The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1909-03-04


for medicinal purposes. Then, as now,
many Chinese were afflicted with
fevers, and opium helped them.
Meantime the Turks had introduced
opium into India, where the natives
soon engaged in its cultivation on a
| large scale The Chinese, after form.
ing the opium habit then bought their
supplies in India. AT that time there
was considerable export trade from
| China to India and the junks that car
ried other merchandise from the Celes-
tial empire brought back the raw ma.
| terial from which opium is made.
In 1868 the habit had become so
widespread that the emperor, noting
its i'll effects. issued an imperial de
cree against the use of and the trafIi C
In opium. In the original decree he
! prescribed only moderate penalties for
| its violation, but as his subjects did
not obey him, he increased the sever
ity of the penalties until death or trans.
portation became the lot of every
one who persisted in the use of the
baneful pipe. And, as the Chinese
had then been smoking opium less
| than so years, they broke off the habit
just as an American youth who has
smoked tobacco only year or two
can give up the use of tobacco.
But, like the American boy who
"swears off, and then in two months
goes back to his tobacco, the Chinese
in II few years resumed the use of
| opium and again stern emperor
stopped 1t. Nor was opium again
smoked in China until the latter part
of the eighteenth century.
British rule having been imposed
upon India, the government in 1857
granted to the East India Company a
monopoly of the trade in opium. The
East India Company at once cast its
eyes Chlnaward. There it saw an en-
peror who had forbidden tho importa-
ton or use of opium there it also saw
laws fixing the opium smokers penalty
| at death. But there 1t also saw Chi
nese gold, and plans were at once laid
! to provide the Chinese with opium
whether their emperor would have ii
or not
| The scheme devised was for Brit
ish ships to lie off Chinese ports and
deliver opium to such Chinese mer.
chants as might come out to buy. And
the plan worked so well that in 1890
100000 pounds of the forbidden pro-
duct were sold in China.
or course the Chinese government
did stf iI1s NV off fax,
heads anu sent many persons out of
the country fcr thc country's good !:
but the smoking of opium went on.
What's the threat of death to man
who wants to do something Around
the world in England at that very mo-
ment men were stealing ve-shilling
purses and being hanged for it. And
the Chinese continued to smoke their
opium In 1880 the East India Com
pany sold to them and they smoked
| 100000 pounds. The East India
Company was becoming rich and the
British government took toll from its
| trade.
History records the fact mat in the
year 1887 the Chinese emperor screwed
up his courage and talked fight. The
sale of opium to his subjects must
stop. The supply ships that were lying
outside his harbors must clear out. If
| they didn't there would be trouble So
he said in his proclamation.
The British East India Company
| treated him as II he were a chattering
child. Not ship moved. Not a
Chinaman came after opium who did
not get il. Everything went on as be-
| fore.
But the emperor was no chattering
child. He was raging, roaring old
man. He felt precisely as the Boston.
ers did when the tea-laden British
ships came in after their tax And
he did precisely what the citizens of
Boston did-boarded the ships, by
proxy of course, and dumped the
opium into the oceans 900 900
| pounds of IT,
OF course this act was construed by
the British to constitute cause for
war, and hostilities were opened as
| soon as the aggrieved persons could
| get their guns into action. This was in
1910. The Chinese, even in that day,
were as poor fighters as they are now.
In little while British fleet had
captured Chusan The next year the
| Bogue forts fell. and then Canton,
Annoy. Shanghai, Chapoo. and a lot of
other places gave mp the ghost, By
1912 the Chinese emperor was very
glad to buy peace by ceding Hong
kong. paying an indemnity OF S21 .O00,-
900, and throwing open four ports to
foreign trade He even humiliated
himself by degrading Commissioner
Lin who had carried ut the emperor's S
orders. Nor did he get even the thanks
OF his own subjects for his efforts in
their behalf The whole empire was
torn with rebellion. Rebel armies
robbed. murdered and plundered al
most as they pleased If they had had