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 http://archive.org/details/cu31924032583233 
 
THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 HEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO ■ DALLAS 
 ATLANTA • SAN PEANCISCO 
 
 MACMILLAN & CO., Limtted 
 
 LONDON • BOUBAY • CALCDTIA 
 UELBOURNE 
 
 THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lid. 
 
 TORONTO 
 
mmmm^w^mm^''^^-^'^h 
 
 
 Wrapper of packet of opium, as sold in licensed opium shops of Singa- 
 pore. Each packet contains enough opium for about six smokes. 
 
THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 BY 
 ELLEN N. LA MOTTE 
 
 author of " backwash of war," " peking dust," 
 "civilization," etc. 
 
 ^em f orb 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 1920 
 
 All riifils reserved 
 
COPVSIGHT, 1920 
 
 By the macmillan company 
 
 Set up and electiotyped. Published January, 1920. 
 
 ''''» ^ 
 
' If this was our battle, if these were our ends, 
 Which were our enemies, which were our friends ? ' 
 Witter Bynner, in The Nation. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 I. Great Britain's Opium Monopoly i 
 
 II. The Indian Opium Monopoly 6 
 
 III. Japan as an Opium Distributor 1 1 
 
 IV. Singapore i8 
 
 V. The Straits Settlements Opium Commis- 
 sion 23 
 
 VI. Opium in Siam 26 
 
 VII. Hongkong 30 
 
 VIII. Sarawak 35 
 
 IX. Shanghai 37 
 
 X. India 44 
 
 XI. Turkey and Persia 54 
 
 XII. Mauretius 56 
 
 XIII. British North Borneo 58 
 
 XIV. British Guiana 62 
 
 XV. History of the Opium Trade in China . . 65 
 
 XVI. Conclusion 73 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 We first became interested in the opium traffic 
 during a visit to the Far East in 1916. Like most 
 Americans, we had vaguely heard of this trade, 
 and had still vaguer recollections of a war between 
 Great Britain and China, which took place about 
 seventy-five years ago, known as the Opium War. 
 From time to time we had heard of the opium 
 trade as still flourishing in China, and then later 
 came reports and assurances that it was all over, 
 accompanied by newspaper pictures of bonfires 
 of opium and opium pipes. Except for these oc- 
 casional and incidental memories, we had neither 
 knowledge of, nor interest in the subject. On our 
 way out to Japan, in the July of 1916, we met a 
 young Hindu on the boat, who was outspoken and 
 indignant over the British policy of establishing the 
 opium trade in India, as one of the departments of 
 the Indian Government. Of all phases of British 
 rule in India, it was this policy which excited him 
 most, and which caused him most ardently to wish 
 that India had some form of self-government, 
 some voice in the control and management of her 
 own affairs, so that the country could protect 
 itself from this evil. Without this, he declared, his 
 country was powerless to put a stop to this traffic 
 imposed upon it by a foreign government, and he 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 greatly deplored the slow, but steady demoraliza- 
 tion of the nation which was in consequence 
 taking place. As he produced his facts and figures, 
 showing what this meant to his people — this 
 gradual undermining of their moral fiber and 
 economic efficiency — we grew more and more 
 interested. That such conditions existed were 
 to us unheard of, and unbelievable. It seemed 
 incredible that in this age, with the consensus 
 of public opinion sternly opposed to the sale and 
 distribution of habit-forming drugs, and with 
 legislation to curb and restrict such practices in- 
 corporated in the laws of all ethical and civilized 
 governments, that here, on the other side of the 
 world, we should come upon opium traffic con- 
 ducted as a government monopoly. Not only 
 that, but conducted by one of the greatest and 
 most highly civilized nations of the world, a na- 
 tion which we have always looked up to as being 
 in the very forefront of advanced, progressive 
 and humane ideals. So shocked were we by what 
 this young Hindu told us, that we flatly refused 
 to believe him. We listened to what he had to say 
 on the subject, but thinking that however earnest 
 he might be, however sincere in his sense of out- 
 rage at such a policy, that he must of necessity 
 be mistaken. We decided not to take his word for 
 it, but to look into the matter for ourselves. 
 
 We did look into the matter. During a stay 
 in the Far East of nearly a year, in which time we 
 
INTRODUCTION xl 
 
 visited Japan, China, Hongkong, French Indo- 
 China, Siam and Singapore, we looked into the 
 matter in every country we visited. Wherever 
 possible we obtained government reports, and 
 searched them carefully for those passages giving 
 statistics concerning the opium trade — the amount 
 of opium consumed, the number of shops where it 
 was sold, and the number of divans where it was 
 smoked. We found these shops established under 
 government auspices, the dealers obtaining their 
 supplies of opium from the government, and then 
 obtaining licenses from the government to retail 
 it. In many countries, we visited these shops and 
 divans in person, and bought opium in them freely, 
 just as one goes to a shop to buy cigarettes. We 
 found a thorough and complete establishment of 
 the opium traffic, run by the government, as a 
 monopoly. Revenue was derived through the 
 sale of opium, through excise taxes upon opium, 
 and through license fees paid by the keepers of 
 opium shops and divans. A complete, systematic 
 arrangement, by which the foreign government 
 profited at the expense of the subject peoples under 
 its rule. In European countries and in America, 
 we find the governments making every effort to 
 repress the sale of habit-forming drugs. Here, 
 in the Far East, a contrary attitude prevails. 
 The government makes every effort to encourage 
 and extend it. 
 
 Two notable exceptions presented themselves. 
 
XU INTRODUCTION 
 
 One was Japan. There are no opium shops in 
 Japan, and the Japanese Government Is as careful 
 to protect its people from the evils and dangers 
 of opium as any European country could be. It 
 must be remembered, however, that Japan is a 
 free and independent country. It has never been 
 conquered by a European country, and perhaps 
 one explanation as to why the Japanese are a 
 powerful, virile people, is because Japan is the 
 one Oriental nation that has never been dominated 
 by a European power, and in consequence, never 
 drugged. 
 
 The other exception is our own possession of the 
 Philippines, which although a subject country, 
 has never had the opium traffic established as 
 part of the machinery of an alien government. 
 
 On our return to America, we were greatly exer- 
 cised over these facts which we had unearthed. 
 We continued our researches as to the opium 
 traffic in the New York Public Library, and in 
 the Library of Congress, in Washington, in both 
 of which places there is a rich and abundant litera- 
 ture on the subject. We obtained ready access 
 to official blue books and government reports, 
 issued by the British Government, and it is from 
 these sources that the material in this book is 
 largely drawn. We were somewhat hampered 
 in our investigations by the fact that because of 
 the war, these blue books have not always been 
 of recent date, some of them being two or three 
 
INTRODUCTION XIU 
 
 years old. For this reason, it has not always been 
 possible to give the most recent figures as to 
 opium consumption and distribution in the various 
 countries. However, we feel that we have ob- 
 tained enough information to uphold our case, 
 and in any event, there is no doubt that the opium 
 traffic, as fostered by the British Government, 
 still continues. In looking over the list of British 
 colonies where it is established, we may find here 
 and there a diminution in the amount of opium 
 consumed, but this is probably due to the exi- 
 gencies of war, to the lack of shipping and 
 transportation, rather than to any conscientious 
 scruples or moral turnover; because the revenue 
 derived from the opium trade is precious. In 
 some instances, as in the case of the Straits Set- 
 tlements, the local British Government derives 
 from forty to fifty per cent of its revenue from this 
 source. Yet, taken in relation to the whole, it is 
 not large. However valuable it may be, however 
 large the percentage in the case of any particular 
 colony, it can surely never be large enough to 
 compensate for the stigma attached. It is a blot 
 upon the honor of a great nation to think that she 
 deliberately runs her colonies on opium. No rev- 
 enue, whether large or small, can be justified when 
 coming from such a source as this. 
 
 In all these blue books and official reports, the 
 question of the Opium Monopoly, as it is called, 
 is dealt with freely. There is no attempt to hide 
 
XIV INTRODUCTION 
 
 or suppress the facts. The subject is reported 
 frankly and fully. It is all there, for any one to 
 read who chooses. How then, does it happen that 
 we in America know nothing about Great Britain's 
 Opium Monopoly? That the facts are new to us 
 and come to us as a shock? One is because of our 
 admiration for Great Britain. Those who know — 
 and there are a few — hesitate to state them. Those 
 who know, feel that it is a policy unworthy of her. 
 We hesitate to call attention to the shortcomings 
 of a friend. There are other reasons also for this 
 conspiracy of silence — fear of international com- 
 plications, fear of endangering the good feeling 
 between the two countries, England and America. 
 Consequently England has been able to rely upon 
 those who know the facts to keep silent, either 
 through admiration or through fear. Also the 
 complete Ignorance of the rest of us has been an 
 additional safeguard. Therefore, for nearly a cen- 
 tury, she has been running her Opium Monopoly 
 undisturbed. It began as a private industry, about 
 the time of the East India Company, but later on 
 passed out of the hands of private individuals into 
 the department of Opium Administration, one of 
 the branches of the colonial government. But, 
 loyal as we have been all these years, we can re- 
 main silent no longer. The time is now rapidly 
 approaching when the two countries, England and 
 America, are to become closely united. How can 
 we become truly united, however, when on such 
 
INTRODUCTION XV 
 
 a great moral question as this we stand diametri- 
 cally opposed ? 
 
 There is still another reason why we should 
 break silence. The welfare of our own country- 
 is now at stake. The menace of opium is now 
 threatening America, and our first duty is to our- 
 selves. Little by little, surreptitiously, this drug 
 has been creeping in over our borders, and to-day 
 many thousands of our young men and young 
 women are drug addicts, habituated to the use of 
 one of the opium derivatives, morphia or heroin. 
 The recent campaign against drug users, conducted 
 by the New York Department of Health, has 
 uncovered these addicts in great numbers; has 
 brought them before us, made us see, in spite 
 of ourselves, that thousands of them exist and 
 that new ones are being created daily. The ques- 
 tion arises, how do they obtain the drug.^ It was 
 the fortune of the writer to be present during the 
 first week of the opening of the Health Depart- 
 ment Clinic for Drug Addicts, and her work con- 
 sisted in taking the histories of these pitiful, ab- 
 ject wrecks of men and women who swarmed to 
 the clinic in hundreds, seeking supplies of the 
 drug which they could not obtain elsewhere. The 
 history of these patients was almost invariably 
 the same — there was a monotony in their tragic, 
 pathetic recital as to how they became victims, 
 how they first became acquainted with the drug. 
 As a rule, they began in extreme youth, generally 
 
XVI INTRODUCTION 
 
 between fifteen and twenty years of age, one boy 
 having begun at the age of thirteen. In nearly 
 every case they had tried it as a lark, as an ex- 
 periment. At "parties,' they said, when some 
 one of the company would pass round a box full 
 of heroin, inviting them to snuflF It. To snuff it, 
 these children, very much as a small boy goes 
 behind the barn to try his first cigarette. In 
 many instances those who produced the box were 
 peddlers, offering it as a gift at first, knowing 
 that after a dose or two the fatal habit would be 
 formed and another customer created. These 
 peddlers doubtless obtained their supplies from 
 smugglers. But that takes us back to our argu- 
 ment, namely, the part played by that great 
 nation which grows and distributes opium to 
 the world. For that nation produces an over- 
 supply of opium, far more than is needed by the 
 medical profession for the relief of pain. Opium 
 is not profitable in its legitimate use. It is only 
 profitable because of the demands of addicts, 
 men and women deliberately debauched, either 
 through the legalized machinery of colonial gov- 
 ernments, or through the illegal activities of 
 smugglers. A moral sentiment that will balk at 
 this immense over-production, the sole object of 
 which is to create drug victims, Is the only weapon 
 to fight it. In giving this book to the public, 
 we are calling upon that moral sentiment. We 
 feel that we shall number among our staunchest 
 
INTRODUCTION XVH 
 
 supporters that great body of men and women in 
 England who have for years been vainly fighting 
 the opium traffic. No more bitter opponents of 
 this policy are to be found than amongst the Eng- 
 lish people themselves. From time to time, in 
 Parliament, sharp debates have arisen as to the 
 advisability of continuing it, and some of the 
 greatest men in England have been steadfastly 
 opposed. The great Gladstone has described it as 
 "morally indefensible." The time has now come 
 for us, people of both countries, to unite to stop it. 
 
THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
GREAT BRITAIN'S OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 In a book shop in Shanghai, we came upon a small 
 book with an arresting title, "Drugging a Nation," 
 by Samuel Merwin. It was published in 1908, 
 eight years before we chanced upon it, shabby and 
 shop worn, its pages still uncut. The people of 
 Shanghai, the great International Settlement of 
 this largest city and most important seaport of 
 China, did not have to read it. They knew, doubt- 
 less, all that its pages could disclose. We, however, 
 found it most enlightening. In it there is this 
 description of the British Opium Monopoly: 
 
 "In speaking of it as a 'monopoly' I am not 
 employing a cant word for effect. I am not making 
 a case. That is what it is officially styled in a 
 certain blue book on my table which bears the 
 title, 'Statement Exhibiting the Moral and Ma- 
 terial Progress of India during the year i905-'6,' 
 and which was ordered by the House of Commons 
 to be printed. May 10, 1907. . . . Now to get 
 down to cases, just what this Government Opium 
 Monopoly is, and just how does it work.? An ex- 
 cerpt from the rather ponderous blue book will 
 tell us. It may be dry but it is official and un- 
 assailable. It is also short. 
 
 "'The opium revenue' — thus the blue book — 
 
2 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 * is partly raised by a monopoly of the production 
 of the drug in Bengal and the United provinces, 
 and partly by the levy of a duty on all opium 
 imported from native states. ... In these two 
 provinces, the crop is grown under the control of 
 a government department, which arranges the total 
 area which is to be placed under the crop, with a 
 view to the amount of opium required.' 
 
