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OJatnell llntuersity 2Ithrarg 

attjata. Kmo Inrk 

CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 

COLLECTION 

CHINA AND THE CHINESE 



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CHARLES WILLIAM WASON 
CLASS OF 1876 
1918 



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OPIUM COMMISSION. 



FIE8T REPOET 



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ROYAL COMMISSION ON OPIUM: 



WITH 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE AND xVPPENDICES, 



Preuctttea to botti ^ouu» of Uarliament Oy (ffommaulr of i^rv Mamtv^ 




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CONTENTS. 



Page 

Royal Commission. - . . . y 

First Report - . vii 

First Day's Evidence: — 

Sir Joseph Pease, Bart. - - 1-13 

Rev. James Legge - - 13-17 

Dr. Maxwell - . - . 17_23 

r 

Second Day's Evidence: — 

Rev. J. S. Adams - - - 23-29 

Rev. Hudson Taylor - - - 29-33 

Rev. Christopher Eenn - 33-34 

Rev. George Piercy - - . 35-36 

Mr. Joseph Alexander - - - 36-38 

Third Day's Evidence : — 

Mr. Benjamin Broomhall - - 38-44 

Mr. George Graham Brown - - 44-46 

Rev. A. Elwin - . 46-48 

Mr. Marcus Wood - . - 48-50 
Rev. Frederick Brown - 60-62 

Brigade Surgeon R. Pringle, M.D, - 62-56 

Rev. W. S. Swanson, D.D. - - 56-57 

Mr. D. Matheson - - 57-59 

Dr. William Gauld - - 59-61 

Fourth Day's Evidence : — 

Sir John Strachey, G.C.S.I. - - 61-70 
Surgeon-General Sir William Moore, 
K.C.I.E. .... 71-74 



Page 
Dr. F. J. Mouat .... 76-77 

Sir George Birdwood, K.C.I.E., C.S.I. - 77-80 

Mr. H. N. Lay, C.B. - . - 81-86 

Fifth Day's Evidence : — 

Sir Thomas Wade, G.C.M.G., K.C.B. - 86-99 

Mr. Stewart Lockhart - . 99-102 

Dr. F. Irvine Rowell, M.D., C.M.G. 102-103 

Mr. Alexander Langman - 103-104 

Sir Lepel Griffin, K.C.S.I. - 105-109 

Mr. Henry Lazarus . . 109-110 

Sixth Day's Evidencb : — 

Papers read from — 

Sir Joseph Fayrer, K.C.S.I. 1 10-1 11 

SirHughLow, K.C.M.G. - -111 

Messrs. Bush Brothers - - 112 

Mr. T. W. DufiP - - 112 

Evidence of — 

Mr. William Lockhart, F.R.C.S. 112-116 

Dr. George Dods - - 116-117 

Mr. David McLaren, with tables 117-123 

Rev. T. G. Selby - - 123-124 
Deputy Surgeon-General Partridge 124-128 
Mr. Polhill Turner and Mr. 

Thomas Button - . 128-130 

Mr. Alexander Michie 131-132 



APPENDICES. 



I. Mr. George Batten's paper read before 
the Society of Arts on the 24th March 
1891 

II. Historical note on " Opium and the Poppy 
in (Dhina," by Dr. Edkins ; Shanghai, 

1889 .... 

III. Memorial from the Anti-Opium Society 

to the Earl of Kimberley, dated Novem- 
ber 1892 .... 

IV. Correspondence with the Foreign Office 

regarding Sir James Fergusson's state- 



Page 



133 



146 



162 



ment in behalf of the Government in 
the House of Commons on the 10th 
April 1891, and the eflfect of existing 
Treaties regarding tlie importation of 
opium into China ... 

V. Extracts from an Australian Parliamentary 
paper concerning the effect of opium on 
consumers in Victoria, submitted by 
Sir George Birdwood 
VI. Memorandum handed in by Sir Thomas 
Wade, G.C.M.G., C.B., in reply to 
Question 1286 



Page 



165 



167 



168 



ANALYSIS OF EVIDENCE 



Page 170 



e 80970. 



Wt. P. 2150. 



a 2 



ROYAL COMMISSION ON OPIUM. 



yiOTORIA, R.I. 

Victoria, by tlie Grace of Grod, of tke United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland 
Queen, Defender of the Faith, Empress of India, &c., to — 

Our right trusty and well-beloved Thomas, Baron Brassey, Knight Commander of Our 
Most Honourable Order of the Bath ; 

Our trusty and well-beloved Sir James Broadwood Lyall, Knight Grand Commander 
of Our Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire, Knight Commander of Our Most 
Exaulted Order of the Star of India ; 

Our trusty and well-beloved Sir Lakshmiswar Singh, Bahadur, Maharajah of 
Darbhanga, Knight Commander of our Most Eminent Order of the Indian EmpirQ ; 

Our trusty and well-beloved Sir William Roberts, Knight, Doctor of Medicine ; 

Our trusty and well-beloved Robert Gray Cornish Mowbray, Esquire, Master of Arts, 
Representative in Parliament for the Prestwich Division of the County of Lancaster; 

Our trusty and well-beloved Arthur Upton Fanshawe, Esquire, Director-General of 
the Post Office of India ; 

Our trusty and well-beloved Arthur Pease, Esquire ; 
* Our trusty and well-beloved Haridas Yiharidas, Esquire, late Dewan of Junargarh ; 
and 

Our trusty and well-beloved Henry Joseph Wilson, Esquire, Representative in 
Parliament for the Holmfirth Division of the West Riding of the County of York ; 
Greeting ! 

Whereas an humble Address has been presented unto Us by the Knights, Citizens, 
Burgesses, and Commissioners of Shires and Burghs in Parliament assembled, praying 
that We will be graciously pleased to appoint a Royal Commission to report as to — 

1 . Whether the growth of the poppy and manufacture and sale of Opium in British 
India should be prohibited except for medical purposes, and whether such prohibition 
could be extended to the Native States : 

2. The nature of the existing arrangements with the Native States in respect of the 
transit of Opium through British territory, and on what terms, if any, these arrange- 
ments could be with justice terminated : 

3. The eflfect on the finances of India of the prohibition of the sale and export of 
Opium, taking into consideration (a) the amount of compensation payable (&) the cost 
of the necessary preventive measures ; (c) the loss of revenue : 

4. Whether any change short of total prohibition should be made in the system at 
present followed for regulating and restricting the Opium Trafiic and for raising a 
revenue therefrom : 

5. The consumption of Opium by the different races and in the different districts in India 
and the effect of such consumption on the moral and physical condition of the people : 

6. The disposition of the people of India in regard to (a) the use of Opium for non- 
medical purposes ; (b) their willingness to hear in whole or in part the cost of prohibi- 
tive measures : — 

with the prayer of which Address We are graciously pleased to comply : 

Now know ye, that We, reposing great trust and confidence in your knowledge 
and ability, have authorised and appointed, and do by these Presents authorise and 
appoint, you, the said Thomas, Baron Brassey ; Sir James Broadwood Lyall ; Sir 
Lachhmeswar Singh ; Sir William Roberts ; Robert Gray Cornish Mowbray ; Arthur 
Upton Fanshawe Arthur Pease ; Haridas Yeharidas ; and Henry Joseph Wilson ; to 
be Our Commissioners for the purposes of the said inquiry. 

And for the better effecting the purposes of this Our Commission, We do by these 
Presents give and grant unto you, or any five or more of you, full power to call before 
you such persons as you shall judge likely to afford you any information upon the 
subject of this Our Commission ; and also to call for, have access to, and examine all 
such books, documents, registers, and records as may afford you the f uUest information 
on the subject ; and to inquire of and concerning the premises by all other lawful ways 
and means whatsoever. 

And we do by these Presents authorise and empower you, or any five or more of you, 
to visit and personally inspect such places whether in Our said United Kingdom or 

a 3 



VI 



■witMn Our Indian Dominions as you may deem it expedient so to inspect for the more 
effectual carrying out of the purposes aforesaid, and to employ such persons as you 
may think fit to assist you in conducting any inquiry which you may hold. 

And We do further by these Presents will and ordain that this Our Commission 
shall continue in full force and virtue, and that you, Our said Commissioners, or any 
five or more of you, shall and may from time to time, and at any place or places, 
proceed in the execution thereof, and of every matter and thing therein contained, 
although the same be not continued from time to time by adjournment. 

And We do further ordain that you, or any five or more of you, have liberty to 
report your proceedings under this Our Commission from time to time, if you shall 
judge it expedient so to do. 

And Our further will and pleasure is that you do, with as little delay as possible, 
report to Us, under your hands and seals, or under the hands and seals of any five or 
more of you, your opinion upon the questions herein submitted for your consideration. 

And for the purpose of aiding you in such matters, We hereby appoint Our trusty 
and well-beloved John Prescott Hewett, Esq., Companion of Our Most Eminent Order 
of the Indian Empire, Deputy Secretary to Our Government of India in the Home 
Department, to be Secretary to this Our Commission. 

Given at Our Court at St. James's, the second day of September, one thousand 
eight hundred and ninety-three, in the fifty-seventh year of Our reign. 

By Her Majesty's Command. 

KIMBERLEY. 



ROYAL COMMISSION ON OPIUM. 



FIRST REPORT. 



TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 

May it please Your Majesty, 

We, the undersigned OommisBioners appointed to inquire into matters connected 
■with the growth of the poppy and the manufacture, sale, and consumption of opium, 
desire humbly to submit to Your Majesty the following Eeport of the steps which we 
have taken for the prosecution of our inquiry. Prior to oiir departure for India, six 
sittings were held in London and 37 witnesses were examined. On the 16th 
September we adjourned. On the 1.8th November we re-assembled at Calcutta, where 
we have held 20 sittings and examined 102 witnesses. A section of the Commission 
has recently returned from Bnrraa, where it held seven meetings and examined 37 
witnesses. At the commencement of the new year we intend to proceed on a tour 
through Northern and Central India. Our inquiry has not proceeded far enough to 
enable us to submit any recommendations upon the matters referred to us, but we 
think it desirable to present the Minutes of the evidence taken in London. 

All which we humbly submit for Your Majesty's gracious consideration. 



(Signed) 



J. P. Hewett, Secretary. 

Calcutta, 

December 30th, 1893. 



BRASSEY. 

J. B. LYALL. 

LAKSHMISWAR SINGH OF DARBHANGA. 

WM. ROBERTS. 

R. G. C. MOWBRAY. 

A. U. FANSHAWE. 

ARTHUR PEASE. 

HARIDAS VIHARIDAS. 

HENRY J. WILSON. 



a 4 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE 



TAKEN BEFORE 



THE ROYAL COMMISSION 

APPOINTED TO INQUIRE INTO 

" (1.) Whether the growth of the poppy and manufacture and sale of opium in 
British India should be prohibited except for medical purpose, and whether such 
prohibition could be extended to the Native States ; 

" (2.) The nature of the existing arrangements with the Native States in respect of 
the transit of opium through British territory, and on what terms, if any, these 
arrangements could be with justice terminated ; 

" (3.) The effect on the finances of India of the prohibition of the sale and export 
of opium, taking into consideration {a) the amount of compensation payable, 
(&) the cost of the necessary preventive measures, (c) the loss of revenue ; 

" (4.) Whether any change short of total prohibition should be made in the 
system at present followed for regulating and restricting the opium traffic and for 
raising a revenue therefrom ; 

" (5.) The consumption of opium by the different races and in the different districts 
of India, and the effect of such consumption on the moral and physical condition of 
the people ; 

" (6.) The disposition of the people of India in regard to (a) the use of opium for 
non-medical purposes, (b) their willingness to bear in whole or in part the cost of 
prohibitive measures." 



At the House of Lords, Westminster, S.W. 



FIRST DAY. 

Friday, 8th September 1893, 



PEESENT : 

The Bighi Honotjeable LOED BBASSEY, K.O.B. (Chairman, presidikg). 

Me. Aethue Eease. 

Sm Chaeles E. Beenaed, K.O.S.I., 

ActiTig Secretary. 



SiE James B. Ltall, G.O.I.E. 
SiE William Eoeeets, M.D. 
Me. B. G. 0. MowBEAY, M.P. 



SiE Joseph Pease, M.P., called in and examined. 5,-,. j 

1. (Chairman.) Sir Joseph Pease, I believe you are beleft perfectly free to act witli regard to opium and levy ' 

a member of the House of Commons ? — I am. suoh duties on opium as she might choose, and that the g ggpt jggg 

2. And you are the President of the Society for the Indian opium should be kept out of China i.s a source __ ' 

Suppression of the Opium Trade P-I have been of great demoralisation to the Chmese. 

President of the Society for the Suppression of the 3. "What description would you like to give us of the 

Opium Trade since the death of Lord Shaftesbury, in Indian portion of the opium trade P — As regards the 

1886. He was my predecessor. I might say that the cultivation of the poppy and the manufacture of opium 

present Society for the Suppression of the Opium I do not think that it was ever more clearly laid down 

Trade was one that was re-cast, if I may so say, in 1873, than by the then Mr. Cecil Beadon, afterwards Sir Cecil 

or thereabouts, having in view principally the Chinese Beadon, in his evidence before the East India Com- 

portion of the question — not so much the Indian then mittee of 1871 which sat one or two years after that if I 

as the Chinese portion. We desired that China should recollect right. He is asked, " In what mode is the 

e 80970, A 



INDUN OPIUM commission; 



Sir J. 
Pease, M.P. 

8 Sept. 1893. 



" land then selected tor cultivation P " — ''Wlieu any 
" ryot wishes to cultivate opium, he goes to the sub - 
" agent and asks to have his name registered, his land 
" measured, and to get a cultivation license and the 
" usual advaiUce. The sub-agent makes inquiries, 
" asoei tains that the man is really bond fith an owner 
" of the land which he proposes to cultivate with opium, 
" has the land measured, and then makes an advance 
" upon the security of the person himself to whom the 
" advance is made and his fellow-villagers. The 
" advance is made shortly before the sowing season. 
" The ryot then sows his land, and when the plant is 
'■ above ground the land is then measured by one of 
" the native establishnaents, and if the ryot has sown 
" all tliat he engaged to sow, he gets a second advance ; 
•' if he has not sown so much he gets something less 
" in proportiem , or if more, he gets a little more. 
" There is a sorb of rough settlement at the second 
'' advance. Xothiug further takes place till the crop 
" is ripe for gathering, and when the ryot has gathered 
" the crop he collects it in vessels and takes it to the 
" sub agent's ofBce, there he delivers it to the sub- 
" agent as the agent of the Government und receives 
" the fall price for it, subject to further adjustment 
" when the opium has been weighed and tested and 
" examined at the agent's factory. The opium is then 
" collected at the sub-agency and forwarded to the 
'■ factory; there it is exposed for a considerable time 
'■ in large masonry tanks, it is reduced to a uniform 
" consistency, and made fit for the market, some for 
" home consumption, and some for sale in Calcutta for 
" exportation — the greater quantity for exportation. 
" It is there packed in oases and sent to Calcutta, and 
' ' in Calcutta it is Bold by auction at periodical sales and 
" exported by merchants for consumption abroad."' — 
" Is there any regulation by which the Government 
" limit the extension of land so cultivated, or do they 
" always accede to every request 't " — " It is limited 
" according to the financial needs of the (iovei-nment ; 
'" it is limited entirely upon Imperial considerations. 
" The Government of India, theoretically at least, if 
" not practically, decide how much opium they will 
" bring to market, and, of course, upon that depends the 
" quantity of land that they will put under cultivation 
'■ and make advances for." — "Are great precautious 
" taken to prevent any persou cultivating the land 
' with opium without a license F " — " It is absolutely 
" prohibited." Now, my Lord, that being the state 
of things you will see that Sir Cecil Bcadon dis- 
tinctly states that it is limited according to the 
financial needs of the Government. And that is 
corroborated by extracts which I made some time 
ago from different messages from different local 
governors in India. On the 22nd April 1869, the 
Hon. W. Grey, Lieutenant Governor of IBengal, writing 
from Barrackpore to Mr. C. H. Campbell, said : " I 
" have a telegraphic message from Simla, urging that 
" every possible expedient that yon can approve should 
" be used even now to extend the opium cultivation 
" next season to the greatest poEsible exteut." Sir 
liichard Temple, in a minute dated 27th April, 1869, 
wrote : " I am clear for extending the cultivation and 
' ' for insuring a plentiful supply. If we do not do this 
■' the Chinese will do it for themselves. They had 
' ' better have our good opium than their own indifferent 
" opium. There is really no moral objection to our 
■' conduct in this respect." Mr. Grey, again, on the 
'-!9th April 1869, urged increased cultivation, re- 
marking; "This would just suiSce, and no more, to put 
" us on smooth ground again." Sir John (then the 
Hon. J.) Strachey wrote from Simla on the 20th April 
1869: "It seems to nic that immediate measures of 
" the most energetic chanieti.r ought to be taken with 
" the object of increasing the production of opium." 
I think that that entirely bears out Sir Cecil Beadon's 
view that the oijium is eultival ed for the purposes of 
revenue only, and without any other considerations 
ihan those Imperial considerations. Then I find in the 
financial statement for lf-;8-l-8.L> . " The Government is 
" indebted to Mr. II. liivett CVruac, opium agent at 
" Benares, for strengthening its opium revenue during 
" th'' yeai' 188;^, and in a les.sei' degree in the ]n'evious 
" ye:ir, by the nianufacture ;ind prepariitiim oi' Malwa 
*■ opium into a form suilnd for loc:ileonsuiji|ition. Itis 
" <;i,lculated, so loii^- as the cost nf llio ]\lnlwa drug 
" ;ii. IJO do;.;rces consistence does not I'xcced Rs. 418 
' ' per niaund, and the selling ])rice lA' provision opium 
" is not less than Es. 1,202 for Patna, and Rs. 1,1-12 
for Benares opium, th;:- scheme for substituting 
Llalwa for Bengal opium for manufactme into excise 
opium i.s, tinaucially speaking, lilvjy lo prove 
" BUCcesKful " Therefore, the Indian Government 



were not only taking care that their own opium, was 
made fit for what is called their local consumption, 
but it also went further, to buy the Malwa opium to 
manufacture into a form which is suited for local con- 
sumption. I also found from a friend of mine, who 
wrote a letter which afterwards appeared in some of 
the papers, that the Government-manufactured opium 
is ad^•e^tised in the carriage^ of the State railways. 
He says : "In travelling by the mail train on the State 
" railway between Bombay and Ahmedabad, for the 
" whole distance of 300 miles a curious advertisement 
" confronts the passenger. It is in three languages, 
" Knglish, Marathi, and Gujerathi, and informs him 
" that at Ahmedabad he can obtain 10 tolas of opium 
" at the licensed shop, just outside the station." The 
Indian Government had not only that mode of pressing 
the sale of opium, but they had also, until the other day, 
when, on the instigation of Lord Cross, it was re- 
pealed, or nearly repealed, a curious clause in what 
is called the "Bombay License:" "That if the 
" aggregate of the quantities of opium sold by him 
" by retail at his shops as shown in the monthly 
" statements rendered in accordance with the last pre- 
" ceding clause fall short, at any time during the term 
" of this license, of a quantity equal to " [one twelfth, 
one twenty-fourth, or one thirty-sixth if the license is 
for one, two; or three years, and so on] " of the mini- 
" mum number of pounds specified in clause I. multi- 
" plied by the number of completed months elapsed 
" 'from the date of the commencement of this license, 
" he will pay to ,the collector within seven days after 
" the end of the month up to which any such deficiency 
"■ may have accrued, penalty at the rate specified in 
" clause I. on every pound of such deficiency ; pro- 
" vided that the amount of penalty so paid will be 
" remitted afterwards by the extent to which the 
" deficiency may be made good by larger sales than" 
(that is the quantity by the license) " of the number of 
" pounds specified in clause I. in any subsequent 
" month or months during the term of this license." 
That clause the Indian Government have, I believe, 
abandoned at the instigation of a minute sent out by 
Lord Cross. 

4. Ton aio putting these matters before us, I suppose, 
to support your contention that there is a more direct 
moral responsibility lying upon the Indian Government, 
which is directly concerned in tlie manufacture and 
sale of opium, than there ^vould be if the Govern- 
ment confined itself to the imposition of licenses and 
drawing a revenue from export duties? — "What I want 
to show is that there never was in the civilised world 
such a curious case as this opium trade of the Indian 
Government. I have shovin by Sir Cecil Beadon's 
evidence what it is ; that it is from first to last a unique 
trade, whether it is a drug or whether it is something 
which is riuite harmless or beneficial, and it is carried 
on as a cultivation, as a manufacture by the State ; that 
the State tried by every possible means to obtain fresh 
and large sales for the drug. I do not think that in the 
wide world there is such a curious case of a State, or 
anything like a civilised State such as ours, manu- 
facturing any article, much more manufacturing and 
dealing in a drug of this character. 

6. You draw a distinction between a State's being 
directly concerned in the manufacture and the 
position which a State would occupy which simply 
levied licenses or imposed an export duty, and 
which, so far as its intervention in the trade is 
concerned, operated rather to check the trade 
than to encourage it ? — I think there is a very great 
deal uf dillerence between the two, but I cannot say that 
I am prepared to recommend that the Indian Govern. 
ment should merely be a licenser of the cultivation and 
mauuf:icture. I think there is still another and a wider 
difference between a State saying: "Here is a deadly 
" and it, poisonous drug which ought only to be used 
" under professional c;!re," and granting licenses for 
that, anda Sta(e promolhig iri e\ery possible way the 
sale, uncheckcii by nicdic:il influence and medical care, 
of that which I believe to be a, drug, ivhich ought only 
to be dispensed under medical supervision. 

fi. I believ'> vottr society has always considered that 
the opium trade ha;; been an immoral trade, has it 
n(jt?— We have ahvays considered it to be an immoral 
trade; that i.s the ground on which we have agitated 
against it. I own that ii. is a somewhat difiicult point 
to ai'gao what is moral and what is immoral; and 
therefore 1 ))ut down on my notes here the manner 
in tvhich 1 should best define the r..-ason why we thint 
thar the opium tr:ido does not come up to iho moral 
standard. The Anti-Opium Society always considered 



MTSTOTES Of EVI0BNCT!. 



it an immoral trade, tkat is, one that is carried on to 
the detriment of the human race. Without going into 
the question of ■what the Christian law would require, 
the moral law, which is after all, baaed upon Christian 
law, indicates that no man should carry on, and no 
State ought to carry on, a trade which is detrimental to 
their fellow men, whether belonging to their own or to a 
neighbouring State. I went to the Imperial Dictionary 
to find what was the meaning of the word "moral" 
there, and it was thus defined: "Relating to the man- 
" ners, practice, or conduct of men as social beings in 
" relation to each other, and with reference to right or 
wrong." "The word ' moral ' is applicable to actions 
'• which are good or evil, virtuous or vicious, and has 
" reference to the law of God as the standard by which 
" their character has to be determined." We say that 
the opium trade has a preponderance in it of evil over 
good, of vice over virtue, and that it does not come up 
to the standard on which communications between men, 
and especially Christian nations, should be based. 

7. You have explained to us your opinion of the opium 
trade, regarding it from the moral point of view ? — Yes. 

8-9. And considering it with reference to these prin- 
ciples, then, yon wish to show us that in your view the 
trade has been and is carried on to the detriment of 
people in India, and especially to those who use the drug 
in China ? — I want, my Lord, to show that it is a drug. 
First of all we say it is a drug, and it is treated by 
our law as such. By the Slst and 32nd Victoria, 1868, 
chapter 121, which is an Act dealing with poisons, the 
seller of opium in England must be a registered chemist ; 
if he dies, his death has to be reported. All articles 
in schedule A are poisons ; opium and all preparations 
of opium are in schedule A, Bottles, boxes, phials, 
wrappers, or covers, must be labelled with " opium, 
poison " upon them, with the address of the seller. 
In India it is a curious fact that the Indian drug, with 
very rare exceptions, has never been cultivated as a 
medicine, and I think Dr. Watts, in his article on the 
subject, states it, but that evidence will bo put in before 
you. The supply of medical opium for this country 
comes, not from India, not from our own colonies, but 
from Persia and from Turlsey. The Indian drug is ex- 
cluded as not up to the standard in our pharmacopcEia, so 
I am informed, but that you will get at first hand. It 
is a fact which no one can deny that whilst some races 
in India can take it to a moderate extent with apparent 
impunity, they are the stronger and the better fed races ; 
but the greatest quantity of Indian opium that we make 
goes to China and is used merely for idebauchery, and 
therefore we say that the Indian opium trade, hot being 
a medical trade, is an immoral trade. It is admitted 
by all Indian authorities that the Indian opium is not 
grown for medical purposes, and the great bulk of it 
goes to China. 

10. The bulk of the consumption of the Indian-grown 
opium is not in India ? — It is not in India ; it is in 
China. 

11. Have you any observations to make on the 
opium trade with China P — It is often argued that if 
we were not to supply China with opium, China would 
supply herself with opium. That is an argu- 
ment which is very well met in Dymond's "Essays 
on Morality." I have no right to do that which is 
wrong, if it is wrong, because somebody else is going 
to do wrong. Dymond puts it: — "If I were to sell a 
" man arsenic or a pistol knowing that the buyer 
" wanted to commit murder, should I not be a bad 
" man? If I let a house knowing that the renter 
" wanted it for the purposes of wickedness, am I an 
" innocent man ? " The argument that if I did not dt> 
it someone else would, Dymond treats as follows: — 
' ' Upon such reasoning you might rob a traveller on 
'• the road if yon knew that at the next turning a foot- 
" pad was waiting to plunder him. To sell property or 
" goods" for bad purposes because if you do not do it 
" someone else will, is like a man selling his slaves 
" because he thought it criminal to keep them in 
" bondage." I wanted to bring that out that it might 
be on your notes, because it is an argument that is so 
often used in favour of the Indian opium trade, and 
I think has no defence in solid international morality. 

12. Do you contend that the hoine growth — the 
growth of opium in China — has been stimulated by 
British influence ?— I have not the slightest doubt in 
my own mind, but it is a very difficult matter to prove. 

13. That is a contention of yours? — We contend 
certainly that if the Indian opium had been kept out 
of China the home growth would have lacked a 



stimulus which it has had. It is perfectly natural for 
the Chinese, so long as Indian opium is going in upon 
them, to grow tho drug in order to keep their dolla.rs 
at home instead of going to India for opium. 

14. I was asking you for the statistics of the trade ? 
— The Indian opium sales for export were in 1880-81, 
56,400 chests for China; 1889-90, 57,000; 1891-92, 
54,000 ; and the excise chests, I have not got the last 
year, run about 4,000, 5,000, and 6,000 chests a year. 

15. So that by far the greater proportion of the 
whole quantity of opium produced in India goes to 
China ? — By far. I have here a table, sometimes you 
get these tables in chests, sometimes in cases, and 
sometimes in cwts., and, like many other statistics, 
which I daresay other members of this Commission 
have followed, you do not find G-overnment statistics 
the most easy to follow, in the constantly varying 
denominators. But here are the statistics of opium ex- 
ported from British India for several years, from 
1880-81, in cwts. In 1880-81 it is 113,125 cwts. ; in 
1881-82, 108,102 cwts. ; ia 1882-83, 110,512 cwts. ; in 
1883-84, 114,514 cwts.; in 1884-85, 102,195 cwts.; in 
1885-86, 103,638 cwts.; in 1886-87, 112,987; in 1887-88, 
106,398 cwts. ; in 1889-89, 100,320 cwts. It does not 
vary greatly. It has rather fallen down lately. In 
1889-90 the figures are 96,490 cwts., and in 1890-91, 
97,863 cwts., as compared with 113,125 in 1880-81. 
The Straits Settlements seem to have increased from 
14,113 cwts. in 1880-81 to 20,328 cwts. in 1890-91. The 
rest is comparatively small. Those are the large 
portions of the trade going to those places. 

16. Now, looking at these statistics which you have 
given us, might I correctly take it from you that your 
Association is even more concerned to check or to stop 
the export trade to China than either to diminish or 
prohibit the consumption in India ? — We consider that 
by far the most important part of the subject. At the 
same time I think the evident tendency in India was to 
increase the local consumption, it is not a very great 
one, but there was evidently a tendency to increase the 
local consumption in India ; and I think I shall prove 
that there is a very large increased tendency on the 
part of the Government 'officers to acknowledge the evil 
and to keep down as much as possible the local sale. 

17. And as far as you have had the opportunity of 
tracing the course of conduct of tho officers of the 
Government in India you .ire not prepared to say that 
there is any disposition on their part to give encourage- 
ment to the increased consumption of opium in India ? 
— I propose, my Lord, if I have time, to touch on that; 
I think I can show from Lord Cross's Blue-book that 
there is a very large amount of care now being exercised, 
which I do not think was previously exercised, on the 
part of the Government officers in India, in diminishing 
it, and I look upon that as one of the greatest proofs 
possible that there is a moral evil connected with an 
extended sale. 

18. I was going to ask you if you wei'e prepared to 
give us some figures showing the revenue obtained by 
the Indian Government from the export trade ? — The 
highest opium revenue was in 1880-1; it amounted 
to 8,451,276 Ex. That was divided into the Bengal 
duty, 5,926,924 Ex.; the Malwa opium duty, which 
is a Pass Duty on opium manufactured in the native 
states formed 2,524,458 Ex. Then the Budget Estimate 
for 1892-3 was altogether 5,399,800 Ex., of which about 
1,800,000 in round figures came from the Pass Duty; 
therefore that shows a falling off of 3,000,000 Ex. 
between the year 1880-1, and the Budget Estimate for 
1892-3. 

19. Is that all you wish to give us with reference 
to revenue? — Yes, so far as this portion of the subject 
is concerned. I should like, if opportunity oifers, to 
say a few words on the Indian Eevenue generally ; but 
that, I would rather take later. 

20. I understand that you wish to proceed to deal briefly 
with the history of the Chinese opium trade ? — In 1834 
there was a decree issued by the Emperor of China 
against opium and its importation. In 1839, we had 
the first Chinese war. In 1842, there was Sir Kopij 
Pottinger's Treaty of Nanken when we got 21,000,000 
dollars from the Chinese, when Sir Henry Pottinger 
tried to get opium into the treaty, but failed. Then, 
in 1856, these was a seizure of the Lorcha Arrow ; and 
on the 3rd of March 1857 a resolution against Dr. Bow- 
rings's conduct was carried in the House of Commons 
by a majority of 19. Then Lord Palmerston appealed to 
the country, and was reinstated in power. Then came 
the Treaty of Tientsin, in 1858, when opium was 

A 2 



Sir ./. 
Pease, M.P 

8 Sept. I8U3. 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Sir J. admitted into China at 30 taels per chest. I do not 

Pease, M.P. want to go into the question whether this was forced on 

China or not ; because I think it is a very immaterial 

8 Sept. 1893. question whether the Chinese wished to have it into 

tho treaty or did not wish to have it into the treaty. 

It is in the treaty, and has been there ever since. I 
Cduld go into the ?}uestion of force, but chat is a con- 
troverted question, and I do not think that it would 
add very much to the value of my evidence \i I gave 
my own view on the subject, because it is a history of 
the past which may be either the one way or the other. 
Bat there it is in the treaty. 

21. Tou have been giving ns a general sketch of 
what has happened in the past ; it is old history, and 
Tou are, I assume, prepared to recognise that it is no 
longer the policy of this country to use force or 
pressure to compel the Chinese Government to admit 
the importation of opium from India ? — I am perfectly 
content with Sir James Fergusson's statement in 
relation to the treaty of Tientsin, made during the 
debate on the 10th of April 1891, though I have very 
great doubts whether Sir James Fergusson was quite 
right in his interpretation of ths treaty. Sir James 
Fergusson said: "The Chinese at ai\y 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. This, I think I may say, that if the 
" Chinese Government thought proper to raise the 
" duty to a prohibitive extent, or shut out the article 
" altogether, this country would not expend 11. in 
" powder and shot or lose the life of a soldier, in an 
" attempt to force opium upon the Chinese." Now, 
my view of it, and I wish rather to put that upon the 
record, is, that the treaty of Tientsin (I have not read 
it for several years) can only be recast ever3' ten years. 
He is quite right if he were speaking of the convention 
of Chee-foo. I believe 12 months' notice does operate 
on the convention of Chee-foo. He used the word 
treaty. However, if that is the policy of the Govern- 
ment we are perfectly content; if the Chinese are to be 
left at liberty to put on such duty as they like on giving 
12 months' notice, then I say that so far as China is 
concerned she is left free and perfectly independent, 
and I trust that is the policy of the present Government 
as well as the policy of the Government that Sir James 
Fergusson represented. 

22. That is undoubtedly, we may take it from you, 
the national policy at this time ? — That is what I 
understand to be. 

23. We leave China perfectly free to deal with the 
trade as her rulers may think fit P — That is what I 
understand to be the international policy. 

24. You have already said that j'our interest is very 
deeply engaged in the suppression of the opium trade 
with China, and on the ground that you hold it to be 
an immoral trade? — Yes, and in that view we are 
corroborated. 

26. Perhaps you would give us your position ? — We 
are corroborated I think, first of all, by the state of 
feeling in this country. We have had memorials and 
petitions to Parliament from, I think, the assemblies 
of every Christian Church. We have had them from 
the two convocations of York and Canterbury, the 
Wesleyans in Conference assembled, the Free Church 
Methodists, the Baptists, the Congregationalists, the 
Presbyterians of England, the Scotch Church, the 
Free Kirk, the Friends, the Unitarians. Then we have, 
in addition, the missionaries in China and in India; 
and I have here a telegraphic message I got from 
the Bishop of Bombay, on the evening of the 10th 
of April, 1891, in which Jie says: "Public meeting 
" at Bombay to-day. Eesolved, opium traffic of 
" Indian Government morally indefensible. — Bishop of 
" Bombay, Chairman." In addition to this we had 
a petition to Parliament signed by the late Cardinal 
Manning and all the Eoman Catholic bishops ; and 
one fi'orn the clergy of London ; and there was a 
memorial sent to Mr. Gladstone a year or tsvo ago from 
the two archbishops, twelve bishops, the archbishop of 
Dublin and thirty mayors and provosts. 

•26. Have you got lists of the towns whose mayors 
made those communication ? — No, I have not got a list 
here, but I can easily supply it, because I have a full 
copy of them among my papers. Then there were the 
clergy of London, the Dean of St. Paul's, the Arch- 
deacon of London, Canon jSTewbolt, Canon Eussel, 
Canon Larry, Archdeacon of Middlesex, Canon Farrar, 
fidwd. Carr Glynn. I also presented on that date to 



the House of Commons an Indian petition with 4,136 
signatures. I presented petitions from the Chinese 
Christians of Hong Kong, the Christian churches of 
Shanghai and of Canton, and the Pekin Anti-Opium 
Society ; and one from the Straits Settlements, 
Singapore, had 1100 signatures to it. Then, the other 
day, there were 1073 Indian missionaries signed the 
following protest : ■' We are unalterably opposed to 
" the participation by the Government in the de- 
" moralising traffic in opium, and we record our 
" conviction that it is a sin against God and a wrong 
" to humanity." Then the petitions this year to the 
House of Commons have almost exceeded, I think, 
those on any other subject unless it be the drink 
question. 

27. Will you give us some of the figures ? — In 1891, 
there were 957 petitions officially signed ; .1,363 petition 
with 192,000 signatures. This year there have been 
331 petitions officially signed ; 2,563 petitions signed 
by 213,792 people. Some of those petitions were 
from towns that seemed to take a very special interest 
in the subject. 

28. Would you give us some of the details ? — Black- 
burn sent a petition of 11,000 signatures ; JSewcastle, 
6,000; Croydon, 4,000; Derby and district, 2,800; 
Birmingham, 3,000 ; Liverpool, 2,000 Preston, 1,800 ; 
and so forth. Then, may I proceed, my Lord, leaving 
this part of the subject and that which I may call the 
case of the Obristiau churches r 

29. Well, we should be glad to hear anything that 
you have to tell us which indicates the views of our 
public men on the subject ? — I quoted in the House of 
Commons a very curious despatch from the East India 
Company to Lord Cornwallis in 1817, and he was one 
of the first of the Governors of India : " We wish it, 
" at the same time, to be clearly understood that our 
" sanction is given to these measures, not with a view 
" to the revenue which they may yield, but in the hope 
" that they will tend to restrain the use of this 
" pernicious drug, and that the regulations for the 
" internal use of it will be so framed as to prevent its 
" i)itroduction into districts where it is not used, and 
" to limit its consumption in other places as nearly as 
" possible to what may be absolutely necessary. Were 
" it possible to prevent the use of the drug altogether, 
" except for the purposes of medicine, we would gladly 
" do it in compassion to mankind." 

30. What is the date of that .?— That is as far back 
as 1817. Then it was my duty to hear Under Secretary 
after Under Secretary. 

31. We shall be very glad to hear what they said, 
whether speaking in the House of Commons, or else- 
where ? — First, I take Lord Salisbury in 1876, when we 
went to him as a deputation on the question of the Bengal 
trade, he said that : " The Government does not view with 
" any favour an extension of the system, and there is no 
" project of the kind in existence. Without taking the 
" view as to its moral condemnation which is held by 
" many persons present, I feel that there are incou- 
" veniences of principle connected with it"— incon- 
veniences of principle is rather a curious term — 
" which would have prevented any Government in the 
" present day from introducing it. I entirely disclaim 
" any intention to push the Bengal system farther." 

32. 33, 34, 35 and 36. Have you any more similar 
quotations ? — Mr. Bourke said, in replying to our 
speeches in the House of Commons, he being then 
Under Secretary of State for India: "The opium 
" question had often been debated in that House, and 
" he never heard anyone say aught in favour of the 
" traffic from a moral point of view." The late Under 
Secretary of State, Mr. Grant Duff, now Sir Mount- 
stuart Grant Duff, said in the administration of 1868 to 
1874. "There was a great deal to be said against 
" this Bengal monopoly on politico-economical grounds. 
" He supposed no one would invent such a system now- 

a-days ; but we did not invent the Bystem ; we 
" inherited it from the East India Company, and 
" carried it on in the same way." Mr. Gladstone, in 
1879, says: "The opium revenue we may accept with 
" more or less compunction and regret, as ministering 
" to our present necessity, but we have no right to 
" reckon on its full continuance." Then perhaps the 
strongest of these statements was made by Sir James 
Feroupson, who at the time was Governor of the Bombay 
Presidency; Sir James Ferguson wrote, thus :—" The 
" Government consider there are very strong objections 
" to the introduction of an industry so demoralising in its 
" tendency as opium cultivation and manufacture into a 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



.H 



province where at present it is unknown, and, so far as 
" his Excellency in Council is aware, not asked for by the 
people. ^ If opium cultivation were allowed in 
'^ Scinde, it could not with consistency be prohibited 
™. ^^^ '"®^* °f t^6 Presidency. It has already been 
tried at Gujarat, and the result was widespread 
I' corruption and demoralisation. A.t present the con- 
sumption of opium in this Presidency is very 
limited, but if the cultivation and manufacture of 
opium were permitted, every village might have its 
opium shop, and every cultivator might contract the 
habit of eating a drug which is said to degrade and 
demoralise those who become addicted to it. On the 
" ground of public morality, therefore, his Excellency 
the Governor in Council would strongly deprecate 
" the grant of permission to cultivate the poppy in 
" Scinde, or in any other part of this Presidency." I 
take the occasion to point out that Sir James Eergusson 
objected on the grounds of public morality. 

37. On the ground that your society takes P — Yes, 
that we have advocated all along. 

38. Have you any more statements of the same 
kind ? — I pass now from that to the House of 
Commons. 

39. Some statements have been made in the House 
of Commons by the late Mr. W. H. Smith and 
Sir J. Fergusson P — Yes ; and Mr. Smith stated that : 
" The course which the Government of India had taken 

during the last five years was to diminish the area 
' ' of cultivation in Iidia, by 20 per cent. That must be 

taken as an indication of the policy of the Govern- 
" ment in its administration of India." A little 
further on he said: " The policy of the Government 
" had been greatly to diminish the cultivation and 
" consumption of the drug in India. That had been 
" their distinct policy during the past five years, and 
" it would be preserved in the future," 

40 and 41. Have you got the statistics showing the 
reduction in the acreage under the poppy? — The acreage 
under the poppy was reduced in accordance with the^e 
statements. _ In 1890 and 1891 there were 500,688 
acres ; and in 1891-92 it had been brought down to 

463.665 acres. The chests to be sold were reduced from 
57,000 to 54,000. Again, I take that as a proof that the 
Government desired to discontinue the trade. The 
highest opium acreage in any year I see on these papers 
was 594,921 ; that was in 1885-86. That is the highest 
I find. 

42. By whom were these statistics supplied P — ■ I 
received them from Mr. Curzon when he was at the 
India Office. 

43. Have you got the statistics there from year to 
year ? — Yes, I have them from 1881. 

44. Could you give them to us? — Yes, thev are as 
follow : 1880-81, 636,017 acres ; 1881-82, " 631,275 
acres ; 1882-83, 495,740 acres ; 1883-84, 605,843 acres ; 
1884-85, 565,246 acres ; 1885-86, 594,921 acres ; 1886-87, 
662,052 acres ; 1887-88, 636,607 acres ; 1888-89, 459,864 
acres (that is the lowest year I can find) ; 1889-90, 
482,657 acres; 1890-91, 600,688 acres; 1891-92, 

463.666 acres. 

45. Does that embrace all that you wish to say to us 
on the point of the acreage ? — Yes, and they show that 
that which Mr. Smith has indicated had practically 
been carried out. Although in one or two years 
there are little jumps up, the quantity has been reduced 
from 694,900 acres in 1886-86 to (in the present year) 
463,665 acres, because the Indian Government acted 
on the view thiit the trade was one that ought not to 
be pushed, but ought to be gradually refinquished. 

46. We should be glad if you would state shortly 
the history of the opium question in the House of 
Commons. In what session was the question of the 
opium trade first discussed ; how many motions have 
been made on the question, when divisions have been 
taken, and what were the numbers on both sides ? — The 
resolution which I moved in 1891 (it was on the Friday, 
on the question of leaving the chair) was this. Tbe 
question proposed was: "That Mr. Speaker do now 
leave the chair," and my amendment proposed to leave 
out after the word " That" to the end of the question, 
in order to add the words : " this House is of opinion 
" that the system by which the Indian opium revenue 
" is raised is morally indefensible, and would urge 
" upon the Indian Government that it should cease to 
" grant licenses for the cultivation of the poppy and 
" the sale of opium in Briiish India, except to supply 
" the legitimate demand for medical purposes, and 



" that they should at the same time take measures to 
" arrest the transit of Malwa opium through British 
" territory." I think I shall prove to the Commission 
that the House of Commons aflRrmed the doctrine 
which is laid down in that motion, that it was morally 
indefensible. The f.|Ucation was put in the usual form 
on Fridays, when the motion is, " That Mr. Speaker do 
now leave the chair," in order, technically, that the 
House should go into Committee of Supply. To this 
resolution I moved an amendment in the usual Friday 
form, to leave out from the word " That " to the end of 
the question, in order to add the words I have just 
read. The Speaker put the question that the words 
proposed to be left out, that is, from " That the Speaker 
do now leave the chair " stand part of the question. 
The House divided. Ayes, 130, Noes, 160. (It was 
really 161). I want to show that the House of Commons 
virtually passed a resolution by a majority of 30, that 
the opium revenue was morally indefensible. The 
words of my motion were then added to the word 
" That," and the main question, as amended by me, 
was proposed by Mr. Speaker according to the decision 
of the House on the division. The question as amended 
was then in possession of the House, and before it was 
finally put, my words could have been altered by the 
consent or vote of the House, but no amendment to 
those words was proposed. If Sir Robert Fowler had 
not moved an addition, and no other motion had been 
made, the question as amended by the majority of the 
House would have been put, and the majority would no 
doubt have carried it. But Sir Kobert Powlef moved 
an amendment in the form of an addition, and an addi- 
tion only. That addition became the property of the 
House, and could have been amended, it could have 
been accepted or rejected as proposed or amended ; but 
the original words could not have been touched after 
the addition had been moved. This was the position 
of afiairs when the Speaker, at one o'clock, adjourned. 
Tlie only question of uncertainty was not my resolu- 
tion, but Sir Kobert Fowler's amendment. Had time 
allowed, other additions could have been moved, but 
not so as to destroy the meaning of the unaltered 
words. That statement is a correct statement, not 
altogether my own drawing up. 

47. In what year was that? — That was on the 
10th April 1891. 

48. Was a division taken on that occasion ? — A 
division was taken on that occasion. 

49. And what were the relative numbers ? — 160 to 
130 is the chronicle of the division. When you look 
at the list it is really 129 to 160. We always call it 
30 majority, of course. 

50. For your motion ? — For my motion. Therefore 
I say that the House of Commons practically con- 
demned the trade in that year as morally indefensible. 

61. Have there been any subsequent divisions? — 
There have been a great many debates, of course, 
where there have been no divisions. In 1870 the 
previous question was carried against Sir Wilfred 
Lawson on an opium motion ; 46 voted with him, and 
151 against. In 1 875, June 26tii, going into Oommitteeof 
Supply, there was a motion moved by Sir Mark Stewart 
which was rejected, the figures were 67 to 94. The pre- 
vious question in 1883 was carried against me, 66 to 126. 
In 1889 Mr. Samuel Smith had a motion which was 
rejected ; 88 voted for and 166 against. With regard 
to my motion on the 10th April 1891 (the one I have 
just rel'erred to), 160 voted tor it, and 129 against it. 
Lastly, we had Mr. Gladstone's amendment embracing 
a Commission, and I beg to call your attention to the 
fact that this was only a question of which of the two 
Commissions, and the wording of the appointment of 
the Commission. There 105 voled with me, and 184 with 
the Government. But you will see, my Lord, these 
divisions have gone 46, 57, 66, and 88, and on the great 
question, the moral question, 160; and the last 105 on 
the question of the appointment of the Commission. 

62. What was the issue between you and the Govern- 
ment with reference to the wording of the Commission ? 
— Well, 1 am not quite sure that I am at liberty to say 
exactly, but I can tell you my own point was that in my 
resolution I wanted that the trade should be declared 
as morally indefensible, and I refused to take any Com- 
mission that did not admit that. The appointment of 
your Commission has in it the word " whether." 
" Whether the growth of the poppy and manufacture 
" and sale of opium in British India should be pro- 
" hibited except for medical purposes, and whether 
" such prohibition could be extended to the Native 

A 3 



Sir J. 
Pease, M.P. 

8 Sept. 1893. 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Sir J. " States." I was quite ready (adding further words), 

Pease, M.P. to have voted with the Government if it had been ' ' when 

the growth," having due regard to the revenue of 

8 Sept. 1893. India, &o. Of course that resolution does not admit, 

— by putting in the word " whether," the moral question, 

which is the question on which we stand. 

53. Have you completed what you wished to say in 
reference to the position of the question in the House 
of Commons ? — I think I have, my Lord, entirely. 

.54. Tou have been in Parliament for many years, 
and you have gone through many contested elec- 
tions'. Would you tell the Commission that your 
experience would justify you in saying that con- 
stituencies take an interest in this question ? — I 
think they take a very great interest in it. I have 
attended meetings in Scotland and all through England, 
down as far as Plymouth. Other gentlemen in this 
room have attended still more, and I never saw meet- 
ings on any subject which were attended by such large 
numbers of people, and with so much enthusiasm. I 
was exceedingly struck with the numbers of the people 
attending, and the character of the people attending 
and the large platforms that we have had. 

65. And do you find local speakers of ability and 
influence in their respective districts coming forward 
and speaking upon this question with deep interest and 
manifesting some close study of the question p — With 
very great interest. Tou will have gentlemen before 
you who, I think, have attended more meetings than 
even I have, but wherever I have been it has been 
very remarkable, that a large amount of information 
and knowledge of the subject has been displayed. Our 
society is a very small society as far as money is 
concerned, but we are strong in afBliated societies 
throughout the country. Each one looks after its own 
funds. We have comparatively small funds at our 
disposal. 

56. Having completed what you wished to say 
with reference to the position of the question in the 
House of Commons, would you like at this stage to 
give us any evidence of the state of public opinion on 
this question in other countries ? — There are only 
three other countries, I think, that I ha^'e taken the 
trouble to inquire into. Eiist, in California. I doubt 
mysc.lf, I vnay say honestly, whether these laws are well 
carried out, but the Californians haM.' a State Law, 
section :;07: " Every person who opens or maintains, 
" to be I'esorted to bj' other persons, any 2>lace ivliere 
•' opium, or any of its preparations, is sold or given 
" away to be smoked at such place, and any person 
" who, at such place, sells or gives away any opium or 
" its said preparations to be there smoked or otlierwise 
" used, and every person who visits or resorts to any 
" such place for the purpose of smoking opium or its 
" said preparations, is guilty of a misdemeanor, and 
" upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a tine 
" not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprison- 
" ment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or 
" by both such fine and imprisonment." Statutes, 
California, p. Si, 188L 

57. Are there any other countries which have legis- 
lation on this subject P — A Bill has passed through the 
Lower House of the colony of Victoria by a very large 
majority, very much like the Californiau law, only I 
think it is much more carefully drawn, so far as I know, 
than the Calif ornian law as regards dealing in opium. 

58. In what session was this submitted to the 
A^ictorian Legislature p — It was read the first time on 
the 13th April 1892. 

59. Have you any other countries ? — The Dutch 
have raised an anti-opium agitation against the sale of 
opium in Java, and there have been meetings at 
Amsterdam or Kotterdam. 

60. Have you anything to tell us with reference to 
treaties dealing with the prohibition ol^ the importation 
of opium P— The Chinese treaty with America excludes 
opium ; the Chinese treaty with Russia excludes the 
importation of opium. 

61. What are the dates of those treaties P — I cannot 
give you the dates of those. They have been for some 
time in efl'ect. And there is also the treaty of England 
with the Oorea. 

62. That is recent, I suppose ? — That is more recent ; 
ifc prohibits the introduction of opium. 

'63. In your position I suppose you have heard a 

great deal from the medical missionaries and from 
others givingyou their impression with reference to the 



effect of the use of opium — ^perhaps you would give us 
something upon that p — I have got an enormous amount 
of evidence with regard to China. 

64. Would you make your own selection of the moat 
important ? — There is so much of it that I am almost 
afraid I should not know where to stop ; bat I will 
first read from the papers called "The agreement 
" between the Ministers Plenipotentiary of the G-overn- 
'• ments of Great Britain and China contracted at 
" Ohe-foo, September 13th, 1876." Sir Thomas Wade 
says : " The evil of opium smoking in China I 
" do not contest. I do not abate it by a parallel between 
" it and the abuse of spirits even amongst hard-drinking 
" nations. The smoker to whom his pipe has become 
" a periodical requirement is more or less on a par 
" with the dram-drinker; but the Chinese constitution, 
" moral or physical, appears to me to be more in- 
" sidiously invaded in the case of the first. The con- 
" firmed smoker is not, or is seldom, at all events, 
" outwardly committed, like the drunkard, to 
" indecorum. The indulgence appears, at the same 
" time, to present a special attraction to the Chinese 
" as compared with other peoples. The use of it, in 
" my experience, has become more general in the class 
" above that in earlier times addicted to it." 

64a. Have you any evidence from missionaries P — A 
petition from missionaries and ministers of the gospel 
in China was presented by my brother on the tith 
April 1883, at the time he was in the House. That 
" petition says: ''That opium is a great evil to 
" China, and that the harmful eflects of its use 
" cannot be easily Oi'erstated. It enslaves its victim, 
" squanders his substance, destroys his health, weakens 
" his mental powers, lessens his self-esteem, deadens 
" his conscience, unfits him for his duties, and leads to 
" his steady desoent, morally, socially, and physically." 
Then the petitioners go on to "pray that your 
" honourable House will early consider this question 
" with the utmost care, take measures to remove from 
" the British treaty with China the clause legalizing 
" the opium trade, and restrict the growth of the 
" poppy in India within the narrowest possible limits." 

65. Do any of your autliorities make comparison 
between the elfects of opiuru and alcohol ? That is an 
argument I myself never cared much to go into, because, 
if drink is bad it does not follow that opium is better, or 
if opium is bad, that drink is better. M. Carne, in the 
Revue dcs Deux Moiides, 1870, writes : " I do not 
" believe that there ever has been a more terrible 
" scourge in the world than opium. The alcohol em- 
'^' ployed by Europeans to destroy savages— the plague 

that ravages a country — cannot be compared to 
" opium." That writer was M. Carno, a Erench 
traveller, in an article in the Bevue des Deux 
Mondes. The Reverend E. H. Graves, M.D., 13 
years medical missionary at Canton, writes in 'the 
" Friend of Ghina " :— " The habit of opium smoking 
'•■ is more dangerous than that of taking alcohol, on 
" account of the insidiousness of its approach, aud'the 
" difficulty of escaping from its clutches. This vampire 
" seems to suck all the moral courage out of a man. 
" As to deeds of violence, opium must yield the palm 
" to alcohol." 

_66. At what date P— In 1870, I think it was. Then 
Sir George Staunton, who was the representative of the 
East India Company at Canton, said many years ago : 
"^ It IS mere trifling to place the abuse of opium on 
"^ the same level with the abuse of spirituous liquors. 
" It is (i.e., the abuse) the main purpose in the former 
•'case ; but in the latter it is only the exception." 
Then Dr. Dudgeon, surgeon to the Pekin Hospital, 
said ma paper printed in the transactions of the 
Social Science Association, Liverpool meeting, 1876, 
page 596: "Speaking generally, it may be asserted 
1^ that it 18 next to impossible to give up the habit 
" when once it is formed. A very large number 
" of criminals die in Chma from deprivation of 

the drug while in prison. The well-nigh im- 
''^ possibility of renouncing the habit is to be taken 
' into account when considering the question of the 
" possible moderate use of the drug. We' cannot 
" get over the enthralling power of the druc the 
'' supreme ditliculty of renouncing it, the necessity of 
^_ increasing the dose, the almost inevitable death 

that follows Its sudden deprivation, and the steady 

descent, moral and physical, of the smoker. With 
" spirits the harm may be said to be the exception, but 

with opium it is the rule. Many drink, but few 
"^ abuse; many smoke opium, but all abuse. With 
• ' the opium-smoker there is no intermission or fitg as 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



" in the case of the drunkard ; the victim must have 
" his. regular allowance." 

Then Sir Thomas Wade in a much earlier quota- 
tion than that which I made just now from him 
writes in a memorandum of 1858 : " It is to me 
" vain to think otherwise of the use of the drug 
" in China than as a habit many times more per- 
" nicious, nationally speaking, than the gin and 
" whiskey drinking which we deplore at home. It 
" takes possession more insidiously, and keeps its hold 
" to the full as tenaciously. I know no case of radical 
" cure. It has insured in every case within _ my 
" knowledge the steady descent, moral and physical, 
" of the smoker, and it is so far a greater mischief 
' ' than drink that it does not, hy external evidence of 
" its effects, expose its victim to the loss of repute 
" which is the penalty of habitual drunkenness. 
" There is reason to fear that a higher class than used 
" to smoke in Commissioner Lin's day are now taking 
'' to the practice." 

67 and 68. Ton have given us no very recent 
opinions P — We have an Indian authority. Dr. Huntley, 
in 1892 or 1893: "Alcohol has not been dragged 
" into the opium question by anti-opium agitators. 
" The agitation in this phase of the question was 
" started by the pro-opium agitators. The comparison 
" has been made, and will be made, and in justice to 
" alcohol, the opium eater or smoker in the Bast 
" should not be confronted with the alcohol drinker of 
" the West. It is somewhat surprising to read such a 
" statement as that of Dr. Lawrie : ' Alcohol destroys 
" ' the health and leads to crime. Opium does neither 
" ' the one nor the other.' The Lancet on this subject 
' • says : ' The position of the two agents is by no means 
" ' identical. Alcohol doubtless is, in its pure gtate, 
" • a poison.' " 

69. Is that all you wish to say with reference to that ? 
— ^"JSTo ; I have a great deal more that perhaps I would 
like to take. 

70. We do not wish to restrict your statement ?— I 
am only afraid of taking up your time, my Lord. This 
ia 1882. The Eev. W. H. Collins, M.E.G.S., formerly 
Medical Missionary at Pekin : "After fully 20 years' 
" (furloughs deducted) experience of opium smoking 
" in China, I solemnly affirm that it is a most 
" deleterious practice ; far more so than either spirit 
" drinking or tobacco smoking. The man who smokes 
" opium becomes enfeebled both in body and _ mind. 
" The wealthy man may continue the practice for 
" many years, being able to vary his diet and to increase 
" the dofee of opium ; but the poor man loses both his 
" appetite and the means of procuring food at the 
" same time, and quickly becomes a total wreck. 
" When a man has been enabled, by the aid of 
" medicine, to break off the habit, he nearly always 
" yields to temptation, and resumes the habit. Self- 
" interest never enables such a man to abstain from 
" smoking, but he will resume the pipe, knowing well 
" that the result must be the starvation of his family, 
" and his own miserable end. I have only seen three 
" or four cases of permanent cure out of many 
" hundreds that I have treated." Then in 1892, 
Miss G-eraldine Guinness in " Four Tears' Sojourn 
in- China "= "had travelled through six of its 
" provinces, and was also personally acquainted 
" witli the opium question in Tonquin, the Straits 
" Settlements, Colombo, and Aden. She gave a 
" graphic account of some of her opium experience in 
" China. She spoke of how her heart had ached and 
" bled during the painful hours in which she had 
" worked by the bedside of women and girls who had 
" poisoned themselves by opium to save themselves 
' ' from fates worse than death, to which they had been 
" sold because their fathers and husbands wanted 
" opium. The opium vice is not one crime simply, but 
" a concentration of all crimes. She spoke of the great 
" opium palaces of lust in Shanghai that she had 
' ' visited, where hundreds of women were held in bitter 
" bondage. Crime of the blackest dye is directly 
" traceable to opium in China." There are only two 
more, my Lord. I have a great number, but I think 
these two will do. I have picked them rather pro- 
miscuously than wdth any special design at the present 
moment. This is Archdeacon Wolfe in 1888 :—" The 
" devil could not have invented a more pernicious vice 
"' for the destruction of soul and body than this of 
" opium smoking, and woe to the man who by; word or 
" deed gives any support or encouraeement to the hell- 
" born traffic ! It is necessary for every friend of the 
•' Chinese to speak out in the plainest and most decisi\-e 



'' manner on the evils of opium smoking. The people Sir J. 

" are being ruined by it, and it is indeed a lamentable Feast, M.P. 

' ' spectacle to see professing Christian men speaking 

'' and writing in defence of this horrible crime. The 8 Sept. 1893. 

" pernicious results of this soul and body destroying 

" vice are apparent all around. Cadaverous looking 

" faces meet one on every side, and the slovenly habits 

" and the filthy appearance of the people generally 

" testify too plainly to the evil it is working on this 

" once-industrious and energetic population. The 

" rapid progress which opium smoking has made 

" during the last 20 years among all classes of this 

" population is a very serious matter for us mission- 

" aries. Humanly speaking, opium smokers are beyond 

" the reach of conversion, as the vice unfits them for 

" the perception of any moral or spiritual truths. Can 

" the Church of Christ in England do nothing to 

" influence the nation to withdraw from the abominable 

" traffic which is causing so much moral, spiritual, 

" physical ruin to this great people ? It is a sad re- 

" flection on the Church of Christ in England that it 

" seems powerless to influence the English people in so 

" important a matter as the Indian traffic in opium. 

" Men openly and without shame prostitute their wives, 

" in order to procure for themselves the means of in- 

" dulging in opium smoking. Little children are sold 

" as slaves and turned away from the embrace of their 

" helpless mothers in order that their degraded fathers 

" may have money to buy opium. All this and much 

" more may be told of the effects of opium smoking on 

" the miserable people; yet professing Christians in 

" England see no harm in it, and openly advocate the 

" abominable traffic which makes it possible and com- 

" paratively easy for the Chinese people to ruin them- 

" selves and their wives and children for time and for 

" eternity!" The next is a letter I received from 

Mr. David Hill. Mr. David Hill is the son of an old 

Yorkshire gentleman, and went out as a missionary to 

China, and I have had several conversations with him 

on subsequent dates to this letter, but this is one he 

wrote to me. 

71. On what date ?— 1881. He says : " The effects 
" of opium smoking upon the Chinese generally have 
" again and again been depicted to the British public 
" in strong and earnest language, but never I think 
" too strong, and certainly never too earnest. No 
'' language can fully picture to others the deplorable 
" consequences of opium smoking which I have 
" myself seen in China even in the case of some of my 
" own Chinese acquaintances." Mr. Hill is a man 
after whom anyone can speak. 

