THE OPIUM EVIL.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1389, 15 March 1912, Page 8

THE OPIUM EVIL.

AMD THE CHtKESE UPHEAVAL. FUTURE OF THE TRAFFIC. Mr. Felix Blei, who arrived from the East by tho L'liinaroa on Wedno-dny, is a fund of information on the affairs of China, in which country he spent several mouths touring quite recently. ()ne of the influences which made China "the under dog" in (he Enst has been the use of opium in its various forms. It iias paralysed citizenship anion? the lower classes, nnd ha.- held ihcni back on occasions when their rights were in jeopardy, and made them to a large extent a community of serfs under tiiu control of the wealthy and intelligent mandarins, who have for generations fnitened on what might be called a national failing. Mr. Blei slated lhat the reform movement against opium will be smothered for a time in the general chaos which has been brought about by the change from a monarchy—the most ancient probably in the world—to a republic, but it would surely be revived as the leaders of the revolution were those most interested in stamping out the evil. An Inglorious Revival, "I had a long talk," said Air. Blei, "with an educated member of tho Young China party in Canton, who had just returned from the Ilupci province after an olHcial visit connected with the issue of the regulations for tho suppression of the opium vice. He told me that Hupej was a hot-bed of the curse, nnd that what liltlo good had been done by the regulations had been upset by the revolution, and Hupei was but an instance of what prevailed in other densely-populated provinces. Where it hod become difficult to purchase opium it became onco more ns easy to buy as tea. The forbidden opium divans wero thrown wide open once more, and, in addition, hundreds of dens flourished in secret, despite nil regulations prohibiting the same. They no longer hid themselves from the official eye, as that same eje was mostly employed jn seeking the least line of resistance' between the harried Mauchu and the hosts of freedom-seek-ing Chinamen. Yet only a little while before the magistrates had in many of the cities and towns taken extremely vigorous methods of blotting out tho Dpium 'joints.'" i "1 knew of a magistrate nt Changsa," said Mr. Blei, "who ordered persons caught smoking opium in cook-houses and what you call 'pubs' to have their bones dusted with a bamboo, while the owners were also punished. Another cheerful official raided a den run by a woman, and emphasised his disapproval of her conduct by ordering her 2(10 blows. Again, Shcn, the new Acting-Viceroy of Yunnan, discovering that one of his own servants owned a secret den, exposed him to tho public gaze and scorn in a bambuo cage for three days. Turning to Morphia. "A disquieting feature of the reform movement," continued Mr. Blei, "was tho fact that opium smokers and caters deprived of their favourite 'dope' turned to another. Thousands of Chinese, who had ceased to b? oi'ium-smokcrs from necessity, had become slaves to morphia. Whether this is a new curso that has taken up its permanent abode with the people, or is only a passing craze, I cannot say. I tell you the edict against the drug stirred things up pretty considerably. In Peking the price of opium jumped 50 per cent. "The greatest outcry, however, was against the prohibition of the sowing of poppy seed after a given date. More than one rillago was obliterated as a result of the inhabitants' methods of objection when the soldiery destroyed the forbidden crops. I saw the official report after the burning of one village, and the rooting up of the poppy fields. It wound up thus: 'The result is that the reduction of acreage under poppy in the district has surprised the most sanguine hopes.' Anyhow, that is how my friend of the Young China League interpreted the hieroglyphics. • ■■ "Whether tho recent upheaval will throw back the wave of reform as far as the poppy is concerned for a ; Jong spell or a short one-could not be calculated, but the certainty is that the national vice will only be finally eradicated by the absolute prohibition, of the cultivation of the poppy and the stoppage of the importation of the drug from India."