OPIUM AS PAY.

Waikato Times, Volume 97, Issue 15998, 28 May 1924, Page 6

OPIUM AS PAY.

Some time ago Sir Francis Anglea, who is head of the Customs administration in China, recognising the manner in which Chinese officialdom, in defiance of all previous agreements, was advocating the cultivation of the opium poppy, and in some instances even compelling the farmers lo cultivate the poppy, openly suggested that the Government should establish an opium monopoly, regelate poppy cultivation, and so administer the sales that restrictions might be enforced that would eventually result in less opium smoking. The proposal was frowned upon by Ihe missionaries and by the International Anti-Opium Association on the grounds that it would tend to recognition by the Government of the narcotic traffic .as a legal enterprise. The provincial militarists, however, arc now not only enforcing the growth of the poppy on lands which had hitherto been used for agricultural purposes and assessing arbitrary taxes upon poppy cultivation, but they insist upon purchasing the entire output at a price which is one-fourth less than they dispose of it, mostly to the soldiers, the advantage to them in this being that they are enabled to pay their soldiers in opium instead of money.

President Tsao Kun is one of the frequent contributors to the association's expenses. Yet he admits thai he is a confirmed addict to ihe pipe of dreams himself, and says it is too lale to cure himself.