on Chinese Opium Question.
PAPAVER
somniferum
the Economic Products of India.
27
HISTORY:
Attitude of
Indian
Government.
the Chinese Government; that the Chinese Government are now forced to
admit opium, and that they are both able and willing to put a stop to the
consumption of opium in China, if the foreign import trade were stopped.
" These are grave accusations. We think, however, that we can show
that, whatever opinions may be entertained as regards the policy of the
various wars waged with China, it is wholly incorrect to say that the article
in the Treaty of Tientsin, which provided for the admission of opium, was
extorted from the Chinese Government; that Indian opium is in no way
forced upon China, but that, on the contrary, the Chinese Government
derives a large revenue from the import trade, which it is very unwilling to
sacrifice; that the statement that the Chinese Government is willing to put
down the use of opium must be received with great qualifications, and that
irresistible evidence is forthcoming to show that they are not able to stop
it, even if their willingness to do so be freely admitted.
" We need not go into the history of the various wars which have from
time to time been waged with China, nor examine whether the policy of
those wars was justifiable or the reverse. It may be very true that the
Chinese were with difficulty got to assent to the terms of the Treaty of
Tientsin. There is nothing very remarkable in the fact that, at the close of
a war, the vanquished party should accept, with great reluctance, the terms
on which the victors insist. But as regards the particular point which we
are now discussing, namely, the admission of opium into China, we have
excellent evidence to show that it is wholly incorrect to say that this pro-
vision of the treaty was extorted from the Chinese. Mr. Lay, who was
Chinese Secretary to Lord Elgin's Mission, and who personally conducted
the tariff negotiations, has specially stated that ' the Chinese Government
admitted opium as a legal article of import, not under constraint, but of
their own free will deliberately.' Mr. Laurence Oliphant, who was Sec-
retary to the Mission, has confirmed Mr. Lay's statement, and has added
that he informed the Chinese Commissioner that he had 'received instruc-
tions from Lord Elgin not to insist on the insertion of the drug in the
tariff, should the Chinese Government wish to omit it. This he declined to
do. I then proposed that the duty should be increased beyond the figure
suggested in the tariff, but to this he objected, on the ground that it would
increase the inducements to smuggling '. Mr. Lay's and Mr. Oliphant's
statements appeared in the Times of the 22nd October and 25th October
1880. Their evidence, we venture to think, is conclusive answer to the
charge that the clause of the Tientsin Treaty, under which opium was
admitted into China, was extorted from the Chinese.
" In point of fact, it is quite clear that a constant struggle is going on
in China between the Imperial and the local authorities. The former en-
deavour to check the consumption of native opium, and are not so much
averse to the use of the foreign drug, inasmuch as they derive more reve-
nue from the latter than from the former. The interests of the local author-
ities are in a totally different direction. To them the use of the native is
far more lucrative than that of the foreign drug."
The Government of India in dealing with the question of the power of
the Chinese Government—its ability and willingness—to check the use of
opium wrote:—" Nominally (the despatchc o n t i n u e s )
t h e l a w s a g a i n s t t h e u s e
of opium in China are exceedingly stringent." " In issuing these decrees,
the Chinese Government may be credited with a certain amount of sincerity.
Without doubt, the Emperor of China, and his Ministers, and the most
enlightened portion of the population of China, deplore the extensive use
of opium. If they could afford the loss of imperial revenue consequent on
the importation of foreign opium,—if they could exercise any real control
over the numberless corrupt officials who earn a livelihood from the use of
Treaty of
Tientsin,
in 1860.