72. I presume your Association is in touch with a 
large body of missionaries in the Bast ? — Ton will have 
several of them before you, and I believe that our 
Association is in constant communication with them. 

73. And would you undertake to say that so far as 
your knowledge extends the opinion of the missionaries 
is a unanimous opinion on the subject ? — I will not say 
it is unanimous, but almost unanimous. There are 
some, especially among the Indian missionaries, who 
do not take quite so strong a view as some of those 
that I have read. 

74. Would you say of the missionaries in China that 
their opinion is unanimous on the subject, or nearly 
so ? — We do not know of any exception among the 
Chinese missionaries. 

75. But is it the case in India that the unanimity is 
less pronounced ? — Might I give you, my Lord, an 
American one, the Bev. Howard Malcolm : ' ' No 
"person can describe the horrors of the opium trade. 
" That the Government of British India should be the 
" prime abettor of this abominable traffi-O is one of the 
" wonders of the nineteenth centuiy." (I cannot give 
you the date of this.) " The proud escutcheon of the 
" nation which declares against the slave trade is thus 
" made to bear a blot broader and darker than any 
" other in the Christian world." 

76. Does that complete what you wish to give us 
as a fair general representation of the medical and 
missionary opinion P — 1 think I should be trespassing 
almost unduly upon you if I went on. 

77. No, we are quite prepared to bear from, you the 
full casep — I believe you will have as a witness 
Dr. Maxwell who has .seen a great deal, and I hand him 
over my other extracts if he chooses to m.ake use of 
them. May I say that f have one or two more proofs 
with regard to India and the effects of opium, One 
of the most striking paports that ever was written I 
think is: "The Consumption of Opium in British 

A 4 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Sir J. Biii-miib,'' a copy of a memorandum by 0. U. Aitohison 

Pease, M. P. (now Sir Chai-les Aitchison), written in 1880 on the 
consumption of opium in British Burmah, and there 
8 Sept. 1893. ho describes in extraordinarily strong language, but 
' language which has been corroborated since by sub- 

sequent testimony, the effect of the introduction of 
opium into British Burmah hj the Indian Crovernment. 
He says : " It is no debateable question of the effect of 
" opium on the human frame that is here raised. 
" Under some conditions the moderate use of opium 
" may be beneficial. The Chinese population in 
" British Burma, and to some extent also the immi- 
" grants from India, especially Chittagonians and 
" Bengalees, habitually consume opium without any 
" apparent bad effects ; those of them who have 
" acquired the habic do not regularly indulge to 
" excess. With the Burmese and other indigenou.s 
" races the case is different. The Burmese seem quite 
" incapable of using the drug in moderation. A 
" Burmau who takes to opium smokes habitually to 
" excess. The habit once acquired can rarely, if ever, 
■' be broken off, and this infirmity of temperament is 
" pandered to by the dealers in opium, who tempt 
'■ young and respectable men to their ruin by giving 
" them opium for nothing, well knowing that the taste 
" once acquired will be habitually indulged. The 
" papers now submitted for consideration present a 
" painful picture of the demoralisation, misery, and 
" ruin produced amongst the Burmese by opium 
" smoking. Responsible officers in all divisions and 
' ' districts of the province and natives everywhere 
" bear testimony to it. To facilitate examination of 
" the evidence on this point, I have thrown some 
'•' extracts from the reports into an appendix to this 
" memorandum. These show that, among the Burmans, 
" the habitual use of the drug saps the physical and 
" mental energies, destroys the nerves, emaciates the 
" body, predisposes to disease, induces indolent and 
" filthy habits of life, destroys self respect, is one of 
" the most fertile sources of misery, destitution, and 
" crime, fills the jails with men of relaxed frame pre- 
" disposed to dysentery and cho'eia, prevents the due 
" extension of cultivation and the development of the 
" laud revenue, checks the natural growth of the 
" population, and enfeebles the constitution of suc- 
" ceeding generations." As the Commissioners 1 dare 
■say are already aware, the Indian Government in 
Bu]mah has at leiiLj;th taken steps to extinguish the 
cur>e of opium in that country. And they say that 
because, " the use of opium is condemned by the 
" Buddhist religion" (tliey do not say anything 
aljout the laws of morality or the Christian religion) 
" the Government, believing the condemnation to be 
" right, intends that the use of opium by persons of 
" Burmese race shall for ever cease," That is being 
carried out in Burmah, making exception of the 
('hiiiese and the Indians, who had according to the 
lirst issue, and I hope still have, to register themselves 
as smokers and continue to register themselves as 
smokers of opium in order that it may be kept from 
the Burmese. I dare say this copy of Sir Charles 
Aitchison's papers and the reports of the other officers 
in Bui'mah, which corroborate that very strong clause 
which I have just read, are or will be among the papers 
which you have or v ill have laid before you. 

78. Does that complete what you have to say? — I 
should like to say one or two ^\ ords more. 

79. We are ready to hear you on the medical aspect 
of the case ? —There is a very striking illustration that 
I am going to read from Lord Shaftesbury's speech 
in 1843 when he brought a motion before the House On 
the subject. 

80. The House of Commons ?— Yes. He said : " I will 
" request to this the serious attention of the House. 
" The writer says: 'However valuable opium may 
" 'be '" 

81. f-i2, S3, 84'. Who was the writer P— I will come to 
that directly, my Lord ; I am quoting now straight from 
Lord Shaftesbury : " ' However valuable opium may 
" ' be when employed as an article of medicine, it is 
" ' impossible for anyone, who is acquainted with the 
'■' ' subject, to doubt that the habitual use of it is 
" ' productive of the most pernicious consequences, 
" ' destroying the healthy actions of the digestive 
" ' organs, weakening the powers of the mind, as well 
" • as those of the body, and rendering the individual 
" ' who indulges himself in it a worse than useless 
" ' member of society.' Some people may think it is 
• ' a beneficial stimulus. This doctor says : ' I cannot 



' ' ' but regard those who promote the use of opium as 
" ' an article of luxury, as inflicting a most serious 
" ' injury on the human race.' The first gentleman 
" who signs this letter is Sir B. Brodie, and to the 
" letter is attached this statement: 'The following 
" ' gentlemen state that they entirely agree with 
" ' Sir B. Brodie in the opinion expressed by him in 
" ' the foregoing letter, and have accordingly attached 
' ' ' their signatures to it : Sir Henry Halford, Bart. , 
'• ' M.t)., P.E.S., F.H.S., President of the Eoyal 
" ' College of Physicians; Anthony White, Esq., 
" ' President of the Eoyal College of Surgeons, and 
" ' Surgeon to Westnatnster Hospital; W. F. Chambers, 
" ' M.D., F.E.S. ; Thomas Hodgkin, M.D. ; George 
" ' Gregory, M.D. ; C. Locock, M.D. ; Eobert Fer- 
" ' guson, M.D. ; Henry Holland, M.D. ; Anthony 
" ' Todd Thomson, M.D. ; Thomas Watson, M.D. ; 
" ' Charles J. B. Williams, M.D. ; John Glendinning, 
" ' M.D., F.E.S.; James Carrick Moore, Esq.; 
" 'Benjamin Travers. Esq., F.E.S.; John Ayrtou 
" 'Paris, M.D.; John Forbes, M.D., F.E.S. ; Eichard 
" ' Bright, M.D. ; Robert Listen, Esq., F.R.S. ; J. M. 
" ' Latham, M.D. ; Eoderic MacLeod, M.D. ; C^sar 
" ' Hawkins, Esq. ; James Johnson, M.D. ; Frederick 
" ' Tyrrell, Esq. ; and 0. Aston Key, Esq.' " All those 
are surgeons and physicians with whoso names we were 
familiar in our earlier days. That same view is entirely 
taken by the physicians in our time. I leave that in 
Dr. Maxwell's hands. We have a memorial of the same 
character signed by about 5,000 English physicians, 
and there is also another signed by a large body- of 
medical men in Bombay, native medical practitioners 
most of them. 

85, 86, 87, 88. Does that complete what you wished to 
say on the medical question ? — Tes, on the medical 
question. Then there is a Blue Book of Lord Cross's 
which will also no doubt be laid before you. It is " The 
Consumption of Opium in India 1892." I will not 
touch on the Burmese part, because I think that may 
be called a settled question. But going into other 
districts of India there is a consensus of opinion on the 
evil effects of opium consumption. Colonel Clarke 
says : " The district magistrate, whom I have consulted, 
" considers that ' the use of opium and ganja does not 
" ' exhibit any abnormal sign of increase, alcoholic 
" ■ drinks, the consumption of which is increasing, being 
" ' a counter attraction,' but he is in favour of reducing 
" the number opium and ganja shops, as ' the evil 
'• ' effects of the indulgence in these drugs are percep- 
" tible in the large towns.' " Mr. F. C. Anderson, 
Officiating Secretary to the Chief Commissioner] 
Central Provinces, says : "I am to say that the 
" Officiating Chief Commissioner agrees with the 
" Commissioner of Excise in his remarks about 
" distinguishing opium eating from opium smoking, 
'• and the greater importance of discouraging the latter 
" in every legitimate manner." The Commissioner 
for Excise, Central Provinces, says: "Every effort 
■' should, no doubt, also bo made to put a stop to the 
" smoking of opium in all its forms, practices which 
" are universally condemned as degrading and perni- 
" cious by all native opinion with which I have come in 
" contact." Colonel G. H. Trevor, Chief Commissioner, 
Ajmere-Merwara, says: "A man who frequents a 
" liquor shop is not so likely to become a confirmed 

drunkard as one who pays even a few visits to an 
" opium den is likely to develop into a confirmed 
'I opmm eater or smoker; it is to the interest of the 
" vintner not to let him get intoxicated on the premises 
" for fear the license should be revoked, and for the 
" same reason not to encourage drinking that makes 
" men disorderly. The liquor having issued from a 
" Government distillery, its quality has been tested, 
" and as a rule, it does not pay the vintner to change' 
" the quality except by dilution, which is common 
" enough. These conditions do not, I believe, apply to 
" the case of the opium den, at any rate in equal 
" degree. There no attempt is made, or if made, it is 
1^ more difficult, to check excess; and though excess 

may not lead to crime in the same way ;is liquor 
" does, it produces a more lasting effect upon the 
" individual, and through him or her on future genera- 
" tions." Mr. T. D. Mackenzie, of Bombay, says " the 
'^'^ object of the Government, apart from the moral duty 
" which rests on it to endeavour to encourage the people 

to detest ^ intemperance, is to prevent the illicit 

consumption of opium, and any measures compatible 
'' with that object which can be shown to be effectual 

in decreasing the consumption, or checking the 
" spread of the consumption of opium, will most readily 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



" be adopted." Then comes the Collector of Satara : 
" The vice of opiam smoking evidently possesses a 
" fearful fascination, when once it is acquired, and its 
" effects are deadly, depriving the victim of all moral 
" resolution. With these facts made palpable it is a 
" serious thing for Government to offer any facility 
" for acquiring the vice by licensing a shop, whore any 
" one is at liberty to make a trial." 

89 and 90. Have the licenses for consumption on the 
premises been withdrawn ? — They have been prac- 
tically withdrawn, but Colonel Clarke says that the 
opium shops are the rendezvous of low characters 
and that such gatherings might well be interdicted 
by law. Mr. James, in Bombay, Northern Division 
(that is in Sind), says : " Some respectable persons 
" might continue to smoke privately by themselves, 
" while the lowest and most degraded would, as now, 
" frequent the shop." The consumption of opium has 
been or should be reduced. There are a great number 
of witnesses to that. A report from Madras says :— 
" The Government is aware that the opium traffic 
" is carefully watched by the agents and their assist- 
" ants, and that so far from 'teaching the people 
" 'to rely on opium as a febrifuge' we are doing 
" all we can to gradually wean them from their 
" hereditary habit of using it on all occasions." 
Wherever the prohibition has been tried it seems to 
have been attended with success. 

91 and 92. Does this_ Blue Book to which you have 
referred and from which you have given us numerous 
extracts contain in any number opinions in another 
sense ? — It qualifies some of those opinions which I have 
stated. For instance, the Chief Commissioner of the 
Central Provinces says : — " Under these circumstances I 
' ' venture to think that it would be a useless task for 
" the Government of this country to attempt to suppress 
" altogether the use of the drug. All that it can 
" properly do, and does do, is to secure the supply of a 
" good article, or by suitable arrangements to make 
" the retail price of this article as high as compatible 
" with the prevention of smuggling." I believe that 
that has been honestly done. One gentleman in Assam 
says that he considers opium is a necessity. 

93. At any rate yon find a large body of opinion in 
support of the views put forward by your association ?— 
Tes ; and I will also, I think, add that I have quoted 
them in corroboration of what I stated in the com- 
mencement of my evidence, that I believe the Indiixn 
Government is alive to the evil, and is, at the present 
moment, doing a great deal more than it ever did 
before to restrict the local consumption. 

94. Does that bring you conveniently to the question 
of finance P — K you please, my Lord. 

95. I think I am right in suggesting that, as a 
man of experience in affairs, you will not fail (o 
recognise that the Indian Government are under the 
necessity of raising a certain revenue, and that in 
the present financial condition there would be a serious 
difficulty in substituting other sources of revenue for 
that which is drawn from opium ?— Of course, we all 
know that when we have not money to spend we begin 
to look at two things, one, increasing the revenue in 
other branches, and another, decreasing the expenditure. 
The case of the opium revenue has got into a much 
more easy shape than it was when I commenced with this 
subject. As I have shown the net revenue is now about 
6,000,000 a year in tens of rupees, Ex. 5,390,000. It has 
gone down Ex. 3,000,000. The Indian Government in 
1880-81, when it had the highest opium revenue, had 
a net income of 84,000,000 of tens of rupees : in 1892-3 
the estimate for the net revenue of the Indian Govern- 
ment is 5,800,000 of tens of rupees. If the opium 
revenue had continued to grow, it would have been 
9,100,000, but they have done without 3,000,000 of 
revenue ; and Indian expenditure has gone up, as your 
Lordship will see directly, 14,000,000 of tens of rupees. 
Now where has it all gone ? The army charges, 
exclusive of the Afghan war charges in 1881-2, were 
13,800,000 tens of rupees ; in 1892-3 the army estimate 
was 21,159,000 tens of rupees ; in 1893-4 the estimate 
is 22,242,000 tens of rupees. The British soldiers were 
increased from 63,000 in 1885 to 71,000 in 1891 ; and 
the native soldiers are increased from 126,000 to 
149,000; so that the army has gone up 31,000 men. 

96. The native army ? — The two . armies have 
gone np 31,000 men, 23,000 of which belong to the 
native and the rest to the European army. There is an 
increased expenditure of something like Ex. 8,000,000 
on the army. I am not in this chair to say that that 

e 80970. 



aimy expenditure is entirely useless or unnecessary, 
but it strikes any man looking at it that it is a 
very enormous increase, and whether the frontier 
policy of India is a wise policy or not — whether the 
annexation policy of India is or is not a wise policy 
—still I cannot help thinking that if reforms were 
properly carried out in the Indian expenditure, and 
if there should be a further development of the 
resources of India — I cannot help thinking that 
the opium revenue would form a very little 
item if it were all lost. There is a letter from 
Lord Lytton, dated from Malvern, in the " Daily 
Chronicle " of February 22nd, 1882, in which he says : 
"Wisdom, J suppose, is justified of her children in the 
" long run, but the run is sometimes a verv long one. 
" No Indian Finance Minister has ever left to his 
" successor such a aplendid financial legacy as Sir John 
" Strachey. No one who will take the trouble to study 
the finances of India without prejudice can doubt 
" that they are in a condition which might be envied 
by almost any country in Europe. I have the satis- 
" faction, such as it is, of feeling sure that this will bo 
" admitted srme day, if the financial policy of my 
" administration is not disastrously reversed. But I 
confess that I contemplate with considerable appre- 
" hen-ion Major Baring's adoption of Sir L. Mallet's 
" craze about handing over the public works of India 
" to ' private enterprise.' No such enterprise exists, 
" or can be created, at present in the country itself, 
" where the normal rate of interest is 12 per cent. 
'• And how would the people of England like to see all 
" their railways and canals in the hands of capitalists 
" living at the other end of the world, ignorant of and 
" indifferent to the conditions of English society and 
" government, yet exercising upon ttiet-e conditions, 
" through a distant Parliament, in which ttie English 
" people were not represented, a certain irresponsible 
" influence, naturally animated and guided only by a 
" view to their own exclusive interests as the pro- 
" prietors of all the means of inter-commnuication 
" throughout England? In'the Indian railways the 
" Government of India posseses a vast and annually 
" growing property — and expanding source of revenue 
" not derived from taxation, which exists in no other 
" country — and to me it is as clear as the sun in 
" heaven that the financial prosperity in India will in 
" future depend mainly on the development of her 
" railways and canals. People ask, " What would 
" happen if the opium revenue were to fail ? ' I reply, 
" ' Cover the country with railways, and neither the 
" 'loss of the opium revenue nor anything else need 
" ' seriously disconcert us.' " The population of India 
is 287,000,000, the railways are 17.564 miles. I believe 
the population of America is 62,000,000, and the rail- 
ways are about 170,000 miles. 

97 and 98. The annual income of the inhabitants 
would be very different in the two cases, would it 
not P — No doubt, it would be exceedingly different. 
Sir William Hunter says in his book that there are 
222,000 square miles of cultivated area in India, and 
that the uncultivated but cultivateable area is 101,542 
square miles. Therefore, I say that the development of ' 
India ought to be our answer to those who object to 
part with the opium revenue. Let alone the question 
of army or any other economies, such development 
would soon make up for the comparatively paltry 
revenue which is now left from the opium trade. 

99. Ton have given us the aggregate figures showing 
the large increase of revenue in recent years ; have 
you got the information as to the principal heads under 
which the increase has taken place, or may I take it 
from you generally that it was chiefly under railways 
and public works?— I have not the figures here. I 
think it was general, but railways contributed largely. 
I would hardly like to commit myself to a reply 
without looking further into the figures, but my 
general impression is that the main source was the 
increase from railways. 

100. Have you any observations to offer with 
reference 1;o ohe uncertainty of the opium crop ? 
That seems to have been before Indian statesmen 
for a very considerable time. In the reply to Lord 
Hartington's Minute in June 1881 (I think Lord Eipon 
was then the Governor-General) there is the passage ; 
" It is difficult to speak with any confidence as to tUb 
" future of the opium revenue. Any opinion that may 
" be given must, of necessity, be very conjectaral. 
" At the same time, the facts which we have so fav 
" elicited, that is to say, the necessity of raising the 
" price paid for crude opium, the difficulty of extending 



>>in J. 
Pease, M.P. 

8 Sept. 1 813. 



10 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



. Sir J. " tho area under oultiTation in India, the necessity 

Pease, M.P. " -wliioli may be forced on us of reducing the quantity 

" of opium annually offered for sale, and the increase in 

8 Sept. 1893. " the production and the improvement in the quality of 

— ■ " the Persian and Chinese drugs, which renders it 

" doubtful whether a diminished supply of Bengal 
" opium will enhance the price realised at the sales, 
" and may indeed render it necessary to reduce the 
" export duty on Malwa opium, all point to one con- 
" elusion, namely, that, although the total loss of the 
" opium revenue does not appear imminent, it is by no 
" means improbable that it may undergo a considerable 
" diminution." Then in 1881-82, " Moral and Material 
Progress," page 33, signed by Lionel Tennyson, " The 
" weather was, however, generally favourable to the 
" growth of the poppy, and the quality of the drug was 
" good. Fever was prevalent amongst the cultivators. 
" The poppy is being slowly banished from the most 
" fertile lands by the potato and the sugar-cane, as the 
" value of those crops is being gradually enhanced by 
" improved communication and European machinery. 
" The system of advances is reputed to be the chief 
" inducement to the cultivator to grow so precarious and 
" troublesome a crop as opium, and that system is now 
" being adopted by firms interested in other crops." 
December 1881, Letter from the Government of India 
on Finance, " On the whole, the evidence goes to show 
" that, although we may be able to retain the present 
" area of cultivation in the Benares Agency, we cannot 
" count with any certainty on being able to extend it." 
E. Baring in 1883^ quotes his own reports of 1878, 
" The process of depletion cannot continue indefinitely. 
" An exceptionally good crop may, indeed, again 
" replenish the reserve. But we cannot rely on a 
" fortuitous circumstance of this sort. An average 
" crop, or, at all events, a succession of average crops, 
" will oblige us to resort to one of two alternatives, 
" we shall be forced either to increase the production 
" or to diminish the amount offered for sale." Then he 
goes on again in 1883-4 (Financial Statement, page 41), 
" So long as the value of the rupee and the opium 
" revenue continue liable to such fiuctuations as those 
" which we have recently witnessed, the financial 
" situation of India must always contain some special 
" elements of instability." Then we have in "Moral 
and Material Progress, 1892," page 89, " It is reported 
" that cultivators of opium have lost heart, after experi- 
" encing three bad seasons in succession ; that new 
" cultivators are gradually withdrawing from the 
" industry, while there is a tendency on the part of 
" older cultivators to lessen the poppy area cultivated 
" by them in favour of the more robust and less pre- 
'■ carious cereals. The Behar opium agent adds that 
" ' the opium department have difficulty ia maintaining 
" ' their position, they cannot drop cultivation at will 
" ' without losing it permanently.' " The " Calcutta 
Englishman" states, in 1891 : — "The opium cultivator 
" in India is becoming uneasy concerning the future of 
" the industry. An idea \hAt Government contemplates 
" a cessation of opium manufacture appears to have 
" obtained widespread credence in the opium-growing 
" centres of Bengal, and many ryots, especially those near 
" the great towns, are reported to have aljandoned the 
" cultivation of poppy in favour of potatoes or tobacco. 
" The result is detrimental alike to the interests of the 
" cultivators and of the Department, for, in the words 
" of the Behar agent, 'When a cultivator has once 
" ' severed his connection with the Department, and has 
" ' begun to take advances from mahajans in another 
" ' line of business, it is difficult to get him back.' The 
" recent orders of Government reducing the area of 
" cultivation, together with the bad out-turn of the 
" past three years, have no doubt tended to accentuate 
" the feeling of inseouriiy, and it is hoped that a 
" successful season will go far to restore the confidence 
" of the ryot." This I cut out of the " Pioneer " of 
Allahabad. After commenting on the danger to the 
Indian opium revenue from the increased cultivation of 
the poppy in China, the " Pioneer " says : — " Another 
" cause which is slowly but steadily working against 
" Indian opium is the growing unpopularity of the 
" cultivation with the ryots, especially in 'Behar. They 
'' find that, with facilities of traffic and rise in the price 
'' of cereals, several other crops pay very much better 
'' than opium. Hence the cultivation of the poppy is 
'' gradually falling off. Tobacco, potatoes, sugar-cane, 
'' tui'meric, chillies, and other condiments are more 
'■' profitable in the long run than opium. The best 
'' lands of the village are no longer devoted to the 
<' poppy, as they once were, and if the ryots still adhere 
' ' to the cultivation in poorly pijoductiyo villages, it is 



' ' simply for the sake of the opium advances which are, 
" :ind liave nlways liceii, a great incentive, not only to 
" the cultivators, but to the landholders, who get their 
" rents in a lump sum without much trouble. The 
" process of decline cannot be arrested unless Govern- 
" ment is prepared to compete with the rise in prices 
" of other cereals, by paying a proportionately higher 
" rate for opium, and thus counterbalancing the advan- 
" tages of other more paying crops by its system of 
" advances. Moreover, this make-shift of sowing the 
" crop on inferior lands and getting the Government 
" advences is gradually producing a discouraging effect 
" on the cultivators. If there is one crop that needs 
■' superior lands and careful tending, it is the poppy 
" crop. The cultivators find year after year that their 
' ' labour and capital have been devoted in vain to a 
" crop which will not repay their efibrts, and they 
" naturally become disheartened. There is a growing 
" dearth, too, of good lands suitable for poppy in 
" Behar, after providing for other paying crops such 
" as those mentioned above, and for indigo." I have 
read these extracts to show that it is in the opinion of 
those best qualified to judge in India, not only what I 
believe to be an immoral revenue, but it is one that 
cannot be relied upon. 

101. Have you any remarks to give us with reference 
to the revenue that is derived from the transit duty on 
opium from the Native States ? — That revenue is a 
revenue, as is well known, per chest, taken from the 
opium grown. The chests in 1879-80 that paid duty 
were 46,211, carrying a duty of 750 rupees. In 1880-1 
that had fallen to 36,000 chests, but the duty then was 
700 rupees. In 1883-4 the chests fell to 38,586, and the 
duty was lowered to 650 rupees. In 1 888-9 the chests fell 
to 30,000 (you see it had gone down from 46,000 to 30,000 
in ten years), and the duty was 650 rupees. Now they 
only charge 600 rupees per chest, and the quantity, I 
believe, is still going down, or it is certainly at a stand- 
still. Now, a chest of Malwa opium, I believe, costs 
fally as much as a chest of Indian opium, which runs 
to 427 rupees per chest. The pass duty now levied is 
600 rupees, which makes the cost of a chest 1,025 to 
J, 027 rupees. The sale price of opium is stated in 
1891-2, in the East India accounts, as a probable 
1,000 rupees ; therefore, there is not much profit out of 
it for the Native States beyond what the native princes 
obtain from a larger rent from the opium lands than 
from corn and cotton lands. 

102. It is obvious that in imposing these heavy 
cha,rges upon the opium grown in the Native States the 
action of the Indian Government does not tend to 
encourage the growth ?— It looks to me as if it were a 
very falling revenue. The duty was lowered from 750 
rupees a chest to 600 ; therefore, the Indian Govern- 
ment expected to get more opium from them, but the 
quantity has still been falling. Then there is a curious 
paragraph, to which I would desire to call the attention 
of the Commission. In the " Moral and Material Pro- 
gress of India, 1888-9," page 9 :— " The Native States 
■' have engaged so to manage their opium cultivation 
" and production as to safeguard the British revenue, 
" and in exchange for this service they receive either 
" money compensation or other concessions." So it 
looks as if we were not only reducing the duty from 
700 rupees per chest to 600 rupees, but that we were 
giving them either money compensation or other con- 
cessions. 

103. (Sir James Lyall.) That was an arrangement, I 
think, to prevent its being smuggled into India?— lean 
only say what I have found— I think it is one of those 
points upon which the Commission would desire to have 
information. 

104. {Chairman.) Are there any other points which 
you would like to bring before us in your evidence-in- 
chief P— I have exhausted the minutes which I have 
made, and I ha,ve to thank you for having heard me at 
such considerable length. 

105. On the paper you place before me as the 
summary of your position, you allege that the opium 
trade is an immoral trade, and that if not an immoral 
trade it is as low a trade as can bo conceived, and 
you urge that it is a decreasing trade, and that the 
difficulties of cultivating the poppy have increased ; 
that China can upset the trade at any moment; and 
that as a source of revenue it , cannot be relied 
upon P— If Sir James Pergusson takes th&, oorr,ect 
view of tho policy of the British Government-^ that 

China may do in 12 months anything she likes wo are 

holding the Indian opium revenue evt tfee mercy of 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



11 



China.' 1 would ventiii'e merely to say that if the' 
OommiBsion do not come to the donclusion that it is an 
immoral trade, I would lay before them the view that 
it is about as low a trade as you could possibly go into. 
For a great Grovernment to be trading in a drug nine- 
tenths of which, it must be admitted, is used for 
debauchery and not for any good purpose, I thint is 
about as low a position as could possibly be conceived. 

106 and 107. (Sir James Lyall.) Is it a great G-ovem- 
ment that is trading in ! it P I mean as regards the 
Malwa opium, how can you say that it is the Govern- 
ment that is trading in the drug P — I did not say so, 
sir, I said that the Indian G-overnment is trading in 
the drug in the Bengal Presidency. The other is a 
transit duty, of course. I think there is a considerable 
difference between a transit duty from native states, 
provided that you have the difficulty always that if you 
have the cultivation in the native states you have very 
great diflSculty from the local position of the native 
states in dealing with the question of cultivation in 
your own country. 

108. (Ohairman.) Moved by philanthropic considera- 
tions which I am sure wo must all appreciate, you 
have 'evidently taken immense pains and interested 
yourself very deeply in the consideration of this ques- 
tion'. I understand, Sir Joseph, that you have not 
personally visited India ? — I am sorry to say that I 
have not personally visited India or China. I have 
endeavoured to show, perhaps, at too great a length, 
the reasons which have actuated me in my humble 
share in the anti-opium campaign. I am accused of 
being a crazy philanthropist by sOme of my Indian 
friends, and can only say that I have felt it my duty to 
collate &cts and drav7 deductions from them. I do 
not think that I am one of those people who are 
carried away by enthusiasm on any given subject. I 
have endeavoured to lay before the Koyal Commission 
the views which have actuated me over a long period 
of years in endeavouring to do away with the share of 
the Indian Government in a trade which, to use Lord 
Comwallis' words, " ought to be abandoned out of 
compassion to mankind." 

109. And in the capacity that you thought it your 
duty to take upon yourself as president of the Anti- 
Opium. Association, you have had, and no doubt are 
constantly having, placed before you communications 
from all parts of the Bast in which this trade is being 
conducted, and in which the opium drug is being used? 
— Well, i suppose that when a man takes the position 
that I have taken on this subject, I think every 
member of this Commission will know that he becomes 
the centre for letters of all sorts and shades of 
character, and out of that large correspondence there 
is often a difficulty in weeding out error from truth ; 
but I think that that which I have kept and preserved 
is that which carries to my own mind the conviction 
that it was based on truth and did not belong to the 
spurious or erroneous. 

110. [Sir James Lyall.) You referred. Sir Joseph, to 
the anxiety of the Indian Government in 1869 and 
later to increase the growth of opium. I should like to 
ask you, did not that refer entirely to the supply for 
the export trade in Calcutta? That growth was in- 
tendeci to be for that p — I have no doubt it was entirely 
for the export trade in Calcutta, which was then at a 
much higher rate than it is at present, and was entirely 
confined to the cultiratian in Bengal. 

111. Has not the Government of India given up the 
Iclebr ,6f extending the growth, and agreed to greatly 
diminish it if it makes any change ; that all change 
should Ije in the direction of diminution of the growth? 
—I hope so, but when I got those figures of the acreage 
it did not quite bear put that view, because, as I said 
in niy evidence-in-chief, in one or two years there was 
a li)/tle jump-up, but the Government resolution (which 
I siippose is practically binding on the Government of 
India) the other day was : — " That this House presses 
" on the Government of India to continue their 
" policy of greatly diminishing the cultivation of the 
" P0PPy> Eind the production and sale of opium." 
Th^t is in accordance with the policy enunciated by the 
late Mr. W, H. Smith, which, I suppose, is really the 
policy of the Government, and which was again pressed 
upon the Government of India by the resolution which 
was carried in June this year in the House of Commons 
at Mr. Gladstone's suggestion. 

112. I think you admit, Sir Joseph, that the question 
has two entirely separate sides — that is the internal 
consumption side, and the export to China and other 



countries, the export trade side P — I have always taken Sir J. 

that view, that the Indian side of the question was Pease, M.P. 

not nearly so important as the Chinese side of tho 

question. 8 Sept. 1893. 

113. I was going to ask, do you not admit that the 
system in India, as far as regards internal consumption, 
is a very strongly repressive system ? — I think it has 
become so lately owing to the agitation in this country 
increasing the vigilance of the Indian Governm'ent, and 
opening their eyes to the harm that was likely to arise 
from a larger local consumption. 

114. Have you ever tried to think of any material 
improvement of that system which could be suggested ? 
— I do not see that there is any other mode than total 
prohibition of the cultivation of the poppy except for 
medicinal purposes, and the sale by license of medica 
opium. In this country no one can buy opium, but at 
a druggist's, and it has a registered sale. 

115. Do you think that the English system of sale by 
druggists really stops anybody from getting opium 
who wants to get it for non-medical purposes ? — Of 
course it is very difficult to compare English habits and 
tastes with Indian habits and tastes, but I have 
no doubt the policy is restrictive. I camiot doubt 
that. 

116. I went tho other day into a chemist's shop, and 
Ijeing suspicious that probably the system in England 
would not repress it if anybody wanted to get it for 
non-medical purposes, I asked him and he told me that 
anybody could get opium who likes P — Yes. 

117. And he gave me instances of many people — one 
lady, for instance, who was getting from his shop 10 
ounces a week of laudanum for her consumption, and 
he mentioned that in a few places in England, where 
the use of opium for non-medical purposes is common, 
the druggists had the opium made up in packets ready 
for their customers as they came in. Well, are you 
aware, supposing that to be correct, thai; the number 
of druggists' shops in an English town or an English 
neighbourhood is very much larger than the number of 
opium shops in any part of India with which I am 
acquainted ? — I have had no statistics before me, and i 
could not give an opinion, but what you state is 
perfectly true, that if you want to buy it you can buy 
it, but you buy it under these restrictions, that the 
man that sells it is a registered chemist, and he has to 
mark the thing as a poison. 

118. He marks it as a poison, but that is a mere 
distinction in name. Anybody who wants to use it for 
non-medical purposes can use it. That is what I hear, 
and that is what naturally seems to follow ? — I think 
there is very great reason to believe that there ought 
to be further restriction in this country. 

119. In India we have not even the chemists. I 
think you remarked that the growth of Indian opium 
is not only for the purposes of the di-ng, but for the 
purposes of intoxication ; but are you aware that opium 
is very largely used in India as medicine, and that, 
perhaps, with the exception of the few English, or 
people who are prescribed for by English physicians, 
and who are a mere mite amongst the mass of Indians, 
that the other Indians, if they use opium for medicine, 
use the Indian opium ? — Yes, I am quite aware that 
they use it, but whether it is used for medicine or not 
I do not know. 

120. It is used largely for medicine by every native 
physician, every native Hakim, every old woman who 
prescribes in her own neighbourhood for medicine ? — 
Whether that is a judicious administration I very much 
doubt. 

121. I know ; but it is very largely used F — I think 
Sir Benjamin Brodie's paper and other papers that I 
have read in the " Lancet " take the same view, that it 
is a drug, and must be treated as a drug. 

122. You mentioned, Sir Joseph, the fact of an 
advertisement of an opium shop in a railway carriage 
on a State line ; have you any reason to tbink that 
that advertisement was put in by the Government and 
not by the owner of the shop ? — No, but the Govern- 
ment licensed the shop, I suppose. 

123. Licensed the shop ? — Or licensed the seller. 

124. The Government license a public-house in 
England, but that is repressive. As to the advertise- 
ment in question, have you any idea that that 
advertisement was jsut in by the Government and not 
by the owner of the shop ? — No. It does not make any 

B 2 



12 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Sir J. matter in tho view I take who put the advertisement 

Veme., M.P. ■'ip- The man sells the Government opium, and the 

more he sells the better for the revenue and the worse 

8 Sept. 1893. for the people, it seems to me. 

125. There was a reference to a clause in the vendor's 
lease ? — License. 

12(5. That they must sell a certain amount of opium, 
or else, at any rate, pay for that certain amount of 
opium ? — Yes. 

127. That has been abolished? — Lord Cross recom- 
mended th'Bt it should be abolished. 

li'8. I', has been abolished, and I do not know that 
it is worth perhaps much referring to ; but are yon 
aware what the object of that clause was ? — I saw that 
in Lord Cross's blue book it is stated that the object 
was to prevent smuggling and the consumption of 
illicit opium. How that could do it I cannot tell. 

129. Well, the object was actually to protect the 
revenue, not to ii crease the consumption ? — It says, 
"prevent the consumption of illicit opium." 

130. You could not make a man sell more by jiutting 
that inP — Well, it makes him very desirous not to be 
fined, and to get the profit on what he had sold. 

131. All these men are desirous to sell as much as 
they can I am afraid, but you would not increase 
their desire? — I think you would increase it very 
much. If you fine me for every ounce of the article 
that I do not sell, then you take away part or the whole 
of the profit I have got on the number of ounces that I 
do sell. 

132. The object, both in the case of certain spirit 
licenses and the opium licenses, I believe the stated 
object was this. It was found by exjierience that the 
men sold a great deal more than they put down in their 
returns, and it ti as known to be impossible, and shown 
by statistics to be absolutely impossible, that they could 
pay the license duly which they did ])ay if they did not 
sell a great deal more than they admitted in their 
returns. To meet that, an amount was put down 
which was known to be well within the amount which 
they actually sold, so as to secure that Government 
should get that, the duty ? — To the unsophisticated 
mind it can only bear one view, that the man had to sell 
the amount in the license. Taking it for granted that 
you are dealing with an honest man, you would not give 
a dishonest one a license — at any rate the magistrates in 
England do not license a dishonest publican if they 
know it, and you immediately say, " you have not sold 
as much opium as you ought to have sold, and 
therefore you are fined," and you take away the profit 
of that which he has sold. It is a mysterious clause, 
rather. 

133. I think you said that probably the Chinese 
only favoured, as it were, the growth of opium in 
China because they were under a certain amount 
of pressure or compulsion to admit our opium, and they 
preferred, if opium was to be used, that the Chinese 
should get the dollars and not the Indians ? — I think 
there is no doubt that what I consider to be the 
forced introduction of English opium into China 
stimulated very materially the home growth. I bolie\e 
the Indian opium is of a much better quality, and is 
liked by the richer class in China, and that the others 
not being able to buy English opium grow their own. 

134 I want to ask you with I'eferencc to that, why 
do you think they admit Persian opium ? — Into China ? 

13'j. Into China, because they never have beeii under 
any pressure or compulsion to admit Persian opium ? — 
I do not know; the Persian opium is Ijy far the finest 
quality of opium. 

136. Well, Persian opium goes in largely ; why do 
they admit it ; if they only admit Indian opium, which 
is also ,a very fine quality, under pressure, why should 
they admit Persian opium P — I do not know. I must 
not ask you a question, Ijut Persian oj)ium comes through 
India. 

137. You put groat weight. Sir Joseph, on the 
Go\crDment of Bombay's objection to permit the 
cultj ^'ation in Bombay, when the question was raised by 
the Government of India. Is it not the case that the 
Bombav Government never proposed to prohibit the 
supply in the ordinary form common over India, but 
that it only argued that the old Indian policy whereby 
cultivation was prohibited in Bombay and Wadra^, and 
tho;-.e provinces were made to rely on supplies drawn 
from the pojipy grown iu Ihe native states, should be 



maintained ? — It went a great deal further than that ; 
it said that if it was not maintained it would be 
attended with very detrimental results ; in fact the 
word " moral " comes into it. 

138. Yes, but was not the reason that if you allowed 
cultivation which had been always prohibited — which 
has always been the policy of the Government of India 
in Bombay and Madras, there must be a certain amount 
of leakage and untaxed consumption. Was not that 
what the Government of Bombay meant ? — I do not 
know what they meant ; all I know is what they said 
that if it was grown there, it would be attended with 
moral disaster. 

139. I think you referred to the Oalifornian law and 
the Australian law. I think those are both laws for 
the prevention of the consumption of opium on the 
premises ? — Yes, anybody selling and dealing. 

140. For sale on the premises ? — The Californian law 
goes a great deal further than that. It evidently was 
passed under a sense of the demoralising efiect of opium 
on the Chinese population in the first instance, and 
that being communicated to the Europeans, and I had 
a call from a gentleman who is the present Prime 
Minister of Victoria, who told me that the feeling was 
exceedingly strong in the Colony, that the Chinese had 
communicated the habit to the younger Europeans, and 
that girls were seduced under the influence of opium, 
and that there was a strong feeling among the whites as 
against the Chinese and against the opium trade. 

141 and 142. The Bill, I think, referred to consumption 
in shops on the premises P — I do not like to read a whole 
Act of Parliament, but these are the marginal notes : — 
" Opium not to be imported except by licensed importer 
" and for medical purposes." " Bestriction on importa- 
" tion." "Opium imported contrary to this Act to be 
" forfeited." " Importer not to sell opium except to 
" medical practitioners, chemists, members of College 
" of Veterinary Surgeons, or licensed persons." 
" Except under Poisons Act, no person to buy opium 
" without a license." "Commissioner may grant 
" annual licences to buy opium." " Entry of sales of 
" opium by importer." " No person to smoke opium." 
" No person to eat or drink opium, except as a medi- 
" cine." " No person to prescribe opium unnecessarily." 

143. That is the Australian Bill P— That passed the 
Lower Chamber, but not the Upper Chamber, because of 

the dissolution. 

144. You read. Sir Joseph, some terrible descriptions 
of the evils of opium-eating in China? — Of opium 

smohing. 

145. Do you not think that those remarks apply 
mainly to cases of gross excess, and that perhaps, in 
cases of gross excess in spirituous liquors the same sort 
of terrible descriptions might be composed if the ques- 
tion were raised P — I am afraid it would be very diflScnlt 
to limit the descriptions of the damage done by excess 
in spirituous liquors, but I think that these quotations 
which I have read prove that opium is a much more 
insidious poison; but my objection is that we are 
trading in this poison for the purpose of raising revenue, 
and we are selling it for the purpose of raising revenue! 
Having found that it is detrimental to other nations and 
to other people, it is wrong for us to raise a revenue by 
contiiming in the trade. 

146. I wanted to ask you this. Supposing it to apply 
fairly to opium consumption as a whole, how would you 
explain the fact that the Chinese in the Straits, in Hong 
Kong, and in Shanghai, which is a British possession 
or settlement in China, iu California, and in Australia, 
arc ;as regards a large proportion of them) opium 
smokers, and yet as merchants, clerks, tradesmen, 
agriculturists, artisans, and labourers they are admitted 
to be very shrewd, industrious, and successful, not only 
easily beating the Indians, the Burmese, the Malays 
and the Japanese who meet them, but you will find them 
also beating Europeans, and being notorious among all 
Asiatics for honesty in performing their contracts ?— 
My experience is that an excess cf stimulants, occasion- 
ally taken, has often characterised some of the very best 
workmen I have known. Of course, you do not get the 
same time out of the men as you do out of a steady and 
sober man, but it is unfortunately the case that amono- 
your very best workmen some will give way to habits 
of dnnkiBg ; but that does not take away what I call my 
responsibility in going into the trade, that is to supply 
them. They may do what they like, but I mufct do 
right. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



13 



147. I think, in coming to that, that your great 
objection is the position which the Government occupies 
in that particular Bengal opium growth ? — I say I have 
no right to be in a trade which is detrimental to other 
people. Other people may do it, but I have to form my 
own opinion of what is right. 

148. It is the case, I think, is it not, that the Govern- 
ment is only in that position in Bengal, where it 
manages the growth, we may say, and certainly carries 
out the manufacture ? — The Bengal case is far worse 
than the other, though I have stated already that I should 
have thought, if the Malwa trade is to be purchased, and 
the native princes are getting very little out of it, that 
the duty of the Indian Government would be to try and 
give these concessions to Malwa for something which 
was much more valuable to them than the growth of the 
poppy. 

149. What concessions ? — The concessions named in 
that blue-book, the purchase of opium concessions. 

150. I believe those concessions are simply concessions 
given to some States upon condition that they would 
not allow opium to be cultivated at all ? — A very good 
concession, too. 

151. And to another State the concession was given 
on the ground that it would actively exert itself in 
preventing smuggling. All this you would find pro- 
bably entirely unobjectionable ? — It says that some of 
them are cash. If the Indian Government could do 
without the revenue, the opium trade might be stopped ; 
because every one would admit that it is only on 
the ground of revenue that there is any excuse for 
carrying on the trade. 

152. I wish to ask rather a hypothetical question. 
Supposing the Chinese Government were sincerely 
anxious to restrict and reduce, but perhaps found it 
could not absolutely prohibit the consumption of opium, 
but wanted sincerely to restrict and control the con- 
sumption, would not its most practical and natural way 
of proceeding probably be rather to follow the example 
of the Indian Government, as we say, what the Indian 
Government does in Madras and Bombay, that is, to 
begin by prohibiting the import of opium P — That would 
be, no doubt, the first step. 

153. Excepting very limited amounts and under a 
heavy duty and then it would go on to prohibit the 
growth entirely in China, and so get the foreign opium 
into its hands as we do in Bombay and Madras. We 
allow no cultivation, we allow a certain amount to come 
in from the native States and with that carry on a very re- 
stricted supply to the people at an enormously high price, 
compared with the natural price of the article. Would 
not that be really the way in which the Government of 
China would probably act ? — It is a very hypothetical 
question, but I should think you have very likely 
depicted what the course of the Chinese Government 
would be, which would, of course, have my hearty 
co-operation with the view of steadily diminishing the 
quantity. 

154. Might not the Government of China, if it began 
to do that, find it necessary to take up very much 
exactly the same position as the Government of India 
does in Bengal, except probably that they would not 
export it?— Might they not refuse to allow cultivation 
except by licensed cultivators, and to insist that all the 
opium produced should be made over to its government 
agents P — Yes, and if the Government of China pressed 



upon the governors of the provinces, as we are proposing Sir J 

to do upon the Government of India, to continue <^ Peate, M.P. 

policy of greatly diminishing the cultivation of the 

poppy, I should think the world was getting better. 8 Sept. 189;3. 

155. (Ohairmcm.) You are not sure that the Ohinesb 
Government may not be influenced in their treatment, 
of this question by considerations of revenue ? — I think 
they are. 

156. And though they recognise the moral dis- 
advantage to their people they may possibly bo 
governed by considerations of revenue, and hesitate to 
adopt a policy of prohibition on that account P — My 
belief is, from communications which have been made 
to me by those who have seen and called upon Li-hung 
Chung, who is the great Prime Minister of China, that 
the Chinese will not believe in the sincerity of the 
British Cirovernment in regard to giving up the intro- 
duction of opium into China. "If," they say, "we 
" were not going to send opium into China, their opium 
" policy might be considerably altered." 

167. [Mr. Pease.) I only wanted to ask, was there 
not some limitation to the opium or poppy that could 
be grown in Malwa ? — I am not aware that there is any 
limitation, it is entirely, I believe, in the hands of the 
native rulers. 

158. Is the reason why the quantity of poppy grown 
in Malwa has decreased because it is not profit- 
able ? — The price of the chest was at one time 1,300 
rupees. It fell to 1,100 and stood about 1,100, and now 
it has been latterly 1,000 ; there was a little rise, then the 
other day there was a very heavy fall on the Govern- 
ment measure for the stability of the rupee, which I 
should imagine to be rather a temporary fall, and it is 
because instead of getting 100 or 200 rupees per chest 
above the cost of duty and manufacture, they can get 
very little out of it except that which the native ruler 
gets in the increased land tax for the better lands on 
which the poppy is cultivated. 

159. Was the reduction of the transit duty made for 
the purpose of stimulating the cultivation of the poppy 
in Malwa P — I believe it was to meet the views of the 
native rulers, who said that they could not get their 
opium into the Calcutta market at the higher duty of 
700 rupees per chest with a cost of manufacture of 425 
rupees more. 

160. And if the old transit duty had been maintained ? 
— Yes ; probably the trade would have died out ; it 
could not possibly, I believe, have existed with the 700 
rupee duty. 

161. (Mr. Mowbray.) I do not know whether we shall 
have any of the medical evidence of the medical mis- 
sionaries which you quoted ? — No, I did not quote any 
medical evidence. Dr. Huntley, I believe, will be called 
before your Commission in India. I did read, at your 
Chairman's request, an extract from Dr. Huntley. He 
has lived in the Eajpootana for a long time, and there 
is another medical man who has lived in Rajpootana. 

162 to 166. Could you tell me when the manufacture 
by the Indian Government began what was the origin 
of the manufacture ? — I cannot speak as to the date, but I 
believe it was a manufacture which was carried on 
under the old East India Company, and was inherited 
by the British Government when they took possession 
of India, and the Company was dispersed. I believe it 
is almost from time immemorial. 



The witness withdrew. 



Eev. James Legge, Oxfor 

166. {Chairman.) You are professor of the Chinese 
language and literature at Oxford, are you not P — 
Yes. 

166. You resided many years in China P — Yes ; I 
resided in China, or rather I would say among the 
Chinese people, because I never resided out of Her 
Majesty's dominions. Three years and a half I lived 
in Malacca, which is part of Great Britain, and then 
about 30 years I resided in Hong Kong. 

167. In what capacifcf ? — As a missionary, in connec- 
tion vnth the London Missionary ,^ociety. 

168. Long residence in those cotintries has of course 
enabled you to form an opinion with reference to the 
opium question P — It certainly did ; and while resident 
in Hong Kong I visited many places in China, and 
lacterly I visited Pekin itself, and all the open ports 
and mission stations in the north. 



d, called in and examined. 

169. So that you have had a wide observation of the 
people who are consumers of opium P — I have. 

170. Will you tell us what is your view as to the 
effect of the Bracking of opium on the part of the 
people of China P — Well, let me say that during my 
first residence in Malacca opium smoking was not so 
common as it subsequently became. I heard much of 
it, but J saw little. I had an example that impressed 
me very much with the tenacious hold that the habit 
keeps upon its victim. As soon as I began to be able 
to talk in the language, I went every day vigitin'o- 
among the people, and encountered a young man of 
more than usual gentlemanly manners and address. I 
found he was from a very respectable family in China, 
but because he had formed the opium habit they sent 
him out of the country in the hope that a visit to 
Malacca might wean him from the habit. I became 
interested in the man, invited him to take up his abode 

B 3 



Itev .J. Legge. 



14 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



Rev. J. Legge. -witli me in the Anglo-Chines^ College at Malacca, 

"which was then under my care. He came, and we had 

8 Sept. 1893. very friendly intercourse together ; but all at once he 

■ disappeared. I had made it a condition with him that 

he should not smoke opium in the college. He dis- 
appeaved ; and never came back. On my asking about 
him among his friends, I found that he had died, or that 
he had disappeared altogether. He tried, I believe, 
earnestly to break off the habit, and thought throtigh 
his acquaintance with me, that he had au opportunity 
of doing so, but it was all in vain. Then, when C went 
on to (5hina, wherever I went I encountered opium 
smokers, and found that there wag no evil so much 
deplored by the respectable classes of the people as 
thif? habit. I found that no respectable man could tell 
me of any good that opium had done, but every man 
had his own narrative of evils, deaths, suicides, misery, 
ruin, that it had produced. And my own observation, 
as I became familiar with the people, and I had a large 
circle of acquaintances among them, confirmed the 
reports that I got from those around me. 

171. Ton have been speaking of the opinion enter- 
tained by what yon call ths respectable classes ? — The 
respectable classes ; but I never, even among opiumists 
themselves, heard a man who had a word to say by way 
of apology or excuse for his habit. Tou will find no 
one in China, I believe at the present day you would not 
find one, who, however devoted he might be to the habit, 
would say anything in its favour. I may just mention, 
as having been a missionary, and come very much 
into contact with the Chinese, and associating with 
one missionary society and another, that there is not, 
among all the thousands of churches that are growing 
up and making a profession of Christianity, there is not 
one which would receive a man into its communion who 
was in the least degree addicted to the smoking of 
opium. When converts in connection with myself 
began to increase in number, so as to form a com- 
munity, I brought the subject frequently before them 
when all the principal members of our church were 
assembled together. I did so because 1 wished to train 
them into the way of feeling that the responsibility 
of receiving fresh additions to our numbers rested 
with themselves and could not and ought not 
to be devolved upon their missionary and pastor. On 
several occasions I acted the part of what we call the 
" devil's advocate." I would say to them, " Well, here 
" is this man who laakes application to be baptised and 
'■ to be admitted as a member of our community ; he 
'■ is said to have a good character ; but if any of you 
'■ know it to be otherwise, you ought to come forward 
" and declare it. I do not know that he is at all 
" addicted to the habit of opium smoking ; but if he 
" be, you must make up your minds whether you will 
" receive such opium smokers. And do yon think it 
" is worse to take a pipe of opium now and then than it 
" is for the members of many, perhaps, of most in other 
" churches, to take a, glass of wine now and then?" 
And they would reply to me, " Why, there is no analogy 
"' between the two cases ; you take your glass of wine 
" and it does ,'ou no harm ; you abstain from it, and 
" you do not feel any great craving for it ; but when a 
" man once begins the habit of taking opium, it grows 
" upon him, he cannot refrain from it ; he is miserable 
" until he gets his usual dose ; we cannot receive into 
" our communion one addicted to the least indulgence 
■' in opium smoking ; if we did, the end would be our 
" own disgrace and injury." Such is the universal 
feeling on the part of all Christian oonveits in Chiua. 

172. Is the practice of smoking opium one which 
prevails widely among the more well to do classes ? — It 
prevails widely, and it has increased very greatly within 
my own experience ; but without statistical information 
I am not prepared to say what percentage of Chinese 
may smoke opium. I do not think it is so large as some 
have asserted, and I do not think it is small. 

17.3. Comparing the masses, is it with them rather 
than with the more well-to-do classes that the consump- 
tion of opium most widely prevails ? — Well, that also is 
a difficult question to answer. There is no class that 
is free from it. It manifests its presence sooner among 
the poorer classes than among the richer, for when a 
man is wealthy and indulges his desire for the opium 
pipe, and yet is able to live comfortably otherwise, 
have snfBcient nourishing food, good housing and 
clothing, the habit does not tell upon his physical 
condition, so soon as it does upon the poor man. 
I it^ve often had a dozen men brought before me to 
see whether I could telli which was an opium smoker 
and whish was not, and it was very seldom that I made 



a mistake. The sallow countenance, general appear* 
ance, emaciation of the opium smoker for the most part 
revealed his character. 

174. The Chinese stand high, do they not, as a race, 
for their powers of industry P — They are the most 
industrious people I ever became acquainted with. 

175. And physically a powerful race ? — Yes ; they are 
not generally so tall, perhaps not so muscular as 
Englishmen are ; but I have often come into contact 
with a Chinaman from whom I was glad very soon to 
get quit. 

176. They are good workers F — They are good workers. 

177. And I suppose many of those Chinamen who are 
good workers are to some extent consumers of opium P 
• — ITot many of the best workers ; no. When an opium 
smoker comes under the power of his habit, he cannot 
work so well unless he refreshes himself every day with 
his pipe. 

178. And are you under the impression that it is 
exceedingly difficult to indulge to a limited degree in 
his form of indulgence, and that most people who take 
any opium at all take too much ? — That is my view. 

179. Is there anything that you would like to say to 
us further with regai'd to the injury which is done to 
the Chinese people, physically, and mentally, and 
morally by the use of opium ? — No ; I might sum up 
what I have to say, that from all I have known and 
seen of the habit of smoking opium, I should say 
that the drug does evil, and nothing but evil, and that 
continually. 

180. Have you anything to say to us with reference 
to the public feeling in China with reference to our 
policy in promoting a traffic between India and China 
in opium ? — I have written down what I should say on 
such a question. 

181. Will you read it ? — I have often heard an 
indignant expression of complaint against England ; 
but few of the Chinese are sufficiently acquainted with 
the geography and history of our Indian dominion 
to complain specially of our Indian policy, of which 
they are the victims. They know that the use of opium, 
except for medical purposes, is forbidden here at 
home among ourselves, and why should we, they have 
often asked me, try to force it on them ? They 
have done so in the past, and still continue to do so. 
Their statesmen are better acquainted with our Indian 
policy ; but their suggestion to Sir Rutherford Alcock 
for a modification of our Indian policy was not received 
generously, and did not meet with acceptance. In con- 
cluding what I have to say in reply to your question, I 
may bo allowed to relate part of a conversation which I 
had with Kwo Snng-tao, the first Chinese ambassador 
who was appointed to this country. I called on him 
soon after his arrival in London, and he welcomed me 
to the Legation. Among other things which he asked 
me was this, "Whether I thought China or England 
was the better country." I told him at once that I 
thought England was the better country. He was 
disappointed, and said, "Well, I grant you that you 
' ' have finer public buildings, finer offices than we have, 
" more engineering skill, and that altogether England 
" is a cleaner country than China., But that is not 

what I mean. 1 mean looking at the two countries 
from their moral standpoint;" and that moral 
standpoint, as he expounded it, was as to the appreciation 
of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, conscientious- 
ness, and good faith. I told him that was a more 
difficult question to answer; but while I knew what 
high ideas of those virtues the Chinese had, I thought 
many of the English took higher views, and tried to 
carry them out more than the Chinese did ; and, lookino- 
at the two countries or peoples from that standpoint I 
still thought England was the better of the two. I 
never saw a man more disappointed ; he anticipated 
quite a different reply. He took a couple of turns 
across his reception-room ; then planting himself before 
nie, he said, "You eay that England, looked at from a 
" moral standpoint, is better than Chiua ; why then 
", let me ask you, has England tried to force upon 
China hei- opium, and still continues to do so ? " 

182. At what date did this conversation take place?— 
Soon after his arrival ; more than ten years a<^o • I think 
it might be in 1877. ' 

18o. This Chinese gentleman would hardly contend 
that at the jiresent day the pow.n- of England would 
be used to force the ti'ade in uDJnm on the Chinese"— 
I hope no such ideas are springing up on the subject 
regarding England. 



MINU^E^ . OF EFIPENCE. 



1^ 



184. Certainly not P— But when I had that conversa- 
tion with K^o Snng-Tao I suppose there were 70,000 
chests of opium going from India to China. I suppose 
that the Indian Government this year will send at least 
80,000 chests. 

185. It was immediately open to the Chinese Govern- 
ment to exclude the Indian opium from China ; if they 
think fit they can levy a prohibitory duty P — The Ohi-fu 
Convention had not taken place when I saw him then, 
but still the legalisation of the opium trade after the 
Tientsin Treaty had taken place. 

186. The position at present is that the Indian 
Government does allow the export of opium to China 
to take plaoe, subject to a very hea^y export duty 
imposed in India. It leaves it to the Chinese Govern- 
ment, if they think fit, to exclude the importation of 
opium into their ports, either by an edict of prohibition 
or by levying prohibitory duties ? — Well, I wish they 
would set about* doing so. It is not easy for them ; at 
least they do not seem to think it easy for them, because 
they have not done it. 

187. The Chinese have not done it ?— And the pro- 
duction of opium among themselves has been increasing 
more and more. 

188-9. Have you anything to tell us as to the. time 
when and the way in which the cultivation of the poppy 
and the use of opium were introduced into China ? — 
So far as I have investigated the matter, and it is a 
matter that requires a good deal of research, I think 
they first became acquainted with opium and adopted 
the name of it in perhaps the eighth century, during the 
period of one of their greatest dynasties, the T'ang 
dynasty, a powerful dynasty that attracted people to 
itself on visits of curiosity and of business from the 
west. Then the Arabs came into China. Mahomme- 
danism, if it had risen, had not become at all vigorous, 
but the Arabs came into China, and the Chinese took 
the name and became acquainted with the flower, though 
not with opium, I think, at that early time. A-phirn is 
not the proper Arabic name, but it is a name for it there ; 
and the Chinese call it ya-pien, and A-fu-yung, evidently 
in the imperfectness of their phonetic methods trying to 
reproduce the word. After the first introduction they 
were pleased with the flower as a matter of taste ; they 
began to cultivate it; by - and - by they became 
acquainted with its use as a medicine, and their atten- 
tion was specially taken by the capsule and its seeds, 
and they called then the poppy, the " jar-millet," 
comparing its hood, its top, the capsule to the form of 
a jar, and its reeds to millet or any other seed with 
which the jar might be filled. They became acquainted 
also with its medical use in dysentery and the power to 
produce sleep, and gradually they began to plant it ; 
and soon after the fifteenth century it had taken root, 
not earlier, I think, than the fifteenth century, in 
Sze-oh'wan, Kansah, and the other provinces in the west 
of China, and gradually they began to appreciate the 
sensations which the partaking of the opium juice 
gave them. I have read a comparison stating that it 
was like what we call nectar, that it furnished a drink 
fit for Buddha himself. As time went on, the habit of 
eating opium, 'and of drinking an extract from the 
seeds, grew, but not yet the habit of opium smoking. 
Opium smoking was introduced from Manilla or from 
Java by the Spaniards or by the Portuguese. 

190. In the early voyages, do you mean ? — Yes, in 
their early voyages, and that was only discovered lately 
by a medical missionary in Pekin, Dr. Dudgeon, in his 
readings of a topographical volume, in which literature 
China is richer than all the rest of the world together ; 
and in an account of one of the small departments, half 
the size, perhaps, or the whole size, of one of our 
counties, he found an account of the introduction of 
this habit, which came in connection with tobacco. Pirst, 
they became fond of smoking tobacco. Just about the 
same time that the habit was introduced into this 
country, and king James published his Counterblast 
against Tobacco, then the Chinese were forming the 
same habit, and adding to their tobacco some more or 
less of opium in order to make their smoking more 
tasty, more pleasant to themselves. The habit spread 
from the Island of Formosa, and it passed over into Anioy 
'^nd other cities of Pu-kien ; and, in 1729, the attention 
of the Government was directed to the habit, and an 
■ edict was published in that year, denouncing the habit 
. and forbidding, under severe penalties, the smoking 
of opium and the opening of houses for opium -smoking, 
as shown in Dr. Bdkin's historical note on opium. 
That was the beginning of the agitation in China 



against smoking opium, and of course, from the Rev. J. Legge. 

publication of the edict in 1729 the introduction of 

opium became a smnggling trade ; and the East India 8 Sept. 189.3. 

