24th FEBRUARY, 1909
THE House was called to order at 2.30 p.m. The Chief Commissioner for Japan submitted a further reply to the question presented by Mr. R. L m.P., during, the fifth Session.
The CHAIRMAN announced that the Delegate for Russia found it impossible at the moment to present a report about the opium question as regards his country, but that it would be forthcoming later. On this there was some discussion as to the printing of the Minutes and the Reports. The PRESIDENT enquired whether it would not be possible to have them printed in Shang-hai, and the SECRETARY was requested to obtain particulars as to cost, etc.
Mr. T'ANG KUO-AN asked the Japanese Deleg-ation to inform him what \vas the amount of Import Duty on Morphia entering the leased territories of Kuantung. An an,wer was promised for the next Session.
In reply to a question from the Chief Commissioner of the Netherlands, the Portuguese Delegation declared that no further information in connection with the opium question in Timor, beyond what had been already presented in the Report on Macao, could be obtained from the Portuguese Government.
The Chair stated that the business immediately before the House was the result of the Conference between the British and the American Delegations.
The Right Hon. Sir CECIL CLEMENTI SM1TH.—" The Conference suggested bv our colleag-ue the Chief Commissioner for France took place this morning, when we had a thorough exchange of views on the various points dealt with in the resolutions which have been already submitted to the Committee. I need not delay bringing before the Commission the results of our Conference, but will at once state what are the resolutions which the American Delegation and the British Delegation beg to submit for the favourable consideration of the Commission :
r.—That in view of the action taken by the Government of China in suppressing the prac-tice of opium smoking, and by other Governments to the same end, this Commission recom-mends that each delegation concerned move its own Government to take measures for the gradual suppression of the practice of opium smoking in its own territories and possessions, with due regard to the varying circumstances of each country concerned.
2.—That the Commission finds that the use of opium in any form otherwise than for medical purposes is held by almost every participating country to be a matter for prohibition or for careful regulation ; and that each country in the administration of its system of regulation purports to be aiming, as opportunity offers, at progressively increasing stringency. In this connection the Commission recognizes the wide variations between the conditions prevailing in the different countries, but it would urge on the attention of the different Governments concerned the desirability of a re-examination of their systems of regulation in the light of the experience of other countries dealing with the same problem."
Continuing, Sir CECIL CLEMENT' SMITH said " Should these resolutions meet with the approval of the Commission, I understand that the American Delegation \vill withdraw their first and second original resolutions, and in order that I may bring this matter before the House for discussion I beg to move the formal adoption of the first of the resolutions that I have read."
Mr. DE JONGH.—" The Delegation for the Netherlands quite agrees with the first resolution as it now stands, but would state that they intend to put forward another resolution with a wider scope later on."
Dr. HAMILTON WRIGHT.—" I wish to put on record that the principle adopted by our Government is the principle of total prohibition, otherwise I vote for the resolution."
The PRESIDENT.—" The Chair would say there is no reservation whatsoever, but in giving their affirmative vote the American Delegation make the statement that they have adopted and cling- to the principle of prohibition for all that appertains to the United States of America."
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The resolution was then put to the vote and adopted unanimously, the Portuguese Delegation alone resen ing its vote.
Sir CECIL CLEMENTI SMITH moved the adoption of the second resolution.
Mr. PANG KUO-AN.—" I would like to enquire what was in the minds of the British and American Deleg-ations when putting in the word almost? It appears to me that every nation participating in this Commission holds the view that the use of opium is a rnatter for either prohibition, or careful regulation, and therefore I do not quite see the necessity for the word a/Ppzost.
Sir CECIL CLE1MENTI SMITH.—" Might I explain to the Chinese Delegate that at any rate there are two countries represented in this room which, as far as we understand, do not go as far as this resolution recommends, i.e., prohibition or careful regulation, and we have therefore thought it safer to put in the word a/most. My friend Mr. POTIER had already reserved his vote on this matter, which indicates that Portugal is not prepared to go as far as recommended by the resolution."
Dr. HAMILTON WRIGHT.—" This resolution was drawn up on data presented to us in. the various reports and that alone, and in accepting it we understood that there was no mental reservation in regard to any point in the resolution itself."
The resolution was then read by the SECRETARY, and put to the vote. It was adopted. unanimously: the Portuguese Delegation reserving its vote as before.
Dr. HAMILTON WRIGHT.—" The American Delegation withdraws from final discussion, before this Commission its Resolutions Nos. I, 2, 6 and 7."
Monsieur MIYAOKA.—" May I ask DI. HANIILTON WRIGHT in what stage Resolution. No. 3 now stands ?"
Dr. HAMILTON WRIGHT.—" That also is withdrawn."
