The night we left Bangkok, we got aboard the boat at about nine in the evening. The hatch was open, and we looked into the hold upon a crowd of coolies who had been loading sacks of rice aboard the ship. There they lay upon the rice sacks, two or three dozen of them, all smoking opium. Two coolies to a lamp. I rather wondered that a lamp did not upset and set the boat on fire, but they are made of heavy glass, with wide bottoms, so that the chances of overturning them are slight. So we leaned over the open hatch, looking down at these little fellows, resting and recuperating themselves after their work, refreshing themselves for the labor of the morrow. Opium is wonderful, come to think of it. But why, since it is so beneficial and so profitable, confine it to the downtrodden races of the world? Why limit it to the despised races, who have not sense enough to govern themselves anyway? The following figures are taken from the Statistical Year Books for the Kingdom of Siam: Foreign trade and navigation of the port of Bangkok, imports of opium: 1911-12 1,270 chests of opium 1912-13 1,775 1913-14 1,186 1914-15 2,000 Imported from India and Singapore. 1915-16 2,000 1916-17 1,100 1917-18 1,850 Also, from the same source, we find the number of retail opium shops: 1912-13 2,985 1913-14 3,025 1914-15 3,132 1915-16 3,104 1916-17 3,111 VII HONGKONG "The Crown Colony of Hongkong was ceded by China to Great Britain in January, 1841; the cession was confirmed by the treaty of Nanking in August, 1842; and the charter bears date April 5, 1843. Hongkong is the great center for British commerce with China and Japan, and a military and naval station of first-class importance." Thus the Statesman's Year Book. This authority, however, omits to mention just exactly _how_ this important piece of Chinese territory came to be ceded to Great Britain. It was the reward that Great Britain took unto herself as an "indemnity" following the successful prosecution of what is sometimes spoken of as the first opium war--a war of protest on the part of China against Great Britain's insistence on her right to deluge China with opium. China's resistance was in vain--her efforts to stem the tide of opium were fruitless--the might, majesty, dominion and power of the British Empire triumphed, and China was beaten. The island on which Hongkong is situated was at that time a blank piece of land; but strategically well placed--ninety miles south of the great Chinese city of Canton, the market for British opium.