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BRITISH BULLETIN, No 38.
their time in formulating silly and immoral plans for dealing with the drug curse, instead of, like reasonable beings, prohibting the sale and use of the drug, except for medical purposes?
There is no other remedy but prohibition. Prohibi- tion at the source will effect, in a natural order, pro- hibition in distribution and use. Publish to the world the Black List of the offenders-the manufacturers, the countries that permit illicit trade, the Governments that fail to deal with the evil. Carry out the Hague and Geneva Conventions to the letter. Persuade new- born Turkey to come into the League, and convince both Turkey and Persia that they must-for their own sake, as well as for the world at large-join the comity of nations in one of its most imperative efforts to save the world from the curse of narcotic drugs.
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The recent issues of "Opium, a World Pro- China. blem," reveal not merely a continuance of the energies of the "National Anti-opium Assicia- tion of China,' but a distinct advance in the enthu- siastic zeal which the Association has manifested itself from the date of its inauguration. Their magazine is full of interesting points, even when we venture to think there should be some modification of statement. They are justified in saying that their own efforts are largely counteracted by the steady stream of such drugs as morphine, heroin and cocaine poured in upon them from abroad. If opium-smoking is prohibited as the National Government proposes-opium addicts can easily obtain morphine and morphine pills supplied from abroad.
Within their own borders the obstacle is always the military, as we have seen in recent incidents reported by China correspondents. Opium is at the bottom of most quarrels, such as the Szechwan war and the Yunnan-Kweichow dispute. Yunnan sends a good deal of opium into Kwang-tung, and the Kwang-si Government taxes it in transit, collecting £225,000 a month on Yunnan opium alone. Yunnan retorts by sending the drug by aeroplane. And always the military are the And always the military are the authors of the evil. They regularly fix the rate of tran- sit, pocketing all but what they have to pay in 'squeezes'' and bonuses to their agents.
One interesting point is suggested by our old friend, Dr. Wu Lian-Teh, who has always been an anti-opium enthusiast. He would like to see established an Inter- national Narcotic Factory to supply the world's legiti- mate needs-all other factories to be closed. That would no doubt be ideal, but its impossibility is obvious. There are other means within the power of the League of Nations, if only it would act up to the principles of the Hague and Geneva Conventions.
What impresses us in the whole discussion as set forth in these instructive issues of “Opium, a World Problem," is that, if the National Government can get the mastery over the military offenders, they will soon make a clearance of the poppy-fields, as was done be- tween 1907 and 1916, before Yuan Shi-Kai divided the country into military zones, and handed the protection
of China to the military rascals who did their worst to ruin the country for their own enrichment.
We venture on one suggestion-not a prophesy, for that would indeed be rash—that, if the National Govern- ment of China continues stable, we may, several years hence, find China to be the dominant and triumphant force in this great campaign. America and China be- tween them may possibly succeed by practical effort where European schemes have largely failed.
Welcome news arrived from Egypt on March Egypt. 21st that the Egyptian Government is deter- mined to check the drug evil, and had just created a special Narcotic Bureau, under the direction of the Commandant of the Cairo Police. The police appear to have traced one of the chief sources of the supply of heroin, and have arrested two Polish Jews, who were deeply involved in the traffic. Both these Jews hail from Vienna, finding their supplies in the Austrian capital. The Austrian police seem to be ac- tively tracking down their confederates in Vienna.
What this means may be better understood from an article in a Cairo newspaper which has been forwarded to us, and which evidently is inspired by the Egyptian drug in use was hasheesh, and the number of persons Government. Up to ten years ago the only dangerous.
addicted to it was very small. Then came cocaine, and
multitudes of people used it, and big fortunes were made by its importers. It is said the vice has spread to every village in the country. In Cairo in a single year there were 5,570 convictions for the possession of narcotics. Heroin is bought in Europe at £20 an ounce, and by the time it reaches Egypt it is worth £45, and the dealers retail it at a higher figure, after adulterating it with boracic acid powder. Of 20,000 persons in prison,. 5,000 are drug addicts.
It is not to be wondered at that the Egyptian Gov- ernment is alarmed ta the prospect of its people being ruined by the drug evil. They estimate that, out of a population of fourteen and a half millions, as many as
half a million are affected by it as more or less addicts. The increase of crime and the economic loss caused by the sapping of physical powers are sufficient to arouse the Government to a sense of its national peril. They are to be congratulated on their determination to crush the thing out. They want no monopoly, but absolute tail just behind the ears. prohibition. Or, as we have said, to cut off the snake's
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