AN OPIUM RAID

Evening Post, Issue 25, 30 January 1935, Page 12

AN OPIUM RAID

IN THE QUIET HOURS

CHINESE ROUND-UP

DREAMS DISTURBED

By day the busy stream of traffic and the activities of neighbouring warehouses make the Chinese quarter of Wellington indistinguishable from other parts of commercial Wellington, but with the darkness the traffic departs, the warehouses are shut, and the little piece of the city bounded by Tory, Buckle, Taranaki, and Vivian Streets assumes the mantle of Chinatown.

At midnight the streets are, quiet but full-of life. Chinese move incea-j santly from house to house, not walking but shuffling along with a peculiar gait that announces their nationality long before they are seen. Catsdozens of them-—slink in the shadows, and every passer-by gives and is given a searching scrutiny. An occasional taxi cruises quietly, and now and then a milk cart rattles on its way. A figure in uniform walks briskly from the. shadows and reveals himself as a milk roundsman; the depot is nearby, in Tory Street. Still the Chinese continually come and go, their.feet slithering on the pavements. ".;'; A car swings round the corner and policemen jump from it as it comes to rest before a small wooden house. Carrying timber-jacks, crowbars, and hammers, they quickly surround the house, their precision of movement showing careful previous:planning. Already, the shuffling figures in the street are converging oh the house where the car stopped. Experience has taught them what the unexpected visit means. The voice of a burly sergeant is heard calling upon the occupants of the house to open for the police, but the sound of quick movement inside is the only answer. ,

UPBOAB IK THE NIGHT. Then bedlam is let loose as the police begin to batter their way into the building, wielding timber-jack, crowbar, and hammer to good effect. Doors and windows are heavily barricaded, bars of iron, quarter-inch, sheets of' metal, and heavy wooden battens serving to hinder the entrance of the guardians of the peace, now seemingly bent on creating a big disturbance. The crowd on the roadway swells, all the neighbourhood being drawn by the sound of rending timberi and of metal upon metal. A final burst of energy and the door gives way. Police surge in and up the stairs, but find a heavy grille across the opening on to the upper storey. More hectic work with the tools of destruction and once more the small party surges forward, along a corridor, and into a large bare room whose: air is heavy with the sickly reek of opium. Meanwhile constables outside have caught a Chinese who has tried to reach the safety of the crowded street. Another constable waits'on a firstfloor runway leading to the dwelling next door, ready to seize any luckless Chinese who might attempt freedom in that direction.

The whole raid occupies only a few minutes, for speed is the essence of the plan. The prison-like barricades are not to keep the police at bay, for that would be impossible, but to delay them while the keepers of the den conceal or destroy the incriminating evidence of their trade. The barricades do delay the police, but always there is plenty of evidence inside. Apparently the occupants get so excited that they fail to make full use of the time they have for concealment. As opium costs as much as £20 for a half-pound tin that would fit unobtrusively in anyone's pocket, this unthinking excitement is apt to be costly, for any opium that, is found is confiscated.

PHILOSOPHICAL CAPTIVES. Once inside, the police marshal the occupants of the den, most of whom take the affair with the utmost good humour. Perhaps it is the soothing influence of the drug which makes some of the Chinese greet their captors with hilarity. Inquiry is made to ascertain who is the keeper of the den, who (if anyone) is assisting him, and who are merely customers. The Chinese are clever and evasive in their answers, but .never violent. Other members of the raiding party are prowling about the house on the look-out for opium, pipes, and other paraphernalia. The arrested ones are bundled into a van and taken to the police station, where the routine work occupies the men in blue for a long time. The Chinese arc. searched, their addresses are ascertained and verified, their finger-prints are taken, and the results of it all are duly entered on various official forms. Before their dreams of delight were so rudely disturbed by the police tho customers of the opium den were drowsing peacefully, on a raised platform running along one side of the room. On it are head-rests, one for each man. > Each man has a pipe (with long stem and flatly oval bowl), a long thin metal rod, like a hat pin, and a "slush" lamp, which is merely a burning wick in a reservoir of grease with a funnel (cleverly made from a beer bottle) whose top, converging to a narrow opening, concentrates the heat on a small area. And of course the smoker has his ration of prepared opium, which he buys from the keeper for 2s 6d or ss, depending on how much he wants.

BOAST XT, THEN SMOKE IT. Lying on his side, he dips the metal rod into the treacly preparation, and twisting it round and round, extracts a blob of it on the point of the rod. This he twirls over the flame of the lamp until it is sufficiently roasted, and ultimately he transfers the little globule to the bowl of the pipe immediately above the orifice. He holds the bowl over the funnel of the lamp and_ the rising heat causes the opium to frizzle and give off fumes, which he inhales. Opium prepared for smoking is black and sticky, and contains about 8 per cent, of morphine. Opium is obtained from the immature fruit of the Papaver somniferum, a kind of poppy, by slightly cutting the fruit and collecting and drying the exuded milky juice. By a long process of digesting it in water, followed by boiling, evaporating, filtering, toasting, and beating, the drug is prepared for smoking as tho black viscous substance with its characteristic smell.

PABALLEL WITH ALCOHOL. Its effects when smoked f Authorities differ, but they are much, the same as those of alcohol. "To the great many smokers who use it moderately it appears to act as a stimulant and to enable them to undergo great fatigue and to go for a considerable time with little or no food," says one authority. "When the smoker has plenty of active work it appears to be no more injurious than smoking tobacco.... When carried to excess opium smoking becomes an inveterate habit, -but this happens chiefly in individuals of weak will power who would just as easily become the victim of intoxicating drinks and who are practically moral imbeciles, often addicted also to other forms of depravity. The effect in bad cases is to cause loss of appetite, a leaden pallor of the skin, and a degree of leanness so excessive as to make its victims appear like living skeletons. All inclination for, exertion gradually becomes lost."

Orientals who smoke opium in moderation expeiience a mental.and physv

cal excitement followed by a pleasant sense of well-being • and content, and then narcosis. Europeans as a rule are riot affected' to any great extent. Alcohol,is more in .their line,, and that is one reason why it is a rare thing to find a white man in an opium den. Experience in New Zealand has been that opium is not smoked by individuals to excess. Those apprehended in the raids are not the "dopey," miserable creatures that popular imagination pictures them to be, but active and healthy-looking Chinese, upon whom the smoking has but little outward effect. .

The day after the raid a batch of solemn fruiterers, laundrymen, and gardeners, all Chinese, is lined up in the Magistrate's Court and fined heavily for its night of pleasure. A return is made out for the benefit of the League of Nations, which regulates the legalised opium traffic. -

Those Chinese who can pay their fines do so without causing any trouble. Those who do not pay go to gaol. And sooner or later the same men may be found by another raiding party in perhaps the same house, smoking the opium, which fetches up to £2 10s an ounce in Wellington. Someone must make a good living out of importing it. •■' '.. ■■••;■.••-•;■ .' ■". : .