jaya di ASOF THE 140 10 10 -
254
MORPHIA SMUGGLING INTO CHINA.
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(Daily Press, October 9th.) The smuggling of morphia which takes place in China has assumed alarming proportions. Morphia is used among the Chinese not only for hypodermic in jection, but also in the form of tabloids for the cure of opium smoking. The remedy however, is constantly being proved to be worse than the disease.
Even in remote country villages morphia tabloids and hy podermic syringes are frequently seen," and Dr. APSLAND of Peking, who has written to one of the Tientsin papers a warning against the use of the so-called "anti-opium pills," remarks that he would not like to guess how many tons of morphia tabloids are being imported into China now, but he is prepared to believe that the import is appalling. If, however, we consult the Customs returns for information on the subject, we find the total amount of morphia which passed through the Customs in 1907 was not more than 96 | ounces. Probably no man can inake even an approximate guess at the imprt. Dr. APSLAND mentions tous, and there cao. not be the slightest doubt about the fact that the import is really, as he describes it, "appalling
"
1
The first record of the importation of the drug into China was in 1892 when the import was returned as 15,761 ounces. By 1899 it had risen to 154,705 ounces, and, if we set out the figures for the subsequent seven years, the suggestion that the drug is being smuggled into China on a very extensive scale will be at once apparent. Here are the Customs returns:
19′0
1901
1902
1903
190 £
1905
1906
1907
ounces. 114768
138,567 195,133 106,149
128
54 419 96
per cent.
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THE HONGKONG WEEKLY PRESS AND
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[Dotober 12, 1908. –
unreasonably, had anticipatel a larger av. ing in this costly department. In Committee on the details of the Supply Bill, however, the Unofficial Members were unable to prove any extravagance, and we can well believe that the Estimates of the Sanitary Depart- ment have this year been subjected to the closest scrutiny from a manifest desire to show the reorganisel Department in the most favourable light. Though the saving shown in the Estimates for 1909, when con- traste with the revised Estimates for 1908, may not come up to general expecta tion, we may point out the very agreeable fact that the total expenditure of the Sanitary Department is now nearly $100,000 less than it was five years ago, and no one will eature to suggest that this saving has been accompanied by any sacrifice efficiency.
of
export of morphia to China, and if the fact | Plague Commission's Report, the public, not were not so patent that the consumption of morphia in China in the guise of "auti- op:um tabloids and powders is increasing at a prodigious rate, the fact that the drug has practically disappeared from the Customs import returus would doubtles be counted unto the exporting nation for right- eousness. Japan, it seems, is not a nong the nations which have interdicted the export of morphia to China, and it has been urged-unofficially at least, and so far with- out result-that it is desirable that Japan should come into line with the other nations in this respect. Two suggestions are implied in this demand, one being that Japan is a large exporter of morphia to China, and the other must be that practically all she sends to China is smuggled. For in 1906 when the total net import into China, according to the Customs returns, was 419 ounces not a single ounce is shown in those returns as having been imported from Japan. With the exception of six ounces from the United States and two from Germany the whole came from Hongkong and Groat Britain. Last year, however, out of the total of 96 ounces Japan is represented by 58 ounces, Hongkong by 9, Great Britain by 28 and the Unite States by one. So far as the import of the this drug is concerned, it is clear that the only value the Customs returns possess lies in the indirect evidence they give of the enormous extent to which the smuggling of morphia is being carried on. If "anti- opium pills" were really beneficial the only thing the Chinese Government would have occasion to regret would be the loss of revenue by the evasion of the import duty, but as these tabloids are declared to be do ing more harm than opium bas approached the doing, it is surprising that the Chinese Government bave not taken effective measures to prevent the smuggling as well as to restrict the sale of this danger ous remedy.
HONGKONG'S BUDGET.
