The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-31

THE OPIUM TRADE.

A Calcutta correspondent writes on this
subject as follows
'tFrom all the accounts we receive here it
appears to be tolerably certain that Sir Ruth
eIford Acock's commercial engagements
with the Chinese Government will not be
ratified at home. So far as India is concerned,
this is result to be desired Even without
his uutoward assistance there is very palpable
danger impending over the opium revenue of
this country. What the real aim of the
Chinese Government is / do not profess to be
able to decide. Their avowed intention to
foster the cultivation of opium at home until
the Indian trade is destroyed and then to
stIangle their own, by this means
enforcing total abstinence, may be
what they sincerely intend, but l take leave
to doubt it. 1t is, l suspect, but a
willy mode of holding candle to the Devil,
and of securing on grounds OF the loftiest
morality the fullest profits derivable from
immortality Admitting, however, that the
Chinese Government is really sincere in its
aim, question very much whether it is at
tainable. During the proposed process the
Chinese revenues would reap an enormous
harvest, ever increasl Dg as the Indian trade
failed; and when the first act was completed
and China grew all her own opium, it is at
least open to doubt whether the then Govern
ment would retain a sufficieucy of its pristine
virtue to cut itself off from q source of
wealth VIII ch by that time it would have
come to look upon all-important ele-
ment of the finance of the country. Moreover,
as, on the removal of all restriction on its
consumption, the national taste
for opium, already so strong, would
have been vastly stimulated, it is, to
say the least, problematical whether the
people would or could forego the use of the
drug. But be this as it may, the fact re-
mains that the cultivation of opium in China
is already very great, and is rapidly increas-
ing, and that the drug locally produced is not
far inferior to Indian opium, and can of course
be sold at cheaper rate. With this local recog
milton of opium, the old argument as to the
immortality of the Indian trade disappears.
1t will be necessary, therefore, for the Indian
Government henceforth to fight China in her
own markets, and, while raising the largest
revenue from opium attainable, to keep the
price at which it can be sold in China so low
as to prevent competition from other quar-
ters, and if possible to undersell the Chinese
growers themselves. The mode of attaining
this end was indicated some few years since
by Sir Cecil Beadon, perhaps the highest
authority on this subject that India has had
and that is to very greatly increase the culti-
walton of opium in Bengal, and to sell a
larger amount at a lower price in China
Hitherto we have been able to command the
market, but in very short time the China
man would accustom himself to the inferior
drug procurable on the spot and the sale of
the highly favored and costly Indian opium
would be confined to few rich connoisseurs.
The Indian Government are fully awake to
the great Importance of this question, and
their action will, 1 have reason to think,
follow the course suggested by Sir G. Beadon.
To extend the cultivation of the poppy in
Bengal it will be necessary to give the culti-
vators higher price for their produce and
also to extend its growth to other parts of
India, to Rohilcund, the Punjaub, and per-
haps, though the idea is heretical, to Bonn
bay, to the exclusion to a certain extent of
Malwa opium. The alternative plan is,
abandoning the monopoly Of cultivation and
and introducing the Bombay system, which
levies heavy transit duty on the opium
manufactured by private enterprise in
Malwa. am, however, distinctly of opinion
that the Bengal system, securing the mo-
nopoly of the direct purchase, preparation
and sale of the drug, should be maintained
Practically, the Government derives some
thing like $50 a chest more from Benga
opium than is derived under the Bombay, o.
pass system, from Malwa opium. O
course a heavier duty might be imposed OF
Malwa opium, but this would certainly a
first check production, and reduced suppl,
now means an increased production in Chini
"a consummation religiously to be avoided
l have, therefore, little doubt that sooner o
later-the former lor cholce-tne lnalai
Governms mt will adopt Sir. c. Beadon's view
and that they will, in furtherance of thei
real interest, stimulate the cultivation o
opium by the payment of a higher price t.
the cultivator, and, as consequence, exten
the area over which it is produced. The en-
hanced price-of, say, one shilling in tn
pound would be al-important to the cult
1ator, while the difference it would make t
the Government would be insignificant"
THE PARIsIANs AND THEIR GERMAN BEER. =