C.O.
13122
332
RECR Rece 17 APR 09)
crusade.
Associated with the desire to improve the national morality and to put an end to a great Economic Evil which tends to the waste of time and money, there is, I believe, an even stronger motive, which possibly is hardly recognisable even by those who are dominated by it. Formerly, the nation affected a proud disdain of the opinion of the Foreign "barbarian". That attitude has of late given place to an acute sensitiveness to foreign criticism, which finds an echo in almost every Edict on the subject. China has learnt that Western nations have stigmatised her as a nation addicted to the opium habit, and she knows of and keenly resents the references by Parliamentarians and others to her alleged degradation, and their proposals to reform her. It matters not that the most careful statistics show that only 2 or 3% of the population smoke; or that of all forms of self-indulgence, opium smoking may be the least injurious to the individual and the least productive of crime, or that its suppression may induce far worse evils. Of these things, the very intelligent Rulers of China must be well aware, but the desire to remove the stigma cast upon her by the West, however unjustly, is a sufficient motive to account for her action. It is for those who have the true interests of China at heart to see that this hyper-sensitiveness does not lead to a state worse than the first, as the suppression of tobacco in the 15th Century is said to have induced the smoking of opium.
The Edicts which prescribe the means to be adopted for the closing of the divans, the limitation and licence of opium shops, the registration of smokers, and a series of similar palliatives.* These, judging from the reports made to Sir John Jordan, have not been very effective in the Provinces, and even when ostensibly enforced, a means of evasion has been found. The better classes often prefer to buy raw opium and prepare it themselves rather than take out licenses, for, as the Consul General in Canton informs me, the institution of a large board to be carried publicly as a license form is considered degrading, and deters people from registering, but not from smoking. The regulations as a whole are said to have been largely evaded, partly because no effective police machinery exists for enforcing them, partly because of the venality of officials, and chiefly because they involve a loss of revenue to the Provincial Administrations, which they are wholly unable to meet. Until the Government of China, by taking measures to counteract these three obstacles, renders it possible for the Provincial Authorities to enforce the Edicts, measures of this class cannot be taken very seriously,—and at best, they are mere palliatives. Moreover, their enforcement involves the confiscation of vested rights without compensation, and is consequently attended by such injustice as could not be tolerated by a civilized Nation of the West. Some of these methods, such as the closing of divans, and the distribution of anti-opium pills, etc., I shall presently consider.
1.
It is worth while discussing how far it is possible for China to adopt a system which has proved in practice to be so efficacious a means of restriction. If the system has proved valuable in a British Colony, it is still more likely to be of value in China, which at present cannot, unfortunately, trust her officials to withstand bribery, and does not possess a Police Force sufficiently well organised and reliable to carry out orders regarding restriction. It is, therefore, peculiarly advantageous to China to adopt a system which does not depend for its enforcement upon the adequacy of the machinery of Government, but (with Government assistance), is in the hands of a person whose pecuniary interests are involved. Infringement of the monopoly affects his profits, and hence he is compelled to use means of detecting any infringement. On the other hand, the licensing of individual smokers, of numberless shops for preparation and sale, and other such methods, all lend themselves to venality and are ineffective and irritating.
Applicable only.
An opium monopoly in China must, of course, be restricted to native-grown opium, which forms part of the total consumed. Not only is China debarred by the treaties of 1842 and 1850 from establishing a monopoly in foreign opium, but since the extinction of import in a period of 10 years has been secured to her, she has no longer any need for desiring such a system. Ten years is none too long a period in which to enable the Indian cultivators, on the one hand, and the merchants on the other, to look round for substitutes to take the place of their
*The Straits Commission state with regard to registration in that Colony—refusal to sell to unregistered persons and refusal to register after a certain date—that it is wholly impracticable where the Chinese population is so large. It interferes unduly with individual liberty, and induces corruption. In the Philippines, the population was small and there was a desire to exclude aliens. Report $ 190-201.
thur J. Jordan 27.11.07 China No. 1 (1038) and 21.5.08 China No. 2 (1908).