 "So much for the broader outline. Now for a 
 few of the details: 'The cultivator of opium in 
 these monopoly districts receives a license, and is 
 granted advances to enable him to prepare the 
 land for the crop, and he is required to deliver the 
 whole of the product at a fixed price to opium 
 agents, by whom it is dispatched to the govern- 
 ment factories at Patna and Ghazipur.' 
 
 "The money advanced to the cultivator bears 
 no interest. The British Indian government lends 
 money without interest in no other cases. Pro- 
 ducers of crops other than opium are obliged to 
 get along without free money. 
 
 "When it has been manufactured, the opium 
 must be disposed of in one way and another; ac- 
 cordingly: 'The supply of prepared opium re- 
 quired for consumption in India is made over to 
 the Excise Department . . . the chests of " pro- 
 vision " opium, for export, are sold at monthly 
 sales, which take place at Calcutta.' For the 
 meaning of the curious term, 'provision opium' we 
 have only to read on a little further. 'The opium 
 
GREAT BRITAIN S OPIUM MONOPOLY 3 
 
 is received and prepared at the government fac- 
 tories, where the out-turn of the year Included 
 8,774 chests of opium for the Excise Depart- 
 ment, about three hundred pounds of various 
 opium alkaloids, thirty maunds of medical opium; 
 and 51,770 chests of provision opium for the 
 Chinese market.' There are about 140 pounds 
 in a chest. . . . Last year the government had 
 under poppy cultivation 654,928 acres. And 
 the revenue to the treasury. Including returns 
 from auction sales, duties and license fees, and 
 deducting all 'opium expenditures' was nearly 
 522,000,000." 
 
 As the blue book states, this opium is auctioned 
 off once a month. At that point, the British Gov- 
 ernment, as a government, washes its hands of 
 the business. Who buys the opium at these gov- 
 ernment auctions, and what afterwards becomes 
 of it.? "The men who buy In the opium at these 
 monthly auctions and afterwards dispose of It 
 are a curious crowd of Parsees, Mohammedans, 
 Hindoos and Asiatic Jews. Few British names 
 appear in the opium trade to-day. British dig- 
 nity prefers not to stoop beneath the taking In 
 of profits; it leaves the details of a dirty business 
 to dirty hands. This Is as It has been from the 
 first. The directors of the East India Company, 
 years and years before that splendid corporation 
 relinquished the actual government of India, for- 
 bade the selhng of Its specially-prepared opium 
 
4 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 direct to China, and advised a trading station on 
 the coast whence the drug might find its way 
 'without the company being exposed to the dis- 
 grace of being engaged in illicit commerce.'" 
 
 "So clean hands and dirty hands went into 
 partnership. They are in partnership still, save 
 that the most nearly Christian of governments 
 has officially succeeded the company as party of 
 the first part." 
 
 You will say, if the British Government chooses 
 to deal in opium, that is not our concern. It is 
 most emphatically our concern. Once a month, 
 at these great auction sales, the British Govern- 
 ment distributes thousands of pounds of opium, 
 which are thus turned loose upon the world, to 
 bring destruction and ruin to the human race. 
 The buyers of this opium are not agents of the 
 British Government. They are merely the dis- 
 tributors, through whom this drug is directed 
 into the channels of trade. The British Govern- 
 ment derives a certain portion of its revenue from 
 the sale of opium, therefore depends upon these 
 dealers to find a market for it. They are there- 
 fore, as distributors, the unofficial agents of the 
 British Government, through whom it is sold 
 legitimately, or smuggled around the world. In 
 seeking to eradicate the drug evil, we must face 
 the facts, and recognize clearly that the source of 
 supply is the British Government, through whose 
 agents, official and unofficial, it is distributed. 
 
GREAT Britain's opium monopoly 5 
 
 America, so they tell us, is now menaced by the 
 drug evil. Now that prohibition is coming into 
 effect, we are told that we are now confronted by 
 a vice more terrible, far more deteriorating and 
 dangerous. If that is true, then we must recognize 
 our danger and guard against it. Some of the 
 opium and morphia which reaches this country 
 is smuggled in; the rest is imported by the big 
 wholesale drug houses. There is an unlimited 
 supply of it. As we have seen, the British Govern- 
 ment encourages poppy production, even to the 
 extent of lending money without interest to all 
 those who are willing to raise this most profitable 
 crop. The monopoly opium is sold once a month 
 to the highest bidders, and some of these highest 
 bidders are unscrupulous men who must find their 
 markets how and where they can. That fact, 
 of course, is of no moment to the British Govern- 
 ment. It is of deepest concern to Americans, 
 however. To the north of us we have the Do- 
 minion of Canada. To the south, the No-Man's 
 Land of Mexico. At the present moment, the 
 whole country is alarmed at the growing menace 
 of the drug habit, which is assuming threaten- 
 ing proportions. 
 
II 
 
 THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 Let us quote from another dry official record, of 
 unimpeachable veracity — the Statesman's Year- 
 Book, for 1916. On page 140, under the heading 
 of The British Empire: India and Dependencies, 
 we read: "Opium. In British territory the cul- 
 tivation of the poppy for the production of opium 
 is mainly restricted to the United Provinces, and 
 the manufacture of the opium from this region is 
 a State monopoly. A limited amount is also 
 grown in the Punjab for local consumption and to 
 produce poppy seeds. In the monopoly districts 
 the cultivator receives advances from Govern- 
 ment to enable him to prepare the land for the 
 crop, and he is bound to sell the whole of the prod- 
 uce at a fixed price to Government agents, by 
 whom it is despatched to the Government fac- 
 tory at Ghazipur to be prepared for the market. 
 The chests of manufactured opium are sold by 
 auction in Calcutta at monthly sales. A reserve 
 is kept in hand to supply the deficiencies of bad 
 seasons, and a considerable quantity is distributed 
 by the Indian excise departments. Opium is also 
 grown in many of the Native States of Rajaputana 
 and Central India. These Native States have 
 agreed to conform to the British system. No 
 
 6 
 
THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY 7 
 
 opium may pass from them into British territory 
 for consumption without payment of duty. 
 
 "The bulk of the exports of opium from India 
 has been to China. By arrangements with that 
 country, the first one being in 1907, the exports 
 from India have been limited, and provision made 
 for the cessation of the export to China when the 
 native Chinese production of opium shall be 
 suppressed. The trade with China is now prac- 
 tically suspended." 
 
 The important things to notice in the above 
 statement are these: The growing of poppies, the 
 manufacture of opium, and the monthly auction 
 sales continue. Also, the opium trade with China 
 is practically at an end. The history of the opium 
 traffic in China is a story complete in itself and 
 will be dealt with in another chapter. At present, 
 we must notice that the trade with China is prac- 
 tically suspended, but that the British Govern- 
 ment is still auctioning off, once a month at Cal- 
 cutta, great quantities of opium. Where does 
 this opium go — who are the consumers.? If not 
 to China, then where.'' 
 
 The same reliable authority, the Statesman's 
 Year-Book for 1918, has this to say on the sub- 
 ject. On page 130 we read: "Opium: In British 
 territory the cultivation of the poppy for the pro- 
 duction of opium is practically confined to the 
 United Provinces, and the manufacture of opium 
 from this region is a State monopoly. The bulk 
 
8 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 of the exported opium is at present either sent to 
 the United Kingdom, or supplied direct to the 
 Governments of consuming countries in the Far 
 East; a certain quantity is also sold by auction 
 in Calcutta at monthly sales. Opium is also 
 grown in many of the Native States of Rajputana 
 and Central India, which have agreed to conform 
 to the British system." The following tables, 
 taken from most reliable authority, give some 
 idea of the exports to the "consuming countries 
 of the Far East." Note that Japan began buying 
 opium in 1911-12. We shall have something to 
 say about the Japanese smuggling later. Also 
 note that it was in 1907 that Great Britain and 
 China entered into agreement, the outcome to be 
 the suppression of the opium trade in China. But 
 see the increasing imports into the treaty ports; 
 up till almost the very last moment British opium 
 being poured into China. In the second table, 
 observe the increasing importation into England, 
 (United Kingdom), synchronous with the in- 
 creased exports to Japan, which will be discussed 
 later. 
 
THE INDIAN OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 
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 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
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Ill 
 
 JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR 
 
 In an article which appeared in the New York 
 Times, under date of February 14, 1919, we read: 
 "A charge that the Japanese Government se- 
 cretly fosters the morphia traffic in China and 
 other countries in the Far East is made by a cor- 
 respondent in the North China Herald in its issue 
 of December 2ist last. The correspondent asserts 
 that the traffic has the financial support of the 
 Bank of Japan, and that the Japanese postal 
 service in China aids, although 'Japan is a signa- 
 tory to the agreement which forbids the import into 
 China of morphia or of any appliances used in its 
 manufacture or application.' 
 
 "Morphia no longer can be purchased in Europe, 
 the correspondent writes. The seat of industry 
 has been transferred to Japan, and morphia is 
 now manufactured by the Japanese themselves. 
 Literally, tens of millions of yen are transferred 
 annually from China to Japan for the payment of 
 Japanese morphia. . . . 
 
 "In South China, morphia is sold by Chinese 
 peddlers, each of whom carries a passport certi- 
 fying that he is a native of Formosa, and there- 
 fore entitled to Japanese protection. Japanese 
 drug stores throughout China carry large stocks 
 
12 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 of morphia. Japanese medicine vendors look to 
 morphia for their largest profits. Wherever Japan- 
 ese are predominant, there the trade flourishes. 
 Through Dairen, morphia circulates throughout 
 Manchuria and the province adjoining; through 
 Tsingtao, morphia is distributed over Shantung 
 province, Anhui, and Kiangsu, while from For- 
 mosa morphia is carried with opium and other 
 contraband by motor-driven fishing boats to some 
 point on the mainland, from which it is distributed 
 throughout the province of Fukien and the north 
 of Kuangtung. Everywhere it is sold by Japanese 
 under extra-territorial protection." 
 
 The article is rather long, and proves beyond 
 doubt the existence of a well-organized and tre- 
 mendous smuggling business, by means of which 
 China is being deluged with morphia. In the body 
 of the article we find this paragraph : 
 
 "While the morphia traflic is large, there is 
 every reason to believe that the opium traffic 
 upon which Japan is embarking with enthusiasm, 
 is likely to prove even more lucrative. In the 
 Calcutta opium sales, Japan has become one of 
 the considerable purchasers of Indian opium. . . . 
 Sold by the Government of India, this opium is 
 exported under permits applied for by the Japanese 
 Government, is shipped to Kobe, and from Kobe 
 is transshipped to Tsingtao. Large profits are 
 made in this trade, in which are interested some of 
 the leading firms of Japan." 
 
JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR 1 3 
 
 This article appears to be largely anti-Japanese. 
 In fact, more anti-Japanese than anti-opium. Anti- 
 Japanese sentiment in America is played upon by 
 showing up the Japanese as smugglers of opium. 
 The part the British Government plays in this 
 traiEc is not emphasized. "In the Calcutta opium 
 sales, Japan has become one of the considerable 
 purchasers of Indian opium . . . sold by the 
 Government of India." We are asked to condemn 
 the Japanese, who purchase their stocks of opium 
 as individuals, and who distribute it in the capacity 
 of smugglers. We are not asked to censure the 
 British Government which produces, manufac- 
 tures and sells this opium as a State monopoly. 
 We are asked to denounce the Japanese and their 
 nefarious smuggling and shameful traffic, but 
 the source of supply, which depends upon these 
 smugglers as customers at the monthly auc- 
 tions, is above reproach. A delicate ethical distinc- 
 tion. 
 
 However, there is no doubt that the Japanese 
 are ardent smugglers. In an article in the March, 
 1919, number of "Asia" by Putnam Weale, we 
 find the following bit: * "At all ports where 
 Japanese commissioners of Maritime Customs (in 
 China) hold office, it is undeniable that centres of 
 contraband trade have been established, opium and 
 its derivatives being so openly smuggled that the 
 annual net import of Japanese morphia (although 
 * " A Fair Chance for Asia," by Putnam Weale, page 227. 
 
14 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 this trade is forbidden by International Conven- 
 tion) is now said to be something like 20 tons a 
 year — sufficient to poison a whole nation." 
 
 Mr. Weale is an Englishman, therefore more 
 anti-Japanese than anti-opium. We do not recall 
 any of his writings in which he protests against 
 the opium trade as conducted by his Government, 
 nor the part his Government plays in fostering 
 and encouraging it. 
 
 However, there are other Englishmen who see 
 the situation in a more impartial light, and who are 
 equally critical of both Great Britain and Japan. 
 In his book, "Trade Politics and Christianity in 
 Africa and the East," by A. J. Macdonald, M. A., 
 formerly of Trinity College, Cambridge, we find 
 the facts presented with more balance. Thus, 
 on page 229: "... In the north of China an- 
 other evil Is springing up. The eradication of 
 the opium habit Is being followed by the develop- 
 ment of the morphia traffic. . . . The morphia 
 habit in northern China, especially Manchuria, 
 is already widespread. The Chinese Government 
 is alert to the evil, but their efforts to repress it 
 are hampered by the action of traders, mainly 
 Japanese, who elude the restrictions imposed by 
 the Chinese and Japanese Governments. . . . 
 China Is being drenched with morphia. It is in- 
 credible that anything approaching the amount 
 could possibly be devoted to legitimate purposes. 
 It Is said that in certain areas coolies are to be seen 
 
JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR 1 5 
 
 'covered all over with needle punctures.' An in- 
 jection of the drug can be obtained for three or 
 four cents. In Newchang 2,000 victims of the 
 morphia habit died in the winter of 1914-15. 
 Morphia carries off its victims far more rapidly 
 than opium. . . . Morphia is not yet manu- 
 factured in any appreciable quantities in the East, 
 and certainly even Japan cannot yet manufacture 
 the hypodermic injectors by means of which the 
 drug is received. The bulk of the manufacture 
 takes place in England, Germany and Austria. . . . 
 In this traffic, two firms in Edinburgh and one in 
 London are engaged. The trade is carried on 
 through Japanese agents. The Board of Trade 
 returns show that the export of morphia from Great 
 Britain to the East has risen enormously during 
 the last few years — 
 
 1911 55^ tons 
 
 1912 VA " 
 
 1913 "J< " 
 
 1914 14 
 
 ". . . The freedom which allows three British 
 firms to supply China with morphia for illicit 
 purposes is a condemnation of English Christian- 
 
 ity." 
 