Company, from the time of its operation in China, was 

well acquainted with the Imperial edict against opium, 
well acquainted with the fact that to bring opium from 
India or elsewhere to China was an act of smuggling. 
It can be proved by various instances that the East 
India Company was acquainted with this, and forbade, 
in consequence, the sending opium to China in any of 
the Company's vessels, yet not interfering with the intro- 
duction of it elsewhere. Why, a good many years ago, 
when the question of opium smuggling to China came 
up in the House of Commons, a letter was read from 
a Mr. Pitzhugh to some gentleman connected with 
the direction of the East India Company, explaining 
its character, and expressing his great surprise that 
such a trade should be persevered in which was death 
to the smoker and absolute ruin ; and his letter con- 
cluded with expressing his great regret that, if England 
adopted this practice, the character in which the East 
India Company was held would go down in China, and 
the whole of the Europeans in that country would be 
disgraced. 

191. (Bvr James Lyall.) What year was that P — Wc , 

have quite sufficient evidence that the prohibition was 
well known to the Directors of the East India Company. 
Mr. Pitzhugh, in China, in 1782, when it was being 
discussed in Calcutta whether a new departure should 
not be taken by the Indian Government by sending to 
China opium in a greater and , more open manner 
than had yet been done, replying to the inquiries ad- 
dressed to him on the subject, said: " The importa- 
" tion of opium to China is forbidden on very severe 
" penalties. The opium, on seizure, is burned, the 
" vessel carrying it is confiscated, and the Chinese 
" in whose possesion it is found is ptmished with 
" death. It might be concluded that, with a law so 
" rigid, no foreigners would venture to import, nor 
" any Chinese dare to purchase this article ; yet 
" opium has for a long course of time been annually 
" carried to China, and often in large quantities, both 
" by our country's vessels and those of the Portuguese. 
" That this contraband trade has hitherto been carried 
" on without incurring the penalties of the law is 
" owing to the excess of cormption in the Executive 
" part of the Chinese Government." His letter 
concludes with adverting to the high opinion of the 
East India Company entertained by the Chinese, and 
thus concludes : " How must this opinion change when 
' ■ your servants are to deviate from the plain road of 
" an honourable trade to pursue the crooked path of 
" smuggling ! " This was written in 1782, 50 years 
before the occurrence of our first war in China, and for 
more than 60 years before that the smoking had been 
carried on with a knowledge of the position in which it 
was placed by the Chinese Government. 

192. (Ghadrman.) Tou have given us an historical 
sketch going up to a very early period ; and I suppose 
we may take it from you that the habit of smoking 
opium and the cultivation of the poppy in China 
did not originate through the intercourse with Eng- 
lishmen, but it began long before there was any 
intercourse between England and China?— I do not 
believe myself, I have seen no evidence to make me 
think, that opium was ever produced in China, ex- 
cepting as a medicine, until after the rise of this habit 
of opium smoking in Formosa soon after 1700. It was at 
Amoy, in the fields about Amoy, that opium first began 
to be grown. 

193. Is it within your personal knowledge that there 
has been any considerable increase in the cultivation of 
the poppy in China of recent years ? — Tes ; at present 
that is my own view. Of course every year the increase 
has gone on with accelerated rapidity, and to a greater 
extent ; but in 1873, as my departure from the country 
drew near, I went for a couple of months up to the 
north, visiting the difierent mission stations at Shanghai, 
Chi-fu, Tientsin, and went on to Pekin itself. In 
returning en route for England, I went from Pekin by 
mule cart to the province of Shan-tuug, and visited the 
old cemetery to see the grave of Confucius ; and all the 
way from Pekin I saw opium fields. 

194. What is the distance P — Well, it took us 
15 days, perhaps 40 or 50 miles a day, and as we 
drew near to ai village of Ch'u-f'ou, where Confucius 
had lived, and which is very much peopled by his 
descendants at the present day, I saw a field of opiumir 
bloom, and near by were a number of grey-headed 
men — old men — seated on a dyke, talkiug together. 

B 4 



16 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



iJeo. J. Legge. 
8 Sept. 1893. 



I vrent up to tliem with my companion, -who was the 
Rev. Dr. Edkins, and we expressed to them our sorrow 
at seeing the field of opium, especially so near the 
grave of Oonfuoius himself. One of the old men, with 
quivering voice, said, " Tes, you are sorry ; but I am 
'■ more sorry !" He said, "My relatives, my friends, my 
" family, have long dwelt here ; our young people have 
" grown up in decent, industrious, respectable habits, 
" but they will not do so much longer." 1 was affected 
almost to tears by the feeling of the old man, — his 
feeling the injury that was being done by ihe growth of 
opium, and that the injury would extend to his 
descendants. 

195. Was this man that you are speaking of one of 
the descendants of Confucius, do you say ; did he claim 
that? — I do not know, but soon after that I asked one 
of the descendants of Confucius, who was one of my 
barrow-men in travelling to the Grand Canal, and he 
said there were about 40,000 of the same surname. 

196. It becomes a sort of clan or tribe ? — Then I 
went to the palace of his descendant, the only duke in 
China, who has got landed property. 

197. Did you make any other journeys — inland jour- 
neys — in China, which would enable you to form an 
opinion as to the extent of the growth of the poppy ? — 
No ; but all along that way, from Pekin to Shanghai, 
there was the opium growing By that time the 
Tellow Eiver, the river of China's sorrow, had changed 
its course, and instead of falling into the sea where it 
had done for more than a century, it had turned its 
course north. After crossing it just on the borders 
of Shan-tung — ci'ossing its new course — then we went 
on and came to a high bank, from which we saw its old 
channel, through which for some 500 miles it had run 
on to the sea.- There was the hollow of the old channel 
filled with fields — not absolutely filled — but dotted 
here and there with fields of the poppy plant in 
bright bloom. That was my experience. But of late 
years, in the great provinces of the West, the growth 
of opium has increased, extended. I should think, 
now that the opium supplied fiom the native fields is 
perhaps five times as much as what they get from 
India. 

198 (Sir James Lyall.) I would like to ask one ques- 
tion : Is any alcoholic liquor drunk in China ?— Very 
little. In 34 years, and often in very large cities, from 
Canton of a million and a half down to cities with 
a population of 200,000 and 300,000 persons, in those 
34 years I never saw but one Chinaman drunk, and he 
was not very drunk. 

199. What do you think is the reason that they 
avoid liquor and smoke opium ? Is there any idea that 
one is disgraceful and the other not, or anything of 
that sort ? — Their temperance is owing to their having 
drunk tea for 2,000 years, to the abundance of tea, and 
owing to the teaching of their schools. There is a 
great deal of moral training and moral feeling in 
China, much more than we are prepared to give them 
credit for. 

200. Then with the moral training and moral feeling 
why does not that tell against the smoking of opium ? 
— It does tell against the smoking of opium. 

201. Not so successfully as against the liquor ? — 
Though people have been enslaved, become victims to the 
habit themselves, they all speak against it, and lecture 
each other about it. Largely even as it has increased, 
I believe that the percentage of opium smokers in China 
is not more than 20 per cent, of the population ; but it is 
increasing very largely from year to year, and the ruin 
of China becomes more alarming, more threatening to 
be irrecoverable, 

202. I was in .lapau last year, and in Japan opium is 
prohibited. — Yes, it is prohibited. 

203. It always has been, but liquor is drunk every- 
where, is procurable everywhere, and the Government 
raises an enormous revenue out of it ? — If we could have 
had our way the .lapanese would have been customers 
for our opium as much as the Chinese. Fortunately, 
the day before Lord Elgin concluded his Treaty in 
.lapan, the American representative, who had seduced 
him into the legalization-action, at the tariff negotia- 
tions after the Treaty of Tientsin, completed his. Mr. 
Heed had concluded his treaty the day before Lord 
Elgin. In that treaty opium was prohibited, and an 
engagement come to by the Americans that they would 
not introduce opium into Japan. 

204. Do yon know the Chinese labourers very well; 
do yon think there is any danger that, ifopiuna was 



prohibited, the Chinese would follow the Japanese 
example, and drink a great deal of liquor instead ? — I 
cannot tell; I do not think they would, so long as 
they could get plenty of tea. 

206. You know the Chinese officials very well, you 
know their habits and their character; do you think 
here is any probability of the Chinese Government 
evei stopping the growth of opium in China ? Do 
you think it is probable ? — Well, who can tell about the 
future ? I hope, and I fear. I may bo allowed, my Lord, 
to just refer in connection with this to a kindred 
subject. The question has often been put to me 
whether I thought that the opium smuggling had made 
us accountable for our first opium war ; and I would like 
to give my view about that. The war was occasioned 
by two factors ; one was the intolerable insolence of the 
Chinese in refusing to have intercourse with the repre- 
sentatives of England on terms of equality, and the 
other was our habit of smuggling. England had this 
grievance against China, of its arrogant insolence ; 
China had this grievance against England, of its per- 
sistent smuggling ; and, as between the two, I say that 
the persistent smuggling of England was a greater 
crime against humanity and against God, than the 
abominable arrogance of the Chinese ; and we had no 
right to call by violence upon our country to make the 
Chinese Government change its insolent ways — we had 
no right to do that, until we could stand before them 
and say that we had given up this persistent habit of 
smuggling. In reading Sir John Davis's " History of 
China," in his account of the troubles that broke out 
after the arrival of Lord Napier, to supersede the East 
India Company's official supercargoes in the superin- 
tendenne of the trade, I find he says, " As soon as ever 
he (Lord Napier) arrived, the trade became free." The 
consequence was that nearly every — I do not say every — 
Englishman, but scores of Englishmen in that part of 
the world who could manage to muster enough to pur- 
chase a "ooaL of their own, went into the smuggling 
trade, carried on their business not merely in the waters 
outside the port, but went also into the interior waters, 
until even the Chinese merchants and the superin- 
tendent there (Captain Elliot) began to get alarmed, 
and, after consultation with the English generally. 
Captain Elliot issued an edict to all these little 
smuggling parties, ordering them out of the inner 
water within three days, and he communicated to the 
Governor that he had done so, and offered him his 
assistance to suppress that abominable system of 
smuggling that was everywhere going on. Sir John 
Davis says that this was the only occasion on which the 
Canton Governor dispensed with the absurd practice of 
requiring the English superintendent to address the 
Mandarins, through the intervention of the Hong Kong 
merchants. He granted terms of equality on that occa- 
sion, so conscious was he of the virtue of the English 
superintendent in the offer which he had made to them. 

206. (Ghairman.) We may take it that we all regard 
that policy of the past with great regret, and that we 
accept the statement which was made on behalf of the 
late Government by Sir James Ferguson, that such a 
course of policy as that would never be permitted 
again ; that I think is agreed ? — I wish it were so, my 
Lord, that we all look back with shame and regret upon 
the past. I believe you have stated correctly, that the 

question which is before us now, is the present and is 

Is the opium a thing th.at is <loing good or doing evil ? 

207. You have very clearly told us, as the result of your 
long experience, and in your judgment, that opium does 
nothing but harm in China ?— Nothing but harm ; and 
therefore it is that I hailed the new departure which 
the Anti-Opium Society took in directing its operations 
specially to India, and proposing that the production of 
opium in India should be confined to what was 
necessary for medical purposes. The veil seemed to 
fall from my eyes, and I said to myself, " Now we have 
' ' hit upon the right method ; we strike at the evil in 
" its very head ; cut oft', stop up the fountain of pro- 
" duction in India, and the influence that goes out from 
" us upon China will be for good and nothing but good !" 
And I myself have such confidence in the arrangements 
of Providence in the conduct of human affairs that I 
believe we should recover anything that we should lose, 
ten times. 

208. {Sir James Lijall.) Would not that apply to the 
production of spirit, of rum, and whisky, and all those 
things that are produced in Europe, and are sent out 
to all sorts of countries ? How do you draw the dis- 
tinctionp They do tremendous harm in India; at the 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



17 



present day great Harm is done by the importation of 
spirits— great harm is done to the Indians. "What is 
the distinotion P— I think better of spirits than you do, 
apparently, though I cannot say that I have ever seen 
my way clear to become a teetotaller; but two things 
that are bad will not make a third thinjs;, that is worse, 
good. I have no reply to say, but " success to the 
teetotallers." 

209. (Mr. Pease.) You stated that your observation 
had Been, that persons who became smokers gradually 
came more and more under the influence of the 
opium ? — ^Tes. 

210. If it is stated by other witnesses that men go on 
from 15 to 16 years consuming the same quantity and not 
coming more under the influence of opium, do you say 
that that is contrary to your experience P — I never 
knew such a case ; I never knew a man go on so long 
without injury. I have said that if a man is well ofi", 
otherwise able to feed well, able to keep himself well 
clothed, he may indulge in opium much longer than a 
poor man, on whom it works its natural effects, and 
who cannot defend himself against them. But of 
course, there is a danger to every man who indulges at 
all in drinking, whether it be spirits, liquors, or even 
beer ; the less he takes of them the better ; but it does 
not follow that he will go to ruin as the poor opium 
smoker does in China. 

21i. (Sir W. Boherts.) In your travels in China, have 
you ever come to a community where opium smoking 
might be said to bo generalised, that is to say, general- 
ised in the same way that the drinking of alcoholic 
stimulants is in this country p — Well, no, not in my 
travels in China. Happily, I have not met with any 
community so thoroughly debauched as that. Some- 



times the condition does very much change ; the Chinese -H^w- •^. J-'egge- 

population of Hong Kong has approached that. For 

instance, in 1844, the very year after Hong Kong — or. 8 Sept. 189B 

two years after Hong Kong — ^was ceded to us, an ordi- " — 

nance was passed by the Legislative Council, making 
Hong Kong the opium house for all China ; and I think 
it was 10 opium houses which were at once licensed 
for the preparation of opium, and, often in the morning 
I have gone down from my own house on the hill, and 
walked along about a quarter of a mile of the Queen's 
Eoad where those houses were situated, and the air 
reeked with the effluvia of the boiling opium, and the 
greatest scandal very soon arose in connection with the 
system then adopted by the Hong Kong Government. 

212. Ton suggested erroneously that sometimes even 
20 per cent, of the population of China were opium 
smokers ; that would be of the adults, I presume ? — It 
may be so now, because, I believe, that through the 
home production the quantity of opium produced in 
China is perhaps flve times that which comes from 
India. The inspector. Sir Robert Hart, made a calcula- 
tion of the amount of opium imported from India, and 
how many people it would serve to afi'ord smoking to, 
and I think it was only 1 per cent. ; that is several 
years ago. But I should say now that in some places 
20 per cent., but that upon the whole 10 per cent, of the 
population, some 40,000,000, are opium smokers. 

213. Is there any evidence that there is any national 
degeneration of health in China P — No ; but all our 
medical missions are well employed, and Dr. Dudgeon, 
at Pekin, hasmade a register of applicants and opium 
victims with their trades and their various engage- 
ments, which enables him to determine the proportions 
of diSerent pursuits that are suflering from the habit. 



The witness withdrew. 



Dr. Maxwell called in and examined- 

214. (fihavrmcm.) I believe you are a master of arts 
and a doctor of medicine of Edinburgh ? — Yes, my Lord 

215. And what is your present position P — My present 
position is secretary to the Medical Missionary Associ- 
ation in London. 



Dr. Maxtvell. 



216. And in earlier life what was your career p — Prom 
1 863 to 1885, excepting a long period of illness between 
1874 and 1883, I was a medical missionary in the island 
of Formosa in South-Bastern China. 

217. That long residence in Formosa put you into a. 
position in which you could form a judgment as to the 
efieots of the opium habit. Will you kindly tell us the 
conclusions to which yon were brought P — I may 
first just state, my Lord, the kind of experience which as 
a medical missionary I was forced to have. I should 
say that every missionary whether medical or otherwise 
in China is forced to take note of the opium question, 
not only because he meets with opium victims, but 
because the rigid law of the Christian church in China 
is that no opium smoker shall, under any condition, be 
admitted to the church. He must form a judgment 
for himself of the grounds of that and approve it or 
otherwise. So that every missionary is involved, but 
especially a medical missionary, the moment he opens a 
dispensary, as Imyself did in the seaport village of Takow 
in the island of Formosa in the year 1865. In the first 
four months of my dispensary practice there, out of 
649 patients I think I had 247 who were opium smokers, 
and 109 of these came expressly to be cured of opium 
smoking, that is to ask my help for the cure of opium 
emoking. I took note of that, and three years later, or 
rather in the beginning of 1869, when I was permitted 
to return to the capital of Formosa, the city of Tai-wan- 
foo, a city of 150,000 or 200,000 inhabitants, and opened 
a hospital there, in the first five months of my work 
there, I had 250 opium patients, that is patients who 
came e.xpressly seeking help to be delivered from the 
bondage of the opium habit. Now this is the experience 
of every medical missionary in China. In the north and 
in the west and in the south wherever a medical 
missionary is planted he is beset by great numbers of 
people, men especially, who are seeking to be cured of 
the opium habit, and I calculate that no less than 
20,000 patients a year pass through the hands of ihe 
medical missionaries alone, seeking deliverance from 
the habit ; that is altogether apart from those who go to 
missionaries who have opened opium refuges and who 
are able to help them by means of the opium refuge, 
shutting up the patients for a certain number of days, 
and altogether apart from the very large numbers who 
go to Chinese practitioners seeking help from them. 

e 809^0. 



In almost every city in China, and in the large villages, 
there are shops where medicines are sold expressly for 
the cure of the opium habit, by the Chinese themselves. 
All that will show you how full is the experience, at 
least of the medical missionaries, in relation to the 
habit. 



218. What is the class of people who seek medical 
help with reference to opium, and what are their 
motives for coming to seek for professional assistance ? 
— The class of people is the working class ; the small 
shopkeepers, coolies or labourers, ordinary artizans and 
the working class generally, the poorer class, not the 
wealthier class, these are the parties who come into 
our hands and it is upon them of course that the habit 
presses most severely, just by reason of their compara- 
tively limited income. 

219. Do you take it that the use of opium in a 
measurable per-centage is more prevalent among the 
poorer class than it is among the well-to-do class p— 
According to per-centage, 1 do not know. Of course, 
a vast number of the people in China belong to 
the comparatively poorer class, agriculturalists and 
working men, and it is amongst them that the 
missionaries have their chief labour. It is not amongst 
the wealthier class. But we know it as a fact 
that large numbers of the wealthier classes do take 
opium, but comparatively few of them come into our 
hands. You asked me a question which I have failed 
to answer, and that was as to the motives of those 
working people for seeking help. The motives were 
these : Some of them came because they had, in the 
first instance, begun to take opium for the pleasure 
which it gives. They had found that after a year or 
two years, the pleasure had entirely passed away, and 
that they were now under a condition in which they 
were without the pleasure of the habit, and were yet 
unable to give it up because of the difficulty, the pain 
of giving it up, and they came seeking help for that 
purpose. Others c-ime who had been, in the first 
instance, recommended to take opium by Chinese 
doctors, or by their neighbours or friends for some 
complaints, such as dyspepsia or neuralgia, or some- 
thing of that kind, and they found themselves, accord- 
ing to their own statement, worse ofl' now that the 
habit was upon them than with the previous disease 
from which they had suffered. Others, again, came at 
the urgent solicitation of their parents or of their 
friends, who knew the tendency of the habit to grow 
worse and worse, and to land them, finally, into abject 
poverty or something like that. A few, I will say a 
few, came who were satisfied of the moral degradation 

C 



18 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Vr. Maxwell, of the habit and who felt the moral degradation of 

■ it, and desired to be delivered from it on that 

8 Sept. 1893. account, and a very Luge number came because of the 

pressure of their financial condition. They found that 

the use of opium was absorbing so much of their daily 
wage that they were unable to sustain their families 
and themselves in anything like ordinary comfort. 
These were the general motives which brought those 
people to seek our help. 

220. Can you, froai your experience in Formosa, 
draw a contrast between the effects of the opium habit 
and the effects of tobacco smoking or of dram drinking ? 
— In Formosa men [and women alike smoke tobacco, 
and I think that that custom is pretty characteristic of 
the whole of the south of China. They all smoke 
tobacco, and during ten years' work in the island of 
Formosa I never had a patient who wanted to be 
rescued from the habit of tobacco smoking, nor did I 
ever hear it suggested that tobacco was a curse. 
Amongst ourselves there were, even amongst mis- 
sionaries, some who used tobacco. It never crossed 
their minds for a moment that anything like church 
discipline should be exercised upon smokers of tobacco. 
On the other hand, the Chinese themselves have no 
hesitation in speaking of the opium habit as a curse 
and as a pest, and we, as missionaries, were not only 
for our own sakes compelled to take notice of Chinese 
opinion, but using our own judgment to recognise that 
it was practically a moral curse to many people in 
China. In that respect the gravity of opium smoking 
as compared with tobacco smoking is very manifest, 
not only in the judgment of the people, but also in its 
effects. I should say that the tobacco that is used in 
Formosa is a light tobacco, and when they would smoke 
they would not smoke so much at a time as we would, 
but they would smoke very frequently, though they ^jever 
dream of anything like inability to give it up if they 
choose to give it up. They would not require to go to 
you for help to give it up, but the opium smoker is 
compelled to come to us for such help. Then with 
regard to the dram drinking, I think that the habit of 
spirit drinking is more common in South China than 
Professor Legge seemed to indicate, in what I heard 
him say a few moments ago. Certainly in Formosa 
there is a considerable amount of spirit made from the 
rice and that is used by the natives. I do not know 
that I have ever seen a drunken man on the streets. 
I have seen again and again men excited by liquor, 
and I am quite satisfied in connection with the use of 
opium and the opium habit the practice of liquor 
drinking is growing ; that instead of its tending to 
diminish, it is tending to increase in China the habit 
of liquor drinking. At the same time, I never had a 
patient who came to me asking for help to be delivered 
from the curse of dram drinking, who felt it to be a 
curse, and amongst us, as missionaries, we never felt that 
we had any occasion jto make that a matter of church 
discipline, as we had to do in the case of opium smokers. 
In these respects I think there is a very distinct 
comparison showing the superior gravity in the minds 
of the Chinese, as well as in the minds of those who go 
to work amongst them, of opium smoking, as compared 
with either tobacco smoking or dram drinking. 

221. You have spoken of large numbers of persons 
coming to you for help to overcome the opium habit. 
Now were those seekers for help to any considerable 
extent persons who were only occasional consumers of 
the di'ug as distinct from habitual consumers ? — They 
were all habitual consumers, and I think it is hardly 
right to speak of occasional consumers. We do not 
call a man an opium smoker who is not a habitual 
consumer, and except a number of merchants who 
know the danger of the drug and of becoming enslaved, 
and who, peihaps, in connection with their business 
will occasionally take a smoke with a customer 
knowing well the danger, but refusing to take it day 
by day, there are no parties whom you would speak 
of as occasional consumers. The ordinary use is 
habitual consumption, that is to say, daily consump- 
tion, once or twice or thrice a day. I am speaking of 
working men, and those who come to us are working 
men. They would be consuming day after day a mace, 
that is about 60 gr., or two mace, or even three mace. 
We reckon that between one and three mace a day was 
what would be called the minimum average of the 
habitual opium smoker, about say 70 gr. or 80 gr. in 
the course of the day. That would be a minimum average, 
for those who are under the habit of the drug. 

222. What you call slaves to the drug ? — Slaves to 
the drug quite as much as if they toot an ounce 



of the drug. If a man took the minimum average of 
the habitual opium smoker, I would say you could 
not distinguish the difference between him and the 
man who took an ounce of the drug. A mace or a 
mace and a half is quite sufficient to make a person 
come under the habit of the drug, so that he is a slave 
to the drug ; and when I use the phrase " slave to the 
drug" the meaning is this, that if for any reason he 
desires to give it up as from financial considerations 
or from moral considerations, he finds himself face to 
face with a physical ordeal that is so severe that he 
cannot manage it. 

223. Great suffering is involved ? — Great suffering. 

224. What is the nature of the suffering? — The 
nature of the suffering is this. If a man passes the 
time of his usual participation in the drug and does 
not receive it, does not get it, he begins as I have 
often seen in the case of Chinese teachers, to gape and 
yawn and to show a very large amount of lassitude, 
and if this is continued and he does not receive his 
regular dose, his eyes begin to run, his nose begins to 
run, he begins to have more or less of colicky pains in 
the bowels, his bones begin to ache, he is not able to 
pull himself together either physically or mentally, and 
he is unable to sleep, he is unable to do work, and he 
is thoroughly miserable, and if this is continued, 
as has happened again and again, both in India and 
China and in England, persons who are in the habit 
of using opium in that way and cannot get their usual 
supply have even killed themselves rather than endure 
the suffering. There was a case which occurred a few 
months ago in Birmingham where a man out his throat. 
He was carried into the General Hospital in Birming- 
ham, and when asked by the doctor there why it was 
that he had been so foolish as to commit suicide in 
this way, or at least to attempt suicide (he did 
ultimately die) his statement was that for three years 
he had been an opium-eater and had reached the length 
of something like 60 gr., that his funds had failed, 
and that his agony had become such, owing to the want 
of opium, that, rather than endure the continual 
suffering, he cut his throat. Now in India and in 
China we have not the least doubt that there are 
many such cases ; but that is a general description of 
the kind of suffering through which they have t.o pass. 
Many have tried to cure themselves, but they have 
found themselves, as a rule at least, unable to do so, 
and they come to us for help in order to be liberated 
from this bondage. 

226. Can you describe to us the physical evils which 
result from the use of opium ? — I am speaking of what 
I myseH have seen and of my own practice. Besides 
this imperious grip which is a very marked feature of 
the opium habit as contrasted with other habits, and 
which I think puts opium out of the ordinary category of 
luxuries, a grip which the partaker of it cannot over- 
corne in his ordinary strength, I found in most of the 
patients who came to me seeking help that they were 
more or less emaciated. I will not call it extreme 
emaciation, but they were undoubtedly less in flesh 
than they ought to have been in the circumstances of 
their age and condition, and one of my rules with 
my opium patients was this (I had no wards in which 
I could secure them so that I could overlook the cure, 
and I was obliged to give them medicine, to take home 
with them to use ; they had to pay for those medicines 
in order to be prevented from simply playing upon the 
doctor;, I warned them that if in a fortnight or three 
weeks " you don't begin to put on flesh I know you are 
" deceiving me, and I will refuse to give you any 
" further medicine." I think we may take it that 
amongst the working men, in very large numbers at' 
lea,st, emaciation is one of the characteristics of the 
opium habit. It has been put down by some missionaries 
notably Dr. Pritchard, of Pekiu, that the average 
degree of leanness caused by the habit amongst 
working men patients is something like 20 lbs that 
IS they were about 20 lbs. less than the ordinarv 
weight of men of their age, owing to their connection 
with the habit. Then besides physical emaciation 
the opium patient suffers from a susceptibility to 
intercuirent diseases, such as ordinary patients are not 
equally hable to, at least. In tropical countries like 
South China we have fevers coming oftentimes epidemi- 
cally as well as endemic fevers. We have dysentery 
and we have cholera, and our experience is that opium 
patients are susceptible to those diseases and fall under 
them ; I mean snconmb to them in a very extraordinary- 
degree above the way in which other persons would 
succumb to them. Their vitality is very much lessened, 



JJI-NTJTBS ,QF Eyi^pN<?i;,, 



m- 



and we see the same feature of weakened vitality in the 
liability of many of these opium smokers to carbuncles 
of a very severe kind, and to ulcers and to other things 
of that kind indicating more or less weakened vitality, 
and we have also an opium diarrhoea to which they are 
subject. Of course I should say first that the ordinary 
opiiim smoker is liable to a degree of constipation which 
is very abnormal. He will not have his bowels moved 
perhaps once in five or six days, sometimes even as 
seldom as twice in a month. But along with that he is 
liable from time to time to attacks of severe diarrhoea, 
and many opium patients are cut ofi" by diarrhoea. Of 
course when a patient is attacked by diarrhoea opium is 
our sheet anchor and often with dysentery also ; but in 
the case of opium patients it is not of the slightest use. 
Opium patients are in that way excluded from any 
benefit tha,t the ordinary patient suffering from diarrhoea 
or dysentery might derive from the drug. That is one of 
the ways in which a large number of our opium patients 
die, from diarrhosa or dysentery, and those are the 
physical evils which I think we see most manifest in 
them, many things betokening a weakened vitality. 
And if you ask whether opium patients die,I would 
admit that we do not see many opium patients 
dying directly from the use of opium unless from 
starvation. There are many that die from starvation in 
connection with opium. We see them in the streets in 
the great cities of China lying dying there, not able to 
work ; and they are not able to get food, and they will 
put out their hands craving for opium, and if you go 
round next day perhaps you will find the body lying 
dead in the street. Many die in that way, but most 
patients^ dying through opium die through their 
liability to diseases coming upon them in their weakened 
vital condition, and so carrying them off. 

226. Then as to the moral evil P — As to the moral 
evils of the opium smoker, I should explain that many 
of the young men are tempted to begin to smoke opium 
because of their knowledge, communicated to them by 
others, of the way in which it ministers to sensuality. 
There is no question of that fact, that it does minister to 
sensuality ; and they begin very largely in order to have 
what they think will be very much sensual enjoyment. 
That is a moral degradation. Then we find that with 
the habitual opium smoker there is in some way or 
other a tendency to falsehood. I do not know how 
to explain it, but it is the case ; with habitual drunkards 
the same thing is the case, the distinction between 
truth and falsehood becomes very much weakened, and 
we find it also with the habitual opium smoker, and the 
tendency to deceit is more marked in them. Then the 
habit of indolence is one of the features which we 
should speak of as one of the moral evils. An opium 
smoker, if he consumes a mace of opium of the prepared 
extract, must spend at least an hour over it, and if he 
is consuming, say, at three smokes in the day, at least 
three mace of opium in the day, he will spend an hour 
in the morning, an hour in the middle of the day, and 
an hour in the evening over this habit. There is thus 
a large amount of time consumed. And it is not simply 
the time that is consumed then, but before he settles 
down to his opium he has already come under the 
lassitude of the want of his opium, and he is not as fit 
for working for some time preceding his getting his 
dose as he would be if he were not an opium smoker. 
Then perhaps the worst evil, taking the community all 
round, is the terrible selfishness which a habit haying 
such a grip upon the patient induces upon him. He 
must have his craving satisfied, and the result is (and 
we must sympathise with it, he cannot help it, it is the 
result of the physical craving) because of the intensity 
of this physical craving he sets at nought his family 
claims, his wife's claims upon him, his children's claims 
upon him, claims of respectability ; all those have to 
go to the wall before the imperious craving under 
which he has given way. We have no hesitation as 
missionarieg in looking upon the opium habit, in the 
simplest forms, as one which we dare not trifle with. 
The native Christian Church would not suffer us to 
admit the opium smokers if we ourselves were inclined 
to admit them. They would say, "We as heathens 
" looked upon it as immoral," and surely as Christians 
could not do less. 

227. What have you to say to us as to the social evils P 

I have mentioned already the social evil in connection 

with the selfishness, but there is another feature of it. 
Only this week I had a letter from one of my colleagues 
in Tai-wan-f 00 — he has been there for 14 years — in which 
he speaks of a conversation which he had held with a 
chemist in the city of Tai-yraa-ioo, ^ chemist whp! 



20 years ago was my own assistant in hospital. I should Dr. Maxwell. 

say he himself had been an opium smoker, knew what • 

opium smoking was, and was saved from the opium vice 8 Sept. ]89S. 

by the help I was able to render him. He later on 

had set up as a chemist, and had a very large amount 
of commerce as a chemist in the city, and knew pretty 
intimately the people of the city, both the well-to-do 
and others, and in this conversation this Chinaman 
expressed to Mr. Barclay, my colleague, his concern at 
the large number of wealthy families who had, since he 
himself had set up in business, gone to the wall, and he 
had no hesitation in putting it down to the abuse of 
opium. When other Chinese, who were referred to in 
connection with this conversation, were asked their 
opinion on the subject, why it was that so many of the 
wealthy families in Tai-wan-foo had gone down, they also 
said it was from opium. That is one manif estion of the 
social effect upon them. I have seen the same described 
by Archdeacon Wolfe, of Fooohow ; I have seen mention 
made by him of villages where the opium habit was 
peculiarly prevalent, and the description of which, for 
dirt and' for poverty, exceeded the description of any 
ordinary village, in relation to these things, in China. 
And ,T remember ofle of the missionaries in Manchuria 
describing the city, Hai-chung, I think it was, not very ' 
far from Mookden, in which the general opinion 
expressed by the people was that their city had rapidly 
gone down through the large amount of opium con- 
BUtned'by them. 

225.1 It has been contended that opium is a very 
necessary Teniedy in countries which are much subjected 
tq malari^,. ,Now, what is your view on that p — I have 
a very decided view on that, my Lord. Formosa is 
perhaps the most malarious district in South China, 
all my patients were more or less under the influence 
of malarious disease. As missionaries it is the chief 
ailment under which we ourselves come, some form 
of malarious disease, and we look upon all the Chinese 
there as being. more or less saturated with malarial 
poison. I could not treat diseases of the kidneys, and 
oftentimes of the eyes, with any hope of success until 
I had put the patient under the influence of quinine, 
so that other remedies might be able to 'v^ork; the 
remedies would not take effect until I had got these 
patients under the influence of quinine. I mention 
that to show how prevalent malaria is in Formosa. 
Well, during 10 years in Formosa I never once heard 
it mentioned by a Chinaman or suggested by a China- 
man that opium was ever taken as a prophylactic for 
fever. They would say they had taken it for malarial 
pains, to soothe their lassitude, or the pains produced 
by malaria, but they never, and I am certain I should 
have heard of it from someone or other, said that it 
was reckoned by them to be a prophylactic for fever. 
Then, again, among my patients I. had a very large 
numbeir of opium-smoking patients, who were suffering 
from fever, and whom I had to treat with quinine 
just as I treated other patients, and who recovered 
from their fever under the influence of quinine. Some 
patients died in the hospital. I remember one 
especially who came to me in the last stage of fever. 
I saw he was djingwhen he came into the hospital, 
but upon that poor fellow, even though he was in 
the act of death, the craving for opium came to 
such an extent that I was obliged to break my usual 
rule of forbidding opium, in the hospital and procure 
an opium pipe for him and opium in order to soothe 
his, last moments. I came to the conclusion, therefore, 
that there was nothing like a prophylactic in the use 
of opium, so far as fever is concerned, in malarial 
disease. Then all my brethren in China, the medical 
missionaries, would have no hesitation in confirming 
what I say when I aver that in Shen-si and in Shan-si, 
two of the provinces of China which are on a very 
high altitude, something like 3,000 or 4,000 feet above 
the level of the sea, and where malaria is not to bo 
found at all, they have a much greater prevalence of 
the opium habit than in the malarial provinces of 
South China. This is well known to all who are 
labouring in China, and wo never dream in China of 
attaching any thought to opium as a prophylactic for 
fever. And while speaking of that I think it should be 
kept in mind by the members of the Commission that 
in Burmah, in the valley of the Irrawaddy, a notoriously 
malarious region, Akyab, one of the chief cities of 
Arakan, is a notoriously malarious town. Yet it was 
at Akyab that the respectable members of the com- 
munity entreated Sir Charles Aitchison to take away 
opium, saying that they would pay an increased tax 
ironly he would take away opium. If they had felt that 
opium was of any value to them in saving them from 

C 2 



20 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Dr. Marwell. 



£ S'ipt. 1893. 



fever, and there is a great deal of fever and dysentery 
in that region, they would scarcely, I think, have done 
that, and I cannot see how our Grovernment could be 
at liberty to take away from a people that which ia 
likely to serve as a great prophylactic for fever, simply 
to please the people in the matter, as if it were a thing 
of DO importance. I think we may take it for granted 
that th%re is nothing to be said for opium a,s a 
prophylactic for fever. 

229. Then with reference to the consumption of 
Indian opium in China, what do you say about 
that P — In Formosa no opium is grown ; the opium 
which is there is Indian opium ; the opium used by the 
coolies is Indian opium ; whether used by wealthy people 
or the poorer people it was all Indian opium. When I 
was in difficulties myself for opium to use for medicine, 
if my own stock of Smyrna opium was run out — opium 
I got from this country— I would purchase a quantity 
of Indian opium, and found it quite as effectual for my 
purpose as the Smyrna opium, at least it served my 
purpose either for pill-making or any other opium use 
that I desired. I think it is unfair, historically, to speak 
of Indian opium in China as being, when compared with 
other opium, what champagne is to other wines, for this 
reason that at no very far back date, about 1863 say or 
1864, Indian opium was the only opium in the market in 
China. I hold in my hand an extract from the China 
Yellow Book of 1887. The China Yellow Book is the 
book issued by Sir Robert Hart, as the Commissioner of 
Imperial Customs. And in the issue of 1887 he draws 
a comparison between 1863 and 1887 to show the rapid 
spread of native opium over China. For example, we 
read with regard to New-chwang, which is the port of 
Manchuria, in the extreme north of China. In 1863 
the record of the Commissioner of Customs was : " No 
" native opium in use at this port during the year 
" 1863." In 1887: " Native opium is both grown and 
" consumed in this province. Of smokers who indulge 
in the vice in their own houses 90 per cent, smoke the 
native drug." Again : " Opium is very extensively 
grown in this province " (Manchuria). And again : 
" The present annual production of the three Eastern 
" provinces is estimated at 8,000 piculs," apicul being 
133 lbs. So that between 1863 and 1887 you have a very 
marked comparison between the use of native opium 
and the use of Indian opium. In 1863 it was all Indian 
opium. 

230. [Sir James Lyall.) That is in the South ? — In the 
extreme south of Manchuria. 

231. You do not mean to say that there was no opium 
in the interior of China in 1863 ?— I am speaking just 
now of one province, Manchuria. 

232. The sea coast ? — The sea coast, and leading up to 
Kirin as far north as Kirin. In 1864, according to the 
Commissioner of Customs' report, " native opium in 
Tientsin is not widely used." But in 1887 " Produc- 
" tion of native opium in North China is very large, 
" and for every chest of foreign opium imported, at 
" least nine chests of native opium are consumed." I 
draw attention to this to show that the rapid growth of 
opium in China belongs to the last 30 yearh, that though 
known in the interior of China before that, between 1840 
and 1860 when the Tientsin Treaty was formed, the native 
opium was not widely used. There had been a very 
decided increase in such provinces as Sichuen and 
Yun-nan and Kwei-chow, but still the growth was 
comparatively limited. The great increase begins 
from the date about 1863, until now it is so large. 
Che-foo in 1864 ; " the consumption of native opium 
'• at this port during the past year has been so 
" small that it may be returned at nil. It is brought 
" herefrom Shen-si, Shan-si, and Yun-nan." " Native 
" opium is known at Che-foo in 1887. It is extensively 
" produced in this province," that is the province of 
Shan-tung. And again : " In seven years the annual 
" importation of foreign opium has fallen off by 3,468 
" piculs." " The boys, when they learn to smoke uso 
" the native opium. Opium smoking is not decreasing ; 
" it is increasing. For each picul of foreign opium 
" which is consumed in the Che-foo supplied districts 
" there are about 10 piculs of native consumed." And 
so over Hankow, Kiu-kiang, Chin-kiang, Shanghai, 
and Ning-po, all leading places. What I want to draw 
attention to is this, that the Indian opium has been 
excluded, not because of its price so much, or that it 
was of a fine quality, but because native opium has 
only come to the front in tbese last 30 years, and it is 
the rapid growth of native opium that has diminished 
the consumption of Indian opium so very much in 
various parts in China. 



233. (Ohavrmani Would you draw the inference that 
that tendency i» likely to continue P — I do think so. 

234. That the Indian supply will become less and less 
important P — '^h.&t the Indian supply is likely to become 
less and lets as the native opium is more and more 
cultivated. 

235. India, so far as it seeks a market in China, is 
likel}' to find less and less a good market, I mean to 
say that the consumption will be met by local supplies ? 
— I do believe so, that it will be met by local supplies. 
In any case, I think it is hardly a fair comparison, 
historically, to speak of Indian opium as being like 
champagne amongst other wines, because that leads 
the public generally to think that native opium has 
been existing for a very lengthened period of time, and 
that Indian opium has always taken this position as 
being a sort of snperior opium ; whereas the history of 
the traffic is that Indian opium is being driven out by 
the rapid growth of the native opium. 

236. What is the view held by opium smokers and by 
non-opium smokers in China as to the morale of the 
opium habit P — With regard to opium smokers them- 
selves, there are very few who will not acknowledge it 
to be a vice of which they are heartily sorry, and which 
they grieve over themselves. That does not imply 
that they will face the giving of it up, but I am quite 
satisfied that if you were to appeal in any part of China to 
an habitual opium smoker, he would say " I am under 
the power of a vicious habit." And for non-opium 
smokers there is no question at all as to their opinion. 
It is looked upon as a vice and nothing but a vice, and 
those who take to it are considered to be on the high 
road to ruin. To give you just one most recent 
instance, I had in my house, about three months ago, 
a heathen China woman. 

237. (Mr. Pease.) In London ?— In London. She 
was from Formosa, that was the reason I saw her 
at my house, and I asked her the question, 
"Do any of your relatives smoke opium?" She 
said, " No," most emphatically. " Does your step- 
son not smoke opium p " (T knew she had a stepson). 
She said "No. I knew that once or twice he had 
" been tempted by friends to take it for pleasure, 
" (thit-th6, as we say) and I told him at once" (he 
was a married man, living in her house), "that if he 
" put his mouth to an opium pipe, he would march 
" out of my house immediately." This was a poor 
woman, yet showing what the view of the non-opium 
smoker is with regard to the habit coming upon 
relatives. 

238. [Chairman.) In what respect does the Indian 
opium traffic tend to hinder the work of the Christian 
missionary in China ? — In two ways. First, because it 
has raiKcd up against us a great wall of prejudice 
amongst the educated community. It is unquestionably 
clear to all who have lived long in China that the 
educated portion of the community, who know what 
our relations to Indian opium and the object of the 
Chinese wars were, look upon us as the destroyers of 
their country, and openly say so. That is one very 
great reason why we send so few goods to them and 
that we have not sent so varied and large an amount 
of goods as we ought to have. But then there is the 
other reason. Suppose that there are no fewer than 
20,000,000 or 25,000,000 of opium smokers in China, 
we look upon every opium smoker ae being further 
away from susceptibility, if I may use the word, to 
listen to an appeal to conscience or to listen to the 
appeals of the Gospel, as compared with any other 
people in China. 

239. (Mr. Pease.) Do you limit the number in China 
to the number you mentioned P— 25,000,000. Then we 
feel that looking upon it !is an immoral habit we are 
put m a very gravely false position, that our Govern- 
ment m India should be seeking year by year to increase 
the number of opium smokers as it does by this trade 
not directly so far as the Government is concerned, but 
by the trade itself the action of the Indian Government 
is to multiply opium smokers, whilst wo are compelled 
as missionaries to occupy the position of excludin'^ 
everyone who comes under the power of that habit from 
the Christian church. You will recognise what I mean 
and the difficult position in which we are placed as 
missionaries. 

24;0. Well now then, turning to the opinion of the 
medical profession as to the habitual use of opium, what 
would your view be of the state of opinion in this 
country P— If I were to appeal as I appealed to-day on 
my way to the Commission, to a medical practitioner 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



21 



wliom I happened to meet, if I were to appeal to any 
medical practitioner in this country, whether he would 
look upon it with an easy mind, if any relative of his 
were to take to the practice of laudanum drinking or of 
morphia injecting I think I would get the answer which 
I got from him, " Certainly not." We medical practi- 
tioners should regard it with very deep concern indeed, 
I am. quite satisfied of that, if any relative or friend, or 
patient were coming under what we call the opium habit 
in the way of taking to the immoderate use of 
laudanum or to the habit of injecting morphia under 
the skin. To show just what we think of it as medical 
men in this country, would you allow me to read one 
sentence from our pharmacological text book, perhaps 
the leading one in this country, the one by Dr. 
Lauder Brunton. " When opium is first taken its 
" action is to stimulate and afterwards depress. To 
" remove this depression the individual takes another 
" dose ; the habit of taking the drug thus becomes 
" established, the nervous system suffers, the mental 
" powers become enfeebled, the moralfacultieaperverted, 
" and there is inability to distinguish between truth 
" and falsehood." This is what we have in our leading 
text-book on pharmacology in this country. Then 
we have had at least two pronouncements in this 
country — they are very distinct pronouncements — 
on the subject of the habitual use of opium in any 
form. The first of these is the testimony of th« late 
Sir Benjamin Brodie and of 24 distinguished medical 
practitioners of London. It was given in th« year 1843 
when Lord Ashley brought forward his first motion 
against the opium monopoly. His motion was that the 
opium monopoly should cease and active steps should 
be taken to bring the growth of the poppy in India to 
an end, so far at least as went beyond medical purposes. 
This is what Sir Benjamin Brodie testified to : " How- 
ever valuable opium may be when employed as an 
article of medicine, it is impossible for anyone who 
is acquainted with the subject to doubt that the 
habitual use of it is productive of the most pernicious 
consequences, destroying the healthy action of the 
digestive organs, weakening the powers of the mind 
as well as the body, and rendering the individual who 
indulges himself in it a worse than useless member 
of society. I cannot but regard those who promote 
the use of opium as an article of luxury as inflicting 
a most serious injury on the human race." This was 
signed by Sir Benjamin Brodie and by 24 of the most 
distinguished members of the Faculty in London, such 
as Dr. E. Bright, F.E.S.; Dr. P. Latham; Dr. 
Chambers, F.E.S. ; Mr. E. Listen, F.R.S. ; Dr. Fer- 
guson, F.E.S. ; Sir 0. Locock, Bart.; Sir J". Forbes, 
F.E.S. ; Dr. McLeod; Dr. Glendinning, F.E.S. ; Mr. J. 
C. Moore; Dr. Gregory; Dr. Paris, F.E.S.; Sir H. 
Halford, Bart., F.E.S.; Dr. E. T. Thomson; Dr. 
Hodgkin, F.E.S.; Mr. F. Tyrrell; Mr. Csesar Hawkins, 
F.E.S. ; Dr. B. Travers, F.E.S. ; Sir H. Holland, Bart., 
F.E.S.; Dr. J. T. Watson, F.E.S.; Mr. Ashton Key; 
Mr. Antony White ; Dr. James Johnston ; Dr. J. C. B. 
Williams, F.E.S. That is one of the testimonies from 
this country. Then here is another, my Lord, which I 
had a hand in securing myself, a declaration of opinion 
by over 6,000 medical men of Great Britain and Ireland, 
in answer to an appeal to the profession which was 
issued in December 1891. There are over 5,000 signa- 
tures to this of members of the profession in Great 
Britain and Ireland, and amongst these 5,000 there are 
10 Fellows of the Eoyal Society ; 14 teachers of materia 
medica ; the three representatives of the profession in 
England who sit on the General Medical Council ; the 
president of the Eoyal College of Physicians of Scot- 
land ; 23 members of the profession who have practised 
in India, four of whom have been professors in medical 
colleges in India, and one a late reporter on economic 
products to the Government of India ; 12 members of 
the profession who have practised in China ; 21 heads 
of asylums ; four natives of India. These I have 
picked out of the midst of them, and I do not know 
that in the history of the profession on any question of 
social or moral interest there ever has been a paper 
which has been signed by such a vast number of my 
professional brethren as this paper against the opium 
traffic. What they declare in this declaration of opinion 
is as follows :—" We, the undersigned members of the 
" medical profession, are of opinion: — First :_ That the 
' ' habit of opium smoking or of opium eating is morally 
" and physically debasing; Second: That the un- 
" restrained sale of such a drug as opium is immediately 
" associated with many and grave dangers to the well 
" being of the people of India; Third : That the drug, 
" opium, ought in India, as in England, to be classed 



" and sold as a poison, and be purchaseable from Dr. Maxwell. 

" chemists only ; Fourth : That the Government of 

" India should prohibit the growth of the poppy and 8 Sept. 1393. 

" the manufacture and sale of opium, except as 

" required for medical purposes." 

241. Then as to the opinion of the medical profession 
in India P — I have with me here a petition ' to the 
" Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and 
" Ireland in Parliament assembled. The petition of 
" the undermentioned members of the medical profes- 
" sion in the Bombay Presidency, India," going over 
what I have stated to you myself as some of the 
characteristics aff"ecting opium smokers and opium 
eaters, and signed by 49 members of the profession, 
all natives, living apparently in the city of Bombay. 
Some of them, have taken their degrees in this country, 
some of them are graduates of the Grant Medical 
College of Bombay, and others are licentiates of 
medicine and surgery, and one or two are licentiates 
of medicine only ; but these are all medical men and 
native medical men in that one city, and I think if so 
many native practitioners in a single city would put 
their names to a petition of this kind it shows a very 
large amount of feeling in India itself in regard to this 
subject. 

242. {Sir W. Boherts.) Is that petition the same as 
the other one P — No, sir. 

243. (Ohcdrman.) Have you anything to say as to 
medical opinion in China P — Attached to the other one 
signed by over 5,000 of the profession in this country, 
you will find on the second last page the opinion of 
four men who represent fields of labour in North, South, 
and Central China. I have taken these and put them 
separately, my Lord, because it is the only way in which 
I could bring before you the opinions of the medical 
profession in China. There are now in China about 110 
medical men, including perhaps about 20 medical 
women, all of them fully qualified, practising as medical 
Jiissionaries in China. 

244. {Mr. Fease.) Europeans P — Europeans and Ameri- 
cans. All of these are of one mind, I have not the slightest 
hesitation in saying, with the four who happened to be in 
this country at the time and to whom I sent the appeal 
as was sent to the other medical practitioners in this 
country. I sent round the appeal to all the members 
of the profession in this country. They write as follows : 
" We, the undersigned medical missionaries, ab(jut to 
" return to our fields of labour in different parts of 
" China, cordially agree with the declaration of opinion 
" as above." That is with regard to the four points 
that I have read. " Further, we believe that we express 
" the nnanimouB opinion of the medical missionaries 
" labouring in China, now numbering about 110, when 
" we add that it is difficult to speak too strongly of the 
" physical and moral evil, and of the social misery 
" which is being wrought in China by the wide spread 
" and increasing indulgence in the use of opium." One 
of these gentlem.en belongs to the province of Canton, 
another hails from the Ohe-Kiang province, and another 
comes from the most northern part, Kirin in Manchuria. 
This is the testimony of the medical profession which 
comes closest to the Chinese in the way of seeing them 
in their daily life, speaking the language and having 
continual intercourse with them. 

245. {Sir W. Boberte.) The signatories of the petition 
from Bombay are almost entirely natives P — Natives. 

246. {Chairman.) There is one more point on which 
yon wish to make a statement, and perhaps you conld 
make it briefiy and in answer to one question ; what is 
the view that you wish to present to us with reference 
to the freedom of China for taking action to exclude 
opium under treaties P — I want to say very definitely, 
my Lord, that I hold that China is not free, and that I 
think such statements as those of Sir James Fergusson 
and also of the late Under-Secretary for India, 
Mr. Curzon, that China, if it pleased, could be in the 
same position as Japan — that China, to-morrow, could 
issue an edict prohibiting opium — are quite inconsistent 
with what I think most people understand by treaty 
obligations At the present time China is bound to us 
in England. 

247. Those gentlemen of whom we speak were the 
official representatives of the Foreign Office speaking 
in their official position and on their official responsi- 
bility in the House of Commons P — Well, I speak from 
the point of view of China. I quite admit with Sir 
James Fergusson that anything like a direct war on 
the ground of opium would, in the present feeling in 

C 3 



22 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



VrMaxwell. this country, be impossible ; but that does not mean 

that China is free. China is free, if you like, to do 

8 Sept. 1893. what Russia did in the matter of the Black Sea, to 

denounce the Treaty and take the risks ; but that is very 

different from saying that China is free, and China is 
not Russia. 

248. These are matters all outside of the purview of 
the Commission, purely inquiring into the opium ques- 
tion. I mean, we cannot help allowing our minds 
to engage themselves in some speculation as to the 
political position, but after all, it is a matter of speula- 
tion. But I suppose that you would agree with me 
that a declaration of war on our part against China, if 
China took the step of denouncing these treaties, 
would be received with great resentment by public 
feeling in this country ? — I quite agree. 

249. (Sir James Lyall.) It would not be necessary to 
denounce the treaty at all, I understand? — China is 
bound to us just now. 

250. I understand all the authorities said it is not at 
all necessary to denounce the treaty P — But we have 
the treaty. 

251. Under the Ohe-foo Convention they can simply 
give notice P — I have the terms of the Che-foo Conven- 
tion in my pocket, sir. 

252 and 253. (Ohairman.) Will you make your state- 
ment of your view shortly to the Commission. I, as 
chairman, will take care that the matter is referred to 
the Foreign Office P — As I understand, at present 
China is bound to us by the Ohe-foo Agreement of 1885 
or 1886 ; and according to the Che-foo Agreement, as 
I read it here, "in the event of the termination of the 
" present additional article, the arrangement with 
" regard to opium now in force under the regulations 
" attached to the treaty of Tien-tsin shall revive." 
So far from China being free, if she choose, by giving 
notice, to withdraw from the Ohe-foo Convention, all 
that she could do would be to come under the power 
of the Tientsin Treaty, which is a very much worse 
position for her than the present position under which 
she is under the terms of the Ohe-foo article ; and I 
do not think any one can read the history of the 
negotiations which ended in 1885, in the signing of 
the Che-foo article, without recognising that China did 
not get what she expected to get, and what she claimed 
in ihe first instance when that Convention was entered 
up ill by Sir Thomas Wade with her in the year 1876. 
According to the original design, what Sir Thomas Wade 
agreed to move his Government to secure for China 
was that all opium coming into China should pass into 
bond, and that the import duty should not be paid 
until a purchaser should be found, and that then the 
Likin duty, or the local taxation, should be paid at the 
same time. This was what Sir Thomas Wade said he 
would move our Government to give to China in return 
for what she did for us in the way of commercial 
concessions when the Che-foo Convention was entered 
upon. If she had got that, which I think was a fair 
claim, we would say at least it would have been fair, 
the right to have opium brought into bond and to 
have the local taxation paid by the purchaser when 
it was taken out of bond, it would have been all 
right. The Indian Government refused to agree to 
those terms because as it was alleged the Chinese 
Government could at once raise the local taxation to 
what would be a prohibitory point upon Indian opium. 
The local taxation was in its own hand and if it 
could secure by the putting of opium into bond that 
there should be no smuggling, and there could not be 
any smuggling after that, then it would be possible by 
raising the local taxation to exclude Indian opium, and 
the Chinese made no secret that that was within their 
view. The Indian Government refused to enter upon 
any such arrangement, and the negotiations went on 
from 1877 till 1885 before any settlement could be 
reached, and the final settlement that was reached was 
the commutation of the local taxation making it equal 
all over the country, but making it payable at the time 
when the import duty, and amounting to 80 additional 
taels. But that was not what the Chinese first proposed 
themselTes. When negotiations were first entered upon 
the Viceroy Tso asked for 120 taels ; and when that was 
refused by Great Britain it was on the ground that 
that would make it prohibitory to Indian opium, and 
the Viceroy said, "Yes, and that is what we should like 
to have it in our power to do." Finally Li Hung Ohang, 
the present Viceroy of Chili-li, came down to 80 taels. 
But it took years before our Government agreed to the 
80 taels. China did not get her full demand. She 



got what she demanded when she put her foot down 
and said, "We will not go lower." She got that. 
But we cannot look upon that as reaching the full 
claim of China. China is not free to take action unless 
England takes action with her. 

■ 254. (Sir James Lyall.) That is quite contrary to what 
has been said in Parliament P — Quite contrary. I admit 
that it is quite contrary. But I am quite satisfied of my 
position. 

255. Then you think nobody in the House knew it P 
— I think that I can only state what I believe to be 
correct. 

256. All you can ask the Conamission to do is to make 
an inquiry at the Foreign Office P — Most surely. 

257. (Sir William Roberts.) I was very much struck 
with your statement that no special organic disease is 
found after death in the opium smoker — anything like 
cirrhosis after spirit drinking or the numerous other 
things ? — Ton should remember that we have no means 
in China of pathological examinations ; and my ovim 
conviction is that when the time comes that we shall 
have that, it will be found that we have more organic 
disease than is yet known. 

258 and 259. Did you form any opinion of the pro- 
portion of opium smokers — I mean systematic opium 
smokers — to the rest of the population in Formosa p — 
In the city of Tai-wan-foo we considered that at least one- 
third of the adult male population were opium smokers. 

260. Had any change taken place during your expe- 
rience in the smoking of opium — I m(jan had it decreased 
much or increased much P — I should say it had steadily 
increased and is increasing still. 

261. Was there any possibility of getting facts as to 
the state of the public health in Formosa P — Only by 
such inquiries as we ourselves could make through 
Chinese Christians and others ; there are no statistics 
that would give us any such results. 

262. Have you drawn a distinction in your mind 
between opium smoking and opium eating P — I have. 
I incline to think that so far as the evil goes that opium 
eating will be found in the long run — I know that I am 
on a little difficult ground — but I believe that opium 
eating is more difficult to cure than even opium 
smoking. 

263. Have yotl formed any opinion as to whether the 
eSect of opium — the total efiect, in every way, physical 
and moral, varies much with the race ? — I do believe 
that the Chinese, as a race, bear opium better than the 
Burmese. But it is a comparative quantity. I have 
no_ hesitation in agreeing with Dr. Legge that in China 
opium is an evil, and only an evil. 

264. (Sir James Lyall.) Ton mentioned the efi'ect in 

hindering — ^there was some efiect in hindering the 

spread of Christianity, owing to the prejudice against 
the English from the action of India with the opium 
trade in China. Well, are you aware that practically 
the Government of India's action as to the export of 
opium from India amounts practically to this — that it 
arranges that no opium shall go out of India unless it 

has paid in the first place a very heavy duty P I am 

quite aware of it. 

265. So that it immensely raises the price before it 
can get out of India, is the general result of its action P 
— ^Yes. 

266. For instance, with regard to the English export 
trade of spirits, it goes out absolutely free of all duty ? 
—But I remember also that in India the opium trade 
is a Government monopoly, and that all the money goes 
into the Indian Treasury. 

267. The duty does P— The duty does. The Govern- 
ment is the merchant. 

268. But its action is not to allow it to go out until it 
has paid a very oppressive duty p— That I know. 

269. Whereas spirits, for instance, from England go 
out to Africa, to India, to other places, as I understand 
free of duty, that is they are in bond ; they pass out in 
bond ; there is no duty on them at all. Why is it and 
where is it fair that the one thing should be supposed 
to create such a prejudice as to hinder the spread of 
Christianity, while the other thing has not that efi'ect 
at allp — The prejudice is caused by the wars. 

270. The wars themselves P— You see there were two 
wars. 

w^?/* u ^^"fl^ ^'^ ^^^ ?8ree in deploring the wars P— 
well, but the prejudice has arisen from that— th» 
prejudice against us. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



23 



272. At present it -would not be fair — at least judging 
from that comparison — to look witli prejudice upon 
opium, and not to look with, prejudice upon the much 
worse case, from my point of view, of spirits ? — If you 
ask my personal opinion, I would say there may be a 
difference. I do not look upon opium as I look upon- 
spirits. Opium and spirits are two different things. 

273. Tou think that in Formosa the injury done to 
the men who smoke is much worse than the injury done 
to those who drink spirits P — In this sense, that it is far 
more deeply seated ; and there is no moderation. We 
here in this country would never dream of allowing onr 
children to take opium as they take beer. We should 
not for a moment think of such a thing. 

274. Do they in Formosa aUow the children to take 
opium ?— They do not allow them. Bat many children 
learn pretty young j the thing is all round them, and 
they can easily get at it. There is one point I must not 
forget, and that is the immensity of suicides in China. 
That is one of the great evils associated with the traffic, 
and I think it has hardly been dealt with in India as it 
should have been. There hasnot been sufficient inquiry 
made into it. Only one medical man has written 
regarding his experience of the number of opium 
suicides in a single district in India. — Dr. MaoReddie, 
•f Hardoi. Out of 198 suicides in three years with 
which he had to deal no fewer than 98 were from opium, 
and he says it was because the people could put their 
hand on it so easily, and excitable people not having 
the restraints of Christian civilization upon them, they 
could swallow it at once. 

276. Tou drew a distinction ; and you, said, "Tes, it 
" is the Government of India which derives that 
" revenue, that duty, you know " P — Yes. 

