TREATY RIGHTS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12575, 30 July 1910, Page 8

TREATY RIGHTS.

o . CHINA AND OPIUM

Kucheng, a walled and advanced city of Fuhkien, was en fete. The almond eyes of Chinese citizens gazed on fluttering; banners and other signs of gaiety in the decorated streets. The term of two years Avitliin which the gentry, literati, governors, and governed, had agreed to wash their hands clean of opium had closed. It was the Ist day or the 6th moon, or July 17th, 1900. Not an acre of |x>ppies remained in the rtholo country, and the opium shops had been closed with all due form and ceremony. The Kiicherig people assembled for .a Thanksgiving Meeting, and kept holiday. Alas, for life's shifting scsnes! The rejoicing was lost in a sudden wave of indignation. By order of the Foreign Board at Foochow, the opium shops Mere re-opened. It transpired that the leading opium merchant at Kucheng had appealed to the chief Chinese opium merchant in Foochow, who appeale dto the British linn, Messrs Jurdine, Mathieson and Co., who in their turn appealed to the British Consul. The ground of the appeal of those opium merchants was a claim that the closing of opium shops in a Chinese city by a Chinese Magistrate was contrary to Treaty stipulation. They demanded, therefore, that the British Consul would see that the opium dealers should be .allowed to re-open their shops, and be granted licenses to protect them in thenbusiness. "The Government is bound to uphold ! Treaty Rights," as Sir Edward Grey maintains, whilst the Treaties of Nanking and Tientsin remain. The British Consuls must see. that they are not violated. The Kucheng people might protest and retaliate by suspending all trade. Their protests would not alter tho conditions of peace agreed to more than half a century ago, after the two opium wars between Great Britain and China. The City officials saw the futility of two years of strenuous labour, and the apparent waste of over 2000 dollars' worth of willing offerings to compensate the Government for loss of revenue that might occur in consequence of closing the shops. Yet they went through the streets persuading the people to adopt a policy of patience, rather than retaliation. The Reform Society sent a deputation to influential Englishmen in Foochow, begging that Great Britain would not, in the person of her merchants, hinder their local Government in carrying out immediate reform. Whatever the British residents may have felt, they were powerless to interfere. The Kucheng Magistrate, however, in defiance of Treaty Rights, overruled the order of the Foreign Board, and within a short time the opium shops were again closed. The head of the Government warehouse and five other opium sellers were caught selling native-grown opium, and calling in the foreign drug, were imprisoned. The latest news from China on this subject leaves these mien awaiting trial in Foochow, and the interpretation of Treaty Rights still to be decided. The time has come to ask the Government to revise the Treaties which lead to such complications; Before other nations, Great Britain stands in the position of opposing China in efforts to do right. Tho present Government has attempted more than any other throughout fifty years to rjght the wrongs, which were the result of a war of which history is ashamed. The Parliament has promised to keep in step with China in reasonable measures of reform. It has brought in a new Pharmacy Act, calculated to be a national blessing. But the Treaties with China remain as binding as ever. They prevent her from exercising the power to prohibit the. sale of opium fur vicious indulgence in her own country. The year 1910 offers English people an opportunity to entreat, or demand, that the good work which t'lis Government began in 1906 on behalf of China shall be carried to a satisfactory conclusion, for before its close England has undertaken to revise what China has done, and to decide accordingly on "W hltUre P °TiCyri. I, WOOLMER,

Superintendent of the Information Department; Representative Board of Anti-Opium Societies, London, England. Bisliop H. Me. O. E. Price, of Fukien, China, who has been in communication with the Archbishop of Canterbury over the Kucheng incident, writes, September 18th, 1909:— "Latest news from Kucheng district says that the Kucheng Magistrate, backed by tho 'Public Benefit Association,' is "maintaining his opposition to tho sale of tho opium in any part of the' country. Tlie opium shops' have been closed again. Three public meetings were held within a week, with.'an attendance of -500 men on each occasion, the' main object being to encourage the people t;> back up the efforts of the Magistrate and the 'Public Benefit Association.' On the Bth September, six leading opium dealers in Kucheng City were apprehended on charges of disregarding the prohibition of the Magistrate, selling native opium as foreign, and selling opium without license. These men are now awaiting trial. The people are anxiously awaiting further developments,.knowing that the Chinese opium dealers will use all possible means to get the Treaty interpreted in their favour/*