OPIUM IN CHINA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 April 1938, Page 8

OPIUM IN CHINA

Six months ago one could only purchase implements for opium smoking in the Japanese Concession in Tientsin, and there was a death sentence enforceable and being practised throughout North China against drug dealers and drug addicts. Of course, the traffic in drugs carried on by Japanese, Koreans, and Chinese was enormous, but the fact remained that it' was punishable by law, and altogether the men at the top always escaped, the same did not apply to the lesser fry, and not a week passed without the execution of several drug peddlers or addicts in both Peking and Tientsin. Today, under the new regime, there is a bureau in Peking which issues traders’ licences at 50dol. a month for those who deal in the selling of opium. The dealers must buy their supplies from this same bureau at a fixed market price of 4dol. an ounce, and they are allowed to retail at sdol. an ounce so a considerable sale is necessary before they even clear their overhead.

In the Chinese bazaar outside the Chien Men Gate there are numerous stalls openly selling opium pipes, lamps, needles, and other accessories, so that clandestine dealings or a visit to the Japanese Concession in Tientsin is no longer necessary.

As a diplomat bitterly remarked the other day:. “This is not the conquest of a people by war. It is its enslavement by means as shameful as they are subtle.”