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It is satisfactory to note that, following the example of the British and Japanese Concessions, the Russian Municipality at Tien-tsin have expressed their willingness to fall in line with the Chinese authorities in the suppression of opium dens, and have ordered all the opium shops and dens in their Concession to discontinue business within a week, and to return the licences now held in their hands. The authorities of the Austrian and Italian Concessions have given the keepers of opium houses in their Concessions six months in which to wind up their business and surrender their licences. It remains to be seen what action the French Municipal authorities will take in the matter -whether they will fall in line with the other Concessions or adopt a singular attitude and prefer to keep the ill-gotten revenue at the expense of the moral degradation of the Chinese residing within their Settlement.
In Shanghae we note with satisfaction that the Taotai and the merchants are not idle in the matter of opium suppression. In reply to the request of the Customs Taotai for co-operation in the closing of opium shops and dens in the Settlements, the Consular Body is reported to have stated that they must take some time to discuss the matter before giving a decisive answer.
The Taotai fears that when the question is referred to the Municipal authorities they' will be unwilling to accede to the request and sacrifice the enormous revenue derived from the opium tax. But in our opinion his Excellency the Taotai needs have no such fear. Public sentiment among the foreign ratepayers of Shanghae is so decidedly against the opium evil that it would vote against its continuance even at the sacrifice of a substantial annual revenue, if his Excellency the Taotai, Jui Cheng, will see that his orders for the closing of the opium dens in the city and suburbs are conscientiously and effectively carried out. When the Consular Body and the Municipal authorities are convinced that all opium shops and dens are effectively and permanently closed in the city and its suburbs, they will not "require some time to discuss the matter," nor allow the loss of an annual revenue to stand in the way of assisting the extirpation of vice in the Settlements. The whole matter, therefore, is in the hands of his Excellency the Taotai and the other Chinese authorities of Shanghae.
If his Excellency Jui Cheng displays the same energy as his confrère, the Customs Tantai at Tien-tsin, who, acting under instructions from Viceroy Yuan, closed 4,000 opium shops and opium-smoking dens in a couple of days, and is seeing to it that these shops and dens remain closed, he will have no difficulty in inducing the Consular and Municipal authorities here to co-operate with him in suppressing public opium-- smoking in the foreign Settlements.
THE OPIUM EVIL.
Since the prohibition on the morning of the 11th ultimo of keeping opium lamps and pipes by opium dens in the Chinese city by order of his Excellency Viceroy Yuan Shih-kai, many keepers have been imprisoned or fined by the Chinese authorities for infraction of the law.
This has been due to the fact that at the last moment, on the request of the keepers of these evil haunts, his Excellency Yuan gave them permission to temporarily keep their doors open for one more month for collecting debts, but without keeping opium lamps and pipes; but the keepers have disregarded the last part of the injunctions and have broken the law as already stated.
Not only this, but all the Chinese restaurants, hotels, and houses of ill repute in the city are now strictly prohibited from keeping opium lamps and pipes for visitors since the before-mentioned date. The keeper of a certain brothel was recently fined
300 dollars and given 200 blows with the bamboo by the Commissioner of the City Police, and the visitor who ordered the keeper to supply him with opium lamp and pipe was fined 50 dollars as a warning to others, because he proved to be a Chinese official, and ought to have known the Viceroy's order better than others.
In my last correspondence about the suppressing of this national evil in North China, I mentioned that, for the sake of preventing the keepers of such evil houses from going into the various foreign Concessions at Tien-tsin to continue their harmful business to the detriment of young men and others, the Customs Tactai, Liang Tung-yen, had been instructed by the Viceroy to write officially to the Consuls-General and Consuls of the Powers at this port, requesting them to fix a certain date for the keepers or managers of opium dens to close their doors and stop their business, so that they might be treated in the same way as their brethren in the city. Although his
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Honour Liang had already notified the various foreign Representatives at Tien-tsin, yet, up to the time of my writing this letter, all the opium dens, large and small, in the Austrian and French Concessions are still doing their harmful business in full swing, and the date of their suppression is still unknown to the public, although it is stated that the French Consul-General has given orders to the French Municipal Council to close these evil haunts in its Concession after the 1st January, 1907, while the Austrian Consul is reported to have given the keepers of all the dens in the Austro-Hungarian Concession six months to do so. Regarding the other foreign Consuls, the British and Japanese Consuls-General have consented to prohibit the opening of such dens in their Concessions hereafter, so as to assist the Chinese officials to stamp out this national evil step by step. But I am rather disappointed to write that, up to the present moment, all the Chinese eating-houses and houses of ill repute in the Japanese Concession are still keeping lamps and pipes for smoking by their guests, so that these people, like the keepers of the dens in the Austrian and French Concessious, are doing very good business, because all opium smokers are crowding their houses day and night. Regarding other foreign Concessions, I have not heard what actions the German, Russian, Belgian, and Italian Consuls will take in this matter, which for us Chinese is one of the first and foremost importance in connection with the reformation of China.
For my part, I do not believe that the foreign Powers will be unwilling to assist the Chinese in carrying out the order of his Excellency Yuan (whose act will surely be followed as an example by other Viceroys and Governors in the near future), since the British Government has expressed its willingness to abolish the Indian opium trade with our country, if the Peking Government is really in earnest to suppress the evil, which is compared by the veteran old Viceroy, Chang, Chih-tung, as more dangerous and destructive than floods or inundations or beasts of prey.
I hope I can let you know the particulars by next mail, that the Representatives of the most civilized countries in the world have given final orders for the prohibition of opium dens in their respective Concessions.
Inclosure 4 in No. 1.
Mr. Cheok Hong Cheong to Sir J. Jordan,
May it please your Excellency,
Hankow, January 4, 1907. IN accordance with the request made at the interview which your Excellency was good enough to favour me on the 31st ultimo, I beg to submit a brief statement of the steps taken to suppress the opium evil in New Zealand and Australia, my observations thereon, and somewhat also of the movement now happily inaugurated by Imperial Edict in China.
Some five years ago the Right Honourable R. Seddon, P. C., the Prime Minister of New Zealand, was approached by a deputation of Chinese residents, supported by many influential citizens, to legislate for the prohibition of the importation, sale, and smoking of opium, who urged that, though an attempt had been made by the leading Chinese merchants to suppress the evil, by an arrangement among themselves to refrain from importing it, it nevertheless failed in consequence of smaller and less scrupulous men taking advantage of the opportunity to enrich themselves. They reminded the Prime Minister that he was personally sufficiently acquainted with the awful nature of the vice to require any elucidation on their part.
In reply, the Prime Minister was as thoroughly sympathetic as his response to the request was prompt and decisive. A measure on lines of one which had been proposed in Victoria was at once placed upon the Statute Book, absolutely prohibiting the importation, sale, and smoking of those descriptions of opium which are not required for medicine, but, having been treated in a special way for the purpose of being smoked, were introduced simply and purely for the vile purposes of debauchcry.
In the second half of 1905 a monster Petition for the suppression of the opium evil, extensively signed in all the States, by all ranks and classes of citizens in Australia, was got up by the Chinese residents, who sent representatives to wait in deputation on the Prime Minister and present the same. But the reply, though sympathetic, and the matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal authorities, yet on account of the larger part of the import duty having to be returned to the several States, was an advice to the deputation to interview the States Governments and secure their co-operation,
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