Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1935-05-26

)EJOME LEOAL IN CnlNA.
way, illustration by Cyrus L. Baldridge.
contrary. they persisted, what China
really should do to get rid Of the
opium vice was to regulariZe and
legalize it. Some of them even held
that it was no vice, or at least not
very serious vice. Arguments were ad-
vanced to show that if taken in mod
Grafton opium was in reality not in
jurious-to Asiatics. Finally tropical
physicians were produced who solemn
ly said that while opium was admit
tedly disastrous for whites, it was
harmless to brown men.
Leave Geneva in Disgust.
Chinese delegates left that Geneva
conference in disgust, and Americans
with them. In America vigilance was
increased against smugglers; in China
the opium fighters hopefully threw
their support to the Nationalist, who
were just then preparing to embark
from Canton on their march against
the Northern warlords. Good citizens
put faith in the promise of the revolu-
zionist Sun Yat-sen, who repeatedly
declared that his Kuomintang would
never legalize opium or connive at q
monopoly in any way.
There can be no parleying or
armistice," stormed the great Sun.
The policy of no surrender must be
unf1inchingly pursued ="
1t was with that cry on his lips
that many Chinese worker, peasant
and student fought and died in the
Nationalist Revolution in 1926 and
1927. mo surrender" on vital ques-
tions; and among the dozen or more
important "doWn-withs" was the de-
nunciation of opium. In the wake of
the famous Northern expedition, prop
sganda leaflets and posters attacking
opium were stuck up everywhere: the
campaign apparently was in earnest.
mo surrender" Numbered the voice
of the Left Wing Kuomintang-until
this Leftist voice was choked in de-
feat.
But in 1927 came the historic
'purgation." Thousands of Left Wing
and Communist adherents of the
party were executed and the Kuo-
mintang came under the control of
militarism almost as reactionary as
that which it sought to displace.
The crusade against social evils lost
its punch. Opium got an extension
OF life; so did most of the feudal
institutions of China which the move
ment had sought to overthrow. Slowly
the abuses Of the old society revived,
and finally won the open support of
the Marking government.
Gangsters Aid Reactionaries.
The turn in the revolution played
an important part in the fight against
opium. Determined upon a coup
d'etat. the reactionary leaders sought
the aid of an old friend, Tu Yueh-sen
greatest of the opium racketeers,
titular head of the Blue Gang and
the king of China'S underworld
King Tu's" gangsters and gunner
helped the counter-revolution TO crush
the workers organizations that had
seized Shanghai for the revolution
Next Chang Kai-shek and his CO.
horts managed to overthrow the Ma
tionallst government at Hankow, and
superseded it with the regime in pow
er at Marking.
These are historic facts, but 1t is
less well known that the deal with
King Tu' at Shanghai definitely
committed the Kuomintang to permit
gangsters to control the golden opium
traffic in the lower YangtZe The
terms of this understanding did not
of course, see publication, but the
boom in the drug industry. nearly
everywhere functioning openly, left
little doubt that the mo surrender
policy had become Geld potato.
Very soon the government frankly
established an outright monopoly over
opium. Now opium was to be Sup
pressed by taxation" the government
explained. The true aim, of course
was to divert some of the opium
revenues from private pockets INTO the
jeans of the new militarists, and this
was so palpably true that opposition
was expressed from every quarter. So
strong were the protests that Nam
king was obliged to retreat from its
poorly camoufiaged position. After
only few months of life the Kuo-
mintang abolished its monopoly, and
by 1929 it had publicly confessed its
error.
Victory Short Lived.
The victory, however was short
lived. There was no sincere effort to
enforce the anti-opium acts, and, as
result, there were startling leaps
in production and consumption. BY
1880 a noted Chinese health expert
calculated that nearly "a 000, 000
pounds of opium were produced in
China each year. Other experts ques-
toned the figure-they considered II
far too conservative. Since then II
has enormously increased.
Such complete failure Of prohibition
obviously meant that government OH
Gals everywhere were partners in the
opium traffic. The production Of the
raw material for opium (unlike liquor,
with which idiotic comparisons are
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