"FOREIGN SMOKE."

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 66, 18 March 1910, Page 6

"FOREIGN SMOKE."

THE ,, NATION'S "AWFUL SIN." The annual meeting of the New Zealand Association for the Severance of the Connection of the British Empire witb the Opium Traffic was held at Wellington on Thursday. Mr. J. G. W. Aitken presided. There was a crowded attendance Among the apologies for absence was one from Hon. G. Powlds, who expressed heartiest sympathy with the objects of the association. "* ' Isle. Yung Liang Hwang, Chinese Consul, said that in the suppression of opium smoking, China was doing her utmost, beginning from the very top. -.No opium smoker was now admitted' to the Civil Service, and opium ' smokers already in the Government were degraded if they continued smoking. Opium cultivation was prohibited, and the sale of the drug was forbidden.. Opium smoking was now so regulated and encompassed with rules that no one could smoke opium privately. Opium shops in "both cities and country places were closed up. The time for the prohibition of smoking had been abridged China, was doing, not merely talkins She was determined to stop opium smok ing entirely before ten years at ■ the latest. Chinese >velcqmed tile co-opera-tion of people of. othe,r nationalities lr this great work' to rid China of the curse. He gladly testified to the fac; that the opium evil had not been so great in New Zealand as income other places still some of "his people .were, suffering £rom it. ■• . • ■'~•■ ■.-■■. \liss Alice Henry,, of the China Inland Mission, said worda were inadequate, tc convey to the minds of the meeting th< greatness of the opium curse in China There was some brightness on the hori zon, but it was ten years before this cvi was to ho stopped so far as export o: opium to China was concerned. What wa! to be done while 51,700 chests of opiun were to be sent into China in'lQlO? . Mis: Henry gave a dramatic narration of tin terrible effects upon the life of ,the pcopli not necessarily smokers —of the opiun; I habit. ' The opium traffic must not b( permitted to continue for ten . year; -longer; the women and children, of . Cjhin: must not be sold for opium, as they wen "being sold, for ten years longer. • ~N.pm of the girls from her own school had beei I sold to a life of shame -for the price o opium. . Jliss Henry moved: "That this -meeting [as members. .also of the Britsh nation, de i siro to , express -their profound grief ~fp: the disgrace, shame, and sin which attacl to our beloved nation through, our actioi in preparing for and sending to the Chin ese people a subtle soul and body destroy ing poison which by treaty with tin Chinese Government for more than fift; years we compel them to admit }nt( their country to their destruction, and t< the hindrance of the. Gospel of Christ. W< ! \\"oulcl beseech those who are rcsponsib]< ! for this, to make confession to God am [to t-ho Chinese nation, to ask forglvones: from both, whom we have \vrpnged grieved; to make'all. the restitution.poa sible in our ppwerj aiid to fr.ee Chiii . from tlic' iniquitous treaty. Wβ woul< also ask the Church of God—God's chi] dren in every land, to unite ,yi' praye: to this end, so that,.bux may Ij< made a.T3lessinj*and not a curse "to- thi other eounfcrles wiiich our people come ii contact -wi-th,' , .,,-..":'..'_. : . .._.. ' Rev. ,K. Ewen seconded the motion which was carried unanimously. "