 This book of Mr. Macdonald's was published 
 in 1916. Mr. Weale's article was published in 
 1919, in which he speaks of an importation of about 
 twenty tons of morphia. Apparently the three 
 
l6 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 British firms which manufacture morphia, two in 
 Edinburgh and one in London are still going strong. 
 Japan, however, appears to be growing impatient 
 with all this opprobrium cast upon her as the dis- 
 tributor of drugs, especially since much of the 
 outcry against this comes from America. Our 
 own country seems to be assisting in this traffic 
 in a most extensive manner. The Japan Society 
 Bulletin No. 60 calls attention to this: 
 
 NEW TURN IN MORPHIA TRAFFIC 
 
 The morphia traific in China has taken a new turn, 
 according to the Japan Advertiser. It quotes Putnam 
 Weale to the effect that whilst in recent years the main 
 distributors have been Japanese, the main manufac- 
 turers have been British. The morphia has been ex- 
 ported in large quantities from Edinburgh to Japan, 
 but as the result of licensing the exports of this drug 
 from Great Britain, the shipments to Japan dropped 
 from 600,229 ounces in 1917 to one-fourth that amount 
 in 1918. The Japan Chronicle, speaking from "ab- 
 solutely authentic information," states that 113,000 
 ounces of morphia arrived in Kobe from the United 
 States in the first five months of 1919. These figures 
 are not given as the total shipments received in Kobe, 
 but merely as the quantity of which The Chronicle has 
 actual knowledge. It states further that this morphia 
 is being transhipped in Kobe harbor to vessels bound 
 for China. Dr. Paul S. Reinsch, who has resigned his 
 post as Minister to China, has stated that he will use 
 every resource in his power to stop the shipment from 
 
JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR I7 
 
 America of morphia intended for distribution in China, 
 in defiance of the international convention which pro- 
 hibits the sale of the drug in that country. 
 
 If sufficient publicity is cast upon the distributors, 
 Japanese, English and American, public sentiment 
 may in time take cognizance of the source of all 
 this mischief, namely, the producer. 
 
IV 
 
 SINGAPORE 
 
 In January, 1917, we found ourselves at Singapore, 
 a British dependency, situated at the end of the 
 Malay Peninsula, and one of the greatest seaports 
 of the Orient. We were stopping at the Hotel de 
 I'Europe, a large and first class hotel. The first 
 morning at breakfast, the waiter stood beside us, 
 waiting for our order. He was a handsome young 
 Malay, dressed in white linen clothes, and wearing 
 a green jade bracelet on one wrist. We gave him 
 our order and he did not move off. He continued 
 to stand quietly beside our chairs, as in a trance. 
 We repeated the order — one tea, one coffee, two 
 papayas. He continued to stand still beside us, 
 stupidly. Finally he went away. We waited for 
 a long time and nothing happened. At last, after 
 a long wait, he returned and set before us a teapot 
 filled with hot water. Nothing else. We repeated 
 again — tea, coffee, papayas. We said it two or 
 three times. Then he went away and came back 
 with some tea. We repeated again, coffee and 
 fruit. Eventually he brought us some coffee. 
 Finally, after many endeavors, we got the fruit. 
 It all took a long time. We then began to realize 
 that something was the matter with him. He 
 could understand English well enough to know 
 
 18 
 
SINGAPORE 19 
 
 what orders we were giving him, but he seemed 
 to forget as soon as he left our sight. We then 
 realized that he was probably drugged. It was 
 the same thing every day. In the morning he was 
 stupid and dull, and could not remember what we 
 told him. By evening his brain was clearer, and 
 at dinner he' could remember well enough. The 
 effects of whatever he had been taking had ap- 
 parently worn off during the day. 
 
 We learned that the opium trade was freely 
 indulged in, at Singapore, fostered by the Govern- 
 ment. Singapore is a large city of about 300,000 
 inhabitants, a great number of which are Chinese. 
 It has wide, beautiful streets, fine government 
 buildings, magnificent quays and docks — a splen- 
 did European city at the outposts of the Orient. 
 We found that a large part of its revenue is derived 
 from the opium traffic — from the sale of opium, 
 and from license fees derived from shops where 
 opium may be purchased, or from divans where it 
 may be smoked. The customers are mainly 
 Chinese. 
 
 I wanted to visit these Government-licensed 
 opium shops and opium dens. A friend lent me 
 two servants, as guides. We three got into rick- 
 shaws and went down to the Chinese quarter, 
 where there are several hundred of these places, 
 all doing a flourishing business. It was early in 
 the afternoon, but even then, trade was brisk. 
 The divans were rooms with wide wooden benches 
 
20 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 running round the sides, on which benches, in 
 pairs, sharing a lamp between them, lay the 
 smokers. They purchased their opium on entering, 
 and then lay down to smoke it. The packages 
 are little, triangular packets, each containing 
 enough for about six smokes. Each packet bears 
 a label, red letters on a white ground, "Monopoly 
 Opium." 
 
 In one den there was an old man — but you can't 
 tell whether a drug addict is old or not, he looked 
 as they all do, gray and emaciated — ^but as he 
 caught my eye, he laid down the needle on which 
 he was about to cook his pill, and glanced away. 
 I stood before him, waiting for him to continue 
 the process, but he did not move. 
 
 "Why doesn't he go on.?" I asked my guide. 
 "He is ashamed to have you see him," came the 
 reply. 
 
 "But why should he be ashamed?" I asked, 
 "The British Government is not ashamed to sell 
 to him, to encourage him to drug himself, to ruin 
 himself. Why should he be ashamed?" 
 
 "Nevertheless, he is," replied the guide. "You 
 see what he looks like — ^what he has become. He 
 is not quite so far gone as the others — he is a more 
 recent victim. He still feels that he has become 
 degraded. Most of them do not feel that way — 
 after a while." 
 
 So we went on and on, down the long street. 
 There was a dreadful monotony about it all. 
 
Packet of opium, actual size, as sold in 
 licensed opium shop in Singapore. The 
 local government here derives from forty 
 to fifty per cent of its revenue through 
 the sale of opium. 
 
SINGAPORE 21 
 
 House after house of feeble, emaciated, ill wrecks, 
 all smoking Monopoly Opium, all contributing, 
 by their shame and degradation, to the revenues of 
 the mighty British Empire. 
 
 That evening after dinner, I sat on the wide 
 verandah of the hotel, looking over a copy of the 
 " Straits Times." One paragraph, a dispatch from 
 London, caught my eye. "Chinese in Liverpool. 
 Reuter's Telegram. London, January 17, 1917. 
 Thirty-one Chinese were arrested during police 
 raids last night on opium dens in Liverpool. 
 Much opium was seized. The police in one place 
 were attacked by a big retriever and by a number 
 of Chinese, who threw boots and other articles 
 fxTTi the house-top." 
 
 Coming fresh from a tour of the opium-dens of 
 Singapore, I must say that item caused some 
 mental confusion. It must also be confusing to 
 the Chinese. It must be very perplexing to a 
 Chinese sailor, who arrives in Liverpool on a ship 
 from Singapore, to find such a variation in customs. 
 To come from a part of the British Empire where 
 opium smoking is freely encouraged, to Great 
 Britain itself where such practices are not toler- 
 ated. He must ask himself, why it is that the 
 white race is so sedulously protected from such 
 vices, while the subject races are so eagerly en- 
 couraged. It may occur to him that the white 
 race is valuable and must be preserved, and that 
 subject races are not worth protecting. This 
 
22 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 double standard of international justice he must 
 find disturbing. It would seem, at first glance, 
 as if subject races were fair game — if there is 
 money in it. Subject races, dependents, who have 
 no vote, no share in the government and who are 
 powerless to protect themselves — fair game for 
 exploitation. Is this double-dealing what we 
 mean when we speak of "our responsibility to 
 backward nations," or of "the sacred trust of 
 civilization" or still again when we refer to "the 
 White Man's burden " ? 
 
 Pondering over these things as I sat on the 
 hotel verandah, I finally reached the conclusion 
 that to print such a dispatch as that in the 
 "Straits Times" was, to say the least, most 
 tactless. 
 
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM 
 COMMISSION 
 
 From time to time, certain people in England ap- 
 parently have qualms as to Great Britain's opium 
 traffic, and from time to time questions are raised 
 as to whether or not such traffic is morally de- 
 fensible. In February, 1909, apparently in answer 
 to such scruples and questionings on the part of 
 a few, a very interesting report was published, 
 "Proceedings of the Commission appointed to 
 Enquire into Matters Relating to the Use of 
 Opium in the Straits Settlements and the Feder- 
 ated Malay States. Presented to both Houses 
 of Parliament by Command of His Majesty." 
 This document may be found in the New York 
 Public Library and is well worth careful perusal. 
 This Commission consisted of about a dozen 
 mien, some English, some natives of the Straits 
 Settlements. They apparently made an intensive 
 and exhaustive study of the subject, carefully ex- 
 amining it from every angle. Countless witnesses 
 appeared before them, giving testimony as to the 
 effects of opium upon the individual. This testi- 
 mony is interesting, in that it is of a contradictory 
 nature, some witnesses saying that moderate opium 
 indulgence is nothing worse than indulgence in 
 
 S3 
 
24 
 
 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 alcoholic beverages, and like alcohol, only per- 
 nicious if taken to excess. Other witnesses 
 seemed to think that it was most harmful. The 
 Commission made careful reports as to the manner 
 of licensing houses for smoking, the system of 
 licensing opium farms, etc., and other technical 
 details connected with this extensive Government 
 traffic. Finally, the question of revenue was con- 
 sidered, and while the harmfulness of opium 
 smoking was a matter of divided opinion, when 
 it came to revenue there was no division of opinion 
 at all. As a means of raising revenue, the traffic 
 was certainly justifiable. It was proven that about 
 fifty per cent of the revenues of the Straits Settle- 
 ments and the Federated Malay States came from 
 the opium trade, and, as was naively pointed out, 
 to hazard the prosperity of the Colony by lopping 
 off half its revenues, was an unthinkable pro- 
 ceeding. 
 
 The figures given are as follows. 
 
 1898. Revenue derived from Opium. . . .45.9 per cent 
 44-8 
 
 1899 
 
 1900 
 
 1901 
 
 1902 
 
 1903 
 
 1904 
 
 190S 
 
 1906 
 
 There was one dissenting voice as to the conclu- 
 
 •43 
 
 •S3 
 .48 
 
 •47 
 •59 
 .46 
 
 •S3 
 
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM COMMISSION 25 
 
 slons reached by this Opium Commission, that 
 of a Bishop who presented a minority report. 
 But what are moral scruples against cold facts — 
 that there's money in the opium trade? 
 
 This Commission made its report in 1909. But 
 the opium business is apparently still flourishing 
 in the Straits Settlements. Thus we read in the 
 official Blue Book for 1917, "Colony of the Straits 
 Settlements" that of the total revenue for the 
 year, $19,672,104, that $9,182,000 came from 
 opium. 
 
 What per cent is that? 
 
VI 
 
 OPIUM IN SIAM 
 
 Bangkok, Siam, January, 1917. Siam, an in- 
 dependent kingdom. As a matter of fact, "pro- 
 tected" very sternly and thoroughly by Great 
 Britain and France, so that its "independence" 
 would about cover an oyster cracker. However, 
 it is doubtless protected "benevolently" for what 
 protectorate is anything but benevolent? The 
 more rigorous the protectorate, the more benevo- 
 lent its character. The Peace Conference seems 
 to have given us a new word in "mandatory." 
 We do not know as yet what adjective will be 
 found to qualify mandatory, but it will doubtless 
 be fitting and indicative of idealism — of sorts. 
 Therefore, all will be well. Our suspicions will 
 be lulled. It is high time that a substitute was 
 found for "benevolent protectorate." 
 
 The particular form of benevolence noted in 
 Siam was the total inability of the Siamese to ex- 
 clude British opium. They are allowed, by the 
 benevolent powers, to impose an import duty on all 
 commodities imported — except opium. That is 
 free. The treaty between Siam and Great Britain 
 in 1856 says so. We rather fancy that Great 
 Britain had more to say about this in 1856 than 
 Siam, but maybe not. Anyway, poor old Siam, 
 
 26 
 
OPIUM IN SIAM 27 
 
 an Independent kingdom, is bound to receive as 
 much opium as may be imported, and is quite 
 powerless, by the terms of this treaty, to enact 
 laws to exclude it. In the last year or two, the 
 Government of Siam has been obliged to put the 
 opium traffic under government control, in order 
 to minimize the worst evils in connection with it, 
 although to restrict and regulate an evil is a poor 
 substitute for the ability to abolish it. 
 
 All this, you will see, is rather tough on the 
 Siamese, but good business for the British Empire. 
 
