OPIUM IN CHINA.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 225, 16 June 1908, Page 4

OPIUM IN CHINA.

Sir, —I v/ns greatly pleased to rend in your paper of May 8 the cablo hows from London that a resolution hod been moved in tho House' of Commons' urciiig the Government to take steps to speedily tcrminnto the licenses of opium, dens in- tho Crown colonies, and that the motion ivas accented by the Government, and unanimously agreed to. Your articlo following tho cable nows, under tho heading of "China's March to Victory," shows that you aro in'sympathy with China in her efforts to got rid ■ or tho opium vico, for which I am very pleased. "Now "that tho conscicnco of our .nation is nwakoning to a souse of our-great sin in this matter, mid wo are beginning to 'tales home action towards helping the Chinese, in tho strenuous effort that they aro' making, to rid' themselves of tho awful habit, every true patriotic' ■ Englishman who has a spark of humanity in him should rcjoico, and bo prepared to make any sacrifico to help to save our fellowcreatures from such a terriblo-vice, and to make amends for tho wrong wo have done. ... I have just been reading in a Shanghai paper (tho "North China Daily News," May 4) an interesting account of a miblic bonfire of opium pines in Shanghai. ~lt is stated that 500 dollars had been offered 1 for sonio of the pipes about to. bo burnt, but the committee had declined to sell thorn. Mr. Lien Yue-min, who had been mi opiumsmoker for twenty-fivo years', and who had now realised the harmful effects of tho drug, had brought his pipes and paraphernalia to be destroyed. The Opium I'alneo from which camo the pipes that were destroyed that af-,' ternoon was said to be tho largest in China, and news of Hie bonfire would be noised about throughout tho land. With regard to the statement' that if" the supply of opium to old habitues of opium dens was suddenly to cease such men long addicted to tho habit must die, I might hero quote from tho London "Daily Mail" an account of tho Japanoso experiment when they took (jver tho 'government of Formosa about twelve yoars ago. Tho Japanese found that "out of ninety-eight prisoners in Taipeh, all of whom were confirmed opium-smokers, and none of whom received a grain, thirty-nine suffered for three days from alfceling qf oppression and. vaguo l'ear; eleven lost all appotite, and were subject to intestinal pains; ten wept, and begged for death; while the remaining'thirty-eight were as brisk and blight as over. Anil those who suffered in the manner described were all well, again oil tho fourth day,, and never troubled to ask for opium afterward."—l am; etc., ' 11. S BLACKBURNE, Hon. Sec. N.Z. Anti-Opium Association. Wellington, Juno 13, 1908. ["Our correspondent's letter has had to be curtailed for reasons of space.]