6
this opium is exported under permits applied for by the Japanese Government, is shipped to Kobe, and from Kole is transhipped to Tsing-tao. Large profits are being made in this trade. in which are interested some of the leading firms of Japan.
One must emphasise that this opium is not imported into Japan. It is tran- shipped in Kobe harbour to Tsing-tao, from which point of vantage, assisted by the Japanese controlled railway to Tsinan-fu, it is sinuggled through Shantung into Shanghai and the Yang-tsze valley. Opium purchased in Calentta for 3.500 rupees per cliest about 1,000 taels-costs delivered in Kobe harbour all tok well under chest. This opium-Tsing-tao opium-is sold in Shangbai at 1,200 taels per 500 dollars a ball of 40 balls to the chest-a total of 20,000 dollars per chest. China's failure to sell "for medicinal purposes" her opium at 27,000 dollars per chest, the price asked by the opium ring is thus explained. The price is undercut by the Japanese The dimensions that the traffic has already assumed are noteworthy. There is reason to believe that between the 1st January and the 30th September, 1918, not less than 2,000 chests of opium purchased in India were imported into Taing-tao via Kobe.
Upon this amount the Japanese authorities levy a tax which does not appear in the estimates equivalent to 4,000 taels per chest, a total for the 2,000 chests at the present rate of exchange of 2,000,000. The acquisition of this immense profit from a contraband traffic would explain the origin of those immense sums now being lavished upon the development of Tsing-tao and the establishment there of Japanese commercial supremacy.
Customs Manned by Japanese.
It may be asked how it is possible that at Dairen, where the morphia traffic is greatest, and at Tsing-tao, which is the chief centre of the Japanese opium trade, the importation of this contraband continues without the knowledge of the Chinese Maritime Customs, But at both Duluy and Tsing-tao the Chinese Maritime Customs are wholly under the control of the Japanese, and wholly manned by them. Japanese military domination would forbid in both ports any interference with a traffic in which the Japanese authorities were interested, either officially or unofficially. In Dalny the highest civil dignity has been conferred upon the chief dealer in morphia and opium. Moreover, in the case of Tsing-tao, by the agreement which relinquished to Japanese the exclusive charge of the Chinese Maritime Customs any trade in which the Government is interested, contraband or not, can be carried on without the official knowledge of the customs. Article 3 of the agreement of the 2nd December, 1905. perpetrated in the agreement of the 6th August, 1915, provides that any goals "shall be free from customs lauded in Tsing-tao under "certificates of government examination. The way has thus been opened not only for the illegal import of opium, but of contraband in arms, by which the bandits of Shantung province are provided with the means of harrying and looting the peaceful peasants of the most sacred province of China.
Military Stores.
The Maritime Customs returns of 1917 show that 45 piculs of boiled opium were admitted into Tsing-tao in 1917. The actual amount was probably fifty times greater. The balance enters in cases stamped "chun pung p'in" (military stores), and boxes so stamped are to be seen commonly in the Japanese drug stores along the Shantung railway. In 1917 morphia to the amount of nearly tons is recorded as having entered Dairen for use in the leased territory, but no morphia is recorded as having entered Manchuria from the leased territory during the year, nor does any entry of morphia appear in the Tsing-tao Customs returns for 1917. Yet a competent witness, Dr. Wu Lien-teh, states that " Almost every Japanese drug dealer or pedlar in Manchuria (and Shantung he might have added) sells morphia in one form or another, and does so with impunity, because no Japanese can be arrested without first informing the consul.”
Your readers will remember that not long ago efforts were being made by the Japanese to remove from the control of any but Japanese subjects the Chinese customs of Antung and of Newchwang. It would, perhaps, be unjust to say that the chica object sought for in the removal of these stations from foreign control other than Japanese is the removal of obstruction to Japanese contraband traffic, but none the les the effect of such removal would be this desirable end.
7
Japan's Trade in Opium,
206
The revelations that we publish to-day of the enormous and wholly illicit trade in morphia and opium conducted by Japan in China cannot be read without displeasure and reprobation.
grave Were this even an affair of private enterprise, of unscru- pulous Japanese taking advantage of their proximity and ease of movement in China, Japan's conduct would not be free from censure, inasmuch as so vast a quantity of morphia and opium could not pass out of or through her ports without being well known to her officials, But the case is far worse than this. The Japanese post office, we are told, is a large distributor of morphia. Japanese military authorities at Tsing-tao pass it and opium through as military stores. A tax is regularly levied upon it, which yields enormous sums for the embellishment of Tsing-tao And, worst of all, the Japanese employees of the Chinese Customs, who are in a fiduciary position to this country, who
pays them, and to no other, are accused of betraying their trust in order to further this ugly trade. We do not pretend to say much for the resolution of Chinese provincial officials in trying to suppress native cultivation. But what encouragement does Japan give them to do otherwise?
The substantial accuracy of our correspondent's statements cannot unfortunately be questioned. Already, as he recalls, the scandal of the Japanese morphia trade in this country was exposed by us in 1915. For a considerable time past it has been known that morphia injections were easily and cheaply to be obtained from Japanese chemists in Shanghai, and latterly we have received from another quarter altogether figures of the opium trade through Tsing-tao, which were, if anything, bigger than those given by our correspondent to-day. We earnestly appeal to the Japanese Government to put an immediate stop to this nefarious business, as it can do in a moment if it please. Japan claims a special interest in China's commerce, as she may naturally do. She also asserts her special benevolence where China's welfare is concerned. But bow, with these facts before us, can she be said to fulfil that boast? No doubt the opium trade is a valuable one, but by it Japan stands to lose infinitely more than many chests of opium are worth in the eyes of China and of the world. Will she allow it to be said that so soon as Great Britain cut off the trade in Indian opium for the benefit of China, she caught it up, with no regard for any consideration but dollars? That is not the spirit of Bushido.
No. 2.
Foreign Office to India Office.
Sir,
I AM directed by Earl Curzon of Kedleston to transmit to you herewith copy
Foreign Office, March 7, 1919. of a despatch from His Majesty's Minister at Peking with regard to the recrudescence of poppy cultivation in China and the clandestine trade in opium, morphia, and cocaine imported from Japan. In this latter connection, I am to invite your attention to Sir John Jordan's suggestion that the export of opium from India to the Far East should be totally prohibited, and to enquire whether the Indian Government would be prepared to give effect to this suggestion,
I am further directed to refer to Foreign Office letter of the 22nd January last in which the suggestion was put forward that His Majesty's Government shou enter a protest against the recrudescence of poppy cultivatiou in China as constituting a failure on the part of the Chinese Government to keep their share of the 1911 agreement, and to enquire whether the India Office are yet in a position to make any statement as to the alleged excessive sales in Calcutta of opium for medicinal purposes, and as to the import into Yünnan of opium grown in the border country between China and Burma.
0
I am, &c.
J. A. C. TILLEY.
-"
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.