 However, opium is not bad for one. There are 
 plenty of people to testify to that. We Americans 
 have a curious notion to the contrary, but then, 
 we Americans are so hysterical and gullible. An 
 Englishman whom we met In Bangkok told me 
 that opium was not only harmless, but actually 
 beneficial. He said once that he was traveling 
 through the jungle, into the interior somewhere. 
 He had quite a train of coolies with him, carrying 
 himself and his baggage through the dense forests. 
 By nightfall, he found his coolies terribly exhausted 
 with the long march. But he was in a hurry to 
 press on, so, as he expressed it, he gave each of 
 them a "shot" of morphia, whereupon all traces 
 of fatigue vanished. They forgot the pain of 
 their weary arms and legs and were thus enabled 
 to walk all night. He said that morphia certainly 
 knocked a lot of work out of men — you might 
 say, doubled their capacity for endurance. 
 
28 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 The night we left Bangkok, we got aboard the 
 boat at about nine in the evening. The hatch 
 was open, and we looked into the hold upon a 
 crowd of coolies who had been loading sacks of 
 rice aboard the ship. There they lay upon the 
 rice sacks, two or three dozen of them, all smoking 
 opium. Two coolies to a lamp. I rather wondered 
 that a lamp did not upset and set the boat on 
 fire, but they are made of heavy glass, with wide 
 bottoms, so that the chances of overturning them 
 are slight. So we leaned over the open hatch, look- 
 ing down at these little fellows, resting and re- 
 cuperating themselves after their work, refreshing 
 themselves for the labor of the morrow. 
 
 Opium is wonderful, come to think of it. But 
 why, since it is so beneficial and so profitable, 
 confine it to the downtrodden races of the world? 
 Why limit it to the despised races, who have not 
 sense enough to govern themselves anyway? 
 
 The following figures are taken from the Statis- 
 tical Year Books for the Kingdom of Siam : 
 
 Foreign trade and navigation of the port of 
 Bangkok, imports of opium : 
 
 19II-I2 
 
 1,270 chests of opium 
 
 I9I2-I3 
 
 1,775 
 
 I9I3-I4 
 
 1,186 
 
 I9I4-IS 
 
 2,000 Imported from India and Singapore. 
 
 1915-16 
 
 2,000 
 
 I9I6-I7 
 
 1,100 
 
 191 7-1 8 
 
 1,850 
 
OPIUM IN SIAM 29 
 
 Also, from the same source, we find the number 
 of retail opium shops : 
 
 1912-13 2,985 
 
 1913-14 3,025 
 
 1914-15 3,132 
 
 1915-16 3,104 
 
 1916-17 3,111 
 
VII 
 
 HONGKONG 
 
 "The Crown Colony of Hongkong was ceded by- 
 China to Great Britain in January, 1841; the ces- 
 sion was confirmed by the treaty of Nanking in 
 August, 1842; and the charter bears date April 5, 
 1843. Hongkong is the great center for British 
 commerce with China and Japan, and a military 
 and naval station of first-class importance." 
 
 Thus the Statesman's Year Book. This au- 
 thority, however, omits to mention just exactly 
 how this important piece of Chinese territory came 
 to be ceded to Great Britain. It was the reward 
 that Great Britain took unto herself as an "in- 
 demnity" following the successful prosecution of 
 what is sometimes spoken of as the first opium 
 war — a war of protest on the part of China against 
 Great Britain's insistance on her right to deluge 
 China with opium. China's resistance was in 
 vain — her efforts to stem the tide of opium were 
 fruitless — the might, majesty, dominion and power 
 of the British Empire triumphed, and China was 
 beaten. The island on which Hongkong Is situated 
 was at that time a blank piece of land; but strat- 
 egically well placed — ninety miles south of the 
 great Chinese city of Canton, the market for 
 British opium. 
 
 30 
 
HONGKONG 
 
 31 
 
 The opposite peninsula of Kowloon, on the 
 mainland, was ceded to Great Britain by treaty 
 in 1 86 1, and now forms part of Hongkong. By 
 a convention signed at Peking in June, 1898, 
 there was also leased to Great Britain for 99 years 
 a portion of Chinese territory mainly agricultural, 
 together with the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep 
 Bay, and the island of Lan-tao. Its area is 356 
 square miles, with about 91,000 inhabitants, ex- 
 clusively Chinese. Area of Old Kowloon is 3 
 square miles. Total area of colony, 391 square 
 miles. 
 
 The population of Hongkong, excluding the 
 Military and Naval establishments, and that 
 portion of the new territory outside New Kow- 
 loon, was according to the 191 1 census, 366,145 
 inhabitants. Of this number the Chinese num- 
 bered 354,187. 
 
 This colony is, of course, governed by Great 
 Britain, and is not subject to Chinese control. 
 Here is situated a Government opium factory, 
 and the imports of Indian opium into Hongkong 
 for the past several years are as follows: 
 
 1903- 4 
 
 3,576,431 pounds sterling 
 
 1904- S 
 
 4,036,436 
 
 1905- 6 
 
 3,775,826 
 
 1906- 7 
 
 3,771,409 
 
 1907- 8 
 
 3,145,403 
 
 1908- 9 
 
 2,230,755 
 
 1909-10 
 
 3,377,222 
 
32 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 I9I0-II 
 
 3,963,264 pounds sterlings 
 
 1911-12 
 
 3,019,858 
 
 I9I2-I3 
 
 2,406,084 
 
 I9I3-I4 
 
 1,084,093 
 
 1914-15 
 
 110,712 
 
 These figures are taken from "Statistical Ab- 
 stract Relating to British India, 1905-6 to 191 1- 
 15," and " Statistical Abstract Relating to British 
 India, 1903-4 to 191 2-13." The falling off in 
 imports of opium noticed in 1914-15 may be 
 due to the war, lack of shipping, etc., or to the 
 fact that the China market was due to close on 
 April I, 1917. The closing of the China market — 
 400,000,000 of people destined no longer to have 
 opium supplied to them (except illegally, by 
 smuggling, etc.) is naturally a big blow to the 
 British opium interests. That is where the men- 
 ace to the rest of the world comes in. Opium has 
 been proved such a profitable commodity, that 
 if one market is shut off, others must be found 
 as substitutes. The idea of closing the trade al- 
 together naturally does not appeal to those who 
 profit by it. Therefore, what we should hail at 
 first sight as a welcome indication of a changed 
 moral sentiment, is in reality but the pause which 
 proceeds the casting about for new markets, for 
 finding new peoples to drug. 
 
 The Colonial Report No. 972, Hongkong Re- 
 port for 1917, gives the imports and exports of 
 opium: Page 7 — 
 
HONGKONG 33 
 
 "The imports and exports of certified opium 
 during the year as follows : 
 
 Imports 7 chests 
 
 Export 224 chests 
 
 Of these, however, the Imports all come from 
 Shanghai, and of the total export of 224 chests, 
 186 went to Shanghai." 
 
 Opium received from other sources than Shang- 
 hai makes a better showing. "Seven hundred 
 and forty chests of Persian opium imported during 
 the year, and seven hundred and forty-five ex- 
 ported to Formosa. Nine hundred and ten chests 
 of uncertified Indian opium were imported: Four 
 hundred and ten chests by the Government Mo- 
 nopoly, and the remaining five hundred for the 
 Macao opium farmer." 
 
 Macao is a small island off the coast of China, 
 near Canton — a Portuguese settlement, owned by 
 Portugal for several centuries, where the opium 
 trade is in full blast. But somehow, one does not 
 expect so much of Portugal. The most significant 
 feature of the above paragraph, however, lies in 
 the reference to the importation of Persian opium. 
 "Seven hundred and forty chests of Persian opium 
 imported." Query, who owns Persia.'' 
 
 Nevertheless, in spite of this poor showing, in 
 spite of the decrease in opium importation as com- 
 pared with the palmy days, all is not lost. The 
 Crown Colony of Hongkong still continues to do 
 
34 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 an active trade. In the Colonial Office List for 
 19 17, on page 218, we read: 
 
 "Hongkong. Revenue: About one-third of the 
 revenue is derived from the Opium Monopoly." 
 
VIII 
 
 SARAWAK 
 
 Near British North Borneo. Area, 42,000 square 
 miles, many rivers navigable. The government of 
 part of the present territory was obtained in 1842 
 by Sir James Brooke from the Sultan of Brunei. 
 Various accessions were made between 1861, 1885, 
 and 1890. The Rajah, H. H. Sir Charles Johnson 
 Brooke, G. C. M. G., nephew to the late Rajah, born 
 June 3, 1829, succeeded in 1868. Population es- 
 timated at 500,000, Malays, Dyaks, Kayans, Ken- 
 yahs, and Muruts, with Chinese and other settlers. 
 
 Thus the Statesman's Year Book, to which we 
 would add a paragraph from an article in the 
 National Geographic Magazine for February, 
 1919. Under the title: "Sarawak: The Land of 
 the White Rajahs" we read: "With the recent 
 death of Sir Charles Brooke, G. C. M. G., the 
 second of the white rajahs of Sarawak, there came 
 to an end one of the most useful and unusual careers 
 among the many that have done credit to British 
 rule in the Far East. For nearly 49 years he gov- 
 erned, as absolute sovereign, a mixed population of 
 Chinese, Malays, and numerous pagan tribes scat- 
 tered through the villages and dense jungles of an ex- 
 tensive territory on the northwest coast of Borneo. 
 
 " Constant solicitude for the welfare of his people 
 
 3S 
 
36 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 won the sympathy and devotion which enabled this 
 white man, supported by an insignificant army and 
 police, to establish the peaceful occupations of civili- 
 zationinplaceof barbarous tyranny andoppression." 
 How thoroughly this "civilizing" process was 
 accomplished may be judged somewhat by turning 
 to the Colonial Office List for 1917, where on 
 page 436 we read: "Sarawak: The principal 
 sources of revenue are the opium, gambling, pawn 
 shops, and arrack, producing: 
 
 1908 $483,019 
 
 1909 460,416 
 
 1910 385,070 
 
 1911 420,151 
 
 1912 426,867 
 
 1913 492,455 
 
 In the Statesman's Year Book for 1916 we find the 
 total revenue for this well-governed little colony 
 as follows, given however in pounds sterling, in- 
 stead of dollars, as in the above table. Thus: 
 
 Revenue — 1910 221,284 pounds sterling 
 
 1911 159,456 
 
 1912 175,967 
 
 1913 210,342 
 
 1914 208,823 
 
 It would seem as if forty-nine years of constant 
 solicitude for the welfare of a people, establishing 
 the peaceful occupations of civilization, might have 
 resulted in something better than a revenue derived 
 from opium, gambling, pawn shops and arrack. 
 
IX 
 
 SHANGHAI 
 
 In the New York Library there is an interesting 
 little book, about a quarter of an inch thick, and 
 easy reading. It is entitled: "Municipal Ethics: 
 Some Facts and Figures from the Municipal Ga- 
 zette, 1907-1914. An Examination of the Opium 
 License policy of the Shanghai Municipality. 
 In an Open Letter to the Chairman of the Council, 
 by Arnold Foster, Wuchang. For 42 years Mis- 
 sionary to the Chinese." 
 
 Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, is of two parts. 
 The native or Shanghai city, under the control 
 and administration of the Chinese. And the 
 foreign concessions, that part of the city under 
 the control and administration of foreigners. This 
 is generally known as the International Settle- 
 ment (also called the model settlement), and the 
 Shanghai Municipal Council is the administrative 
 body. Over this part the Chinese have no con- 
 trol. In 1907, when China began her latest 
 fight against the opium evil, she enacted and en- 
 forced drastic laws prohibiting opium smoking 
 and opium selling on Chinese soil, but was power- 
 less to enforce these laws on "foreign" soil. In 
 the foreign concessions, the Chinese were able to 
 buy as much opium as they pleased, merely by 
 
 37 
 
38 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 Stepping over an imaginary line, into a portion of 
 the town where the rigid anti-opium laws of China 
 did not apply. 
 
 Says Mr. Arnold, in his Open Letter: "It will 
 be seen that the title of the pamphlet, Municipal 
 Ethics, describes a situation which Is a complex 
 one. It concerns first the actual attitude of the 
 Shanghai Municipal Council towards the Chinese 
 national movement for the suppression of the use 
 of opium. This, we are assured by successive 
 Chairmen of the Council, has been one of "sin- 
 cere sympathy," "the greatest sympathy," and 
 more to the same effect. Certainly no one would 
 have guessed this from the facts and figures re- 
 produced in this pamphlet from the columns of 
 the " Municipal Gazette." 
 
 "The second element in the ethical situation 
 Is the actual attitude of the Council not only 
 towards the Chinese national movement, but 
 also towards Its own official assurances, protesta- 
 tions and promises. 
 
 "It Is on this second branch of the subject 
 before us that I specially desire to focus attention, 
 and for the facts here stated that I would bespeak 
 the most searching examination. The protesta- 
 tions of the Council as to Its own virtuous attitude 
 in regard to opium reform in China are made the 
 more emphatic, and also the more open to criticism, 
 by being coupled with some very severe insinua- 
 tions made at the time, as to the insincerity and 
 
SHANGHAI 39 
 
 unreliability of the Chinese authorities in what 
 they were professing, and in what they were plan- 
 ning to do in the same matter of opium reform. It 
 so happens, as the event proves, that these sneers 
 and insinuations were not only quite uncalled 
 for, but were absolutely and utterly unjust. When 
 a comparison is instituted between (a) 'official 
 pronouncements' made two years ago by the 
 Chinese authorities as to what they then intended 
 to do for the suppression of the opium habit, 
 and (b) the 'actual administrative results' that 
 in the meanwhile have been accomplished, the 
 Chinese have no cause to be ashamed of the verdict 
 of impartial judges. What they have done may 
 not always have been wise, it may sometimes have 
 been very stern, but the outcome has been to 
 awaken the astonishment and admiration of the 
 whole civilized world! When, on the other hand, 
 a comparison is instituted between (a) the fine 
 professions and assurances of the Shanghai Munic- 
 ipal Council made six or seven years ago as to its 
 own attitude towards the 'eradication of the 
 opium evil' and (b) the 'actual administrative 
 results' of the Council's own proceedings, the 
 feelings awakened are of very different order. 
 Here, not to mention any other consideration, 
 two hard facts stare one in the face: First, in 
 October, 1907, there were eighty-seven licensed 
 opium shops in the International Settlement. In 
 May, 1914, there were six hundred and sixty- 
 
40 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 three. In 1907 the average monthly revenue from 
 opium licenses, dens and shops combined, was 
 Taels 5,450. In May, 1914, the revenue from 
 licenses and opium shops alone was Taels 10,995. 
 The Council will not dispute these figures." 
 