276. Tou know a good deal of evil is said to be 
produced by the exportation of spirits from England to 
countries in Africa, India, and other places, would you 
yourself think the Government did any harm if it 
imposed a duty upon that export P Tou hold the Indian 
Government as it were, guilty, because it takes a duty 
on opium, a very heavy duty, a crushing duty, you say, 
on the opium that goes out to China. Therefore, I 
suppose you would disapprove of the Government of 



England putting a duty, whereas it puts no duty, upon 
the spirit which is exported to other countries ? — Not 
at all ; I should say the English Government, in dealing 
with the West Coast of Africa, ought to stop it altogether. 
I have no hesitation in saying so. 

277. I mean you argne as if the Indian Government's 
putting a duty on it, and taking it for revenue, was a 
bad thing P — No, I did not mean it in that sense. 

278. So far it is a good thing P — So far it is a good 
thing. 

279. (Ohavmuun.) It is so far a check P — Tes, so far. 
The Indian Government being in itself a monopolist, 
is the head of the concern: and we think of the Indian 
Government in connection with it, and say it is 
responsible. 

280. {8vr James LyaU.) It is a monopolist in the way 
of manufacturing no doubt, but in the other part of 
India, in the Punjab, it is entirely the imposer of another 
duty, which is oppressive, on native, Malwa, opium, 
that is on native state opium it has only imposed a 
duty P — I have not touched on India at all. 

281. {Mr Pease.) Tou alluded to your own i:se of 
Smyrna opium in Formosa ; why is the Smyrna opium 
not used by the natiV^es instead of the Indian opium P — 
There is a little Persian opium exported and brought 
into China. 

282. Is it the cost of production or the daty that 
makes it too expensive P — It belongs to its history 
rather. 

283. Is it more expensive than Smyrna opium? — I 
do not know that it would be ; I could not say. 

284. Tou hardly know why it is not iised in pre- 
ference to the Indian opium F — It has never been ; 
there has been no special attempt to export it to China, 
to bring it into the market there ; only some 4,000 or 
5,000 piouls of Persian opium yearly are now brought 
into China. 

286. The price is very much the same P — ^Tery much 
the same. 



Dr. Maxwell. 



8 Sept. 1893. 



286. {Sir James 
cheaper, yes. 



Lyall.) Rather cheaper ? — Rather 



(The witness withdrew.) 
Adjourned till to-morrow at 11 a.m. 



At the House of Lords, Westminster, S.W- 



SECOND DAY. 

Saturday, 9th September 1893, 



PBESENT : 

The Right Honoueable LORD BRASSET, K.C.B. (Chaiema*, peesidiito). 



SiE James B. Ltail, 6. CLE. 
Sir William Robeets, M.D. 
Me. R. G. C. Mowbeay, M.P. 



Me. Aethue Pease. 

SiE Chaeles E. 



Beenaed, K.C.S.L, 

Acting Secretary. 



The Reverend Joseph Samuel Adams, Kinhwa, China, called in and examined. 



287. {Ghairman.) 1 believe that you belong to the 
American Baptist Mission P — I do, my Lord. I belong to 
an American Mission, but I am an Englishman by 
oirth and education. 

288. And in what part of China has your field of 
labour been situated? — For 13 years I have been 
labouring in the Vajley of the River Tangtse, and the 
last 10 years of the 13 in the province of Cheh-kiang, 
and the city of Kinhwa. ,,. ' , 

289. Tou are now home on leave ? — ^Yes, for a short 
holiday. 

290. Well, upon what points are you prepared to give 
evidence P — On two main points. The first is the con- 
dition of Upper Burmah, before the annexation ; and 
also the broad facts of the injury inflicted upon the 
Chinese) and the condition of public opinion among 



them. I Jnay say that for four years before going to 
China I was living in the Upper Burmah, from 1874 
to 1879. 

291-2. Perhaps you might at this stage inform us 
what was the date when you originally went out to the 
East? — I went out to the East in 1876, as a missionary 
to the Chinese in Western Tun-nan, and our object 
in going to Burniah was to cross the Kachyin Hills into 
China from the westward ; but after four years' waiting, 
and learning the Chinese language, the Government of 
India prohibited our passing across the frontiers ; there- 
fore I went round by sea to China, where I have been 
for the last 13 years. 

293. Can you give us any observations formed during 
that residence in Upper Burmah, with reference to the 
question which has been entrusted to the consideration 

C 4 



Rev. 
J. S. Adams. 

9 Sept. 1893. 



u 



INDIAN OPIUM commission: 



Mev. of this Commission P — From pereonal observation I can 

J. S. Adams, testify, my Lord, that the Burmese authorities were 

opposed to the use of opium among their own people ; 

9 Sept. 1893. the prohibition was very strongly enforced both as 

regards opium and liquor. 

294. Can you give us the reasons which, in your 
judgment, actuated the Burmese authorities and led to 
their decision to prohibit the use of opium ? — From 
conversations that I had repeatedly with Burmese 
elders, with the Governor of Bhamo, and with the 
Buddhist Archbishop, I learned that the principal 
reason was that the people themselves were so weak 
in the face of such temptations as those offered by 
opium and liquor, and also that the Buddhist law pro- 
hibited the use of intoxicants to the people of the 
Buddhist faith; and there were also ancient laws of 
the Kingdom of Ava which forbade the same thing. 

l95. Can you give us your impressions as to the 
olllct of the use of opium upon the people with whom 
YOU were brought into contact in Burmah, whether 
Chinese or the Burmese P — Of the four races, I found 
in Upper Burmah Kachyius, Shans, Burmans, and 
Chiue.-e. The Burmese were the more decidedly sus- 
ceptible to the influence of the drug undoubtedly. The 
Chinese seemed to resist the influence of it more than 
even the Hill men, but in all cases where the habit was 
once formed the emaciation of the consumer and the 
deterioration of his moral character alike ensued. 

296. Did you come to the conclusion that when once 
the habit of taking opium, in however small a quantity, 
had been contracted, there was an irresistible tendency 
to increase the indulgence until it reached a point at 
■which it was necessarily pernicious P — Tes ; I have 
found this from a very lengthened observation of the 
use of opium among natives in the East, that when once 
a native contracted the habit he very rarely gave it up 
of his own will ; that the use of opium seemed to 
deprive a man of will power ; and we have statistics 
published of the use of opium by Chinese in China 
which show that 95 per cent of the persons dismissed 
from our mission hospitals and dispensaries as cured 
return to the use of the drug within a very few weeks. 

297. And would you say that, so far as your observa- 
tion carried you, you would be inclined to tell us that the 
limited and moderate use of opium is hardly ever seen ? 
— I think that the term "moderation" can hardly be 
applied to the use of opium, because whether a, man 
takes a large quantity or a small quantity it has to be 
taken at ever-recurring intervals, and in process of time 
has to be increased ; that a man, if he takes a very 
small quantity, has to continue taking it. The habit 
may be formed within a couple of months, but any- 
thing under a couple of months, if you would call 
that moderation. There is a moderate use of opium, 
for instance a man might take it for a fortnight for 
any disease, such as diarrhoea or dysentery, and then 
giving it up would feel no ill-effects from it ; but my 
experience with Chinese and Burmese in Lower Burmah, 
and in China itself, has been that when the illness has 
passed away the habit remains ; they like it and keep 
on using it, and arc passed the danger line before they 
are conscious of it in many cases. 

298. Do you recognise the use of opium as having a 
value in certain climates and for a population exposed 
to malarial influences P — I think it has a value in 
removing the pains of rheumatic fever and in giving 
rest in cases where patients are deprived of sleep, and 
also in dysentery, cholera, and diarrhoea ; but I do not 
consider that opium is any protection against fever. 
For instance, Bhamo, at the beginning of my resi- 
dence there, was one of the most fev'Brish districts in 
the whole of the Upper Province, and we had very 
many cases of fever, but I never heard of the natives 
using opium as a cure for it. They had their own 
native drugs which they used ; and we found in China 
that in the most feverish distiicts the opium smokers 
are the men who are the first to sufler, whereas the 
healthier coolies who are not addicted to the habit can 
stand all day planting rice in the blazing sun with 
their feet in water and mud and not sufler from ague. 

299. Is there anything further that you would like to 
say at this point with reference to the general question 
of the efi'ects of opium P — From my observations in 
China, more especially, I find that there is ahvays a 
tendency among the men who have given up opium 
smoking to resume the habit, even after the lapse of 
long years. I have in my mind a man who after giving 
np his opium smoking, rose to a position of consider- 
able influence and wealth in Shanghai, who after 20 



years relapsed into the habit. I have in my mind also 
two Christian men from Ningpo brought home to 
England to assist in the translation of the Ningpo 
New Testament, one man went back, smoked opium, 
and died a miserable beggar. The other man kept 
awiiy from opium, and still continues a honoured and 
useful pastor in China, and such instances could be 
multiplied. 

300. What proportion of the population amongst 
whom you laboured in China were opium smokers ?- - 
It varied very much in difi"erent towns and difierent 
localities. In the country comparatively little was 
used; in the towns it was very largely used, j^niong 
ofiicials, there are the underlings of the official re- 
sidences, the Tamen, as they are called, and probably 
80 per cent, smoke opium. When you come to the 
commercial classes, perhaps there are 40 per cent. 
When you come lower down still to the labouring 
classes, men such as chair-bearers, coolies, and the 
men who earn their living in daily toil, almost invari- 
ably they are opium smokers ; so much so, that when I 
have sent to the office for chair-bearers and coolies, 
and have asked for men who have not smoked opium, I 
have been laughed at for asking such a question, 
because they said that if they did not smoke opium, 
they would not be doing the work of beasts. 

301. Do you suppose that among these classes, who 
were " invariably" smokers, their physical powers were 
impaired by the use of opium p — Extremely so; in 
fact some of the most miserable specimens you see are 
men who are doing the very hardest work, and they do 
it while under the influence of opium. Messenger 
coolies will travel 30 miles a day, and carry over_ 100 
pounds burden, but they have to stop four or five times 
a day, and take fresh quantities of opium. I have 
had men lay down their burdens on the roadside, and 
refuse to move an inch until they have had more opium. 

302. Was there not a considerable portion of the class 
of men engaged in these laborious occupations who 
were not consumers of opium P — Not many chair- 
bearers and coolies. Among the agriculturalists was a 
very large proportion who are not consumers. 

303. Do you know from what source the opium that 
is consumed by the population amongst whom you 
lived was obtained ? Was it a native produce or ivas it 
an importation from India ? — You are referring now to 
Upper Burmah. 

304-5. I was referring to China ? — The opium that 
they have in our part of China, the province of Cheh- 
kiang, is very largely grown in the Wen-chow district, 
which produces opium often disguised and sold as 
Indian opium. It is of such superior quality that the 
Chinese themselves sell it at the same price as the 
Ma'lwa and the Bengal opium. The greater part of it 
came from the native cultivation, but that which is used 
by the higher classes, by the officials, or by wealthy 
merchants was almost invariably Indian opium. But 
I would like to say that when I first went to Kin-hwa 
I would ride for a whole day's journey and never see a 
poppy field, but now you can hardly go an hour's walk 
without seeing the poppies in cultivation during the 
season, so much has it increased during the past ten 
years in that province. 

306. With reference to the effects of opium upon 
those who use it, we have been led off from Burmah 
into your Chinese experience; but now returning to 
Burmah, and to the regulations imposed by the 
Burmese authorities, and the rules and prohibitions 
which were in force, can you tell us whether, in your 
opinion, the edicts of prohibition were effectual in 
Burmah p— They were effectual upon the people for 
whom they were issued— they were effectual among 
the Burmese. We had very special facilities, I think, 
for getting at the information. 

307. Will you tell us what those were P— We had a 
niission dispensary, which was the only one of the 
kind there. In fact, before we went there, there 
were no missionaries in Upper Burmah, with the 
exception of one at Mandalay. We found among 
the numbers of people coming every day (sometimes 
30, 60, or 100) there were a great many applications 
from Chinese travellers, from Shans, and Kachyius for 
medicine to cure opium smoking. An application of 
the kind was never received from a Burman — we took 
special notice of the fact. Then we were frequently 
called out to suicide cases,invariably they were Chinese 
or Shans who had committed suicide with opium. We 
found, in the cases where the Burmese committed 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



23 



suicide, that it was most frequently caused by swallow- 
ing gold, or hanging, or by some other means, such as 
drowning. "We haye had prisoners sent to us for treat- 
ment from the Tamen, or police office, and we had only 
one case where a man was punished for being intoxi- 
cated, and ho had got drunk with Ijiandy on iiu 
English steamer. The man was sent t'l us, haying 
been beaten as a punisliment, and he died from the 
efl'ects of it. We can say that the priests themselves 
in China use opium, but we never saw a Buddhisc priest 
who used opium in Burmab. 

308. Can you describe to us the system adopted by 
the Burmese for preventing the sale of opium — for 
enforcing obedience to their regulations? — -They had 
the Custom Houses. There was a combinajtion of the 
priests and politics which I did not admire, but it 
was very practical and effectual in Burmah, and was 
that the Buddhist priests themselves always acted as 
spies upon the civil powers, and reported directly to 
the King. The Buddhist Archbishop of the day (1876) 
showed nae despatches in cipher which ho was then 
sending to the Court at Mandalay, addressed personally 
to the King, detailing cases which bad taken place, and 
vai'ious crimes committed and the punishments inflicted 
by the civil authorities. They always acted as spies 
upon the doings of the people, and anything contrary 
to Buddhist law, apart from the national law, was at 
once reported, and the priests themselves accused 
people to the civil authorities. Apart from that, I do 
not know of any special regulations which the Burmese 
established. They searched the baggage of passengers 
arriving at the various little towns, and there were 
abvays a number of loungers about, belonging to the 
official residences, who seem to make it their business 
to spy oat other people's faults, and make their living 
upon it. This was during the reign of King Mindoou, 
and later during the reign of King Theebaw. 

309. Then would you say that the policy of the 
Government in enforcing the prohibition of opium was 
supported by the general opinion of the cotintry ? — I 
think the strength of the Government policy lav just 
in that fact, that they had the conscience of the 
people as a whole behind them, and that the people 
approved of the measures, knowing that they were for 
their good. 

310. If public opinion had been in the contrary sense, 
would you say that the task of the Government in pro- 
posing an absolute prohibition would have been almost 
impossible? — The difficulties would have been very 
largely increased, and special measures would have 
had to be taken. I do not know how far it would be 
right to apply the word " impossible ; " the experiment 
has not been tried. 



311. But evidently it would have been much more 
difficult? — Much more difficult. 

312. Ton have explained to us the action of the 
Burmese a^^thorities with reference to the Burmese 
population ; what was their attitude in regard to this 
opium question in relation to the foreigners resident 
among them, taking first the Kachyins, about whom 
I think you wish to speak to us ? — The Kachyins. 
They are people living between Bhamo and China, in 
the mountainous districts. They have never been 
really controlled cither by China or Burmah. Ojiium 
is used among them to a large extent, especially on the 
Chinese borders. Many of them come ijito Bhamo, 
and bring opium with them, and in many cases there 
have been disputes between the Bul-mese authorities and 
the Kachyins, through the former trying to take 
possession of the opium, so that the question was at 
last settled by the Kachyins being shut out at night 
from the city of Bhamo, and being allowed to sleep in 
spacial places set apart for them, and there they 
smoked and quarrelled to their heart's content. The 
j'cason the Burmaus give for it was that Ihey were 
opium smokers, and great thieves, and that con- 
sequently they would rob and steal if they were not 
kept out of the city. 

813. Then as to the Shans ?- -The Shans came from 
the Chinese States, and I think that many of them 
smoked opium to a greater extent than the Kachyins. 
Tliey lived in the city in a grove of trees set apart for 
them and used their opium. The Burmese seemed 
to take no notice of them, simply tolerated their 
prjseaco. They only cime over during f.^c d y seaaon_, 
iiud went back again ; they came over to the annual 
fairs and then returned to China ; they did not stay as 
residents in the place. The only opium these ]-eople 
B 80(170. 



used came from China ; there was none grown in that Jlev. 

district. J. .•?. Adams. 

31 k Was there a large number of Ohineso living in 
Bhamo at the time you were there ? — The residents ^ ""P*" ^^'■''' 
would be about 100 in nunibei-. They had no Chinese ' 

f;imilies or C/hinese wives ; we only saw one Chinese 
woman all the time we were there, during the four 
years ; and she was such a curiosity that the whole oily 
ran alter her to look at her. Bat t.hey all had Burmese 
wives, and many of those families were entirely exempt 
from opium smokinjr, the influence of the Burmese 
women being so decidedly against it. Undoubtedly, 
however, the Chinese residents themselves got opium 
from Yun-nan, and used it quietly in their own houses ; 
but there were no opium dens. I only saw one opium 
den in Upper Burmah at the time I was there, and it 
was on the occasion of taking a tour to the Jade stone 
district of Mogoung, about 100 miles above Bhamo to 
the north-west, and there, in a very out-of-the-way 
place, we came across a small den with six lamps, 
frequented entirely by Chinese. That was the only den 
of the kind that I knew of in Upper Burmah at the 
time. 

316. Were there many Chinese travellers in Bhamo 
during your residence there ? — We had in those days a 
monthly steamer from Mandalay, and the Chinese 
immigrant.s coming over from Yun-nan, especially at 
the time of the suppression of the Taiping rebellion, 
collected in large numbers in Bhamo until the arrival 
of the steamer. There would be sometimes 400 or 500 
travellers waiting to go down to Mandalay. They 
would be living in the Chinese quarter, in the Buddhist 
temples or wherever they could get lodgings, and most 
of these men brought with them their opium pipes and 
smoked. 

316. Did the Burmese Government attempt to check 
that habit ?■ — Not to my knowledge ; they simply 
seemed to look upon those people as being best let 
alone, and if any cases of disorder or trouble arose 
among them the Burmese authorities usually called 
upon the Chinese head man in Bhamo to settle it by 
the customs of the i^Ihinese community. 

317. You have been speaking thus far of the regu- 
lations which were established by the native Govern- 
ment of Burmah with reference to the suppression 
of the opium habit. When the country passed under 
the rule of the Government of India what was the 
policy then adopted with reference to opium ? — The 
Government of India made a very important pro- 
clamation in English, Burmese, and Chinese, to the 
effect that Her Majesty the Queen-Empress would not 
receive a revenue from the sale of opium in Upper 
Burmah, and a law was put upon the Statute Book 
making it penal to sell opium or any of its preparations 
to men of the Burmese race. At the same time the 
possession of opium or liquor by Burmans was not an 
ofi'ence, but it has been made so during the last year, 
I believe. 

318. "Well, now, do you think that the law which was 
established in Upper Burmah, and which permitted the 
use of opium to the non-Burman population only, was 
successful in its objects ? — My opinion is that it has 
not been successful. 

319. Will you tell us why ? — Probably because the 
strangers in Burmah (the natives of India, the Chinese, 
Shans, and Kachyins) are allowed to purchase and use 
certain quantities of opium. Any Burman wishing to 
get opium or liquor from any of the liceused shops 
could do so by getting a native of India, or a China- 
man, to purchase it for him. Prom nay correspondence 
with missionaries in Bhamo, and other parts of the 
country, I find that my fears are only too well grounded 
— Dr. Soltau, of Bhamo (he is now in India), said that 
while in my day there was not an opium den in the 
town of Bhamo, now there are many, and among the 
frequenters are Burmans, and that it is a common 
thing to see an opium lamp in a Burman house. 

320. Where one portion of the population is allowed 
to smoke opium, and another part is prohibited, the 
only mode, I presume, of preventing the consumption 
of opium by the classes under prohibition would be by 
an independent system of surprise and domiciliary 
visits, which would be very difficult to carry out ? — It 
would be undoubtedly difficult to carry out prohibition 
in Upper Burmah, and still more so in Lower Burmah, 
where the habit of opium smoking has got so strong a 
hold ; but at the same time 1 think we may safely say 
that, the conscience of the people being with \is, we 
should be very much helped in any attempt.to prohibit- 

D 



26 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Rev. 
J. S. Adams. 

9 Sept. 1893. 



in fact from the evidence which the Commission has 
already before it, in the shape of the Blue Book, on the 
consumption of opium in India (which is also confirmed 
by my correspondents in Lower Burmah and Upper 
Burmah to), there seems to be little doubt that total 
prohibition is the only remedy to save Burmah from 
opium smoking to excess. 

321. And do you think that that policy would be 
sustained by the public opinion of the Burmese ? — We 
are informed that in many places the Burmese have 
offered to substitute other taxation fur the revenue 
derived from opium if it can be removed from their 
midst, and several of the officials in Lower Burmah 
report in a way which reflects the very highest credit 
upon them, and shows that their desire is for the wel- 
fare of the people ; that they feel that prohibition is 
the thing necessary, and that Burmese public opinion 
would support them in any such measures. 

322. {8ir J. Lyall.) You mean absolute prohiljition 
for all classes ? — Yes, for all classes. 

323. Including Chinese and everybody else p — yo I 
understand it. 

324. (Ghaii-man.) I'i'fhaps I might, a.^k you on that 
question : How do you think such a policy of prohibi- 
tion would be received by the Chinese who reside in 
Burmah ? — I think that by the respectable class of 
Chinese it would be received gladly. From conversations 
that I have had in Rangoon, and Mandalay and Bhamo 
itself, with respectable Chinese merchants, ihey feel 
very keenly the danger to which their acquaintances 
and friends are exposed from the sale of opium — thoro 
are many of them who will not employ an opium 
smoker in theii- office if they can prevent it. Bat by 
the lower classes, of coursi.', there would l)e a great 
outcry from the opium users themselves. 

325. You mean the labouring classes ? — I mean the 
opium cousqmers themselves. 

826. Are there a great .i\umber of Chinamen in the 
district with which you are acquainted in Burmah who 
are employed in manual labour ? — INot employed in 
manual labour, the number is not very large. I think, 
in Upper and Lower Burmah. altogether there are 
about 42,000 Chinese ; very few of the Chinese would 
be employed in manual labour. 

327. Are they chiefly engaged in mercantile transac- 
tions P — Yes, as regards Upper Burmah. "With a 
population of 3,900,000, the Excise Report places the 
foreign population of the upper province including 
the natives of India, at about 55,000 ; and if 50 per cent, 
of them are opium smokei'.s, you have the centres of 
temptation placed in the midst of about four millions 
of people for the sake of 25,000 opium smokers, from 
whom yon get a large number of the criminal classes. 

328. Will you kindly tell ns, in a general way, what 
is the opinion of the missionaries labouring in connex- 
ion with your society, and what is the opinion of the 
native Christians of Burmah on the general question of 
opium consumption ? — I do not know whether I may 
put this letter in evidence. 

329. If you will rea.d it, please P — It is written by Dr. 
A. T. Rose, an American missionary, on July 8th, 1802. 
He says : " You must not write our mission indifferent 
" to the opium question ; it has been connected with it 
' ' from the days of Judson and Wade. Thirty years 
" ago I was appoiiited to write a report on the intro- 
" duction, increase, and effects of opium in Burmah 
" by the 'British Burmah Missionary Convention.' 
" The elder Hough, Wade, Bennett, and Kincaird 
" were then living and on the field. They all affirmed 
" that there was no opium in Burmah before the 
" English came. We laboured with Sir Arthur 
" Phayre, who professed to believe that the Govern- 
■' raent must introduce opium in order to control and 
" regulate it, otherwise the country would be flooded 
•' with it. As a revenue measure, the introduction of 
" opium is an enormous blunder, foi- it blasts the vital 
" sources of revenue, it converts honest labourers into 
" idle thieves and vagabonds. If all the cultivators m 
" Burmah were to take to growing opium, in five years 
" there would not be a basket of rice. I have never 
" known a Burman or Karen to use it who did not go 
" to the bad sharp." 

330. Would you say that that letter represents the 
general opinion entertained by the missionaries of your 
liO'.'.ieiy P —I think so, and by the many thousands of 
native Christians in Burmah. I may perhaps say that 
lis regards opium and liquor the feeling is the same 



in Burmah as in China. All these Burmese Christians 
are teetotallers and abstainers from opium. 

331. And abstainers from alcohol also P — Abstainers 
from alcohol also. 

3:i2. Do they distinguish between alcohol and opium ; 
do they consider that the one is more grave and 
objectionable than the other ? — I do not know 
that they make comparisons between the two habits, 
but unfortunately when a Burman does take to 
drinking, he does not drink in moderation. We in this 
country recognise a, moderate use of liquor, but, with 
the Burman, he usually goes in for it strongly, and it 
is a matter of offence against Church government and 
against their Christian faith to use liquor. Possibly 
that is so, Isecause nearly all the American missionaries 
are teetotallerg, and they have made the temperance 
work a strong point. 

333. Is the tendency to the abuse of liquor a preva- 
lent vice among that jjopalation P — More so among 
the Burmese than among the Chinese. 

.'•134. I suppose the nature of the climate is such that 
alcohol, regarded medicinally, is not a necessary 
article of consumption p — 1 should not think so, for a 
Burman or a foreigner. 

nSo. Are you cognisant of aiiy special injury inflicted 
upon the native Churches by the spread ot the opium 
habit, and can you tell us by what means the sgread 
of that habit among them has been indiiced ? — Dr. 
Bunlvcr, of the Karen Mission in Toungoo, reports to 
his Missionary Board that a great number of his 
Karen Christians have fallen under the influence of the 
"piuni habit, and that as a consequence schools have 
been closed ; self-supporting churches have Ijeen shut 
up ; that in cases, churches of some hundreds of 
Christians have been dismissed and disbanded entirely ; 
that some of the oldest native pastors have been 
expelled from the Church and ha\e become vagabonds 
and rogues ; and his despair is veiy great at seeing 
the evil that is worked among them. He states that 
the cause was that many of these outlying di.-^tricts of 
the Hills near Toungoo have been visited by Chinese 
from Toungoo, who have settled among Ihem and 
given away small packets of opium to the young men 
until the habit has been induced; then they have 
charged a small price for it, and gradually a trade has 
sprung up. Other missionaries, in difierent parts, in 
Mandalay, Thayetmyo, Prome, Hentheda, Ba-.^ien, and 
especially m Rangoon, all us very much the same 
story of honoured and trusted Ohristians falling victims 
to the habit. 

336. Can you sum up in a fe\v words your impressions 
of che whole case as it relates to Burmah P — My 
personal observation extends only to the first four 
years, ))ut the remainder of the time I have knowledge 
from evidence received from my friends there, with 
whom I have kept up a constant correspondence. I 
feel sure that the consumption of opium is inereasing, 
both in Upper and Lower Burmah, that its use is 
attended by the most disastrous consequences to those 
who come under its influence, that measures which 
have been adopted in Upper Burmah have been 
attended with but qualified success, if not with absolute 
failure ; that in Lower Burmah wo look forward with very 
grave apprehension to the measure lately introduced 
by the Government, involving, as it doe's, permission 
for the Chinese and others to use opium. It seems to 
us that you cannot isolate a sin of this kind, anv more 
than you can isolate cholera. If we were to pass an 
edict in England that only the Scotchmen were to use 
whisky and that no one else was to touch it, it would be 
simply a failure ; and while we recognise with gratitude 
and very deep thankfulness the attitude of most of the 
officials in Burmah towards the opium traffic, we feel 
sure that until it is entirely abolished they will never 
be able to suppress the smuggling and the illicit trade 
that there is in opium. They suppressed ganja in 
Burmah, which is a weed growing by the roadside. The 
,product,for smoking or eating, is easily made, and the use 
of it has almo.=;t entirely passed away among the Burmans 
since it was suppressed, and I do not see anv reason why 
opium could not be treated in the same way. At any 
rat(\ the attitude of the Government in opposino- it 
would coufirni the good feelings and the right 
impressions of the Burmese people, and they would 
support the Government loyally in doing so. As it is 
we are on the^ wrong side as regards the legalization 
of opium, which the Burman conscience condemns. 
Of course they do not understand, as we understand,' 
the reasons for the high license. 



MINUTES OK KViUENOE. 



27 



337. Then you do not think that the resistance which 
would bo ofll'red by tlio Chinese residents in Burmah 
to a policy of total prohibition would present an insur- 
mountable difficulty to the Government P— I do not 
think that the opium-using inhabitants of Burmah are 
of sufficient value to the country to be consulted in the 
matter, because I think it is very likely, if they found 
that they could not get opium there, they would go to 
some other country where they could get it, and it 
would be all the better for Burmah if they did so. 

338. Now, to return to China ; how long were you in 
China, and with what provinces were you acquainted? 
—I am acquainted with the provinces of Hupeh, 
Kiangsi, Kiangsu, Shantung, and Chehkiang. These 
are all provinces, one in the north, and the others in 
the middle of China, and T have lived in those provinces 
for 13 years. 

339. "What was the attitude of the native population 
of those districts (which were remote from the Treaty 
ports) towards you and your brethren in the Mission? 
— As a general thing, very friendly. "We met isolated 
cases where men seemed to think that when they saw a 
foreigner it was a fair thing to throw a brick at him, 
btit as a general thing the Chinese always treated us 
with extreme courtesy. 

340. You were exposed to no personal danger in 
travelling about ?— For the last ten years I have lived 
250 miles from any other Mission station. My wife 
and children have been left alone in that Chinese city, 
taken their daily walks, received visitors, and have 
never received a single insult. 

3+1. "With your large experience of China, how far 
do you agi'ee with the evidence given yesterday by Dr. 
Maxwell ? — I agree entirely with Dr. Maxwell in every- 
thing that he said. There are some points that I should 
like to emphasize very much. 

342. "What are those points ? — First, his view that 
opium is a hindrance to the spread of the Gospel, and 
also his statement of the altitude of the Christian 
Church towards it. No man is recognised as a Chris- 
tian who buys or sells, or uses opium in any shape or 
form. 

343. Recognised by the Chinese Christians you mean ? 
— By the Protestants or Catholics of China. I agree, 
too, with Dr. Maxwell in his view that there is no 
power on tlie part of China to increase the amount of 
import duty on opium. 

344. I think we will not go into that. I shall address 
an inquiry to the Foreign Office on that subject p — 
Very good, my Lord. I will put this in as a parenthesis, 
that 1 have come up armed with some opinions and 
impressions on the subject. 

345. "Well, if you can give them to us briefly we will 
consider them ? — The fact of the amount of duty fixed 
upon opium by the Treaties being a fixed quantity, 
which the Chinese cannot increase without breaking 
through the Treaties, I think sufficiently indicates that 
they are not free in the matter ; but Dr. J. M. Dudgeon, 
in his paper read on May 12th, 1890, before the Shanghai 
Missionary Conference, states that in his opinion China 
was not free to increase the amount of duty on opium, 
or to make any motion towards putting down her own 
cultivation until she was able to shutout the import of 
foreign opium ; and that view was confirmed Ijy all the 
missionaries present, and they stated that, " When the 
'' favourable moment arrives, and China is no longer 
" trammelled with the foreign import, 1 believe the Go- 
" vernment is strong enough to have its will carried out." 
(That is for the suppression of opium}. " The great 
" body of the people will hail with satisfaction, under 
" these circumstances, such action on the part of the 
" Emperor." And again : " That from a full and care- 
" ful study of the whole question, from the history of 
" the nine years' negotiations which led up to the late 
" opium agreement, this conference is clearly of the 
" opinion that China is not free to act as she could and 
" would act in the matter, either of increased taxation 
" cm the foreign opium, or in the total suppression of 
" the growth of the poppy, and the consumption of the 
" drug within her own territories." 

346. {Sir J. Lyall.) "What date is that?— 1890, May 
12th. 

347. (Chairman.) You recognise that this statement 
of Mr. Dudgeon's does not harmonise with the autho- 
ritative statement which was made by Sir James Fer- 
gusson in the House of Commons ? — It was made six 
months before that statement in the House of Coanmons. 



I confirm Dr. Maxwell very strongly in his comparison Jiev. 

between opium and drink. I think opium seizes on a •/• S. Adams, 

man more quickly than drink, so that a maii may be a 

moderate consumer of alcohol, but in my estimation 9 Sept. 1893. 

there is no such thing as a moderate consumer of 

opinm, except in the sense in which I defihed pre- 
viously. The gi'ip which it has. upon a man is very 
jTiuch more strong than that of drink. 1 may say tliiat 
I have been in charge of a Mission hospital containing 
lOl) beds for opium smokers, and we ha;ve had again 
and again to dismiss men as practically incurable, 
either from emaciation or from some disease which 
seems to spring up as a result of the weakness of the 
system ; as soon as the opium is removed from them 
they become victims to some disease or other, and also 
because the will power is absolutely gone. The only 
cases that we look upon with any satisfaction are men 
who have been converted through the infiuence of the 
Holy Spirit and become real Christians, because it gives 
them a new will power and a new life, and they are 
able to resist the temptation ; but I have not any con- 
fidence in the cure of opium smokers apart from the 
Divine Spirit's influence. We have known of many 
such men who have been rescued, but only through the 
influence of Christian faith. 

348. Then, in your opinion, presuming that the im- 
portation from India were stopped, would the Chinese 
Government endeavour seriously to reduce the area 
tmder cultivation in China with a view to the entire 
suppression of the use of opium ? — I have, my Lord, a 
very strong opinion that the Chinese would do so. It 
was only in 1890 that the Emperor finally revoked all 
the edicts prohibiting the cultivation of the poppy. 
Previous to that time the cultivation was entirely un- 
official and unrecognised. I have seen myself, again 
and again, in the city of Kin-hwa the Governor of that 
city going out with soldiers and searching in different 
districts for the poppy under cultivation, destroying 
all the crops and beating the farmers for growing it. 
The fact is that during the past 30 years in China 
opium has been grown whenever a pro-opium official 
has been in power ; when the three years of the pro- 
opium authority have passed away, and a a anti- 
opium official has been put in power, the poppy has gone 
out of cultivation as if it had been struck by a blight. I 
believe there is an increasing conscience on the part of 
the people of China against opium ; although the culti- 
vation is so rapidly increasing, it seems as if the 
people were taking sides much more definitely for and 
against. As far as the Chinese officials are concerned, 
there is no doubt that the revenue question becomes a 
great difficulty. China is not a rich country, and the 
question of the import duty, I imagine, would very 
much weaken the hands of any Chinese official who 
tried to abolish it. 

349. Is there a wide divergence of view among the 
official class upon the opium question,, some being 
entirely opposed to the use of opium, and others regard- 
ing the habit more leniently ?— I am happy to be able 
to say, on the authority of Dr. Dudgeon, who is a 
medical man occasionally attending the Court in Pekin, 
that of the 16 Viceroys in China, only one is under 
suspicion of being an opium smoker, and that most of 
the very high officials are opposed to it. The Emperor 
himself is opposed to the use of opium, principally 
because his father, the eighth prince, when he died, 
was a victim of opium ; he took opium in his last ill- 
ness, and became addicted to it, and his precept to the 
Emperor was, " Have nothing whatever to do with it." 
But there are among the lower class of officials large 
numbers of men who are very poor — they get their 
offices through using borrowed money, and through 
giving bribes. They find in the gifts of the opium mer- 

. chants a very ready means of replenishing tlieir ex- 
chequers, and they permit things to go on which 
otherwise they would not do. I believe among the 
higher class of officials there is a very strong opinion 
against opium. I may say that I have a personal 
friend. General Siao, who fought against Russia, and 
also against the French, who is at present in command 
of the garrisons of the Prefecture, and he gave me a 
dinner before leaving China — a sort of farewell dinner — 
and in the presence of all the officers he said, " If you 
•' English people would only let us have liberty to do 
" as we like in our own country, we would soon put 
•' an end to the opium trade." " More easily said than 
" done, your Excellency," said I; "how would you 
" accomplish it?" ""We would open opium refuges 
" in every city, employ foreign and native doctors, 
" and compel the people to go and buy anti- 

1> 2 



28 



INDIAN OPCUM COMMISSION : 



Jiei " opium mediuine, and use all means to stop the trade 

J. S. Adams. " in opiuin ; and if there were any so degraded as to 

'■' refuse to listen to the voice of reason, we would 

9 Sept. 1S93. ■■' employ force with them." With that he drew his 

sword as he spoke, probably meaning that he WDuld out 

off their heads. I cannot say that I would recommend 
such extreme measures, but it iudioate'l that in his 
mind any measures ought to be taken in order to pre- 
vent the spi-ead of opium smoking in China. I ought 
10 say this — I feel it of very great importance — that I 
think many merchants and officials in China do not see 
the inner life of the Chinese as we do ; tihere are com- 
paratively few among the merchants who can speak 
Chinese. Our English Consuls, as a rule, speak Chinese 
thornughly well, but they do not mix much with the 
people. We have constantly gone in and out among 
the Chinese, and we find, from the evidence given us 
by the wives and the children of often wealthy officials 
who have lost money, that opium is causing an immense 
a.mount of misery, not only among the working classes, 
but also among the higher, that is to say, among 
the lower clas,ses of the mandarins. The wife of the 
official governing our own city lamented to us that her 
son had become au opium smoker ; and that for yL-nr.s 
he had been losing, by opium smoking and the things 
which come with it (the gambling, and the consorting 
with bad characters, and so forth), more money than 
his father was making in liis oflfice every year. We 
have people outside our East Gate, living m the beggars' 
quarter, who ten years au,o, when I first went to 
Kin-hwa, were living in the west end of the city, in 
some of the finest houses in the place, and these fimilies 
have come down entirely through opium. I am con- 
vinced that the more closely we study the question, 
and look into the facts among the people, the more 
deeply we shall feel the greatness of the evil. 

•350. Have you any comments that you would like to 
offer in conclusion with reference to the evidence taken 
from previous witnesses? — I have already trespassed 
so much upon your time that I hardly venture to say 
that 1 think our political influence in China suffers 
through the opium traffic, and also that legitimate 
trade is hindered very much by it. I think other 
evidence will be offered to the Commission, or that 
ihere is no need for me to go into that question. I 
would merely hke to indicate that at the time when 
telegraphs were discussed in China we had in Pekin 
representatives of English firms, American, French, 
German, and others ; but, to the surprise of everyone, 
this great telegraph system in China has been com- 
mitted to the Scandinavians. Every provincial city 
in China, with the exception of Hunan, is now con- 
nected with Pekin by telegiaph, and Scandinavians 
have done the whole work. Of course I do not say 
that that has been the i-csult of our opium trade, but it 
is quite possible that it does prejudice us in the eyes of 
Chinese officials — it does in the eyes of Chinese 
merchants, I know. 

351. It makes England, you mean, generally un- 
popular p — I think so. Thou, in preaching, we have 
often had the Chinese throw it in our faces that we 
are Englishmen ; they sometimes will do it in our 
chapels, for we have everyday preaching in our own 
chapels; and the connnon objection — the stock objec- 
tion — is ; " Oh, you are the people who bring us the 
" opium ; you are the English people who deal with 
" us in opium, and yet you come here to teach us 
" morality ! We do not believe in any such morality.'' 
And again and again, in preaching in the open air in 
large towns, where I have been for the first time, 
directly the people have heard that 1 am an English- 
man, opium smokers have got up, shown their rags 
and emaciated forms, and denounced us as the people 
who have caused all their misery. The result has 
been that we missionaries have had no hold upon the 
people— the people have been disgusted with us. Then, 
your Lordship asked Sir Joseph Pease a question 
about the public meetings that have been hold in 
various parts of the country. 

352-3. In Great Britain and Ireland P — I believe at 
the present time there is a very deep interest all over 
the country in this question. 

354. Have you attended any meetings yourself? — I 
have. I came home for a holiday, but I have turned my 
holiday into a year's campaign on this subject, at 
considerable inconvenience and loss to myself; but I 
am convinced of this, that, especially among the 
Midlands, and in the North, and in certain parts of 
Ireland, there is a deepening interest in this question. 
The membership of the various Anti-Opiura Societies 



is about 12,000 persons, and they are all earnestly 
seeking to spread information on this subject. The 
political aspect has been steadily kept out of view ; it 
is nut in any sense a party question, but it is one in 
which most Christian people fee' a deep interest. 

055. The anti-opium movement in Great Britain and 
Ireland, I presume, is as much an object of general 
support as is the movement to prevent the use of 
alcohol P — Well, the support is very general, and people 
do recognise that it is a kindred subject, and they have 
given us very good help and encouragement. 

356. (Sir J. Lynll.) Do you think that the Burmese 
native Government was really able to prohibit opium 
smoking among the Burmese before the annexation — I 
mean before we took Upper liurmah ? — During the four 
years I was there I never saw a Burman smoke opinni. 
That was during the reign of King Mmdoon and the 
first year of the reign of King Theebaw. 

357. But wiih other opium-smoking people all round 
them, and with the great opium-producing districts of 
Western China near them, do you think it is possible 
that it could have been absolutely prohibited P — I think 
that if the conscience of the Burman nation had not 
been at the back of that prohibition, they probably 
could not have prevented it, with their broken-down 
machinery. 

358. As a matter of fact you think none of the 
Burmese smoked opium p — As a matter of fact, I think 
that none of the Burmese, to my knowledge, smoked 
opium. 

359. The description you give of the effects of opium 
smoking is a very terrible one. I suppose you know 
that there are other people who have lived in China, 
and other countries in the East, who hold a different 
opinion P — Yes. 

360. A much more moderate opinion ? — I know 
that, for instance, the merchants at the ports would 
perhaps have an opium-smoking compradore, and they 
jiroduce him to you, and they say : " There, that man 
" smokes opium, and he is as bright a man in business 
" as I am ; he is always up to his work, and he has 
" smoked opium for a certain number of years." But 
that man has probably been primed with opium before 
he comes to his work, and when he goes to his luncheon 
he is again filled up— wound uj), like a musical box, to 
go for a certain time until he is run down, and unless 
he takes his three daily doses he cannot do his work. 
Such a view as that is very misleading. 

361. Is it not a fact that in a great part of China, 
particularly the part which Europeans see most or, 
opium smoking is just about as common among the men 
(except perhaps among the very poor who cannot afford 
it) as tobacco smoking is among Englishmen — very little 
less common. I have heard it frequently asserted ; do 
you think it is true or not p — In some cases it may be 
true, but China is a very large country, and the practice 
differs very much. In those places that I am acquainted 
with it is not so common as tobacco smoking. During 
my absence from Englaird I notice that tobacco smoking 
has increased very greatly in England. 

362. I was on board a ship, now, the other day, with 
a great number of Chinese going from China to Cali- 
fornia. As far as I could see, every Chinaman of the 
lot smoked opium p — Very probably. 

363. They spent the day, or part of the day, in 
tmokmg opmm p— They do in some places— they do so 
0)1 the ttiver Yangtse. 

30-1'. In California; and Australia the Chinamen are 
such good labourers, such good workers that, as yon 
know, savage assaults have been made upon them by 
English working-men, and excessive jealousy has been 
aroused because they have really cut out the English 
working-man. Is it possible, if opium smoking is such 
a dreadful vice, I do not mean to say it is not a vice 
and a bad habit, but if the consequences of opium are 
anything like what you have described, is it possible 
that these people (who nearly all smoke opium) could 
work, and make money, and succeed, as the Chinese do 
in Australia and California ?— I think that on close 
examination we should find that the great majorif-- of 
opium smokers are not the people who do the work, 
and that they are really parasites among the common 
crowd of Chinese workers. In cases where a man is 
an opium smoker, during the time that he is under the 
infiuenco of the drug, he can do his work as well as 
anybody, and probably, owing to the extra stimulation, 
a httle better than most Chinese. But the system is 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



29 



affected in this way : it is an intense stimulation and an 
intense depression, and when the man is under the 
influence of the depression he is absolutely worthless. 
It is only while he i'l under the influence of the stimu- 
lant that he is of value, and a great deal of their hard 
work is performed under the influence of the stimu- 
lating effect of the drug, and therefore people say that 
opium has no evil efiects because they see the man at 
his beat and not at his worst. That is my view of the 
question, and L may perhaps say that the evil effects of 
opium are sometimes long in developing themselves. 
In many cases that I have known, opium smokers have 
taken the drug for 8 or 10 year.s, and have shown very 
little emaciation, but the mischief has been going on, 
and directly hard times liavo come, and they have not 
been able to get good food and stimulants (wine and so 
forth), then they have gone rapidly to the bad. 

365. The great bulk of moderate opium smokers live 
as long as anybody else, do they not ?— So far as opium 
smokers are concerned they may live as long as any- 
body else, but I find this. Sir James, that in the famine 
times, and when epidemics of fever take place, the first 
to die are the opium smokers ; they are predisposed to 
disease, and their bodies seem to invite the attack of 
any wandering disease that comes along. 

366. These Kachyins and Shans — you mentioned 
those tribes that are on the borders of Burmah — they 
are confirmed opium smokers, are they not P — Many of 
them are. 

367. Well, they are people of very strong physique, 
and very energetic, are they not — compared to the 
Burmese rather remarkably so ? — Tea; I think that, as 
a rule, the HiU men are strong in comparison with the 
dwellers in the plains. We have the same thing in 
other countries, but I have come across many Kach- 
yins and Shans who have suff'ered severely from the 
effects of opium smoking.- 

368. The Burmese Government, on religious grounds, 
through the influence of the Buddhist priesthood, pro- 
hibited the use of opium, aod our Government, finding 
it prohibited, carried on the prohibition? — Yes. 

369. Was spirit drinking also forbidden by the 
Burmese Government ? — The canon of the Buddhist law 
is, " Thou shalt not touch anything that intoxicates "; 
therefore spirit drinking was also forbidden. 

370. When you were in Upper Burmah did you ever 
see the Burmese drinking spirits ? — Not in Upper 
Burmah. The difference is very marked between Upper 
and Lower Burmah, coming down across the frontiers ; 
in fact, as I remarked in my evidence In chief, I only 
saw one case of a man being punished for drinking 
spirits ; he had a thousand blows with a small rattan. 

371. The Mahomedan religion also prohibits, or at 
least strongly condemns, the use of spirits, and there 
are a great many Mahomedana in India, particularly 
in some parts, where they are in fact the great majority 
of the population. I suppose you would think that we 
ought to prohibit the use of spirits too ? — I think, if the 
use of spirits is doing as much harm as the use of opium 
is, that it would be a very pertinent duty for us to pro- 
hibit the use of spirits. I notice in the Report of the 
Excise Department in Burmah for 1891-92, in certain 
places the Deputy Commissioner notices the good effect 
prodaced by the spread of the Mahomedan religion 
in putting down intoxication among the natives. 

372. Now the question is, should these things be en- 
forced by Government or should they be left to religious 
influences ? — I hardly know wliether I am prepared to 
define the duties of Government. It seems to me that 
it is the duty of the Government to protect its people 
from anything that is injuring them if possible. The 
tendency in the past lias not always been to protect the 
people, but rather, I fear, to push the trade. 

373. (Mr. Pease.) I just wish to ask whether the con- 
sumption of opium in Burmah is confined to smoking, 
or whether it is partly consumed by eating, partly by 
smoking?— In Burmah, I believe, they smoke very 
largely; in China it is smoked, and then the ashes of 

The witness 



the opium are taken and mi-xed with fresh opium and 
again smoked ; and very frequently the third burning 
of ashes is smoked. In some cases, with working men 
who have not time to spend over smoking (which is a 
very tedious business, taking about an hour to satisfy 
an ordinary craving), they take it in the shape of 
laudanum dissolved in spirits, or take it simply as 
a pill, washing it down with a cup of tea. 

374. Is it your experience that the Chinese look upon 
the smoking of opium as an indulgence of which they 
have no cause to be ashamed ? — I have never yet met a 
Chinaman who defended opium smoking or eating. 
They all look upon it as a thing to be ashamed of; in 
fact, on several occasions when I first went to China I 
nearly got into trouble by asking the question, " Are 
you an opium smoker," and to this day, if you wanted 
to insult a Chinaman, you would have no need to say 
anything, hut simply put the finger and thumb to the 
mouth, and waggle the hand, and it means, " Ton are a 
confirmed opium smoker," and it is taken as an insult. 
The boys often insult their parents in that way. 

375. (Mr. Mowbray). I have only one question to ask, 
arising out of what you told Sir James Lyall. Tou 
said. I think, that the Burmese Government had 
succeeded in restricting the consumption of opium, not 
to the Burmese, but to the other inhabitants of Upper 
Burmah P — No, they let these resident Chinese smoke 
opium. Strictly speaking, it was not recognised as a 
public thing. In cases where Chinese travellers 
brought down opium in any quantity it was always 
seized, and the travellers themselves were punisued for 
smoking it ; but they did not seem to care so much to 
enforce the prohibition upon people of other races as 
they did upon their own people. 

376. In fact, I rather gathered that they had 
succeeded in drawing the distinction which you seemed 
to think the English Government would not be able to 
draw, between consumption by the Burmese and 
consumption by other races in Upper Burmah p — The 
number of strangers in Upper Burmah at that time 
was very limited indeed. As I have said, 500 or 600 
travellers came through in the course of a month ; so 
that really there was very little opium smoking seen 
except when the Shans came over in the dry season to 
sell their iron ware and then go back again. Those 
people the Burmese authorities were really afraid to 
meddle with. 

377. Then is it the increase of what you call foreigners 
in Upper Burmah which leads you to think that the 
English Government could not do that which the 
Burmese Government did in their time P — I think the 
English Government could suppress the use of opium 
among all classes of people in Upper Burmah, and I 
think that ia the only remedy at their disposal. 

378. I quite understood you to say that; but I 
wanted to Imow what was your reason for thinking it 
impossible that they could prevent the Burmese con- 
suming it and at the same time allow others P — Simply 
because of our experience and the statements in the 
lieport of the Excise Department in Burmah. The law 
itself is altogether inoperative. If you will allow 
me I will read two extracts from the Report of the 
Excise Department in Upper Burmah, page 21. " The 
" consumption of liquors and opium is theoretically 
" confined to the above-mentioned population, but there 
" can be no doubt that a considerable amount of both 
' ' finds its way into the hands of Burmese." And again 
on page 22, " The licenses for the sale of opium and 
" liquor are intended for the convenience of the non- 
" Burman population of Upper Burmah, and sale of 
" either liquor or opium to Burmans is prohibited by 
'' lavr. But there can be no doubt that the prohibition 
" is, in practice, inoperative." 

379. I understand from what you have just said that 
you think the increasing diflBoulty of restricting the 
me of opium to foreigners in Upper Burmah arises veiy 
much from the increased number of foreigners now in 
Upper Burmah as compared with the difficulty under 
the late Burmese Government? — Prom that increase 
and also from the fact that our licensed shops are there. 

withdrew. 



Jtev. 
J. S. Adam 

9 Sept. 1893 



The Reverend Hudson Tai'lok called in and examined. 



330. {Ghairman.) To what communion do you belong, 
Mr. Taylor P— Personally I am a Baptist; (but the 
mission' I represent is "interdenominational, its mis- 
sionaries being members of all sections of the Christian 
Church). 



381. And are you also a member of the Royal College 
of Surgeons ? — Yes. 

382. I believe that you are the founder and general 
director of the China Inland Mission ? — That is so, my 
Lord. 

D 3 



Rev. 
H. Tayh 



30 



INUIAX (JFIUM COMMISSION 



lieo. 383. Can you givo us very shortly what is the scope 

H. Taylor. of the work undertaken by that Mission? — We have at 

■ the present time about 530 missionary worlcera of both 

9 Seut. 1893. sexes in 14 of the 18 provinces of China, and also a 

" ' station at Bhamo in Upper Burmah. 

384. You yourself have had personal experience in 
Ohina ? — I went out in 1863, 40 years ago, and have 
been a missionary ever since. 

'■>&. How many years were you out in China ? — I 
could not now tell how many I havo Ijeen in (Jhina, as I 
have been backwards and forwards a good deal latterly ; 
but my connexion with the work has been of 40 years, 
standing. 

386. In what districts have you laboured in China ? — 
Personally I have lived in a number of towns fur several 
years. I may say, Shanghai from 1854 to 1856, and the 
intervals of time not mentioned below when in Ohina ; 
in Swatow in 1856; in Ningpo, 1857 to 1860; in 
Hang-ohow, 1866 to 1868 ; inTang-chau, 1868 and 1869 ; 
m Chin-kiang, two years, 1870 and 1871 ; in Chefoo, 
1879 to 1882 ; and I have made visits of several months' 
duration to other towns. 

387. The Commission may infei' from what you have 
told us that you have had wide opportunities ot forming 
an opinion as to the questions which were referred to 
us ? — I thought it might be helpful, my Lord, if I 
marked by a red line on a map the districts that I 
personally visited, and am acquainted with, either from 
visitation or residence, \_Mr. Taylor here handed the 
map to the Chairman.'] I have not been further west than 
Hanchung (Shen-si province), as you will see. These 
provinces I visited. [Mr. Taylor here pointed out on 
the map the provinces he had visited, viz., Shen-si, Shan- 
si, Ghih-li, Shan-tung, Kiang-su, Gnu-hwuy, Hu-peh, 
Kiang-si, Cheh-kiang, Kwang-timg.} I spent a great 
deal of mne in Cheh-kiang and Kiang-su, and more or 
less in Kiang-si. 

388. Can you give us, in a general statement, what is 
your experience as to the effects of opium, and espe- 
oially Indian opium, on Chinese consumers, whether 
regarded morally or physicallj' ? — I do not know that I 
am able to discriminate much between the effects of 
Indian and Chinese opium, because in the many cases 
of Chinese opium smokers with whom I have had to 
do, one has not attempted to trace which opium they 
were using. I might say that probably in my earlier 
experiences Indian opium was the drug used, and 
latterly Chinese opium has been more largely used by 
those I have had to do with. As to the effects of opium 
on the Chinese I should like to speak definitely. 

389. The Commission would wish you to give a pretty 
full description of your views on this question ? — The 
effects on the Chinese, I., physically, are (a) to interfere 
with the nutritive system. A man who s-mokes opium 
has a lessened appetite. If he be in a good position, able 
to stimulate the stomach by nutritious food and stimu- 
lating dishes, he might continue using a moderate 
quantity, sometimes for a considerable period, without 
showing that emaciation which is one of the most 
marked features where those advantages are not pos- 
sessed. When a man is unable from any circumstances 
to get the highly-spiced dishes and nutritions food that 
are necessary for him as an opium smoker, he becomes 
very thin and spare and runs down in physical strength 
very steadily as a rule Then (b) opium affects very 
seriously the nervous system. Of course you know the 
delightful sedative effect of opium ; and this is a very 
delicious effect to the Chinese — it is a sort of Blysium to 
them ; b Li t it is followed by nervous irritability and sleep- 
lessness when without opium. It is a proverb among the 
Chinese, and it is well known, that the opium-smoker 
turns night into day and day into night ; he is sleep- 
less at night, iind unless under the influence of con- 
siderable doses he does not get his proper rest ; but 
he is sleepy daring the day, and that effect is one that 
can only be kept under Ijy increasing the dose ; and 
hence the tremendous temptation for men who want to 
work during the day to increase the amoiint of opium 
taken. Then (c) it has a very serious effect, bearing 
upon national welfare, in its efl'ect on the generative 
system. In the first instance it is a stimulant, and it 
very frequently leads to immorality. One of the greatest 
difficulties, often met with, when a Chinama.n wants 
to break off the use of opium is spermatorrhoea, which 
comes on, and is a very troublesome symptom. I 
have had a great number of opium smokers under 
my care at onr time or another, and this is a very 
frequent symptom, just as diarrhoea comes on in the 
absence of opium, so spermatorrhooa. will also come 



on ; and this is a, serious effect. If the opium smoking 
is continued, and the system allowed to run down, 
impotence and sterility are the consequence. Where 
both husband and wile are opium smokers you find 
the children are ^ery feeble, of low vitality, and are 
easily carried off by infantile diseases. If the opium 
smoking is carried by both parents to excess, there 
usually are no children. Then (cZ) the general effect of 
it is to lower the vitality of men who, perhaps, may seem 
to be fairly well, and get along under ordinary circum- 
stances, Ijut in fever or any epidemic they seem to have 
such lessened power of resistance on the one hand, or 
of recuperation on the other hand, that many lives are 
lost. I do not think that opium smokers, as a rule — • 
there are exceptions — live as long as the rest of Jthe 
population. Of course you find cases of men who 
have smoked opium for many years and do reach to 
old age J but thej' are exceptional, according to my 
experience. Then, II., as to the mental system. The 
first effect of opium is stimulative. An opium smoker 
will oftentimes do his best work when under the 
influence of the drug ; and that is a great temptation to 
young and middle-aged students who have to go in 
lor prolonged examinations. They often do better work 
through the use of the drug than perhaps they would 
do without it. But there follows a depressing effect, 
and there surely ensues a dulled, ultimately a very 
dulled, mental state ; and unless the stimulant is kopt 
up men get sleepy and neglect their work and go down. 
But, III., the most terrible effect is on the mmal 
system. Opium smokers have always a dulled conscience. 
I do not think that there is any exception. They have 
dulled moral perceptions ; and if they smoke to excess, 
as the system goes down, generally the moral system 
in pai'ticular goes down, and there is nothing that an 
opium smoker will not do to get the drug : his natural 
affection seems as a rule to be first loosened and then to 
disappear; and in very, very many cases, where 
poverty comes on — which is a very natural result of 
opium smoking — the children are disposed of ; the wife 
may be sold, or, still worse, kept for immoral purposes ; 
and it is one of the greatest difficulties to rouse the 
conscience of an opium smoker, and when it is roused 
the poor fellow's will-power is so entirely gone that he 
is very frequently unable to resist temptation. I think 
that these are the principal points. 

390. Would you say that the opium habit was very 
generally prevalent among the Chinese ? — "When I first 
reached China it was comparatively rare ; but it has 
spread very rapidly during the last 20 years, still more 
rapidly during the last 10 ; it is frightfully prevalent 
now. 

391. The Chinese have had a good reputation, have 
they not, as workers ? — They are most industrious 
people as a race, but the opium smoker is as noted for 
laziness as the other Chinaman is for industry 

392. Is it not the case that a great number of the 
Chinamen who emigrate, and whose services are found 
to be of great value in carrying on the industries of the 
place where they are temporarily employed, are opium 
smokers more or less ? — I have no means of judging 
what proportion of the emigrants from China are 
opium smokers. I have met Chinese in Australia and 
in America ; those whom I happen to have come across 
were not opium smokers ; and the Chinese whom I have 
met, especially the better classes of them, in Australia, 
are bitterly opposed to opium being allowed to be 
introduced among them. Now, surely they ought to 
know their own race, and the effect upon their own 
people. If it were beneficial, why should the moral and 
better men among them be unanimously and bitterly 
opposed to it ? 

:juO._Will you tell us how you find that the assumed 
connexion of the British Government with the opium 
traffic constitutes a hindrance to ihe acceptance of 
Christianity by the Chinese?— It makes us very 
unpopular. 1 would give anything many times to 
conceal my nationality, if one could legitimately do it, 
because I know inevitably the use that will be made of 
it. As I have mentioned, I have travelled extensively 
in China. I have never been in a province in which 
the question of the action of the British Government 
with regard to opium has not been brought up as an 
argument against the truth of the beneficial result of 
Christianity. 

3' If. Do you consider that the unpopularity which 
you believe attaches to the British Government for its 
connexion with the opium traffic impedes the work of 
other Christian missionaries, such as those coming from 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



31 



the United States, or from France, or from other 
countries P--One of the most common remarks to be 
met with is one _ which affects them as much as us. 
^'^If Christianity is worth anything, why do you not go 
horae and preach to your own Govemment." If 
Christianity is worth nothing, of course it does not 
matter whether an American or a German missionary 
is propagating it, if it be a powerless religion. What. 
ever is the real state of the case, there is no question 
that amongst the officials, amongst the literary classes, 
and amongst the common people, we are believed to be 
the authors of their national ruin and curse through 
opium. 

395_. Are there any other matters bearing on this 
question that you would like to bring before us ; you 
have given us very clearly your general i^ibw of the 
case, resting on your long experience ?— Is it not a 
very serious thing that we have by this opium trade 
alienated the sympathies and the friendship, not of 
the worst classes of China but of the best P I cannot 
conceive a Chinamen to be a patriot, and not hate 
England ; and as an Englishman it is very painful and 
very humiliating to feel this— that the best Chinese are 
those who dislike us most, and not the worst Chinese — 
that the best feel that we have inflicted upon them an 
irreparable injury. Then, again, the poor victims. 
We have in our own Mission — other missionaries do the 
same thing— a large number of small hospitals for the 
reclamation of opium smokers, and a very large number 
of Chinese come under our care in this way. Men. 
when I had charge of a hospital, came as far as 
200 miles, in order to be cured. Their feelings are 
very strong ; and when we appeal to these refuges to 
them as evidence that Christianity has no sympathy 
with evil-living and evil-doing, they say, " Ah ! but 
you cure by tens and you poison by tens of thou- 
sands ; " and our efforts to bring about a better state 
of feeling are neutralised by the fact that our nation 
is believed by the Chinese unquestionably, whether* 
rightly or wrongly, to be the cause of their national 
ruin and degradation in this respect. 

