introduction, is rapidly on the increase throughout the earth, and that Christianity owes it to herself and to the honor of Christendom to support and encourage every effort of missions and every agency of reform for saving the world from its ravages. 2. THE OPIUM HABIT.-The area of the prevalence of the opium habit may be said to be limited to the eastern half of the continent of Asia, including the islands to the southeast of China, traffic. The extent of the opium the Empire of Japan being a notable exception. The storm-centre of the vice is China, and here again we meet with the same amazing phenomenon of a civilized nation seriously compromised by complicity in the extension of a demoralizing traffic. The part which the British Government has taken in the introduction of opium into China is an indelible chapter in the history of the nineteenth century, and the persistent encouragement to its production in India up to the present time, and the advantage which is taken of its exportation to China by the British Government to swell the Indian revenue, is an aspect of English foreign policy which is exciting intense indignation and loathing on the part of rapidly increasing multitudes of the British public. While the habit has been known in the East for centuries to a very limited extent, yet its modern development and the fearful ravages of its excessive use may be said to be coincident with its production in India under the British rule and its recent cultivation in China as a native product, under the stimulus of the demand which has arisen within a half-century. The present production in India in round numbers is 54,700 change, and intemperance is increasing."-Rev. Joseph S. Adams (A. B. M. U.), Hankow, Province of Hupeh, China. i Maughan, "Our Opium Trade in India and China" (London, Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, Finsbury House, Blomfield Street). "Under the auspices and fostering care of the East India Company the trade grew year by year so as to reach in 1800 as much as 4570 chests, and in 1854 not less than 78,354 chests, each chest containing 133 pounds avoirdupois. The average import of foreign opium into China for the past ten years (1880–90) is 72,012 chests. The Persian and Turkish trade in opium is comparatively insignificant, the average being only 4159 chests. Thus the average import from India alone is 67,418 chests. But this is not all. Prior to the introduction of the drug by foreigners it was not used by the Chinese as an article of luxury. They were not ignorant of its existence and medicinal properties, but there is not a particle of evidence to show that it was smoked or abused in any other way in those days. Now, however, the native growth exceeds the foreign at least six times. Whilst the demand for opium hardly existed in China one hundred and fifty years ago, the Chinese at present con cwts. annually, and of this amount the annual exportation, almost exclusively to China, reaches 49,512 cwts., or 90.5 per cent.1 The revenue of the British Government in India from opium has decreased of late.2 Ten years ago it was fully twice what it is to-day. Its victims in China, however, are constantly increasing in number, and are estimated at present to be over 20,000,000, and by some as high as 40,000,000,3 while the expense to China is about £25,000,000 annually.4 The real points at issue in the conflict are the extent of the evil resulting from the use of opium, and the responsibility of the British Government in the matter. The British administration in India, for reasons of expediency and revenue, is inclined to defend itself by minimizing both these considerations. It is on the defensive, and contends vigorously and recklessly that the evils are insignificant, and therefore, as a matter of course, that no responsibility exists. On the other hand, a large and influential section of the British people contend with irrepressible earnestness and increasing vehemence that the opium traffic as conducted by the British Government in India is a national scandal and an indefensible crime, involving responsibility on the part of Great Britain, and discrediting to a painful degree the fair honor of a Christian nation. The Government has been hitherto unimpressible, and has maintained in general a policy of immobility or pleaded the non possumus argument. The agitation has been regarded in official circles with incredulous unconcern, and, while some measure of formal deference has been shown, the practical outcome has been of trifling value. Recent developments, however, indicate a marked advance along the lines of an effective and victorious crusade. sume every year enough to fill from 400,000 to 500,000 chests."-Griffith John, D.D. (L. M. S.), Hankow, China. 1 "Report of Royal Commission," vol. ii., p. 345. 2 The Budget estimate of gross revenue from opium for 1894-95 was, in tens of rupees, Rx 6,393,600, equal to 63,936,000 rupees ("Statesman's Year-Book," 1895, p. 130); and from this must be subtracted 22,553,000 rupees on the score of expenditure, leaving a net revenue for that year of 41,383,000 rupees. To this must be added the net revenue from excise (sale of licenses, etc.), which for the average of five years, ending 1894, was 9,851,290, making the total approximate income of the Government from opium, in 1894-95, 51,234,290 rupees. The value of the rupee for that year was officially estimated at Is. 2d., so that if reduced to sterling currency the income is equivalent to £2,988,673. If we estimate the pound sterling at $5, this will give us $14,943,365, or in round numbers $15,000,000, as the present total annual revenue of the Indian Government from opium. Cf. The Friend of China, August, 1894, p. 6, and Wilson's "Minute of Dissent," Supplement to The Friend of China, May, 1895, p. 40. 3 Ball, "Things Chinese," p. 335. ་ ་་ Report of Shanghai Conference," 1890, p. 337. The Royal Commission on Opium, and its report. The subject has been before Parliament at various times, and in 1891 a resolution was passed which declared that the methods of the British Government in connection with the opium revenue were "morally indefensible." On September 2, 1893, a Royal Commission was appointed by Parliament to investigate the question of opium in India, the report of which was presented early in 1895. It should be noted that the Commission did not undertake to investigate the question of its exportation to China and the results of its use there, but confined its attention to opium as used in India. This restriction limits greatly the usefulness of such an investigation, and gives a misleading impression to its conclusions. The report of this Commission is altogether in the interests of the present status, but its report is one thing and the mass of evidence which it has collected is quite a different matter. A member of the Commission, Mr. H. J. Wilson, presented a Minority Report dissenting from the judgment of the majority. Such searching analyses of the evidence as are presented in his "Minute of Dissent," and also in a published "Review of the Evidence" by Mr. Joshua Rowntree, reveal a mine of information on the subject of opium which can be worked to the manifest advantage of the