# Annex (A).
Proposals in Eleven Articles for carrying out the Prohibition of Opium, now reverently submitted to the Throne.
(Translation.)
## ARTICLE 1. To restrict the cultivation of the poppy in order to remove the root of the evil.
The effects of poppy cultivation on the agricultural interests of the country have been disastrous. Throughout China, the chief sources of opium production are the Provinces of Szechuan, Shensi and Kansu, Yunnan, and Kweichow, Shansi, Kiangsu, and Anhui, but in the remaining provinces, it may be said generally that there is hardly a place from which it is absent.
The term of ten years has now been fixed for the complete prohibition of its use. It is therefore necessary first to limit its cultivation in order that the complete prohibition of consumption may be successfully carried out, and with this end in view all Governors-General and Governors of provinces should direct the Departmental and District Magistrates to make an accurate investigation of the acreage in their respective jurisdictions hitherto devoted to the growth of the poppy, and to make an official return of the figures. It would then be for ever forbidden to bring under poppy cultivation any land not hitherto used for that purpose. Certificates would be issued in respect of all land already used for growing the poppy, and the proprietor be compelled to reduce the growth each year by one-ninth part, and to substitute other crops suited to the particular soil.
It will, moreover, be incumbent on the Magistrates to make personal inspection at unexpected times of such lands. The certificates, too, will have to be changed each year, till within the period of nine years the whole cultivation is rooted out. Non-compliance with this rule will entail confiscation by the State of the land in question.
Any local authority who succeeds in less time than the statutory ten years in giving effect to the prohibition in respect to the land in his jurisdiction given up to the poppy, and in completely substituting in place thereof the cultivation of other crops, should, after due inquiry into the facts, be recommended to the Throne for recognition.
## Art. 2. To issue licences to smokers in order to prevent others from contracting the habit.
The vice of opium smoking is of long standing, and it may be reckoned that some 30 to 40 per cent. of the population are addicted thereto. The interdict must therefore be extended with some consideration for what is past while being applied in all strictness for the future. All persons of the official class and the gentry, literary graduates, and licentiates resident at their homes throughout the Empire must be the first to be compelled to give up the habit in order that they may serve as an example to the common people. All smokers, whether of the gentle or lower class, together with their wives and female servants, must, without exception, report themselves at the yamens of the local authority of their native place of residence. If they reside at a distance from such yamen or any police station, they may send their names in collectively through the Headman of the village.
Proclamations will be issued in advance by the local authorities giving the necessary directions, and forms will be supplied which smokers will have to fill in, giving their names in full, age, address, occupation, and daily allowance of opium, and a limit of time will be fixed for them within which they must report themselves as having given up smoking, due consideration being paid in this regard to the element of distance.
As soon as all the smokers have reported themselves, a register will be drawn up, and a copy thereof be sent to the higher authorities for purposes of record and reference. At the same time, printed licences under the official seal will be prepared, and every smoker will be obliged to have his licence. These licences will be of two classes—(A) and (B). Persons over 60 years of age will get licences under class (A), while those under 60 will be enrolled under class (B): provided always that no person who has held a licence under class (B) shall be entitled to the issue of a licence under class (A) on subsequently attaining the age of 60.
The licence will contain the holder's name in full, age, address, daily allowance of opium, and date of issue, and will constitute the permit to consume and buy opium. Any person consuming opium without a licence, or purchasing the drug, shall on discovery or information duly laid be subject to such penalty as may be called for. After the first inquisition, inspection will proceed on the basis of the register, and no fresh applications for licences will be entertained, in order that the number of smokers may be strictly limited.
## Art. 3. To reduce the craving for opium within a limited time, in order to remedy chronic addiction thereto.
After the licences have been issued, and putting out of consideration persons over 60 whose constitutions are already undermined and in whose case the question of giving up the habit need not be pressed, all persons under 60 holding licences under class (B) shall have a limit set on the quantity of opium which they consume, to be reduced each year by 20 to 30 per cent, and to be totally given up within a few years. On becoming total abstainers they will have to produce a bond signed by a relative or near neighbour, which will be presented to the local authority, and, if found in order, the name of the party concerned will be erased from the register, while the licence will have to be surrendered for cancellation. Returns of all such proceedings will then be made quarterly to the higher authorities.