396. So far as you know among the Chinese, generally, 
it is not understood that an entire change has come 
over the public opinion of this country with reference 
to the opium question, that we should certainly, not as 
a nation, be prepared by forcible means to compel 
the Chinese to receive importations of opium from 
India ; that is not sufficiently recognised among them ? 
— It is not generally known, my Iiord. and I think 
some of us would feel very much afraid of assuring the 
Chinese, that if they were to exclude opium there would 
be no warlike measures taken. I dare not tell the 
Chinamen so. I am not at all satisfied that it would be 
80:' I am quite sure there would be no war nominally 
on the ground of opium. But I am not at all satisfied. 

397. Tou are aware, are you not, that a statement 
was authoritatively made in that sense in the House 
of Commons, by Sir James Eergusson, as representing 
Her Majesty's Government ? — We have heard of that 
statement ; but many things take place in the House 
that are not very much confirmed. 

398. There was no dissentient voice in the House of 
Commons when Sir James Eergusson gave that assur- 
ance? — I think ic would not be easy to convince the 
Cliinese, unless they had an authoritative declaration 
from our Government, that we were likely to reverse 
onr whole policy since the first war with China. 

399. The statement in the House of Commons is, as 
you know, an authoritative declaration on the part of the 
British Government ; there is no more effectual way of 
making an authoritative statement on behalf of the 
British Government than to make a statement officially 
in the House of Commons ? — -Would it not be well if 
this were conveyed to the Chinese officially P 

400. They have a, legation in London, whose duty it 
would be to take cognizance of a statement of that kind 
in the House of Commons ? — I think it would be very 
difficult to convince the Chinese, unless definite, 
measures were taken, that we had reversed, our whole 
policy. 

401. Well, what kind of " definite measures " would 
you suggest? — Communica/tion to the Chinese Govern- 
ment w6uld be a definite measure ; and I think it would 
be very widely published in China. Of course, every 
missionary Would be, only too thankful to do all he 
could in spl-eading it for his own sake, and for the 
eakg' of the 'work With which he is connected ; and I 
maty sa)^ we- have made very widely known the fact 



that there is an Anti-Opium Society, and a large anti- 
opium feeling in the country ; but the Chinese say to 
us, "Well, you have talked a great deal; why do 
" you not do more ; why do you not act ? " 

402. I think the Chinese Government have every 
means of knowing from the statement.*, w'-ach have 
been made upon authority in the House of Commons, 
that it is open to them to adopt any policy which they 
may think fit with icference to the importation of 
opium from outside sources P — They would scarcely be 
prepared at present to deal with our Treaty, I imagine, 
as the Americans have dealt with their IVeaty in the 
matter of the Geary Act. 

403. Do you not think that the Chinese Government 
are restrained from taking any action on the lines that 
you would wish rather by considerations of revenue 
than by any apprehension, if they prohibited the 
importation, that we should take warlike measures to 
resist that ? — To what extent, at the present time, the 
Chinese Government may bo influenced by qaostions of 
revenue, I have no means of judging. We are well 
aware that they have in times gone by refused to make 
revenue from this source. 

404. {Sir W. Boberts.) 1 should like to ask, Mr. 
Taylor, as a medical man, do you consider that you 
can distinguish in the case of opium smokers and 
opium eaters, as we do with regard to the users of 
fermented drinks— between an opium sot and a mode- 
rate user, as we distinguish between a drunkard and a 
moderate drinker ? — The term a " moderate user of 
opium" is a little indefinite, and it is very difficult to 
know exactly what one or another may mean by that. 
If you mean by a "moderate user" one who has it 
within his power to desist from the use, or to give it 
up, the number of those, I should say, was very small 
indeed, after the first few months of taking it. If you 
mean by opium-sots those who are living in a condition 
of the utmost degradation, well, then, one could not 
really give any statistics as to the proportions. 

405. You have told us that you have known of opium 
smokers who have reached an old age ? — Oh, yea. 

406. I presume you would say that only those who ' 
use opium moderately could reach old age P — I do not 
remember anyone over 70 or 80 who has taken very ' 
large quantities. 

407. Seventy or 80?— Yes. 

408. Well, that is a pretty good span, is it not? — It ' 
is ; and, as I say, such persons are very rare. 

409. We have been told that in cities chair bearers 
and coolies are nearly all opium smokers ? — I am afraid 
that it is so now. 

410. Then how is it that they are able to do their 
work ? — In the first place, their work is not neioessarily 
continuous and exhaustive. A chair bearer for in- 
stance, in a city, will very seldom be on duty consecu- 
tively for a couple of hours, and under the infiuence of 
the stimulant he can do pretty hard work for that time. 
There is another class of chair bearers who S/Te employed 
on long journeys, and it has been my misfortune to , 
have sometimes in a gang of bearers some opium 
staokers. They are a terrible trouble to one. When 
the stimulating effect of the opium ceases they are 
absolutely unable to go on, and your progress will be 
interrupted from one to two hours however inconvenient 
it may be. These men are never very old ; they break 
down and die very eiiily. 

411. I was going to ask you with regard to that 
recurrence. You say they do their work well under the 
infiuence of the stimulant; how do yon, distinguish 
between the drosvsy effect of a stimulant and the drowsy 
effect of a meal; we are obliged to take our meals 
periodically? — The rest of our bearers who are not 
opium smokers take their meals at the same time. 

412. Does the opium smoker take his smoke with his 
meals or. after? — He will usually take it Avith his meal 
or after it, or sometimes instead of it, when the poor 
wretch has not anything else to take. 

413. Would a dose of opium enable him to go on with 
his work without eating P — Eor the time being. But it 
is like borrowed money — when you borrow money, you 
have got to repay with interest. 

414. Of course you know, as a medical man, that we do 
everything — all our functions are performed — under the 
effect of a stimulant of some sort or other ? — A proper, 
normal, vital stimulant, of course, is one thing, and a 
poison is another. 

D 4 



Rev. 
H. Taylor. 

9 Sept. ] »4'i. 



32 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION; 



Rev. 

T1. Taylor. 

Sept. 1893. 



415. You know the paradox is here — we hear on the 
one hand that these Chinese arc extremely strong, 
perform tueir work well, and nevertheless take opium ; 
and yet we are told these terrible tales of the effect of 
opinm on the system. Have you not distinguished 
between the sot and the moderate user of opium ? — One 
has distinguished constantly between those who are 
already going down under it, and those who are well 
nourished and sustained. 

416. I presume you could not give the Commission 
any idea of the ratp of mortality— the death rate ? — I 
am afraid not. 

417. I suppose no statistics exist? — None exist; and 
it would be sheer guesswork. But amongst these 
labouring classes you very rarely meet with men, 
who have taken opium and run down, living for many 
years. They do not, of course, die of the opium, that 
is as a rule, but of diarrhcsa, or dysentery, or fever, 
which they have no power to rally from. I ma}' say 
that in one part of the journeys that I frequently have 
had to take I used to come in contact in earlier years 
with a large number of coolies who were engaged in con- 
veying vegetable tallow over the hills of Cheh-kiang. 
These men used to carry about LISO lbs. avoirdupois 
over those high hills. Now, I have never seen an 
opium-smoking coolie who could carry above 100 lbs. 
That will give you some idea of the difference in 
strength. 

418. And the other will carry 360 lbs ?— 330 lbs. 
avoirdupois — tremendous burdens. 

419. Do you think that your experience in that 
respect would be verified by others ? — Oh, there is no 
doubt about it. 

420. I presume these effects that you have enume- 
rated, arising in opium smokers, are not conspicuous in 
all cases — they are not inevitable, but you see them, 
more or less, occasionally, amongst opium smokers — 
I mean the degeneration of the conscience, and the 
effect on the nervous system, on the sexual system: 1 
presume that that is not true with regard to the bulk of 
opium smokers p — I should say that in the case of nine 
out of ten persons who take opium in what may be 
called moderation — if you may use the term for those 
who only take a drachm or two, say daily — that in nine 
cases out of ten you will find a deadening of the con- 
science, you will find inability to sleep without the 
opium, and very frequently inability to sleep for a good 
part of the night with it, and more or less impairment 
of a full fair day's work. 

421. That is in about 90 per cent, of the opium 
smokers ? — I should think so, as far as I can recall. 

422. So that it is only about 10 per cent, of opium 
smokers that can be said to be in fair health ? — In 
whom the evil effect is not apparent. There may be a 
good deal of undermining which is not apparent, may 
there not ? And of course some constitutions, I need 
not tell you, resist adverse influences longer and more 
strongly than others. Constitutions iiro not alike, at 
home or abroad. 

423. Then in your view, Mr. Taylor, it cannot be 
said, even speaking very broadly, that the opinm habit 
is at all on " all fours " with the alcoholic habit — with 
the use of alcoholic beverages ? — I think it is far worse. 

424. {Sir James Lyall.) Yon mentioned the taunts 
which the Chinese are apt to use in speaking to the 
missionaries and which are said to be a serious impedi- 
ment in the way of ChrisDianiciing efforts. In the 
pro-opium literature on the subject, I have seen it 
stated, on the other hand, that the Chinese are a very 
conceited people, very proud of their own civilisation 
and of their own philosophy, and all that sort of 
thing; that they resent strongly — the patriotic sort of 
Chinamen — the attempts to alter their habits and cus- 
toms and their religion ; that their conceit is very much 
injured by missionaries addressing them and trying to 
impress upon them that their religion, that their ideas, 
were all wrong and that they muse take a new religion 
and that these assertions of theirs about opium 
is a Chinese way, and a very characteristic way, 
of showing their resentment and of meeting the 
missionary; that it is not a thing really felt and 
believed in by the Chinese generally, but that it is 
a mere argument used by them. Do you think there 
is any truth in that ? — I do not think there is much 
truth in it. I have, during my long residence in 
China, had the personal friendship of a large number 



of Chinese — some officials; a larger number of non- 
officials ; some of the literati, a larger number of the 
ii'.ddlfc and lower classes — and I am quite satisfied that 
there is an honest conscientious belief in the minds of 
these people generally that we are the enemies of their 
counti-y. 

42 .-I. On the ground of opium, are the enemies of 
their country ; or generally because we have forced 
ourselves upon them ? — Largely on the ground of 
opium ; but also because we have forced ourselves 
upon them, undoubtedly. I had a friend — I may really 
call him a friend — who was an official, and in friendly 
intercourse with him I said to him, " I am surprised 
" that you do not discriminate more between the 
" friendly attitude of the Protestant missionary and 
" the assumption (which at that time was very com- 
" mon) amongst the Roman Catholic missionaries of 
" official rank, and their endeavour to foicp things 
" with a high hand." He said to me, "Well, now, 
" you know, it does very well to talk to the common 
" people about these things, but it will not do to talk 
" to educated people in this way ; and we cannot 
" believe that Britain is the friend of our country." 
"Now," I said, " how do you account for our inter- 
" course with you ; what is your own honest view of 
" it; tell me as a friend what is the commojily received 
" view among the oflBcialsP" "Well," he said "of 
" course we know the history of your ab.sorption of 
" India, and we know how you first came to India — 
" very quietly, and 3'ou have gradually absorbed the 
" country. We believe you have come to China and 
" found it to be a still more desirable country '' — (of 
course they think their own country is ]3erfection)— 
" and you see that contrary to the state of India we are 
" a united homogeneous people. You demoralise our 
" people with your opium, and get up a large class 
" all over our country who care for no moral principle 
" whatever. You also win over your religious adhe- 
'•■ rents in every part of the country and prepare the 
" way for the absorption of China." I give this as a 
very natural idea that is very widely prevalent. 

426. But is not this a mixed idea with the Chinese ? 
If you could remove that — all the ground that there 
is in the opium cry — would you not, still leave us as 
far as possible, I should imagine, obnoxious to the 
Chinese ; would they not still be as opposed as ever 
to our forcing ourselves upon them, or breaking up 
their own civilisation and their own customs p — It is 
much easier to raise a prejudice than to remove it, I 
need not say ; and it would not be the work of a day 
to remove the prejudice that our stimulus and en- 
couragement and cultivation of the opium traffic 
through all these years has caused, making it is 
reasonable for them to suppose that wo are not their 
friends. 

427. (Glutirman.) Does the past history of our 
relations with China and the wars we have fought, the 
battles that -we have won, and the Treaties that we 
have imposed upon them ; do these considerations, 
apart from the opium question, explain to some 
extent that kind of feeling which you say is enter- 
tained by the Chinese in regard to their relations 
with Great Britain p — They might; but when, in the 
native mind, at any rate, whether rightly or wrongly, 
there is added to that that the wars have been fought 
to introduce opium, and that the opium has been the 
thing of all our manufactures and imports that we 
have been most eager to protect and push — when you 
add to what would otherwise still remain, the idea that 
this was at the bottom and behind it all — of course there 
is a very serious difficulty. If we could wash our 
hands of the whole thing, it is not yet beyond the 
limits of possibility that China might be able to 
suppress the home cultivation of opium to a very largo 
extent, if not absolutely ; and it is a very sad thing if 
wo do not give them every opportunity of trying to 
do it. 

428. (Sii- James Lyull.) Do you think that if the 
Indian Government stopped the export of opium from 
India to China, the Chinese Government would stop 
the import of Persian opium. There would be a great 
demand, you know, then?— I really have nothing 
beyond what would be a mere opinion to say with 
regard to that. 

429. Your opinion is that they would, or have you 
no opinion P— I should rather think that thoy would 
try to stop the introduction of all foreign opium, 
and to lessen the home cultivation of opium, and 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



33 



gradually to stamp it out; but opinions, I need not 
say, are not always correct. I have not a doubt in my 
mind that if a few years ago we had removed all pres- 
sure, the Chinese would never have allowed the culti- 



vation to have reached the point it has, and would have Rev. 

stopped it ; whether they can do it now or not, T would 11. Taylor 

not venture to say. We ought to give them a chance 

to try. 9Sept-]89S. 



The witness withdrew. 



The Ksv. Oheistopher Fenn, M.A., called in and examined. 



430. {Cliairmany. You are, I understand, one of the 
secretaries of the Church Missionary Society and have 
been for many years past in charge of the correspon- 
dence with the Society's missionaries in China ? — Yes, 
my Lord, I have been secretary since 1864, and have 
had charge of the China correspondence for the last 
12 years. 

431. How many missionaries are now at work in 
connexion with your society in China, and in what pro- 
vinces do they labour ? — We have at the present time 66 
European missionaries (29 clergymen, 6 medical men, 
5 other laymen, and 26 unmarried ladies) besides the 
wives of missionaries. Of these, 28 have been con- 
nected with the Mission five years, and more. Of these 
28 missionaries, 3 are in the Kwan-tung province, 
9 in the Fuh-kien province, 14 in the Cheh-kiang 
province, 1 at Shanghai, and 1 in the interior province 
of Sz-chuen. 

432. Can you give us the opinions of some of your 
most experienced missionaries as to the efi"ects of 
opium consumption upon the people of China, physi- 
cally, mentally, and morally ? — Archdeacon Moule, who 
has been a missionary in China for 32 years, wrote in 
1891 as follows : — " I doubt whether you would find a 
" single father or mother in China who would regard 
" their children's addiction to opium-smoking, even in 
" a moderate degree, as anything but a cause for 
" shanae and most grave apprehension. Listen to a 
" heathen Chinaman's dying command to his children : 
" 'Touch not opium. "If you smoke the drug, you 
" 'may worship me after my death, you may tend 
" 'and beautify my tomb, you may perform all 
" 'ftmeral and ancestral rites; but I shall take no 
" ' pleasure io what you do, and calamity will overtake 
" ' yourself and youi- family. If, on the other hand, you 
" ' abhor and renounce opium, I can well overlook and 
" ' pardon negligence as to my tomb, the sacrifices and 
" ' offerings.' " At a meeting in Exeter Hall, in 1882, 
the same missionary said:— "In the opinion of every 
" respectable and moral person in China whose opinion 
" is worth having it is a vice, and nothing but a vice, 
" to touch the opium pipe at all, whether in moderation 
" or excess. In the case of alcohol, intoxication is the 
" exception. In the case of opium-smoking, it is the 
" rule and the object." At the same meeting, the Rev. 
W. H. Collins, 'who had been a Church Missionary 
Society's missionary in China for many years, and who, 
before ordination, had been a medical man, said : — 
" Nothing can possibly be harder to_ abandon than the 
" habit of opium-smoking. [In this respect] the habit 
" of drinking cannot compare with it." Bishop Moule, 
who went out to China in 1857, and is there now, wrote 
in 1891:— "Opium smoking and swallowing is very 
" prevalent indeed among all classes down to the 
" lowest. TBut yet] a shopman, a clerk in all the 
" middle and lower walks of trade, has a black mark 
" set against his name [by his countrymen] if he takes 
" his pipe. Any movement against the use of strong 
" drink originates with the European missionary. But 
" it is his Chinese flock and assistant preachers who 
" warn him that it is not safe to receive an inquirer if 
" there is any suspicion of his smoking opium." 
Archdeacon Wolfe, of Fuh-kien, referring to villages 
where opium-smoking is much practised, wrote in 

1883: " The pernicious results of this soul and body 

" destroying vice are apparent all round. Oadaverons- 
" looking faces meet one on every side, and the slovenly 
" habits and filthy appearance of the people generally 
" testify too plainly to the evil it is working on this 
" once industrious and energetic population. Almost 
" the entire population in some places is abandoned to 
" the use of this poisonous drug. The effects are 
" witnessed in the extreme poverty of the people, in 
"the broken-down and dilapidated dwellings all 
" through the villages, and in the gross immorality 
" which prevails among the inhabitants." Lastly, 
Dr. Duncan Main, the very able head of the Mission 
Hospital at Hang-Chow, has remarked quite recently :— 
" Opinm-smoking is admitted by all to be a vice ; nothing 
" can be said in its favour. It destroys the health and 

e 30970, 



" shortens life, for an opium-smoker falls an easy prey 
" to disease ; and it leads to crime and ruin. When 
" anyone says the Chinese can smoke opinm with 
" impunity, he talks pure and undiluted nonsense." I 
have inquired of several of our missionaries, and they 
assure me that the above opinions are held by them all 
unanimously. As regards the physical efi'ect of opium- 
smoking, it does not so much generate any particular 
disease, but, if not checked, it utterly ruins the bodily 
constitution. 

433. Have you ever been in China yourself ? — No, I 
have not. 

434-6. What do your missionaiies tell you is their 
experience with reference to the action of the British 
Grovemment with the opium trade. Do they consider 
that it operates as a barrier to the reception of 
Christianity by the Chinese P — I wrote these remarks 
at home yesterday; at first sight they may seem to 
differ from what has been said this morning, but I 
do not think they do really so much. My answer is 
this: — Yes, very distinctly; but not so much in the 
way that is commonly supposed. It may be doubted 
whether the net result is to prejudice the Chinese 
against the missionary personally. The prejudice 
against him as an Englishman is often more than 
counterbalanced by the satisfaction which they feel on 
seeing that in this respect he protests against the con- 
duct of his own Grovernment. Archdeacon Wolfe on 
one occasion gained a friendly reception in a previously 
hostile town simply through having, accidentally, as it 
were, shown his strong feeling on the subject. But it 
is a barrier, nevertheless. The success of the Christian 
missionary depends on his being able to appeal to the 
conscience of his hearers ; and it is exactly this moral 
sense which is destroyed by opium smoking. 
" Hiimanly speaking," remarks Archdeacon Wolfe, 
" opium smokers are beyond the reach of conversion, 
" as the vice unfits them for the perception of any 
" moral or spiritual truth.'' Of course there is a large 
part of the population untouched as yet by this vice ; 
and as a matter of fact Fuh-kien, where the Arch- 
deacon labours, is one of the most successful of our 
Missions. Our missionaries long and sigh and cry for 
the suppression of opium smoking, not because they 
are propagandists, but because they are philanthropists, 
and because they see the misery caused by it. 

436. You have, I believe, recently endeavoured to 
ascertain whether the Chinese authorities would be 
induced to make use of the right conferred on them by 
the " Additional Article " of 1885 to increase the duty 
on Indian opium to a prohibitive point, steps being 
taken at the same time to suppress or limit the growth 
of opium in China. Will you state the results of this 
effort ? — I was led to ask one or two of our missionaries 
whether the Chinese could not be stirred up to make 
representations to their own Grovernment on the 
subject. One of them, the Rev. J. S. Collins of Nangwa, 
in North-west Fuh-kien, replied on the 30th March last 
as follows: — "I lost no time in consulting those most 
' ' likely to know the^ usual mode of obtaining such 
" an expression of popular opinion as would correspond 
" to a petition to the Throne with us at home. 
" Having learned that the proper course would be for 
" the mandarin governing the district to issue a pro- 
" clamation desiring the local gentry assembled in 
" their local council to send him an expression of 
" opinion which he might forward to his superiors, I 
" took an opportunity yesterday to lay the matter 
" before one of the Kien-ning (or Kyong-ning) city 
" mandarins. There was no mistaking his interest 
" in the cause. We explained carefully what you sug- 
" gested, namely, raising the tax on imported opium, 
" but he smiled and said, that uo matter how high the 
" tax was, if people wanted it, some way -rrould be 
" found of smuggling opium into China. No one who 
" knows the[Btate of things here] can doubt this. He 
" said most emphatically, 'England must move first, 
" ' England must move first,' and then he added with 
" a meaning smile, ' but your Queen would not be 
" ' willing to allow so profitable a trade to be stopped ' ; 



Rev. C. Fenn, 
M.A. 



34 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Rev. C. Fenn, " neither -vrould lie believe a word in contradiction of 
M.A. " thatidea. TJie fact is that until the opium traffic with 

" India is stopped, the natives will not believe a word 

9 3ept. iK93. " -yfQ gay ag Iq Jjno'laud not being willing to force 
" opium on China by another opium war. The man- 
" darin in question neither smokes opium himself nor 
" allows anyone among his retinue to smoke ib." I 
would only remark on the above that, while we in 
England feel sure that England will never attempt by 
■'var, or threat of war, to force the admission of opium 
into China, the Chinese are well aware that almost 
every British official in China would do his utmost to 
prevent its exclusion, and that the exclusion could not 
be effected without giving offence to these officials. 
On the other hand, when once the British G-overnment 
has forbidden the expoit of Indian opium, evei-y such 
official will promptly become an anti-opium man^ 
because he will desire to push, in opposition to the use 
of opium, the use of other articles imported from 
British India and the British Isles. There seems no 
doubt, therefore, that such a change of policy would 
immensely promote the suppression of opium-smoking 
in China. 

437. Does it at all occur to you that your missionaries 
might do a good deal to counteract this, as I think, 
erroneous impression which exists in China with 
reference to the attitude which would now be taken 
by the British Government on this opium question. 
Could they not do a great deal by making public 
such an authoritative statement as has recently been 
made in the House of Commons by Sir James Fergusson 
on the subject. You are awaie, of course, to what I am 
alluding? — Oh, perfectly aware; I should hope that 
they might be able to do something in that way, but 
still you see here the attempt was hond fide made. 
Mr. Collins is a, missionary there ; he can speak the 
Chinese language well ; he is on friendly terms with 
this mandarin ; he did his utmost to persuade him, but 
he totally failed ; and I una afraid that if an intelligent 
mandarin could not be convinced by a missionary who 
was almost closeted with him, or at least close to him, 
it would be very difficult indeed for missionaries 
generally to persuade the Chinese public. 

438. Well, we know that new ideas permeate but 
slowly through public opinion, even in such a country 
aa our own. And we must recognise that the Chinese, 
looking back to past history, may be sensible that we 
have taken warlike measures in times past to force the 
opium trade upon China, and it may be a work of 
time to establish a contrary view ; but still do you not 
think that the G-overnment of this country has gone a 
long way in instructing Sir James Fergusson to make 
the declaration, which he did make, that " never again 
" would a shot be fired by Enghind to force the opium 
" upon China " ? — I think that is so. One might hope 
that as years passed away continued effort might 
produce some result in the desired direction ; but 
that would be a very slow process which would be 
immensely accelerated by the measure of stopping the 
export of opium from India to China ; and as every 
year now is hurrying its millions away into moral and 
mental and physical ruin, it seems a thing to bo 
extremely lamented and deplored, that we should not 
take steps which would accelerate its suppression. 

439. It is the case, is it not, that in so far as the 
Indian Govei'nment takes any action whatever with 
reference to the trade in opium between India and 
China it is rather in the direction of restriction, by 
imposing a very heavy export duty P — It is a Government 
monopoly. 

440. Yes ; but I mean the action of the Government 
in relation to the trade is that of imposing a heavy 
export duty on the exportation of opium from India to 
China ? — Well, I have not gone into that part of the 
ouostion so much, but I have certainly read in past 
years, (and I do not think there is any marked change 
of policy), that the financial authorities in British India 
suiDposed that the best plan financially was to push the 
production of opium as much as possible, and thus 
got more exported into China, and thus increase the 
aggregate return to the revenue). I have no doubt 
that of late years in consequence of the gro ving feeling 
in the House of Commons that would be different. 



442. (Ghairman.) As a practical man, you are com- 
pelled to recognise that a considerable change of fiscal 
policy under such a Government as that of India, must 
necessarily be gradually adopted. It would not be 
possible, or it would be extremely difficult, to make a 
sudden reversal of policy ; and therefore, even though 
you might be hopeful, that at some future time this 
trade might be further restrained, and perhaps 
altogether cease, yet an interval must elapse before 
an entire reversal of policy can take place. In the 
meantime, does it not occur to you as obvious that 
something effective might be done by the missionary 
body, in insisting, perhaps more than they have hitherto 
done, upon that declaration made by the Government 
through Sir James Fergusson, to which I have already 
called your attention? — That was the very point I 
wrote about urging them to do so. I may say that 
Mr. Collins was one who has taken it up ; but his letter 
which I have quoted certainly conveyed to my mind 
the impression that he almost thought it would be 
useless, that the step he had taken showed it would not 
be_ of much good ; and Bishop Moule wrote at once and 
said that he thought that nothing could be done. I think 
that something could be done but I think the difference 
is this, that if the British Government in India were to 
take the step of directing that, Indian opium should 
be no longer exported to China, it would be an immense 
help, and would immensely accelerate a process which 
under any circumstances, would be extremely diflScult. 

443. We were told last night in the House of Lords 
by eminent politicians on both sides, that in their view 
the only thing to be done was to keep pegging away P 
— Yes. 

444. If that is the case with this country, with all 
its enlightenment and knowledge of political matters, 
and the wide circulation of an active Press on both 
sides, I think we must recognise, and the missionaries 
shoidd recognise, that they must not expect to convey 
a new view to Chinese minds with reference to the 
attitude of England on the opium question at once ; 
that there must be a good deal of pegging away on 
their part, and insistanoe upon such statements as Sir 
James Fergusson made, before they can gradually 
establish in the Chinese mind the true view of the 
altered attitude of our Government in i-elation to this 
question?— I quite agree with your lordship. What I 
would still say is this, — that under any circumstances, 
it is immensely difficult ; even if at the present moment 
the export from India to China was stopped, the task 
would be Herculean, but without that it would be a 
hundred times more difficult ; I quite think that they 
ought to make every effort in that direction. 

445. {Sir J. LyalL) I quite admit, of course, that 
nothing would be so efi'eotive in convincing the natives 
of China of the change of policy as an order — prohibit- 
ing the export of opium from India to China. Do you 
recognise that that would cost about 5,000,000L or 
6,000,000i. sterling a year ?— Is it not between 
3,000,OOOZ. and 4,000,OOOZ. ?— the nett revenue I think is 
under 1,000,000Z. now. 

446. More than that ? 

447. {Ghairman.) It is a serious sum for the Indian 
Government ?— It is a serious sum. 

448. (Sir /. Lyall.) For producing an effect upon 
people's minds that is u, very expensive measure ?— But 
I consider that the export of opium from India to 
China, knowing as we do the immense evils which 
result from it, is wrong. 

449. That is another point P— That is a moral question 
to which material considerations must give way As 
I put it in addressing a meeting at the Exeter' Hall 
the other day, a mac says : " I believe that this opium 
^'^ traffic 18 doing immense injury to China, but I 
'.! object to its being stopped because it might'lead to 
" the necessity, say, of a subvention of 4,000 OOOZ a 
"year," the extreme need from England to ' India 
Now that 4,000,000i. a year would be more than made 
up by twopence added to the income tax— twopence in 
the pound— a man Avho says : " I believe it is a o-reat 

moral injury, I believe it is a crime, but I object 



441. (Sir J. Lyall.) No, it has never been that, I 
think ; it has always been to keep the price up ? — Well, 
I remembbr reading a remark by Sir John Strachoy to 
the effect tnat I have juHt mentioned. 



^^ to giving it up because it may mean that I shall lose 
^^ twopence m the pound— a one-hundred-and-tweutieth 
part of my income "—such a man— such a man I 
cannot understand. I think it is perfectly plain that 
If we English wish to govern India, and believe that the 
Indians cannot pay for it, we should pay for it our 
selves, not certainly try to make the Chinese pay it 
by a mode which does them far more harm than if we 
required them to give us the 4,0-00,00-OL a year in cash. 
The witness Avit'hdrew. 



liIINUTES, OF EVIDENCE. 



35 



The Rev. Geokge Piebcy called iu and examined. 



450. (Ohairman.) You are, T believe, the founder of 
the Wesleyan Mission in China ?— Tea. 

• ^nh ^'^^^ y°^ spent any considerable portion of time 
in China yourself P— I was 32 years connected with the 
mission, from its foundation until the year 1882. Since 
that time I have been in London looking after the 
Chinamen who come here, so that I have been con- 
nected with the Chinese every month of every vear 
since 1850. 

452. In what parts of China did you reside P— At 
Canton and Hong Kong, in the south of China. 

453. Wo shall be glad to hear what your personal 
impressions are with reference to the evils resulting 
from the use of opium among the better class of the 
Chinese P— I may say, my Lord, that I have heard the 
evidence that has been given here, ' yesterday and 
this morning, the whole of it. Now, I have two points 
that I should like to lay before the Commission which 
have not been touched upon, I think, at all. I wish to 
be as brief as possible, and yet wish to give emphasis to 
those two special poiuts. The first is a short account 
of a body of merchants in China, in Canton, who existed 
under the old regime as a very important body of men. 
There was a time, as all know, when Canton was the 
only port open to Western commerce in China. During 
that time there was a body of merchants in Canton 
upon whom the Chinese Government devolved respon- 
sibility as to the conduct of all the trade, giving 
them the monopoly of importation and exportation. 
These were termed in those days and the name by 
which they still go is the Hong merchants. The 
number was from 12— varying no doubt at different 
times— from 12 to 18 or 20. In China, as all know, 
the rulers, the official class, is the highest, and then 
comes the scholarly class of the Chinese ; but in Canton 
we had what I do not think has ever existed since in 
any of the ports of China, and what I think cannot 
exist again — it was before my time I may say— there 
was a body of merchants who conducted the whole of 
that trade between all outside nations and China. I 
wish to say respecting that body of merchants that they 
were princely men ; the wealthiest of the commercial 
class in China. They were in numbers, I should say, 
nearer 20 houses than 10 ; they were men who, accord- 
ing to Chinese customs, had large families. Polygamy 
is an institution in China, and they were men with 
large I'amilies. Now, the families of this Cohong, as 
I term them, being the wealthiest, though not the 
highest in position in China, would be recognised 
by us Englishmen as being in the category, on account 
of their wealth, aiid on account of conducting this 
monopoly of the trade, of men in eminent position ; 
and their families as the largest, and of course, in some 
aspects the most respectable and most influential class 
that existed. What I have to state about them is this : 
that there were many of the sons of these men — I 
need not give their names, because those names are 
rather difficult to English ears ; but I may mention 
two families, as of those two one of them survives to 
the present time. Those two families were called 
respectively Puntingkwa and Howkwa. The other 
merchants had somewhat similar names, their family 
names, or names of their firms. What I wish to bring 
before the Commission is this : that of these large 
families, consisting, some 50 years ago, of many sons 
and of a host of grandsons — all those families, with the 
exception of one, are all but extinct ; that they are 
reduced to extreme poverty and distress. The hoards 
of wealth which their fathers gathered when they 
held that monopoly, and the property they acquired, 
and the gardens of pleasure and the palatial residences, 
all these have gone to wreck and ruin, and there is 
only the one family of Howkwa left in Canton of those 
16 or 18 Cohong merchants. That name may be re- 
membered and known somewhat in England by a 
certain blend of tea in the old time that was called 
" Howkwa's mixture." That I have no doubt the ladies 
appreciated. Now here is a case in point in which 
there was great wealth, high respectability, position in 
society, and in which that wealth was bequeathed to 
sons and to grandchildren ; and it has almost entirely 
disappeared, and disappeared because the sons and the 
grandsons took opium, — in large quantities, — beginning, 
of course, with small doses when smoking it, and going 
on to larger doses, until in some of those families a 
man was kept to prepare the opium for smoking — to 
bring it from its raw condition by repeated processes 
into the state of prepared opium for smoking purposes ; 



a man was kept on purpose to supply six or eight 
sons, not merely young men, but middle-aged men, 
who had the confirmed habit of opium smoking, and 
this went on until at lastt hese families have been entirely 
ruined. That seems to me, so far as I have known 
and so far as I have learned also of the results of 
the mischief that opium has done in China, to be the 
most prominent example of the evils wrought among a 
body of people who were exceedingly well-to-do, and 
who were also mentally trained and scholarly to a 
certain degree, at all events. 

454. And the example which you quote includes a 
very considerable number of individuals P — Yes, my 
Lord, more than a hundred. A great many more than a 
hundred.- 

455.. And among that total number you would only 
name one who has been able to resist this course of 
degradation ? — Only one family. The other house that 
I named Puntingwa's. That house owned L»rge and 
extensive pleasure gardens in the western suburbs of 
Canton, and for many many years during my resi- 
dence in China those gardens were visited by foreigners, 
by missionary families, and by many wealthy Chinese 
as beautiful pleasure grounds. Within the last 20 years 
those gardens have all been destroyed ; they have been 
sold, the buildings have been pulled down, and in con- 
nexion with other extensive house property in the 
western suburbs of Canton all has been scattered to the 
wind. I know myself of no case in China in which 
there was so significant a proof of the mischief wrought 
by opium smoking. 

456. And you connect all this which has happened 
with the kiss of energy and with the loss of ability arising 
out of the consumption in excess of opium ? — Yes, my 
Lord ; and there are numbers of other gentlemen, some 
who are in this country and some who are in China, 
who would speak to the very letter as to the truth of 
that to which I have referred — that the sons of these 
families, with the rare exception of perhaps one or two, 
were all useless and became more or less abandoned, 
owing to this evil habit, and their property was entirely 
scattered as the years rolled by. 

457. {Sir J. Lyall.) Whenever a commercial monopoly 
like that for a time gives a certain number of families 
an enormous advantage over the i-est of the public, and 
raises them to great wealth and then is suddenly broken 
up as this monopoly was, I believe that the state of 
those families is apt to decay and to fall into that sort 
of condition that you describe, although, no dou))t, 
opium was also a very great cause. But I have seen 
exactly the same thing in other parts of the world, 
where a family had for some certain reasons possestcd 
a monopoly for a certain time and became through that 
monopoly very wealthy, and when suddenly that mono- 
poly, for some reason or other, was broken down, they 
proved unable to support themselves or to carry on 
industry iu an open market p — I can quite readily 
believe that ; in fact, I have some knowledge of great 
riches, especially when suddenly acquired, almost as 
suddenly disappearing ; but the statements which came 
to our ears from time to time, and the results which 
we sometimes actually saw ourselves were such re- 
lative to the enormous consumption of opium in those 
families — not merely by the sons and grandsons but by 
the servants — as to show that they were given up 
entirely to the consumption of opium. 

458. {Chairman.) While you recognise the possible 
operation of those other influences and the change of 
circumstances to which Sir James Lyall has alluded, 
you remain of opinion that in the case of those families 
to whom you were referring the personal degradation 
and the personal incapacity of those concerned arising 
out of the opium habit was the principal cause of their 
destruction ? — That is my own full conviction ; and it 
was also the conviction of all the intelligent friends that 
I had for many years in Canton. 

459. Now what have you known of the use of opium 
and of its efi'ects among the masses in China p — Most 
of my life was spent in the city of Canton, but the last 
two years that I was in China I was resident in a large 
town, a city you might probably call it, 12 miles froiix 
Canton of the name of Patshan. In China we only gi^^s 
the name " city " to walled cities; this is an unwailed 
town, but with 400,000 inhabitants. It was an immense 
place, and we Vfere residing in the outskirts of it. Now 
in speaking with some of my Christian friends there 
about opium, I said to one of the most intelligent 

E 2 



Res. 
G. Pieictf. 

9 Sept. 1893. 



36 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



Rev. among thorn : " You ought to give us more iuformatiou 

G.Pierci/. " about ODJum thau you do;" and ho said, "but you 

" hardly dare to examine into the great evils it is 

'.) Sept. 1893, " doing in China, and doing in this place.'' I said, 

" I think we dare do it. What is there that we do not 

" know yet that you can make known to us P " "Well," 
he said, " I can take you to a place in the heart of this 
" gi'eat town where you would see opium and the 
" mischief it is working, and especially the stimulus 
" that it is giving to other vices." I replied: "I 
" am ready to be taken there, whenever you ^^'ill take 
" me." And as soon as I expressed my willingness 
to go with him, then he seemed desirous to back out 
of it, and began to say that it would be very dangerous, 
in fact that it would be perhaps at the risk of some 
broken limb, or even of our lives if we visited the place. 
I said to him : " But you have said that we don't know, 
" and are afraid to examine into the full extent of this 
" evil. Now, for one, I am not afraid, and if you will 
" take me, I will go." So he took mo. He informed 
me as we set out, and on our way, that it ^vas a series of 
buildings surrounding an open square, and that on the 
one side were opium houses — large places — and on 
another side that there were gambling houses, and that 
it was especially from the gambling houses that he 
feared difficulties. Then at another side of the square 
there were brothels, and he said : " I am taking you 
" at a time ivhon in all probability there will be less 
" danger than at any other time — certainly much less 
" danger than in the evening or at night. Where I 
" am taking you, you will see the extent of these 
" gambling houses, and some of the people that are 
" in them, but many more will be there at night, and 
" you will see the exterior of the other places." We 
looked through a series of buildings where there was 
every arrangement for opium smoking, and where I 
have no doubt that 300 or 400 persons could be ac- 
commodated day after day, and night after night, to 
take opium. The other buildings of course I did not 
go into. Into one it would have been improper for 
me to have gone, and into the other it would not have 
been worth risking it. I had seen numbers both of 
small gambling places and innumerable houses in 
Fatshan where opium is smoked, but this was on a 
larger scale. We came away, and he was exceedingly 
glad when we got away without any danger whatever. 
But that incident impressed me more fully than almost 
everything that I had seen in China as to the evil 
working of opium. Congregated in that place there 
would be from 200 to 400 or 600 men assembled — 
smoking opium. From this place they -n-ent to the other 
places. I don't say that no other per.sons went to the 
other places, but I say that this was a focus of evil ; and 
as we recognise in this country that the public-house 
and the intoxicating glass is a provocative, and is the 
source of many evils and leads to a great deal of work 



in the police-courts and gaols, and houses of correction, 
KO I found there on a scale that I had not seen in any 
other place what seemed to me to be the strongest proof 
that I have had of the mischief that opium smoking was 
doing among the lower class of the population. That is 
all I need say on that point. I will add one word, if 
you will permit me, my Lord . it is this, that whereas 
occasional speakers against opium and anti-opium 
agitators, as they have been called, have been spoken of 
as exaggerating, as immensely exaggerating, the evils 
of the trade and the evils of smoking, in China ; just 
allow me, my Lord, to say that I believe that it is 
entirely impossible to exaggerate these evils. I believe 
it is possible to make great mistakes when we come to 
figures. When we come to state numbers I think we 
can be wide of the mark, but as to the total amount of 
evil done to the opium smoker himself, and the evils 
which flow from his wrong-doing, to his family, to his 
relatives, to his friends, I think, a Commission sitting 
in all the leading cities of China would fail in summing 
up the total of all the mischief and ruin and death that 
is wrought by opium in China. I believe, from that 
point of view that there can be no exaggeration what- 
ever. It is beyond the powers of one, or of one hundred 
people to gather together, to tabulate, and to estimate 
the evils that are wrought in China by opium. 

460. Tou have summsd up the results of all that 
experience in China in that concise and powerful state- 
ment which of course will have very great weight w ith 
the Commission, audi do not know that I can press you 
to go into details. You have given us, in a compre- 
hensive view, your impression. The Commission is 
much obliged to you. 

461. (3Ir. Pease.) You have said that you have 
listened to all the evidence that has been given, and you 
wished rather to enforce one or two statements ; may we 
understand that you generally approve of the evidence 
that has been given P— Yes, but I have studiously 
avoided taking up points which have been brought up 
before. 

462. (Glfjirman.) We are very much obliged to you 
for your consideration of the necessity of moving 
forward?— I wish, however, to bo ]jerinitted testate 
that almost entirely I agree with the evidence which 
was given yesterday and this morning also. In many 
points, if necessary (which it is not), I could corrobo- 
rate and strengthen that evidence, but I do not 
consider, myself, that it is necessary to do so. Those 
two particular points have been raised in my mind 
since I have been before the Commission,," and I 
challenge any man to overturn the evidence now given 
as to the entire ruin of the Hong merchants in Canton, 
during the last 50 years— and in regard to the other 
iioint also. 



The witness withdrew. 



2[r. J. G. 

Alexander, 

LL.B. 



Mr. Joseph G. AlexaNdee, LL.B., called in and examined. 



463. (Gliairmaii.) I believe you are a graduate of the 
University of London ? — A Bachelor of La^vs, yes. 

464. And a barrister of Lincoln's Inn P— Yes. 

46"i. And you hold the office ol secretaiy lo the 
Society for the Huppressiou of the Opium 'I'radc? — 
Yes, 1 have been secretary lor the last four years. I 
had previously, for about six years, been a member of 
the executive committee of the society, and had taken 
a great interest in its work. 

466. I believe that yon are in the witness' chair this 
morning chiefly for the purpose of putting in the 
publications of the society, which shows the various 
practical proposals which your society has made from 
time to time, and which it has put forward for dealing 
with the opium question P — Yes, my Lord, partly 
arising out of a question or two put by Sir James Lyall 
yesterday. I thought it might be convenient for the 
Commission, before it separates, to ha\ (■ beibre it our 
Society's views on one or two points which have been 
opened up, particularly as to the distinction between 
the Bengal and the Malwa systems. 

467. Will you put those papeis Ijofore us, or will you 
give us a list of them ? — 1 will just mention them one 
by one, and mention briefly, too, the points. 

468. And you will, no doubt, take care to supply to 
the members of the Commission (each of them) a copy 
of those documents P — Yes, my Lord, I have arraugea 
that, and ii copy for each member of the Commission 



will bo forwarded. The first is a book which was 
connected ivith the foundation of the society, and 
was written by my predecessor, the first secretary 
of the society, the Eev. Storrs Turner. I may mention 
that it is a very great matter of regret to me that he 
is unable to give evidence before the Commission ; he 
IS only recovering from a veiy serious illness, other- 
wise I am sure he would have been most glad to come 
and speak to some points with which he is much better 
qualified to deal than I could be. This was an essay 
written by him in response to an advertisement 
that was issued by the late Mr. Edward Pease (Sir 
Joseph and Mr. Arthur Tease's brother) for an Hssay 
on the question of the Opium Trade, in connexion, 
I think, with its elfeet on missions in the East'. 
Mr. Turner was one of the prize essayists. He had 
been a missionary in China fur a number of years. 
His essay led to the formation of the society in the 
autumn of 1874. There had previously 1 leen some com- 
mittees— a committee in Loudon of which the late 
General Alexander was honorary secretary, — but they 
had fallen through. Our society was founded in the 
autumn of 1874 ; and Mr. Tm-ner, was appointed the 
first secretary. He held that position until 1885 shortly 
after the signing of the Additional Article which I will 
refer to later. The chapter to which I want specially to 
refer here is the eighth chapter of his book— the closing 
chapter— m which, after dealing with the history up 
to that time, he puts forward propositions for an 
amended opium policy. I should, perhaps, say that the 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



^f 



society ne-ver had any dofinite constitution. I think 
one may say that those who united to form it rather 
were in search of a definite policy which they could 
suggest, than actually proposed anything upon which 
they were agreed. In fact, there were those who sup- 
ported three different measures. There were those who 
supported the total and immediate suppression of opium 
except for medicinal use. There were those who were 
in favour of a gradual suppression, as being what they 
thought the only practical means of putting it down, 
and, if possible, with the co-operation of China ; and 
there were also those who favoured the suggestion 
(which I think was thrown out by Sir James Lyall 
yesterday) of assimilating the Indian Government's 
system in Bengal to that which exists already in Bom- 
bay, in order that the Indian Government might no 
longer be a monopolist in the position of actually 
carrying on the trade, but in the position of regulating 
the trade and imposing duties, and therefore that such 
action as they took should be in the nature of repression. 

469. {Sir J. Lyall.) I did not, as a matter of fact, 
make any suggestion of that kind. 

.» 470. {Chairman.) That is a suggestion which has 
been made. 

471. {Sir J. Lyall.) Yes, it has been made, but I did 
not make it. 

472. {Chairman.) It is a suggestion which has been 
made P — Sir James hinted at it rather than made it as 
his own. 

473. {Sir J. Lyall.) You may have deduced it from 
some remarks of mine, but I am not conscious of 
having made such a suggestion. 

474. {Chairman.) We are conscious of other people 
having made it ? — In this book Mr. Turner did not go 
for total prohibition. There is a passage at page 205 
in which, after referring to the proposal of Sir 
William Muir, he says: — "Does Sir William Muir's 
" proposition entirely satisfy the demands of justice ? 
" We think not. Are we then shut up to Sir E. 
" Temple's re^Mciio aA absurdum of total prohibition ? 
" Again we think not. Justice and morality demand 
" that the Government should withdraw altogether 
" from encouragement to the opium manufacture ; 
' ' and, if it takes revenue at all, take only that amount 
" which accrues from, taxation honestly meant to have 
" a restrictive force." That modified view was the view 
that was put forward in this prize essay. 

475. What date was that?— In 1874. Sir WiUiam 
Muir's proposal had been made in 1868, and I will 
just lay on the table, if you will allow me, a publica- 
tion of the society entitled " Sir William Muir'sMinute 
" and other Extracts from Papers published by the 
*' Calcutta Government." Sir William Muir's pro- 
position was the adoption of the Bombay system of 
imposing a tax m Bengal in lieu of the monopoly, 
and I should like to call attention to the principal 
reply to that proposal of Sir William Muir's. It is 
at page 13 of this tract. It is a short Minute signed 
with the initials "H.S.M.'' Of course that is the 
late Sir Henry Maine. He says : — " The true moral 
" wrong, if wrong there be, consists inselling opium 
" to the Chinese, and the only way to abate it 
" would be absolutely to prohibit the cultivation 
" of the poppy iu British India, and to prevent the 
" exportation of opium from the native States. The 
" British Government is sufficiently despotic to effect 
" thi.-i, and for moral purposes there is no distinction 
" between what a despotic Government does itself, and 
" w-hat it permits its subjects to do. I am satisfied 
" that Sir W. Muir's policy would greatly add to the 
" supposed moral wrong by largely increasing the 
" quantity of opium introduced into China, while the 
" revenues of India would be seriously diminished. I 
" would not, therefore, base any action on his Minute." 
I think I had better not attempt to argue the question 
now, but simply put this in as narrative. I do not wish 
to commit myself to agreeing entirely with the state- 
ment that there is no distinction whatever ; but I will 
only say that the society has since repudiated Sir 
William Muir's plan as an unsatisfactory one. 

476. {Sir J. Lyall.) You used the word " encourage- 
ment." You can hardly say that the word " encourage- 
ment " applies to the Bombay system P — Well, not of 
late years. 

477. I mean to say the system itself, which is a system 
of levying a heavy duty, is not encouragement surely ; not 
inter fering in other ways except levying a heavy duty p 
— The system itself is not, I quite grant. I believe, 



however, that in the very early days the system was so 
worked as practically to amount to an encouragement. 

478. The Malwa system p — The Malwa system. 

479. How P — I am speaking of 50 or 60 years ago, 
when the Government desired to promote the use of 
opium, provided it did not go so far as to injure its 
Bengal monopoly. That was of course rather a delicate 
operation, but that appears to have been the desire at 
that time. Then the next document I will put in is an 
address to Mr. Gladstone when he was Prime Minister, 
which was referred to by Sir Joseph Pease. It will 
be observed that the great object urged upon the 
Government in that memorial is the ratification of the 
Chefoo Convention, and that really became the main 
subject of the society's efforts for a number of years. 
Dr. Maxwell, I think, mentioned yesterday that there 
were nine years of negotiation on the Chefoo Conven- 
tion before it was finally ratified under the Additional 
Article of 1885. During those nine years the society 
was constantly agitating for ratification, and there was 
a very strong feeling as to the injustice that was being 
done to China by not allowing her to have her own 
way, and by not ratifying the Opium Clause of the 
Chefoo Convention. It was towards the close of that 
period that an important meeting was held at the 
Mansion House in connexion with our society, and that 
that memorial, signed by a great many influential men, 
was presented. 

480-81. {Chairman.) This is under what date — this 
letter to Mr. Gladstone P— The date is 1882. 

482. I may take it that this communication to Mr. 
Gladstone was an embodiment of the view entertained 
by your association at that time on the subject p — Yes, 
my Lord. 

483. And that the signatures (which are numerous 
and highly influential) to this document are a sort of 
gauge of the movement of public opinion on this subject 
at the time ? — -Yes. 

484. I think it is a very important document, and I 
think it would be well that it should be printed as part 
of the Appendix to our Report ? — Yes. 

485. So that it might go forward among other papers 
to the Indian Government for consideration P — We have 
copies. Perhaps I ought to point out that that really 
dealt with a point which is now passed over. At that 
time the negotiations with China, which issued in the 
Additional Article of 1885, were still pending. 

486. Yes, but I think it still is of living importance. 
Would that not be your view — that this still has 
importance as showing the growth of public opinion in 
regard to this question in Great Britain p — Well, my 
Lord, I am anxious not to attach too high an importance 
to it — because it was dealing with a phase which has 
passed away, and probably some of those who signed 
under the conditions that then existed would not 
afterwards have signed such a memorial when they 
considered that China had her own terms and had been 
satisfied. 

487. I will not further press the suggestion that it 
should be printed as part of our Blue Book? — I am 
anxious in that respect not to overstate our case. Well, 
then, it was no doubt under the strong pressure of public 
opinion that Mr. Gladstone's Government (Lord Gran- 
ville being Foreign Secretary) finally accepted the 
terms proposed by the Chinese Govern"u\ent — terms, 
as Dr. Maxwell said yesterday, which were modified 
as compared with those that they had originally 
put forward, but they were the ultimate terms of the 
Chinese Government, which Lord Granville in prin- 
ciple accepted ; and Lord Salisbury, then coming into 
office, carried out that which had been decided in 
principle by Lord Granville before. And that caused 
something like a crisis in our society. There were 
those who had attached very great importance to the 
question of not putting pressure upon China, and 
thought that that phase of the question had passed 
away, and who were not disposed to continue the 
agitation, and in consequence a conference of tha 
members of the society was held, at which I was 
present, and that conference ultimately adopted a new 
programme, which is the next document which I will 
put before the Commission, viz., a " Statement of Facts 
and Principles." In that document the society took 
the view (although there were dissentients from that 
view) that a portion of our case as regards the forcing 
of China must very much be dropped, but that the 
Bengal monopoly was absolutely indefensible (that 
will be found in the closing paragraphs); that the 

E 3 



Mr. J. G. 

Alexander, 

LL.B. 

9 Sept. 1898. 



38 



INDIAi« OjPIO^ COMWIS^fiON : 



Mr. J. G. society sliould thencDfortli direct its efforts to the 

Alexander, stoppage of the growth and manufacture in Bengal, 

LL.B. leaving the Malwa question in a somewhat undecided 

state, concentrating attention on the question of the 

9 Sept. 1893. suppression of the Bengal monopoly. And we have 
worked on those lines ever since. Then the next docu- 
ment I put in is not actually a publication of the society. 
I hand it to the Commissioners as being by far the 
best and clearest statement of the general history of 
the opium trade, and it is rather interesting as having 
been a prize essay which was written (as the writer says 
in his preface) by one who approached the subject 
with a prejudice against the anti-opium movement, but 
whose study of the facts, and of the history of the case 
entirely convinced him. So that really, although 
written entirely independently of our society, it is a 
very able statement of our case. The book is entitled 
" The Indo-Ohinese Opium Trade " ; by Mr. J. Spencer 
Hill. 

488. Shall we be supplied Tsith copies of that? — I will 
send them round to each of the Commissioners. In 
addition to a very clear statement of the history, and a 
discussion of the morality, of the question, it contains 
rather a specially valuable chapter on the effect of 
the opium trade on British commerce with China in 
general. 

489. "Would you say that your society, as a body, 
would adopt and subscribe to the views which are con- 
tained in this publication of Mr. Hill's ? — Yes, my Lord, 
certainly. 

490. Tou would like the Commission to consider that 
that is part of the evidence which you have to offer in 
support of your case, for the consideration of the Com- 
missioners ? — I should be very glad to do so, my Lord. 

491. We will take care to make ourselves acquainted 
with that book, and to con sider it. It will be present 
in our minds in the consideration of our Report ? — 
Then, to turn to a somewhat different point, the ques- 
tion of opium in India. Up to that time our society 
liad almost exclusively turned its attention to the evils 
of opium in China, and the very name of our organ, the 
" Friend of China," shows that that has always been our 
prominent view. We have, however, had oui' attention 
turned to the question of opium in Burmah, and I will 
present one of our tracts dealing with that special 
subject. It is rather an old one, and the latter part of 
it is simply excerpts from Sir Charles Aitohison's 
memorandum, which you already have before you, but 
it contains, in the earlier pages, some introductory 
matter, taken mainly from the evidence before the 
House of Commons' Committee on Indian Finance, 
which may be useful as an introduction to Sir 
Charles Aitchieon's memorandum. It was shortly after 
I became secretary, four years ago, that our attention 
was called to the repoits of Mr. Caine, M.P., and others 
of what they had seen of the evils of opium in India 
itself, and we thought that the reports were such that 
we ought to call the attention of the Indian Government 
to the matter. We embodied the evidence which we 



had received, together with facts collected from the 
Indian Government's own Blue Books, in an Address 
to Lord Cross. That memorial to Lord Cross will be 
found at the close of this Blue Book, on the " Oon- 
" sumption of Opium in India," which is in fact a 
reply to it. Sir Joseph Pease has put in the letter that 
he wrote to Lord Cross commenting ou those despatches, 
and I now present another memorial to Lord Cross 
which is the official reply of the society to the des- 
patches of the Indian Government. 

492. This paper to which you have referred is in the 
Blue Book, I suppose. Of course, in drawing up our 
Report, we shall be called upon to consider ourselves 
in possession of any information which has been already 
nresented to Parliament in previous Blue Books— it 
will be our duty to take that into consideration as part 
of the case? — No. The original memorial to Lord 
Gross is in the Blue Book, as I have said, but this 
reply has never been published in any Blue Book. 
And then, my Lord, after the last general election, we 
presented another memorial to Lord Kimberley, in 
which we stated our case fuUy. We had reason to 
hope, from the votes given by members of the Govern- 
ment during the last Parliament, and from a speech 
made by Mr. Gladstone during the General Election, 
that the present Government very much shared our 
views ; and therefore we put our case before Lord 
Kimberley, putting before him definitely and clearly 
our proposals, on the different questions arising out of 
the trade. Therefore that may be treated as the latest 
official exposition of the society's views on the whole 
question. 

493. And that, perhaps, it would be well to print in 
our Minutes ? — I think so, my Lord. 

494-5. Has it been sent to the Government of India ? 
— It was addressed to Lord Cross as Secretary of State 
for India, and no doubt he has sent it to India. 

496. {Chairman.) I think this letter which you 
addressed to Lord Kimberley should be printed with 
our proceedings ; it would cover the whole ground, 
would it not, u]) to the present time ? — Tes, my Lord, 
I think so. It is perhaps hardly worth while to 
publish the reply to Lord Cross, but the last memorial 
to Lord Kimberley does express our present views. 

497. It is the position you take to-day ? — It is. And 
then the only other paper is a pamphlet of my own, 
on the revenue question " Substitutes for the Opium 
Eevenue." I may ,■^ay that I put that in with great 
diffidence, feeling that I have not Sii' Joseph Pease's 
qualifications for aiscussing financial affairs. I think 
it will be found that there are no suggestions in the 
pamphlet with regard to Indian revenue which have 
not been adopted from more or less authoritative 
sources, that is to say, from the writings of men who 
are eminent in connexion with Indian affairs. Perhaps 
I may reserve my evidence on other points. I merely 
wished this morning to put in these documents at this 
stage. 



The witness withdrew. 
Adjourned till Wednesday next at 11 a.m. 



At the House of Lords, Westminster, S.W. 

THIRD DAY. 

Wednesday, 13th September 1893. 



Mr.B. 
Broomhall, 

]3.Sept. 189S. 



PRESENT : 



The Eight Honotjrabie LORD BRASSBT, K.C.B. (Citaibman, presiding). 



iSiK .James B. Lyall, G.O.I.E. 

Sib William Roberts, M.D. 



Mr. R. G. C. Mowbuay, M.P. 
M.R. Arthur Pease. 



Sia Charles E. Bernard, K.C.S.I., 
Acting Seoreta/ry. 

Mr. Benjamin Bhoomhall, General Secretary of the China Inland Mission, called in and examined. 



i'.'S. (Cliriirman.) Mr. Broomball, you are, I believe, 
the Genei'al Secrotaiy of the China Inland Mission ? — 
I am. 



499. Will you tell us in what parts of China the work 
of the China Inland Mission is carried on P — It is 
carried on in the provinces of Yun-nan, Kwei-chau, Si- 



• MJ'iii'iW'i!!S'"'bF "li^iSiENCEj' 



S9 



pbuen, Kan-snli, Shei-si, Shkn-si, OMh-li, Siian-tung, 
Gan-hwuy, Ho-nan, Hu-peh, Oheh-kiang, KiaHg-si and' 
Kiang-su. It may be helpful possibly to members of 
the OommiBsion if they have a map— the red names on 
which indicate the stations of the Mission, showing that 
they are scattered all over China. 



500. 



Have you resided yourself in China ? — ITo. 



501. Will you tell us in what way the effects of opium 
smoking have been brought before you?— By com- 
munications from missionaries in China, and by personal 
statements from missionaries who have been, home , on 
furlough. 

502. Will you give us your impressions generally, as 
formed from these communications, with reference to 
the effects of opium smoking ?— The information that I 
have from time to time received and obtained has left 
upon _ my mind the profound conviction that opium 
smoking in its effects— physically , morally, and socially— 
is one of the most awful vices that ever afflicted the 
world. Second : that our encouragement of the opium 
trade has been in its results — commercially, politically, 
and morally — one of the greatest blunders, and one of 
the greatest crimes ever committed by any nation. 
Third : that the rapid extension in China during recent 
years of the growth of the poppy, and of the habit of 
opium smoking, threatens the very existence of the 
Empire. Fourth : that there is absolutely no hope for 
any effective check to the rapid increase of opium 
smoking in China, while the export of our Indian opium 
is continued ; and Fifth : that the habit of opium 
smoking is one of the greatest, if not the greatest 
hindrance to the work of Christian Missionaries in 
China. 

503. Well, now you have given us your general view 
and the impressions that you have formed from the 
correspondence that you have received as a whole ; 
have you any further evidence to give distinguishing 
the reports according to the provinces from which they 
are received ? — I propose to put before your Lordship 
and the Commission,, testimonies received from the 
various provinces of China, to some extent selecting 
only portions which bear upon several points already 
alluded to. I may say these are extracts from a very 
voluminous amount of correspondence and testimony. 

Prom Tun-nan, Mr. Curnow writes: — "The ravages 
" of opium in this remote quarter are very great. 
" I suppose little or no Indian opium finds its way 
" here. The Hunantise come here in large num- 
'■ hers and take away the native-grown opium to be 
" mixed with the imported opium, further east. Nearly 
" every house heeps it as a common reguisite. A. most 
" horrible development of the evil is the constancy 
" with which the opium pipe is olfered you in the 
" homes of the people as a matter of courtesy. Under 
" the garb of a social "whiff," it 'is spreading and 
'' sojpping the whole superstructure of Society. Ko class is 
" exempt. Poor shrivelled wretches by the score may 
" be seen on the streets getting a coin where they can 
" to purchase opium. China is being whirled to its ruin 
• " iy a means more subtle and ferocious than any hitherto 
" recorded in the annals or ruins of ancient Empires. 
" Nothing but the Spirit of the Almighty can stay the 
" plague. I do not believe China is able to save her- 
" self. The evil has now grown to such a terrible 
" form that the Government is powerless to arrest it, 
" be it ever so desirous." 

