WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1912. A BLOT ON BRITAIN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 15 May 1912, Page 4

WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 1912. A BLOT ON BRITAIN.

Doubtless there are blots in the history every people, and Great Britain has its share. One of the worst is one of the latest, and consists in the infamous trade in opium which England forced on China at the point of the bayonet, and at the cannon's mouth. If there ever was a caso in which moral right was ruthlessly subordinated to mercenary interest, this is one. Of course, it is one, with no "if" in the matter. However, after the trade has been the means of ruining millions of the people of China, England has at last provisionally agreed to its extinction. To this course she has for years been urged by considerable numbers of her own people in various partb of the Empire, including New Zealand, and also by Chinese statesmen, aware of the havoc., which the drug worked amongst their countrymen. For the trade forced on China by Britain not only had the effect oi leading to the extensive use of imported Indian opium, but*to the cultivation of tbe plant by Chinese farmers, and thi; led to the drug habit in localities whic"might never have, been reached by the imported article. The aggregate effect was the ruin of millions, which was clearly, enough seen, but could not be stopped by Chinese statesmen ,> for the trade was protected by specific? treaties whieli tEngland had exacted from China. On England's part,' She was, in this instance, saved by the proverbial rem-

nant; for scattered minorities, numbering many thousands in ?the aggregate, never ceased to protest against their country's inhumanity and disgrace in the matter. For a long time tne British Government played the part of a deaf adder in all protests, but at last it agreed to try to find a compromise. The effort which it made was slow and somewhat slight, but it resulted in a new agreement being signed at Pekin on May 8, 1911, just over a year ago. Under this agreement the British Government agreed that the export of opium from India should cease in less than seven years, if clear proof were given that the production of native opium had completely ceased in, China; also that Indian opium should not be conveyed to any province of China which could establish by clear evidence that it had effectively suppressed the cultivation and importation of native opium. The closing o f the ports of Canton and Shanghai to ttfe importation of Indian opium was, however, only to^take effect as a final step for the completion of the measure. Since the agreement was signed, news from China has repeatedly referred to the barbarous vigour with which the Chinese authorties set themselves to put a stop to cultivation in China itself. "In many instances (it has been shown) the military were sent into districts where it was reported opium was still being cultivated, and the farmers were compelled to uproot the poppy. High officials in the district | who acquiesced in the trade were severely dealt with, ar.dwhere the military were resisted, pitched battles resulted, in which numbers of the natives were shot, and the leaders decapitated. In some instances those who allowed their poppy crops to stand till the soldiers arrived either had their heads or their-' ears taken off." It was thus made unlawful and very dangerous for the farm-

ers to grow poppy, and "in one case, when a fa truer persisted in growing the plant, he was arrested, led to the poppy field, and there beheaded. His land was confiscated, and the family turned out of'house and home. At oiice the other farmers took warning, and in a few hours their poppy was uprooted." These Mere indeed drastic measures, but their effect was such that by September 11, 1911, China was able, under the new agreement, to claim that the importation of foreign opium should be prohibited in "the five provinces of Kerin. Fengtien, Heliung. Chang, Shansi. and Szeeh«-fin. The Revolution has interfered with this anti-ooium crusade, but there is little doubt that it will be continued—more humanely, lot us hope, yet not less effectively—by the Republic. If this is done, then one of the cruellest and most immoral trades ever plied under the military coercion of*a great nation will cease, and the conscience of the British people will become so much lighter and happier in consequence. In the resultant gratitude, New Zealand may, happily, claim some slight share, in consequence of the strong moral convictions and the unceasing efforts of Captain H. S. Blackburne, secretary of the New Zealand Association for "the .Severance of the Connection of the British Empire with the Opium Traffic. The society is small, but its aims are large and generous, and more conducive to rightnes-i in public opinion than the aims and efforts of many much more pretentious associations. *As there is still work for it to do, those who desire to help in its accomplishment may do so without inconvenience to themselves ln T proffering their assistance to Captain rUackbuvne, whose address is 56, Hawker street^ Wellington.