 At the beginning of the anti-opium campaign 
 in 1907, there were 700 dens (for smoking) in the 
 Native City, and 1600 in the International Settle- 
 ment. The Chinese closed their dens and shops at 
 once. In the Settlement, the dens were not all 
 closed until two years later, and the number of 
 shops in the Settlement increased by leaps and 
 bounds. Table I shows an outline of the Munic- 
 ipal opium-shop profits concurrent with the clos- 
 ing of the opium houses — and subsequently: 
 
 Year Month Dens Shops Monthly revenue, shops only 
 
 1908 Jan. 
 
 1436 
 
 87 
 
 Taels, 338 
 
 Oct. 
 
 IOCS 
 
 131 
 
 623 
 
 1909 Jan. 
 
 599 
 
 166 
 
 1,887 
 
 Oct. 
 
 297 
 
 231 
 
 2,276 
 
 1910 Oct. 
 
 Closed 
 
 306 
 
 5,071 
 
 191 1 Oct. 
 
 
 348 
 
 S.41S 
 
 1912 Nov. 
 
 
 402 
 
 5,881 
 
 1913 Dec. 
 
 
 560 
 
 8,953 
 
 1914 March 
 
 
 628 
 
 10,188 
 
 April 
 
 
 654 
 
 10,772 
 
 Mr. Arnold quotes part of a speech made by the 
 Chairman of the Municipal Council, in March, 
 igo8. The Chairman says in part: "The advice 
 which we have received from the British Govern- 
 
SHANGHAI 
 
 41 
 
 ment is, in brief, that we should do more than keep 
 pace with the native authorities, we should be in 
 advance of them, and where possible, encourage 
 them to follow us." It must have been most dis- 
 heartening to the native authorities, suppressing 
 the opium trafBc with the utmost rigor, to see 
 their efforts defied and nullified by the increased 
 opportunities for obtaining opium in that part of 
 Shanghai over which the Chinese have no control. 
 A letter from a Chinese to a London paper, gives 
 the Chinese point of view: "China ... is obliged 
 to submit to the ruthless and heartless manner 
 in which British merchants, under the protection 
 of the Shanghai 'Model Settlement' are exploit- 
 ing her to the fullest extent of their ability." 
 
 There is lots of money in opium, however. The 
 following tables compiled by Mr. Arnold show the 
 comparison between the amount derived from 
 opium licenses as compared with the amount de- 
 rived from other sorts of licenses. 
 
 1913. Wheelbarrows Taels, 38,670 
 
 Carts 22,944 
 
 Motor cars 12,376 
 
 Cargo boats 5)47* 
 
 Chinese boats 4>798 
 
 Steam launches 2,221 Total, 86,480 
 
 Opium shops 86,386 Opium, 86,386 
 
 Another table shows the licensed institutions in 
 Shanghai representing normal social life (chiefly 
 
42 
 
 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 of the Chinese) as compared with revenue from 
 opium shops: 
 
 . Tavern 
 
 .Taels, i6,C7'? 
 
 Foreign liquor seller. 
 
 19,483 
 
 Chinese wine shop... 
 
 28,583 
 
 " tea shop . . . 
 
 9,484 
 
 " theater. . . . 
 
 8,714 
 
 " club 
 
 3,146 
 
 Total. 
 
 85,983 
 
 Opium shops 
 
 86,386 
 
 Treaty Ports are those cities in China, in which 
 the foreign powers have extra-territorial holdings, 
 not subject to Chinese jurisdiction. Shanghai is 
 one of them, the largest and most important. 
 The Statistical Abstract Relating to British India 
 for 1903-4 to 191 2-13 shows the exports of British 
 opium into these Treaty Ports. 
 
 1903-4 
 
 1,610,296 pounds sterling 
 
 1904-5 
 
 1,504,604 
 
 1905-6 
 
 1,130,372 
 
 1906-7 
 
 1,031,065 
 
 1907-8 
 
 1,215,142 
 
 1908-9 
 
 2,703,871 
 
 1909-10 
 
 1,234,432 
 
 I9I0-II 
 
 2,203,670 
 
 I9II-I2 
 
 3,614,887 
 
 I9I2-I3 
 
 3,242,902 
 
 It was in 1907 that China began her great fight 
 against the opium evil, and enacted stringent 
 
SHANGHAI 43 
 
 laws for its prohibition on Chinese soil. On page 
 1 5 of his little book, Mr. Arnold quotes from Com- 
 missioner Carl, of Canton: "The 1912 figure (for 
 the importation of foreign opium) is the largest 
 on record since 1895. The great influx of Chinese 
 into the foreign concessions, where the anti- 
 opium smoking regulations cannot be enforced 
 by the Chinese authorities, and where smoking 
 can be indulged in without fear of punishment, 
 no doubt accounts for the unusual increase under 
 foreign opium." 
 
X 
 
 INDIA 
 
 India is the source and fount of the British opium 
 trade, and it is from Indian opium that the drug 
 is chiefly supplied to the world. As we have said 
 before, it is a government monopoly. Cultivators, 
 who wish to plant poppies, may borrow money 
 from the Government free of interest, the sole 
 condition being that the crop be sold back to the 
 Government again. It is manufactured into opium 
 at the Government factory at Ghazipur, and once 
 a month, the Government holds auctions at Cal- 
 cutta, by means of which the drug finds its way 
 into the trade channels of the world — illicit and 
 otherwise.* 
 
 * This description of the Opium Department is to be found in 
 Statistics of British India, Financial Statistics, Vol. II, 8th Issue, 
 page 159: 
 
 OPIUM. The region in which the poppy was cultivated in 1916- 
 17 for the manufacture of "Bengal opium" comprises 32 districts of 
 the United Provinces of Agra and Ouhd. The whole Department 
 has, with effect from the 29th September, 1910, been under the con- 
 trol of one Opium Agent, with headquarters at Ghazipur. At Ghazi- 
 pur there is a Government factory where the crude opium is manu- 
 factured into the form in which it passes into consumption. The 
 cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium are regulated 
 by Act XIII of 1857, as amended by Act I of 1911, and are under 
 the general control of the Lieutenant Governor and the Board of 
 Revenue of the United Provinces, and the immediate supervision 
 of the Opium Agent at Ghazipur. The possession, transport, import 
 
 44 
 
INDIA 
 
 45 
 
 The following facts are taken from "Statistics 
 of British India. Financial Statistics, Volume II, 
 
 and export of opium are regulated by rules framed under the Indian 
 Opium Act. Cultivation is permitted only under licenses granted 
 under the authority of the Opium Agent. The area to be cultivated 
 is fixed by the license, and the cultivator is bound to sell the whole 
 of his production to the Opium Department at the rate fixed by 
 
 Government Advances, on which no interest is charged, 
 
 are given to licensed cultivators at the time of executing the agree- 
 ment and from time to time (though ordinarily no more than two 
 advances are given) until final delivery. In March, April and May 
 the opium is made over to the ofiicers of the Department, and weighed 
 and tested, and as soon as possible afterwards each cultivator's ac- 
 counts are adjusted, and the balance due is paid him. After weigh- 
 ment the opium is forwarded to the Government factory at Ghazipur, 
 where it is manufactured in 3 forms — (a) opium intended for export 
 to foreign countries, departmentally known as "provision opium" — ■ 
 (b) opium intended for consumption in India and Burma, depart- 
 mentally known as "excise opium" and (c) medical opium for ex- 
 port to London. Provision opium is made up in the form of balls or 
 cakes, each weighing 3.5 lbs., and is packed in chests, each chest con- 
 taining forty cakes, weighing 140 1/7 lbs. It is generally of 71° effi- 
 ciency. Excise opium is made up in cubical packets, each weighing 
 one seer, 60 of which are packed in a case. It is of higher consistency 
 than the "provision opium." Medical opium is made up into cakes 
 weighing 2 lbs. Provision opium is sold by public auction in Calcutta. 
 A notification is published annually, generally about the month of 
 June, stating the number of chests which will be put up for sale in 
 each month of the next calendar year, and the quantities so notified 
 are not altered without three months notice. Sales are conducted 
 month by month by the Bengal Government; 7,000 chests were noti- 
 fied for sale in 1917 for shipment to non-China markets. The number 
 of chests actually sold was 4,615. In addition to this, 4,500 chests 
 were sold to the Government of the Straits Settlements, 2,200 to the 
 Government of Netherland Indies, and 410 to the Government of 
 Hongkong. The duty levied by Government on each chest may be 
 taken to be the difference between the average price realized and the 
 average cost. 
 
46 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 Eighth Issue," to be found at the New York 
 Public Library: 
 
 Area 
 
 UNDER Poppy Cultivation 
 
 Acreage 
 
 : 1910-11 
 
 362,868 
 
 
 
 19 II- 
 
 -12 
 
 200,672 
 
 
 
 19 12- 
 
 -13 
 
 178,263 
 
 
 
 1913- 
 
 H 
 
 144,561 
 
 
 
 19 14- 
 
 IS 
 
 164,911 
 
 
 
 191S- 
 
 -16 
 
 167,15s 
 
 
 
 1916- 
 
 -17 
 
 204,186 
 
 In the hey-dey of the China trade, 613,996 acres 
 were under cultivation in the years 1905-6, con- 
 sequently this is a drop in the extent of acreage. 
 But, as we have said before, the closing of the 
 China market simply means that other outlets 
 must be found, and apparently they are being 
 found, since from 1914 onwards, the acreage de- 
 voted to poppy planting is slowly increasing again. 
 The opium manufactured in the Government 
 factory is of three kinds — provision opium for 
 export; excise opium, for consumption in India, 
 and medical opium, for export to London. It is 
 this latter form of opium which, according to Mr. 
 MacDonald, in his "Trade Politics and Chris- 
 tianity in Africa and the East" is being manu- 
 factured into morphia by three British firms, two 
 in Edinburgh and one in London, which morphia 
 the Japanese are buying and smuggling into North 
 China. 
 
INDIA 47 
 
 The "Statistics of British India" shows the 
 countries into which Indian opium has been ex- 
 ported: we will take the figures for the last five 
 years, which show the number of chests sent out. 
 
48 
 
 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 (V. 
 
 8 
 
 OS 
 
 O 
 
 O 
 
 o 
 
 O 
 
 u^ 
 
 VO 
 
 O 
 
 s 
 
 m 
 
 
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 00 
 
 t 
 
 ^ 
 
 VO 
 
 M 
 
 ^ 
 
 u-i 
 
 M 
 
 
 M 
 
 
 CJ; 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 c^ 
 
 M 
 
 M 
 
 00 
 
 o> 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 so 
 
 i> 
 
 i> 
 
 T^-lOC^'J^»J^^-0^-nCOVO 
 C^ hT to 00 
 
 >^ 
 
 Q 1J1 00 
 
 f<^ o o o o 
 
 00 
 
 H 
 
 Q "^ Os 
 
 6» 00 O^ ■u~,\0 
 
 vn 
 
 1 
 
 O t- ■* 
 
 VO so M 
 
 00 
 
 :? 
 
 M 
 
 N~ cT rn 
 
 o" 
 
 Ps 
 
 
 t^ li^ O u^ vn u^ 
 
 c«^ w iM O t^ so 
 
 "1 M M 00 N 
 
 Os^ 
 N O 
 
 OS OS 
 
 
 irtOOMOO'J^Oi'i>J" 
 
 ^OSM t-iloO ^ hnr^ 
 
 +^ a 
 
 to 13 
 
 cU •.-I 
 
 ■ a 
 
 00 q^ 00^ to 
 CO 
 
 rt % 
 
 IS 
 
 o 
 
 00 
 
 a 
 a 
 o 
 o 
 
 J3 
 
 :si3 5j« £-s s'tio 
 
INDIA 49 
 
 In some countries we see a falling off, as in China. 
 Cochin-China, the French colony, shows a con- 
 siderable increase — the little Annamites, Ton- 
 quinese, Cambodgians and other inhabitants of 
 this colony of the French Republic being shown 
 what's what. Mauretius, a British Colony five 
 hundred miles off the coast of Madagascar, in the 
 Indian ocean, seems to be coming on. The falling 
 off in shipments to the United Kingsom may 
 possibly have been due to the war and the scarcity 
 of ships. "Other countries" seem to be holding 
 their own. With the end of the war, the increase 
 in ships, and general trade revival, we may yet 
 see compensation for the loss of China. With the 
 increase of drug addicts in the United States, 
 it may be that in time America will no longer 
 be classed under "other countries" but will have 
 a column all to itself. 
 
 In another table we find a comparison as to the 
 number of chests of provision or export opium and 
 of excise opium, or that intended for consump- 
 tion in India. Thus: 
 
 
 Provision Opium 
 
 Excise Opium 
 
 I9I0-II 
 
 15,000 chests 
 
 8,611 chests 
 
 I9II-I2 
 
 14,000 
 
 9,126 
 
 I9I2-I3 
 
 7,000 
 
 9,947 
 
 I9I3-I4 
 
 12,000 
 
 8,307 
 
 19 14-15 
 
 10,000 
 
 8,943 
 
 19x5-16 
 
 12,000 
 
 8,391 
 
 I9I6-I7 
 
 12,000 
 
 8,732 
 
50 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 Each chest contains roughly about one hundred 
 and forty pounds. 
 
