June 27, 1904.] soldier, before dying, would flay and score his own face beyond recognition so that his enemies might not glory over him. This grew into a principle of honour, and fre quently the unscathed survivors, defeated, and feeling the cause hopeless, committed suicide.
That this is not a worn-out tradition is shown by the statement in a telegram from our Kobe correspondent that most of the military officers on the ship committed suicide before she settled down. From the actual battlefield we have had no reports of this kind, for the very good reason that Japanese troops have not yet hal to endure the humiliation of defeat in a single battle, but we may depend upon it that if a Japanese force gets into a tight ruer this principle of honour we have outlined is so highly cherished that there will be a fight to the death whatever be the odds against the force. Conquer or die their motto, and they are evidently pre- pared in all circumstances to carry this principle further than European opiniou cau approve.
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OPIUM IN CHINA.
is
(Daily Press, 21st June.) The Anti-Opium League in China has just published in pamphlet form reports made in 1902 by the American Consuls at Shanghai, Hongkong, Chefoo, Fochow, Amoy, and Tientsin on "Opium in China." We gather from the preface that these reports were called for by the Honourable DAVID J. HILL, while Acting Secretary of State, after an interview with the Rev. H. C. Du Bose, who is the president of the Anti-Opium League in China. The circular issued to the American Consuls asked for information on the following aspects of the question.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
opium habit is increasing gradually every area is increasing enormously," and that the where. Mr. FESLER, the Consul at Amoy, does not attempt to answer the questions in their relation to the whole of China, but confining himself to their application to his own consular district, he states that accord- ing to the most reliable reports about 60 is devoted to the raising of the poppy, and per cent. of the arable land in the district that its culture has increased rapidly. Mr. RAGSDALE, the Consul at Tientsin, being extremely busy at the time, had a report prepared by the Interpreter of the Consulate. In this report it is stated that, far as could be learnt, there has been no increase in the culture of the poppy during recent years owing to the | levied by the provincial and local au- ever-increasing taxation thorities, which has increased the cost of opium to such an extent “ that, happily, it
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'is getting more and more a luxury for 'the rich, and beyond the means of the
ordinary classes." Whoever
peruses these reports night well ask, Where is truth? He will probably find the nearest approach to truth in the report furnished by Mr. Coasul GRACEY, of Foochow. After careful investigation he manifestly increasing every year in Central declares that the growing of the poppy is and Southern China. The amount of opium produced in China, he says, piculs to 400,000 piculs. Mr. GRACEY em- from 350,000 bodies in his report a computation of the growth of the poppy and the use of opium throughout the empire made by Mr. F. E. TAYLOR, the Commissioner of Imperial Cus- toms, who was at the time the Report was written in charge of the Statistical Depart ment. Mr. TAYLOR calculated, allowing a moderate estimate of thre hundred millions for the population of China, that there empire. As to the area under cultivation are about 5,000,000 opium smokers in the of the poppy, he estimates that if one-third of the area of the empire is cultivated land in every hundred mow of cultivated land only half a mow (6 mow to the acre) would be under opium and that only for part of the year.
(1.) To what extent is the arable land of China now devoted to the culture of the poppy?
(2.) What is known of the in- crease of the culture of the poppy during recent years? (3.) What is known of the growth of the opium habit among the Chi- nese people? (4.) Is the increase of the ulture of the poppy tending to diminish the production of cereals? (5.) To what"in some home paper, secular or religious." We are asked to review these reports extent, if any, does the use of opium affect the purchasing power of the Chinese people as regards American products?
