The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1920-08-20

British Isles. America mas most stringent drug laws at home, but in spite of them the drug habit is said to be growing. The white race can't sequence of forcing the drug evil on the subject and backward races of Asia. Japan has her own opium mo- nopo1y in her Chinese possession of Formosa and she is smuggling the
 drug into China wherever she has a foothold. How can we crfticise the Japanese when we are indirectly do- ing the same thing ourselves? China has been the worlds greatest market
 for opium and opium products. The Chinese people are awakening and as
 certain as death itself they are going
 to throw off the burden. The govern
 mental opium monopolies of British
 possessions, Japan and Portugal in the Orient are losing their biggest customer. What is more natural than
 that new markerts will be sought in the western world? In other words, the gun is being turned in the op- posite direction, where there is fresh game.
 Trans-Pacifc (Tokyo): Before sup pression began in 1906, it was esti- mated that about 13,00O,00o people in China were using opium, and that the total consumed annually was from 10000 tons to 25,000 tons. At the same time (1906) in India there were over 600,000 acres planted to poppies, while in 1eoe-10 the acerage l had fallen to 350,00o. An acre aver ages 10 pounds or less of opium and | 500 pounds of seed, the latter being
 worth, for oil, about two-thirds the | value of the drug. The Indian pro- I in h. ably about 5000 tons, declining to | 1900 tons in 1910. By this year production in China, which had been 1 above 10000 tons, had practically
 ceased, it being reported that scarce | 1y a poppy was to be found in Sze- chuan, which had formerly produced l two-thirds the total
 Turkey produces for export from | 800 tons to 1,6oo tons annually, de pending on the crop. This expor1
 represents practically the whole o1
 the supply for medical purposes ir Europe and the United States. Persia produces from 500 to 700 tons an. | nually, half of which used to an6
 probably still does find it's way tc | China. In 1909 it was estimated tha | a total of from 700 to 800 tons an nually of opium found it's way from
 Asia Minor, Persia and Turkey, tc | China. Most of India's surplus zoe: | to China and adjacent countries either directly or after being manu | factured into morphia in England 1 or via the United States. As morphia
 the drug represents about one-seventf
 or less of the bulk and weight O. opium. But even in the days of un
 restricted trade, the annual imports into China did not represent ovel
 5000 tons of opium.
 1 There can be little doubt that mos
 of these enormous imports whethe
 coming through the front door, thu | side door or the back door, ultimatel, l find their way to China, since tn l Japanese do not use the drug (th
 government rigidly prohibits it's us | at home) and the country produce
 nearly all that is required for medi cinal purposes. In proportion as pro duction was curtailed in China l smuggling became more and nor profitable. Sir Francis Anglen, in spector-general of the Chinese Mari time Customs, stated that during 191: customs officials had confiscated ol