 Revenue 
 
 The revenue of India is derived from various 
 sources, and is classified under eight heads. Thus : 
 for 1916-17. 
 
 I. Land 
 Forest 
 Tribute from Native 
 
 States Total £25,124,489 
 
 II. Opium 3,160,005 
 
 III. Taxation: 
 
 1. Salt 
 
 2. Stamps 
 
 3. Excise 
 
 4. Customs 
 
 5. Provincial rates 
 
 6. Income tax 
 
 7. Registration 32,822,976 
 
 IV. Debt Services 1,136,504 
 
 V. Civil Services 2,364,985 
 
 VI. Military Services i,S7S>946 
 
 VII. Commercial: 
 
 1. Post 
 
 2. Telegraph 
 
 3. Railways 
 
 4. Irrigation SIj393,566 
 
 VIII. Miscellaneous Receipts 1,221,497 
 
 Grand total £118,799,968 
 
INDIA 51 
 
 Out of these eight classifications, opium comes 
 fourth on the list. 
 
 But in addition to the direct opium revenue, 
 we must add another item. Excise, which is 
 found under the third heading, taxation. In the 
 "India Office List for 1918" we find "Excise" 
 explained as follows: Page 383: "Excise and 
 Customs: Excise duties in India are levied with 
 the two fold object of raising revenue and re- 
 stricting the use of intoxicants and narcotics." 
 In the same book, on page 385, we also read: "Ex- 
 cise and Customs Revenues: The total of the ex- 
 cise and customs revenues on liquors and drugs 
 in 1915-16 was in round figures ten million pounds. 
 This total gives an average of rather more than 
 ninepence a head on the whole population of 
 British India as the revenue charge on drink and 
 drugs during the year." 
 
 These excise duties are collected on spirits, beer, 
 opium and intoxicating drugs, such as ganja, 
 charas, and bhang, all forms or preparations of 
 Indian hemp (Cannabis Indica), known in some 
 countries as hashish. In 1917-18 there were 17,369 
 drug shops throughout India. The excise duties 
 collected from these sources was pretty evenly 
 distributed. Excise revenue for a period of years 
 is as follows: 
 
52 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 
 Excise 
 
 Opium 
 
 Total Revenue 
 
 1907-8 
 
 £6,214,210 
 
 £5,244,986 
 
 £88,670,329 
 
 1908-9 
 
 6,389,628 
 
 5,884,788 
 
 86,074,624 
 
 1909-ro 
 
 6,537,854 
 
 5,534,683 
 
 91,130,296 
 
 I9IO-1I 
 
 7,030,314 
 
 7,521,962 
 
 97,470,114 
 
 1911-12 
 
 7,609,753 
 
 5,961,278 
 
 100,580,799 
 
 I9I2-I3 
 
 8,277,919 
 
 5,124,592 
 
 106,254,327 
 
 I9I3-I4 
 
 8,894,300 
 
 1,624,878 
 
 105,220,777 
 
 I9I4-IS 
 
 8,856,881 
 
 1,572,218 
 
 101,534,37s 
 
 1915-16 
 
 8,632,209 
 
 1,913,514 
 
 104,704,041 
 
 I9I6-I7 
 
 9,215,899 
 
 3,160,005 
 
 118,799,968 
 
 The "Statistics of British India for 1918" has 
 this to say on the subject of Excise (page 218): 
 "Revenue: During the ten years ending with 
 1916-17 the net receipts from Excise duties in- 
 creased ... at the rate of 47 per cent. The re- 
 ceipts from opium (consumed in India, not ex- 
 ported) being at the rate of 44 per cent. The net 
 receipts from liquors and from drugs other than 
 opium . . . the increase at the rate of 48 per 
 cent. This large increase is due not merely to 
 the expansion of consumption, but also to the 
 imposition of progressively higher rates of duty 
 and the increasingly extensive control of the ex- 
 cise administration. The revenue from drugs, 
 (excluding opium) has risen in ten years . . . the 
 increase being at the rate of 6j per cent." 
 
 A national psychology that can review these 
 figures with complacency, satisfaction and pride 
 is not akin to American psychology. A nation 
 
INDIA 
 
 53 
 
 that can subjugate 300,000,000 helpless people, and 
 then turn them into drug addicts — for the sake 
 of revenue — is a nation which commits a cold- 
 blooded atrocity unparalleled hy any atrocities 
 committed in the rage and heat of war. The 
 Blue Book shows no horror at these figures. Com- 
 placent approval greets the increase of 44 per cent 
 of opium consumption, and the increase of 67 per 
 cent in the use of other habit-forming drugs. Ap- 
 proval, and a shrewd appreciation of the possibili- 
 ties for more revenue from "progressively higher 
 rates of duty," knowing well that drug addicts 
 will sell soul and body in order to procure their 
 daily supply. 
 
XI 
 
 TURKEY AND PERSIA 
 
 Next to India, the greatest two opium-producing 
 countries in the world are Turkey and Persia. 
 The Statesman's Year Book for 191 8 has this to 
 say about it. On page 1334: "The principal ex- 
 ports from Turkey into the United Kingdom . . . 
 in two years were: 
 
 igiS IQ16 
 
 Barley £156,766 £49,413 
 
 Raisins 127,014 34,003 
 
 Dried fruit 37S,SI9 540,633 
 
 Wool 36,719 143,216 
 
 Tobacco 149,100 3,711 
 
 Opium 262,293 48,090 
 
 These are the only articles mentioned in this list 
 of chief exports. There are others, doubtless, but 
 the Statesman's Year Book is a condensed and 
 compact little volume, dealing only with the 
 principal things exported. In 191 5 we therefore 
 notice that the opium export was second on the 
 list, being exceeded by but one other, dried fruit. 
 In 1916, the third year of the war, the opium ex- 
 port is decidedly less, as are all the other articles 
 exported, except dried fruit and wool — which were 
 articles probably more vital to the United King- 
 dom at that time even than opium. 
 
 54 
 
PERSIA 
 
 The same authority, the Statesman's Year Book 
 for 191 8, gives a table on page 1162, showing the 
 value of the chief exports from Persia. The values 
 are given in thousands of kran, sixty kran equaling 
 one pound sterling. 
 
 1914-15 1915-16 
 
 Opium 41,446 kran 4ij732 kran 
 
 Since the war, both Turkey and Persia are more 
 or less under control of the British Empire, which 
 gives Great Britain virtual control of the world's 
 output of opium. With this monopoly of the 
 opium-producing countries, and with a million 
 or so square miles added to her immense colonial 
 Empire, one wonders what use Great Britain will 
 make of the mandatory powers she has assumed 
 over the lives and welfare of all these subject 
 peoples! Will she find these helpless millions 
 ready for her opium trade .^ Will she establish 
 opium shops, and opium divans, and reap half 
 the costs of upkeep of these newly acquired states 
 by means of this shameful traffic? 
 
 55 
 
XII 
 
 MAURETIUS 
 
 Another British colony is Mauretius, acquired 
 by conquest in 1810, and formally ceded to Great 
 Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814. This 
 island is in the Indian Ocean, 500 miles east of 
 Madagascar, with an area of about 720 square 
 miles. The population is about 377,000, of which 
 number 258,000 are Indian, and 3,000 Chinese. 
 Opium appears to be sold in the colony, since the 
 Blue Book mentions that licenses are required 
 for opium sellers. As far as we can discover, by 
 perusal of these Government Reports, the sale 
 of opium is not conducted by the Government 
 itself, as in India, the Straits Settlements, Hong- 
 kong, etc., but is carried on by private dealers 
 who obtain licenses before they can open opium 
 shops. A part of the revenue, however, is de- 
 rived from opium; thus, according to the Blue 
 Book for the Colony of Mauretius for 191 5, page 
 V 73, we read that the imports of opium for the 
 year amounted to 1,353 kilos, with a duty col- 
 lected of 54,126 rupees. The Blue Book for 1916 
 shows a gratifying increase. Thus, the import of 
 crude opium from India amounted to 5,690 kilos, 
 with a duty collected of 227,628 rupees. (See 
 page V 64.) 
 
 S6 
 
MAURETIUS 57 
 
 I915 I916 
 
 Imports of opium. . 1,353 kilos 5,690 kilos 
 
 Duty on opium S4jI26 rupees 227,628 rupees 
 
 Total duty on all 
 
 imports 3,765,677 rupees 4,143,085 rupees 
 
 Statistics for British India, Eighth Issue, gives 
 these figures : 
 
 Opium exported to Mauretius 
 
 1912-13 I o chests 
 
 1913-H 19 " 
 
 1914-IS 23 " 
 
 1915-16 65 " 
 
 1916-17 120 " 
 
 This is a poor little colony, but has its possibilities. 
 The consumption of opium appears to be increas- 
 ing steadily in a most satisfactory manner. Con- 
 gratulations all round. 
 
XIII 
 
 BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 
 
 British North Borneo occupies the northern 
 part of the island of Borneo. Area, about 31,000 
 square miles, with a coast line of over 900 miles. 
 Population (1911 census), 208,000, consisting 
 mainly of Mohammedan settlers on the coast 
 and aboriginal tribes inland. The Europeans 
 numbered 355; Chinese 26,000; Malays, 1,612; 
 East Indians about 5,000 and Filipinos 5,700. 
 The number of natives cannot be more than ap- 
 proximately estimated, but is placed at about 
 170,000. The territory is under the jurisdiction 
 of the British North Borneo Company, being 
 held under grants from the Sultans of Brunei 
 and Sulu (Royal Charter in 1881). 
 
 Like many other British colonies, opium is 
 depended upon for part of the revenue. The 
 Statesman's Year Book for 1916 observes on 
 page 107: "Sources of revenue: Opium, birds' 
 nests, court fees, stamp duty, licenses, import 
 and export duties, royalties, land sales, etc. No 
 public debt." 
 
 In this frank manner, our attention is called to 
 opium, which appears first on the list of sources of 
 revenue. 
 
 Going over the files of the Government reports, 
 58 
 
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 59 
 
 we will begin with the "Supplement to the Official 
 Gazette for British North Borneo. Administra- 
 tion Report for the Year 1910." Published June i, 
 191 1. On page 3 we read: Customs and Trade: 
 The import and export trade of the state shows 
 a healthy expansion. ... It is interesting to 
 note that imports show an increase at every sta- 
 tion. Out of the 47 headings of Tariff, there are 
 only 7 which show decreases. . . . The largest 
 increases appear under cloth, ^147,106; opium, 
 ^132,692, and iron ware, $118,620. . . . The 
 general all round increases . . . are of course 
 due to the demand for supplies of all kinds in con- 
 nection with the opening of rubber estates." 
 
 The Supplement to the Official Gazette, Report 
 for 1912 (published in December, 1913) is also a 
 report of general prosperity. Page 4: "Trade: 
 The volume of trade for the year 191 2 was 
 $11,139,122, giving an increase over 191 1 of 18 
 per cent. . . . Imports: As in 191 1, all stations 
 show an increase of imports. Out of 47 headings, 
 33 show increases, 12 show decreases, and 2 re- 
 main stationary. Increases : There was an increase 
 under rice, flour and grain . . . the increase 
 under other headings include sundries, opium, 
 machinery, etc." 
 
 The next Government Report is not so happy. 
 Opium imports show no "healthy expansion." 
 Thus, the Supplement to the Official Gazette, 
 Report for 191 3 (published i February, 191 5) 
 
6o THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 says on page 4: "Other decreases in imports were 
 opium, $109,180. The decrease in opium was due 
 to the abolition of the Opium Farm, which also 
 held the Labuan Farm, and opium was therefore 
 no longer imported from Labuan for use in the 
 West Coast and the Interior." 
 
 Still more bad news as to opium, in the re- 
 port for 1914, (published i February, 1916). All 
 imports drop. Page 4 records "Decrease in 
 imports. . . . Railway and telegraph material, 
 rice, flour, grain and opium." In this year the 
 opium imports only amount to $58,464. This 
 general falling off in all imports may have been 
 due to the war. But the opium situation was 
 apparently growing serious. On page 17 of this 
 same report we read that "Thirty-two ordinances 
 were passed by the Council and became laws dur- 
 ing the year. Among them the Opium and 
 Chandu." 
 
 The brevity and meagerness of these official 
 reports often leave one puzzled as to their meaning. 
 The Supplement to the Official Gazette for 191 5 
 (published October, 1916), shows still more dis- 
 couraging news as to opium. Imports that year 
 amounted to only $31,299. But, in spite of this 
 discouragement, hope still remains. The same 
 report shows optimism under the head of Excise. 
 "Excise: $627,225, against $467,078, an increase 
 in the nett revenue of $160,147, due to Govern- 
 ment taking over the sole control of the sale of 
 
BRITISH NORTH BORNEO 6 1 
 
 chandu (smoking opium) and the collection of 
 other Excise duties, formerly farmed." 
 
 This explains the Ordinance passed by the 
 Council the preceding year, regarding Opium and 
 Chandu. Since the Government has taken over 
 "sole control of the sale of chandu" and will collect 
 the excise duties systematically and thoroughly, 
 we may still hope for some future report which 
 will show once more a "healthy expansion" in 
 the opium revenue. 
 