The CHAIR.--" There are before the House the resolutions put forward by the Netherlands and the Chinese Delegations. The first for consideration will be those by the Netherlands Delegation."
MR. DE jONG11.—" Mr. President: this morning the various Commissioners received in writing copies of our resolutions, but may I observe that after discussions between the Delegation of Great Britain and America, which I had the honour to attend this morning, I think it better to make some alteration in Resolution as submitted in writing. These alterations have to be made in order to avoid the words opiunz regie. I intended to recommend that system because I think it is the best system, but I know there is some objection from the British Delegation, and to meet their opinion I think I can do no better than to make these alterations. Our first resolution now reads as follows:—
I.—Whereas, the total eradication of the use of opium within a few years is to be considered a high but at present an unattainable ideal,
in order to check the use of opium much may be expected from taking systematic measures which are gradual in their effect,
a careful practising of such measures requires the management of the opium business to be carried on in such a way that no person concerned in the management be interested in the amount of sale.
Be it Resolved:—
To recommend to the Governments of the countries where other systems prevail :--
(a.) that it be decided in principle that the opium business in its entirety shall be managed in such a way that no person concerned in the management be interested in the amount of sale, and that the establishment of such a way of managing shall not be put off longer than the circumstances require;
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(b.) that disregarding the fact whether or no such a method has already been put in force, the following mea.sures shall be taken at once for the purpose of restricting the use of opium :—
(i) to make it clear to the European and native officials, who are able to influence the consumption, that Government is in earnest to check the same;
(ii) not to allow anybody who makes use of opium to enter upon any office in the Government Civil Service, or in the Army and Navy ;
(iii) to impress pupils at school and grown-up people ever and anon with the evils resulting from the use of opium; in short to instruct national opinion to the purpose by every suitable means; in order to develop this anti-opium tendency, the aid should be called in of private Societies intending to promote the moral concerns of special sections of the population, should their objects and methods be found satisfactory;
(iv) to prohibit the sale of opium to children;
(v) to set forth publicly and to offer for sale at cost price any anti-opium medicine, in case a medicine should be discovered which contained neither morphia nor any other unwholesome ingredient;
(vi) to maintain the forbidden areas—if existing—in the present compass and if feasible to increase them;
(vii) to exclude special sections of the population from the use of the drug;
(viii) to decrease the number of places of sale and divans, and to diminish the hours during which they may remain open ;
(ix) To enhance the retail price of opium."
Mr. de JoNGH proceeded to explain the reasons which had led his Delegation to bring forward this resolution. He particularly emphasized the necessity for devising measures which should prevent any person concerned in the management of a monopoly or farm from being interested in any degree in the sale of opium.
Mr. "PANG KUO-AN.—" in the first sentence of the preamble it is stated that the total eradication of the use of opium within a few years is a high but unattainable ideal. The Chinese Delegation does not think the word unattainable is proper in this connection. With regard to China we must say that the eradication of the use of opium within a few years is not unattainable. There are two sets of opinions with regard to this question. On one side there is such high authority as Sir ALEXANDER HOSIE, who expressed his firmest conviction when he said that China will not be able to accomplish this vvithin ten years. We respect his opinion and we say that there is no opinion in China at present which can command a hig-her respect. At the same time we do not forget there is another opinion—the opinion of those who are supposed to know the conditions of China,—and that opinion is that China can accomplish the total suppression of the opium evil within a few years. We have therefore to judge between these two sets of opinions, both equally commanding respect and worthy of our belief. But I wish to bring to the attention of this Commission that the situation at present in China is most unique. The sentiment of the people has been stirred as it has never been stirred before during two thousand odd years of history ; and as the Chairman has stated that sentiment rules the world so it rules China to-day, and Ave firmly believe that, where a people are convinced that a certain moral reform ought to be carried out, sentiment can overcome almost insurmountable difficulties. I daresay that two years ago, if the question had been put to Sir ALEXANDER HOSIE as to what China could accomplish in two years, he would hardly have dared to prophesy she could accomplish what she has done; and therefore considering what we have done during the last two years, what is there to prevent our accomplishing even more in the two or three years to come ? The awakening sentiment in China is something astounding. The people heretofore have been slow to realise what concerns the welfare of the Empire. Now, to give an example of what we can do I have to state that we have recently received a telegram announcing that the opium divans that existed in Chengtu (China Report : page 18) have all been closed. In view of this fact I do not think we are justified in being too pessimistic, and, even supposing there was good ground to doubt the ability of China to fulfil her promises, I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt until she has proved her inability to accomplish what she has set out to do."
Monsieur MIYAOKA.—" May I ask the Chief Commissioner for the Netherlands whether the resolution now presented by him is intended as an amendment to the first of those just adopted ?"
