Correspondence respecting the opium question in China.

Date:
[1908]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Correspondence respecting the opium question in China. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    provide opium for its guests, or allow them to bring opium appliances with them. trade after the expiry of the time limit will have its goods confiscated, and be liable to a fine of twice their value. Articles 6 and 7 discuss the preparation of remedies for the cure of the opium eraving ; their sale at a fixed price, or free distribution ; the establishment of anti-opium societies, and the formation of an enlightened public opinion on the subject. , Article 8 charges the local authorities with the duty of leading the movement, giving effect to all provisions regarding reports, inspections, and licences ; inculeates the necessity of personal attention to these matters, and severely forbids any exactions on the part of underlings. Article 9 forbids the smoking of opium by officials of high rank; a number of such persons are enumerated, who must solicit the permission of the Throne to be allowed to give up the habit within a fixed time, or, in default, to lose their post, if an official, or to have their rank pass on to the next in succession, if a hereditary noble. For all other officials the time limit is six months. Teachers, scholars, officers and men of the army and navy, if opium smokers, are to be dismissed within three months. Article 10 deals with the negotiations which are to be entered into with Great Britain and the Governments of other opium-importing countries, with the view of insuring that the import of toreign opium shall decrease pari passu with the decrease of the native drug, and shall cease entirely at the end of the specified ten years. Measures are also to be taken for enforcing the XIth Article of the British Commercial Treaty, and preventing the importation of morphia, or instruments for its injection, except for medical use. The 11th Article provides for the issue of Proclamations promulgating the Regula- tions for general observance. | So far asthe rules are concerned, they seem to leave nothing to be desired in regard to their completeness of scope and thoroughness of aim, and the main point which arises for consideration is whether they are capable of being enforced in practice. On this there will naturally be much divergence of view, but I am bound to state that, so far as my opportunities of judging extend, there is a balance of well-considered opinion in favour of an affirmative answer. The magnitude of the task is admittedly enormous, but it is ‘pointed out that the movement will have the support of public senti- roent, and that the authors of the Regulations, whose sincerity is beyond all doubt, are determined to see them carried into effect. Already I am told by missionaries and ethers who come into daily contact with the people, that a tendency is observable amongst opium smokers to break off the habit, and that remedies are in great demand at the foreign hospitals, ‘This may, of course, be merely a temporary response to the Imperial Edict, but a great awakening is going on in this country, and much of what is effected in the future, they are known at present. No provision has been made for procuring from other sources the large revenue which the State now derives from opium, and although a China without opium would doubtless in time be stronger financially than China now is, still the interval which must elapse before the reformation is accomplished is one which will impose a severe strain upon the public exchequer, and which will call for the elaboration of financial measures beforehand. I have, &e. (Signed) J. N, JORDAN. Inclosure in No. 5. Proposals, in Eleven Articles, for Carrying out the Prohibition of Opium now reverently submitted to the Throne. ¢Translation.) ARTICLE 1. To restrict the cultivation of the poppy in order to remove the root of the evil. The effects of poppy cultivation on the agricultural interests of the country have been disastrous. Throughout China the chief sources of opium production are the Provinees of Szechuan, Shensi and Kansu, Yiinnan and- Kueichou, Shansi, Kiangsu, and Anhui, but in the remaining provinces it may be said generally that there is hardly