Morning journal and courier., 1883-08-06
A Chinaman on Opium.

Yesterday afternoon, says the London Dali
 ly News of July 21, a conference of the Gen eral Council and friends of the Society Tor
 the Suppression of the Opium Trade took
 place at Queen Anne's Mansions, St James
 Park the object being to hear an address
 from MT. Tong Kingsing, of Shanghai, gene
 ral managing director of the China Merchants
 Steam Navigation company, having about thirty vessels on the subject of the opium trade MT. Tong Kingsing, speaking in Eng lish and in manner which made him quite intellieible to his audience, commenced by aludipg to the beneficial influence of the e1- ample set by the society in China as seen in
 the establishment of similar society among
 the Chinese themselves, and in other ways
 Having remarked that his observation Of
 opium smoking extended over forty years,
 he expressed his regret at finding from the
 ne Gspapsrs and in conversation that many
 Enelishmen were still under an impression
 that opium is not injurious to health, and
 also that the Chinese government are not sin
 cere in their professed wish to suppress It's
 Dealing with the first of these points, he said he had great number Of relations and
 friends in China who had smoked opium for
 several years. From the moment man be-
 gan to take pipe of opium he was 9raoual, iy drawn into habitual smoking, and he could not then give it up if he would. The habit once acquired. the smoker lost his appetite and ate very little, frequently lay down with his pipe in his mouth, and scarcely ever went to bed till two or three o'clock ln the morn ing An opium smoker soon became 1ndo- lent in fact, he could not work either with his brain or with his hands. Loss of appe- tite was followed by a continual longing for sweets and fruits, these and the pipe being | used alternately in the night. How that came about he must leave to be explained by
 some of the clever physicians in England.
 1 About two years ago man who had been I aH.a ,.a&sI ShQnY.
 hai. and who had smoked opium for twenty | vears. having commenced the practice as youth. died. and though his father left him 1 an immense fortune, he was so poor at the l time of his death through losses arising from | his having been unable, as the result of using opium, to attend to business properly, that l his family were obliged to sell his valuable l Iibrary-a library well known in China-and | his big house, to raise means of support: l The son of that man told him (the speakef) | that his father did not see the sun once 8 l month so miserable was the life of an opi- l um smoker. He then entered into details to
 show how terribly poverty was spread in the
 towns and villages of China by opium -smo- king, and Low opium was generally felt there l to be poisonous drug, even by It's victims. l On the second point-the question ot slncer- 1 ity on the part of the Chinese government
 he affirmed that the government are slncere
 Laws were formerly made, he observed, un-
 der which the penalty for opium smoking
 was death, but after that the Indian drug
 was forced into China with shot and shells, 1 which the government could not reslss The l Government had never either before or since
 the wars connected with opium, admitted it 1 to be . fair article of merchandise, or one
 which ought to be imported from abroad ,;
 but wren seizures were made on account of
 smuggling, the consuls interfered on the plea
 that the opium was the property of English
 subjects. The government had proved ltf
 sincerity by degrading Vicerog for smoking opium, and all opium smokers in China were
 ashamed to confess that they were habitua