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Mr. DE JONGH.—" No, it is not meant as an amendment but as a resolution with a wider scope. Afterwards, perhaps, it would be possible to mould the two resolutions together. I think it should be the task of the Committee after all the resolutions have been adopted, to try and put them into such shape as will be acceptable, and I have no objection to changing my proposal—if necessary. It is not ag-ainst the other resolution, but is meant to go in conjunction with it."
Monsieur Mi-vA0KA.—" If that is the intention of the Netherlands Deleg-ation I must confess that I find difficult), in reconciling- the two for this reason, that, according to the resolution which has just been adopted regarding the gradual suppression of opium smoking-in the territories of the Governments concerned, it is recommended that this Commission shall move its Government to take proper measures—in other words, to take measures which in their own judg-[nent seem proper, after taking into consideration the various circumstances of each country concerned. But Resolution No. of the Netherlands Delegation seems to lay down rules which each Government should follow, and I find it difficult to reconcile the principles upon which these two resolutions are based."
Sir CECIL CLEAIENTI SMITII.—" I desire to associate myself entirely' with the remarks of the Chief Commissioner for Japan, and if he will allow me to say so I think he has struck a very serious defect in the proposal brought before the House by the Netherlands Delegation.
" The two are, as he says, incompatible, and on that ground alone we shall be unable to fall in with the Netherlands Delegation. But there are other grounds. The Netherlands Delegate wishes us, for instance, to lay down that no one connected with the opium business should be interested in the amount of sale. Now, if he will pardon me for referring to what took place at the Conference this morning-, there is some misapprehension in his mind which tends towards supposing that it is absolutely impossible to be connected with the sale of opium without being interested in the price of it. In the Report of the States Commission which I mentioned this morning there is ample evidence to show that such is not necessarily the case. My friend the Chief Commissioner for the Netherlands also recommends to us in his resolution various measures which every civilised Government has already taken. Surely in 1909 it cannot be necessary to tell a Government not to appoint anyone who makes use of opium to any position in the Army or Navy. Then as to what is to be done in the schools: that everybody recognises as most important. Then again, the sale of opium to children : this has already been carried out, I should think, by eN ery civilised country.
"With regard to the proposal to enhance the retail price of opium, is it not perfectly clear that if you enhance the price of opium beyond a certain point, the inevitable result is evil and not good ? I trust, therefore, that on reconsideration my friend will not press these on the Commission, because to decline them w ill indicate that we are not in earnest in the steps that we have taken in this important matter. There is not a single civilised Government but is trying- to do its best, and to pass such resolutions would indicate that Governments are not doing their best, and it is on that g-round that not only shall I not ,,upport the motion but trust it will be thrown out by the Commission."
Mr. DE JONGH, replying, said that he was still of opinion that some of the measures. recommended in his resolution had not been generally adopted, and Ile was convinced that the enhancement of the retail price of opium would have a good result. He was quite willing to leave it to the House as to the form in which the resolution should be worded, but they wanted the world to know the practical work accomplished by his Government in Netherlands-India.
Dr. R6SSLER.--" In view of the objections which have been lodged, 1 would like to-propose that the resolution be withdrawn for the present and presented again—say perhaps—to-morrow in some form which would meet with the approval of the Delegations."
Dr. HAMILTON WRIGHT.—" May 1 state that I think our Delegation are in thorough sympathy with many of the suggestions made in this resolution. As far as the United States is concerned they have been put in operation by our national laws, and it seems to me that the details here expressed might be embodied as a general principle and left to the Governments concerned to put them into operation. I think this would be more acceptable, and 1 propose that the resolution be embodied in the records of the Commission as expressing, the views of the Netherlands Delegation. It need not then be passed in the form of a resolution."
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This proposal met with the approval of the House, and the resolution, as such, was withdrawn.
The PRESIDENT observed that by being incorporated in the Minutes, the recommenda-tions put forward by the Chief Commissioner f()r the Netherlands would be of value, and could be acted on by any individual Government.
Mr. DE JoNGH moved the adoption of the second Netherlands resolution, which read as follows:—
2.—Whereas, smuggling of opium counteracts the various measures taken by diffel ent Govern-ments for the purpose of checking the use of opium,
the smuggling causes a great loss of Revenue to the Treasury,
moreover it necessitates large expenses for the purpose of preventing the evil,
it has a demoralising effect both on private people mixing up with that trade and on Custom House and Police Officers,
experience has taught that the smuggling of opium, because of its great value in a small volume, is difficult to check by the means practised up to the present time by the various Governments individually,
therefore the eradicating of the evil of smuggling should be striven after by action of the various Governments in common accord;
such International action is possible only after the opium business everywhere has been taken under Government control;
Be z't Resolved:—
to recommend to the various Governments, after having established such a system that nobody concerned in its management is interested in the amount of sale, to enter into diplomatic deliberations to the purpose that henceforth the wholesale trade in opium be allowed only between the Government, of opium-producing and opium-consuming countries and be forbidden to any private person.