From Ta-li-fu, Mr. George William Clarke says that 
he has had experience both in Yun-nan-fu and Ta-li-fu, 
an important city, and he says, that in Yun-nan-fu 
60 per cent, is the proportion of the .idult male popula- 
tion who smoke ; in Ta-li-fu about the same. Among 
the coolies in the provinces 80 per cent. He thinks 
that in. these towns about 15 to 20 per cent, of the 
women smoke, and the people begin to smoke from the 
age of IS to 23. He has seen boys 10 or 12 years of age 
smoking. Mr. Anderson, writing from Yun-nau, says : — 
" I have nearly crossed this kingdom at its centre and 
" have had good opportunities of watching this people, 
" on long overland journeys, or protracted boat jour- 
" neys, resting at native inns, visiting opium dens, 
" visiting the people in theiv own houses, talking with 
" them in towns and villages, mission halls, hospitals, 
" dispensaries, and opium refuges, and there can be 
" no doubt of the awful injury caused by the opium 
" vice." 

504. Have you any other provinces? — From the 
adjoining ptovinoe of Kwei-ohau Mr. Bromptbn 



writes: — ''Opium is ferown' "very largely in this .pro- Mr. B. 
" vince (Kwei-chau), though in the immediate neigh- Broomhall. 

" bourhood of this city there is but little cultivated. 

" Opiiim is the largest source of revenue to Kwei-ohau. 13 Sept. 1893. 

" Kwei-chau opium finds its way to Kwang-si, Kwang- 

" tung,' and Hu-iian, in great quantities. Kwei-ohau 
" indeed exports little else worth speaking of." And 
" he further says, in answer, to the question, "What, 
" in your opinion, is the percentage, of the adult male 
" population who smoke?" "Natives of this city 
" (Kwei-yang) whom I have asked the above question 
" answer ' 50 to 70 per cent, of the ' adult males smoke.' 
" From my own observations I should judge the latter 
" to be nearer the truth, i.e., 70 per cent." 

From the province of Si-chuen, the largest pro- 
vince by far in China, Mr. Faers says : — " Opium 
" smoking as it exists to-day in this prefecture" 
—he is writing from Sui-fu, in the south-western part 
of the province— "is one of the greatest foes we, as 
" missionaries, have to contend with. Idolatry is as 
" nothing compared to it. It demoralises all who 
" either smoke or swallow it, to such an extent that they 
" cannot be trusted, neither can their word be relied 
" upon. The evils resulting from this habit are too 
" numerous to mention, and almost every day oases of 
" one description and another come before our notice 
" of its appalling destruction. Amongst the poorer 
" classes its power is far more dreadf al than amongst 
" the monied prople, as the latter are able to counteract 
" largely the baneful influences of the drag by other 
" things, BO that those who only move among the upper 
'' classes in China are unable to give a proper estimate 
" of the destruction which the opium causes among the 
" larger proportion of the nation; hence the confiiot- 
" ing reports from time to time we see published." 
Mr. Frank Trench, writing from Ch'ung-king, the 
important port of Si-chuen, says : — " My conviction is 
" that opium smoking is an unmitigated evil, and has 
" proved a terrible curse to this land. It has enor- 
" mously added to the sin and misery of the country, 
" and appears to me to be one of Satan's most powerful 
" methods for the destruction of soul and body of this 
" people. The Chinese, I consider, are perfectly 
" nnlrustworthy in word, but the effect of smoking 
" opium increases the apparentness of this and every 
" sin many fold. It weakens every physical power 
" before long, and makes a wreck of the man or woman 
" eventually, for certain. When once the craving is 
" excited, they are, so far as I am aware, its complete 
" slaves, and, so far as I know, any method of setting 
'■ them free is unknown to the natives. They are 
" doomed for life unless foreigners assist them. I do 
" net know whether the Central Government pould 
" succeed now in crushing the further growth of 
" the poppy. I fancy that but very very little of the 
" revenue collected as ' li kin' from the native-grown 
" drug ever reaches the Imperial Treasury; it is 
' ' probably a,lmost entirely engrossed by the provincial 
" officials." He refers to a statement which has 
appeared in some publications that opium smoking pre- 
vailed in Yun-nan for 200 years. He says : " I have 
" visited all the cities but three in that part of Yun-nan 
" lying east of its capita], and, as the result of many 
" inquiries made from the oldest men I sought informa- 
" tion from in many villages of the south-east part, the 
" overwhelming atid invariable statement made to me 
" was. that previous to some 40 years ago, opium 
' ' smoking, as we now speak of it, was unknown, in that 
" part of the province at least. When asked how long 
" it had been smoked, the constant reply was about 40 
" years. When I asked if it had been smoked previous 
" to that date, I was told that here and there it was 
" smoked, but Ijy a very few. that then it was thought 
" disgraceful to smoke it, but it is not thought so now ; 
" that when the custom of smoking began to spread, 
■' the opium used came from abroad in part. Poppy 
" is now grown to an enormous extent in that part 
" of Yun-nan. The opening of refuges for opium 
" smokers by missionaries in every part of the country 
" would certainly be a very philanthropic action, and 
" would, I have no doubt, be much appreciated by the 
" Chinese ; though until Christianity takes a firmer hold 
" on the country, they would probably misunderstand 
" the object of those who established such refuges, and 
" think that they had been sufBciently rewarded by the 
" secret merit which they had been successful in 
" obtaining for themselves. In the absence of decisive 
" action and direction from Pekin, I do not think the 
'• people or officials are capable of taking measures 
" themselves to open such refuges, or otherwise assist 
" themselves in the matter. I think that I'efages 

E 4 



40 



INDJAK OPIUM COMMISSION ! 



Mr.B. 

Broomhall. 

]3 Sept. 1893. 



" made here might be almost, if not altogether, self- 
" supporting, the rent of the building excluded. One 
" of our moHt reliable native Christians here thinks 
" that in 80 per cent, of the houses in this city opium 
" is smoked. This exclusive of opium dens." This 
statement of Mr. Frank Trench's was made 10 years 
ago. 

505. Tou have now been referring to the province of 
Si-chuen, have you not p — Yes. 

606. That is a province in the extreme west of 
China? — Yes. 

507. And I gathered from what you read to us that 
the supply of opium for that province is drawn 
from local sources ? — Chiefly grown in the province 
itself. The population is variously estimated at from 
40,000,000 to about 67,000,000 ; the Statesman's Year 
Book gives it at 67,000,000. 

608. Now you go to the province of Kan-suh ? — From 
Kan-suh, Mr. George Parker writes : " The most 
" respectable families are brought to abject poverty, 
" and degradation by opium smoking. The poor are 
" kept continually in rags through it. Children go 
" naked, and starve because the parents smoke opium. 
■' Wives sit on the bed-place crying with the cold 
" because their husbands have pawned their clothes to 
" get opium. In cases of sickness remedies fail because 
" of the counteracting influence of opium. British 
" oflicials and merchants only come in contact Avith 
" their well-to-do compradors, servants, and tradesmen, 
" who, by faring sumptuously, show less of the evil 
" effects in their bodies and minds, than their less 
" fortunate countrymen. It is the poor who sufl'er the 
" pain; the indigestion; who feel melancholy; who 
" hate their very lives. The commonest acts of 
*' Christian charity are frustrated in their purpose be- 
" cause opium must bo had, and the pawnshop is near.'' 
Mr. Parker further says : " Opium smoking is a 
" hindrance to the evangelist and pastor equally. It 
" pvodiices lethargy and inertness of 7nind ; the rp- 
" qiiisite attention cannot be securcil. The liar, thief, 
" and fornicator, no loss given up to the work of 
'■ the ilcsh, are mentally on the alert, but the mental 
" torpor and indifference induced by opium become 
■' doubly a blind to the mind." He says : " The popu- 
" lation of East Kan-suh wa.s almost exterminated in 
" the Mohommedan rebellion. Kingiang-fu had 400 
" families within its walls when I visited it. The sub- 
" ordinate Cheo and Hien cities had each less than 100 
" families within their walls, and no suburbs. In 
" answer to my inquiries as to the opium smoking, it 
" was stated how many families had kept out the opium. 
" In each subordinate city the noninfected families 
" were counted on the fingers of one hand. The girls 
" in the fields were pointed to as smokers. It was in 
" this district I received the expressive answer that 
" ' Eleven out of ten smoked opium.' Kingiang-fu was 
" the capital of the ancient Cheo dynasty, and until the 
" rebellion had been the chief granary of Kan-suh. Now 
" the poppy is its only glory." Mr. J. C. Hall, writing 
from another city of the same province, the city of 
Si-ning, says : — " I do think England must surely be 
■' lying under a curse for her part in the introduction 
" and foi'oing of opium upon the Chinese. Mven here 
" you get it east in yourteeth. ' It comes from England.' 
" The latter end of next month we up in this province 
" (Kan-suh) looh forward to with terror, I might almost 
" say, for then the opium is ingathered, and the opium- 
" poisoning cases are almost innumerable in the country 
" just outside the North Gate. We here in China 
" cannot do much more than present plain facts to our 
" friends in England, who with these facts, and the 
" prayers of earnest Christians, and the blessing of God, 
" may rouse up sluggard England to the heiuousness of 
" her .sins." Mr. Laughton writes from the same 
province but from the city of Liang-chau : " This is a 
" dreadful ]5lace for producing and smoking it. It is 
" worse than either Lan-chau or Si-ning. When we 
" came here first, I did not meet with a man for about 
" three weeks after our arrival who did not take it; 
" and about nine-tenths of the women smoke, and OA'en 
" children. " 

.509. One of the missionaries whose communications 
you have read to us refers to the season of the in- 
gathering of the opiam crop as a period to which he 
looks fortrard with great dread? — Yes. 

.510. I iafer fn.ni that that the poppy is largely 
grown ill this province ?-- Very largely grown indecfl. 
! uiiderslac' tluit I.hd c:'ij[ii; a }'cp,r are secured in some 
[.'arls. 



511. And being an inland province you would be of 
the opinion, no doubt, that the main sourcoB of supply 
are local ? — Oh, yes ; it is the North- Western province 
of China, and I should presume that scarcely any opium 
whatever, except native-grown opium, ever reaches that 
province. But I may be permitted to add one more 
testimony from Kan-suh, from Mr. Hunt, who writes 
from Ts'in-ohau : "As a missionary labouring a great 
" distance from any of the Treaty ports, and doing a 
" good deal of medical work amongst the people, I 
" would like, in as few words as possible, to give my 
" testimony as to the woful effects of the drug, and the 
" hindrance it undoubtedly is to the spreading of God's 
" truth, This testimony is founded on mi/ own careful 
" observation, as I have during 10 years gone in and out 
" amongst this benighted people. The opium is known 
" here, as in most parts of China, by the name " Foreign 
" Tobacco" {or Foreign Smoke), so that our name is 
" insepa/rahly connected with the curse. In the city quite 
" 70 per cent, of the men are smokers, of whom the 
"' greater half cannot afford the indulgence. This means 
" a misery in the latter case, equal or worse than equal 
" to that in the homes of confirmed drunkards in 
" England. Of the women in the city about 10 per 
" cent, are smokers. In the country smoking is less 
" common among both sexes ; we might safely estimate 
" it at 40 and 6 per cent, respectively.'' 

512. {Sir J. Lyall.) Foreign opium, the opium im- 
ported from India, is supposed to be of a better 
quality and fetches, therefore, a higher price, does it 
not, than the native product ? — It is assumed to be of a 
better quality. 

513. And therefore, presumably, of a higher price ? 

Because of the greater skill in its manufacture. 

514. Of a higher quality, and therefore of a higher 
price ?— Oh, a nmch higher price. The difference is 
very disproportionate indeed as to cost ; but the Indian 
opium, the general testimony is, is worse in its eflfects 
upon the people than the native grown. 

515. It is possible that some of the cases containing 
thenative opium might bo labelled wrongly " Forein-n" ? 
— No doubt, for purposes of gain, it will often be sold 
as foreign opium.* 

516. {Chairman.) Now we turn to the province of 
Shcn-si ? — From the province of Shen-si, Mr. Easton 
writes : " The evil results are apparent on e\-ery hand. 

Sad and sickening are some of the cases one has met 

" with, but they are so common that they slip from the 

" memory as an ordinary afi'air. At present we have 

" an old woman, living in our house, aged 70 ; she is 

" respectable, and has been well-to-do ; she has three 

" married sons, all, I think, over 30 years of age. Two 

" of them and one of their wives are amongst the 

most inveterate and despicable opium smokers in the 

city. They have ruined the family, sold everything, 

even to the garments off the poor old teaman's back, and 

" the bedstead from umJrr her, and left her on the floor to 

" starve. Two years ago Miss Fansset discovered her 

" in this condition, and as she dared not give her cash, 

" she daily sent her cooked food. She is now in our 

" house domg little odd jobs of needle-work for her 

food; we have sometimes given her a garment; but 

'■ her sons, who watch her constantly, got it from her 

" within a few days. This is a sample of what is very 

" common here." He says that native-gmwn opium is 

chiefly used; in fact, he says: "All native. I have 

" never seen foreign opium; the natives in these 

" provmces do not know it. The majority do not know 

'^'^ that foreign opium is still brought to China ; they 

" regard our guilt as consisting in first introducing it. 

"It IS, however, always called "Foreign smoke" 

Mr. Easton, says further: ''This h a great opium- 

1'^ producing district ; the quantity grown is enormous. 

The whole population suffers much; wheat, oil-seed, 

and beans being so little grown as to make them 

" dear. Dealers come from all parts to buy cpium, 

"^ brmging silver for the purpose. This influx of silver 

depreciates the value, and the exchange becomes 

very low, seriously aff'ecting ourselves as well as 

" many natives ; a, tael fetching about 200 cash less 

" than usual, say 3s. 2d., instead of 3s. lOtZ. ;" and he 

says, " Ignoiance is the only excuse one can find for 

" the Europeans who pretend to defend it." 



rhe\yitiiess jlrsiicslo st:ilo that lasrs or chests of native opium 
ecu d not lie sold a« ■• foveiini." The l!n,mil opium ball is beautifullv 
mndr, mid mnn.Yyrarsaf.0 a London opiiun raerclmnt in bhowins- him 
ono, ,s;n(l Ilia, the ruler ^■o^onn(J! or shell eould not be imitated in 
('liiii;i iMiiail quantities ol thffiinhve opium when in the condition 
lyiHly liii- iinuii'diiilr iisc mitrht lu s..iiic cnscs b.. sold as forciffii and 
llnis n.-.sHlia|. IlKMviliicfiSiiuraiUhy l,,s;i„,-,Hvr. ioiuf,ii,ana 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



41 



517. You havu now doalt with the province of 
Shon-si?— Yes. 

51d. Do you know ab all from what sources the 
demand for opium is supplied in that province P— From 
Mr. Easton's testimony, and ho i.s at a point where he 
would be likely to know, he s;iys, that the Indian opium 
is not even known in that province. 

519. What is your next province P— The next province 
IS Shan-si. I have a statement from Mr. Hoste, who is 
the son of Major-G-eneral Hoste. He says that " Native 
II tracts are occasionally issued by individuals against 
the use of opium. Last winter some were being sold 
•' m this city. I enclose translations of four, with the 
" originals of three." I may possibly later on be 
allowed to read one of them, but this is one of the 
opium tracts circulated in the district, of which he has 
sent me a translation. {Tract put in.) He says that 
'■ opium is grown in this neighbourhood on irrigated 
" land. As a rule, about thi-ee-fourths of the land is 
" grown with opium." In answer to the question, 
" Do the officials prohibit the cultivation of opium? — 
" In what way and with what result?" He says: 
" Occasionally a man of more than ordinary goodness 
" and force of character may enforce, rigorously and 
" effectually, the prohibition of it. Till within three or 
" four years proclamations forbidding the cultivation of 
" opium were annually put up, but wore simply a dead 
" letter. Now the cultivation is legalised, auda heavy 
" duty of over 3 dollars an acfo is placed upon it ; 
" but this does not check the cultivation." He says 
that only native-grown opium is used in his district. 
Mr. Bagnall, Avho has been a missionary for 20 years 
in China, says, concerning the province of Shan-si, and 
he has travelled about it very greatly : " The people 
" of Shan-si are hiucorically a quiet, law-abiding people, 
" possessedof good bnsiness qualities; but now,throuph 
" the opium, are becoming m thousands of cases, so 
" reduced botti as regards physical strength and 
" energy of mind, that one cannot but be alarmed at 
" what must be the condition of most of them in the 
" early future. . . . The effects are seen in the 
" neglected appearance of the people and property; 
" for many of the finest houses in the cities, and many 
" which might well be termed mansions in the vilJago.s 
" on the Tai-ynen plain, are literally crumbling to 
" pieces. ... In the valley of the Pen liver (a 
" very fertile district), the best land is almost entirely 
" given up to the culiivation of the poppy. Travelling 
" on the main road from the south towards Tai-yuen 
" Fu, I stayed at an inn a few miles from the city. 
" During the evening and in the morning I heard 
" children's voices, 'i'hese I supposed were from the 
" younger members of a family who were travelling. 
" But while the mules were being harnessed, and the 
" many carts were being packed previous to starting, 
" I saw that eight little girls, ranging from seven to 
" twelve years of age, were being placed in a cart. 
" Enquiring about them from a, fellow-traveller whoso 
" cart stood next to mine, he replied, ' These children 
" ' have been bought cheaply in Ta-t'ong JTu [a city in 
" ' the northern part of the province], by the man you 
" " see with them, who is going to sell them at T'ai-l^u 
" ' [a city about forty miles from T'ai-yuen Fu] for a 
" ' high price. This has become very frequent lately, 
" ' and is what your opium is doing.' By way of expla- 
" nation he said the people in the north of the province 
" being poorer, the opium habit reduced the victims 
" to extremities more rapidly, and that selling their 
" daughters was one resource to get money in order to 
" procure the drug." 

520. What was the name of this last province ? — The 
province of Shan-si. 

521. So far as yon know, the main souice of supply of 
opium in that province would be local ? — Very much so. 
I have hiid a daughter, in fact, two daughters residing 
in that province, and a son, and the opium growing. 
from their testimony' a.s well as that of others, is \erj 
extensive — it is luininy; the province. 

522. And you wonld hold that both the central ami, 
the provincial governments of China were largely to 
blame in this matter ? — Distinctly so ; but there are in 
some of these parts attempts, every now and then, to 
destroy the opium, and when " the runners " arec jming 
there is everything done to divert their attention from 
parts where it is being grown, and, in fact, where they 
have been destroying it the people have said : " Kill us, 
kill us," because they would rather suffer injury them- 
selves than lose their money by the destruction of the 

■ opium crop. 

e 80970, 



523. What is the next province that you deal with P — 
The province of Gan-hwuy, one of the central provinces. 
This is from one of the most careful and most reliable 
men for accuracy that we could give any statement 
from — Mr. Cooper, of Can -king. He says : "A fearful 
" case was brought imder my notice the other day, 
" which I am assured by the natives is of no uncommon 
" occurrence. A man, formerly in business as an 
" engraver, through opium smoking eventually became 
" lazy, and lost all his business ; one article after 
" another was sold, until he had nothing left but his 
" wife; instead of selling her — which is frequently 
" done — he did far worse." I read this to- your Lord- 
ship and the Commission : it is a statement we could not 
make public. He says : " Instead of selling his wife, 
" he did far worse, viz., invited his opium-smoking 
" friends who had money to his house, where he 
" encouraged them to commit adultery right before his 
" eyes, in return for which he received sufficient money 
" to feed his lust for the opium. Alas! alas!! these 
' ' cases are too numerous ; when opium comes in self- 
" respect and integrity go out. I believe that opium 
" is the greatest curse on the face of the earth to these 
" poor benighted Chinese, who have too little moral 
" strength to refuse the bait so nicely put before them 
" by so-called Christian England." 

524. In this particular province have you reason to 
suppose that the importations from nbroad of opium 
are considerable, or do you imagine that as in the other 
cases the principal sources of supply are local? — I am 
not so well able to speak as to that province, but Mr. 
Marcus Wood is here, who has lived in that province, 
and will be able to give more dependable statements in 
regard to it than I could. Prom the same province 
(though this letter is dated from Kiu-kiang), my son, 
Marshall Broomhall, who had been living in the province 
of Gan-hwuy, gives a statement which I think will be 
worth the attention of the CcmmiRsion. He says in a letter 
which I received about a fortnight ago) : " The China- 
' ' man's conscience needs no education upon the question 
" of opium. I have never yet met a native who has not 
" acknowledged that opium smoking was a sin. . Were 
" any native asked, ' What constitutes a sin ? ' almost 
" invariably he would answer: 'Profligacy, opium 
" ' smoking, wine drinking, and gambling.' I wonld 
" that those Avho speak lightly of these things could 
" have stood in my shoes a few weeks ago. "WTien 
" speaking to a few natives who were around me, about 
" the Gospel, a gentlemanly Chinaman addressed me. 
" He proved to have been private secretary to one of 
" the Embassies, and had visited England, France, and 
" America. Never before have I been made to feel 
" such real shame for my country, as on that occasion, 
" as for fully two hours he spoke without reserve of 
" what he had teen and knew. The opium trade, and 
" the wars consequent, were the chief subjects of his 
" talk, on which subjects he was thoroughly conver- 
" sant I having .also been to India. He said he had 
" noticed that the opium merchants themselves did 
" not smoke — they knew b3ttcr — but their greed made 
" them willing to get rich by the ruin of another 
" people. In vain did I endeavour to show that many 
" of our people abhorred the trade. 'Yes,' he said, ' I 
" ' know all about the Anti-Opium Guild, but what's 
" 'the good of always talking; why don't, you do 
" 'something.' In concluding he said. 'Now, if the 
" ' Gospel that you come to preach can accomplish 
' ' ' what you profess, then the best thing you can do is 
" ' to go home and preach it to your own people, for 
" ' they need it.' What could I say, but acknowledge 
" — as every honest English missionary must do — that 
" to us beiongeth shame and confusion of face. This 
" conversation was heard by, and retailed to, over a 
'• hundred piople. One felt it was no wonder, as he 
" said, that we were hated. These things cannot but 
" be causes of ill-feeling and indignation. It grieves 
" one deeply to meet hundreds who have been cursed, 
" to every one who has been blessed, through contact 
" with the foreigners. The awful habit has gained an 
" incredible hold on this people, and is gaining ground 
" everywhere. In place of the ancient custom of 
" assembling at the tea shops to drink tea over the 
" making of a bargain, or the contracting for coolies 
" or boats, it is not at all uncommon to resort to the 
" opium den instead. In places where one can hardly 
" obtain food, opium can be bought. Last year when 
" going westward (up the Siver Yangtse) to the city 
" of Chung-king, in Si-chuen, 1 was often astonished 
" to find where it could be obtained. No matter if the 
" boat stopped in the gorges where only rocks were to 



Mr. B. 
Broomhall. 

13 Sept. 183.3. 



42 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Mr.B. 
Broomhail. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



" be seen, and where at first sight no house was dis- 
" cernible, the men would go ashore forthiqr pipe, and 
" one wo-jld find on some small plot ol: land a small hut 
" or similar place where opium and wine were to be had. 
" In other places small boats would come and fasten 
" .alongside, which proved to be floating opium dens. 
" In many of these small huts and boats there was 
" nothing for sale save the opium and wine." 

525. What would your next province be? — Honan. 
Mr. Coulthafd, a nephew of mine, writes from Chau- 
kia-keo, and he says : — " There are about 1,000 opium 
" dens in the cities and towns near here, irrespective of 
" tbe private arrangements provided in places of busi- 
" iiess and guest halls, and be thinks the average num- 
" ber who visit each of these dens daily would be 30.'' 
He says, " Scarcely any, if any, really foreign opium 
" is used bere. Ho-nan opium is very superior; cer- 
" tainly not the tenth of one per cent, used is foreign. 
" During tbe last two years, owing to tbe cheapness of 
" fliour and millet, cases of cruelty to procure opium 
" bave been rarer. Still, cases are known where 
" wives are sold to satisfy the craving, and children 
'' sent out to beg to procure the daily supply of opium. 
" Everything available is sold, and in some families 
" it ' is impossible for any member of tbe family to 
" keep an article of clothing which is not in wear at 
" tbe time ; all is seized by the voracious consumer to 
" supply tbe deep craving." 

526. Now what is your next province — Cheb-kiang, 
is it not ? — I have with me only a brief note from Obeh- 
kiang. Mr. Randle writes : " That he had never met a 
" Chinese who bad attempted to justify opium smok- 
' ' ing ; but, on the other band, I have met and conversed 
" vtitli hundreds who liave both condemned it and deplored 
" it." And he also says, " Ono very evil result of the 
" 6pium trade with China ix thut it makes sniride so 

and, alas ! so common." 



527. Chih-li?— The extract from Chih-li that I pro- 
pose to read is given by my son Hudson Broomhail, who 
lived in the city of Huai-lnh. It shows the difference 
between tbe condition of things now and many years 
ago. "At Huai-luh (in Chih-li), in 1851, the Man- 
" darin tried to prevent the introduction of opium. It 
" was discovered that an innkeeper had privately 
" provided opium and pipes, and after trial he was 
" convicted. The mandarin gave him the option of a 
" public beating, or the mending of tbe city north 
" wall ; be chose the latter, which cost him 10,000 taels 
" (say 2,600?.). While Ihe wall was being repaired, my 
" teacher was born, and received tbe nick-name ' Sin- 
" cheng' (New Wall), and since has been called Mr. 
" Cheng (Mr. Wall) to distinguish him from bis 
" brothers. Opium-smoking is now very common in 
" tbe city, and there is now no public protest against 
" it." 

528. No public protest P— No. 

529. Then do you mean by that that the public 
opinion of the locality is no longer hostile to the intro- 
duction and use of opium ? — That is so. The incident 
he mentions as occurring 40 years ago shows what was 
done at that time to check it, but now it is common 
and 1)0 attempt is made to stop it. And in connection 
with that same thought I would venture to quote the 
words of the Beverend Dr. Happer, not of our own 
mission, who says : — " I can testify from my own obser- 
" vation, during forty-seven years' residence in Canton, 
" lo the distressing evils of opium. In the year 1844 
" the facilities for opium smoking were not seen in 
" any Chinese bouse. Now the opium couch is seen in 
" nearly every well-furnisbed bouse." 

530. You bavB now gone through the evidence, 
province by province ? — Yes. 

631. What you wish further to say is iif a more 
general nature, is it not P — I think perhaps it might be 
permissible to me to say a few words which bear upon 
tbe remarks made at the opening, as to the effect of 
this upon the welfare of the country and as to tbe rapid 
extension of the vice. 

632. We shall be glad to hear any general statement 
that you wish to put before us as representing your 
society P — As showing the effect upon the country as a 
wbole tbe Eeverend William Muirhead, of the London 
Missionary Society, says : " Opium smoking is rampant 
•' in all riarts, and is eating out the vitals of the 
" nation." And Dr. Griflith John, of the London 
Missionary Society, one of the most able men in China, 
says : — " Opium is not only robbing the Chinese of 
" willirtno of more)' year by yea.r, but is i\c-t!ifinv 



" destroying them as a people. It undermines the 
" constitution, ruins tbe health, and shortens the life 
" of the smoker ; destroys every domestic happiness and 
" prosperity, and is gradually efEeoting the physical, 
" mental, and moral deterioration of tbe nation as a 
" nation." The Beverend E. O. Williams, of the China 
Inland Mission, writing from Western China, says: — 
" Oh, that our statesmen in England could see a little 
" of tbe effects of this poison which we have forced, 
" and are forcing still, upon the Chinese that wa may 
' ' make a little money. The poor Chinese ! No wonder 
" they hate the foreigner. How can we ever make 
" amends for the awful wrong we have done them? 
" You come across it at every turn. If you go on a 
" journey very probably your coolies are opium 
" smokers, or your boatman; you see it and smell it 
" in the inns; you come across it everywhere." And 
as was stated in a leading article in the " Times " some 
little time ago, "25 years ago, the only marketable 
" opium came from India ; but now," it says that 
" China is no longer compelled to resort to India for 
" its opium. The huge crop of Cbinese opium is raised 
" for the supply of scores of millions who never smoked 
" before." And it further says, that " seven-tenths of 
" the adult male population, it is computed, now are 
" opium smokers. Probably 26 years ago only a, 
■' fraction had contracted the habit. The propensity, 
" which is understood to have a total existence in 
" China of no more than a short century, has of recent 
" years spread like wild-fire among the nation." Dr. 
(Griffith John fears that no legislative measure on the 
part of the Chinese would put an end- to it ; but he 
says, " Be that as it may, our path as a Cbristian 
" nation is plain enough. We have inflicted a terrible 
" wrong on the people of China, and it is our solemn 
" duty to try and undo it by abandoning the trade at 
" once and for tver ourselves, and by giving tbem 
" every sympathy and aid in our power in their attempt 
" to banish the curse from within their own borders." 

533. This deplorable increase in the consumption of 
opium in China has, it would appear from the various 
statements that you have read to us, been chiefly fed 
by the enormously increased growth of the poppy in 
China itself? — It has been ^o. 

534. And there has been great laxity on the part of 
the Imperial and local provincial governments in 
enforcing the edicts which have been put forth to 
prohibit or diminish the consumption of opium ? — The 
reason for that bas been that money was going out by 
millions a year ; their silver for the Indian opium, and 
that bas caused the authorities to be lax in enforcino- 
tbeii' own regulations, which 60 years ago were ex- 
tremely strict ; men were put to death then for selling 
and smoking it. But another reason, no doubt, which 
we cannot shut our eyes to, is the fact that it is an 
opportunity which corrupt officials may take advantage 
of to accept bribes for allowing the growth in these 
interior provinces. I have not gone into the state of 
things in all the provinces because of the time. 

538. T think you have given us abundant evidence to 
show the ill-effects of opium, and to show that the vice 
widely prevails and is increasingly prevalent in China P 
— My own conviction is very strong that if this thing 
goes on for another 50 years as it has gone on for the 
last 50 years, it will bring China into a most awful 
condition. Prom all parts it seems that during the 
last 40 or 50 years the growth bas been immense, and 
the increase of its use immense. Mi-. Morris, a 
deputation from the Baptist Missionary Society, who 
visited China more than <i year ago, says that "In 

Shan-si a very intelligent native told me that he 
'•^ thought there would be. six or seven opium-smol-ers out 

of h'li men in flic city, T/vhilc in the country the pro- 
" portion would not be more than three to ten. He also 

said that ' when he 'wo.s- a boij — he Wiis nearly 70 years 
" of age— opium was consumed, biU that the habit of 
"^ using it was not a common one, and an opium- 
" smokei- was pointed at mid talked of as quite an excen- 
" tional character. The practice, he told us, had 
'• (jrown up chiefly within, the last 30 years." The 
increase seems to have been more rapid in recent years. 
Mr. Paers, writing from Sui-fu in Si-chuen, Bays :— 

The use of opium is favoured by the magistrates. 

When I came here in 1891 there were under 200 

licensed dens, and now tbe number is doubled, it 
" being an easy and lucrative source of revenue, and 

the chief magistrate styled it .-i 'legitimate Wsi- 
I' ness." " Uv. Hunt says -. " If Christianity is not 
'■^ received, the demoralization of the Cbinese by opium, 

and the Qnivrmnenf of the rniivfrij by other i'mcpr,*! 



MINUTKS i.)V KVJOKNUK. 



.43 



'^' will be facts to be recorded at no very distant 
opoch." Andthat is the impression ■which many have, 
the Chinese themselves feel that we are seeking to 
weaken them as a people, that by-and-bye the country 
may be taken by other people, and it may be worth 
mentioning that in last Saturday's " Standard " in 
the telegraphic tidings from Shanghai, we read:— 
'' Viceroy Ohang, who is notorious for his hatred of 
foreigners, and for the encouragement he has given 
to the natives in their barbarous treatment of Euro- 
pean visitors, has, it is reported, addressed a petition 
to the Throne, in which he deliberately advocates the 
" extnrnvination—thskt is, them&asacre— of all foreigners 
''^ in China, more particularly the lEnglish. He contends 
that this policy is necessary, in order to prevent the 
eventual partition of the Chinese Empire among the 
" European Powers." I have never seen that as 
coming from an oflac- iai before, though it has been said 
to our missionaries over and over again, that it is our 
motive, to weaken them as a people, and by-and-bye 
to take their country. Ai-chdeacon Wolfe mentions in 
one of his letters the fact that the American Board of 
Missions had abandoned a mission station because of 
the extent to which opium-smoking was practised ; 
he says : — " The degradation of an opium-smohing town 
" is of that peculiar and intensely low and hardened type 
" that, humanly speaking, it seems almost impossible to 
" malce any impression of n, moral or spiritual nature 
" upon the inhabitaiUs of a place given up to the 
" degrading vice of opium,- smoking," and I may, 
perhaps, in just a few words, give the testimony of three 
niissionaries, to a point which bears out what is a 
common impression in China. Dr. Gait, formerly in 
charge of the Church Missionary Society's Opium 
Hospital, Hang-chow, referring to the fact that the 
habitual use of opium, affects the increase of the popu- 
lation, says : — " I find that only one inhabitant was 
" added to an opium-smoking family during 11 years 
" In fact, 1S4 parents, of an average age of 33 years, 
" had only 146 children born to them during 11 
" years."' The Eev. J. McCarthy, of the China Inland 
Mission, who went right through China from Shanghai 
to Burmah, says: — "The people assert freely, and 
" believe firmly, that the number of children born to 
" opium smokers is less than to other men, and that 
" it thus tends to reduce the population." The Eev. 
Dr. Grifiith John, of the Loudon Missionary Society, 
says : — " The Chinese tell us that a large proportion of 
" the regular opium-smokers are childless, and that 
" the children of the others are few, feeble, and sickly. 
" They also affirm that the family of the opium-smoker 
" will be extinct in the third generation." I published 
a book some 10 years ?go, rather more — 12 years ago — 
on " The Truth about Opium Smoking," which I shall 
be glad to hand to your Lordship. That book con- 
tains the testimony of many missionaries, and was 
published in answer to some statements made by Sir 
George Birdwood. 

536. "Would you give us a few more copies — each 
member of the Commission will be supplied with a 
copy ? — I have a few copies left. It is out of print 
novT, but I will be very happy to supply copies as 
far as I have them. I referred just now to the native 
opinion. This is one, and it may bo worth while 
for this to go in evidence as just one of the many tracts 
published by the natives themselves against opium. 
Mr. D. K. Hoste explains that " the picture represents 
'• one of the opium shops, or dens, common in North 
" China. The owner is weighing out opium for the 
" half-naked wretch at the counter, whilst his assistant 
" in the right foreground works at the bellows and 
" watches the pot in which the raw opium is being 
'■ prepared. The two half-naked men going out have 
" iust bought their ration of opium. They are 
" described by the three characters over their heads, 

" as : ' Shih hsiang chih," or (' insatiable opium sot ') ; 

' ' and ' chien hsiin he ' — (reckless spendthrift ') — whilst 
" on the signboard over their heads are the words — 
" ' The medicine of East and West, opium in rolls or 
" 'paste sold here " — (a polite term for opium). The 
" characters on the right side of the picture are doggerel 
" —to thfe following efi'ect : — 

" There are people who say opium is a rare fine 
" thing — what nonsense ! ' and are continually bragg- 
" ' ing of their prowess ' (in smoking it and selling it). 
" What effrontery and boasting ! And even declare that 
" the practice will benefit them. How utterly absurd ! 
" As a matter of fact they come to ruin and beggary— 
' ' That's certain ! " The writing below is as follows : — 
" Open a prosperous shop, and drive a roaring trade, 
" in soiling native opium, raw and prepared. Lay in 



" a Stock of smoking materials audjiboil the paste 
" opium all ready, and (you say) you will deal fairly-iby 
" rich and poor alike and (so you do) for whether they 
" are friends or relations, they all have to pay up ready 
" money. Some buy opium and. go, others lie down in 
" your den and smoke there ; if they smoke but three or 
" five pipes, don't they enjoy it ; and how sparkling they 
" become in their wit and conversation? They sip tea 
" and cat cakes only thinking of present gratification 
" and regardless of future disaster. Though everybody 
" knows it is injurious, people just love it ; at first 
" they take a few whiffs to quiet them in sorrow and 
" anxiety, then as the craving lays hold on theni, d%y 
" and night they can't leave the opium pipe. No 
" matter how lusty a fellow you may be it will wither 
" you up ; before you were hale and hearty, now ,(by 
" your opium smoking) seek debility and ill-healifcli{ 
" you are under the misery of the craving, we exhort 
" you good people all, not to get snared by "opiuni. 
" Thus your peace and prosperity will be secured. Ten 
" miseries arising from opium smoking : — I. Yellow 
" haggard face, wasted body and debility— (this ' is 
" what the craving does for you). II. Clothes all 
" tattered and torn — ^respectability done for.' III. Wife 
" and children weeping and in wretohedhess. The 
" result of your neglect. IV. Father and Mother, 
" though not ill ; dead early. Died of anger and 
" despair. "V. Pay no taxes, or duties. Property all 
" sold, VI. For ever lying down, regardless of the 
" place being dry or wet. When the craving comes on. 
" VII. Wandering about in rags and nakedness. -^ 
" utter outcast. VIII. Begging about the streets. 
" Destitute. IX. A prey to remorse and despair. Too 
" late now to repent. X. Tormented with fears as to 
" the future. Indeed a hopeless look-out." I think 
perhaps I ought not to add niore. 

537. You have given us a very full general state- 
ment, Vjut we would not ask you to withhold anything 
that you consider important ? — I made a remark that 
I think there would be no real check to the growth or 
use of Chinese opium while our Indian opium is ex- 
ported. I believe that the Chinese Government could 
save their own country — would make a desperate effort 
— if their hands were free ; but they have no encourage- 
ment to do it. In fact everything is on the other side 
while the Indian opium is sent to China ; and we are 
particularly wishful that the export of opium from 
India should be stopped as the only thing that will 
give us any hope whatever of the Chinese authorities 
being induced to make any effort to check the con- 
sumption in their own country. I have to thank the 
Commission for the patience with which they have 
listened to me. 

538. There are only one or two more questions which 
I would like to ask you. You have clearly shown the 
evil which attends the excessive use of opium by the 
Chinese people so far as it has come under the observa- 
tion o f your numerous body of missionaries ; you have 
shown that so far as your information extends, the 
greatly increased consumption has been chiefly met by 
the increase in the cultivation of the poppy in China 
itself, and your missionaries have in several of the 
reports that you have quoted, referred to the laxity 
on the part of the local governments in relation to the 
enforcement of prohibitions against the use of opium. 
Well, then you have now referred to the action of the 
Indian Government. You, of course, quite recognise, 
do you not, the change that has taken place in the state 
of public opinion in this country ; it is certain, is it not, 
that a war with China to compel the admission of 
Indian opium would no longer be sanctioned by public 
opniori in this country? — No. 

539. That is so, is it not?— I believe it would not be 
sanctioned. 

540. Certainly not ? — But I believe the Chinese would 
be afraid to run the risk of it, and they would fear, 
further, that though a quarrel might not arise out of 
the opium as avowedly a question of opium, it might 
some in another way, and if it did not, that there would 
be a return to the old smuggling habit, so long as we 
are manufacturing and exporting the Indian opium. 
The increased .consumption of opium, I may be per- 
mitted to say, during the last 50 years was not merely 
from native growth, but up to about 10 years ago there 
was a steady increase of the amount exported from 
India. Though it has been reduced in price, it has 
not been very greatly reduced in quantity during the 
last 10 years ; its value is less, but the quantity has been 
mnch the same. 

F 3 



Mr. a. 
Broomhall. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



4* 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Mr. B. 

Broomhall. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



541. In the earlier part of your statement you alleged 
that the Government of India gave a direct encourage- 
ment to the exportation of opium from India into China. 
"Well, in what way do you consider that the v foviTiirapnt 
of India can be justly said to have en con rn -red the 
opium trade? — Many years ago Mr. Julius Joflrey, 
P.R.S., of the opium factory at Patna, distinctly pointed 
out that it was his business to manufacture the opium 
to meet the Chinese ta?te. 

642. Many years ago that was; but as the Ir^dc i.'^ 
lit present regulated, how would yon say that the 
Crovernment of India directly gives oiicouragement to 
the exportation of opium from India to China P — By 
the growth and manufacture of the opivim for export, 
and by the monthly sales at Calcutta., which arc 
Government sales, and also bv, so far as we can judge, 
the discouragement r.f anything which would check the 
export. 

543. (Sir J. Lyall.) I gather that the prohibition of 
the export of Indian opium is urged by most of your 
missionaries as a striking act of expiation for our 
guilt in the matter in former year.s in the wars with 
China, and as an example and encouragement to the 
Chinese Governm.ent to take measures to stop the habit, 
but that most missionaries have only a slight hope that 
the Chinese Government would be now able or willing 
to take measures to stop the growth and use of the 
poppy — of opium in China p — It is not viewed in the 
light of an expiation, but as a matter of moral right, it 
is not with the view to our past ill-doimj, but as a 
matter of doing right now. But if the Chinese them- 
selves begged us to send the opium, knowing how 
common its use is there, you ought to refuse to send it. 

5-14. But the latter part of my question was that 
most missionaries have only a slight hope now that the 
Chinese Government would be able or willing to take 
measures to stop the growth and use of the poppy ? — 
Opinions vary; but the testimony geneially is that 
there is very little hope, partly because the officials 
themselves have become in many cases smokers of 
opium, and in high quarters too ; and further they are 
now deriving a certain amount of revenue from it 
themselves. But my hope individually is that, seeing 
that something must be done if the country is to bn 
saved, they will from patriotic motives be compelled to 
take action. 

645. You know that Sir James Pergusson said in the 
House of Commons that the Chinese Government at 



the present moment can prohibit the import after 1 2 
months' notice. Do you understand that that is the 
case ? — I heard Sir James Fergusson make that state- 
ment ; but while we are manufactuiing the opium in 
such vast quantities and allowins its c.xp irl, the Chinese 
wd) not pay much attention to that. 

516. You put it, upon moral grounds, that we ought 
not to allow the ex[)ort for a moment P — Not for a 
moment. 

.">17. Whether the Clunese Government will take 
action themselves, or not? — I feel, as Dr. Griffith John 
put it very powerfully some time ago, that our action 
should not depend upon anything which the Chinese 
Government may do. He says : ' I cannot close my 
" eyes to the fact that opium smoking in China has 
" become so common and that the habit has such a hold 
" on its victim, that in my most calm and solemn 
" moments I can see no hope except in God. There are 
" millions in China to whom tlie drug is dearer than 
" life itself. Even if the foreign trade in the drug 
" were given up, it i-i more than probable that opium 
" smoking, and consequently opium growing, would 
" go on in the provinces. Yun-nan, Kwei-chau, and Si- 
'■ chuen are covered with the poppy every year, whilst 
" in several of the other provinces it is extensively 
" cultivated. The evil is now one of enormous magni- 
" tnde ; audi am inclined to think that no legislative 
" nieasnre-; on the part of the Chinese Government, 
" however honestly adopted, will put an end to it," and 
then he said what I ht.ited just now : — "Be that as it 
" may, our path as a Christian nation is plain enough. 
" We have inflicted a leirible wrong on the people of 
" china, and it is our solemn duty to try and undo it 
" by abandoning the trade at once and for ever our- 
" selves, and by giving them every sympathy and aid 
" in our power in their attempt to banish "the curse 
" from within their own borders. Would to God it 
" were possible to bring the British Government to see 
" the wicked character of the traffic, and to induce 
" them to sacrifice their opium revenue un the altar of 
" our national Christianity and China's well being." 

648. Then you do not look to practical results ; yon 
think that whether there are any practical results to bo 
expected or not, it is the duty of the Indian Govern- 
ment to stop the export P — Unquestionably. But I 
should hope that in view of such action being taken by 
the Indian Government, it would be a direct encourage- 
men i to the Chinese Government to take immediate 
action, and I believe it would be that. 



The witness withdrew. 



Mr. 
G. BrowVt 



Mr. Geokge Graham Brown called in and examined. 



549. {CJiiiir until.) Are you a member of anj' Univer- 
sity P — I was a private student of Glasgow University, 
my Lord; but 1 am not a graduate. 

550. You have been a missionary in China P — Ye.<. 

561. How many years have you been labouring in 
China, and in what districts have you been stationed? 
— For more than six years and since 1888 in the city of 
Lan-chau, my Lord. If you will look at the map you 
will find in the north-west corner the city of Lan-chau, 
capital of the province of Kan-suh. My testimony is 
only valuable because of my having been in a somewhat 
inaccessible district. 

562. Will you tell me what is your experience of the 
district of Lan-chau, as lu the efi'eots of opium on the 
Chinese consumer, whether regarded morally or 
physically P — Distinclly bad in both ways, my Lord. 

65:!-4. Is there anything you would like to add in 
anyway? — I hiive made inquiriea as to the amount 
of Indian opium sold in the city. Being a capital city, 
there is a large number of expectant officials from the 
south residing there, but only two sfcoi-es sell Indian 
opium in that city. The distance from the coast is 
2,400 miles, so that of course the price of Indian opium, 
as compared with the native-grown product, is as ten to 
one. The cost as ton to one ; the strength of Indian 
opium as eight to one of the China drug. 

555. And the proportion in which Indian opium is 
consumed as compared with the Chinese I suppose is 
merely fractional ? — Absolutely fractional. The point 
here which I wish to mention tri your Lordship and the 
Commi.ssicui, is that no Persian opium is known in the 
city, although a great trade route passes through it. 
The trade route fmm Turkestan gne.s iloun tliroii<rh 



Chinese Turkestan, through the city of Lan-chau, 
crosses the Yellow Rivei' there and goes onwards to 
the south. The second route passes the province outside 
of Kan-sub, but I only refer to the first route. 

666. What is the distance of the Irade route con- 
necting Lan-chau and Persia ?— The distance in days 
from the capital of Chinese Turkestan is 54 days' 
journey. Wc do not speak of distances except as by 
days in Lan-chau. Chinese opium is specially grown in 
these regions, as it is a famous district. Your Lordship 
is aware of the great Loess lormation that extends over 
the Steppes of P.,ussia, the fertile earth of which is 
especially suitable to the production of opium. 



557. In Turkestan P~In the district of Lan-chau. 
asked an old shopkeeper, a man about ?0 \ears of 



I 

age, when opium was first smoked in that district. 
He iiaid less tlian 60 years ago it was first smoked by a 
man from Ho-nan; and as my informant graphically 
explained, the man went into the inner chan'iber of his 
inner court yard, and shut the doors and windows. 
The penalty then was beheading. 

558. Has the practice enormously increased 
that date ? — Yes. 



since 



559. Would you give us any details that you wish to 
put before us P— May I be allowed just to add on© word. 
Upon the authority of this man opium was first cul- 
tivated about 30 years ago— 30 years before 1891. I 
hold that the vice has quite overmastered public opinion 
since then. The common native statement is that 
eight-tenths or nine-tenths smoke in this city. I am 
not referring to the outside cities, my Lord, merely the 
capital cit\ of the province. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



45 



560. {Sir J. Lijall.) Do you think that that eight- 
tenths and nine- tenths reier to women and men, or 
onlyto men P— I consider myself that it may only be 
applied to adult men. But I add we consider tLiit six- 
tenths of the married women smoke. The smoking wan 
.stopped about the year 1875 by a man who became 
famous in two directions. His name was T'so. He 
was the man who reconquered Chiuese-Turkestan, after 
Yakoob Beg had revolted ; and later he became famous 
in another way, because when the Fi'ench took Tonkin 
he petitioned the Emperor that he might take troops 
into Prance — possibly your Lordship recollects— to fight 
against the French on their own ground. This was not 
accepted; and he died of a broken heart. During bis 
Viceroyalty of the province he stopped the smoking 
of opium by drastic measures. He took— I merely 
give the native statement — the men who were habitual 
ofifenders, and slit their lips transversely, i-o th.at thoii' 
lips could not close round theopium pipe, and they could 
not smoke. This had a tremendous effect upon the 
suicides' from opium in the same way. 

561. A tremendous effect P — In decreasing the num- 
ber of suicides from opium. 

562. {8ir W. Roherts.) But not in decreasing the 
number of suicides altogether ? — Yes, sir. I am sorry 
to say that, as a native explained to me, they prefer 
opium to any other form of committing suicide. Wo 
asked, "Why do they not jump into the Yellow 
Kiver? " And the answer was, " Too cold." The opium 
tax in the year 1891-92, after it was to some extent 
legalised, in the province was stated to me by n 
gentleman of the name of Oh'en, who was in charge 
of one of the Customs barriers, to have amounted to 
637 wans of ounces of silver — a wan is 10,000 ounces 
(=8,960,000 English ounces). This referred to the tax 
collected on the opium cultivated in the province 
and exported to the other provinces, because of the 
extreme cheapness of Kan-suh opium. The price of 
opium there is equal to nearly 9d. per English ounce. 
The sale is enormous. I havn seen five stalls in one 
street, within 60 yards i'rom the shops, in addition to 
little stalls set down on the street. 

663. (Sir J. Lyall.) Can yoa tell us how the opium 
revenue is levied ? — I asked, and -was not enlightened ! 
I am sorry to say I think that there is a good deal of 
the proverbial squeeze. It is done very much at the 
discretion of the mandarins, and their idea is to get 
as much as possible. 

564. {Chairman.) We shall be glad to hear anything 
that you like to tell us regarding the moral effect of 
opium on consumers ? — I have remarked that it has 
appeared to me to destroy all the moral senses : all 
other obligations must give way until the craving is 
satisfied ; and I may say that it is necessary to see a 
man under the influence of an unsatisfied craving before 
one understands what that means. I once slept on 

.the same brick bed with a man whose craving was un- 
satisfied. I do not think I shall forget it easily. 

565. {Mr. Pease.) Perhaps you would describe the 
man's condition as well as you can ? — I am not a 
medical missionary, —but the whole nervous system 
seemed to be on extreme tension, and he was really 
unrestrainable. One could not coerce him by reason ; 
he could listen to nothing. May I mention that opium 
induces poverty of the district, notwithstanding its very 
fertile soil — the quality of the soil is decreasing steadily, 
because of the rotation of crops, which is fixed — vege- 
tables, opium, tobacco — the three in succession ; and 
they make no variation year by year. G-rain has to be 
imported from the neighbouring prefecture, which is 
principally Mahommedan, being Mahommedans the 
people there do not smoke opium to the ext«nt that 
the heathen Chinese do. On the information of a 
worker in the fields, I found that the rents of the 
farms were steadily decreasina-, although the ground 
was originally famous for quality. The average return 
from opium versus grain is as 23 to 8 ; that is to say, 
the farmer who honestly cultivates his ground and grows 
grain receives eight ounces of silver as his profit from 
each Chinese acre of ground. If he cultivates opium 
he receives 23 ounces ; so that is a very strong argument 
in favour of opium to the Chinese. I further point 
out that there is practically no reserve of grain in the 
district, and the people live in constant fear of famine, 
from the reason that they know, should the crops fail, 
they have nothing to fall back upon. The previous 
witness was asked a question as to the gain from growing 
opium. I believe that it has not, as far as my know- 
ledge extends, resulted in any gain to the Chinese, 
because the silver received seems to be expended again 



in opium, for they become opium, smokers themselveB Mr. 

through cultivating the plant. (I give that upon the G. G. Biuw, 

autliority of a native graduate of the name of Oh'en.) 

On the physical ground, I have noticed the terrible 13 Sej-.. !H)' 

induction of sterility amongst the women My wife has 

come across not one or two, but many mothers who 
smoke during pregnancy avowedly 1o reduce thrir 
trouble in labour. I have also known of women 
having 8, 10, 13, 14 children. In three of these cases 
two grew up ; in one case only one ; — the others died 
not through infanticide, but because one or both of 
their parents were exceptional smokers. I ha\'e known 
of one lady who was able to smoke three Chinese ounces 
of the native opium daily; she had become a boI. In 
the time of the influenza there were no coffins 'eft in 
the city — perhaps that is the strongest point aa to 
physical debility which I can lay before your Lordship 
and the Commission. They had come to the condition 
whore there were not coffins to btiry the dead, because 
of the terrible ravages that influenza made amongst 
them, and those who did not smoke were, as far as I 
observed, the ones who came out best from the scourge. 
At the time of anti-Russian excitement — on the march 
of 64 days to the capital of Chiness Turkestan. — 
they raised three Regiments in Lan-ohau of 1,200 
soldiers each. Out of those 1,200 soldiers the natives 
expected that about 300 would arrive at Urumtzi, the 
others would die or desert on the road. The Hu-nan 
Regiments nominally do not smoke opium, and their 
officers threw this question in our teeth most bitterly. 

566. (Ghnirman.) In Hu-nan ? — Yes, the Mandarins 
in the province of Kan-suh are principally from Hu-nan. 

567. In Kan-suh P — Yes, they consider it is necessary 
to have these Hu-nanese mandarins in order to control 
the turbulent natives of the province. There are some 
very quarrelsome districts. A Hu-nan General, of the 
highest rank, said to me, " It would be a very different 
" thing had you not brought opium when you came to 
" preach the Gospel." Another point that I have to 
mention is that in the matter of choosing wives, one of 
the questions now asked is, " Is she an opium smoker ?" 
A most barbarous practice is the smoking of the opium 
ash, and one of the reasons adduced for using even the 
small quantity consumed of Indian opium — that is known 
as Duty-paying opium— is that they may smoke the 
ash three times. The Chinese opium may be smoked 
twice, more usually once. There is a third practice 
that is depraving the population terribly, and that is 
eating crude opium. It is prepared in balls, and a 
smoker just breaks oflf a little piece and swallows it, 
in order to allay the craving when he has no time to 
smoke. I also mention that I procured a supply of 
morphia in the form cf medicine for curing opium, 
and got into bad odour because this was all bought up 
by some secretaries in the Viceroy's office for the above 
purpose ; then not having enough to supply their 
demand, they v/ere displeased at my "deceiving them." 
These were all the points that I wished to say before 
your Lordships on this question. 

568-9. It comes to this, does it not, that your 
observation during your years of residence in a remote 
station, has established in your mind the conviction that 
the practice of opium smoking has largely increased, 
and that it is most detrimental morally, physically, and 
materially to the Chinese people P — Yes, my Lord. 

670. Then, may I not take it from yon that in the 
district in which you lived the main source of supply 
was local ? — Yes, guarding the statement, by saying 
that before Indian opium was introduced at the coast, 
there was no use of opium in the province. 

571. Would you say that the local authorities are 
doing what they ought to do in the enforcement of the 
edicts which have been promulgated by the Govern- 
ment for restricting or prohibiting the use of opium ? 
— The edicts are certainly posted and proclaimed; they 
send their officials round the districts, but, if I may 
say so, it is something like " Satan reproving sin." 

672. Were such edicts published and circulated from 
time to time when you were at Lan-cbau P — Yes. 

573-4. But no step was taken to enforce obedience ? 
— Jsot so far as I was aware. Of course it was 
difficult for a mandarin to enforce obedience to an 
edict against a sin which he himself commits. I mean 
he cannot openly do so. Allow me to make a state- 
ment with reference to a mandarin under whose juris- 
diction my wife lived in a city called Han-chung in the 
next province. This mandarin was a conspicuously 
moral and upright man and had the position of sub. 
prefect. He stopped the growth of opium by very severe 

F 3 



INDIAN Ol'lUM t'OMMIHSION 



Mr. 
(i. \j. Brown. 

■| 1 .Sept. 1893. 



lifualties and nrii.\e punishments, even to men of high 
I'.inli:, and in stopping it he incurred such disl'avour 
that at the time of the triennial viisifc of the Viceroy, 
50 potitions \veTo trumped up against him in order to 
get him put out of his office. This shows the feeling of 
some, at least, of thoOhiuese mandarins against opium. 

57.5. Were thcr.' any other Europeans resident in 
that district ? — There were one Belgian priest, and for 
a short space of time about fivi' Russian traders who 
came from Siooria ; in addition to my colleague, who 
left in the year 188f-t. 

570. "What Avas the demeanour of the people towards 
you in a general way — friendly ? — At first Tery far 
from that, my Lord ; but eventually we had the 
exceptional feature in our work of getting amongst thc> 
higher classes, and they latterly showed considerable 
friendliness towards us. 

577. Did you I'eceive adequate protection from the 
first from the Goverament ? — All that we required we 
received, my Lord. It was not necessary under these 
circumstances. 

578-9. (Sir J. Lyidl.) What do you think would be 
the practical results from the opium habit — the vice of 
opium smoking, if the Grovernmeut of India were to 
stop the export of Indian opium ? — My candid belief, 
especially v\ith reference to the mandarins fi'om the 
Hu-nan province, and they are practically the dominant 
power in China, is that they would do their utmost to 
put down the evil. 

580...You think they would be encouraged by the 
example ?— I am certain of it, sir. 

5S1. Do you think they would be practically able to 
carry it out ? — If they had the free hand that Yiceroy 
T'so had it would be very simply done — I refer to the 
slitting of the lips. 

582. As far as you have seen and know, Indian opium, 
I gather, is now a luxury of the rich opium smokers in 
China P — It is more economical to buy the native opium 
in that district. Ton must excuse me guarding myself 
— my evidence only refers to the district under the 
Prefect of the capital of the district of Kan-snh. Where 
the strength of native opium is as one to eight of the 
Indian di-ug, and the price as one to ten, the advantage 
is in favour of the native opium. 

583. I should think that is rather a doubtful fact, that 
of the relative strength — one to eight ? — It is not, of 
course, chemically ascertained; but it must mean 
something very like that, when one lady could smoke 
three Chinese ounces, nearly four English ounces in a 
day. 

584. But practically Indian opium is now in China, 
I understand, a luxury of the rich, just as French 
brandy is a luxury among English spirit drinkers ? — 
Yes ; on the same analogy that, if you were to stop the 
native whiskey and leave the door open for French 
brandy, there would be difficulty about abstaining from 
spirits. 

686-6. In practical smoking, just as in practical 
drinking. Indian opium is very much like French 
brandy is in England at the present moment ? — The use 
of it, as a comparison. 

587. Yea ?— Not the effects. 

688. Wo, not the effects, the use of it P — In the 
extreme north-^vst it is so. 

589-90. Supposing spirit drinking is a great evil, 
do you think it would be incumbent upon the French 
Government to stop the export of French hrandy ; would 
there be any moral obligation ? — If I were a member 
of the French Government I should have no doubt as 
to my action in this matter, sir. 

591. IMr. Pens/'.) You mentioned that the Indian 
opium had eight times the strength. Is the dose that 
is taken one-eighth of the dose that is taken of the 
Chinese opium ? — Y'ee; that was the experience of the 
man of whom I have spoken to-day. 

592. (Mr. Mowhray.) Do I understand that when 
this Viceroy disappeared things relapsed at once ; that 



he had no public opinion behind him in putting down 
the smoking ? — I understand that he had tho subor- 
dinate officials with him ; but the official who followed 
him as Viceroy was a venial man, and he was bribed. 
That is merely given upon the statements of the people. 
I was not present at the time; but the Hu-nan 
mandarins, as a class, profess themselves distinctly 
antagonistic to opium. 

593. But one Viceroy having shown himself strong 
enough to put it down, his successors did not carry on 
the same policy? — No, sir. 

594. [Sir W. Boherts.) I think I understood you to 
say that in Lan-chau fully nine-tenths of the adults — 
the adult men — smoked or used opium? — The native 
opinion is that eight-tenths or nine-tenths ; I consider 
that that refers to adult men, 

595. It is a large city, I presume ? — I'pon my own 
calculation it contains about 200,000 souls. 

596. And how long has opium been used, do you 
think, upon that scale ? — The growth is increasing 
every year ; they are laying down more Ifjnd every 

year. 

597. yo that the habit is practically a generalised 
habit in that city ? — Unfortunately it is so. 

698. Not being a medical man, perhaps, your atten- 
tion was not called to what I might call the vital 
statistics, as to the death-rate, or probable death-rate 
and birth-rate of the towns ? — I was at the time we were 
there under very considerable surveillance on the part 
of tho mandarins, and it was with great difficulty that 
I secured any reliable statements. On the death-rate 
and birth-rate it has been impossible for me to secure 
statistics. 

599. In walking about the streets did the population 
appear decrepit ? — Very much so. 

600. Your impression was, speaking generally, of the 
officials, the better classes themselves, that they were 
in a loAV state of vitality? — Yes, I might put my 
answer that I grew to recognise the men who were 
opium smokers by the look upon their faces. 