XIV 
 
 BRITISH GUIANA 
 
 Situated in South America. Area, 89,480 square 
 miles. Population at census of 191 1, excluding 
 aborigines in the unfrequented parts of the colony, 
 296,000. The Statesman's Year Book, which 
 gives us these brief facts, has very little to say 
 about this British colony in our Western Hemi- 
 sphere, and gives no dates or information as to 
 how and when it was acquired. The Government 
 reports are also meager and unsatisfactory, and 
 there is no wealth of detail as to exports and im- 
 ports. The country, however, is rich in gold, 
 mining having commenced in 1886. Diamonds 
 have also been discovered. 
 
 The chief sources of revenue, however, are 
 customs, excise and licenses. With the word "ex- 
 cise" we have come to have unpleasant associa- 
 tions. From "The Statistical Abstract for British 
 Self-Governing Dominions, Colonies, Possessions 
 and Protectorates" we find a table showing the 
 imports of opium into the various countries under 
 British rule. The opium imports into British 
 Guiana are as follows: 
 
 62 
 
BRITISH GUIANA 63 
 
 1910 1)251 pounds sterling 
 
 1911 1,270 
 
 1912 2,474 
 
 1913 4.4S2 
 
 1914 S,45S 
 
 1915 4,481 
 
 These figures would seem to indicate that even on 
 the Western Hemisphere the taste for opium may 
 be cultivated. It need not necessarily be confined 
 to the Oriental peoples. The population of much 
 of South America is a mixed lot, the result of 
 mixed breeding between Spanish settlers, Indians, 
 native tribes of all sorts. All this jumble, in- 
 cluding the aborigines referred to, might, with a 
 little teaching become profitable customers of 
 the Opium Monopoly. Time and a little effort, 
 given this fertile field, ought to produce a "healthy 
 expansion" In the opium trade. 
 
 And that this Insidious habit Is Indeed taking 
 hold, In at least one more country In South 
 America, one may Infer from the following para- 
 graph which appeared In the New York Times, 
 4 October, 1919: 
 
 DRUG EVIL IN ARGENTINA 
 
 Buenos Aires Opens Fight on Use of Narcotics 
 
 The city government of Buenos Aires, Argentina, has 
 begun a determined fight to wipe out the drug evil by 
 the enactment of stringent laws governing the sale 
 
64 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 of narcotics. This step was taken after an investiga- 
 tion by the authorities had disclosed that not only 
 was the narcotic habit strong among the poor, but that 
 it was spreading throughout virtually every class in 
 the city. 
 
 Until the passage of the laws druggists were permitted 
 to sell cocaine, morphine and opium to any purchaser. 
 The new laws forbid the sale of these drugs except in 
 filling prescriptions prepared by registered physicians. 
 The city also has established dispensaries for the treat- 
 ment of drug addicts. 
 
XV 
 
 HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN 
 CHINA 
 
 In a vague way, we are familiar with the "opium 
 evil" in China, and some of us have hazy ideas 
 as to how it came about. The China Year Book 
 for 1916 has this to say on the subject: "The poppy 
 has been known in China for 12 centuries, and its 
 medicinal use for 9 centuries. ... It was not 
 until the middle of the 17th century that the 
 practice of mixing opium with tobacco for smok- 
 ing purposes was introduced into China. This 
 habit was indulged in by the Dutch in Java, and 
 by them taken to Formosa, whence it spread to 
 Amoy and the mainland generally. There is no 
 record to show when opium was first smoked by 
 itself, but it is thought to have originated about 
 the end of the i8th century. Foreign opium 
 was first introduced by the Portuguese from Goa 
 at the beginning of the i8th century. In 1729, 
 when the foreign import was 200 chests, the Em- 
 peror Yung Ching issued the first anti-opium 
 edict, enacting severe penalties on the sale of 
 opium and the opening of opium-smoking divans. 
 The importation, however, continued to increase, 
 and by 1790 it amounted to over 4,000 chests 
 annually. In 1796 opium smoking was again 
 
 6s 
 
66 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 prohibited, and in 1800 the importation of foreign 
 opium was again declared illegal. Opium was 
 now contraband, but the fact had no effect on 
 the quantity introduced into the country, which 
 rose to 5,000 chests in 1820; 16,000 chests in 1830; 
 20,000 chests in 1838, and 70,000 chests in 1858." 
 
 The China Year Book makes no mention of the 
 traders who carried these chests of opium into 
 China. The opium came from India, however, 
 and the increase in importation corresponds with 
 the British occupation of India, and the golden 
 days of the East India Company. "Opium was 
 now contraband, but that fact had no effect on 
 the quantity introduced into the country," — 
 smuggled in wholesale by the enterprising British 
 traders. 
 
 China was powerless to protect herself from this 
 menace, either by protests or prohibition. And as 
 more and more of the drug was smuggled in, and 
 more and more of the people became victims of the 
 habit, the Chinese finally had a tea-party, very 
 much like our Boston Tea Party, but less success- 
 ful in outcome. In 1839, in spite of the fact that 
 opium smoking is an easy habit to acquire and 
 had been extensively encouraged, the British 
 traders found themselves with 20,000 chests of 
 unsold opium on their store-ships, just below 
 Canton. The Chinese had repeatedly appealed to 
 the British Government to stop these imports, 
 but the British Government had turned a per- 
 
HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA 67 
 
 sistently deaf ear. Therefore the Emperor de- 
 termined to deal with the matter on his own ac- 
 count. He sent a powerful official named Lin 
 to attend to it, and Lin had a sort of Boston Tea 
 Party, as we have said, and destroyed some twenty 
 thousand chests of opium in a very drastic way. 
 Mr. H. Wells Williams describes it thus: "The 
 opium was destroyed in the most thorough manner, 
 by mixing it in parcels of 200 chests, in trenches, 
 with lime and salt water, and then drawing off 
 the contents into an adjacent creek at low tide." 
 
 After this atrocity, followed the first Opium 
 War, when British ships sailed up the river, seized 
 port after port, and bombarded and took Canton. 
 Her ships sailed up the Yangtsze, and captured 
 the tribute junks going up the Grand Canal with 
 revenue to Peking, thus stopping a great part of 
 China's income. Peace was concluded in 1843, 
 and Great Britain came out well. She recom- 
 pensed herself by taking the island of Hongkong; 
 an indemnity of 21 million dollars, and Canton, 
 Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were 
 opened up as "treaty ports" — for the importation 
 of opium and the "open-door" in general. 
 
 Mr. Wells, in his "Middle Kingdom" de- 
 scribes the origin of this first war with England: 
 "This war was extraordinary in its origin as 
 growing chiefly out of a commercial misunder- 
 standing; remarkable in its course as being waged 
 between strength and weakness, conscious su- 
 
68 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 periority and ignorant pride; melancholy in its 
 end as forcing the weaker to pay for opium within 
 its borders against all its laws, thus paralyzing 
 the little moral power its feeble government could 
 exert to protect its subjects. ... It was a turn- 
 ing point in the national life of the Chinese race, 
 but the compulsory payment of six million dollars 
 for the opium destroyed has left a stigma upon the 
 English name." 
 
 He also says, "The conflict was now fairly begun; 
 its issue between the parties so unequally matched 
 — one having almost nothing but the right on its 
 side, the other assisted by every material and 
 physical advantage — could easily be foreseen" 
 and again, after speaking of it as as being unjust 
 and immoral, he concludes "Great Britain, the 
 first Christian power, really waged this war against 
 the pagan monarch who had only endeavored to 
 put down a vice harmful to his people. The war 
 was looked upon in this light by the Chinese; it 
 will always be so looked upon by the candid his- 
 torian, and known as the Opium War." 
 
 Within fifteen years after this first war, there 
 was another one, and again Great Britain came 
 off victorious. China had to pay another in- 
 demnity, three million dollars, and five more 
 treaty ports were opened up. By the terms of the 
 Treaty of Tientsin, the sale of opium in China 
 was legalized in 1858. 
 
 From a small pamphlet, "Opium: England's 
 
HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA 69 
 
 Coercive Policy and Its Disastrous Results in 
 China and India" by the Rev. John Liggins, we 
 find the following: "As a specimen of how both 
 wars were carried on, we quote the following 
 from an English writer on the bombardment of 
 Canton: 'Field pieces loaded with grape were 
 planted at the end of long, narrow streets crowded 
 with innocent men, women and children, to mow 
 them down like grass till the gutters flowed with 
 their blood.' In one scene of carnage, the Times 
 correspondent recorded that half an army of 
 10,000 men were in ten minutes destroyed by the 
 sword, or forced into the broad river. " The Morn- 
 ing Herald " asserted that "a more horrible or re- 
 volting crime than this bombardment of Canton 
 has never been committed in the worst ages of bar- 
 baric darkness." 
 
 Naturally, therefore, after the termination of 
 these two wars, China gave up the struggle. She 
 had fought valiantly to protect her people from 
 opium, but the resources of a Christian nation 
 were too much for her. Seeing therefore that the 
 opium trade was to be forced upon her, and that 
 her people were doomed to degradation, she de- 
 cided to plant poppies herself. There should be 
 competition at least, and the money should not 
 all be drained out of the country. Thus it came 
 about that after 1858 extensive tracts of land were 
 given over to poppy production. Whole provinces 
 or parts of provinces, ceased to grow grain and 
 
70 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 Other necessities, and diverted their rich river 
 bottoms to the raising of opium. Chinese opium, 
 however, never supplanted Indian opium, being 
 inferior to that raised in the rich valley of the 
 Ganges. The country merely had double quan- 
 tities of the drug, used straight or blended, to suit 
 the purse or taste of the consumer. 
 
 Then, in 1906, the incredible happened. After 
 over a hundred years of steady demoralization, 
 with half her population opium addicts, or worse 
 still, making enormous profits out of the trade, 
 China determined to give up opium. In all his- 
 tory, no nation has ever set itself such a gigantic 
 task, with such a gigantic handicap. China, a 
 country of immense distances, with scant means of 
 communication; with no common language, a 
 land where only the scholars can read and write, 
 suddenly decided to free herself from this vice. 
 The Emperor issued an edict saying that in ten 
 years' time all opium traffic must cease, and an 
 arrangement was made with Great Britain whereby 
 this might be accomplished. To the honor of 
 America be it said that we assisted China in this 
 resolution. We agreed to see her through. 
 
 A bargain was then made between China and 
 Great Britain, in 1907, China agreeing to diminish 
 poppy cultivation year by year for a period of 
 ten years, and Great Britain agreeing to a pro- 
 portional decrease in the imports of Indian opium. 
 A three years' test was first agreed to, a trial of 
 
HISTORY OF THE OPIUM TRADE IN CHINA Jl 
 
 China's sincerity and ability, for Great Britain 
 feared that this was but a ruse to cut off Indian 
 opium, while leaving China's opium alone in the 
 field. At the end of three years, however, China 
 had proved her abihty to cope with the situation. 
 Thus, for a period of ten years, both countries 
 have lived up to their bargain, the amount of 
 native and foreign opium declining steadily in a 
 decreasing scale. April i, 1917, saw the end of the 
 accomplishment. 
 
 China's part was most difficult. In the remote, 
 interior provinces, poppies were grown surrepti- 
 tiously, connived at by corrupt officials who made 
 money from the crops. However, drastic laws 
 were enacted and severe penalties imposed upon 
 those who broke them. If poppy cultivation 
 could not be stopped, England would not hold to 
 her end of the bargain. Not only was there a 
 nation of addicts to deal with, but these could 
 obtain copious supplies of opium from the foreign 
 concessions, over which the Chinese had no con- 
 trol. We shall show, in another article, to what 
 extent this was carried on. Yet somehow, in 
 some manner, the impossible happened. Year by 
 year, little by little, one province after another 
 was freed from poppy cultivation, until in 1917, 
 China was practically free from the native-grown 
 drug, and foreign importation had practically 
 ended. 
 
 In this manner, first by large smuggling, then 
 
72 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 by two opium wars, was China drugged with 
 opium. And in this manner, and to this extent, 
 has she succeeded in freeing herself from the curse. 
 But in one way, she is not free. She has no con- 
 trol over the extra-territorial holdings of Eu- 
 ropean powers, for in each treaty port are the 
 foreign concessions already mentioned — German, 
 Austrian, British, French, Russian. And in these 
 concessions, opium may be procured. Simply 
 by crossing an imaginary line, in such cities as 
 Shanghai and Hongkong, can the Chinese buy 
 as much opium as they choose. China will never 
 be rid of this menace till she is rid of these extra- 
 territorial holdings. Opium shops, Hcensed by 
 foreign governments, are always ready to supply 
 her people with the forbidden drug. 
 
 We say that the China market is closed. So it 
 is, in one way. But the British Opium Monopoly 
 is not ended. The year 191 7 saw a tremendous 
 blow dealt to the British opium dealers, but other 
 markets will be found. There are other countries 
 than China whose inhabitants can be taught this 
 vice. The object of this discussion is to consider 
 these other countries, and to see to what extent 
 the world is menaced by this possibility. 
 
XVI 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 There are many people who advocate the use of 
 opium, and who defend the policy of the Opium 
 Monopoly. They argue that it is not harmful — if 
 taken in moderation. They even assert that it is 
 no more objectionable than alcohol or tobacco. 
 Leaving out of account, therefore, the consensus 
 of opinion of the medical profession as to the evils 
 of habit-forming drugs, and accepting the theory 
 that opium is harmless, we should then like to ask 
 why the use of opium is so carefully restricted 
 to the peoples of subject states, who have no voice 
 in their own affairs.'' Why should the benefits 
 of opium be confined to Oriental races, and why 
 should not the white race be given the same op- 
 portunities for indulgence.? Is there any reason 
 for this discrimination.'' As a source of revenue, it 
 certainly has advantages. Yet curiously enough, 
 those European countries which derive much profit 
 through the sale of opium to their subject races, 
 seem to have an aversion to introducing it to their 
 people at home. And there is a further coincidence 
 in the fact that none of the self-governing colonies 
 of European countries — ^Australia, New Zealand 
 and Canada — permit this traffic. It appears to be 
 only the subject peoples, whose well-being has 
 
 73 
 
74 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 become the White Man's Burden, who receive the 
 blessings of this peculiar form of altruism. Is it 
 because the white race is worth preserving, worth 
 protecting, and because subject nations are fair 
 game for exploitation of any kind? 
 