The PRESIDENT.—" In the understanding of the Chair that is already covered by the first resolution adopted by this House, the fourth of the American resolutions. Will the SECRETARY please read that resolution."
The SECRETARY having read the resolution, the Chief Commissioner for the Netherlands expressed the opinion that it did not cover everything contained in their resolution, Ix hich he again read.
Dr. HAMILTON WRIGHT thoucfht that as far as his Government was concerned the measures recommended in the resolution under discussion might mean a change in the Constitution.
Monsieur MIYAOKA.—"May I observe that this second resolution is also at variance with the principles on which the other resolutions are based. The other series of resolutions which Ive have voted on, and which have been accepted by the Commission, lay down some fundamental principles, the execution of which is left entirely to the Governments concerned. In this resolution it is recommended that the Governments shall act in a specific manner. If the Netherlands Delegation has no objection, I respectfully beg to suggest that the same course be followed with this as with the first resolution, that it be incorporated in the Minutes."
The House approved of this proposal.
Mr. 'PANG KUO-AN.—" Mr. President and Gentlemen of the International Opium Commission—I beg to submit herewith, in behalf of the Commissioners for China, their resolutions on the subject which has brought together this Commission. It is a fact too well known to need comirient that China, greatly to her misfortune, is more deeply interested in the outcome of this Commission than any other Power. With most of you the opium habit is one of many problems which are before your country, and not perhaps among the most important. With us, on the other hand, it is one of the most acute moral and economic questions which as a nation we have to face.
" I wish to make clear in the very beginning that we realise that at last it is a question the solution of which depends on us and on us alone. However much help we may have from others, the largest part remains to us. We must work out our own salvation. Our Government—
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Imperial, provincial, and local—is aware of this, and the people, from the highest to the lowest, with a clearness which we could hardly have expected in the present condition of general education, have definitely arrived at the saine conviction. I would not have you think, Sir, that China comes to this Commission in a spirit of impotence, crying to the world to rid hel-ot. a foe with which she had not the moral strength and courage to do battle. We understand the enormous difficulties ; we have counted the cost; vve are determined to rid ourselves of this curse. And yet, hovvever fully we realise our own responsibility, and whatever proportion of the task of eliminating from our midst the improper use of opium is ours and ours alone, we should be blind indeed did we not take new courage and inspiration from this gathering and from the action of your respective Governments which has made this Commission possible, for there can be no doubt that international action aud co-operation are essential to a successful dealing with the question. And with China in particular the question is so large and has such wide ramifications that our own efforts, however earliest and determined, have their complete success conditioned upon the co-operation of other nations. We are especially glad to meet here the representatives of Great b'ritain, which, next to China, is perhaps most interested in this problem. Since the days of Lord Shaftesbury, that name which illumined the pathway for so many world-wide schemes of philanthropy and reform, the delicate and difficult task of the abolition of the opiutri traffic has cotnmanded the time, thought, and practical efforts of some of your greatest men. More and more will China claim, by right of her large indebtedness to them, a part in the glory of such names as Lord Morley, Sir Joseph Pease, Alexander, Broomhall, and Taylor. The labour of such as these culminated last year in that splendid action of Parliament reaffirming its conviction that the Indo-Chinese opium trade is morally indefensible, and requesting His Majesty's Government to take such steps as may be necessary for bringing it to a speedy close—an action where every consideration of prudence and convenience are buried beneath the moral aspect of the question. I doubt whether parliamentary action of any Government has ever reached a higher moral elevation. It lifts perforce all subsequent discussion of the subject into the clear air of this attitude. The manifest sympathy with which the proposals of the Government of China during the past two years for the regulation of the traffic have met with from the 13ritish Government has been one of the greatest encouragements to China in dealing with this question. The calling of this Commission by the President of the United States is but one of the manv marks of disinterested friendship on the part of that Government. Moreover, the earliest anc-1 effective way in which the American Government is dealing with this question in her own borders not only, offers a model to China, but insures her sympathy with us in our attempt rit the solution of the same problem on an infinitely, larger scale. Let me express also my, appreciation of the presence of the delegates from Germany. It is from Germany pre-eminently, with her spirit of scientific exactness and research, that we have the most authoritative revelations of the effects of opium upon the human system. We know that the friendship of Germany for China puts the results of your incomparable laboratories and learned investigators at our disposal. And to Japan, our nearest neighbour and closest of kin, who has so successfully turned back the wave of disaster which has wellnigh overwhelmed us, who has even succeeded in regulating the traffic in Formosa, where it had a strong hold, to you I turn with especial confidence in your co-operation. To France and Russia, also, that duumvirate which has been the mainstay of peace in Europe for nearly a quarter of a century, we desire to express our feelings of appreciation for their sympathy, in our struggle for reform. Time fails me to name each of those Powers which have expressed a willingness to co-operate with us in dealing with the opium question. I should, however, not only be recreant to my duty but should misrepresent my colleagues and my country if I did not pause to express China's deep gratitude for this unselfish interest. I wish to express also our gratification at the unanimous and spontaneous recognition on the part of other countries of the sincerity of China's intention in her recent efforts to exterminate this evil.
