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the measures taken to decrease cultivation and consumption of opium, while the Board of Finance was to provide the funds required to replace the prospective diminution of revenue from the opium tax. The Memorial (Appendix (A)) reviewed the steps taken by China in the matter and the negotiations with foreign Powers and the Government of India.
Under this instrument
The Decree of the 7th April (Appendix (B) ) followed. Prince Kung and other high officers of State were appointed Imperial Commissioners to enforce the application of the prohibition in the case of persons holding official positions. Within three months the Prohibition Commissioners were to establish a special Department for the purpose of weeding out of the public service all those addicted to the drug.
It was foreseen that the duties imposed upon them were not likely to prove agreeable or popular, and they were consequently exhorted to perform them fearlessly and not to be influenced by personal considerations.
The high rank and character of the Commissioners left no doubt of the sincerity of the Court's intentions.
The supervisory Regulations which the Boards of Finance and of the Interior were called upon to prepare were approved by an Imperial Rescript of the 23rd May (Appendix (C)).
It was recognized that the most important step to be taken was the restriction of the growth of the poppy, and the provincial authorities in the Regulations were called upou periodically to furnish detailed reports on the area in cultivation, and to enforce the proposed annual reduction.
The revenue question, which has hitherto been one of the chief obstacles to a thorough compliance with the previous Edicts in the provinces, was left for further consideration. Public hongs were to be established in every province for the purchase and sale of native opium, and rules were laid down for the more efficient regulation of shops and dens, of smokers, and the cure of those addicted to smoking, also for the encouragement of Anti-Opium Societies and for the distribution of medicines. Rewards in the shape of promotion were held out to those who conscientiously carried out the Imperial wishes, whilst punishments are provided for those who fail to do their duty.
The apathy of the provincial authorities, to which allusion has been made, is to be noticed chiefly in a growing indifference as to whether the rules of the Decree of November 1906 are stringently carried out or not. Generally speaking, smokers do not take out licences. Dens, though officially closed, are in many cases surreptitiously opened. Opium shops are only spasmodically inspected, while Anti-Opium Societies are gradually dying a natural death from lack of funds or interest, or both.
Though there are exceptions to this state of affairs in certain districts, due to enlightened officials, especially in the coast provinces, it cannot be said that officials in general have fully carried out the duty of leading the movement imposed upon them by the Court.
Two principal reasons may be assigned for this apathy, namely, the fact that so many public officials are still addicted to the drug, and further the question of provincial finances, and of finding revenue to replace that at present derived from opium. This latter question is still left for future consideration, no concrete proposals having yet been made.
On the whole, it may be said in regard to the Anti-Opium Regulations that officials showing sufficient force of character to uphold them are almost sure of support from the people, prompted as the latter are by the force of public opinion, a force formerly unknown in China and of recent growth, but which is well upheld by the native press, and the incipient moral education of the nation and the awakening of a national conscience. The "Times" correspondent has aptly used the expression "bad form” in describing the view of the educated Chinese towards opium smoking in public, and should this sentiment gain in moral force there seems no reason why it should not develop into "losing face," that most powerful of all rules of conduct in China, corresponding either to "dishonourable " or "ungentlemanlike," as the case may be.
In accordance with the 10th Article of the Anti-Opium Decree, China was to enter into negotiations with the object of prohibiting the importation of foreign opium. Very material progress has been made in this direction, and, as far as Great Britain is concerned, the negotiations are concluded, and the measures agreed upon are already in operation.
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Briefly summarized, they are as follows:-
The Indian Government reduce the gross export from India, taken on the basis of 67,000 chests, of which 51,000 chests only were exported to China by 5,100 per annum, being one-tenth of the latter amount, to commence from 1908, an arrangement which continues for three years, and will be proceeded with until the export trade from India to China thus extinguishes itself automatically within the ten years' limit prescribed by the Chinese Government for the abolition of opium in China, provided always that China during these three years has proportionately reduced the production and consumption of Chinese opium, and has similarly arranged for the reduction of the importation of Turkish and other opium. The good-will of the Indian Govern- ment was manifested by the practical application of the proposed annual reduction of export without waiting for the conclusion by the Chinese Government of arrange- ments for the reduction of the import of Turkish, Persian, and other opium, which chiefly finds its way to China viâ Hong Kong. This latter question has been settled in the following just and reasonable manner by the Chinese Government, neither Turkey nor Persia being Treaty Powers, the system adopted being similar to that now in force in regard to Indian opium,
From the 1st January, 1909, any merchant wishing to import into any open port in China any Persian or Turkish opium must apply to the Commissioner of Customs at Kowloon for a special permit-one for each chest of opium. This permit shall state that the opium may be shipped to any open port in China, and that, on its arrival, duty and li-kin will be paid in accordance with the Regulations. Any Persian or Turkish opium shipped to China for which this special permit cannot be produced shall be confiscated.
Taking 1,125 piculs as the mean annual import of Persian and Turkish opium, this quantity shall be reduced every year by one-ninth, .e., 125 piculs. Thus in 1909 special permits will only be issued for 1,000 piculs, and by making a similar reduction annually the import will entirely cease in nine years,
After 1916 no more special permits will be issued, and the import into China of Persian and Turkish opium, as well as that of Indian opium, will be completely suspended.
The special permits will only be issued to merchants who have hitherto, to the knowledge of the Imperial Maritime Customs, been engaged in the trade in Turkish and Persian opium. In fixing the number of special permits to be issued annually to each merchant, the total import during the two years 1906-7, and the quantities imported by each merchant during those years, will be taken as a basis, the number of permits being annually decreased. With regard to the importation of "other kinds of opium into China, she must make arrangements with the Treaty Powers. No particulars are available as to the place of origin, but the quantity is so trifling, amounting in 1906 to 64 piculs only, which is said to have been all re-exported, that the Chinese Government do not consider the matter worth noticing in their anti-opium schemes. It would, however, seem advisable to come to definite arrangements with all Treaty Powers on the subject, even with those at present not interested in the opium trade. Neither France, Holland, America, nor Japan allow the cultivation of the poppy in their Colonies and possessions in the Far East, which thus practically reduces the other opium-producing countries to India, Persia, and Turkey.
From various quarters in China it is announced that the price of foreign opium is rising, and this increase is likely to continue in proportion to the reduction of produc- tion in China and of importation from abroad, except in the somewhat improbable contingency of the demand for the drug decreasing proportionately to the reduction of supply. There can be no doubt that foreign opium is superior both in quality and strength to the native product, consequently a great stimulus will be given to smuggling in a country where people attach more importance to quality than to price. Moreover, possessing great value in small bulk, and being by the simplest process reduced to a marketable commodity, it is not improbable that, unless all the Treaty Powers agree to the eventual cessation of the import of the drug into China, the desire of high profits may cause poppy crops to appear in places to which it is at present a stranger with a view to the introduction of the drug into China.
The other arrangements concluded with Great Britain are fully set forth in the Chinese Memorial to the Throne (Appendix (A) ), and are briefly as follows:--
A Chinese official will be sent to Calcutta to watch the opium auctions and packing, but will have no other authority, and in this connection it might be thought advisable that corresponding British officials should be sent to observe the reduction of
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