A national psychology that can review these figures with complacency, satisfaction and pride is not akin to American psychology. A nation that can subjugate 300,000,000 helpless people, and then turn them into drug addicts--for the sake of revenue--is a nation which commits a cold-blooded atrocity unparalleled by any atrocities committed in the rage and heat of war. The Blue Book shows no horror at these figures. Complacent approval greets the increase of 44 per cent of opium consumption, and the increase of 67 per cent in the use of other habit-forming drugs. Approval, and a shrewd appreciation of the possibilities for more revenue from "progressively higher rates of duty," knowing well that drug addicts will sell soul and body in order to procure their daily supply. XI TURKEY AND PERSIA Next to India, the greatest two opium-producing countries in the world are Turkey and Persia. The Statesman's Year Book for 1918 has this to say about it. On page 1334: "The principal exports from Turkey into the United Kingdom ... in two years were: _1915_ _1916_ Barley £156,766 £49,413 Raisins 127,014 34,003 Dried fruit 375,519 540,633 Wool 36,719 143,216 Tobacco 149,100 3,711 Opium 262,293 48,090" These are the only articles mentioned in this list of chief exports. There are others, doubtless, but the Statesman's Year Book is a condensed and compact little volume, dealing only with the principal things exported. In 1915 we therefore notice that the opium export was second on the list, being exceeded by but one other, dried fruit. In 1916, the third year of the war, the opium export is decidedly less, as are all the other articles exported, except dried fruit and wool--which were articles probably more vital to the United Kingdom at that time even than opium. PERSIA The same authority, the Statesman's Year Book for 1918, gives a table on page 1162, showing the value of the chief exports from Persia. The values are given in thousands of kran, sixty kran equaling one pound sterling. _1914-15_ _1915-16_ Opium 41,446 kran 41,732 kran Since the war, both Turkey and Persia are more or less under control of the British Empire, which gives Great Britain virtual control of the world's output of opium. With this monopoly of the opium-producing countries, and with a million or so square miles added to her immense colonial Empire, one wonders what use Great Britain will make of the mandatory powers she has assumed over the lives and welfare of all these subject peoples! Will she find these helpless millions ready for her opium trade? Will she establish opium shops, and opium divans, and reap half the costs of upkeep of these newly acquired states by means of this shameful traffic? XII MAURETIUS