PAPAVER 



SOMNIFERUM 



History 



THE OPIUM POPPY 



Chinese 

 Production. 



Exclusion of 

 Indian Opium. 



Treaty of 

 Tientsin. 



Convention 

 of Cheefoo. 



D.E.P., 



vi., pt. i., 

 47-55. 

 Cultiva- 

 tion. 



Indian Races. 



same time, the export duty were taken off, it is certain that an immense stimulus 

 would be given to the production of opium, and that China would be flooded 

 with the Indian drug. Thus, in direct proportion to the removal of the economic 

 objections, the moral objections would be intensified in degree." " If, there- 

 fore, the policy is to be not merely theoretical, but is to be productive of some 

 practical good, it must aim, not only at the disconnection of the Indian Govern- 

 ment with the opium trade, but at the total suppression of the trade itself." 



China produces locally the major portion (some writers say nine-tenths) of 

 the opium it consumes. The province of Yunnan, where opium indulgence is 

 carried to the greatest extent, is self-supporting in the matter of opium, that 

 is to say, it exports opium but imports none. But Yunnan does not stand alone. 

 Mr. A. Hosie, Consul-General, says that with the province of Ssu'ch'uan (Report, 

 1904) the greater profit of opium as a crop has driven wheat very largely from 

 the list of surplus products exported from the province. Out of a population of 

 45 millions, nearly 3 millions are opium smokers. The locally produced article 

 is gradually displacing the imported, and the province even now exports to other 

 parts of China 20,000 piculs of opium a year. There would thus seem no manner 

 of doubt that the exclusion of Indian opium from China would not affect ma- 

 terially the indulgence of the peoples concerned. The earnest words of the Hon. 

 the Maharaja Bahadur of Durbhanga should be read by all persons interested 

 in this subject (Rept. Roy. Comm. on Opium, 1895, vii., suppl.) and its bearings 

 on India and the Indian people. Some few years ago the export of Yunnan 

 opium into Upper Burma was a source of much annoyance that led to special 

 regulations. Col. Manifold has published a vivid account of the effects of opium- 

 smoking in Yunnan. 



The Royal Commission on opium showed that the trade was simply legalised 

 by the Treaty of Tientsin (1858). Prior to then the traffic was irregular, 

 and disturbances were almost of constant occurrence that greatly interfered 

 with ordinary trade. In the instructions given by the British Government to 

 Lord Elgin there occurs the following : " There would be obvious advantages 

 in placing the trade (opium) upon a legal footing by the imposition of a duty 

 instead of its being carried on in the present irregular manner." The Treaty of 

 Tientsin was to regulate general commercial relations between China and Great 

 Britain, and opium was only a side issue. Mr. H. N. Lay (Rept. Roy. Comm. 

 on Opium, i., 84), in fact, says that in framing the Treaty, opium was not so much 

 as mentioned, either by the Chinese or the British Commissioners. The terms 

 of the Treaty are such that the duty by constitutional methods might be in- 

 creased indefinitely or the imports prohibited. By the authorities subsequently 

 appointed to frame regulations based on the Treaty, opium was of their own 

 free will accepted by the Chinese as a foreign drug, that might be imported and 

 upon which a duty was to be levied (I.e. app., 137). 



Sir James Fergusson, in a debate in the House of Commons (April 10, 1891), 

 remarked, "The Chinese at any time may terminate the Treaty on giving twelve 

 months' notice, and to protect themselves they may increase the duty to any 

 extent they please or they may exclude it altogether." Sir Joseph Pease, com- 

 menting on that view (I.e. 4), amended the interpretation of the Treaty by 

 saying that while the Convention of Cheefoo might be recast every twelve months, 

 the Treaty of Tientsin could only be modified every ten years. The Convention 

 of Cheefoo simply consolidated the likin (provincial) taxes on imported opium 

 into one common Imperial import duty, thus doing away with a source of much 

 trouble and confliction. This was of great advantage to the Imperial Govern- 

 ment, no doubt, and checked materially the smuggling of foreign opium through 

 the country (I.e. app., 137). A duty levied on imports was, in other words, a 

 simpler and more effective tax than fiscal duties on the drug being carried 

 across provincial boundaries. 



CULTIVATION AND AREA OF INDIAN PRODUCTION. 



There can be no doubt that much still remains to be done in selecting 

 stock, toward the production of desired qualities of the drug. In Bengal 

 (Patna and Benares agencies) the plant chiefly grown is one or other 

 of the many white-flowered races, especially that with a pale-coloured 

 capsule (sdfed dherri). In Malwa, on the other hand, the poppy most 

 frequently seen has purple flowers. In the Himalaya a parti-coloured 

 form is occasionally met with. No one, subsequent to Scott (Manual of 



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