Drugging a Nation

and supine while neighbour and foreigner despoiled her. Her statesmanship has been languid and irresolute, and her armies slow and spiritless in the field. Observers who k

the opium habit among the two classes of Chinamen directly responsible: both the soldiers and the scholar

rom the weakness of the Chinese government in Manchuria, which permits Japan to control in the Manchurian province and to discriminate against American trade. This discrimination would appear to have been one strong reason for the sailing of the battleship fleet to the Pacific. If this relatively small result of China's weakness and inertia can arouse great nations and can play a part in the moving of great fleets, it is not difficult to imagine the world-importance of a compl

her with indemnity charges, taken away part of her territory, and made her the plundering ground of the nations. She has been compelled to look indolently on while Japan, alight with the fire of progress, has raised her brown head proudly among the peoples of the West. So China has at last been driven to make a desperate stand against the encroachments of the curse which is wrecking her. The fight is on to-day. It is plain that China is sincere; she must be sincere, because her only hope li

f two questions which must be considered soone

er the opium curse without

at Britain doi

ems bearing on the trade, the territorial development, and the military and naval power of the nations.

ossibly succeed in this fight, now going

all have some small conception of what this Chinese "nation" really is. The peoples of these different European countries are all Caucasians; the different peoples of China are all Mongolians. These Chinese people speak eighteen or twenty "languages," each divided in

nt into Chili Province and offered some of these Honan bills in exchange for purchases. The merchants merely looked at them and shook their heads. "Tientsin dollar have got?" was the question. So the money of a community or a province is simply a local commodity and has either a lower value or no value elsewhere, for the simple reason that the average Chinaman knows only his local money and will accept no other. The diversity of language is as easily observed as the diversity of coinage. On the wharves at Shanghai you can hear a Canton Chinaman and a S

the fact that, during the Boxer troubles about Tientsin, it was a common occurrence for the northern s

ges in the habits of men. Witness our own struggle against graft. Witness also the vast struggle against the liquor traffic now going on in a score of our states. Even in this land of ours, which is so new that there has hardly been time to form traditions; which is alert to the value of changes and quick to leap in the direction of progress; which is essentially homogeneous in structure, with but one language, innumerable daily newspapers, and a close network of fast, comfortable railway trains to keep the vario

rms affect the large and the small farmers, the manufacturers, the transportation companies, the bankers, the commission men, the hundreds of thousands of shopkeepers, and the government revenues, for the opium traffic is an almost inextricable s

at tend to block reform everywhere, but, in addition, must find a way to rouse and energize the most backwa

he governmental edicts in every province, administer Chinese justice, and control the military and finances. But of these officials, m

the yellow; I shall not dispute that notion here. But one fact which I know personally is that every one of the treaty ports, where the white men rul

thargy and impotence of a decadent, chaotic race. How would you like to tackle a problem of this magnitude, as Yuan Shi K'ai and Tong Shao-i have done? Try to organize a campaign in your home town against the bill-board nuisance; against corrupt politics; against drink or cigarettes. Would it be easy to succeed? When you have thought over some of the

ut based as it is on personal travel and observation, on reports of travelling officials, merchants, missionaries, and of other journalists who have been in regi

ten per cent. each year. Second, all opium dens or places where couches or lamps are supplied for public smoking are to be closed at once under penalty of confiscation. Third, all persons who purchase opium at sale shops are to be registered, and the amount supplied to them to be diminished from month to m

ix months in which to change their habits. At the end of that period a lar

residents and travellers, from roadside gossip, and from talks with officials, all went to show that the dens in all the leading cities were c

merly served opium to their customers surrendered their lamps and implements. Throughout the other provinces north of the Yangtse River, while there was evidence of a fairly consistent attempt to enforce the new regulations, the results were no

ore than $2,000,000 (gold), and, thanks to the constant demands of the foreign powers for their "indemnity" money, the imperial government is hardly in a position to forego its demands on the provinces. But recognizing that a new revenue must be built up to supplant the old, the three new opium commissioners of Sze-chuan have begun by preparing addresses explaining the evils of opium, and sending out "public orators" to deliver them to the people. They have also used the local newspapers extensively for their educational work; and they have sent out the provincial police to make lists of all opium-smokers, post their names on the outside of their houses, and make certain that they w

f the upper Yangtse provinces, Chang-chi-tung, "the Great Viceroy," has been recognized for a generation as one of China's most advanced thinkers and reformers. His book, "China's Only Hope," has been translated into many languages, and is recognized as the most eloquent analysis of China's problems ever made by Chinese or Manchu. In it he is flatly on record against opium. Indeed, when governor of Shansi, twenty odd years ago, this same official sent out his soldiers to beat down the poppy crop. Yet

ering the difficulty and immensity of the problem, is an extraordinary record. Every opium den actually closed in China represents a victory. Whether the dens will stay closed, after the first frenzy of reform ha

s follow extraordinary exertion, and it is then that the habits of life regain their ascendency. Remarkable as this reform battle has been in its results, it certainly cannot show a complete, or even a half-complete, victory over the brown drug. And meantime the government of British India is pouring four-fifths of its immense opium production into China by way of Hongkong and the treaty ports. It should be added, further

a resolution now and then, has expressed diplomatic "sympathy" with its yellow victi

the world has a righ

ina. No one of them trusts any one of the others, therefore each must be prepared to fight in defense of its own interests. It is not safe to tempt great commercia

ng process is the putting down of opium-there is no other first step. Before you can put down opium, you have got to stop opium production in India. And therefore the Anglo-Indian opium business is not England's business, but the world'

ritain plannin

er party is to work this change, it must be that one which now holds the reins of power. And yet, after generations of fighting against the government opium industry on the part of all the reform organizations in England, after Parliament has twice been driven to vote a resolu

during a trial period of three years, in order to see whether the cultivation of the poppy and the number of

ernment offer less by way of carrying out the conviction of a national parliament to the effect that "the methods by which our Indian opium revenues are derived are morally indefensible"? The English people are urging their government, the Chinese are diplomatically putting on pressure, the United States is organizing an inter

ss Magazine, the annual export of Bengal opium has increased (1906-1908) from 96,688 chests to 101,588 chests. And it is well to remember that after Mr. Gladsto

the opium question, so that there is no dependence on hearsay in this arraignment of the British a