But if in spite of the liberal period of years allowed under this system there should be individuals who fail to become total abstainers within the allotted time, they must be regarded as wilful victims to self-abuse, and nothing remains but to expose them to punishment for not abstaining. In the future, therefore, if any holder of a class (B) licence exceeds the time limit without giving up the habit and surrendering his licence for cancellation, he shall, if an official, resign his office; if a graduate or a licentiate, he shall be deprived of his rank and diploma; and if he be of the ordinary people, his name will be recorded by the local authority as an opium sot. A special list of such names will be kept, and a return thereof be made to the higher authorities. Besides this, such names, with the persons' age, will be affixed in a public place for general observation and also be exhibited in the town or village where such person lives, that all may know his condition. Such persons will, further, not be allowed to take part in any annual or periodical meetings which may be convened for any purpose by the local Notables, or in any respectable concern of life, so that it may be clearly shown that they are outcasts of society.
## Art. 4. To prohibit opium houses in order to purify the abodes of pollution.
Before the time limit is reached upon which the prohibition becomes absolute, it would naturally be hard suddenly to prohibit the existence of shops for the sale of opium. But there is a class of opium dens which offer a continual temptation to youths and the unemployed to frequent. These places are in every respect noxious, and should be prohibited by the local authorities, one after the other, a term of six months being fixed for the complete cessation of this calling and the substitution of another trade. If the time limit is exceeded they should be compulsorily closed.
Eating houses and restaurants must also not be allowed to furnish opium for the use of guests, nor must guests be permitted to bring sucking appliances with them, under penalty of a heavy fine. Shops for the sale of pipe stems or bowls, opium lamps, or other smoking appliances must also be given one year's time by the local authorities within which to close business, under penalty of a heavy fine. In any place where an excise is levied per lamp in opium dens, such levy must be discontinued within one month.
## Art. 5. To closely inspect opium shops in order to facilitate preventive measures.
Although it is not possible to forbid at once the existence of opium shops, steps must still be taken to compel their gradual disappearance, and under no circumstances can any new shops be allowed to open. All shops in any city, town, or village which sell the raw drug, or prepared opium, must be severally inspected by the local authorities, who will draw up a list of them in the form of a register, and issue to each a licence which will constitute their permit to carry on this trade. Once the inspection has been made, no addition to the number of Shops will be allowed.
Whenever persons come to such shops to buy opium, raw or prepared, the shopkeeper must examine the customer's licence before he serves him, and without so doing must not sell any of the drug.
At the end of the year these shops must make a bona fide statement in writing to the local authority of the amount of opium, raw and prepared, which they have sold. The local authority will register these returns and reckon up the total amount sold in his district by all the shops together, so as to show the amount of decrease in each year and for the purpose of comparison: provided always that within the period of ten years the sale shall be entirely stopped. If the time limit be infringed the shops will be compulsorily closed and the stock in hand be confiscated, besides the imposition of a fine of at least double its value. Shops which from time to time drop out of the business must surrender their licences for cancellation. The licence must not be kept, under penalty of a heavy fine.
## Art. 6. To manufacture remedies for the cure of the opium habit under official control.
There are many good remedies for curing the opium habit, and the high provincial authorities should appoint efficient and experienced medical officers to make a careful study of these with the view to the selection of a number of prescriptions (suitable to the natural conditions of each particular locality) and the manufacture therefrom of pills or medicines: provided that such pills or medicines shall not contain opium ash or morphia.
Such remedial medicines should then be bought by the local authorities, who will distribute them among the local charitable institutions or medicine shops for sale at the original price, while poor persons will be allowed to obtain them free of charge.
The gentry and tradesmen will also be allowed to manufacture such remedies according to prescription for free distribution, with a view to spreading this benefit more widely; and any person who can be shown to have promoted such distribution by his personal exertions or exhortation and to have succeeded in breaking others of the opium habit thereby shall be awarded honorary recognition by the local authorities.
## Art. 7. To allow the establishment of Anti-Opium Societies in order to promote this good movement.
There have recently been several instances of public-spirited individuals who have combined with others of their own class in founding Anti-Opium Societies and in mutually assisting in
stopping the opium habit. Such efforts should be encouraged, and the local authorities should allow the establishment of these societies, providing them with official recognition and support.
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