" In dealing with a question with so many and such far-reaching relationships, motives may easily be misinterpreted, and the fact that there has been no disposition whatever to do this augurs well for the successful outcome of the efforts of this Commission. There were not a few, to be sure, Chinese as well as foreigners, who at first doubted the ability of China to grapple successfully with this evil in her own borders. This, however, should not occasion surprise. The curse was so widespread, the difficulty of breaking the opium habit is so great, the clandestine use of the drug is so easy, and the difficulties so baffling and enormous, that it is not strange if anyone should have conceived success to be impossible. To these doubts, however, the national sentiment against opium has proven an effective answer. Of the strength, genuineness, and widespread dissemination of this sentiment there can be no question. The determined action taken by the Throne in September igo6, and the loyal co-operation
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and energetic measures of such Viceroys as Their Excellencies Tuan Fang, Hsi Liano- Ya
b,    1 g
Shih-hsiang, and Hsti Shih-chang are indicative of the official attitude; but more encouraging than the determination of the Imperial or provincial authorities has been the response on the part of the people.
" Heretofore the arousing of public sentiment on any question has seemed almost an impossible thing in China. Foreign a r s have been conducted and peace concluded without arousing any considerable interest from the people in large sections of the Empire, Reforms have interested a few, but only a few ; or some section, but only a section. This is the first question which can be said to have aroused intense interest from one end of the country to another. All classes of people—officials, scholars, g,entry, farmers, and the humblest labourers have united in the determination to see the land freed from this curse. It is in this aroused public sentiment that our greatest hope of ultimate success lies. Many have wondered how we should deal with the grave fiscal question which will be incurred by the loss of the large revenue from opium. \Vere not the people so thoroughly determined, this difficulty might easily block the way of the reform ; but with public sentiment as it is at present, any taxes which might be suggested to or by the Honourable Commission as being necessary to make up any deficiency of revenue will be gladly submitted to if it is connected in their minds with freedom from opium. Every day of further study into the question on the part of the Chinese Commissioners—and we have not failed to face unflinchingly the difficulties—has more deeply convinced us that China can speedily and completely stamp out this evil if she has the co-operation of the other civilised Powers.
" I have said ' speedily,' Mr. President, with intention, because the experience of the past two years convinces us that under the present circumstances speed in the extermination, instead of increasing the difficulties, will minimise them. Public opinion is now at a high pitch ; the determination of the people is roused to a high degree. It is a well-known fact that such an intensity is difficult to maintain over an extended period. The public mind cannot be kept centred for a long period of years upon a single reform. When a people is ready to abolish an evil, it should be done as soon as possible. Delay increases difficulties immeasurably. It has often been said, and rightly, that legislative regulation should not go too far ahead of public opinion ; it may with equal truth be urged that it should not lag too far behind. Neither must the actions of the Government be different from the wishes of the people, for any such difference will have the effect of augmenting the difficulties of control, and the loss of control might entail serious discontent and disturbance, which, again, might bring about international interference and complications.
" I shall not yield to the temptation to describe the effects of opium in China. The leaders of the Chinese people look upon it as a dangerous foe to our very existence as a nation. Every instinct of self-preservation cries out against it. The past few years have brought some strange and notable apologists for opium—some strange and notable apologists for China as an opium-using country. Would that we Chinese, who are best in position to know the facts, could follow them with conviction ! Would that we could dispel the sternness of the facts with this softness of speech !
"But go with me, gentlemen of this Commission, over that broad and once fair stretch of Western China, where the ravages of the curse have been most evident---the provinces of Szechwan, Vtinnan, Kweichow Kansu, and Shensi,—an area comprising a large proportion of the eighteen provinces. Visit the dismal and wretched hovels, which, were it not for opium, would be happy homes; see the emaciated, depraved multitude of victims to this vice ; observe the abject poverty,—and notice for the cause of it all the wide fields once covered with waving gold of ripening grain now given over to the cultivation of the poppy. Read what Lieutenant-Colonel Bruce says on Kansu : One blot, and that no small one, lies on the people of Western Kansu. It is that men and women are, to a fearful extent, habitual and confirmed opium smokers.' Monseigneur Otto, Catholic Bishop of Kansu, who has spent thirty years of his life in China, reckons six men out of every eight of the population as confirmed in the habit.
