THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 30, 4 February 1913, Page 4

THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

The London “Times” writing at the end of last year on India and the opium traffic, states that the Chinese Government on Christmas Day issued a manifesto on the opium question, exemplary in tone though leaving the issue where it was. The article proceeds: “The present situation cannot indefinitely continue, and our purpose is to refer to the invidious position now occupied by the Government ol India. The value of Indian opium accumulated at Shanghai and Canton is now estimated at eleven millions sterling. The Indian authorities pocketed huge profits from sales at inflates; prices. Now the merchants want-tc know what they are to do with the vast stocks they have purchased through faith in agreements whicl the British Government are either unable or unwilling to enforce. This if riot a matter which concerns only t few middlemen in Bombay and Calcutta. Great banks and important commercial firms are heavily involved in the accumulation of Indian opium at the treaty ports. The Government of India should not hav< taken huge sums from traders with such alacrity if they did not mean tt enforce the agreement's. There is one partial remedy—further sales oi opium for export to China should b( stopped at once. No consideration can warrant the Government of Indie in continuing to unload opium upon a helpless market.”