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

| VI hudnR, mace Ills IllSIOI1C IC-
i tort to the British opium run
ners. who had demanded that
his government legitimatize the drug
traffic, and let their chests OF Indian
poppy juice freely enter China. The
emperor had just been defeated IN
a disastrous war fought over this very
question by the "barbarians," and he
was feeling humble, but the callous
greed of these early merchants OF
death enraged him.
II cannot prevent the introduction
of the poison" he admitted, for gain
seeking and corrupt men will defeat
my wishes. But nothing will persuade
me to derive a revenue from the vice
and misery of my people"
China was forced to bend to the
foreign demands for legalization, but
ever since Chinese opium fighters
have proudly quoted Tao Kuang.
Equally proudly they have recalled the
conduct of the withered old viceroy,
Lin Tse-hsu, hero Of "China's Boston
Tea Party" In 1889 Lin threw a
number of chests of British opium
into the river at Canton, in a last
effort to discourage its import.
Yet in China today, no longer under
an alien throne, the government itself
has taken over the management OF
an opium industry probably greater
than at any time in the nations his
tory.
Follows Advice of British.
Tao Kuang rejected the British de-
mand. but the once-revolutionary
Kuomintang today follows the advice
Of British and japanese monopoly ex-
perts The masters of India can
chuckle, so can the Dutch in the
Indies, the Portuguese in Macao, the
French in Indo-China, and even the
japanese in Manchukuo. China can
no longer point the accusing finger at
their fourishing monopoliStic trade in
opium-which in some cases furnishes
as much as As per cent of their CO.
lonial revenues.
Markings opium business is just as
real as theirs, and no less profitable.
1t is not, however, known by the un-
savory term of monopoly"
Names" said Confusius, ARE OF
first importance" and when the Chi
nese military headquarters launched
this enterprise to get new revenues
it called the process, with charming
discrimination, an anti-opium drive.
Nowhere within GeneraliSsimo Chang
Kaishek's mandate, indeed, can you
find a doorway labeled opium monop-
oily" But over the nation, and espe-
cially throughout the Yangtze Valley,
home of 200,000000 people who are
more or less under Kuomintang con-
troll, everybody knows the Opium Sup
preston Supervisory Bureau. Into it
each month pour hundreds of thou
sands of dollars from the opium hongs
now directly helping to support Nam
kings huge armies Of 100000 men.
Story of Chinese Revolution.
The story of the failure of China's
fight against opium is to a great ex-
tent the story of the Chinese Revolu-
tion-or revolutions. Curiously enough,
it was the corrupt Manchus who gave
impetus to the only campaign which
nearly succeeded. One of the Empress
Dowager's last acts, in 1907, was to
wiring from the British an agreement
to make opium illegal. They reluct-
antly consented to prohibit, after a
period of 10 years, all imports of In
dian and other foreign opium to the
Shanghai Combine, while the Manchus
stamped out domestic production. This
agreement was faithfully observed,
even after the revolution in 1911; in
1917 foreign traffic in the drugs was
legally ended.
The following years, however, wit
messed a gradual and then a rapidly
increasing rebirth of the Chinese out
steadily more venal, vacillating and in
effective. The difficulty of enforcing
national laws complicated the detec-
ton of foreign smuggling. Chinese
generals, seeing Illicit foreign opium
being sold at enormous profits, ordered
their subjects-for such, in fact, were
the masses under them-to replant
the poppy. Over China, extensive
fields Of the deadly flower blossomed
anew. Rival war lords fed and paid
(sometimes) their hordes of mercenary
tIoOPS, bOuSAI guns dIlU lOTclBn nunl-
tons, and bought over their rivals,
too, with opium profits. The drug
itself became a medium of exchange
preferred to paper currency.
Became National Menace.
By 1924 opium had again become q
national menace of huge dimensions.
Students, many children as young as
10 or II, and in some places mere
babies, were fed the drug; opium was
seeping the vitality Of all classes, all
ages.
In Shanghai the National Anti
Opim Association was formed, with
the backing Of the nations leading
n0n'miNsary 'iti'sn'' They deter