" The economic burden imposed upon China by the use of opium has now become almost unbearable. As is shown in our report, a conservative estimate of the annual production of native opium for 1906 is 584,800 piculs ; this we may value at Tls. 22o,000,000. To this must be added for imported opium Tls. 30,000,000, taking the value of the importation for 1905 ; this gives us a total expenditure in cash on the part of the Chinese for opium of Tls. 250,000,000. The land now given over to the production of opium, were it planted with wheat or other more useful crops, would yield an annual return of, let us say, at least Tls. 150,000,000. This sum, added to the loss of Tls. 25o,000,000 mentioned above, means that the cultivation of opium costs the nation Tls. 400,000,000 a year. To estimate the loss to the
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country in the earning capacity of the victims of the opium habit is more difficult. Our investigations have convinced us that there are 25 million men in China addicted to the use of opium. This number, unfortunately, includes many from among the more highly productive classes ; but if we suppose their average earning- capacity, were they not addicted to the habit of opium, to be one-fifth a tael a day, and that this is reduced one-quarter by their use of opium, we have here a daily loss to the nation of Tls. 1,250,000, or an annual loss of Tls. 456,,50,000. If there is added to this the items which I have mentioned above, we have a total annual loss to China of Tls. 856,250,000. It is needless for me to call your attention to how ill-prepared we are as a people at the present stage of our industrial development to bear such a burden as this. No account is here taken of the capital loss involved.
"This economic loss affects not only China but all of the leading nations of the world. We live in the era of improved transportation, which means an era of increased foreign trade. Within the past 28 years the world's foreign trade has grown from Gold $2 per capita to Gold $14. While China's trade has been backward, she has not failed to feel the itnpulse of this world movement. In 1867, when the Chinese Customs statistics assumed their present shape and furnished the first data for comparison with the present, the value of China's imports was less than 69X million taels; 1905 it was over 447,000,000 taels, an increase of more than sixfold; and yet the foreign trade of China is still lamentably small. The imports of China per capita are about 2s. 5d., while those of Japan are iss. ioa'.--nearly seven times as much, and of the United States about 30 times as much per capita. There is no part of the world in which there is a field for such an enormous extension of foreign trade as is presented to-day in China. In fact, who can estimate the influence upon the trade of the world when China comes to her own commercially and industrially? If the world sold to each Chinese as much as it does to each Japanese, it would receive 3 billion taels annually from China.
"There has been a conspiracy of causes to hamper trade of China. Our lack of adequate means of transportation, the influence of the likin tax, the comparatively small number of open ports, and other causes, mig-ht be mentioned; but it is interesting to note that already these factors are gradually passing away, leaving, however, two powerful hindrances to the growth of our foreign trade, namely, the productive inefficiency and the poverty of the Chinese people—two factors which for the present purpose we may count as one, factors which are enormously ag-gravated by the opium evil. The conditions surrounding China's foreign trade to-day and that of 5o years ago are essentially different: then the Chinese demanded little from abroad except opium and silver. The problem was not so much to find what the West wanted from China, as what China wanted from the West. Even cotton g,00ds, which to-day form 44 per cent. of China's imports, were scarcely demanded at all by the Chinese people, and the trade in kerosene oil, flour, and matches, whose use has spread into almost every home of the Empire, was practically non-existent. To-day the demand for foreign goods has reached the utmost limits of the Empire, and with improved transportation might have an almost boundless expansion, had the Chinese either money or goods to give in return. The balance of trade is, however, a sad commentary upon our productive inefficiency. The excess of imports over exports during 1903 was 31 per cent., a fair average of the past few years if ‘ve except 1904 and 1905, when it reached the alarming figures of 43 per cent. and 95 per cent. respectively. The range and extent of China's wants have grown enormously; the severest drain upon her ability to satisfy those wants is the opium habit.
"Now, Sir, place in the columns of China's foreig-n trade what is being lost to the nation from the use of opium—only this, and nothing more. We then offer to the world a commercial prize worthy of the most strenuous endeavours of all nations. When one faces the possibilities of China's future trade, how insignificant does the value of the opium traffic seem. When this trade formed 46 per cent. of China's imports, as it did in 1867, there might have been plausible, though false, arguments in favour of protecting it; but to-day, when it forms only 7 per cent. no such arguments can be urged. No greater commercial folly can be imagined tilan that of foster-ing what is at present 7;" per cent. of China's foreign trade at the expense of the almost infinite expansion of that trade. In fact, there can be no doubt about it, the opium traffic is economi cally, as well as morally, indefensible. Of course, there are special interests which must suffer from any such change as will come from the abolition of opium, and we may expect from those who are blind to anything larger than the loss of their immediate gain every effort to cloud the issue; but as we look at it in the mass there can be no doubt of the facts: opium is an economic loss to the world too great to be further endured. Moreover, there is another fatal influence which opium has upon trade which cannot be put into the columns of statistics. Ri,ghtly conceived, commerce is a blessing, not a curse. Queen Elizabeth well put this in her first message to the Emperor of China, when she said, By intercourse and traffic no loss, but rather most exceeding benefits, will redound to the princes and subjects of both kingdoms, and thus help and
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enrich one another.' And she sent forth her ships, as she beautifully saki, 'For the greater increase of love and commerce.' But inject into trade that which makes commerce a curse instead of a blessing, which makes it spread poverty instead of wealth in its wake, and you have not only placed an inhibition upon trade itself, but have furnished a fruitful cause of mis-understanding and prejudice.