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ever
(Daily Press, October 10th.) While we cansincerely congratulate the Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART upon the ex- cellent speech in which be conveyed to the Government the views of the Unofficial Mem. bera ofthe Legislative Council with regard to the Colonial Budget, it would be ungracious not to recognise that the Government also 13 entitled to congratulation upon the fact that the Unofficial Members were able to find in
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Smuggling can be the only explanation of the practical disappearance of the drug from the Customs returns after 1903. Up to April 1903 the duty levied on the import was at the rate of 5 ad valorem, representing a tax of about Tls. 0.08 per ounce. The Chinese Government, baving had its attention drawn to the grow- ing use of morphia among the people and the necessity of checking the evil, placed a pro. hibitory tax on the drug, which worked out at something like Tls per ounce. Siuce, that tax was announced the import, eo far as it comes under the cognisance of the Customs, has practically ceased, as the table above clearly shows. Yet there never was time when the use of the drug among the Chinese was so extensive as it is to-day. There undoubtedly prevails among the Chinese, here in Hongkong as apparently in all parts of the Empire of China, a sublime faith in the efficacy of the "anti-opium pill" as a cure for the opium-smoking habit, but Dr. APSLAND, in the letter we have referred to, emphatically declares that he has not found one of these tabloids that contained " any antidotal drug, any stimu- lant or tonic ingredients, but simply mor- phia made into a tabloid with ordinary household flour." So that, as Dr. APSLAND expressively puts it, the sale is not accom- panied with any honest intention of relier- ing the suffering, but, finding that there is a big market for morphia under the name of anti-opium tabloids and powders, foreign trading companies, who do no trade in arms and ammunition, follow this lucrative one under the heading of benefactors." Most with regard to nations, we believe, have prohibited the duced by the publication of the Indian
C
the Budget & little upon which to base a new attack or a complaint. Apart from the criticisms passed on certain features of His EXCELLENCY'S Speech, when introducing the Budget-to cne or two of which we shall presently refer the most noteworthy feature of the "case agia the Government," as it was outlined by the Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART, consisted in the expression of a belief in the possibility of effecting small economies in all Departments of the Govern- ment, and secondly in an expression of disappointment that the expenses of the Sanitary Department bad not been more substantially reduced. The re luction in the Sanitary Department amounts roughly to only $37,000, but. had exchange remained at last year's rats the reduction, the GOVERNOR said, would have been larger by $12,000. Still it must be said that from the re-organisation of the Sanitary Department, involving the transfer of part of the
staff to the Public Works Department,
combined with the change of policy
plague measures,
in-
When wo come to consider the other suggestion that small economies-the_many mickles that make a muckle, as our Scotch friends say-might be effected, we can do no more than re-echo the words of the Hon. Mr. STEWART that "when one glances over the pages of those estimates and sees the long lists of minor appointments, the fre quently recurring items of charges for allowances, extras, incidental expenses and what not, it is difficult to repress a doubt
as to whether the administration could not
be run, on more economical lines.” We must also be prepared to admit that a close scrutiny of these details might give a different result. It had not previously occurred to us, from the information we have casually gleaned, that the Government could be accused of undue generosity in the matter of allowances and incidental ex- penses. A case in point which recently came under our notice rather suggests the comment that if there are cases in the list to which reference
made by Was
Mr. which coonomies may be
STEWART in effected, there are certainly others in which allowances might be made with advantage to the public service.
The "bleeding of shipping" to which the Hon. Mr. GRESSON made reference is a sub- ject which bas recently been fully discussed, but it will be noted with regret that His EXCELLENCY did not see his way to give an assurance that three quarters of a million dollars will be the maximum amount to be contributed by a special assessment on Light Dues The Government may certainly count on a strong protest from the shipping interests if the amount exceeds that sum.
The observations of His ExCELLENCY the GOVERNOR a fortnight ago with regard to the Military Contribution naturally came in for some attention from the Unofficial Members, and both the Hon. Mr. STEWART and the Hon. Mr. SLADE, intimated that if, "in the narrowness of the financial straits through which the Colony is passing," the estimates are wrecked by the Home Govern. ment insisting upon pushing the claims of the extreme section of the autropium agitators, the Colony would look for compensation in the form of a remission of part of this contribution. His EXCELLENCY did not venture on this point to do more than express the opinion that the military contribution is not ejusdem generis with the opium question. That is merely a tactful evasion of the question which is really this: that, if the Home Government is going to wreck the Colony's finances, the Colony has a claim on the Imperial Government for compensation in some form or other, and a reduction in the Colony's contribution to the Imperial exchequer suggests itself as the readiest means of making this com- pensation. We cannot pass from this subject
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