It starts with piracy in the Caribbean, which gives way to growing sugar
there - and forcing slaves from Africa to work them. Trade with India
brings wealth to men like Robert Clive who progress from trader to
governor. The empire grows piecemeal as chartered companies take over
large tracts of foreign territory - answering only to head office in the
City of London. Illegal opium sold to China makes a fortune for British
businessmen - but sparks a war with the Chinese emperor.
Druglibrary | IN a vague way, we are familiar with the "opium evil" in China, and some of
us have hazy ideas as to how it came about. The China Year Book for 1916 has this to say
on the subject: "The poppy has been known in China for 12 centuries, and its
medicinal use for 9 centuries. . . . It was not until the middle of the 17th century that
the practice of mixing opium with tobacco for smoking purposes was introduced into China.
This habit was indulged in by the Dutch in Java, and by them taken to Formosa, whence it
spread to Amoy and the mainland generally. There is no record to show when opium was first
smoked by itself, but it is thought to have originated about the end of the 18th century.
Foreign opium was first introduced by the Portuguese from Goa at the beginning of the 18th
century. In 1729, when the foreign import was 200 chests, the Emperor Yung Ching issued
the first anti-opium edict, enacting severe penalties on the sale of opium and the opening
of opium-smoking divans. The importation, however, continued to increase, and by 1790 it
amounted to over 4,000 chests annually. In 1796 opium smoking was again prohibited, and in
1800 the importation of foreign opium was again declared illegal. Opium was now
contraband, but the fact had no effect on the quantity introduced into the country, which
rose to 5,000 chests in 1820; 16,000 chests in 1830; 20,000 chests in 1838, and 70,000
chests in 1858."
The China Year Book makes no mention of the traders who carried these chests of opium
into China. The opium came from India, however, and the increase in importation
corresponds with the British occupation of India, and the golden days of the East India
Company. "Opium was now contraband, but that fact had no effect on the quantity
introduced into the country," smuggled in wholesale by the enterprising British
traders.
China was powerless to protect herself from this menace, either by protests or
prohibition. And as more and more of the drug was smuggled in, and more and more of the
people became victims of the habit, the Chinese finally had a tea-party, very much like
our Boston Tea Party, but less successful in outcome. In 1839, in spite of the fact that
opium smoking is an easy habit to acquire and had been extensively encouraged, the British
traders found themselves with 20,000 chests of unsold opium on their store-ships, just
below Canton. The Chinese had repeatedly appealed to the British Government to stop these
imports, but the British Government had turned a persistently deaf ear. Therefore the
Emperor determined to deal with the matter on his own account. He sent a powerful official
named Lin to attend to it, and Lin had a sort of Boston Tea Party, as we have said, and
destroyed some twenty thousand chests of opium in a very drastic way. Mr. H. Wells
Williams describes it thus: "The opium was destroyed in the most thorough manner, by
mixing it in parcels Of 200 chests, in trenches, with lime and salt water, and then
drawing off the contents into an adjacent creek at low tide."
After this atrocity, followed the first Opium War, when British ships sailed up the
river, seized port after port, and bombarded and took Canton. Her ships sailed up the
Yangtsze, and captured the tribute junks going up the Grand Canal with revenue to Peking,
thus stopping a great part of China's income. Peace was concluded in 1843, and Great
Britain came out well. She recompensed herself by taking the island of Hongkong; an
indemnity Of 21 million dollars, and Canton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo and Shanghai were
opened up as "treaty ports"-for the importation of opium and the
"open-door" in general.
Mr. Wells, in his "Middle Kingdom" describes the origin of this first war
with England: "This war was extraordinary in its origin as growing chiefly out of a
commercial misunderstanding; remarkable in its course as being waged between strength and
weakness, conscious superiority and ignorant pride; melancholy in its end as forcing the
weaker to pay for opium within its borders against all its laws, thus paralyzing the
little moral power its feeble government could exert to protect its subjects. . . . It was
a turning point in the national life of the Chinese race, but the compulsory payment of
six million dollars for the opium destroyed has left a stigma upon the English name."
He also says, "The conflict was now fairly begun; its issue between the parties so
unequally matched --one having almost nothing but the right on its side, the other
assisted by every material and physical advantage-could easily be foreseen" and
again, after speaking of it as being unjust and immoral, he concludes "Great Britain,
the first Christian power, really waged this war against the pagan monarch who had only
endeavored to put down a vice harmful to his people. The war was looked upon in this light
by the Chinese; it will always be so looked upon by the candid historian, and known as the
Opium War."
