One very convincing indication of the sincerity of the Chinese government in this matter, which I will take up in detail a little later, is the way in which the opium prohibition is being enforced by the Chinese authorities. But before going into that, I should like to call attention to two other evidences of Chinese sincerity in its war on opium. The first is the patent fact that public opinion all over China, among rich and poor, mandarins and peasants, has turned strongly against the use of opium. I have had this information from too many sources to doubt it. Travellers from the remotest provinces are reporting to this effect. The anti-opium sentiment is found in the highest official circles, in the army, in the navy, in the schools. Within the past year or so it has been growing steadily stronger. Opium-smoking used to be taken as a matter of course; now, where you find a man smoking too much, you also find a group of friends apologizing for him. I have already explained that opium-smoking is not tolerated in the "new" army. There is now a rapidly growing number of officials and merchants who refuse to employ opium-smokers in any capacity. Now, why is the public opinion of China setting so strongly against opium? Even apart from moral considerations, bringing the matter down to a "practical" basis, why is this so? I will venture to offer an answer to the question. Said one Tientsin foreign merchant, an American who has had unusual opportunities to observe conditions in Northern China: "If the Chinese do succeed in shutting down on opium, it may mean the end of the foreigners in China. Opium is the one thing that is holding the Chinese back to-day." Ten or twelve of the legations at Peking now have "legation guards" of from one hundred to three hundred men each. In all, there are eighteen hundred foreign soldiers in Peking, "a force large enough," said one officer, "to be an insult to China, but not large enough to defend us should they really resent the insult."