601. Did you say nine-tenths of them ?— .Eight-tenths 
or nine-tenths of the adult men. 

602. Then the exceptions would be the persons who 
did not smoke opium ?— I include under the words 
'• smoking opium " those who smoke a little and those 
who smoke to excess. 

603. And you draw a sharp distinction then p — No, 
where the craving is established I hold that a man is an 
opium smoker. 

604. Are all such persons then persons of weakened 
health ?— In the case of the rich, who have sufficient 
food, they arc not. They may continue the habit 
without showing perceptible injury physically, but in 
the case of the poor, where they have very little food, 
and must smoke, they show it very quickly. The in- 
fluenza epidemic atlected the poorer classes in much 
greater numbers than the rich. 

605. But your general impression was that the public 
health was deteriorating in that city ?—Be}ond doubt 
and question. 

606. (Sir J. Lyall.) I suppose the poverty is very 
great there, is it not ?— \"cs, as a general statement it 
may be said to be so. 

607. The people ai c, a large proportion of them, under- 
fed, do you think ?— From a British standpoint, underfed ; 
from a Cbmese standpoint, satisfied; the Emperor has 
almshouses in the city, where any people who wish to go 
may get food gratis. 

608. (Chairman.) Y'ou heard the statements made by 
Mr. Broomhall with jefereiice to the action he would 
desire to see taken by the Government of India in 
relation to the opium trade. Do you support his recom- 
mendation P— Distinctly. My desire would be to know 
for the credit of England, that it could not be cast in 
our teeth that we carried opium in one hand and the 
Gospel of salvation in another. It injures one's life- 
work as a missionary. 



The witness withdrew. 



Rev. A. Ebnn. 



The Reverend A. Elwin called in and examined. 
^^^°n, ' ■ ''"''■'■™""-^ ^1'^' yo"^ ^ member of any university, little more than '23 years ; and I have resided I mav 
Mr. Llwiu .^-No. say, all^ the while at Hang-chau, the chief city of the 

610. How many years have you been a missionary in Oheh-kiang Province, although of course I have 
China and in what district.s have yon resided P — For a worked from tliat city into the countrv districts. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE, 



47 



611. Will you tell us what you have specially noticed 
as arising from the use of the opium P— I have been 
connected for about 20 years with a large hospital that 
Me have in Hang-chau, where at present we have 
about 100 beds, and a certain proportion of those beds 
are assigned to opium smokers, so tbal. we see the 
physical effects brought before us continually in the 
persons of those who come to be cured of opium 
smoking, and certainly the effects are most disastrous. 
My own work, in the country away from Hang-chau, 
consisted largely of itinerancy, travelling about among 
the people, and it was the greatest difficulty, in the 
country districts, to find any coolie or chair-bearer who 
was not an opium smoker, and over and over again I 
have noticed the following results : I have started in 
the morning with the coolies and chair-bearers, we 
will say, and after travelling for about three hours I 
have noticed that the men began to get weak and were 
hardly able to move ; and then I have been told, " We 
" must stop because the men wish to smoke opium." 
Well, we would stop for perhaps an hour, while the 
men would go to an opium den ; and they would come 
out of the opium den new men — the load that a man 
could hardly carry before he went into the opium den 
he was able to pick up and carry with the greatest ease. 
Of course this only lasts for a time, as long as the 
opium effisct lasts, and then, once more, he gradually 
gets weaker and weaker, until he can do nothing at all 
until he smokes once more. They are perfect slaves to 
the opium habit. That, as I have noticed, is the 
physical effect upon these people. 

612. What would you say with regard to the physical 
condition of the agricultural population — are they able 
to do that amount of work which a labpurer in good 
physical condition ought to be able to perform P — An 
opium-smoker cannot. While he is underthe influen(!e 
of opium, he may do a great deal, and perhaps may do 
more than another, but the effect soon wears off, and 
then he becomes practically helpless, and can hardly do 
anything at all. I have met with a great many of 
these men, both opium-smokers and others, and, as I 
say, I have for the last 23 years had considerable 
experience in this way. 

613. Would you say that the agricultural population 
ill the district in which you have lived in China was 
insufficient in physical ability ? — Not at all ; they are 
very strong indeed, and with regard to the general 
agricultural labourers, so far as I have met them, not 
many of them smoke. It is chiefly those I have met 
with in the cities that I think have smoked, and those 
whona. I have engaged in the cities to go into the 
country ; there is a great difficulty in getting men who 
are not smokers. 

614. And would you say that the artizans of the 
towns are wanting in physical ability ? — Not at all. 

t)15. So that neither in the towns nor in the country, 
generally, would you say that the physical ability of 
the people was unsatisfactory ?— No, I should not ; but 
I should like here to say, as the gentleman who pre- 
ceded me said, that I speak entirely of what I have 
seen myself in Hang-chau and in the vicinity. I know 
perfectly well that it is very much worse in some of the 
interior districts, but with regard to Hang-chau we 
did not see quite so much evil among the people ; there 
are not quite so many smokers as there are in some of 
the interior cities. 

616. What proportion do you think that the habitual 
or excessive smokers bear to the whole number of the 
population in Hang-chau P— Well, I should be very sorry 
to say— it is so very difficult to find out; I really should 
not like to say what the proportion is, but with regard 
to tbe special class, I can say that it is the greatest 
difficulty to find a coolie or a chair-bearer who is not a 
smoker. They nearly all smoke. 

617. Perhaps there may be a larger proportion of 
smokers in that class than in the mass of the popula- 
tion ?— I think their temptations are greater. 

618. Do you think that the practice is increasing 
generally in your district, in the district of Hang- 
chau?— I have not the slightest doubt about that. 
When I went to Hang-chau, I will say 20 years ago (I 
was there before that, but will say 20 years agoj, as we 
went through the streets of Hang-Ohau it was com- 
paratively a rare thing to see an opium shop ; that is 
to say, where opium was sold and smoked. We could 
always tell an opium shop by a curtain in front of the 
door ; it is tbe only shop in that large city that would 
have a curtain in front, and when I asked why the 
curtain was in front, I was told that it was so that the 



magistrate, when he went his rounds through the city, 
would not see the opium being smoked — he could shut 
his eyes to it — but if the man in the shop did not pay 
the " squeeze " which was demanded, the magistrate 
would very soon discover that there was an opium- 
smoking shop there, and the man would be had up and 
severely punished. And now I know for a fact that 
there are more than 1,000 opium-shops in Hang-chau, 
in that one city. 

619. Would you consider that the officials show 
culpable laxity in not enforcing edicts which it is their 
duty to enforce in relation to the practice of opium- 
smoking ? — I am quite sure they do. I believe they 
look upon the opium question — many of the officials 
look upon the opium question — as a means of receiving 
bribes. It is known among the people generally — they 
all say so — that if the people who own the opium shops 
are willing to pay, tliey can keof) the opium shops 
without any difficulty at all, but if they will not pay, 
they are sure to be discovered and punished. 

620. {Sir J. Lyall.) But is there not, nowadays, some 
recognised system of licensing opiurn shops in your 
part of China? — There is ; there is a system of licensing 
the opium shops, bub I do not know what that system 
is. 

621. {Chairman.) What have you to tell us as to the 
sources from which the opium consumed in Hang- 
chau is supplied ; is it mainly from local sources — 
mainly Chinese opium — or is there any considerable 
proportion imported ? — I should think by far the larger 
proportion comes from Shanghai and Ning-po, Indian 
opium. We have not got so great a cultivation of opium 
— of the poppy — round us, as there is in some of the 
interior places. My friend, who has just spoked, lived 
in a place 2,400 miles from the coast, and you can 
easily understand the difficulty of conveying opium 
so far when it is taxed so often ; but Hang-chau is 
near the coast — we are only about 3 days' journey from 
Shanghai — and, therefore, it is easier to get the Indian 
opium, and, of course, if the people can get the Indian 
opium they prefer it ; it is stronger, and they seem to 
like it better. May I add one word with regard 
to the increase of opium smoking? I suppose, up 
to 10 or 12 years ago, I had never seen the poppy 
grown at all. I had never seen such a thing ; but 
when I left China, a few months ago, if I went into 
that district I saw the poppy on all sides; the field 
prepared for the poppy. It is extending there very 
much ; the growth of the native opium. 

622. You wish to say something, I believe, to give us 
your view as to the effect of the alleged connexion of 
the British administration with the opium trade in 
relation to your special work as a missionary ? — With 
regard to that I can only say this, that we hear so 
frequently the remark made by the natives ; when we 
speak to them they say : " Ton have brought us the 
" opium, and therefore we do not want to hear any- 
" thing else ; we do not want anything else from you." 
And, with regard to that hospital which was started 
originally to cure Chinese of smoking opium, I have 
heard them say this : " First of all you bring us opium, 
" and now you start the hospital in order to cure us of 
" smoking it." 

623. Have you any further general statement to 
make ? — With regard to the moral question I should 
like to say a few words. 

f!24. Yes ? — Missionaries are accused of exaggeration ; 
it is said that they exaggerate the evil of opium 
smoking. Well, I must say this with all my heart, 
that I believe it is impossible to exaggerate the evil of 
opium smoking in China. I do not wish to repeat 
what you have heard already from those who have 
spoken this morning ; but I will only say this, that I 
can endorse every word that has been said with regard 
to the dreadful curse that it is to the Chinese peojsle. 
There was a letter in the "Standard" this morning 
which I should like just to make one remark upon. 
Perhaps you have already read it; but there is just one 
sentence I shonld like to read. The writer of this 
letter has been abroad for no less than 35 years, and 
has had great experience, it would seem, amongst 
opium smokers and ethers. He says, " And are the 
" consequences to others as injurious from opium as 
" from alcohol ? The drunken European artizan or 
" labourer returns from his home well-nigh mad from 
" drink; attacks wife and children, and in his fury 
" maims and often kills them. The opium eater or 
" smoker, when he indulges to excess, sleeps off the 
" effect 01 the drug, and though he may injure his own 

F -1 



Rev. A. lilwin. 
13 Sept. 1893. 



48 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Rev. A.F.twin. 



13 Sept. 1893. 



" health, is compiinitivoly harmles.s to others." And 
then lower down he says, "I never saw any person ao 
" affected by the drug as to be dangerous to others" : 
and here I think we ought to remember that although 
it is quite true that the drunken European artizan or 
labourer returns to his home well-nigh mad from 
drink, attacks wife and children, and m his fury maims 
and often kills them, here the opium smoker does what 
I consider is quite as bad, he will sell his wife for gain. 
A man who is a drunkard gets the money, and he 
buys the drink, and then kills his wife ; the opium 
smoker first of all sells his wife — he bogins at the 
other end; he sells his furniture, his children, and 
his wife, and his home ; and when he has disposed of 
them all then he drinks, and has no wife left to kill. 
Of course it nas not the maddening efl'ect ; but still the 
money must bo obtained, and the opium must be 
smoked, everything must go in order that the travijig 
for the opium may bo satisfied. 

02-5. (N/c W. Roberts.) I was much interested in 
what you said about these coolies. You sa}- that after 
working about three hours they wore exhausted, and 
that they had their pipe of opium and revived? — 
Kevived. 

626. Did Ihuynot take a meal at the same time ? — No. 

627. No nourishment at all ? — Very often none at all, 
as I know for a fact. In many of the opium dens where 
I have seen them go in there is nothing to bo had but 
the opium, and I should just like to state here that I 
believe that is the reason why there is so much dis- 
crepancy in the testimony with regard to the effect of 
opium smoking. These poor people (and the great mass 
cf the people are poor) literally live on the opium ; it 
is their meat and their drink, and consequently they 
very soon must come to grief altogether ; they cannot 
stand the strain upon the system. But on the other 
hand we find gentlemen stating that they have known 
people smoke opium for years, and that there has 
Vjeen no ill-efl'ect at all, and I think the reason is not 
far to seek. These people have had food, — good food 
and nourishing food. — and therefore they have been 
able to stand the strain of the opium smoking, and have 
stood it for years, because the good and nourishing food 
has to a great extent counteracted the ill-effects of the 
opium smoking. 

628. These coolies, I undeistand, are stronc^, mus- 
cular fellows ?— They arc strong, muscular men, and 
many of them had been, perhaps, licld labourers or 
farm labourers before they had taken up the special 
work of carrying these loads. 

629. One impression was thiit they are short lived ? — 
Undoubtedly, because they keep ou increasing the 
dose, and they gradually go lower and lower. I have 
seen it. I have known men myself strong, muscular 
men — I have known them lake the first pipe, and 
gradually, year after year, get lower, a.nd weaker and 
weaker, uniil at last they have been good for nothing, 
and when I have wanted a coolie, I have said, " ()n no 
'' account send so-and-so," because I have known the 
man was no good at all, and would only be an hindrance 
instead of a lielji when I was travelling. 

630. I asFume n good many of these coolies will con- 
tinue their opium eating in moderation.'' — I do not 
think so IVom what I have noticed, they increase it. 
The craving is something so terrible— it is something 
so awful — anil a man will take so much in ordei' to 
satisfy the ciaving we will say this month, but next 
month he increases it just a little in ordei' to got more 
enjoyment out ol' it, .ind, to satisfy the craving, will 
daily increase the dose. 1 do not know any such thing 



really as a moderate opium smoker. The dose is 
always, I believe, increased by degrees. 

631. Is that more the case among the lower classes 
than among the more educated classes, do you think ? 
— No, I do not think so. I have seen it among all 
classes — among mandarins, officials, and what are called 
the literati (the scholars), and I believe it is practised 
among all classes. 

6:i2. No; I mean as to the deleterious effect and the 
necessity of increasing the dose .'' — I do not think it 
shows so much where a man has food, ajid nourishing 
food, which to a certain extent counteracts the effect of 
the opium ; but, unfortunately, many of those people 
we have to deal with almost live on the opium. I have 
known many, many men who have I'cally been expend- 
ing half their income on opium. The ordinary rate of 
wage-i (that was in the Chinese money) is 2UU copper cash 
a day ; well, they Avill spend 100 of these copper oa«h in 
opium, and the rest they will spend in food, or iu 
helping their families, as the case may be. 

63;1. I suppose you have not had any opportunity of 
noticing the difference in the 0]iium habit as it affects 
persons of different races ? — No, I have not, but I think 
from, what we read it must have a different effect in 
some parts. A Chinaman we can tell directly hy his 
eyes when he takes the opium, you can toll by the look 
of his eyes and his face — he becomes pale and cnnrci- 
ated. You can always, as a rule, tell the opium 
smoker. Many years ago, when I first went to Chinn, 
it was the gre^otest disgrace to be an opium smoker, 
and to accuse a man of opium smoking was a serious 
thing. Now, if you accuse a man of opium smoking, ho 
simply laughs ; he will not defend the custom, but he 
will laugh and* turn it into a joke. 

634. {Mr. Pease.) You did not mention with what 
missionary organisation you are connected ? — The 
Church Missionary Society. 

635. (Sir J. Lynll.) You say you iiever saw the 
poppy grown in the country which you know till 
about I'J yeais ago P — Ten or 12 years ago, yes. 

636. Do you connect thai growth of the poppy then, 
in that countr}', with any action that our Government 
has taken, or what do you think is the reason ? — 1 think 
undoubtedly if the Chinese in this district had not had 
the Indian opium to begin with they would never have 
needed the native opium. Of course the question of 
gain comes in, because I was told on good authority 
that a man in a certain piece of ground, we will say, 
might get two dollars by growing rice ; he could get 
six dollars by growing opium, and therefore the temp- 
tation to grow opium is so great that the people 
naturally give way to it. 

1137. lint the habit — the opium habit — is of con- 
siderable standing in the countiy, is it not? — Un- 
doubtedly, where we arc this hospital that 1 have 
]-eferred to was originally started by a gentleman giving 
2. DUO/, for that very ]inr]!ese, to stait an opium iel'ugc 
wlnre opium smokers could go and be cured, it was 
opened first of all at Ning-po. but about 20 yeai-s ago 
it wiis removed to Hang-chau, and there it has been 
ever since, and it is out of that opium refuge, or opium 
hospital, that this larger hospital has grown. 

(i38. 'Ihc haliit being of long ttanding, I mean, what 
has happei ed (o enconiage the growth in the last 
10 years? — The numbers of the people now ; tlujc aiu 
so many more smokeis, and of course the native o]iium 
is much cheaper than the Indian opium, and so there is 
a demand for it, and natuially (he people try to ^n])ply 
that demand Ijy growing it. 



The witness withdrew. 



3Ir. M. Wood. 



Mr. Mabcus Wood called in and exaiiuued. 



639. iCIiriirman.) Will you tell ns with what mission 
you are connected, Mr. Wood ? — The Chiiui Inland 
Mission. 

(i'fO. How many year,, have you liceii in China ?-- 
S.ven yi'ars. 

641. And what was the district in wliioh you pre- 
sided ?— P) incipally in the province of Gan-hwuy, in the 
capital city of Gan-king— there for five years ; and 
one year wns spent in Chung-king, the capital — not 
the capital, but the open Treaty pjrt of Si-chuen ; the 
other ye;ir was spent mostly in tiavelling thj-ough 



Ilu-peh, and in taking missionary journeys into Si- 
chuen and Yun-nan, So that through these journeys 
I have passed through several provinces in Central 
China. 

(i-J2. Will you give us your observations with regard 
to the use of opium ; is that a common practice in all 
classes of the community where yon have resided ? — 
Uxccs&ively commnn in all classes with the exception, 
perhaps, of the agricultural districts ; it is not so 
common Iheie as in the large cities and thickly popu- 
lated districts, 



MINUTES OP EVIDENCE. 



643. What would you say as to the effects of the 
opium habit, whether you look at it morally or physi- 
cally ? — I should say most destructive to the consumer, 
both morally and physically, and that in all classes of 
society wherever it is used ; the only difference being, 
as has already been referred to, in the higher classes, 
where one has more opportunity of nourishing the 
system by good food. There it does not tell so quickly, 
but I consider not less really in the long run, only 
longer time may be allowed because of the nourishment 
that is taken. 

644. What do the Chinese say themselves upon the 
subject of opium; what is the state of public opinion 
with regard to this question P — Well, I may say that in 
my seven years' experience of the different pro- 
vinces I have never met any of the Chinese who de- 
fended the practice of opium smoking in any way 
whatever. In fact opium smokers would not them- 
selves defend the practice, but would rather deplore 
that they have been affected by the use of it, and seek 
help from us to break off the habit. So that even the 
smokers themselves will not defend it, having already 
experienced its evil effects upon themselves and 
families ; and those who are non-smokers are frightened 
lest their young people should become addicted to this 
fearful habit, which they look upon with such a terror. 

645. There is a wide difference of view, is there not, 
with reference to the effects of opium? There are 
some who would tell us that though certain tribes and 
races are habitual smokers, still they are well nourished 
and that they have got good physical ability ; and that, 
in fact, there is such a thing as a moderate use of opium, 
which is not injurious as compared with the admitted 
evil effects of excessive consumption. What would you 
say about these statements P — I have seen these state- 
ments in public papers since returning to this country; 
but I must say I have no sympathy with them ; from 
my own experience I cannot endorse them. My 
experience is more like that of the Eev. Mr. Elwin, 
who has just preceded me — I do not consider that 
opium can really be used in the way that has been 
mentioned in these articles ; that is to say, it cannot 
be taken in moderation. It is always increased week 
by week, or month by month, as the case may be, the 
only difference being, as has already been stated, 
that where a person is healthy and able to procure 
good nourishing food, it may not tell so quickly upon 
the constitution, but no less really. I do not consider' 
that opium, can be compared to alcohol in that way. 
In this country we know of thousands, perhaps tens of 
thousands, who may be able to use alcohol without any 
injurious effect, as far as anyone knows. That, at any 
rate, is an open question. But, speaking generally, we 
may say that thousands use alcohol without excess, 
but in China my experience is that the opium cannot be 
used in the same way at all — that as soon as a man 
becomes an habitual opium smoker he increases his 
dose, and whenever he touches it he is obliged to go on, 
xmless he stops immediately. If he allows a month or 
two to elapse, he becomes addicted to the habit, and 
increases the dose as time goes on ; so that I do not 
consider that they can be compared on the same plat- 
form at all. 

646. Will you tell us from what sources the opium 
consumed in your district was chiefly obtained; was 
it obtained from local sources, or was it by impor- 
tation P In the province of Gan-hwuy where I resided 

lono-est five years — it is now a mixed article. Seven 

or eight years ago, when I first went to the country, 
a great deal of Indian opium was used in Gau-hwuy ; 
because, as you notice, it is on the Yangtze river, 
between Hankow and Shanghai— the large Treaty ports 
easily got at. But in recent years, say, within the last 
10 years, the natives of these tracts have taken to 
growing the poppy. When I first went to China, in 
that province there was very little poppy seen any- 
where ; it was very scarce ; indeed you might travel 
through the province and not observe it. But now it is 
a common thing to see the fields covered with the red 
poppy. It is quite common in recent years, and indeed 
the retail merchants are mixing the two articles, the 
native opium, which is the cheaper, and the Indian 
opium, which is the better quality; by mixing the two 
together they make the native opium a little more 
palatable, having the Indian mixed with it.^ 

647. Have you anything to say to us with reference 
to the effect which you consider is brought about by 
the alleged connexion of the British Government with 
the opium traffic, in regard to your own work as 
missionary ?— Well, I may say with the other speakers, 

e 80970. 



that it IS always brought before us whenever^ we are Mr. M. Wood. 

speaking to the natives as being the one thing which 

makes them hate us. I believe there is a hatred tc 18 Sept. 1898, 

Europeans among all the Chinese, as has been seer 

recently in these riots ; but I have great reason to 
believe from my own experience, having passed through 
one of the riots myself in Chung-king, that the natives 
hate us who belong to Britain more because they know 
of our connexion with the opium trade ; and that is one 
great factor in the present hatred of the Chinese to 
Europeans, and especially British subjects, That has 
been my own experience. I simplj give it as evidence. 

648. Can you connect that feeUng of hostility more 
particularly towards the English with the memories of 
the wars of the pastP — Memories of the wars of the 
past, and more particularly the present condition of 
China on account of the use of opium so extensively. 
They credit us with that ; whether rightly or wrongly 
they do not know, many of them. They hear it from 
others, repeat it, and pass it on from one to another ; 
and I would like to say in this connexion that, as a 
missionary, I would make a distinction between the 
reception we have as individuals and as nationalities. 
I should say that the Chinese hate us as a Nation, 
largely because of our connexion with the opium, but 
as. missionaries we are received in many parts more 
hospitably. Aftei' they get to know us individually, 
they distinguish between the missionary and his country. 
That often takes years, in order that they may be able 
to learn that distinction. They look upon us when we 
first arrive in a new town as foreigners ; they find out 
that they have to do with the foreign nation, and they 
do not want us there ; they hate us, and try all they can 
to put us out of the place ; and when these riots take 
place I may say that the common people are very often 
not at all anxious to take part in them, they are 
generally instigated, I think, by the mandarins, the 
the higher officials and the literati. 

649. The riots ? — The riots. In the riot I saw at 
Oh'ung-king, I entirely believe that the common people 
were only too sorry that the missionaries were turned 
out of the station. They were glad to have us there ; 
and they had no reason to disUke us. Personally they 
were our friends ; and it was the literati and the officials 
who wished to see us out of the place. That was 
because they knew least about us. 

650. To sum up your evidence in one short statement, 
I may take it from you that you are here to-day to urge 
that the Government of India should prohibit the 
exportation of opium to China P — Certainly. 

661. Nothing less than that would satisfy your view 
as to what ought to- be done P — No, I see no other way 
out of the difficulty as regards China from a missionary's 
point of view. 

652. (Si/r J. Lyall.) Ton say you see no other way 
out of the difficulty as regards China from a mis- 
sionary's point of view ? — None whatever. 

653. I suppose you mean by that, that you think the 
measure would diminish the hostility of the Chinese to 
the foreigner ? — I think it would be a very great factor 
toward that. I cannot see how it would be otherwise. 
The Chinese would see then that we had some interest 
in their welfare, and were willing to show it by doing 
away with the revenue which we derive from it, as they 
know, in order to give them the opportunity of putting 
down this terrible evil in their own country. 

664. Do you think we should be really able .to 
convince them of that, or do you think that, the Chinese 
mind and intellect being what it is, they would not find 
some other ground for a general hostility towards 
foreigners — do you think they would not find some 
other explanation of our action P — That I cannot say. 
But it seems to me that the most reasonable way of 
looking at it would be that it would suggest itself to 
their minds, knowing as they do the agitation that 
is going on just now in the country about it, they 
would surely say that it was an attempt, at any rate, to 
show that we were desirous of their welfare. 

666. [Mr. Mowhray.) Is it the opium smokers who 
show this hostility to you on account of opium or the 
non-opium smokers P — Both classes ; but I should say 
perhaps the opium smoker first. But I do not know 
that we can very well distinguish. All classes of the 
people seem to hate us, until they get to know us 
individually. As a nation they seem to hate us. 

656. The opium smoker loves the drug, but he hates 
the person who brings the drug P — No ; I should say he 
hates the drug as well as the person who brings it ; but 

G 



50 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Hr. M. Wood. 



lie has become addicted to it to such an extent that he 
cannot give it up. He is in such a position that he 
13 Sept. 1893. hates the drug itself, although ho is clinging to it. 

657. He takes it against his own desire P — He takes 

it against his own desire — his own best inclinations. It 
IS really a habit which he has himself got into, and one 
which he would gladly break away from. I may say, 
as an evidence of this, that we have constantly in our 
Mission stations — daily, I migbt say — tens of men 
coming to us, dozens of men coming to us, asking us 
CO give them something which will break off the opium 
habit; some medicine to counteract it and free them 
from it. In many stations we have opium refuges on 
purpose for receiving these. 

658. I do not know whether you have given us what, 
in your opinion, is the proportion in your own experi- 
ence of smokers and non-smokers P — It is very difficult 
to give any accurate figures in China. My own im- 
pression of Gan-hwuy is, that about 60 per cent of the 
male adult population in the city of G-an-king — a 
capital city — smoke opium. 

659. And you believe that, if the import of Indian 
opium was stopped, that that would really induce the 
Chinese to put down the growth of their own poppy P — 
That is my personal impression. 

660. That, is all I am asking p — I mean to say by 
that, that while there may be much to be said on both 
sides, yet it seems to me that such action on England's 
part would give the opportunity for the Chinaman to 
do as he often says he wants to do, to stop the opium 
habit altogether. He is always saying that, and we can 
only believe what they say until we see what they will 
do. But I think that would be the best opportunity for 
them to act. 

661. (Sir J. Lyitll.) You say that you can only believe 
what they say ; but how is it consistent with any real 
detestation of the habit and condemnation of it, that as 
one of the previous witnesses said, and as I have also 
read elsewhere, it is the common practice for Chinese 
Society to offer every guest who goes into the house a 
pipe of opium p — That is becoming common ; but it has 
not been very common in my part of China. Only three 
or four years ago, no Chinaman was considered a respec- 
table member of society, that is from their own stand- 
point, if he was an opium-smoker at all. It was quite 
a disgrace if he was pointed out as an opium-smoker. 

661a. No gentleman would have liked it to be known 
even though he smoked it p — I cannot say that ; in my 
province I know that custom is greatly on the increase ; 
and, therefore, I consider that it is merely the continual 
use of the drug which is taking away the moral sense of 
the people. They know what is right if they are left 
without the opium, and when the opium becomes such 
a habit, then it demoralizes them to such an extent 
that they do not look at it in the same light. 

662. It is against the Buddhist religion to smoke 
opium ? — It is ; and I would just like to make this 
statement before I retire, that my experience in all the 
provinces I have been in, is that none of the Chinese 
native churches — Christian churches — will admit to 



their membership anyone who touches the opium in 
any shape or form. Whether he grows it, sells it, or 
smokes it, they consider it is a distinct barrier to mem- 
bership in a Christian church — not the missionaries 
but the natives. 

663. Is not that among the Protestants ? — I mean the 
Protestants, yes. 

664. But among the Eoman Catholics it is not a bar, 
is it P — I have no personal experience of that matter. 

665. I have read so in some books ?— Perhaps some 
of the other missionaries might touch upon that point. 
I have not had personal experience enough to say. 
I know that in all Protestant Christians it is so — native 
Christians ; and that without any interference upon the 
part of a missionary ; it is quite spontaneous. 

666. {Si:- W. Boberts.) Might there not be another 
reason why those connected with opium, whether as 
smokers or producers, should not be admitted to the 
Christian churches ; does not the very fact of this 
refusal — is it not intended to be a sort of counter- 
demonstration against the charge that is made that the 
English brought the opium into the country P—No, I 
do not see how it can be that, sir ; because in this way, 
it is always the native Christians themselves who have 
the right of keeping back any one from the member- 
ship of the church. So you see they are altogether 
friendly to the Europeans. 

667. What I mean to say is, would it not be al- 
most necessary for them to take that attitude, other- 
wise if opium smokers were taken into the churches 
they would say, " Oh, here you are ; you encourage the 
" thing; it is here in the churches; as well as by 
" introducing it " ? — Of course iu is essential that they 
should not allow a native to become a member of the 
Christian church for that reason ; and that is, of 
course, taking the highest ground they can take ; the 
native Christians would not consider it right for any- 
one to touch opium who professes to be a Christian ; 
it is altogether contrary to Christian principles because 
it is so harmful. 

668. Tou seem to have travelled through the country 
a great deal in the last six or seven years P — Seven 
years. 

669. Are you a medical man?^ — Not a medical man. 

670. Then you would not, perhaps, form any opinion 
as to whether there was evidence of degeneracy of race 
in China, in the community at large P — From my own 
experience, as non-medical man, I should certainly 
say there is a great deal of evidence. Wherever the 
opium is more grown and more used, there the people 
are far worse physically. 

671. So that you do not think China is awakening, 
but gone to sleep ; that is your impression p — China is 
certainly not awakening. China is becoming more and 
more demoralised as the opium habit increases. That 
is my impression. 

672. That is your strong impression? — That is my 
strong impression. 



The witness withdre^^•. 



Jiev. F. Broum. 



Eev. Fkedbrick Beown called in and examined. 



Jo73. (Glmirman.) You are a missionary of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church Mission, are you notp — Yes. 

674. How many years have you been a missionary in 
China? — lOJ years. 

075. In what districts have you served P — In the pro- 
vinces of Chih-li, and Shan-tung, coast provinces. 

676. Will you tell us briefly what is your experience 
as to the effects of opium on the Chinese consumers, 
whether you look at it from a moral standpoint or the 
physical standpoint ? — I look at it from both stand- 
points as distinctly bad. The moral effect on the 
heathen seems to be to rob them of all that little moral 
sense they seem naturally to have ; and it turns them 
into thieves, liars, fornicators, and it seems to turn 
them into everything that is bad. I speak now espe- 
cially of the heathen. 

677. In what way have you found the alleged action 
of the British Government, or the Government of 
India, with the opium trade, to prejudicially affect your 
work P — I find that I am frequently ashamed of my 
nationality ; during my 10\ years' residence in China 



it has been my privilege to travel extensivel}- in the 
two provinces I have named, and to go over the same 
ground frequently ; and I have often been taunted and 
ashamed of my nationality, bringing the Gospel of 
Jesus in one hand, and in the other hand opium — my 
nation was sending the opium into the provinces in 
which I travelled. The moral effect of opium on our 
native Christians (or the immoral effect) is very marked. 
We have distinctly cases in which we are greatly 
puzzled— we are obliged to excommunicate several each 
year, possibly five or six. I returned to England in 
jMay, and in January one of our native ministers had 
been charged with opium smoking. He had taken it 
to relieve his pain, he had been sent to a most out- 
of-the-way place, and without being able to consult a 
medical man in his illness, had been advised to take a 
whiff of opium. He had done so, and possibly more 
than once. The man became a smoker in his capacity as 
a Christian minister, he was disqualified. He to-day, 
while regretting it more than anyone else probably, is 
not preaching the Gospel, but feels himself morally 
unfit, and the Church feels bound to relieve him of his 



MINUTES OP EVIDENCE. 



51 



office. I give this as an instance of the way in whicla 
we, as Christian missionaries, are afifeoted throngh the 
opium. If you would allow me to speak of the physical 
deterioration, I would mention that I have taken some 
prominent part in famine relief work, and I would 
distinctly state that I have noticed that the opium 
smokers were the first men who seemed to fall under 
the strain of scarcity of food. I would also state that 
the mission with which I am connected is possibly the 
largest educational mission in China. We have colleges 
in four or five different cities, and we find that when the 
son of an opium smoker enters the college, he is really 
unfitted to compete with the sons of non-smoking men. 
I may state that the colleges are not strictly kept for 
the sons of Christians, there is admittance by paying ; 
they get a thorough good Western education. We 
find that we occasionally get opium smokers' sons, 
and they are unfit to endure the ordeal which is placed 
upon them in that place, and frequently withdraw. I 
would also state that I have resided close to the Ex- 
amination Halls in Pekin city, where each year there 
are a large number of graduates go in for the metro- 
politan examination, and men are carried out from the 
Examination Halls, during the time of examination, 
dead, and invariably, when you ask who the man is, 
the reply is, " Oh, he is an opium smoker." No 
smoking is allowed, I understand, in the Examination 
Hall, and he dies under the strain. 

In answer to the last question on the paper which I 
had placed in my hands, as to the effect it had upon 
my work, I would put in three petitions. The native 
Christians knew of my return to England, and as the 
mission with which I am connected is an American 
mission (though I am engaged to travel the district, 
and have full charge of the work in the Shau-tung 
province) our members asked me to bring a petition 
to England, and try to stir up in the minds of the 
English people a feeling on this matter. I represent 
to-day an aggregate of over 1,000 native Christians, 
and i have three petitions here, one representmg 448 
Christians of four different missions, two English and 
two American. I have another representing 600 
Christians in the Shan-tung district, who spon- 
taneously got together and wrote a petition on satin to 
the Qoeon of England. It has seemed impossible to 
present it to the Qaeen. I have shown it often. I have 
translations of the petition, which, if thought advisable, 
I might read in your hearing. 

678. Yes, we shall be prepared to hear it ? — This 
petition distinctly states : — " We the members of the 
" Christian Church in Shan-tung see all around us 
" evidences of the destructiveness of this deadly drug, 
" and desire to see the use of opium suppressed in 
' ' China. Opium has long been the bane of our country, 
" through folly and ignorance many of our people 
" have been taken in the snare. This is no light 
" calamity, opmm slays the smoker, wastes wealth, 
" scatters mothers, renders wives homeless, the nation 
" is impovej'ished, families are destroyed, and very 
" many lives sacrificed. Happily for us the holy 
" religion of Jesus came to China, taught by mission- 
" aries who expounded to us the doctrines of truth, 
" dispersed the cloud of delusion, and helped us to 
" escape from the paths of error, thus it is that we 
" have avoided the sin of the opium smoker. We have 
" established an Anti-Opium Association, and with one 
" accord we pray God, morning and evening, to bring 
" about an end to this calamity. We now with all 
" respect pray the Sovereign of England with her 
" ministers and magistrates mercifully to pity China, 
" whose ignorant and foolish people have suffered the 
" mischief wrought by opium. We also pray all 
" merchants and traders dealing in opium to cease 
" from bringing it to our shores in response to our 
" humble ,cry for our people, our homes, and country, 
" and we will ever remain your grateful petitioners. 
" This favour we natives of China beg at your hands. 
" Signed by native ministers of the Methodist Epis- 
" copal Mission, and eighty leaders of the Church in 
" the Shan-tung District and representing nearly 600 
" Christians. Translated by P. Brown. 

679. The petitioners in that petition seem to assume 
that the great evils of which they speak are due entirely 
to the importation of opium. They do not appear to 
recognise the much larger quantity of it that is supplied 
from local sources ?— I would say that in the provinces 
of Shan-tung and Chih-li, so far as I am able to 
jud^e, the local production is limited compared with 
other provinces. It is nearer the coast, and the foreign 
opium is more accessible. 



680. Would you say taat the foreign opium repre- 
sents the half of the consumption P — I would certainly 
say so. 

681. Is there any other petition that you would like 
to bring before us P — There is another petition here. 

682. Is that numerously signed ? — This represents 
about 300 Christians from the province of Chih-li ; the 
ODher is from the province of Shan-tung. 

683. Would you read us that P — It is signed by the 

native ministers only : — " We the ministers and officers of 

" Methodist Missions sign our names to this petition the 

" begging that measures may be taken to stop the use 

" of opium, and save the Chinese from the ruin which 

" it causes. From the entrance of Christianity into 

" our country many missionaries have been putting 

" forth efforts for the elevation of our people, and we 

" native Christians are striving to copy their example 

" and virtuous deeds. As to tobacco and wine most of 

" our congregations have adopted prohibitory rules 

" after careful discussion. Even non-Christians in 

" many cases gladly yield to exhortation and follow the 

" same rule as the Christians. But as to opium smok- 

" ing it has prevailed for many years, the habit has 

" been formed, and although the craving is less in 

" some cases than in others, yet the mischief wrought 

" is intense and to check it is impossible." (This is a 

" literal translation of their petition.) " Time after 

" time has China's Sovereign and high officers issued 

" prohibitory proclamations. The missionaries with 

" the ministers and laity of Christian congregations 

" have repeatedly exhorted the people on the subject 

" of opium smoking. But opium traders have been 

" eagerly coming and going all the time, rendering it 

" most difficult to eradicate the evil by stopping the 

" supply. The poppy has been grown in China in 

" limited quantities. But the bulk has been coming 

" from India without intermission." (This statement 

will be accounted for by the fact that they grow it in 

limited quantities in this province, in the province of 

Ohih-li). "There is no evil from which Our country 

" suffers that can be compared with this. It is our 

" humble opinion, which we state with all modesty," 

" ' that he. who confers a benefit should first cease to do 

" hurm ' and stop the inflow of evil. The source of 

" mischief should by all means be purified. We take 

" the opportunity of the return to England of Pastor 

" Brown to append our names to this petition and 

" entrust it to his care in the hope that measures may 

" be taken to stop the export of opium from India to 

" China and secure the lasting benefit of our people, 

" whose gratitude will never cease. Here follow the 

" signatures of the chief pastor and 67 ministers and 

"leaders. January 1893." The ministers and leaders 

represent about 300 native Christians. 

684. {8ir W. Roberts.) Have they memorialised their 
own authorities in the same sense ? — No, I am not 
aware that they have. 

685. That would not be safe for them, I suppose ?-— It 
might not be safe for them. Moreover the high official 
Li Hung Chang, the Viceroy of Chih-li, I think has 
distinctly stated that he has not much sympathy with 
the putting down of the growth of opium in China 
while the Indian opium is allowed full sway. That is 
distiotly understood by the natives in both provinces, 
and consequently the English Government get the 
benefit (possibly more than they deserve, but the full 
benefit,) of all that can be said against opium. 

686. (Sir J. Lyall.) Is it a fact that the Chinese 
Christians (converts, you know) are taken in any sense 
under the protection of the European Govemments_ to 
which the missionaries belong ? — That the native 
Christians are taken under the protection of Euro- 
pean Governments ? 

687. To which the missionaries belong P— I am sorry 
to say that in some cases it is so. In other cases it is 
not so, for the missionaries distinctly give the native 
Christians and churches to understand that they will 
not interfere in matters appertaining to the Govern- 
ment — Government cases, law cases. There are ample 
opportunities, but in most cases, I think, they do not 
interfere. 

68b. Sofar as it is the case, is it not alone sufficient 
to account for any hostility on the part of the Chinese 
people, and particularly the Chinese offi^'ials, to 
foreigners ?— To take the native Christians u'zder our 
wing 

68 Yes, the fact of the converiyion of a can makes 
him no longer fully the subject of the Chinese Govern- 

G 2 



Rev.F. Brown. 
13 Sept. 1893. 



52 



INDIAN OltlUM COMMISSION. 



iim. F. Brown, ment ? — If it were so, it certainly would be very macli 

opposed by the heathen. The heathen would look on 

13 Sept. 1893. such a man as half a European, but it is not so in most 

cases. We distinctly give them to understand that we 

do. not interfere with their Government or their law 
oases. A Chinaman becoming a Christian is still a 
Chinaman. 



690. If he is backed by a foreign Grovemment, as it 
were, if he becomes a Christian, he is no longer fully a 



Chinaman P^If he was backed hy 
ment he would not be a Chinaman ; 
do not interfere in their law cases. 



The witness withdrew. 



a foreign Grovern- 
but it is not so, we 



Brigade- 
Surgeon R. 
Ptingle, M.B. 



Brigade-Surgeon E. PBiNaLE, M.D., called in and examined: 



691. {Ohai/rman.) Are you a member of the medical 
profession P — Yes, my Lord. 

692. Ton were in the service of the Grovernment of 
India ? — Tes, Brigade Surgeon. 

693. How long were you in India ? — I served for 30 
years in India. 

694. What parts of India are you acquainted with p 
— Orissa for eight years, two years in Central India, 
and 20 years in the North- West Provinces. 

695. What does your experience convey to you with 
reference to the question which has been committed to 
this Commission — what is your general impression with 
regard to the opium habit, with regard to its effects . 
Take, first of all, the physical condition of those who 
are opium eaters and smokers P — In this re lation I would 
note first of all the medical aspect, and then the 
religious aspect ; the difficulty of the natives doing 
without it, and the possibility of the effect upon the 
people of the withdrawal of it. First of all, the medical 
aspect. As a medicine opium is invaluable when pre- 
scribed medicinally. As a dietetic substance I consider 
it is absolutely unsuited for dietetic purposes. Its 
action on the digestion is such as to remove it entirely 
from the category of dietetics. With reference to the 
febrifuge properties, it is merely febrifuge on the 
principle that it is sudorific and sedative. It relieves 
the system by the skin, and it gives rest and relief 
from pain and sufi'ering, and thus admits of restful 
sleep at night, both as regards malarial rheumatism 
and malarial dysentery. With reference to its effects 
upon the people themselves, I can only say, and say 
it most thankfully, that as regards India, in the dis- 
tricts that I have seen, the effects of it are not visible to 
any extent whatever upon the agricultural population. 
The cases in which the effects of opium are visible are 
those, who, by the habit, have drifted from higher 
into lower positions, and have thus collected in large 
cities, in what might be called the slums, as the dregs 
of the populace. I consider that India as yet is pro- 
tected by its very high moral tone of self-respect from 
becoming victimised by opium. Habitual indulgence 
in opium is so absolutely ooiitrary to any notion of 
self-respect, that I cannot nnderstand any native — any 
respectable native — ever giving way to it without feelini;- 
that he has lost position, lost influence, and lost caste. 

696. You were in the North-West Provinces, you 
say P — -For 20 years, my Lord, as sanitary officer. 

697. That would bring you in contact with the Sikhs, 
would it not p— To a certain extent, but not so much !i.s 
in the Punjab. 

698. Had you anything to do with any of the races 
which consume opium in India p— Yes, as medical 
officer in charge of a native regiment on sei-vioe — in 
a very malarious district ; when their constant request 
to me was for quinine. I prescribed quinine verj' 
largely, but never was once asked for opium ; thougli 
.1 am afraid my demands upon the Store Department 
in Calcutta were so large with reference to quinine 
that I was called upon for an explanation for this 
large expenditure, and the civil officer in charge of 
the expedition stated that the large expenditure of 
quinine was absolutely necessary to maintain the force 
in any efficiency for the hard, long marches in these 
malariotis districts. I consider that opium was 
never suggested as a febrifuge under any condition 
whatever. Of course I prescribed it as a medicine in 
combination with others, but never used it as a febrifuge. 

699. {Sir J. Lyall.) What country was that ex- 
pedition in P — In the hills of Orissa, near Cuttack. 

700. And what were the troops P — The Bengal Native 
--the 53rd Native Infantry. 

701. What province did the sepoys come from ? — 
They came mostly from, Oudh and the North- West 
Pttmnces. Thai was in 1834 and 1855. 



702. (Chairman.) From the evidence that you have 
already given, I suppose I may take it from you that 
you do not hold that opium has had a wide effect in 
bringing about a state of moral degradation in India P — 
I consider that the population, as such, is practi- 
cally untouched by the opium habit, as we see it in the 
villages and in the respectable portion of it. Of cotirse 
I am not alluding to those who are drifting into the 
lowest classes of the people, or who may be found 
collected near coolie depots, or men who, from a good 
strong physique, have fallen under the influence of 
opium, and thus have had to give up their regular work 
as palanquin-lsearers or as workmen. Because, if a man 
once takes to opium, his 1}ime of immunity under 
the influence of opium is merely a question of the power 
of digestion, if that Is seriously interfered with, the 
drug is too apt to supply the place of food, and while 
a man lives under the stimulation of opium, though he 
can carry on a very considerable amount of work, yet 
he gets lower and lower under its stimulating influence 
until the depression comes, when he feels that he prac- 
tically cannot live without it. Those people arc not to 
be met with in villages. Then' is no place in an Indian 
villagi' that I have oxer seen lor a drone. Unless he is 
a wealthy man he must Ije a worker, and if ho ceases to 
^vork ho naturally di'ops <nit of the village or the agri- 
cultural population, and if he has taken at all to opium, 
his position as a respectable man is seriously compro- 
mised ; while if he is engaged in business or trade, his 
habits of honesty, or probity, are compromised ; for 
when a man is described as an opium eater or smoker, 
it is tantamount to saying that he is under influences 
that make him hardly trustworthy, 

703. What do you say with reference to statements 
which have been made by very many to the efi'ect that 
the use of opium in very limited quantities inevitably 
tends to an increase in the iise, and ultimately to an 
abuse, or rather an excessive use, of opium P — On the 
principle, my Lord, that no stimulant of this character 
can be taken without keeping up the quantity — it may 
be increasing the quantity — because the stimulation 
requires more and more of the substance to bring it up 
to a given height, and unless it is up to that height, 
the tendency is to take more to raise it to it, until at 
last too frequently the very drug itself comes to be so 
paramount, that it supplies the place of food, and really 
I can only describe it as the Chinaman does when he 
says that a man lives on opium at first, but ultimately 
opium lives on him. It is astonishing how little a man 
can eat and live upon when he is dependent upon opium. 

701. (Mr. Pfiisc.) You think it is more so with opium 
than Avith alcohol ? — 1 think so. sir ; though on manj- 
pi lints there is no comparison between the two sub- 
stances. When opium is taken, there is a necessity 
for the dose being gradually increased, or completely 
abandoned, half measures are of no use except under 
restraint. If opium is taken as a soporific, and the 
person leads a listless, idle life, he is bound to go on 
increasing the dose to produce sleep, whereas, if he 
leads an active life in the open air and has thus the 
possibility of producing sleep, then under ordinary 
conditions, he may not require quite so much. 

705. (Chairman.) Have you anything else that you 
would like to say in your evidence in chief with refer- 
ence to the moral, or physical, or religious aspects of 
the question P— T would only say, with reference to the 
moral aspect of it, that there is the evidence which has 
Ijecn published -with reference to an inquiry held in 
Calcutta at the Calcutta Medical Society, in which s 
number of native medical gentlemen of position o'avo 
their_ evidence. I want nothing more to supply all 
that is necessaiy for the immorality connected with the 
smoking ol' opium than is supplied by this report of 
the Calcutta Medical Society. 

706. Has that evidence been published P— Yes my 
Lbi'd, I have a coWy Of it here. 



'MtNto*rE'S'0# 'Eta)-ET<!&!^.' 



53 



'V07. Will you sho* it to us ?— Certainly I can leave 
this mtli your LordsUp. I have no evidence that I 
could wish to give, with reference to the immorality of 
the opium habit, of greater value than that document. 
The recorded inspection of these opium dens illus- 
trates the whole secret of the immoral conditions 
Qonneoted with opium-smoking. There is not a den, 
for iustance, visited by Dr. Crombie in which there 
was not one woman, and the whole point rests upon 
that. The presence of that woman was expressly for 
sensual purposes, and the way in which this evidence 
is given, as I wrote to Dr. Orombie, illustrated the 
sensual action of the drug by the woman who was 
present in every one of the opium dens that you 
visited, and by the statement of some of the native 
medical men, who stated that none but the lowest 
people, — those who are lost to moral considerations — 
indulge in smoking opium in those dens, in short that 
it was a sign of moral depravity. As regards its being 
taken in fever districts in small doses, I consider that 
any one who habitually indulges in opium in small 
doses in fever districts, instead of its giving him some 
protection from the disease, absolutely produces a ten- 
dency to fever. I should consider that if any man went, 
for instance, into a malarious district, and took small 
qusintitjes of opium to such an extent as to interfere 
with the digestion, no matter how small these doses 
were, it would render him liable to fever instead of 
preventing it, because fever, in all malarious districts, 
is generally primarily connected with biliary derange- 
ment, and the action of opium on the biliary secretion 
is, as we know, very remarkable, and, unless care is 
taken, the constipation that results from taking opium 
is such as to produce very considerable biliary derange- 
ment, frequently ending in inflammation of the liver, 
and abscesses or dysentery. But I consider that the 
necessity of opium as a medicine is so great that I 
would not on any account wish it to be understood 
that I am saying a single word against irhat is strictly 
medicinal in its properties and uses. 

708. Is there anything that you would like to say to 
li? with reference to the attitiide of the Govei'nment of 
India in relation to' the opium trade ?— My Lord, as a 
G-overnment servant, and one who served the late Honour- 
able East India Company, I can only say that I consider 
the Velation which the Government bears to this opium 
' trade' is so entirely opposed to all that I have felt the 
GoV'ernmeht has doh'e for that country, where its one 
eHbi-t has been to materially improve it, and to raise 
it, that I feel bound in justice, as I love the people and 
1 love my country, to lift my voice against it. I 
know the effect that it produces on the natives, 
this opium and liquor trafiic. It has led to the most 
mistaken ideas regarding the aim that we have 
in view with reference to our presence in India. It 
is so apt to lead them to suppose that we are there 
for little or no other purpose than for making money, 
than which, nothing could possibly be further from 
the real aim and object, I believe as a Government 
servant, of the Government in India as it stands at 
present. I have known it and seen it, and I consider 
that there is no Government that the world has ever 
known in which the handful has ruled the thousands 
in the way it has. I know what the natives think 
of it themselves ; they have spoken very fully and 
freely to me as a medical man, and if this blot, and 
the excess to which the liquor traffic is carried, were 
removed, I know of no great State movement which 
would show the people more powerfully or clearly that 
the one desire of the Government is for their ultimate 
good. I know there are those who say that to interfere 
with the habits of the natives as regards opium would 
be most dangerous as regards the public safety. I can 
only say, in opposition to this, that I have seen perhaps 
the most inquisitorial orders that ever were laid down 
by a Government, especially with reference to a 
Government like that of India, in a strange land, among 
people who have such remarkable notions about the 
privacy of their houses (I allude to the orders with 
reference to female infanticide carried out without any 
disturbance in the Agra and Meerut Divisions for 20 
years), I know the way that this order was carried 
out, and nothing but the absolute assurance that the 
Government really meant it for the good of the people 
would ever have permitted such an inquisitorial act to 
be carried out without ' the most serious complications 
from men who resent any interference with their home 
life but who really feel in this case, that when the 
Government entrusted into the hands of underpaid and 
low cUstb people tbis very important dnty with reference 
to the bims of females in their houses the Govetament 



were doing it for a good reason and with a good object 
in view, and without a single word of complaint. 
I know it was carried out in districts where, to give 
an idea of the suspicious character of the people, when 
I was starting vaccination, they brought up girls to 
be vaccinated, because they believed it would kill them, 
and their death would lie at my door, but, when they 
found it to be the reverse, they kept back the girls, 
in the hope that they would die from small-pox and 
no further questions asked. This is a fact that I placed 
upon record, and it is in an official report. There is 
one other point which I would like to say with refer- 
ence to the great question of withholding opium from 
those who have been in the habit of taking it. I feel 
that this is a far more serious question than it is at first 
supposed to be or we are apt to view it. Withholding 
opium from an opium-eater or an opium-smoker is 
a very, very serious step if the habit has gone to a 
certain extent. Unlike the alcoholic craving, i.e. it is a 
craving of intense pain — of intense agony — and the 
relief that is given has to be seen to be believed. To 
see a poor creature writhing in pain and agony — then 
just a few whiffs of his opium, or a small injection of 
morphia — to see him come into the room again as if 
really nothing had happened to him — just shows that 
the craving is a craving that, in all efforts to stop 
indulgence in opium, must not be lost sight of. Indeed 
this is proved absolutely with reference to Burmah, 
where the orders of the Government have been that 
for those who cannot give up the habit entirely and 
at once, if, giving it up it would be dangerous to 
their health, a register should be kept, and that 
they are allowed to have a certain amount of opium 
given to them. Now that establishes in my opinion, 
my Lord, the great point that there must be a very 
serious mistake when people suppose that the opium 
can be withdrawn easily frOm those who are confirmed 
opium-eaters or opium-smokers, in the case of those 
who to a certain extent may be almost dependent upon 
this drug for their very existence. This action of the 
opium is seen in a remarkable manner among those 
who are ill-fed, and live in malarious districts, where 
it seems to hold diarrhoea and dysentery in check, 
and when it is removed their conditions assert their 
sway and the patient is rapidly carried off. I would 
only, with reference to this point, allude to an article 
which appeared in the "Lancet" regarding the with- 
drawal of opium. 

709. Written by whom P— By Dr. Mouat. 

710. When did this article appear P — It appeared, my 
Lord,, in the " Lancet " of April 30, 1892. This is my 
reply to the article in question, taken from the 
" Lancet " of September 10, 1892. Dr. Mouat's letter 
was of such very great importance, that a medical man, 
whose letter I hold in my hand, points out that these state- 
ments, viz., the ease and safety with which opium can 
be withheld from prisoners, and the fact that no deaths 
are due to the opium habit, must be met by facts, and 
not be attacked by any vague statements, but by un- 
questionable data. I therefore went and examined all 
Dr. Mouat's Jail Beports in the India Office here, and 
have extracted portions of them, which are in that little 
pamphlet I place before your Lordship. My letter 
produced the " Eejoiiider" fiom Dr. Mouat, but the 
"Lancet" declined to publish my letter in reply, 
dated October 18, 1892, a copy of which, in pamphlet 
form, I beg to submit, as there is a paragraph in Dr. 
Mouat's " Rejoinder," which was of importance, because 
Dr. Mouat was under the impression (entirely mistaken) 
that my knowledge of the effects of opium on the 
prisoners was drawn from the jails of Cuttack and Poreee 
in Orissa, whereas in reality it is the outcome' of the 
whole of my knowledge of jail management, gathered 
in a very careful inspection as the sanitary officer of 
two of the largest divisions in the North- West Pro- 
vinces, when I had the opportunity of inspecting the 
jails and was in medical charge of the largest jail in 
India myself, the Agra Central Prison, until I took 
the jail fever and had to be relieved and another officer 
appointed in my place. I feel that it is necessary 
to state this, so that the Commission may have the 
entire correspondence on this most crucial subject. 
Further, I feel that statements with reference to jails 
in India, to my knowledge, require to be most carefully 

received, when we consider, as Dr. Mouat himself 
fully admits, the character of the subordinate native 
officials connected with the jails, and the tendency to 
receive money from friends outside is such that those 
of us who have seen much of jail management are sadly 
aware that the treatment a prisoner receives in a jail 

G 3 



Brigade- 
Surgeon R. 
Pringle, M.l). 

13 Sept. 1893. 



51 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Brigade- 
Surgeon It. 
Pringle, M.D. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



depends a great deal upon the wealth of hlB relatives 
outside. To such an extent was this carried out in a 
model jail in the North- West Profinces. 

711. I am afraid we must not go too much into that P 
— But it is with reference to the withholding of any 
luxury. For if we say that opium cannot be admitted 
into a jail, I very much fear that that must be most 
carefully safeguarded, with reference to ihe very great 
difficulty in carrying out this order as Dr. Mouat 
has clearly shown in his own report. I will, how- 
ever, not allude to that further ; and with reference 
to what one reads regarding the apparent harmless- 
ness of opium smoking, and some of the pictures 
that are exhibited of opium smokers in health and 
strength, would only take the case of the lascars, 
the native seamen, regarding whom I have here a 
sketch. This, my Lord, is the sketch of the native 
seamen, the lascars, taken from the "Daily Graphic." 
Now, to look at these men one would suppose that 
they were in excellent health, and that they were at 
all events not victims to the opium habit. I do not say 
that these men are victims to the opium habit. On the 
contrary, anyone who goes and sees the haunts of these 
lascars knows at once that in this country, when they 
stop at a port, it is then alone that they indulge in this 
habit of opium smoking. Bat I fear there is little 
doubt that many of them not only smoke it on shore, 
but eat it at sea. On one occasion a gentleman, whose 
name I can give — for I hold his letter in my hand 
— stated that when he was in command of a vessel 
sailing up the Eed Sea, on one occasion when they 
got on the rocks, it was found out that the lascars 
were in snch a state, under the influence of opiura, 
that it was fortunate that the rising tide took his ship 
off the rocks as he had very little to hope for from his 
men. As long as the opium habit is kept within 
bounds, as I am thankful to say it is yet in India, — 
by outward respectability — no man being willing to be 
caught under the influence of it, or suddenly to be 
called up to do anything, and to feel_ that he is not 
ready to do it, the habit cannot be said to be visibly 
deleterious. But, it is to that fear, and, above all, the 
great self-respect which I am bound to say still remains in 
India, as far as my experience goes, both among the 
agricultural and the upper clas.ses, that the freedom 
from this habit is to be traced. I am aware there are 
difficulties as regards Kajputana, but not having served 
there I will only speak of what I really know in 
reference to this. The only instance in which I can 
remember of any natives, of the better class connected 
with agriculture, being addicted to opium, was in two 
districts in the Meerut Division, and I found this oat 
by their being in their villages at a time of the day 
when men should be out busily at their work, and these 
men were indulging in opium. The way the natives 
alluded to it to me was (in an undertone), when they said 
"lam afraid they are indulging in opium." Kow, if 
there is any other point upon which I can give the 
(Commission any further information, I am ready to do 
so, as my one object — and I would wish, my Lord, 
it to bo stated — as a Government officer, in taking 
the part that I now am taking, and have done, is that 
I plead for India. It is possiljle to stop and to reduce 
the temptation to indulge in opium now, as I know it 
was to indulge in drink, if the facilities for taking it are 
removed. 

712. Tour statement wo fai' has curried us to this — 
that the opium habit is not by any moans universally, 
or I \vill even say generally, prevalent in India? — 
Certainly not. 

71.3. But whore that opium haljit has taken possession 
of an individual it generally goes beyond the moderate 
iise and with very injurious and fatal consequences. 
You have given a general statement to the efl'ect that 
you feel regrcL that the opium trade has received a 
certain amount of countenance from the Govirmiient of 
India. The point I should like to interrogate you upon 
would be with reference Lo any proposals that you have 
to make of a practical nature, with reference to a 
change in the mode of dealing with the opium trade on 
the part of the Govei'nment of India. Have you any- 
thing to suggest on that ]X)int ? — I could suggest that 
the opium be used and cultiAated, and its cultivation 
alone permitted for medicinal purposes, as can be done 
under the 'supervision of Government, in much the 
same way that other drugs are cultivated at the Sahar- 
anpur Botanical Gardens, for medicinal purposes also. 

714. Do you consider that such a regulation as you 
propose would be favourably received by the people of 
India? — I have no hesitation in taying, that as long as 



it is done with due consideration .for those who may 
have come under the influence of the drug, and are 
really its victims, this is quite possible ; for the rest, as 
far as my experience goes, I have seen very very few 
natives from whom the drug could not be withheld with 
perfect safety. That is to say, they are not such victims 
to it as to make them liable to risk their lives by 
this withdrawal. Of course I am only alluding to 
those whom one meets with in ordinary gociety, and 
certainly not those who have drifted into the dregs of 
society through inability to work. 

715. (Sir J. Lyall.) I did not quite understand what 
you said about stopping opium in jails — preventing 
people who are addicted to opium from using it in jails. 
Was it your custom when you were in charge of a jail 
to stop it altogether ? — With reference to that, as the 
question has been put, I would say that Dr. Mouat — 

716. I ask your practice, sir ? — Dr. Mouat — 

717. I do not ask anything about Dr. Mouat. I ask, 
please, what was your practice when you had charge of 
a jail ? — I was in charge of a jail, and my practice was to 
act up to the orders I received from my superior officer 
— Dr. Mouat — and I certainly withheld opium from 
every case, taking care that there were no serious risks 
incurred. I did that in the first years of my service in 
India, but I lived long enough in India to know that 
while I might withhold it, I would be very sorry to 
draw any conclusion upon the supposition that no 
opium finds its way into the jail, and that I was draw- 
ing conclusions upon absolute fact instead of knowing 
that it was possible that the wealthy could obtain opium 
if they were prepared to pay for it. 

