The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1937. DRUGS IN THE ORIENT.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13641, 27 August 1937, Page 4

The Pahiatua Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1937. DRUGS IN THE ORIENT.

While the Chinese authorities, in a desperate effort to lid their country of the opium and dope-traffic, executed 961 persons last year for violating the anti-drug and anti-opium laws, the Japanese at the same time were pushing the trade in both opium and narcotic drugs. According to the official reports of Stuart J. Fuller. American delegate to the League of Nations Opium Commission, Japanese subjects operate drug factories practically everywhere, in, Tientsin, Shanghai, Hankow, and as for the puppet state of TVlanchukuo, the narcotic trade is not only legalised, but is officially propagated among the people. The Chinese have shown their good faith in trying to restrict the trade by enforcing drastic punishment on violators of anti-drug laws. They not only register more than a million and a half addicts who are being treated for the habit, but executed nearly a. thousand law violators last year. But the futility of enforcement of such draconic regulations in the face of Japanese propagation of the traffic should be obvious. China might as well capitulate to the Japanese drug traffic, because it is foolish to take up the time of the courts and firing-squads merely to reduce the number of Chinese customers of Japanese drug-pedlers. It is a futile process, because the Japanese, by making the drugs available everywhere and using subtle methods oi propagation, can create more addicts than China can discover and kill off in a reasonable period of time. Tile trade has now reached a point where it is beginning to menace the Occident, particularly the United States. It is significant that those apologists for Japan who argue that the country should he given a free hand in the Orient always conveniently overlook Japan’s participation in the narcotic trade.