INDIA. 



button and sale of the .Imp. The habitual u-. 

 m as a stimulant by young people is fen- 

 rrmllr condemned. Tlu> testimony was unani- 

 BKNIS that the people of I lull a \\.-uld !> unwill- 

 ing to bear toe oost of prohibitive measures. 

 The commissioD decided that existin- 

 irmngwnento could not be terminated without 

 the Toluntary agreement of the native states, 

 which uould involve larar pecuniary eompensa- 

 tion both to the state and t<> individuals. 



H. J. Wilson in his minute of dissent pointed 

 out that the commission had selected witnesses 

 representing the official classes, both native and 

 European, or who echoed their views or con- 

 sidered their own interests at stake, including 

 military medical officers, titled persons, land- 

 owners, and others. While violent crime* were 

 in it attributed t<> opium, he believed that there 

 was much evidence to show that habitual con- 

 sumers, when poor, resort to petty stealing to 

 obtain money for the purpose of getting opium. 

 He contended that the imperious craving for 

 the periodical dse. tin- powerful sway that the 

 opium habit was admitted by every witness to 

 habitual consumer, was necessarily 

 degrading to the moral nature of man. Mr. Wil- 

 son recommended the cessation of the growth of 

 the poppy and the manufacture and sale of 

 opium MI "Briti-h India, and that, as soon as the 

 Cninese opium trade shall have been brought to 

 an end and licenses to cultivate are no longer 

 granted, licenses for the transit of opium 

 from native states be withheld. The plan of 

 com [* .Itivators and landlords he de- 



clared to be without precedent. He condemned 

 the present system of sale through private con- 

 tractors and vendors, ad \N in ;: rather that offi- 

 cial vendors be appointed, with instructions to 

 restrict the sale. lie further recommended the 

 total prohibition of smoking. 



After the report was published Sir Joseph 

 Pease assailed the commission and offered an- 

 other resolution in the House of Commons de- 

 claring the opium traffic morally indefensible, 

 which was lost by 176 votes to 50. 



Another commission, appointed by the Indian 

 Government, came to the conclusion, after ex- 

 amining 700 witnesses, that the smoking of 

 ganja and the drinking of bhang are as innocu- 

 ous as the roval commission found opium Bat- 

 ing to be. the hemp drugs, although their 

 excessive use is sometimes productive of pov- 

 erty or violent crime, have an inappreciable 

 flWt on the general statistics of crime, pauper- 

 ism, insanity, disease, and longevity, since only 

 1 in 200 of the inhabitants consumes ganja at 

 all. and not more than 1 in 4,000 consumes the 

 hemp stimulants to such an extent as to render 

 himself objectionable to his neighbors or di>t in- 

 le from the total abstainers (iana the 



rom the total abstainers, (ianja. the 

 form in which the narcotic is taken by the com- 

 mon people, is declared to afford 1.000,000 peo- 

 P" J 1 *" 111 ?* jptaawre. and in some cases a 

 baMfldal stimulation. The pleasant summer 

 bereraffe made from bhang and drunk by the 

 well-to-do is said to be harmless. 



MdaJ M well an natire opinion dreads the 

 growing u*e of alcohol in the social entertain- 

 ments of the wealthy and, with especially inju- 

 rioos rerolu. among the new operative class in 

 and factories, who begin to find the more 



active stimulant necessary to enable them to 

 anil the severe and continuous strain of 

 thcirwork. The opinion i* general that alcohol 

 is not only demoralizing but fatal to th, 

 races, and that tin- prolnliitioii of opium and the 

 hemp drugs would only substitute that 

 and deadly stimulant for the mild n 

 which the people have been accustomed from 

 t ime immemorial. The Government intends to 

 place upon the hemp drugs the ut 

 lions compatible with fairness b\ in< ; 

 the tax u here it i- not already as' hiu'h 

 article can stand without enc<m racing illicit 

 production. The pul.lic storehouses estab 

 in Bengal will be extended to Madras and 

 bay, and the growth ami distribution of the 

 products will be gradually taken in hand by the 

 Government. 



Legislation. Lnad providing that th.- pro- 

 pie of a district in which riots occur shall bear 

 the cost of extra police drafted into it a: 

 compensation for damage done ar< 

 excitement in native circle-.. The". 

 considered that the frequent religious riot 

 fled such a measure, but accepted an amend- 

 ment authorizing the local government t 

 exemption from liability to individuals or classes, 

 An amendment to the Cantonments bill re- 

 moved, in pursuance of a resolution of tin- 

 House of Commons, the restrictions which have 

 hit herto kept down virulent diseases that weaken 

 the health and efficiency of the European army 

 in India. A bill for the sanitation am) 

 tion of pilgrim ships, embodying the n. 

 proved by tne Paris convention of tin Sanitary 

 Conference, was generally welcomed by th. Mo- 

 hammedan community." The whole'of India 

 re-minded with the outcry that was mad- 

 the Legislative Council at the dictation of the 

 English Government, which had promi- 

 much to the Lancashire cotton manufacturers. 

 voted to impose an excise duty on cotton yarns 

 finer than 20 hanks to the pound, to counter- 

 balance the import duty on cotton ma 

 tures. The main Indian product was :.' 

 under, while England produces nothing as 

 coarse. The excise duty caused the Indian 

 manufacturers to cease spinning the highjtt 

 grades altogether, but their expulsion from the 

 field did not benefit their English competitors 

 so much as it did the Japanese and < 

 spinners, who had already begun to pr 

 tne finer yarns from cotton imported 

 America. 



Religions TnmulK-While priests 

 Ceylon were engaged in Installing 

 18^5, an ancient and artistic statuette of 

 dha, the gift of the Buddhist hi^h pr 

 Japan, in the great temple of Hndh -'- a\ a. I'-u- 

 gai, which is the most sacred shrim- ol 

 aha in the world, a mob of Hindu wor- 1 

 ruslied in and sei/.ed the imap- and threu 

 the ground outside, while the dcdii-at- 

 mained devoutly in their attitude of religious 

 contemt.lation. "The Hindus were ofTeii'i 

 cause tne image had not been consccrat 

 cording to their rites, for they also worsbj 

 Buddha as an incarnation of Vishnu in the 

 same temple. The Government custodian o 

 the temple intervened, and the rioters were 

 fined for disturbance of religious worship. 



