Condemned - as degrading or injurious by all Chinese whom I have heard speak on the subject. Whether Opium mothers or not. Their view of the effects of opium and alcohol is much the same as what I have given under last question in last-grievance which gives rise to painful reflections on the part of patriotic Chinese.
(10) Perhaps one in a hundred opium smokers can and does break off the habit - unaided by doctors or external force.
As the immediate result of the sudden stopping of Indian Opium, we might expect that the Chinese would be seriously alarmed and provoked to riots by those interested, that conceited smokers would be cured of the habit, owing to the scarcity of the drug, that measures would be taken to get a supply of opium from China or elsewhere without delay, and that morphine or some similar narcotic would be used as a substitute, but not alcohol. To further reply to this question, I quote the following remarkable opinion of a wise Chinese friend, who has done much to help the Anti-Opium movement.
(a) The opium habit of China is justly called a disease. It is a chronic and inveterate disease. It cannot be cured in a day by means short of a miracle. To stop suddenly the supply of Indian opium would cause untold misery in Hong Kong.
(b) To the ignorant and suspicious Chinese mind, such an act would present itself as some deep plot of the British Government. Even Chinese statesmen mis-understand or mis-interpret it.
(c) A gradual but marked and consistent diminution of the quantity of opium imported from India, so that it might be absolutely stopped in a few years, would impress the Government and people of China with the benevolent intentions and good faith of England, that the better and wiser Chinese would be stimulated and co-operation on the part of China would be secured. By this, the patriotic feelings of Officials and Gentry would be enlisted.
It is not too much to expect that they...