 Another argument advanced by advocates of 
 Government opium is that the Oriental peoples 
 are "different" — that opium does them no harm. 
 Every writer on the subject of opium in China, 
 produces evidence to show the shocking results 
 upon that country, during the hey-dey of the 
 deluge. The complete moral degradation, and 
 economic ruin of thousands of helpless individuals. 
 Nor do we think the medical profession would 
 agree with this assumption that opium is harmless 
 to Orientals, because they are "different." Their 
 only real difference lies in their helplessness to 
 protect themselves from foreign aggression. 
 
 Another argument advanced by the upholders 
 of the Monopoly is that the Orientals have always 
 been users of opium, that they like it, it suits 
 them, it would be unfair to deprive them of it. 
 We have seen to what extent the Chinese liked it, 
 and how it was forced upon them by two wars. 
 Not until they were completely crushed, and had 
 to accept the terms of the conquerer, did they 
 submit. It can hardly, therefore, be called a 
 vice indigenous to the Chinese. Japan is another 
 Oriental nation that disproves this argument. 
 As we have said before, there are no opium shops 
 
CONCLUSION 75 
 
 in Japan, and the sale of opium is not conducted 
 by the Japanese Government. On the contrary, 
 the Japanese have the same fear of this drug that 
 a European nation has, and exercises the same 
 precautions to protect its people. But, as we 
 have said before, Japan is the only Oriental na- 
 tion that has not been subjugated by a European 
 nation, and therefore has never had opium thrust 
 upon her. She is the only country in the Far East 
 that has managed to preserve her sovereignty, 
 and has never been subject to certain blighting 
 influences of European culture. 
 
 Another exception to this assumption that the 
 Orientals cannot do without opium lies in the 
 Philippines. When America acquired those islands 
 some twenty years ago, our first act was to 
 eliminate the opium traffic, which had been es- 
 tablished there by our predecessors. It had been 
 in existence for decades, but we immediately set 
 about to abolish it. Root and branch we did away 
 with it, and shed no crocodile tears as to the "hard- 
 ship" this would be to the people who had come 
 under our protection. We wished no revenue com- 
 ing from such a source as this. Yet we might 
 have cut in half the cost of our Philippine budget 
 had we followed the example set by other nations. 
 We have seen that certain British colonies, Hong- 
 kong and the Straits Settlements, for example, 
 derive from one-third to one-half of their upkeep 
 expenses from this traffic. But we refrained from 
 
yfi THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 treating our Filipinos in this manner. We are 
 called sentimentalists out in the East — at such 
 times as we are not called money-getters. To-day, 
 the Philippines are very nearly ready for self- 
 government. Would they have been so nearly 
 ready had we continued to drug them as they had 
 been drugged before we took possession ? Drugged 
 peoples are usually docile and submissive — per- 
 haps that is the secret of much of the successful 
 colonizing, about which we hear so much. 
 
 But let us leave aside the question of the Ori- 
 entals, and whether or no opium is good for them. 
 We recognize quite clearly that it is not good for 
 ourselves, for Americans. We recognize that 
 fact quite as clearly as England realizes that it is 
 not good for the inhabitants of the British Isles. 
 Quite as clearly as France, while setting up opium 
 shops in her colony of Indo-China, refuses to 
 establish them in Paris or Marseilles. America 
 is unique in the fact that although we have co- 
 lonial possessions, we do not have a double stand- 
 ard of morality. We attempt to throw around our 
 colonies the same safeguards that we throw around 
 ourselves at home. But the question arises, how 
 successful are we in protecting ourselves at home ? 
 Not particularly so, according to the daily press. 
 
 How great the danger to ourselves was recog- 
 nized some thirty-seven years ago by an Episcopal 
 missionary to China, the Rev. John Liggins. In 
 1882 he published a small book, already referred 
 
CONCLUSION 77 
 
 to, entitled: "England's Coercive Opium Policy 
 and Its Disastrous Results in China and India." 
 The preface to this unheeded warning runs thus. 
 "Our aim in this sketch is to present, as briefly 
 as possible, the most important facts and testi- 
 monies concerning a traffic which is as disgraceful 
 to England as it is ruinous to China and hurtful 
 to India. ... It is also of the highest importance 
 that the people throughout our wide domain 
 should be aroused concerning the new, fascinating 
 and deadly foe which has entered our country 
 through the Golden Gate, and which already 
 numbers its victims by the thousands, and will 
 soon do so by the tens of thousands." 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Liggins saw it coming — that 
 danger which is almost ready to overwhelm us 
 to-day. He recognized clearly that the Opium 
 Monopoly of that great nation which rules nearly 
 one-third of the world — the British Empire — 
 would in time reach further and further afield 
 for new victims. It is too lucrative a trade to be 
 confined to only a few countries. Markets must 
 not only be created and legalized in subject states, 
 but new ones added in outside countries, through 
 smuggling. All too fatally easy of accomplish- 
 ment, and so profitable, financially, as to be worth 
 any risk and effort. The prediction as to our own 
 danger, made in 1882, seems to be abundantly 
 realized. 
 
 The number of drug addicts in America to-day 
 
78 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 are fairly startling. The number is variously- 
 estimated in New York City alone as from ten 
 thousand to one hundred thousand. It is said 
 that there may be a million in the country. Yet 
 these figures are the merest guesswork, by no 
 means substantiated. Certain it is that the cam- 
 paign of the New York Health Department has 
 uncovered thousands of them, and any other 
 city that chose to do so, could produce facts 
 equally startling. 
 
 The laws on our statute books concerning the 
 prescription of narcotic drugs are powerless to 
 deal with the situation. It is shooting into the 
 air to try to "regulate" this condition. It is as 
 thoroughly well "regulated" as it can ever be by 
 the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Act, a Federal Law 
 whose enforcement is in the hands of the Internal 
 Revenue Department. By the provisions of this 
 Act, every pound of opium or its derivatives 
 that comes into this country, legitimately, is 
 accounted for, and its distribution, both whole- 
 sale and retail, made a matter of record. Thus, 
 the Board of Trade returns show the amount im- 
 ported by the big wholesale drug houses. These 
 must account for their sales to the retail drug 
 stores, and the amounts must tally. The drug 
 stores can only sell narcotic drugs on a physician's 
 prescription, and the prescriptions are kept on 
 file, and the quantity sold must correspond to the 
 quantity called for by these prescriptions, as 
 
CONCLUSION 79 
 
 well as to the amount obtained from the whole- 
 sale drug house. In prescribing narcotics, the 
 physician is obliged to write his prescription in 
 triplicate — one copy for his own protection, one 
 copy for the local druggist, and one copy to be 
 filed with the health department. Nor is he al- 
 lowed to prescribe narcotics for an addict without 
 decreasing the dosage. His prescription cannot 
 call for thirty grains of morphia day after day — 
 it must show, in a chronic case of this kind, a 
 daily diminution of the amount prescribed, thus 
 indicating a desire to get the patient off the drug, 
 eventually. All these records are kept on file, 
 open to inspection whenever an accounting is de- 
 manded, consequently any leak can be instantly 
 accounted for. This Harrison Act is as com- 
 prehensive and as nearly perfect as possible, yet 
 it does not cover the situation. By this means, 
 violations can be detected, whether on the part 
 of an unscrupulous physician or druggist, or even 
 the wholesale house, but these violations are 
 only occasional. The root of the evil remains un- 
 touched. 
 
 At one time, it was believed that carelessness 
 on the part of the physician was chiefly responsible 
 for creating drug addicts, but the recent campaign 
 against violators of the Harrison Act seems to 
 have completely exonerated him of this charge. 
 For one patient who becomes a drug addict while 
 under a doctor's care, through the accidental 
 
80 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 misuse of morphia, there are a hundred who form 
 the habit through other ways. It is not the oc- 
 casional, accidental victim, given morphia for the 
 rehef of pain, which is creating our thousands of 
 drug users. It is not the occasional unscrupulous 
 physician who is responsible. If this was all, we 
 could easily cope with these unwitting abuses, 
 or even deliberate instances of misuse. But the 
 question goes deeper than this. 
 
 The Opium Monopoly was not established for 
 any humane or altrustic purpose. It was not es- 
 tablished to provide the medical profession with a 
 drug for the relief of pain, to ease the agony of 
 the injured and wounded, or to calm the last days 
 of those dying with an incurable disease. This, 
 which may be called the legitimate use of opium, 
 is not the object of the Opium Monopoly. Used 
 only in this manner, there would be no money in 
 it. It is only when opium is produced in quanti- 
 ties far in excess of the legitimate needs of the 
 world that it becomes worth while — to the Opium 
 Monopoly. That Monopoly was established not 
 to relieve pain and suffering, but with the deliber- 
 ate intention of creating pain and suffering, by 
 creating drug victims by the thousand. It is 
 these hundreds of thousands of customers that 
 are profitable. The menace to America lies in the 
 large amounts of opium which are smuggled into 
 the country for this purpose. Boys and girls of 
 sixteen and seventeen first acquire this habit 
 
CONCLUSION 8l 
 
 through curiosity, through association with what 
 they call "bad company," peddlers who first 
 offer it free, as a gift, well knowing that after 
 a few doses the fatal habit will be formed. Where 
 do these vendors obtain their suppHes? 
 
 The daily papers often contain suggestive para- 
 graphs. Thus the " New York Times," under date 
 of February 28, 1919:" Seize Opium in Schenectady. 
 Opium, valued by Federal officials at $10,000 
 was seized in Schenectady, and four Chinamen 
 were arrested in a raid on Chinese places of busi- 
 ness on Centre street today. The Federal of- 
 ficials expressed the belief that opium had been 
 smuggled, and that Schenectady is the distributing 
 point for this part of the State." 
 
 An item in the " Seattle Union Record," of 
 June 24, 1919, gives us cause for further con- 
 sideration. 
 
 BRITISH DRUG SHIP HELD BY UNITED 
 STATES 
 
 Fine of $49,265 Assessed for Bringing "Dope" 
 TO America 
 
 Liner Allowed to Move Under Bond 
 
 No Arrests Made, Though Booze Is Found Aboard 
 
 No arrests were made up to Tuesday noon in con- 
 nection with the enormous seizure of opium, cobaine 
 and liquor on the Blue Funnel liner Cyclops, although 
 the investigation is being continued by federal officials. 
 
82 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 The ship has been seized and a fine of $49,265 has been 
 assessed against her for having drugs not listed in the 
 ship's manifest. 
 
 United States District Attorney Robert C. Saunders 
 filed a libel Monday night against the Cyclops, the 
 boat being seized later by the customs service. Bond 
 was fixed at $100,000, or twice the fine. The Fidelity 
 Surety Company filed the bond Monday. The ship 
 was released Tuesday morning. 
 
 A civil libel suit may be filed against Capt. W. Dun- 
 can, holding him responsible for the liquor found on 
 the ship. Captain Duncan, questioned Monday by 
 customs officials, claimed to know nothing about the 
 contraband. 
 
 The result of Monday's checking of the opium and 
 cocaine showed that the seizure amounted to 778 tins 
 of opium, 670 ounces of cocaine and 16 ounces of mor- 
 phine. 
 
 A small paragraph in a New York paper, dated 
 June 12, 1919, reads thus: "Two New Yorkers 
 jailed for smuggling opium. Pleas of guilty to 
 charges of opium smuggling were entered in the 
 Federal Court today by Albertus Schneitzer and 
 Maxwell Auerbach, of New York. They were 
 fined $500 each, and sent to Atlanta penitentiary, 
 the former for two years, and the latter for one 
 year. The men were arrested in connection with 
 the seizure of opium on the Canadian border." 
 
 We cannot grapple with our problem unless we 
 face the facts; if we Ignore the source of supply 
 and distribution, and the reasons for this Immense 
 
CONCLUSION 83 
 
 over-production of opium on the part of the 
 British Opium Monopoly. The anti-narcotic laws 
 on our statute books are powerless to protect 
 us. With Canada, a British province, to the north, 
 and all Mexico on the south, what chance have we 
 against such exposure.? Of what use to send two 
 smugglers to the penitentiary, when at the Cal- 
 cutta opium sales, once a month opium is auc- 
 tioned off under the auspices of the British Govern- 
 ment, to be disposed of as the buyers may see fit.? 
 Much of it, as we have seen, goes to those helpless 
 states and colonies which have no control over their 
 own affairs, where the opium traflEic is conducted 
 under the administration of the alien government. 
 Much of the rest of it goes out for smuggling 
 purposes, to be distributed in devious, round- 
 about, underhand channels throughout the world. 
 We are coming in for our share in this distribu- 
 tion. 
 
 We feel that our country is in grave peril. Our 
 politicians and our diplomats have been too care- 
 ful all these years, to speak of this business, through 
 fear of offending a powerful nation. But we feel 
 that the time has now come to speak. England 
 has been relying upon our silence to "get away 
 with it." Upon our ignorance, and upon that 
 silence which gives consent. But in this new, 
 changed world, reborn out of the blood and agony 
 of the great war, is it not time to practice some of 
 the decencies which we have proclaimed so loudly.? 
 
§4 THE OPIUM MONOPOLY 
 
 As we have said before, no stronger opponents 
 of this policy are to be found than among a sec- 
 tion of the people of England itself. We look to 
 them to join us, in this great issue, and we feel 
 that we shall not look in vain. 
 
 Printed in the United States of America 
 
If 11 I IP Pin 111" ■«