5.
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tours of inspection in the prefecture and together with police officers, supervise and examine the account-books, certificates and prescriptions.
Penalties for Offences. A person who imports or exports morphine, &c. without the permission of the Minister for Home Affairs is liable to penal servitude for a term not ex- ceeding three months; a person who manufactures morphine, &c. without reporting it to the local governor is liable to detention (for not more than thirty days), or to a fine not exceeding a hundred yen; and upon others who infringe the provisions, such as those who neglect to report the quantity manufactured or imported, or to make prescribed entries in their books, suitable fines are imposed. The actual condition of the control of opium, morphine, &c. in Japan Proper has been described above. As regards the ex- amination of goods to be exported to China, special care is given in conformity with the purport of the stipulations of the Interna- tional Opium Treaty at the various local custom-houses, post offices which handle parcels for foreign countries, and railway goods offices, in order to prevent secret exportation; but it is to be regretted that owing to the activity of communication and trade between the two countries and to skilful means taken for secret exportation, the full results of the control are yet unobtainable. It is believed that in order to perfect the control, strict examina- tion of goods should be made at the custom-houses and post offices in China, the country of importation; and in the directions where secret importation is feared, the control should be made especially strict.
A short account of the control of opium in Taiwan (Formosa), Chosen (Korea), and Kuangtung Province is given below; as the control of morphine, &c., in those parts does not differ from that in Japan Proper, a description of it is omitted.
CONTROL OF OPIUM IN TAIWAN (Formosa).
In 1894, as a result of the peace treaty after the war with China, Formosa and the Pescadore Islands came under Japanese rule. The inhabitants were such slaves to the habit of opium- smoking that it was found impossible to make them break it off. When the island was under military administration, an ordinance prohibiting opium-smoking was issued as a temporary measure; and in February, 1896, when the island was pacified and the treaties between Japan and various foreign countries came into effect, the Government-General of Taiwan made a declaration pro- hibiting the importation of opium and permitting the use of opium for medicinal purpose only to those habituated to it. In April of the same year after the establishment of the civil administration, the Civil Administration Bureau of the Government-General entered upon various investigations connected with the operation of the opium system, and enacted the present Taiwan Opium Law, which was brought into operation in April of the following year.
The Taiwan Opium Law was first brought into operation in Taihoku City and spread gradually to the communities in the country until in December, 1897, it was in operation throughout the island. Previously to this, as measures preparatory to the enforcement of the Opium Law, investigations were made respect- ing the method of manufacture of opium chandoo, amount of demand for the chandoo, customs connected with opium, and other matters, and they were made the basis for the enforcement of the law. The raw opium held at the time by foreign merchants on the island was purchased by the Government; the medical practitioners required to examine and certify habituated opium- smokers were distributed in various localities as Taiwan public physicians; and only to those who were considered by these physicians to have fallen into the opium habit the purchase and use of opium chandoo and licences to that effect were granted.
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