The reports have not been published by the Department of State, but typewritten copies were supplied to the Anti-Opium League, who have printed them for circulation. The reports are chiefly remarkable for the vagueness of the information they contain, and the conflict of testimony on some of the main points. With regard to the first and second questions regarding the cultiva- tion of the poppy in China, Consul GOODNOW replies that as there are no existing statistics covering the ground of these questions be finds it impossible to give any exact in formation, but all observers, be says,
testimony to the great extent to which bear districts are given up to the cultivation of "the poppy, especially in the West and South.' He reports also that during the last ten years there has been a steady decline in the importation of opium, and adds that during the same period the culture of opium has continued to increase in all parts of the country, particularly in Yunnan, Szech uen and Kiangsi. In some parts of Yunnan it has almost become the medium of exchange. Consul-General RUBLEE wrote from Hong- kong that the culture of the poppy in China is on a small scale; only "an insignificant part "of China is devoted to its culture, Consul FOWLER says it is impossible to give statistics, but "it is known to all that the
We do not know what lessons we are ex-
pected to derive from their perusal, but the balance of reliable testimony seems to be clearly against the well-known views of the Anti-Opium Society. In the absence of any accurate statistics we have to take our choice between the statements that the cultivation of the poppy is (1) "enormously increasing " cultivation of the poppy probably reached in China; (2) that the its utmost limit several years ago, and that tained"; and (3) that "only an insignificant no extension of poppy cultivation is enter part of China is devoted to the culture of the poppy." Assuming it to be a fact that the cultivation of the poppy has increased smoking is increasing. of late years, it does not follow that opium- In the last ten years the import of foreign opium has been steadily declining. tity imported was 70,782 piculs; in 1902 In 1892 the quan- the quantity was 50,801 piculs- of 20,000 piculs in ten years.
-a decline
State Department's circular are quite as The answers to the other questions in the amusingly diverse as they are in regard to the cultivation of the poppy, but we have not the space to discuss them now. Opium- smoking may be a baneful habit, but in the words of Consul GRACEY," whether it is a greater evil than the same kind of use of alcoholic intoxicants is an open question." Students of this question have asked before and continue to ask without result whether
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honestly testify to any exceptional mortality any member of the Anti-Opium League can arising from the consumption of opium in China; a greater proportion of deaths from opium in China, say, than from drink in the British Isles.
prefaced by a reprint of the Articles in the The reports of the Consuls, we notice, are
ing the importation of morphia and opium, United States treaties with China prohibit- but inasmuch as American houses were long ago hested by the Parsee merchants in this trade in China the anti-opium attitude of the American Government is rather cheap philanthropy. It is a philanthropy which is not applied to the Philippine Islands,
THE MEMORY OF LI HUNG-
CHANG.
its
(Daily Press, 22nd June.) The struggle now going on between the modern DAVID and GOLIATH -the Japanese and the Russians-pretty nearly absorbs all public attention, and matters that formerly would have proved of great and general interest to the Far East now receive but the most casual glance. The doings of the personnel, Chinese Government, the changes in its policy, provokes but scanty consideration
or the tendency of
Majesty the EMPRESS DOWAGER, whose nowadays. Even the acts of Her Imperial lightest word at one time received notice, now meet with little regard. The grim tragedy of war other events or circumstances catch only the now. fills the stage, and
was a time when any matter relating to most fleeting interest of the house. There
once practically guided the destinies of the LI HUNG-CHANG, the great Viceroy, who Celestial Empire, would have claimed a first Eastern politics. Tae so-calle | BISMARCK place in the attention of the students of Far of China is dead, certainly, but there should still be some of the glamour which once hung round his presence and fame. successor to Lr has yet arisen, and though his abilities were greatly overrated in bis lifetime, it cannot be denied that he wài,
the central figure in Chinese politics. That when filling the post of Viceroy of Chihli,
him by many European Governments is he did not merit the confidence reposed in
of notoriety that he no more deserved the now well known, and it is equally matter trust of his own countrymen. A career that might have been respected, if not really great, was badly marrad by the grasping cupidity which enabled him to pile up a country. colossal fortune at the expense of his
No
nor his brother LI HAN-
The Chinese Government, as might have memory, but the Chinese people been expected, paid tribute to his few exceptions honourei neither Li HUNG- with
CHANG CHANG. The latter, when Viceroy of the Two Kwang, was significantly named “The ference to his boundless rapacity and greet, Bottomless Purse" by the Cantonese, in re-
reputation in the province of Chihli; but, and L HUNG-CHANG enjoyed a similar unlike his brother commanded some respect by reason of his abilities. It is interesting, in view of these peculiarities, to read among morning contemporary, some remarks which the notes on native affairs in our Shanghai go to show that the true character of the avaricious LI HUNG-CHANG remains in the remembrance of the people. It seems that, after the Viceroy's death in 1901, the Im- perial Government orderel a number of memorial temples to be built to his honour in the places wherewith he was connected as an administrator or official. His efforts
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