Drugging a Nation: The Story of China and the Opium CurseMerwin, Samuel
History
Drugging a Nation: The Story of China and the Opium Curse
Merwin, Samuel
Opium trade
The plan of the government, let me repeat, is briefly as follows: First,
the area under poppy cultivation is to be decreased about ten per cent.
each year, until that cultivation ceases altogether; and simultaneously
the British government is to be requested to decrease the exportation of
opium from India ten per cent. each year. Second, all opium dens or places
where couches or lamps are supplied for public smoking are to be closed at
once under penalty of confiscation. Third, all persons who purchase opium
at sale shops are to be registered, and the amount supplied to them to be
diminished from month to month. Meantime, the farmer is to be given all
possible advice and aid in the matter of substituting some other crop for
the poppy; opium cures and hospitals are to be established as widely as
possible; and preachers and lecturers are to be sent out to explain the
dangers of opium to the illiterate millions.
The central government at Peking started in by giving the high officials
six months in which to change their habits. At the end of that period a
large number were suspended from office, including Prince Chuau and Prince
Jui.
In one opium province, Shansi, we have seen that the enforcement was at
the start effective. The evidence, gathered with some difficulty from
residents and travellers, from roadside gossip, and from talks with
officials, all went to show that the dens in all the leading cities were
closed, that the manufacturers of opium and its accessories were going out
of business, and that the farmers were beginning to limit their crops.
The enforcements in the adjoining province, Chih-li, in which lies Peking,
was also thoroughly effective at the start. The opium dens in all the
large cities were closed during the spring, and the restaurants and
disorderly houses which had formerly served opium to their customers
surrendered their lamps and implements. Throughout the other provinces
north of the Yangtse River, while there was evidence of a fairly
consistent attempt to enforce the new regulations, the results were not
altogether satisfying. Along the central and southern coast, from Shanghai
to Canton, the enforcement was effective in about half the important
centers of population. In Canton, or Kwangtung Province, the prohibition
was practically complete.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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