OPIUM IN CHINA

Evening Star, Issue 19796, 21 February 1928, Page 8

OPIUM IN CHINA

APPALLING RISE IN AMOUNT The Chinese have just completed their annual observance of ‘’antiopium week,” which embraced several mass meetings, considerable oratory, and the distribution of literature bearing on the opium and narcotic evil. On the front page of a newspaper broadside published in all of the Chinese newspapers in Shanghai appeared a reproduction of a photograph of a half-million taels’ worth of heroin and morphine which was confiscated by the Shanghai office of the Maritime Customs during the first quarter of the present year. The seizures of morphia and heroin in Shanghai in 1920 amounted in all to 20,182 ounces (says the correspondent of the ‘ Manchester Guardian’).

In addition, to the seizures of the Customs authorities, which only account tor a small portion of the amount brought into the country, there have been some notable seizures in interior places. One seizure u, Peking dun.ig ]<)26 included 1,014 parcels of morphia, sixteen bottles of heroin, sixteen parcels of morphia pills. Shansi province alone, where General Yen Hsi-shan lias conducted a strenuous campaign against narcotics, confiscated 30,432 taels’ worth of jnorphia pills. One seizure in Harbin included a plant, operated by two Japanese, which contained machinery for the manfacturo of morphine pills. The books showed annual sales of tens of thousands of pills. An estimate of profits for the whole country, for prepared narcotics only, was placed by the Chinese Antiopium Association at 100,000,000 dollars. For prepared opium estimates are almost impossible to frame, owing to the domestic production and almost wholesale smuggling of the drug into the country. The situation is a most serious one. According to the estimates of the Antiopium Association, the import of manufactured narcotics from foreign countries in 1920 was three times the figure for 1925. It is. probably correct to say that about the only encouraging feature of the opium and narcotics situation in China is that a definite public opinion is developing among the educated members of the population, particularly among the students, against the use of drugs. During the “ anti-opium week ” demonstrations a delegation was sent to_ Nanking to urge on the Central Political Council of the Nationalist Government total suppression in the Shanghai district. The object of the association is threefold : total suppression of poppy cultivation ; anti-opium education in all the schools; and measures to prevent the importation of foreign narcotics such as heroin, morphine, and cocaine. “To achieve the latter,” says the association, “it needs most the sympathy and co-operation of foreign friends.” In addition, the association has made arrangements for the establishment of a hospital for drug addicts in Shanghai, the meeting where this was launched being attended by several officials of the Nationalist Government. As regards the Nationalist Govern, ment, it is difficult to say where genuine desire for suppression ends and the pull of the financial needs of the Government begins. On July 31 last, the Ministry of Finance of the Nanking Government issued a manifesto declaring its intention of totally prohibiting the production and consumption of opium within three years. To this end an official Government opium bureau was created under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Finance, with a director appointed by the Ministry. The Government announcement stated that in Kiangsu and Checkiang province the Government was putting out the trade in opium to tender for one year. At the end of the' year (1928) the Government would take over the trade and reduce the volume

by one-third, mid by another oucthird at the end of the following year (1929). It would totally wipe out the trade by July of the third year (1930). The concluding paragraph of the announcement stated that Mr Chen Kian, representing the Wing Ding Company, of Shanghai, had put in the successful tender by offering the sum of 15,400,000 dollars for Kiangsu and Chekiang for one year. A later report on August II gave jnore definite information. The Government (it stated) planned to place a heavy tax on all private consumption of opium, ranging from 70 per cent, the first year to 200 per cent, for the third year. Jlegulations were being drafted for licensing opium houses, issuing permits to addicts, and so on. All drug dealers arc to bo registered, with three lands of licenses, as fees of 500 dollars, 1,000 dollars, and 3,000 dollars, payable monthly and rcvokable on failure to pay promptly. Dealers attempting to operate without licenses are to be subject to a fine of 3,000 dollars and confiscation of the shop. Sales to persons below twentyfive years of age are to be prohibited, while addicts over twenty-five are to be provided with permits which are to ho reduced over the three-year period. Similar regulations were adopted in Canton on August 1, 1925, except that the period of “complete elimination” was given as four years. No information is available regarding the operation of the Canton regulations. The frequent change of military commanders and the supremacy of the military over the civilian officials would tend to cast doubt on the ability of the Government to carry out its intentions. The militarists are always in need of funds, and the “opium ring” always offers opportunities for obtaining ready cash. The action of the Nationalists at Canton and Shanghai in creating an opium monopoly under _ Governmental control is interesting in that it is the first time in modern China that any Government has had sufficient courage to face the problem and give it official recognition. No opium is produced in the Shanghai district, but Shanghai is probably the largest opium trading and smuggling district in China. Three years ago the police of the International Settlement raided a shop where opium was being sold, and confiscated more than a million taels’ worth of the drug. Documents seized on the premises showed the complete transaction—the purchase of the opium in Persia, the shipment of the cargo on a Japanese boat to Shanghai (the documents showed, Vladivistock as destination), and the smuggling of the cargo into Shanghai by the Chinese navy. There was hardly a Chinese military or naval officer at Shanghai who was not mentioned in the documents ns participating in the deal.