HUGE DOPE SALES.

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 395, 31 March 1937, Page 8

HUGE DOPE SALES.

JAPAN REAPS PROFIT. Indignation in China. Indignation is growing throughout China at the way Japan is making a fortune out of peddling drugs to the inhabitants of the puppet State of Manchukuo, writes an overseas correspondent.

Opium and heroin are -sold throughout Manchukuo by a Japaneseoperated Government bureau which ruthlessly suppresses all rival traders and reaps full profits for itself. In China, the Nanking Government is fighting to kill the drug habit which has ravaged China for 100 years. The death penalty bias been introduced for drug addicts who refuse to accept treatment, at the countless clinics set up throughout the country. The death decree came into force at the beginning of the year. It is stated that 158 hopeless addicts were executed in January, but in most parts the local Government is showing leniency in the hope of saving the WoYs't addicts from their vice. With the fight against drugs being waged by order of Nanking, the official sale of drags to the people of Manchukuo causes additional concern in Nanking. Not only is Japan making money

out of selling delath to their subjects; the is using tbh drugs to make things easier for the Manchukuo Government. Nearly every. man in. Manchukuo is now a customer of the official drugjelling bureau, with the result that hey have no time or inclination to think seriously of their plight under lapanese control. At all Manchukuo’Customs barriers huge quantities of opium and heroin, if consigned to the Government bureau, are admitted without question. Any unfortunate. Chinese Vho is caught trying to smuggle drugs into Manchukuo is ruthlessly dealt with. All profits from the traffic in death must go to Tokio.