Am.  Tour.  Phann.  \ 
December,  1919.  J 
Opium  in  China. 
785 
Government  agreed  to  reduce  this  total  export  at  the  rate  of  one 
tenth,  or  340  tons,  a  year  until  191 1,  with  the  assurance  that  the 
reduction  would  be  continued  in  the  same  proportion  beyond  that 
period  provided  the  Chinese  Government  had  within  the  period  cut 
down  its  home  production  in  like  degree. 
In  1 910.  the  Chinese  Government  desired  to  shorten  the  period 
of  nearly  eight  years,  during  which  India  was  to  continue  to  send 
opium  to  China.  The  Chinese  Senate  and  the  Christian  people  of 
Great  Britain  in  a  series  of  most  earnest  resolutions  appealed  to  the 
British  Government  to  release  China  from  her  treaty  obligations 
to  receive  Indian  opium.  The  smoking  people  were  likewise  be- 
coming very  restive  in  seeing  their  little  patches  of  opium  destroyed 
while  tons  of  the  poison  were  permitted  freely  to  enter  Chinese 
ports. 
In  191 1.  yielding  to  the  accumulating  pressure,  England  entered 
into  an  agreement  with  China  whereby  she  consented  to  the  imposi- 
tion of  a  higher  duty  on  opium,  agreed  not  to  convey  opium  to  any 
province  of  China  which  had  suppressed  the  cultivation  and  import 
of  native  opium,  engaged  to  cue  down  exports  of  opium  from  India 
until  the  complete  extinction  of  the  trade  in  1918.  provided  China 
kept  up  the  suppression  of  opium  growing. 
The  time  for  the  entire  suppression  of  the  poppy  growing  within 
the  country.,  and  the  complete  extinction  of  the  trade  has  expired. 
But  the  poison  is  still  found  in  the  hands  of  foreign  dealers.  In 
order  to  bring  it  to  an  immediate  close,  the  government  has  been 
undertaking  to  burn  all  the  opium  stock,  amounting  to  about  S2 5. 000, 
000,  recently  purchased  of  the  foreign  dealers  and  to  issue  a  man- 
date for  the  immediate  and  complete  suppression  of  the  opium  traf- 
fic throughout  the  country.  The  following  statement,  which  is  one 
of  the  resolutions  of  the  Society  for  Constructive  Endeavor  of 
Shanghai  (represented  by  more  than  fifty  national  organizations) 
on  the  subject  of  government  destruction  and  suppression  of  opium, 
clearly  indicates  the  public  opinion  and  sentiment  of  the  people : 
*  The  Society  has  learned  with  profound  satisfaction  the  decision 
of  the  government  to  burn  all  the  opium  stock  recently  purchased 
of  foreign  dealers,  and  to  issue  a  mandate  for  the  immediate  and 
complete  suppression  of  the  opium  traffic  throughout  China,  and 
this  decision  recognizes  and  accords  with  unmistakable  public  senti- 
ment against  the  revival  of  the  opium  traffic  in  any  shape  or  form, 
and  therefore  merits  and  receives  the  full  support  of  the  public  in- 
