THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14600, 26 February 1913, Page 3

THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

TO TUE EDITOR OF "THE TRESS. Sir, —I have to thank you for tho amount of space you have given lately to correspondence about the iniquity of drugging China with Indian opium. Much as ono naturally deplores the necessity of publicly exposing the sin of our own nation, it is only by doing so that we can expect a change, and until tho people throughout the Empire know about it thero will be but few appeals or protests made to the Home GovernThen./* We* are told "that .the co-opera-tion of the Churches in Greater Britain is likely to bo of special value; their co-operation will stir tho Churches at Home, and their utterance will touch the Homo Government in an even more tender spot than that of tho Home Churches, for it is a. well-known fact that the continuance of this foul blot on Great Britain's escutcheon is the one check upon their loyalty to the Mother Country, as recognised by the Bishop of London regarding Canada." ("Black Opium," p. 206, by Roy. Eric Lewis.) The appeals and resolutions of protest which havo been seen Home during tho last four or fivo years by the New Zealand Anti-opium Association through his Excellency the Governor, have been received and duly acknowledged by the Home authorities. I havo pleasure in enclosing you a couple of lato papers which show that the present timo of our connection with the opium traffic has reached a somewhat critical stage, and the merchants who stand to lose heavily for once through their mistaken speculation aro ready to risk England's being dragged into another disgraceful war. In connection with tho A_kin_ incident, tho Tu-tuh, or Governor, of Anhwei, in a letter published in the Peking "Daily News," states, that tho opium "belonged to Chinese merchants," and that "no foreign intervention was expected when a Chinese official was dealing with Chinese merchants' cargo." The tariff agreement of 1858, by which the import of opium into China was first legalised, states, with re_ard to opium:—"The importer will sell it only at the port. It will be carried into the interior by Chinese only, and only as Chinese property : the foreign trader will not bo allowed to accompany it.'' As Anking is not a treaty port, it would seem that if British merchants still owned tho opium they were acting contrary to tho provisions of the treaty, and had, therefore, no claim to protection. —Yours, etc., H. S. BLACKBURNE, Hon. Secretary New Zealand Antiopium Association. Wellington, February 23rd.