, and in advance of experience, to the complete suppression of an important trade, and goes beyond the underlying condition of

not even increase the import duty on Indian opium without the permission of Great Britain; that before Great Britain will consider the question of permanently reducing her production

a very substantial reduction on this figure, and the view of the Government of Ind

ll, during the next three years, unload more than 170,000 chests of opium on a race which it has brought to degradation, which is to-day

trade is the balance-sheet. It is not our fault as individuals that opium, the commodity, was launched out into the channels of trade; but since it is now

The profits in production, for everybody but the government, are so small that the strong hand of the law has often, nowadays, to be exerted in order to keep the ryots (farmers) at the task of raising the p

already spread through Europe and has entered Asia. In Japan, trade-unions are striking for higher wages. In China and India, are already heard the mutterings of revolution. The British government may yet have to settle up, in India

is matter. China can make no real progress in its struggle unt

n idea of where Great Britain stands to-day on the opium business, he can do no better than to read the following excerpts from a speech made last spring b

t, t

e suppress the opium traffic where we can. China has taken this difficult reform in hand. She has done much, but not everything. In Shanghai, Hongkong, and the Straits, we have done nothing

in conclus

time with the Chinese soldier. He said to me, as many other people have said to me, 'The Chinaman is splendid raw material as a soldier, and, if his officers would properly lead the Chinaman, he would follow and make the finest soldier in the world, bar none.' It will take China a long, long time to organize herself; it will take her a long time to organize her army and navy; it will take a long time to get rid of the

Letter fr

CLIMAX I

Success

iberal advertising there assembled in the spacious grounds of Chang Su Ho's Gardens, on the afternoon of Sunday, May 3, 1908, some two or three thousand of Shanghai's leading Chinese business men, together with a goodly sprinkling of Europeans and Americans, to witness the destruction of the opium-pipes, lamps, etc., taken from the Nan Sun Zin Opium Palace. In America, such a scene as this would have appeared little less than a farce, but here the obvious earnestness of the C

iving flat the artistic opium lamps as they were taken from the tables and placed on the ground before him. Meanwhile the pipes, mellowed and blackened by long use and many of them showing rare workmanship, were dipped into a large tin of kerosine and stacked in two piles on stone bases, to form the funeral pyre, while the center of each stack was filled in with kindling from the opium trays, similarly soaked with oil. On

y commendable effort, and he was sure the foreigners there would agree that no effort on their part could be too strong to do away with this curse, which was not only undermining the best intellects of China, but by the example of parents was affecting seriously the rising generation. To-day a gentleman, who had been a smoker for twenty-nine years and had realized the great harm it had done him, was present, and had brought with him his opium utensils to be destroyed with those from the opium saloons of French-town. The Nan Sun Zin Opium Palace, from which the pipes and other opium utensils had been brought for destruction, was the largest in Shanghai and, he had heard, the l

us utterly destroy all traces of the opium-smoking practice. Mr. Wong remarked that China had recently been under a cloud and in Shanghai there had been protracted rains, but to-day it was fine and it was evident that h

bs a torch was applied to the oil-soaked stacks of pipes which at once burned up fiercely. Extra oil was thrown upon the flames

um dens through its own efforts by bringing pressure to bear upon the owners of the dens. Already, many private individuals have given up their beloved pipes and some dens have voluntarily closed. It has also been agreed by the Chinese concerned that all of the shops run by women are to cease the sale of opium. This activity on the part of the Chinese themselves is a striking rebuke to those who cast suspicion upon the honesty of purpose of both the Chinese government and people, refusing to immediately abolish the opium licenses in the foreign settlements of Shangh

by one-quarter from July 1, 1908, or from such other early date and

w far short actual administrative results fall when compared with the official pronouncements that precede them. It is impossible not to be sceptical as to the intentions of the Chinese government with regard to this matter, although on this occasion we quite recognize that many officials are sincere in their desire to eradicate the opium evil, and I am sure there is every intention on the part of this community to assist them. Yet we know of no programme that they have drawn up to make this great reform possible, if indeed they have a programme.... The abs

e, of Soochow, President of the Anti-Opium League, to the muni

and its benefits are already patent. Let the ratepayers effectually second the efforts

ration of six months, were closed promptly without resistance or complaint. The government will grant a

e in the rural districts in the eastern and middle provinces it is reduced to a minimum. It is well for Sha

arnest appeals to the Council on this question. As friends of China,

rld-wide attention and Saturday's papers throughout Chri

i cannot afford to be the black spot

f the Anti-O

. DuBose,

interests" carried the day, and a resolution, ordering the closing of the dens on or before the end of December, 1909, was lost by a vote of 128 to 189, t

l this remarkable drawing was held without any sign of disfavour or rowdyism. The keepers of the Shanghai opium shops are no doubt thoroughly convinced that the feeling of the native community is entirely against the retention of these places and are ready to bow to the inevitable. None of the trouble or rioting feared by the Council, materialized, and it is certain that the entire list of licenses might have been immediately revoked without disturbance of any kind-and without protest. Three hundred and fifty-nine licenses thus cease wit

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Story of Mission Wo

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