CO129-437 - Public Offices - 1916 — Page 433

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Enclosure I in No. 1.

Extract from the North China Daily News" of September 3, 1915.

THE USE OF MORPHIA IN MANCHURIA: AN EVIL THAT IS STEADILY DEVELOPING INDIFFERENCE OF JAPANESE OFFICIALS.

(From our own Correspondent.)

Kirin, August 26, 1915. UNDOUBTEDLY one of the most serious questions that requires the immediate attention of the Chinese authorities is the injection of morphia by the poorer Chinese. The evil is growing and increasing with alarming rapidity throughout South Manchuria. It is worse than opium-smoking, for even the poorest coolie can acquire the habit of injection at a cost of as little as 3 cents, whilst the bad effects produced are much more rapid than those of opium. A morphia maniar very soon becomes unfit for work of any kind, and is soon killed off.

In this present article I only intend to give a summary of my observations made in the towns of Harbin, Changchun, and Kirin, for the conditions existent in these three places are quite different. This is due to Harbin being a Russian settlement, Changchun a Japanese, whilst Kirin is purely Chinese, all regulations having been framed by the Chinese authorities. Notwithstanding the dissimilarity of conditions existing in these towns, the importation and sale of morphia is entirely in the hands of the Japanese, and it is the subjects of Japan who are guilty of teaching the Chinese to acquire the habit of morphia injection. Most of the drug is imported through Dalny from Japan, and all the so-called patent medicine dealers and shopkeepers are engaged in this detestable traffic, and make goodly profits through it.

In Harbin the sale of the drug has not reached such alarming proportions as in all the Japanese railway settlements in South Manchuria, because the Russian police authorities take rigorous steps to prevent the sale of the poison, and any Russian subject found in possession of morphia is sent to prison without the option of a fine. The Russian police do not worry themselves about the doings of the Japanese, for before any arrests can be made permission must first be got from the Japanese consul, and as soon as the arrest has taken place the offender has to be handed over to the Japanese consul for trial.

CHINESE OFFENDERS.

Chinese offenders are arrested by the police and handed over to the Chinese authorities, who sentence the law-breakers to a term of imprisonment, but most of these Chinese offenders whom the Russians arrest are drawn from the poorest classes, and are usually unable to do work of any sort, and are only a nuisance to the settle. ment, so that the police lock them up in a special building, where they are housed and fed. When enough have collected together they are put in a railway carriage and sent under Russian escort to Changchun, where they are banded over to the Chinese authorities. The latter are not pleased to get these wastrels handed over to their care, but cannot say anything, for the Russians have no use for undesirables in their settlement, and the result of this energetic action on their part is a comparative dearth of Chinese beggars in Harbin compared with other cities in Manchuria.

The Japanese patent medicine dealers in Harbin usually employ Chinese agents, who go about the streets with a quantity of injection needles, which they use on the arras of Chinese coolies who happen to have a few coppers on them. As lonely alleys and back streets are plentiful, there is not much danger of their being caught in

the act.

IN THE STREETS OF CHANGCHUN.

The position of the railway settlement in Changchun presents an entirely different aspect, for here the Japanese are masters of the situation, and both opium and morphia trafficking go on quite openly, the local Japanese police showing absolute indifference. The main street, which lies outside the north gate of the city proper, is principally inhabited by Japanese morphia dealers, who open patent medicine shops, and Russian subjects, who keep public bars, where opium is brought and sold quite openly.

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Anyone driving through this street cannot help remarking the number of these bars and medicine shops which line the two sides of this well-kept, broad thoroughfare. The Chinese, who, as long as they are in the Japanese settlement, run no risk of being arrested, enter freely into these stores and make their purchases. There is no pe about to hinder them in buying either a single injection or large quantities of the

Quite recently one of these shops was "held up" by some Chinese robbers, who succeeded in making away with a quantity of morphia. The Japanese storekeepers were rather badly mauled, and informed the Japanese police of what had taken place, and in their turn the police complained to the Chinese authorities, making no bones about the fact that the object of the robbery was morphia.

A PUBLIC DISGRACE AND SCANDAL.

Now, as the Russian authorities are actively assisting the Chinese in their efforts to prevent trafficking in both opium and morphia, and are continually sending their subjects to gaol for this offence, how is it that the Japanese authorities do not do likewise? They are perfectly aware of what is taking place and the barm it is doing, and as the Japanese Government is making no handsome profits from its subjects out of the trading, and as it is a public disgrace and scandal that such a state of affairs is allowed to exist aud continue, surely it should be possible for the Chinese authorities to point out to the Japanese, just as they pointed out to the Russians, the necessity for putting an end to these evil practices.

In Kirin there is not a large Japanese population, but a good proportion consists of dealers in patent medicines, and the best selling line is morphia. As the Chinese police are very energetic in their efforts to put down the trading in this drug, the Japanese resort to all sorts of ruses to increase their sales. They employ Chinese agents, who keep clear of the police, supplying their clients regularly and with little risk of being caught. The drug is brought here by train from hangchuu, and on several occasions the Chinese police have arrested Japanese arriving by train and having on their persons large quantities of the poison. These Japanese have been banded over to the Japanese consular authorities, but, according to the statements of the Chinese police officials, as often as not they go unpunished.

This evil overshadows all other evils, even that of trafficking in women, and requires to be remedied immediately, for it is spreading rapidly to the remotest hamlets of Manchuria.

Enclosure 2 in No. 1.

Extract from the "North China Daily News" of September 14, 1915.

JAPAN'S MORPHIA TRADE WITH CHINA: A LUCRATIVE BRANCH OF JAPANESE COMMERCE WHAT THE PROFITS ARE AND HOW EARNED,

(From a Correspondent.)

A LETTER from your Kirin correspondent dated the 26th August draws attention to the energy with which Japan is developing her morphía trade in Manchuria, and suggests that this new traffic bids fair to exceed in importance other Japanese industries, even that of trallicking in women.'

The statement is a timely one. The trade in morphia may be described as, within certain limitations, the most immediately lucrative branch of Japanese com- merce. Not widely extended, as is the export of women needed to supply the wastage in the Japanese houses of Australia and South America, of India, Siam, and the Straits, of China and Siberia, the export of morphia is confined to the Chinese in Corea and to China, where facilities for its distribution are constantly increasing.

The thickly-peopled province of Shantung is now being opened to its introduction, and, since the manufacture of morphia has been undertaken under Government supervision in Formosa, roseate possibilities cheer the trader interested in its dis- semination throughout the province of Fukien.

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