CHINA DECIDES TO PUT BAN ON OPIUM-SMOKING

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6756, 8 November 1928, Page 4

CHINA DECIDES TO PUT BAN ON OPIUM-SMOKING

Delegate Makes Statement In League Assembly—British Proposal Explained 'geneva.Wang Ohing-chi, China, discussing in the Assembly of the League of Nations the British proposal for an inquiry in the traffic in opium in the Fax Bast, made the following important announcement; “To-day civil war has ended, the unity of China is realised, .a period of national education begun and the Chinese National Government has taken up a new fight against opium and narcotics. On March 1-; 1929 . opium-smoking will be finally prohibited, and those who continue to smoke after that date will be prosecuted without pity. The Chinese Government has also decided to convene a national anti-opium congress on November 1 in order to prove their sincerity. At the same time, Mr Wang insisted that if an inquiry was to be held into the opium traffic in- China it

| should bo extended to all countries j which manufactured or produced opium or drugs, because it was due to the failure of these countries to limit their output that aggravated smuggling in China. Dame Edith Lyttelton presenting the report of the British proposal which was 'adopted by the Assembly, explained that it was not an inquiry into the cultivation of the poppy or even the production of prepared opium, but strictly into the conditions under which the control of opium-smoking was exercised. Great Britain desired to take this step because it hoped in this way to check the illicit traffic in opium in India. The inquiry would examine all the existing systems of control to discover which was the best. She supported the suggestion of the Netherlands Government that the United States be asked to allow the commission to visit the, Phillippines, because that was the only place where a system of total prohibition was already operative. The Finnish, Swedish, and Polish proposal for an inquiry into the abuse of alcohol by the health organisation of the League was unanimously accepted by the Assembly. Although it represents a compromise, because the study of the effects of wine, beer, and cider are excluded, nevertheless the door has been opened to an investigation into the effects of alcohol, which can hardly fail to have far-reaching consequences.