Evening star., 1937-01-14
China's Own Opium War.

China is engaged In another opium
foreign power over the question Of
importation of the drug, but is fighting
its own people for its use. 1t is execut-
ing habitual users and peddlers of the
product of the poppy. The other day
one man was shot in Peking for selling
opium, with some ceremony Of execution.
and now comes a report of the shooting,
at the Temple Of Heaven, south Of the
main city, of five men for the same
offense of peddling the drug. The killings
were preceded by the burning OF some
10000 ounces of assorted narcotics. After
the executions, which were witnessed by
crowd estimated at $4,000 persons, the
authorities gave warning that addicts
would be given another chance to prove
themselves cured, but that "the cleanup
would steadily increase in severity"
China was not originally a poppy-pro-
ducing country. Its cultivation in other
lands led to its introduction into China
by Arabs as early as the ninth century,
its use being chiefly medicinal. Later it
came in quantities from India and by
the second half of the eighteenth century
the imports reached large proportions.
The first attempt by the Chinese gov
ernment to check the use of the dream
drug" was made in 1923, though there
m off n n,ofN fhA
edict then issued. In 1757 the East India
Company acquired monopoly OF the
opium trade of India and extended its
operations into China. In 1896 China
prohibited importations. But Chinese
edictS were one thing and enforcement
was another, and the traffic increased,
through the connivance of officials, and
during the period between 1916 and 1886
the importations trebled. Finally, In
1899 the Chinese government seized
cargoes of opium on board British ships
in the harbor Of Canton and the opium
war" resulted. China was defeated and
was required to cede Hongkong to Great
Britain and to declare five ports open to
trade. In 1858 China placed opium on
the list of lawful imports.
Meanwhile poppy growing and opium
manufacture had been started in China
itself and increased until in 1900 more
than 45,0O00O0 pounds of the drug were
produced in that country, while more
than 100000 pounds we're imported
from India. The habit had fastened
itself upon a great percentage of the
population and has not since been
abated despite occasional, spasmodic and
Intellectual attempts at repression. Now
it has become curse upon the Chinese
people and much of the ineptitude and
inefhciency of the population is attrib-
uted to this influence.
1t is too much to expect that this
severe treatment of the opium users will
be continued. To shoot all the addicts
in China would more than decimate the
land. Nor is it likely that the execution
OF peddlers of the drug, even in large
numbers, would put an end to or appre-
ciahly diminish the addiction. The habit
is too long maintained, too deeply rooted
in the people to be corrected by even
such drastic measures. Nor is there much
hope for Immediately effective results
through education, for the Chinese
temperament has become deeply affected
by the long maintained indulgence in the
dream smoke" of the poppy.
These executions are characteristically
Chinese in their conception. The spec
tacle of the use of the broad marble steps
OF the once sacred Temple of Heaven as
a slaughter arena Is one of those things
that make China so battling problem
in human psychology.