unless we face the facts; if we
ignore the source of supply and distribution, and the reasons for this
immense over-production of opium on the part of the British Opium
Monopoly. The anti-narcotic laws on our statute books are powerless to
protect us. With Canada, a British province, to the north, and all
Mexico on the south, what chance have we against such exposure? Of what
use to send two smugglers to the penitentiary, when at the Calcutta
opium sales, once a month opium is auctioned off under the auspices of
the British Government, to be disposed of as the buyers may see fit?
Much of it, as we have seen, goes to those helpless states and colonies
which have no control over their own affairs, where the opium traffic
is conducted under the administration of the alien government. Much of
the rest of it goes out for smuggling purposes, to be distributed in
devious, roundabout, underhand channels throughout the world. We are
coming in for our share in this distribution.
We feel that our country is in grave peril. Our politicians and our
diplomats have been too careful all these years, to speak of this
business, through fear of offending a powerful nation. But we feel that
the time has now come to speak. England has been relying upon our
silence to "get away with it." Upon our ignorance, and upon that
silence which gives consent. But in this new, changed world, reborn out
of the blood and agony of the great war, is it not time to practice
some of the decencies which we have proclaimed so loudly? As we have
said before, no stronger opponents of this policy are to be found than
among a section of the people of England itself. We look to them to
join us, in this great issue, and we feel that we shall not look in
vain.
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