CO129-361 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 167

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them, and so bring about their willing compliance with the policy we have laid down.

The revenue derived from duties on opium forms a large proportion of the funds required for the army. A short time ago the Board of Finance memorialized the Throne and asked that the question of raising the price of salt in each province should be considered as a means towards making good the loss in this item of revenue, and permission was granted accordingly at the time. But this scheme will only produce some 4,000,000 or 5,000,000 taels altogether, a sum which falls far short of the amount required.

We are very anxious to find a remedy for this evil, and the weakness of our country, and the difficulty of stimulating the people to action causes us great distress. Moreover, we are afraid lest the hopes of friendly nations should be disappointed.

Our anxiety at such a state of affairs is very great, and we therefore issue this further Edict. The duty of suppressing opium smoking among civil and military officials rests with the Opium Commissioners and with the chief officials in the various offices in Peking and the provinces; they must use their utmost efforts to make searching investigation, and they must not be influenced by personal feelings or be unwilling to run the risk of incurring odium and hatred. The responsibility for the rank and file in each branch of the army and for teachers and pupils at the school rests with the respective officials of these Departments; they must lose no time in instituting strict inquiries so that the evil may be stopped.

As regards the merchants and ordinary people, the responsibility of suppressing opium smoking rests with the Board of the Interior and with the Governors-General and Governors of the various provinces, the Governor of Peking, and the local Tartar Generals and Military Lieutenant-Governors. They should also make further efforts to procure prescriptions for efficacious remedies, and should establish depôts for the distribution of medicine, so that the people may be encouraged and made to feel ashamed of the vice. They should choose from the methods of foreign nations a remedy which will lessen the craving for the drug, so that the amount consumed will become less and less until it finally ceases. It is our earnest hope that by thus closing every avenue to this evil it may at last be eradicated.

The suppression of opium cultivation lies also within the duties of these officials; they must deliberate on the local conditions of their particular provinces, and give strict orders to their subordinates to see that this cultivation is stopped and that any such crops planted in the future are destroyed. They must see that the place of this noxious plant is taken by profitable crops suitable to the nature of the soil.

It will

be necessary to ascertain that these duties are carried out, and those who have done well will be largely rewarded.

The question of making good the deficit in revenue from duties on opium will be gone into by the Board of the Interior, and it will be the duty of the Board of Finance to use their utmost endeavours to devise a suitable scheme for this purpose.

To raise money at this period is extremely difficult, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of such schemes should be carefully weighed; but there must be no delay in working out more methods of collecting funds and putting them into immediate effect. If any of the high provincial authorities have thought out some suitable scheme they should memorialize the Throne, in order to enable us to select the most suitable, so that those who are investigating the question of opium suppression may not be deterred by the fear of lack of revenue.

Although the revenue of the country be lessened, how else can my people get rid of this evil which destroys them as surely as if they relied on putrid meat and poisonous wine to relieve their hunger and thirst?

In future, all those who have any share of responsibility in this matter must not try to shift it on to others; each one must do his own duty, and all must mutually assist each other, so as to aid us in securing the benefits of a prosperous administration. Each office in Peking and the provinces on receipt of this Decree must report to us truly and accurately as to the method of suppression adopted by

them.

Respect this,

March 15, 1909.

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