"When we consider, therefore, how vitally and directly the trade of each one of the great commercial Powers is affected by the results of our battle with this great curse, we feel the more justified in expecting a large degree of international co-operation.
" The opium evil is in another sense a question of international import. For several decades the great Powers of the world have rightly been concerned as to the progress of reform in China. The history of the diplomacy of the past few years reveals how deeply the statesmen of the world feel the menace of an enfeebled or decadent China, and with what hopefulness they look towards China as a vigorous, modern State. This solicitude on the part of other nations is not unnatural; the relationship between nations has become so close that the cause of reform in China is of world-wide importance, ancl the cause of reform in China is indissolu-bly connected with this question of opium. As has been well stated by a foreign observer, Whenever any prog-ressive wave of opinion has burst upon China, the abolition of the opium habit has been in the forepoint.' To fail therefore to take full advantage of the present anti-opium sentiment throughout the Chinese Empire, directing it and enabling it to culminate in some successful achievement, is the most effective possible blow to the reform and progressive element in China, a blow from which there can be no speedy recovery.
" And still, again, this is an international issue, because China's relationship with the rest of the world is vitally affected by it, and by relationship here I mean the larger and even more important relationship than that of foreign trade. There has been for not a few years in China a body of men who have deprecated their country's isolation, because they saw clearly its lamentable consequences. This small body of men within the past five years has multiplied more than a thousandfold. At last we see China upon the threshold of a new life and a new relationship with the rest of the world. And yet no one who has looked much into the matter can doubt that the opium habit and the opium traffic stand as a great menace to China's coming into this new relationship of friendship and understanding- with the rest of the world. By every argument, therefore, which has been used to induce China to discard the old policy of exclusion, by every act of kindness by which our integrity has been preserved and our very national existence maintained during the perilous period of the past 5o years, we may invoke the co-operation of the other civilised Powers in our determination to free ourselves from the curse of opium.
" And, Sir, I may confess that it is not only as a barrier to keep us from entering into the brotherhood of the modern and progressive nations that we deprecate this curse, but also as a thing which will prevent our being worthy of this brotherhood. For while we were slow to realise our isolation and its lamentable cost, now that we do realise it I hope that I may be pardoned for saying that our endeavours to prove ourselves worthy of our new place have not been inconsiderable. A. great student of world conditions has recently declared in London that 4 China has made greater prog,ress in the last five years than any other country of the world.' Another publicist has said that China has changed more in the past three years than in the preceding three thousand. Even if these statetnents may be open to the charge of some exaggeration, no one acquainted with the magnitude of the task which three years ago pre-sented itself to us—a mass of 400 millions of people—to move, millenniums of entrenched social customs to change, an ignorance of the life upon which we were entering almost colossal, a lamentable lack of equipped leadership,—no one acquainted with these things, I say, can be insensible to the fact that the achievements which have been wroug-ht, although very imperfect in themselves, are proof of a deep and widespread desire on the part of the people of China to have her take her place among the modern States. The change in our educational examination system, the modern college rising on every hand from the ashes of the long-cherished system, our young men g-oing literally by the thousands to the ends of the -earth to gain knowledge, our princes and high officials on tours of investigation in Europe and America, our beginnings in railway construction, mining and modern manufactures, and our plans for a constitutional government, can have but one interpretation. We are committed to the path of progress and reform. The day of exclusion and isolation is, we trust, in the past. We have progressives and conservatives, to be sure; but our conservatives of to-day would have been considered radicals 15 years ago. From east to west, from north to south, throug-hout all of our borders, we are making ready for the new life and its new responsibilities. For may I be pardoned if I confess that we have an ambition not to be altogether unworthy of our new station. This ambition is an inheritance from our fathers. We cannot deny a
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degree of pride in the part which the China of their day played in the civilisation of Eastern, Asia. In those days of poor transportation and comparative national isolation the influence of every land was much restricted in its scope, and yet the laws, literature, and institutions of China cast their spell over Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, Japan, Tibet, Assam, Siam, Cochin-China, and were felt even in Burma and India. This I say with no spirit of idle boasting; I am too sensible of how unworthy we of the present China have accepted the high obligations of the past, how we have dimmed the glory of our inheritance; but I mention it to explain how great is our aspiration now to play a high part in the brotherhood of nations, a higher part in the brotherhood of nations, a higher part than can be played by men of enfeebled bodies, enslaved will, broken pride, and weakened moral character.
