GREAT GOD OPIUM

Dominion, Volume 16, Issue 171, 7 April 1923, Page 7

GREAT GOD OPIUM

, CHINA IN THE TOILS POPPY FIELDS FLOURISH EVERYWHERE ENORMOUS PROFITS MADE by telegraph.—press association. —OoPYUIOHT. London, April 5Tha “Times” Pekin correspondent says:—

“China is in the grip of the. great god opium. Poppy fields flourish all over the country. Efforts to suppress the cultivation have been abortive. Foreign and Chinese opinions arc now endorsing the deliberate conclusion of Mr. Aglen, Inspector-General of Maritime Customs, that China will eventually. be obliged to legalise the trade in order to secure some degree of restriction.

“The enormous profits of the traffic are demoralising all concerned. Huge areas of the provinces are given over to the cultivation of the poppy. The ‘Tuchuns’ (military chiefs! penalise the farmers for neglecting to plant,, and e-vtract revenues for the support of thgir armies by trafficking and running licensed houses for smoking the drug. “Officials all over the country are corrupted and connive at it. Rewards offered by the Customs officials for tho detection of opium have been inflated to the extent that the staffs are demoralised, while the traffickers attempt to outbid them with enormous bribes. A hundred thousand dollars was offered to one port official to pass a quantity of heroin. The Customs last year seized forty tons of illicit opium, a ridiculously infinitesimal percentage of the amount smuggled. “Fraauently the Customs men are terrorised into acquiescence. The immense quantities available have lowered the price, and coolies are able to indulge tn the vice. Many of the old style officials smoke openly, and the trnons are heavilv addicted to the habit. Public opinion is indifferent. Though cigarette smoking is believed to diminish the craving, eradication of it is regarded as hopeless.”—“Times."