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The defence, so far as there has been one, assumes, speaking broadly, either the shape of a denial or of a tu quoque argument. An example of the former has already been given in the article from the Hochi," specimens of the latter will be The Japan Advertiser," which 1 found scattered throughout the articles from have the honour to enclose.* It is, for instance asserted (article of the 8th January, 1919) that Great Britain is exporting large quantities of morphine through countries other than Japan to China, that British merchants are accomplices in the breaking of the international agreement regarding the import of the drug into China (article of the 8th January, 1919), that with the lifting of the ban on the importation of opium from India into Great Britain in December, 1917, the latter country expects to manufacture morphine as usual for exportation as well as for home consumption," that there are ships coming to Japanese ports which carry in their holds these pro- hibited drugs, the cargoes being carried past Japan without being landed here" (article of the 7th and 11th January), that the smuggling of this contraband into China is something in which nearly all the foreign nationals are interested" (article of the 10th January, 1919), and, finally, that the Japanese share of the trade is not to be compared with that handled by British subjects, for instance (article of the 10th January, 1919).
**
a very
These statements are in one or two instances supported by statistics, as, for instance, in The Japan Advertiser" article of the 8th of January, in which the person interviewed is reported to have said that in 1917 the value of the morphine imported into Japan from Great Britain, either directly or indirectly, amounted to £500.000, and, as I have already stated, that this sum represents only small portion of the drug exported from England through other nations to China or to unknown destinations. On page 411 of volume I of the Annual Statement of the trade of the United Kingdom with foreign countries for 1917, prepared by His Majesty's Customs and Excise Department, is a table purporting to give the value and the quantity of morphia exported from Great Britain during the last five years, and I had proposed to send these figures with any other non-confidential information of a useful nature available to The Japan Chronicle and "The Japan Advertiser," in the hope that it might perhaps be found of use in controvert- ing the accusations levied against British merchants; but, on comparing these statistics with the figures given in the Japanese Customs Returns, I found so extra- ordinary a discrepancy that I came to the conclusion that it would be prudent to refrain from quoting our figures until I had obtained definite information that they were complete. It was with this object in view that I had the honour to address to your Lordship my telegram No. 67 of the 7th instant.
The following table shows the quantity and the value of the morphine imported into Japan. according to the Customs returns, during the last three years:-
1915.
1916.
1917.
Quantity. Value. Quantity. Value.
Locality of Origin.
Quantity
Value.
Kwantung
Ounces, 3,022
£
Ouncer.
Great Britain
295,958
Germany
20,791
United States of America
Total
38.772
358,543
2,190 201,064 9,113 29.147
4,762 538,968
15,082
241,514 558,812
£ 3,150 371,124
10,807
385,081
Ounces. £
598.749 505,315
1,480 2,469
600,229 507,784
According to the figures given on page 411 of the publication mentioned above the exports of the same drug from the United Kingdom during the same period were as follows:--
1915
1916
1917
Year,
:::
Quantity
Value
in Ounces.
in £.
295,572
200,734
225,611
154,544
124,593
114,198
• Not printed.
Of this Japan imported in:
Year.
1915 1916
1917
Value
Quantity in Ounces.
in £.
204,742 116,116 29,204
136,050
78,114 23,001
It is clear that these figures require further elucidation before any use can be made of them.
The statement that the Japanese share in this trade is not to be compared with that handled by British subjects is presumably a devious method of saying that we are the most important manufacturers of this drug and that Japan is but one among our various customers, I have at my disposal no evidence which would lead me to believe that, as far as imports into China are concerned, British merchants are as interested as Japanese, for even in Dairen, which is one of the most important channels through which morphia enters North China, the quantity of the drug imported by British firms has never been, as far as I am aware, as great as that When it imported by the Mitsui Bussan Kwaisha and other Japanese houses. comes to actual smuggling there can be little doubt that the traffic is, if a few renegade foreigners of uncertain nationality are excepted, almost entirely in the hands of Japanese and Chinese, and that statements contained in "The Japan Advertiser of the 26th January, that all over North China and Manchuria Japanese agents are selling morphia products and hypodermic syringes is one which has been made so often and by such a variety of witnesses that there can be no question whatever of its absolute truth. Of this the Japanese are themselves well aware, for, notwithstanding the efforts made by the various officials and private persons interviewed to fasten the major part of the blame on the foreign merchant, the British in particular, reluctant confession is at intervals made that large numbers of Japanese business men and important firms are interested in the trade. so far as the legal machinery is concerned. it is Notwithstanding the fact that in perfect condition for the control of the trade" (article of the 10th January, 1919), no tangible proof exists that Japanese officials have been interested in the suppres sion of this pernicious traffic, and the statement that there are localities in which this illicit trade flourishes that are out of the reach of the Japanese law (article of the 10th January, 1919) is somewhat difficult to believe. The long arm of the law of Japan can be trusted to reach any Japanese in China when the necessity arises, and a far more likely explanation is that the trade flourishes because it brings money into Japanese pockets. So much attention has, however, been attracted to the subject of late, and such forcible comments have been made on the share Japanese merchants and drug dealers have had in spreading this new vice in China, that it seems possible Japan may presently realise the desirability of exerting herself to control the activities of her nationals in this direction.
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(article of the 17th In a letter written to the Peking and Tien-tsin Times January, 1919), the Japanese Consul-General at Tien-tsin says that "it cannot be too strongly emphasised that the Japanese Government authorities are sincerely desir- ous of suppressing this nefarious traffic within their jurisdiction and will spare no effort in suppressing it," and although official statements of this kind are, in the light of the past history of Japan, to be taken with a certain amount of caution, a member of my staff was informed but a few days ago by Count Soejima, a member of the House of Peers who has just returned from a tour in China, and who was, according to his own assertion, instrumental in procuring the closing of the opium dens in the Japanese Settlement in Hankow, that on his return to Japan he had communicated to the Prime Minister personally the result of his investigations into the trade in illicit drugs in China, and that he had pressed Mr. Hara most strongly to take energetic steps to have this blot on the country's reputation removed, assur- ing the Prime Minister that he would otherwise raise the whole question openly in the House. Count Soejima said Mr. Hara had promised the Government would take steps in the direction desired. From another source, the proprietor of the Hoshi Pharmaceutical Company, which itself is one of the three firms in Japan making morphine, the same member of my staff heard also that the Government was going to put the trade under strict control. It now remains to see what measures, if any, the authorities propose to adopt.