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keep himself well in restraint for the whole nation to do so. Those who consume this poison for sensual pleasure, and, besotted and stupid, refuse to reform, cannot be regarded as citizens of the republic, and so I hereby command the council that, in framing the laws of constitution, such persons be deprived of all electoral rights so as to mark their exclusion from the citizenship enjoyed by the rest of the nation; and I further order the Ministry for the Interior to instruct all the local officials through the provincial governors to reissue the proclamations forbidding the cultivation and smoking of opium, and to enforce the restrictions with the utmost stringency. Any remissness will be examined into and punished. I further hope that all local leagues and all societies for the explanation of political matters will strain every nerve to lead the people in the right path, teach them to see which way their advantage lies, and help then to become regenerate and to do away with this dark blot which disfigures the fame of Eastern Asia.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Extract from "Nanking Government Gazette" of March 6, 1912.
(Translation.)
NOW.
TEXT OF ORDERS ISSUED BY PRESIDENT SUN TO MINISTRY OF INTERIOR REGARDING PROHIBITION OF OPIUM.
THE opium vice has spread its tentacles over China for some hundred years If we examine its evil effects we find they are the destruction of trade and physical health in the individual, the ruin of the country and the extinction of the race in general. In the last years of the late dynasty the restrictions on the cultivation and the tax on the prepared drug were taking effect, and the smoking habit was gradually disappearing. With the foundation of the republic, however, came a rush of work in connectiou with military matters, and there has been no time to attend to other questions, so that there is every reason to fear that fraudulent merchants and unscrupulous officials will seize the opportunity to look on the old regulations as effete and recommence their old tricks. A young and enlightened people should at once throw off a curse of this sort, and not have illicit recourse for rest of mind to such a deadly poison. I have notified the whole nation by proclamation of the prohibitions on the drug, and I hereby command the Ministry concerned to make immediate investigations as to the opium- prohibition mandates of the late Ching dynasty. Such as are capable of being put into effect should be communicated to the provincial tutus (governors) with instructions to order their subordinates to enforce them as before with the utmost severity and without the slightest relaxation; while such as need addition or amendment, as well as such questions as were left over, must receive the most careful consideration at the hands of the aforesaid Ministry, and, in the meantime, temporary regulations must be drawn up and put into force, so as to cut off at the rout in the shortest possible time an evil of a century's growth, to produce a strong China and a powerful race.
Enclosure 3 in No. 1.
Extract from "Nanking Government Gazette” of March 14, 1912.
(Translation.)
ORDER BY YOAN SHIH-KAI,
OPIUM-SMOKING is an evil of very long standing, but of late years restrictions and prohibitions have been placed on the use of the drug, and, as the people have daily become more alive to its dangers, the terrible habit has happily grown less. But since the outbreak of the revolution the restrictions have been somewhat relaxed, and there is cause to fear the evil may spread again. It is necessary, therefore, to reissue the most stringent instructions as to the restrictions on the drug, and the higher local officials will be held responsible for the continued enforcement in the strictest possible manner of the former restrictions on the cultivation, transport, and consumption of opiumi. Proclamations must also be issued that all may understand that the abolition of opium is intended to save the people and free them from a grievous danger.
Let the whole nation each other to suppress it. sake of short-lived gain.
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regard this drug as a deadly poison, and exhort and encourage Let them not blind themselves to its frightful dangers for the
Enclosure 4 in No. 1.
Extract from “Peking Daily News" of March 18, 1912.
THAT President Yuan Shib-kai is taking hold of the helm of State with a wise and firm hand is evidenced by the promulgation on the 14th of the order against the relaxation of efforts for the eradication of the opium evil. The fact has long been known to the world that in President Yuan and Premier Tang China has had her two strongest champions against the evils of the opium babit, and that to them belongs the credit of not only having initiated the present anti-opium movement, but The marvellous results also given to it their wholehearted interest and support. already accomplished in China in this moral crusade are matters of common knowledge. At the International Opium Conference recently held at The Hague, China was able to announce to the delegates of the twelve Powers therein represented the gratifying fact that, taking the Chinese Empire as a whole, the industry of poppy plantation had been reduced 80 per cent. It was also stated that in addition to the three Manchurian provinces and the provinces of Shansi and Szechuan, which were declared officially clear of the poppy, Chih-li, Fukien, and several other provinces in which opium cultivation had never occupied much of the people's attention, were likewise free from the poppy. There was no disposition on the part of the delegates of the participating Powers to question the truth of these gratifying statements, although they still require official proof before they could be accepted as facts by the Governments of those Powers which are directly or indirectly interested in the opium trade.
From the deliberations of the conference and the resolutions which were finally accepted and signed, it was evident that the world had at last come to recognise All unanimously the evils arising from the use of opium except for medicinal purposes. the Powers, with the exception of two unimportant countries also declared themselves ready to make every sacrifice to rid mankind of the curse of opium. These exceptions were Portugal and Persia, the former having its trade in both raw and prepared opium in Macao to foster and protect, and the latter being still dependent upon the revenue derived from the export of Persian opium to meet part of her expenditures. But to the credit of Persia it should be stated that her Government fully realises the evils arising from the improper use of opium, and, in future, her efforts will be directed to the growth of a high-grade opium, suitable for medicinal purposes only.
In August 1911 the Netherlands Government had passed a Bill providing for the elimination from their budget the income hitherto derived from the opium trade in their East Indian possessions, and not to allow the consideration of revenue to influence the adoption of any measures that might be deemed necessary for the speedy suppression of the abuse of opium. France was also taking hold of the opium question in her Far Eastern possessions with earnestness and sincerity, and willing to sacrifice the revenue she has been receiving for so many years. Japan is successfully overcoming the evils of opium-smoking among the Chinese and aborigines in Formosa, and the revenue derived from the opium monopoly has been reduced from 3,000,000 to 1,000,000 yen
per annum.
But
It is not too optimistic to say that with such a splendid spirit animating the Governments of the world's great nations, the opium question which has been agitating the minds of China's moral reformers for so many years would have soon come to an end if things had been allowed to pursue their normal course. unfortunately the revolution in China and with it all the attendant disorders and chaos have stepped in to complicate the situation. Reports have been received that the lawless elements in Yunnan and Szechuan have again taken up the growing of the poppy as a more profitable means of livelihood. Later advices have confirmed the earlier reports, and now it is beyond doubt that the vast plains of Yunnan, which were recently covered with useful crops, are again being given over to the cultivation of the beautiful but poisonous poppy.
In Szechuan also, the people in some of the districts
are taking advantage of the present transitional period, and are again turning their lands into poppy fields. It is seriously apprehended that unless this disposition to disregard the law against poppy plantation be checked at once, and the guilty parties
Ty