" China looks, therefore, to the fullest co-operation of all of the civilised Powers in her attempt to throttle the opium evil. It trusts that such restrictions of the existing treaties as may be found to hamper her efforts in dealing with this question may not be used to this end.
" And, finally, Mr. President, may I say that China joins the other Great Powers in looking upon the opium habit as a great moral issue and approves heartily, of making the moral influence of opium a special feature of the Commission's inquiry. I make no apology for having dwelt upon the economic and other results of the opium traffic: such results. must demand the most careful consideration ; but we are not insensible of the fact that it is by none of these considerations primarily that the question is ultimately to be settled, nor is it by this standard that our actions as a Commission will be judged. Our con-siderations offer no place on the one hand for ,,hallow sentiment or emotionalism, neither on the other hand any for opportunism. We shall agree that it is not right to speak of moral issues as coming under the denomination of sentiment. No investigation will command confidence which fails to take full account of the influence of opium, not only upon the resources of the country, but also of its baneful effects upon the bodies, minds and most of all the character of men; and it is in dealing with it as a moral issue that there lies the fullest hope of our success. It is as such that it has aroused the attention of the Chinese people. Read the Chinese press, hear the speeches at the anti-opium meetings, study the present anti-opium. movement where you will, and you will see that its appeal is a moral and patriotic appeal. The agitation seems to prophesy a mighty revival in national righteousness, reaching into every avenue—political, social, and commercial. With all of the shortcomings of China's old educational system it had this to commend it, that it insisted upon a thorough study of the ethics of Confucius and Mencius, and the result is a large fund of moral sentiment. This is our greatest force in entering- into this contest, and outside of China also one is conscious of that mighty force, g-reater than the world's combined navies and armies, greater than the power of all the \\ orld's g-old and silver—the Christain conscience. With these forces behind us we may enter with confidence into what may be rightly called one of the greatest moral crusades of the twentieth century, for whatever laws the nations of the world may decide to adopt towards each other, we may not forget that there is a law higher than all human laws, a law greater than all economic laws, a law that transcends even the law of nature, and that is the eternal law of Heaven, which, through Confucius, says, 'Do not unto others what thou wouldst not have others do unto you,' and which, through Jesus Christ, says, 'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.'"
The resolutions submitted by the Chinese Delegation for the consideration of the International Opium Commission were as follows :—
I.—That the Commission recognising the earnest desire of the Government and people of China to eradicate the production and consumption of opium throughout the Empire and acknowledging that certain progress has already been made in this direction, agrees to recommend that, in order to assist China to solve the great task she is attempting as expeditiously and as effectively as possible, all the Delegates who are assembled in this Commission should urge their respective Governments to promise their co-operation and readiness to reduce the importation of opium into China pars' tassu with the reduction of the cultivation of the poppy within her own borders.
,.—That the International Opium Commission strongly urges all Governments possessing Concessions or Settlements in China, which have not yet taken effective action toward the closing of opium divans and opium-shops in the 'said Concessions and Settlements, to take steps to that end on the lines already adopted by several Governments.
3.—That the International Opium Commission strongly urges all Governments possessing Concessions or Settlements in China to take the necessary steps to prohibit the sale in the said Concessions or Settlements of any form of anti-opium medicine containing either opium or morphia or any of their derivatives, except on qualified medical advice.
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4.—That the International Opium Commission rc..cognizes the immense harm now being done to the people of China by the use of morphia for injecting purposes and recommends to the various Governments taking part in this Commission the urgent need of the immediate enactment of laws prohibiting the importation of, and sale of, morphia and its derivatives, or hypodermic syringes, by any of their subjects or citizens in China, except the sale to duly qualified medical practitioners for medical purposes only. The Commission also recommends that the laws enacted shall provide for the adequate punishment of such subjects or citizens contravening their stipulations, and that it be distinctly understood that the unauthorised possession of morphia and its derivatives or hypodermic syringes, is to be considered Pritn,l, fezcie evidence of guilt.
On the motion of Dr. TENNEY Ithe discussion of the Chinese resolutions was deferred 'until the next sitting- of the House.
Sir ALEXANDER HOSIE having- presented the report of the Committee appointed to investigate into the question of poppy cultivation and the production of opium, the Commis-sion rose at 5 p.m., the next Session being fixed for ro.3o a.m. on the 25th February.