anti-opium cause. The Royal Commission will not by any means have things its own way. Its voluminous documents, filling several large Government Blue Books, its accessory literature, in the shape of petitions, memorials, public addresses, and press discussions, and the awakening of general interest in the question will all serve to mark an era in the history of the campaign against opium, from which a large volume of new and striking data will emerge, and from which the agitation will derive new impulse and vigor and reap a decided advantage. The war is by no means on the wane. Burma. The recent action of the British Government in restricting the opium traffic in Burma may be regarded as a victory on the part of the opponents of the opium policy, although the reasons British restrictions in assigned by the British Government for that action revealed a studied indifference to the agitation, and in fact credited Buddhism with the moral influence against opium; yet the fact that the action was taken is highly significant, and stands with all the force of a moral paradox as a self-inflicted indictment of the Government policy for India and China. No one can read the official notification which announces that "the use of opium is condemned by the Buddhist religion, and the Government, believing the condemnation to be right, intends that the use of opium by persons of the Burmese race shall forever cease," without finding himself face to face with the puzzling enigma of how the condemnation is right when pronounced by Buddhism, and of indifferent value when pronounced by Christianity. He will find it difficult also to restrain a lively and irrepressible inquiry as to why, if the Government, "believing the condemnation to be right," feels under obligation to prohibit forever the Burmese race from using it, it should not also carry out the same prohibition in the case of the Indian races, and, so far as its participation is concerned, in the case of the Chinese race. The truth seems to be that the report of the recent Royal Commission was rendered in the interest of financial and political expediency rather than with any profound consideration of the moral responsibility involved. As to the real extent of the evil, geographically, physically, morally, and socially, the evidence seems conclusive to one who receives it in an unprejudiced spirit and studies its significance. habit, and the evils of its use. A geographical survey of the area of the opium The area of the opium habit presents at the outset the striking fact that Japan is free. The wisdom of her statesmen has guaranteed her by treaty against the introduction of the drug, while the laws against its manufacture and use are of exemplary severity and are strictly enforced. It had been carried into Korea by the Chinese, and was rapidly gaining headway, but there is reason to hope that if Japanese influence and supervision rather than Russian are to prevail in Korea, the evil will be checked. Throughout the length and breadth of China, even in her far western provinces of Shensi, Szechuan, and Yunnan, it prevails to an extent which may be regarded as a frightful and demoralizing social evil. The testimony as to its prevalence in Yunnan and the remoter provinces reports as high as eighty per cent. of the men and fifty per cent. of the women addicted to the pernicious habit.1 In Formosa opium and whiskey have been counted as two of the main evils to be contended with. The recent prohibition of the opium trade by the Japanese has, however, given the hope of a change for the better. In the Eastern Archipelago there is the same story of its desolating effects. In Siam and Laos it ranks as a baneful custom. the Straits Settlements it has securely established itself. In Burma it was rapidly doing its deadly work until the revolt of the Burmese effected a remarkable change of policy on the part of the British Government. In India, owing to the Government custom of licensing for a consideration its use, and practically facilitating its consumption, it is an evil which is growing with alarming rapidity. Testimonies from 1 China's Millions, December, 1894, p. 168. In all parts of India leave no doubt upon this point. Opium dens are becoming a feature of dissipation in the cities of India, and are not unknown even in the larger villages. The Island of Ceylon is plentifully supplied with them, especially its principal city of Colombo. One of the most distressing aspects of its use in India is the habit of giving it to children, even during infancy, to stupefy them into quietness. Its effect upon their physical and mental constitution induces a state of paralysis and collapse which frequently results in lifelong injury.1 In Persia the drug is both cultivated and used in considerable quantities. In Teheran, Meshed, and other cities opium dens are to be found.2 Beyond the boundaries mentioned, while there is a scattering and dangerous tendency to the prevalence of the vice, yet we cannot regard it as in the same sense a dominant social evil, as it certainly must be considered within the above-indicated geographical limits. As to its physical and moral effects a large volume might be written.3 We cannot enter into the subject at any length, and yet it should not be dismissed without at least a decisive verdict. To a candid student of the testimony of those whose assertions can be relied upon and who speak from personal observation, there can be but one conclusion, and that is that it is one of the most threatening and militant evils of China, and, indeed, of all sections of the earth where it is gaining headway.4 1 Friend of China, December, 1894, p. 111; The Missionary Herald, August, 1894, p. 324. 2 "The opium poppy is grown in many parts of Persia. The surplus opium is exported to China, India, and England. The commercial value of the opium exported from Persia per annum probably approaches $2,500,000. The quantity of opium consumed in Persia is comparatively large, and is no doubt on the increase. I think it is a low estimate to say that one third of the adult population, including both sexes, use it immoderately, and a very large proportion of the remainder use it to some extent. During a recent visit to the city of Meshed I went into two opium dens, and the people I found were the vilest of the vile. More recently, one night, I visited twelve of these dens in the city of Teheran. I found therein in all about one hundred and fifty people. I do not suppose that it is known how many of these public opium dens there are in Teheran, but I should not be surprised if there are one hundred of them, besides the ordinary tea-houses where the brittle opium is smoked, and private houses where a few friends meet regularly to indulge. Probably a million and a quarter of people in Persia are addicted to the opium habit. They consume at least 3,881,410 pounds in a year, which at present prices is worth $9,125,274."-Rev. Lewis F. Esselstyn (P. B. F. M. N.), Teheran, Persia. 3 Dudgeon, "The Evils of the Use of Opium." Cf. also "Report of Shanghai Conference," 1890, pp. 314-354 4 For a recent sketch of the present status of the anti-opium movement see Missionary Review of the World, April, 1896, p. 265. |