Within fifteen years after this first war, there was another one, and again Great
Britain came off victorious. China had to pay another indemnity, three million dollars,
and five more treaty ports were opened up. By the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin, the
sale of opium in China was legalized in 1858.
From a small pamphlet, "Opium: England's Coercive Policy and Its Disastrous
Results in China and India" by the Rev. John Liggins, we find the following: "As
a specimen of how both wars were carried on, we quote the following from an English writer
on the bombardment of Canton: 'Field pieces loaded with grape were planted at the end of
long, narrow streets crowded with innocent men, women and children, to mow them down like
grass till the gutters flowed with their blood.' In one scene of carnage, the Times
correspondent recorded that half an army of 10,ooo men were in ten minutes destroyed by
the sword, or forced into the broad river. " The Morning Herald " asserted that
"a more horrible or revolting crime than this bombardment of Canton has never been
committed in the worst ages of barbaric darkness."
Naturally, therefore, after the termination of these two wars, China gave up the
struggle. She had fought valiantly to protect her people from opium, but the resources of
a Christian nation were too much for her. Seeing therefore that the opium trade was to be
forced upon her, and that her people were doomed to degradation, she decided to plant
poppies herself. There should be competition at least, and the money should not all be
drained out of the country. Thus it came about that after 1858 extensive tracts of land
were given over to poppy production. Whole provinces or parts of provinces, ceased to grow
grain and other necessities, and diverted their rich river bottoms to the raising of
opium. Chinese opium, however, never supplanted Indian opium, being inferior to that
raised in the rich valley of the Ganges. The country merely had double quantities of the
drug, used straight or blended, to suit the purse or taste of the consumer.
Then, in 1906, the incredible happened. After over a hundred years of steady
demoralization, with half her population opium addicts, or worse still, making enormous
profits out of the trade, China determined to give up opium. In all history, no nation has
ever set itself such a gigantic task, with such a gigantic handicap. China, a country of
immense distances, with scant means of communication; with no common language, a land
where only the scholars can read and write, suddenly decided to free herself from this
vice. The Emperor issued an edict saying that in ten years' time all opium traffic must
cease, and an arrangement was made with Great Britain whereby this might be accomplished.
To the honor of America be it said that we assisted China in this resolution. We agreed to
see her through.
A bargain was then made between China and Great Britain, in 1907, China agreeing to
diminish poppy cultivation year by year for a period of ten years, and Great Britain
agreeing to a proportional decrease in the imports of Indian opium. A three years' test
was first agreed to, a trial of China's sincerity and ability, for Great Britain feared
that this was but a ruse to cut off Indian opium, while leaving China's opium alone in the
field. At the end of three years, however, China had proved her ability to cope with the
situation. Thus, for a period of ten years, both countries have lived up to their bargain,
the amount of native and foreign opium declining steadily in a decreasing scale. April 1,
1917, saw the end of the accomplishment.
China's part was most difficult. In the remote, interior provinces, poppies were grown
surreptitiously, connived at by corrupt officials who made money from the crops. However,
drastic laws were enacted and severe penalties imposed upon those who broke them. If poppy
cultivation could not be stopped, England would not hold to her end of the bargain. Not
only was there a nation of addicts to deal with, but these could obtain copious supplies
of opium from the foreign concessions, over which the Chinese had no control. We shall
show, in another article, to what extent this was carried on. Yet somehow, in some manner,
the impossible happened. Year by year, little by little, one province after another was
freed from poppy cultivation, until in 1917, China was practically free from the
native-grown drug, and foreign importation had practically ended.
In this manner, first by large smuggling, then by two opium wars, was China drugged
with opium. And in this manner, and to this extent, has she succeeded in freeing herself
from the curse. But in one way, she is not free. She has no control over the
extra-territorial holdings of European powers, for in each treaty port are the foreign
concessions already mentioned-German, Austrian, British, French, Russian. And in these
concessions, opium may be procured. Simply by crossing an imaginary line, in such cities
as Shanghai and Hongkong, can the Chinese buy as much opium as they choose. China will
never be rid of this menace till she is rid of these extraterritorial holdings. Opium
shops, licensed by foreign governments, are always ready to supply her people with the
forbidden drug.
We say that the China market is closed. So it is, in one way. But the British Opium
Monopoly is not ended. The year 1917 saw a tremendous blow dealt to the British opium
dealers, but other markets will be found. There are other countries than China whose
inhabitants can be taught this vice. The object of this discussion is to consider these
other countries, and to see to what extent the world is menaced by this possibility.
The current visit of Menachem Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit. It is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughoutthe world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin's political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents.