718. But I believe the general practice is to dole it 
out in very small quantities to confirmed opium- 
smokers, and not to allow it at all to other people in 
jails ? — Certainly, if there is any risk to life, opium is 
given to those cases alone. 

719. As a rule, do you not think there would be any 
risk to life ; it must be only in a case of very excessive 
use of opium, where a man has lost his appetite for 
everything else ; it would be only in a case of that 
kind, I fancy, that there would be absolute risk to life. 
There would be great suffering, but there would not be 
risk to life, I think P — Well, I may say that in this 
paper (my letter in the " Lancet," of September 10th, 
1892), you will see quotations from Government reports 
in which the following occurs : — Seebsaugur, Assam, 
1862, " The sickness and mortality had increased 
" during the year. Nearly all the deaths were from 
" dysentery in worn out opium-eaters." The whole of 
these details are carefully given here." 

720. That is not exactly an answer to my question. 
My question was, is it not the general idea among the 
medical profession in India, who have to deal with it as 
officers in charge of jails, that you can stop the use of 
opium without danger to life except in cases of very 
aggravated opium-eating, where a man comes into the 
jail already in a very low condition from the opium- 
eating habit P — Certainly. 

721. In other cases you could stop it P — Certainly, in 
other cases you could stop it ; but of course everything 
will depend upon the state of the man's health at the 
time. If ho has a tendency to dysentery or diarrhoea, 
to stop the opium would simply be to expedite the fatal 
termination. 

722. Ton have said that in your opinion opium-eating 
was inconsistent with self-respect among all Indians ; 
did you say as much as that p — Yea. 

723. How do you make that agree with the extensive 
prevalence of the opium-eating habit amongst all 
Rajputs in Eajputana P — I make it agree in this way — 
that I can remember when it was a sign of the greatest 
disreputability for anyone to drink spirits, but it has 
got to be so common lately that it has ceased to be dis- 
reputable by so many taking it now, and so opium-eating 
has almost assumed a species of respectability among 
the Rajputs. The difficulty, I think, is this, that as all 
take it, it is difficult foi- ajiyone to stand out alone ; but 
it must be remembered that it is against their religion, 
and it is aij.iiust the religion of any Mohammedan to 
take any opium or alcohol, or anything which intoxi- 
cates; and it is equally against his religion, to take 
little or much, as it is to take any at all. 

724. Is it not the case that though they may think 
opium eating, to a certain extent, inconsistent with 
self-respect, they consider spirit drinking much more 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



55 



inconBiBtent with self-respect ?— On the principle that 
one shows disreputability outside and the other can be 
kept quietly in the house. 

725. You talked about our G-overnment encouraging 
opium and liquor, and of the fact being a public 
reproach to us in India. Do you happen to know what 
the prices of opium and liquor were when you first 
landed in India, and what the difference was when you 

left : you landed in India how many years ago P 

1854. 

726. Have you any idea what the difference in price 
is ? — I am afraid 1 could not answer that ; but I think 
I could answer the question by telling you how the 
liquor-shops were placed when I went to India, and how 
they were placed when I left India. 

727. That is another thing; for instance, I can 
remember a time when any part of India (the India 
that I knew) spirits were to be got at about an anna 
and a half a bottle. For many years past you cannot 
get it for less than about 12 annas or one rupee ? — It is 
less than that in the North-West Provinces. 

728. But has not the tendency been always to increase 
the price, both of opium and of spirits since you have 
been in the country? — Certainly; and that has led 
to the addition of drags to produce intoxication, which 
is the sole object that any native has for taking liquor 
at all, for as for taking it in the light of anyone taking 
liquor in this country, there is no such habit in India 
at all. A man only takes drink to be drunken ; and he 
will bargain to be made drunk, a,nd a careful addition 
of ganja will expedite this. The man has paid for the 
drunkenness to be produced, and this is done by pre- 
viously adding ganja to the liquor presented for sale. 

729. Is not that an argument that if you stop one 
door there you must stop all ; that is if you stopped 
opium, for instance, you must stop spirits too ? — I am 
very glad to say that I believe that entirely, and have 
done my best to carry it out ; and I reported that liquor 
shops were put alongside the wells on the roadside, 
and I am glad to say it has been put a stop to. Liquor 
shops were put alongside the manufactories, and that 
also has been put a stop to. I do not suppose that 
any legislation will ever make a man give it up ; but 
what I am anxious to see is that we will not do anything 
to tempt them to take it, and it would be the same with 
the opium. If a man can buy opium much as he would 
any other vegetable produced, excepting the license 
and quantity, he naturally concludes that the G-overn- 
ment does not view it in the same light as they do it 
here, and they know now perfectly well, and many of 
them say, " Oh ! it is a poison in England, and it is not 
" a poison here." They see the distinction. Every 
person cannot get opium here ; to say that it is to be 
got quite easily is a mistake. I know of a case the 
other day in which a girl took spirits of salt for 
suicidal purposes ; but she had applied first at a 
chemist's with money to buy laudanum, and it would 
not be sold to her. That I know for a fact. 

730. On the other hand, ordinarily speaking, there is 
nothing to prevent anybody getting laudanum or opium 
at a druggist's, if he wants to get it, unless there is 
some suspicion that he is going to use it to poison him- 
self with it? — They must be known— every druggist 
knows, and they can tell, for they know who are in the 
habit of taking it. When I was in the Fens making 
inquiry regarding it, I found out it goes into the dis- 
tricts in carriers carts. Also that though the malaria 
has nearly ceased, the opium habit is far from un- 
common. And with reference to that point, my Lord, 
I would wish to say that Orissa is a very remarkable 
illustration of the effects of famine in the district. I 
can remember Orissa in 1854 and the eight years after 
that, and I must say that I was under the impression that 
they were then not under the influence of opium at all ; 
from what I have heard lately. At the meeting at the 
Society of Arts, it was stated that when the famine 
was present, indulgence in opium took great strides. 
That, I can quite understand, was due to the desire of 
the natives to take the drug to allay the pangs of hunger. 
With reference to any difference as regards races, I may 
say that during the whole of my service in India I have 
seen no difference as regards the effect of opium upon 
one race as differing from another. The whole difference 
really lies in the facilities that a person has for indul- 
gence in the opium, and the opportunities of leisure If 
he is hard at labour from morning till night, he knows 
perfectly well that to indulge in opium is to risk that 
hard labour, and that therefore has kept him clear, and I 
have little doubt that the difference in the action of the 



opium in Burma differing from Orissa is really due to Brigade 
some cause like that— not that there is anything in the Surgeon B. 
Burman that would make him different physically. I am Pringle, M.D. 
not prepared to say morally — but the question is the 
opportunity and the leisure that is available to indulge .l^sept, 1893. 
in that which is a stimulant, because where I have seen 
those indulging in it, it was a habit of idleness, and the 
hard-working ryot of the North- Western Provinces has 
no time for idleness. He has to work hard, and he is, 
therefore, perf ei^tly f ree from it. 

731. Ton said you were two years in Central India, I 
think ? — In G-walior, yes. 

732. That is not a large opium-using district ? — Not 
as I saw it in a large military cantonment. 

733. {Mr. Tease.) Do you say that there is no drag 
or medicine that can be given to these confirmed opium 
smokers which will cure them of the habit, that when 
they are confirmed opium smokers it is necessary to 
continue to give them a certain amount of it to preserve 
their lives ? — I am afraid it is absolutely necessary in 
cases in which there is a susceptibility to diarrhoea or 
dysentery, which is only kept in check by the action of 
opium. 

734. Tou have had soine experience of the effects of 
opium I believe among the soldiers — would you give us 
the benefit of that experience? — No, I have not among 
the European soldiers. 

735. Among the Sikh and Eajput soldiers ? — Among 
them the only effect that I have seen, is that a 
man is very carefully watched by his comrades and 
by his superior native officers to know if he is one 
who indulges in opium, because it is possible that in 
times of trust, and in times of responsibility he may, 
practically unintentionally, from the craving coming on, 
place himself in a position in which his want of vigi- 
lance may be of serious consequence. Any man, or any 
regiment of men, (with reference to the question which 
has been put to me) who are dependent upon opium 
for sustaining their physique, are, in my opinion, my 
Lord, absolutely useless in the case of a great struggle. 

736. [Sir J. Lyall.) Tou have not served, I think, 
with a Sikh regiment ? — I have not served with a Sikh 
regiment. 

737. And in the regiment you did serve with I think 
the men did not belong to a race which was in the habit 
of taking opium ? — Opium was grown in those districts. 

738. But it appears very few of them took opium P — 
40 or 30 years ago in India opium was grown up in 
the north-west, and many of these Sepoys were re- 
cruited in the north-west ; and the experience of all 
who have served in districts where the opium is 
grown is that where opium is grown the tendency is 
to use it, and that is one of the reasons why the natives 
refuse to accept the money advanced, which is after all 
the point with regard to the cultivation of opium in 
India. Take away the money advances, and my experi- 
ence in the North-West Provinces is that the native will 
not cultivate the poppy ; it is too risky for the morality 
of his household, and it subjects him to the opium 
poppy search, which is a very powerful organ of oppres- 
sion in the hands of under-paid officials. 

739. No doubt money advance is an inducement to 
most of these cultivators ; if they do not get an advance 
from Government, they get an advance from a native 
merchant, do they not ? — I am sorry to say that nearly 
the whole of the cultivation of the Agra and Meerut 
Divisions is on advances. But then when the lender 
advances he takes it in kind, and is paid back from the 
crop ; the natives, in their advances for poppy cultiva- 
tion, receive not only large, but favourable advances. It 
may be under such favourable circumstances, that it is 
probable it is the money-lender who compels the ryot, 
in his state of impecuniosity, to accept this money 
advance to pay off his debts. But I know that in three 
districts, the Agra, the Muttra, and the Aligarh districts , 
the cultivators resolutely refused all advances to 
cultivate poppy ; and yet these were the three districts 
decimated to my knowledge (for I was in the districts 
more than once) with a fatal type of fever. So decimated 
were these districts that the population fell very con- 
siderably in the 10 years from this malarial f§ver 
due to the irrigation ; and yet if there was anything 
that would lead a native to take opium as a febrifuge, 
these men had every excuse for cultivating the poppy 
for the sake of keeping back a little for their own use 
as a protection against fever. 

740. (Mr. Mowhray.) When you propose to prohibit 
the growth of opium except for medicinal purposes, 

a 4 



56 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Brigade- 
Surgeon R. 
Pringle, M.D. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



do you regard it as a medicinal purpose to supply it in 
small quantities to those who have previously used it, 
and who could not do without it? — Only to prevent a 
fatal issue. I should only be justified in giving opium 
to prevent what I felt must be a fatal issue if the drug 
was entirely withdrawn. 

74.1. Ton do not think that anything of the Burmese 
system of having a register of those who have been in 
the habit of using opium should be introduced p — That 
may be necessary. But in the districts in which I have 
served I am glad to say that it certainly is not at all 
necessary, as far as my observation and experience 
go- 

742. {Sir W. Boberts.) I gathered from you that you 
looked upon the habitual use of opium very much 
as we look upon an habitual drunkard ? — I am afraid 
I must have been misunderstood, for I see no point of 
comparison as regards India, except that indulgence in 
both is considered a disreputable habit. 

743. Well, in that respect, as we regard a drunkard 
here as being a disgrace, there is no opium smoker who 
is not a disgrace in India P — JSTo. 

744. That is your impression P — Yes ; that is my 
view. 

745. So that the habitual use of opium in India is not 
at all like our habitual use of alcoholic beverages P — 
Am I to understand, sir, "habitual," without excess of 
indulgence P 

746. Tesp — There is no such thing as habitual in- 
dulgence in alcohol in India, and anyone taking 
habitually to opium does it with the knowledge that he 
is jeopardising his position for respectability unless he 
is willing to be classed among people who have ver}' 
little respectability to lose. 

747. There is another point about the inferiority of 
opium as a febrifuge or prophylactic. Is it n possible 



suggestion on your part that quinine might be supplied 
to these malarial districts by the Government and 
diminish in that way their reliance upon opium ? — I am 
very glad, sii-, you have alluded to that, because that is 
exactly the point on which I feel that the action of the 
Grovernment deserves the greatest credit with reference 
to the outbreak of malaria over the portions of the North- 
West Provinces, when Sir John Strachey was Governor. 
It was my privilege to distribute large quautities of 
preparations of cinchona gratuitously, and 1 have no 
hesitation in saying the credit and the benefit conferred 
by that was such as really to put any substance like 
opium being given as a substitute perfectly out of the 
question. 

748. That was during an epidemic? — Dui-ing a very 
fatal epidemic of malarial fever more than once. 

749. But where there is no special epidemic in these 
malarial districts is it possible that a supply of quinine 
could be placed at the disposal of the population ? — I 
think, sir, it is not only possible, but perfectly practic- 
able, with quinine at its present price. It is now 
reduced to nearly a rupee an ounce, and when I went to 
India it was sixteen. 

750. (Sir J. Lyall.) Quinine has lately been given in 
the Punjab ; we have provided largo quantities of 
quinine in certain malarial districts P — Aid given at 
the very cheapest rates so as to encourage its being 
taken. If that were done, I think it would remove 
opium absolutely out of any possible category, either as 
a febrifuge or as a prophylactic ; and there is room for 
a largely increased cultivation of cinchona, as I am told 
that in Ceylon it does not pay almost to cultivate 
cinchona, and if it does not pay to cultivate cinchona 
there, it would certainly pay the Government with re- 
ference to these malarial tracts where quinine is such a 
marvellous specific for fever, and the natives have such 
perfect confidence in it. 



The witness withdre 



Rev. W. S. 

S wanton, 

V.D. 



Rev. W. S. SwANSox, D.D., called and examined. 



751. (Chairman.) I understand that you have been in 
China in connexion with Presbyterian missions, and 
you were educated at a Scotch university, I believe ? 
— The University of Edinburgh. 

76'2. Ton have probably heard some of the previous 
witnesses ? — I have. 

753. Therefore you know the nature of the statements 
to us, and it is not necessary to repeat in full what has 
already been said. The great point is, that you with 
your authority, and with your experience, are here to 
confirm, in so far as you feel justified in doing so, what 
has already been stated ; and of course if there are any 
new points you will add them. How long were you in 
China ? — Over 20 years. 

754. And in what parts of China ? — lu the southei-n 
part of the province of Puh-kien. 

755. Is that a province in which opium was grown 
in any quantities P^Por 20 years of my life there, I 
never saw a poppy grown in the whole district. I 
used to go some 70 or 80 miles to the north of the city 
of Amoy, and 1 50 miles to the \\est, and about 60 or 70 
miles to the south, and in the last year of my I'esidence 
there I did see poppies grown. 

756. When did you leave China?— In 1881. 

7">7. Well, do you confirm fl-hat you heard said by 
the several n-iti lesses with reference to the physical , moral , 
and social effects of the opium hal^itp — I do most 
fully. 

758. And what are the opinions of the people in 
China themselves on the opium habit? — I have mixed 
with all classes of the people, my Lord, and I have 
never found a single Chinaman or a Chinese woman 
that did not say that opium was evil, and only evil, 
and that continually. I am thoroughly acquainted 
with the language of the people and have made myself 
acquainted with the conditions of their family and of 
their social life, and we often get the opinion of the 
people of China in a rhythmical couplet or triplet, and 
tnere is one rhythmical couplet that I may quote : " The 
'• man who smokes opium begins by seUiug his bed- 
'■ stead ; he ends by selling his rice - bowl, and his 
" chop-sticks, and then the two legs of him run away 
" with one stomach." Between these extremes eveiy- 
thing that a man has goes — house, lands, wives, 



children ; and I have again and again heard mothers 
say that when one of their sons begins to smoke opium, 
so far as they were concerned, he was dead to them. I 
have never heard any but one opinion ; but I am bound 
to say this, that so far as my own Government is con- 
cerned, it has done nothing in China except what was a 
blessing to it, except in this one particular, and I am 
perfectly certain that, if this blot were taken away 
from us, we would have the Chinese people with a 
friendly feeling to Great Britain that that people possess 
to no other European country. 

759. What action would you desire that the Indian 
Government would take with reference to the opium 
trade ? — The entire suppression of the export of opium 
to China. 

760. If that recommendation of yours could by possi- 
bility be adopted, what eff'ect do you think it would 
have upon the attitude of the Ohiuese Government ?— 
So far as the Chinese Government now is concerned, 
I should not like to say very much ; but if you had 
asked me 20 years ago, I would have said vrithout 
fail that the Chinese Government would have taken 
steps to put an end to the trade in their own country. 
I think even yet it is worth the trial ; and it would 
do two things, it would ^c-t us right— the British 
Government — in the eyes of the Chinese people, and, 
in the second place, I think that the moral efCect of it 
would be such as to force the Chinese Government to 
take some steps to protect their own people, because 
they know perfectly well, that so far as there is any 
public opinion in China, it is entirely and totally against 
the use of opium, and that those who are strongest 
in this opinion are victims of the habit. 

761. Have you reason to apprehend that at the-pre- 
seut time there is great laxity on the part , of the 
Chinese Government and their ofiicials in regard to 
the enforcement of rules and regulations limiting or 
prohibiting the use of opium ?— I really could not say 
anything very definitely upon that point, but I can say 
definitely upon another point which bears upon it, that 
those ofiicials say: " What is the use of us doing' any- 
'■ thing ; what is the use of us doing anything here so long 

as we are compelled to receive this large import of 
^^' opium from India P Stop that, and then we will do 

something ; but what is the use of us doing anything 
" so long as that is pressed upon us p " 



MINUTES OF EVIBENCE. 



57 



762. They are no longer entitled to say that they are 
compelled to receive the opium P — I do not consider, 
my Lord, that they are free in any way. If the pro- 
visions of the Che-foo Convention are not carried out, 
then we fall back upon the old treaty. That is the 
position so far as I can apprehend it. 

763. Tou are aware that Sir James Fergusson has 
disavowed, on the part of the Government, any inten- 
tion to use pressure on the part of the British Govern- 
ment to impose the consumption of opium upon the 
Chinese P — "Pressure" is a word with a very wide 
meaning. There are several kinds of pressure. I flo 
not believe that there might be military pressure, but 
there is another kind of pressure. 

764. Tou know what the state of public opinion in 
this country is on the subject, do you not ?— I do know ; 
but I do not think that it is thoroughly awakened on 
the subject. 

765. {{Mr. Pease.) Have you ever heard the Chinese 
defend the practice? — I have never heard a single 
Chinaman, so far as Chinese Christians or heathens are 
concerned, defend the practice. Every single one of 
them condemns it ; and I may mention for the infor- 
mation of the Commission, that about 12 months ago 
the Pope sent out a rescript to the Catholic Missionaries 
enjoining them to condone in no wise the participation 
of their Chinese converts in the opium habit. 

766. {Sir J. Lyall.) How do you explain this growing 
prevalence of the habit accompanied by a general 
condemnation and detestation of it ? — ^To the weakness 
of human nature — that is the way in which I explain 
it. 

767. Is Chinese human nature especially weak p — It is 
epecially weak on the point of opium. 

768. In your experience of China, did you see any 
spirit drinking— dram drinking? — I have known of 
spirit drinking ; but the Chinaman never goes to the 
street when he drinks spirits ; he does it inside his own 
home, and it is a very rare thing to see a drunken 
Chinaman in the streets of a Chinese city. I am 
acquainted with three large cities, one that had 
500,000 people in it before the rebels visited it ; my 
own city, the city of Amoy with 250,000 ; and the city 
of Ohiu-ohew with 300,000. I am thoroughly acquainted 
with them, and I have very seldom seen in them a 
drunken Chinaman. I know perfectly well that there 
was a great deal of drinking of the Ohinese raw spirit ; 
but it was always done in the privacy of their own 
homes. No one in China would compare the two for a 
moment ; the tyranny of the one habit is entirely 
different from the tyranny of the other. 

769. The Chinese raw spirit is, I think, a mild spirit, 
is it not P — No ; it is the very opposite ; it is a very 
coarse ardent spirit. 

770. It is made from rice, is it not P — It is made from 
sweet potatoes to a large extent in our part of the 
country. 

771. {Sir W. Boherts.) Are there tobacco smokers in 
China ? — The Chinese are almost all tobacco smokers. 

772. The tobacco-smoking habit is general in China P 
— Oh ! I would go beyond that — universal I would 
say. 



773. {Sir J. Lyall.) Among women and children P — 
I have not seen children smoking, and I have very 
seldom seen women smoking tobacco. 

774. {Mr. Pease.) Would opium smokers smoke 
tobacco P^ — Yes, they do. 

775. {Chairman.) Has any estimate been formed of 
the number of Chinese converts to Christianity ? — In 
my own mission, which has been one of the most 
successful in China, we have about 4,000 persons in the 
full communion of our church. 

776. Do you know what the figures are with regard 
to the other missions P — I should say somewhere about 
50,000. 

777. The total for the whole of China?— I should 
think so. I mean the Protestants. 

778. And the Roman Catholics P — I cannot form any 
estimate of them. The Roman Catholic Mission with 
us is almost a purely traditional one. It is not aggres- 
sive ; it has simply descended from previous genera- 
tions. I have never met with a Roman Catholic priest 
that preached in the streets of any Chinese city. I 
have been acquainted with some of them, and have 
one or two of them amongst my own personal friends. 

779. {Sir W Boherts.) Are the converts drawn from 
one class of society, or pretty evenly? — The converts in 
every case are drawn principally from the agricultural 
and the artizan classes. 

780. The artizan classes ? — The artizan classes, yes. 

781. Do many of the literati come within the influence 
of the missionaries ? —A very few indeed. We would 
never have any trouble with the Chinese people, but 
for the literati and the mandarins. An ignorant people, 
they are hounded on by vile stories about our making 
habies' eyes into opium, and by other stories of that 
kind ; but as far as the people themselves are concerned, 
I have moved up and down amongst them for 21 years 
and never was more kindly treated in my own country 
than I was treated in China. 

782. But there are. I presume, some of the merchants, 
and of the higher shopkeeping class? — Not many with 
ua. Our mission is almost entirely composed of the 
agricultural classes. 

783. And artizans P- 
former. 



Rev. W. S. 

Sioanson, 

D.D. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



-And artizans, but more of the 



784. {Sir J. Lyall.) The peasantry ?— They arc all 
proprietors, the peasants there, of their own fields. 

78.5. Mr. Moiuhray.) Is that so all over China ? — I 
only speak of my own part of China. I would not dare 
to speak of any other part of China. 

786. I mean the 4,000?— That is within the area 
which I have already indicated. 

787. Exactly ; it does not represent all your com- 
munion all over China in point of numbers ? — We have, 
fortunately, confined ourselves to one part of China. 

788. Well, then, it does practically represent your 
total strength p. — Practically it represents the member- 
ship in connexion with the Presbyterian Mission of the 
Church of England. 

789. {Mr. Pease.) There is a considerable number of 
adherents, I suppose P — Oh, twice as many, if not three 
times as many, and we have about three thousand at 
least of baptised children. 



The witness withdrew. 



Mr. D. Matheson, called in and examined. 



790. {Chairman.) We know your name well in con- 
nexion with Chinese commerce. You have been con- 
nected with a Chinese house of business, have you not ? 

Yes, I have. I went out to China in the year 1837, 

after a preparatory training in business, with the in- 
tention of entering the office of Jardine, Matheson, and 
Co., and with the probability in due time of being pro- 
moted if I was fit lor it. The business then was carried 
on in Canton. A general business was carried on by 
the firm of Jardine, Matheson, and Co. They acted as 
commission agents in goods from all parts of the world, 
and besides that, they had a large business in the con- 
traband opium trade. Being contraband, it was out- 
side the Port of Canton. There was a receiving ship 
at the mouth of the Canton river which received the 
cargoes of opium from India, and then from the receiv- 
ing ship the clippers carried cargoes to stations at 
different parts along the China coast. 

e 80970 



791. It was a smuggling trade ; as described by you 
it was more or less a smuggling trade, the trade that 
the house conducted in opium ? — It was, in a sense. 
I was going to explain, because I wish to do all credit 
to those who were then in business there. The opium 
was taken by the clippers to the different stations, and 
then at those stations the Chinese opium dealers came 
out and purchased the opium and paid silver for it as 
the most convenient medium. It will be seen, from 
what I have said, how easily the charge of smuggling 
was evaded by transferring it to the shoulders of the 
Chinese opium dealers. 

792. They did the act of smuggling ? — Yes, it 
reminds me of ^Esop's fable about the boys and the 
frogs. The boys were amusing themselves by throwing 
stones at the frogs in a pond until a number of them 
were killed. At last a frog came to the top and said, 

H 



Mr. D. 

Matheson. 



58 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSiaN 



Mr. D. 

Matheson. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



" Stop your cruel sport, for -what is play to you is 
death to ns." And so in the same wny what enriched 
the British merchants and the Bast India Company 
was death to the Chinese. This is merely an lUus- 
ration of what was really the fact ; it was smuggling, 
undoubtedly. 

793. What is your opinion as to the effect of the 
opium habit upon the Chinese people P — I have not 
come to testify so much about that ; but rather about 
the way in which the Governnaent acted in the matter. 

794. In the early stages p — Yes. 

795. Of course it is of the past, but we would be 
glad to hear a brief statement from you about the 
circumstances connected with the seizure of the opium 
in 1839 P — I will be quite brief, my.Lbrd. The Kmperor 
Taou-Kwang in the year 1839 became very uneasy 
about the spread of the opium traffic. I believe one 
of his sons had died of opium- smoking ; but I am 
not quite sure if that is the case. The consequence 
was that edicts were issued all over the country that 
it should be put a stop to. As this failed, he took the 
course of sending Commissioner Lin to strike at the 
root of the evil, by imprisoning the merchants in 
Canton, and by compelling them to deliver up all the 
opium that was on the coast. I may say also that at 
the same time there was an order that all Chinese 
opium smokers should be punished by death, and I, 
myself, saw a Chinese opium smoker hanging on a 
cross in the agonies of death, only a little distance 
from the factories. We were imprisoned in the 
factories for a sbort time, until the whole of that 
opium was given up — all that was on the coast ; and I 
was one of 16 who were specially marked out as being 
connected with the opium trade, but we were allowed 
to go on condition that we should never return to 
Canton again. 

796. Have you anything further to say about the 
early history of the question? — Soon afterwards, in 
1841, Hong Kong was occupied, and all the mer- 
chants, foreign and British, went to Hong Kong, and 
that became the depot for opium, and the place from 
which the clippers were despatched to the coast — just 
as before, to the different stations on the coast. 

797. Prom your experience at Canton and from your 
experience at Hong Kong, have yoa any recollection of 
any particular incidents that influenced the view that 
you took upon the opium question ? — At that time 
I had not formed any opinion as to the character of the 
traffic. I tried vo do my duty to the partners, and I 
did not think more about it. But in due time i was 
made a partner in Hong Kong, and then I felt a 
responsibility which brought questionings, and con- 
victions upon my conscience that compelled me to say 
that I could not continue in this traffic. 

One of the JPikst Incidents was as follows : — I went 
in a clipper to visit Fuh-ohow, one of the stations, 
and I was very much struck with this fact, that here 
were two opium-receiving ships selling opium to the 
people of Fuh-chow, and ou the other hand there was 
the mission station and several missionaries working 
away trying to bring the same people to the knowledge 
of the truth. On going ashore, I was struck with the 
wretchedness of the people from opium-smoking, and 
with the two opposing forces — the opium trade on the 
one side, and the missions on the other. It was almost 
impossible to have any missionai'y work there at all, 
and I lately met with an extract from the letter of 
Archdeacon Wolfe, now at Fuh-chow, confirming this. 
He wrote in the year 1S91 : — " One of the towns held 
" as a mission station for 2o years or more by an 
" American Board of Missions has at last to be 
" abandoned, and, I think, very properly, for the 
' ' degradation of an opium-smoking town is of that 
" peculiar and intensely low and hardened type that, 
" humanly speaking, it seems almost impossible to 
" make any impression of a moral or spiritual nature 
" upon the inhabitants of a place given up to the 
" degrading vice of opium smoking." 

A Second Incident was : — I went down to see Singa- 
pore, and visited my friend Dr. Little, who was a 
leading doctor at that time. He showed me some of 
the opium dens and spoke of the lei'rible havoc opium- 
smoking was making among the Chineso population. 

798. Is this recent P — No, but it goes on now. I be- 
lieve the principal rerenue for the support of Singa- 
pore comes from opium and drink. 

799. But what you saw was some years ago P — Yes, 
many years ago. Then I have often spoken to the 
Chinese, who have said that the vice is just as bad as 



it can be, and I remember one opiuiri dealer coming 
to tne to buy opium, who remarked : •' the people. say 
'' that the than who is a smoker of opium is 'making his 
" coffin." ' He was doing so himself. 

A Third Incident was : — When managing partner 
for a short time I sent a man to Bombay to be ari' 
inspector of opium before shipment to China. !9!e 
was a fine young fellow and we had great confideaoe 
in him. He did his work well, but after two years he 
began to get emaciated and miserable-looking, he wa^ 
an opium victim, and at last he was obliged to give up 
his employment, and I do not suppose that he had long 
to live. I felt it rather on my conscience. 

A PouETH Incident :— In 1847 when I was part- 
ner one of our clippers on the coast was .boarded 
by pirates and plundered, and the offi.cers were -mtir,. 
dered and nearly all the crew. There was a notitjp 
in the newspapers of it, and they said that the opiiim 
clipper and the cargo belonged to myself, instead of 
using the name of the firm. I thought it was rath'er 
unfair to do that, but it stung my conscience, and 
convinced me that as a C'hristian I could no longer 
continue in the opium traffic. It was intolerable to 
me to continue in such a business, and I sent home my 
resignation to the senior partner who was in this 
country. I left China finally in 1849. 

800-1. What is your recommendation with reference 
to the policy you would like to see adopted by the 
Government of India in relation to opium P — Well, it 
would be very like what others have said. I should 
wish to sweep away the poppy plantations from the 
plains of India and to sweep away that unrighteous 
and paltry revenue of four millions, and then to give 
India the opportunity of a new career of prosperity, 
which would also give the same to China and allow of 
her taking a great deal more of British manufactures 
than she has been doing in the past. And we have a 
remarkable illustration of that I think. There is Bur- 
mah on the one side of China, and Japan on the other. 
Opium in Burmah is giving constant trouble now': 
whereas Japan, in having secured its exclusion by treaty, 
is pursuing a prosperous career. 

802. Are there any other observations that you would 
like to make P — I did wish to say that when the opium 
was given up under Taou-Kwang it was a heroic 
attempt (.m the part of a Government ignorant of 
international law, but it was a sad failure. The opium 
merchants appealed to our Home Government, and a 
succession of grevious wars began, slaying thousands 
of innoct'nt Chinese, from 1841 to 1868, when opium 
was finally legalised by the treaty of Tientsin, and the 
United tStates Minister said on that occasion to the 
Bishop of Vietoria, ''It is the triumph of successful 
crime." Let me add that dtiring the first war of 
1811 the British nation was struck to the heart by the 
terrible disaster of the Cabul massacre, and in the year 
1867-8 — ivhen opium was legalised — the British nation 
was agonised by that terrible Indian mutiny. I do not 
make any reflections in the matter, but that is so. Then 
I just wish to add that Lord Shaftesbury, who took a 
great interest in the question, said, " The opium 
'• traffic is a sin and a shame to this country. Do not 
" cease to testify to this. Sooner or later they will 
" have to give it up. It is a sin and a shame." I was 
struck with those words and I have never forgotten 
them, and I trust we shall go on endeavouring to get 
this matter put right. 

803. (Sir J. Lyall.) I have seen it stated that the 
opium-suiuggliug system, which you began your 
evidence by describing, gave rise to a great deal of 
piracy, and that that was one of the bad features of 
it; can you explain how that was ?— The valuable 
cargoes of opium were a great temptation to pirates. 
There was an enormous number of pirates. When our 
navy was there I think they destroyed about 250 
pirate ships. 

804. They were looking out for these clippers P— Yes. 
I wish to say, by the way, which I did not before, that 
the houses of Jardine, Matheson, and Co. and Dent and 
Co., who had nearly the whole of this coast business, were 
honourable men, and that the captains of the clippers 
and the receiving ships were honourable men. We 
must not suppose that the^- were a lot of scoundrels 
or buccaneers or anything of that sort. The Chinese 
opium dealers bribed the mandarins always, and 
things went quietly and smoothly, and the only 
people that the clippers had to be afraid of were those 
pirates; and, as I told you, one of those clippers, the 
'• Omega," was plundered and nearly the whole of the 
crew murdereii. 



MINITTES OP EVIDENCE. 



69 



805. 13verybody, I think, at the present day is sorry, 
so far as it is true you know, that force was ever used 
to open the Chinese market to opium ; but do you not 
think as a mSrchant that it would be enough to make 
*^?. Chinese Government now absolutely free to pro- 
hibit the import of opium, or do you think it necessary 
to go further P — I should be very sorry if the Indian 
Grovernment did not take the first step and endeavour 
to cease to grow the opium. 

806. Part of the opium exported from India is grown 
directly under the direction of the Government P — Yes. 

807. But a great part is merely the growth as it were 
of the native States, which has been always more or less 
exported to China -and other countries from time pre- 
ceding our rule even ?— But they are also under the 
Government influence ; they must grow so much or so 
little according as it is wanted. 

808. No, they may grow as much as ever they like P 
— I was under the impression that considerable influence 
was brought to bear upon them. 

809. (Mr. Pease.) If we lowered the tariff that would 
induce them to grow it P — Yes. 

810. {Sir J. Lyall.) We began by putting on a very 
low tarifi'upon it originally. It began at 125, it went 
up to 175, and has gone on gradually to 400, 500, 600, 
and sometimes it has been 700. Now it has gone back 
again. Would it not be a very unusual thing for a 
Government to absolutely stop the export of an article 
of commerce P — Well, it is the immorality of the thing, 
that is the question. 

811. You think that the immorality of the thing 
would justify that course ? — Certainly. 

812. But would not the same ground of immorality 
then ma,ke it obligatory upon the English Government 
to stop the export of spirits P — There is no comparison ; 
they would not compare at all. 

813. No comparison in Africa, for instance ? — Oh, 
well, the natives of Africa have no power of self 
control. 

814. No comparison in Australia and New Zealand, 
where a population has been actually wiped ofl' the 
ground by the use of spirits ? — I will not allow in my 
own mind any comp risen between spirits and opium. 
Opium is a curse. Spirits can be used in modera- 
tion ; opium cannot. 

816. We know that spirits have swept populations 
absolutely out o< xistence in various parts of the world P 
— Tes, those po j r and ignorant savages. 

816. Well tl en would not the same grounds — I may 
say the same moral grounds — make it incumbent upon 
us to stop the export of spirits ; and I suppose nothing 
has done greater harm in India under our rule, par- 
ticularly in more recent years, than the growth of the 
habit of drinking wine and spirits among the upper 



classes in India P — We know that that is only in Mr. D. 

moderation ; at all events, it is perhaps like the Matheson. 

drinking of wine 30 or 40 or 50 years ago — when 

gentlemen sat down to the table with their wine. That 13 Sept. 18P3. 

fashion is going out now, and I suppose it is only the 

same thing in India with the upper classes, but I am 
not sufficiently acquainted with India to speak with 
confidence as to that. 

817. A missionary gentleman who gave evidence just 
now said, that the Chinese were weaker in those re- 
spects than we are : that is in resisting any kind of 
intoxication, that if they did use it at all they used it to 
excess ? — I think he meant chiefly the opium. 

818. Well, he said it of all, and Dr. Pringle said the 
same thing of the Indians, that is, he said it was 
equally the case with them, whether it was wine or 
whether it was opium, or whether it was hemp, they 
never took it except to get drunk ? — Yes, of opium and 
hemp. 

819. That being the case is there any strong line of 
distinction between the morality of allowing wine and 
spirits to be exported from England, and our allowing 
for instance the Malwa opium to be exported to China P 
— I think there is a very wide difference. Hemp, of 
course, does not go with the whiskey, it goes with the 
opium, the hemp is used to make the opium more 
deadly. 

820. Is there not one incident in which our practice 
in India as regards, for instance the Malwa opium 
stands out in a very advantageous light in comparison 
to the English practice of importing spirits. I mean, 
I think in England when spirits are exported they are 
exported free of duty, the duty is not imposed ; in 
India when the Malwa opium is exported it is subject 
to a very heavy duty ? — Well, that ' does the Indian 
revenue a great deal of good. 

821. Yes, but if that, I mean to say, is morally wrong, 
surely it is still more morally wrong to export spirits 
free of duty P — I cannot put spirits and opium together 
at all. 

822. (Mr. Pease.) You are aware, I think Mr. 
Matheson, that the English Government have recog- 
nised their responsibility by prohibiting the importa- 
tion of spirits in Africa, as parties to the Brussels Anti- 
Slavery Convention p — Yes, the people in Africa are of 
course of a very low type. 

823. The English Government has placed the restric- 
tion upon the importation as parties to that conven- 
tion P— Yes. 

824. I believe by your obedience to your convictions 
upon this question of opium, you have prejudiced your 
own pecuniary position to a very considerable extent. 
That is so, is it not p — Well, as far as that goes it 
has, but it has not injured my position in society I 
hope. 



The witness withdrew. 



Dr. William Gauld called in and examined. 



825. (Ohawman.) You are a medical missionary, are 
you not ? Sir William Roberts has kindly undertaken 
to conduct your examination P— I am. 

826. (Sir W. Boberts.) Where was your experience P 
— At Swatow, in the Canton province. 

827. Is it confined to China P — Well, the last 12 years 
I have been in London in medical work, in charge of 
the Mildmay Hospital, Bethnal Green. 

828. You have no experience of India P — No ex- 
perience of India. 

829. Btit you have some years' experience at Swatow ? 
— I was for 16 years a missionary in Swatow, with an 
interval of two years home on furlough between. 

830. Had you a dispensary there ? — I had a hospital 
there with the largest in-patient practice of any 
hospital at that time in China. 

831. It was not merely an outdoor dispensary P — No, 
I had a dispensary practice as well ; the last year I was 
in China we had over 2,000 in-patients in the year. 

832. You were, in fact, engaged in these duties con- 
tinuously' all that time P — All that time. 

833. What is your experience in regard to the use of 
opino) ; was it yery prevalent there ?— It was very pre- 
valent in s6me p'artfe of the district. It Was very pre- 



valent amongst the literary classes and the Mandarin 
classes. It was almost universal among the chair 
coolies, and we could scarcely get; a teacher who did 
not smoke opium. 

834. It was what you would call a generalised habit 
then ? — It was very largely prevalent, but not so 
prevalent as in some parts of Ohina. 

835. Scarcely so prevalent as drinking beer in this 
country ? — Not so prevalent as drinking beer, I should 
say. 

836. In what ways did you find that the Chinamen 
used opium p — They used it chiefly in smoking a pre- 
pared mixture of the opium, and I may mention that at 
Swatow it was almost wholly Indian opium that was 
used, scarcely any native opium, when I first went to 
China ; it is 13 years since I left. There wei-e times 
when the Chinese opium smokers could not get their 
opium, and then they bought pills or morphia to 
tide them over the difiicnlty ; for instance, one year 
we sold about 50,000 pills at our mission, ostensibly to 
cure opium smoking, but I found after a while that 
these pills were not to such an extent used to cure 
opium smoking as to warrant me to go on selling them 
to the Chinese. I never charged anything for any 
other drugs, but for these pills we charged them, 
simply because they had the taloney to spend on opium' 

H 2 



Dr. 

W. Gauld. 



60 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION; 



Dr. 

W. Gauld. 

13 Sept. 1893. 



and ^ve thought it right to charge them for the pills 
which they wanted to cnre it. But we found u, large 
number of these pills were used simply to tide them over 
a difficulty. I think that is important in connexion with 
this — it has been a question whether smoking opium 
has the same effect as eatina; opium. TSTow, as a matter of 
fact, the craving for the opium is allayed by the eating 
of these opium pills, and by the eating of morphia, and 
the use of morphia is larsrly increasing in China. I 
may say in that connexion that from one of our leading 
firms of druggists, one of the partners of that firm says 
50,000 ounces of morphia are sent out in one year to 
China. 

837. I daresay you are aware that it has been said that 
it is impossible as to opium, that the alkaloid of the 
opium — morphia — can be taken in by smoking? — I 
believe that is the theory. At the same time we know 
that there are other alkaloids in opium besides the 
morphia, and the fact remains that whatever of the 
opium is non-volatile there is still enough left to do 
the mischief, because that we see before our eyes. The 
fact that a craving is aroused of such an intense kind 
by the smoking of opium, which craving is allayed 
by other preparations of opium, shows that in essence 
the nature of these is the same; they may not be the 
same in degree but they are the same in essence. 

8."ii-!. Has it been suggested that it may be partly 
carried mechanically ? — I never heard any statement to 
that effect. 

839. No explanation has been given in fact ? — TSTo ; 
but the fact remains. 

840. The fact remains ? -Tes. 

841. Then these habits are really in your view inter- 
changeable p — I believe they are. 

842. Morphia eating? — Morphia eating and opium 
smoking and opium eating. 

843. Would you regard that fact as having a bearing 
on the mischief done by the opium habit ? — I do not 
exactly understand your question, sir. 

844. Well this is the question : What is the import- 
ance of this in considering the evil of the opium habit ? 
— I have already given my explanation of tha.tin saying 
that the different kinds of opium have the same effect 
essentially on the system, and that it is not sufficient to 
say that because morphia is non-volatile therefore the 
opium does no harm ; som-jthing in the opium does the 
harm. 

S (."i. It may be some allied alkaloid produced by the 
heat on morphia ? — Yes. 

8!6. Now what experience have you had of malaria : 
is Swatow a malarial district ? — It is; there is a great 
deal of malaria in the district. 

847. Do you think that the use of opium there is 
practised in any way as a prophylactic or prohibitive 
against fever ? — .\s a prophylactic I do not think it is 
in existence practically, and as a cure for malaria I 
think it is very little used. The natives use different 
kinds of drugs for their fevers, and what they do use is 
so inefficient that they are only too glad to get our 
quinine. 

848. Then in your experience opium smoking is not 
a prophylactic against malaria ? — I do not think so ; 
more than that, I think the opium smoker when he does 
take the fever is less likely to get well over it than a 
a man who does not smoke opium. 

849. What is your opinion of opium smoking on the 
literary class ; you said that a good number of them 
smoked ? — It is very prevalent amongst them. I have 
a letter which has lately been received from one of 
our ablest missionaries at Swatow, a man who is not at 
all given to exaggerated statements, and he mentions 
one or two facts which it will not take longer than a 
minute or two to read. 

850. We shall be very glad to hear them P — He says : 
" If you are not tired of facts about opium, I will 
" note one or two incidents of the last few days." 
(This letter was written on the 1st August.) " 1. A 
" young non-Ohristian teacher of the language was 
" lately employed here. He had been staying away 
" fur some days from his work. I sent to inquire the 
" ciuse, he having sent a message to say that he was 
" ill. The Chinese here did not think his word could 
" be taken for it, ' for he is an opium smoker.' " (That 
is their remark.; "A man was therefore sent to see. 
" His report was, ' He says he is ill.' I asked, ' Is he 
" 'ill.' Answer, 'an opiunj-snioking mar), how can I 



" ' tell ? ' ' Did he seem ill? ' 'A man who smokes 
" 'opium as he does is always ill.'" (That was the 
native verdict.) " 2. Another teacher, my own writer, 
" who is an opium smoker, has been absent for a week 
" from his work. He is assisting me in Scripture 
" translation, and his Chinese scholarship and tact 
" make him indispensable to me. His illness is the 
" direct and significant result of opium smoking. It is 
" accompanied with a complete lack of rallying power, 
" which is another of the characteristic results of the 
" habit. 3. A Chinese friend, not a Christian, or 
" rather not a Church member, wrote to me the other 
" day, asking me to get the mission to undertake the 
" guardianship of two of his sons, and the management 
" of the funds which he is providing to meet the 
" expense of giving them a good English education. 
" He is not likely to live long, and says he cannot trust 
" his Chinese friends, but has complete confidence in 
" us. The sons whom he wishes to commit to our cave 
" are the two youngest, and his chief anxiety is so to 
" arrange matters that the money shall not come into 
" the power of his eldest son ; and why does he so dis- 
" trust the son ? Because, although he is not a regular 
" opium smoker, he has begun to take it occasionally " 
(I think that is an important point), " and ' therefore,' 
" says the father, ' he is no longer of any use, and if 
" ' he got control of the money wouid speedily squander 
" "it,"' (that is his idea of a son who is only beginning 
to take it). " For this reason the father deliberately 
' ' chooses to will the bulk of his money out of the family, 
" and to leave it to the care of the missionaries, as the 
" only way of securing that the youngest boys shall, 
" after his death, get the benefit of it." One instance 
more: "4. Just as I write a fourth instance occurs. I 
" learn that another teacher on our staff is also absent 
" from illness. When he first came to the mission he 
■' was a rather heavy smoker of o])ium. He was thin 
" and emaciatt'd, with a bad colour. After a time he 
" \va.s induced to break off the habit. With the help of 
" special treatment in our hospital he succeeded in doing 
" so, after a period of struggle and severe suffering. 
" An immediate and very marked improvement in his 
" appearance was the result. He became fatter, and a 
" new look of health and energy appeared in his fea- 
" tures. No one who knew him could fail to notice the 
'■ change. This went on for two or three years until, 
" in an evil moment, he was tempted to resort to opium 
" again for relief from some temporary pain. The habit 
" returned, and his healthy look disappeared again. 
" His health became unsatisfactoiy and uncertain. Ho 
" would fain have back his liberty, and socaks of 
" trying to recovering it, but it will cost him a harder 
" struggle even than jjefore. With three teachers dis- 
" abled in our staff, we ourselves lose much time, and 
" suffer not a little inconvenience. Why then do we 
" cmpldv opium sm ikrr.? ? Partly. I am sorry to saj-, 
" because it is difficult (o find a lit-'r,;ry man here who 
" is not an opium smoker, and partly because cmploy- 
" ment by foi-eigners, especially in a sea-p.)rt town like 
" Swatow, is not much coveted, and men iu an inde- 
" pendent position will not come. We can only com- 
" mand the services of men to whom the small salary 
" we give is a strong inducement, and such men are 
'■' nearly always opium smokers, men who have for- 
" felted their independence, and are under strong com- 
" pulsion to find money wherever they can. The 
" smoker is heavily handicapped." That is a letter 
written in the beginning of August last. 

8,^1. Is it your own experience that the literary 
classes .are a good deal addicted to opium smoking ? — 
Tes, most of the literary men that I came across in my 
experience at Swatow were addicted to opium smoking. 
S.'J'J. I suppose you could not possibly give us any 
general idea in per-centages ? — No, I cannot give per- 
centages. I remember on one occasion asking a patient 
what was the proportion in his village smoking opium. 
He said " Ten per cent, of the adult males." 

853. Have you noticed whether among the opium 
smokers at Swatow there are some who smoke opium 
regularly but moderately ?— The term moderate is mis- 
applied when used in reference to opium smokine. I 
think that in that respect opium essentially differs from 
alcohol. I do not think that we would hold wine, for 
instance, to be a poison in itself, or beer, but I hold that 
opium is a poison, essentially a poison, and that there 
is no moderate use of it apart from what is used as 
medicine, that the moment a healthy man takes opium 
he has taken something that will injure him. 

854. Apart from theory is that your experience? 

That is my experience, and there is a peculiar seduo- 



MINUTES OE* EVIDENCE. 



61 



tion about opium whicli carries a man very rapidly into 
the habitual use of it. I can sympathise with a man 
because in my own experience, before J left Swatow the 
first time, to come home, I was ill from chronic dysen- 
tery, and for a good many nights I had to take an 
opiate medicinally. I determined to stop it. The first 
night I stopped it I remember the perfect misery I 
was in, the utter feeling of helplessness and misery all 
over, as if I were going to die. I know what it is 
in opium smokers, when that was my own experience 
from one little dose a day for some time. 

855. You would not recognise that the effects of 
opium on one race differs very profoundly from the 
effect of opium on another ? — I do not believe it does ; I 
believe that its effect in different races may differ in 
degree, but not in essence. 

856. In that respect it must differ very much from 
alcohol ? — I think it does differ from alcohol, and that 
brings up a point which I think my experience of the past 
12 years enables me to speak upon with sonae confidence. 
It has been said that opium and liquor are of the same 
nature, and that the one is as bad as the other or as 
good as the other. Now, I have been working for the 
last 12 years in Bethnal Green, in one of tbe worst slums 
in London, and I have seen what drink is. I am not 
here to say that drink is a good thing ; it is a horribly 
bad thing there, and I could not speak too strongly 
upon it, but the difference between the hold which 
opium, has and alcohol has. upon the human being is 
not to be compared. I remember a Chinese graduate 
coming to me at Swatow once, he was one of the leading 
men of his village. He came and stayed in the hospital 
and asked me to try and get him cured of the opium 
habit. He had been smoking for a long time, and I 
did my best, but the man, in spite of all my efforts, was 
brought to death's door and his misery was great 
He was evidently dying. I said you cannot go on with 
this, you must have your opium pipe, or you will die. 
He got his pipe and he recovered. Again he came to. 
me and said "I want you to cure me of this opium." I 
said " Graduate, you saw how it was before. You were 
" at death's door, I dare not venture. I will not 
" take the responsibility." " Well," he said, " I will 
" take the responsibility, whether I live or die, try and 
" get me cured of this opium." We tried again, and I 
am happy to say that by care and nursing and drugs, 
he did get round ; he recovered from his opium habit, 
but the suffering of that man from intense irritability, 
diari-hcea, feverishness, and sleeplessness was very great. 
I do not wish to see again anything of the kind. That 
is with the opium. Then with regard to the alcohol, 
I believe I have got down at Bethnal Green specimens 
of drunkards of the very worst type, men and women 
saturated with drink. When they come into the hos- 
pital, we at once cut off the alcohol — it is as nearly as 
possible (being right in the slum) a temperance hospital. 
We only use alcohol in rare cases. We cut off the 
alcohol at once, and I have never seen any apparent 
distress from doing so like what I have seen in China 



with tbe opium, and I hold that the opium takes such Dr. W. Gauld 
a grip of the system as alcohol never does. 

857. Even in those i)ersons who use opium moder- 8 Sept. 1893. 

ately, habitually, it is difficult ? — The smaller the quanr 

tity, of course, the less the mischief, but there is 

mischief, and the longer they use it, the larger the 
quantity they use as a rule. It shows itself in the 
sallowness of the complexion and the appearance of the 
eye, and emaciation eventually. I remember a young 
man coming to me in a dying state. He died of uncon- 
trollable diarrhoea in a few hours, just simply from 
excessive opium smoking, nothing else. 

858. I suppose you confirm the evidence that we 
have had before, that there have been no organic 
diseases like cirrhosis, or other degenerations with 
opium as with alcohol ? — The appearance of the con- 
firmed opium smoker, the hectic look, and the dark 
blue of his lips, and the jaundiced look of the eye, 
show that there must be some disorganisation some- 
where. I do not think that it has been as yet 
scientifically gone into. I do not think any medical 
missionary has as yet gone into that investigation, as 
to whether there are particular diseases caused by the 
opium alone, but the opium smoker is more ready to 
fall a victim to diseases than the healthy man. 

859. I presume that you found that your missionary 
labours were rendered more difiioult by the prevalence 
of the opium habit P — They were so. In the winter 
time I have very often left my hospital for a time in 
charge of the native assistants of my own training, 
and travelled into the country with a brother mis- 
sionary, a preacher. We used to preach in the open 
air, in the towns and villages, and almost invariably 
there would be someone in the crowd who would start 
this objection about the opium, " You bring us the 
" opium, why do yon come to teach us righteousness ? " 

860. I mean, you did not think it was what jou might 
call a specious or colloquial objection p — ~So, they really 
felt it, I believe. The large part of the hatred the 
Chinese have to us is owing to this opium question. I 
remember, as an illustration of how they connected 
opium with the English nation, one day in the street 
opposite the hospital door there was a man selling 
beautifully-made figures, all nicely painted, of Chinese 
warriors and others. Amongst them there was one 
figure of an Englishman with an umbrella over his 
head (they usually associate us with the umbrella used 
as a protection from the sun) , and in his other hand he 
had a large ball of opium. That was the idea of the 
Englishman in the mind of the Chinese. 

861. That was at Swatow ? — A ball of opium in one 
hand, aud in the other an umbrella. That was how he 
was represented to the crowd. 

862. I think you said that the opium used at Swatow 
was Indian opium P — It was Indian opium. I think 
now it is mixed, but at that time it was Indian opium. 

863. Have you any further statement that you would 
like to make to the Commission P — No, sir, I think that 
is all I wish to say. 



The witness withdrew. 
Adjourned till to-morrow at 11 a.m. 



At the House of Lords, Westminster, S.W. 



FOURTH DAY. 

Thursday, 16th September 1893, 



Peesent : 
The Eisht Honoubable LORD BEASSEY, K.O.B. 

Sir James B. Lyall, G.O.I.E. Mb. Akthub, Pease. 

Sir William Robbets, M.D. Mr. H. J. Wilson, M.P. 

Mr. E. G, C. Mowbray, M.P. 

Sir Charles E. Beenard, K.C.S.L, 

Aotimg Seoreta/ry. 

Sir John Steachet, G.C.S.I., Member of the Council of India, called and examined. 

864. (Ghairman.) You have had a long residence in 
India, I believe ?— Yea. 

865. How many years were you there P-^ About 38 
years. 



866. And you have filled numerous posts, ultimately 
reaching the very highest posts in the service P— It 
is hardly an exaggeration to say that. I filled pretty 
weJl every post that a member of the Civil Service 



Sir 

J. Strachei/, 

G.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



H 3 



62 



INDIAN OPITJM (IJpMJIISijS^IOJjr I 



Sir 

J. Straehey, 

G.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



could flu, from the moBt sabordinate posts to those of a 
district officer, and commissioner, and chief commis- 
sioner of Oudh, and Lieutenant-G-overnor of the North- 
West Provinces, and I was twice Member of Council ; 
altogether I was nine years a member of the G-overn- 
meiit of India, and for the last eight years I have 
been a member of the Council of India. 

867. It goes without saying that you have been 
brought into personal communication with all classes 
of our native fellow subjects in India P — Yes, I ought 
rather to say the parts of India with which I have Tjeen 
personally acquainted. I have never been in Bombay 
or Madras except passing through. 

868. Still you have had very wide opportunities of 
being brought into personal communication with the 
natives of India ? — Certainly. 

869. Can you give us, before you turn to other sub- 
jects, any statistics of the opium revenue, or shall we 
obtain that through another witness p- — I think I can 
give evidence upon that point regarding the revenue. 

870. Tour last post in India was in charge of the 
finance, w^s it not P — Tes. 

871. Well, having been in charge of the finance in 
India, it has necessarily been your duty to consider the 
question which is before the Commission in all its 
bearings, and we should be glad to hear your views on 
the various matters which are included in the Order of 
Reference to the Commission. We will take first the 
general question. I believe your views were compre- 
hensively stated in the memorandum which you wrote 
on the occasion of the reading of a paper on the opium 
question by Mr. Batten, which paper was read before 
the Society of Arts in April last P — Yes ; if you would 
allow that to be read I do not think that I could express 
my opinion on the general subject more fully than 1 
did then. 

872. I know that you have been kind enough to 
attend to-day at considerable personal inconvenience, 
and the Commission would be glad to lighten your 
labours in every possible way ; and understanding as 
we do that that memorandum represents your views on 
thi.' general question, I think it would be a relief to you 
and very advantageous to the Commission that the 
memorandum should be read to us P — Yes. 

Sir G. Berntird read the memorandum, which was as 
follows : — 

" I passed some thirty-eight years of my life in India., 
and I should not be very greatly exaggerating if I 
were to say that, during that time, I held almost every 
office which a member of the Civil Service in India can 
hold, beginning from offices of little importance to the 
very highest posts in the service of the State. I was 
brought into personal communication with all classes, 
from the greatest princes to the humblest ryots. I am 
entitled to say that I can speak with some Icnowledge 
of the facts, as they regard the people^ of India and the 
policy of the Government. Now, I have always felt in 
regard to this controversy that the object to be aimed 
at in to learn the truth and to act upon it. Thousands 
of excellent people in this country, of whom I desire to 
speak with all respect, because although I know them 
to be mistaken, I must iully recognise the perfect 
honesty and nobility of their aims, believe that avo are 
ruining with a horrible poison millions of Chinese, and 
that, not content with this iniquity, we are encouraging 
the consumption of opium among our own sabjeots in 
India with similar terrible consequences. If this were 
true, I should say for my part that whatever might be 
the reFults to the Government or to the people, pecu- 
niary, or economical, or political, or otherwise, however 
difficult or dangerous it might be to find substitutes for 
the loss that the suppression of opium cultivation in 
India might entail, there could be no doubt about our 
duty. I am confident that when Mr. Batten tells us 
that the total value of the poppy crops of India exceeds 
13,000, OOOZ. sterling a year, he understates rather than 
overstates the fact, i lcnov^' that all that Sir Lepel 
Griffin has told us about Sikhs and Bajpufcs — the most 
martial races of India— and the political dangers that 
>vould follow on the attempt to interfere with the con- 
sumption of opium, to which they have been accustomed 
for centuries, is perfectly true. Nevertheless, if I 
believed that the Government was committing the 
abominable iniquity with which it is charged, of de- 
moralising and destroying millions of people, I should 
say that, whatever be the consequences, this iniquity 
ought not to be allowed to last for a single day during 
which we can prevent it. But what are the facts P 
It is impoBsiblfe forme now to enter into the ovidpnce 



on which my conclusions have been based, T can onlT 
give the conclusions themselves, wiiteh the experienpo 
of a lifetime has impressed upon me. I believe it to be) 
proved to demonstration that opium is not this terrible 
poison. The vast majority of those who consume it 
consume it in moderation, and so consumed there is no 
one of the stimulants that enter largely into the con- 
sumption of the world that is more innocent. I will go 
further, and say more beneficial. It is as innocent as 
the wines of France or Italy are to the people of those 
countries, or as uudoctored beer is to the people of Bng- 
land or Germany. Like all other good gifts of nature, 
it may be abused, but even when this happens, wUateve^ 
it may be to the individual, it is less harmful to society 
than the alcohol, which is the curse of our own coun- 
try. This opium question has two aspects ; one as it 
concerns the people of India, the other as it concemB 
the Chinese. As regards the people of India gene4 
rally, I would ask you first to remember what India is. 
It is a vast continent as large as the whole of civilised 
Europe, with a greater population, for it contains 
some 280,000,000 of people. It consists of a multitndd 
of countries differing from each other far more widely 
than the countries of Europe difi"er among themselveB/ 
In some of those countries, as we have been told, and 
as I shall have again to mention, certain classes of the 
people have from time immemorial consumed opium. 
But these classes constitute, numerically, an absolutely 
insignificant proportion of the population of India. 
Speaking in general terms, the consumption of opium 
in India is so infinitesimally small, that I may say, 
without exaggeration, that no opium question exists at 
all. We are told, however, that the consumption of 
opium has been rapidly increasing, and that it has been 
fostered by our G-overnment. These statements ard 
absolutely baseless. The mcrease of population under 
British rule has been enormous ; but there is every 
reason to believe that the consumption of opium in 
India, under native rule, 160 years ago, was actually 
greater than it is now. However this may be, end 
without attempting to go back to times of which we 
know comparatively little, this at least is certain, that, 
although the population goes on rapidly increasing, 
the consumptiun of opium, instead of increasing, has 
diminished. It is certainly smaller now than it was, 
for instance, ten years ago. This has been the result 
of the policy of the Government of India. By a 
vigorous system of excise, it raises the price of opium 
as far as is consistent with the prevention of extensive 
smuggling, and reduces consumption to a mmimum. 
The sole present danger is that this policy may be 
carried too far ; and some authorities believe that this 
is already happening. The danger is that by making 
opium too dear and difficult to obtain, we may not 
only encourage smugglini<, a comparatively small evilj 
but may cause people who have been content with 
the moderate use of opium to have recourse to cheap 
and noxious stimulants procurable from weeds Which, 
I may almost say, grow near every man's doOr. 
Although, as I have said, the consiamption of opium 
by the people of India generally is infinitesimally 
small, it has been consumed for centuries by certain 
classes in Northern India. It is an indisputable fact, 
as Sir Lepel Griffin has told us, that these classes, 
especially the Kajputs and Sikhs, are precisely the 
finest races physically in all India. I have often 
thought that the best practical answer to those who 
inveigh against the use of opium would be, if such a 
thing were practicable, to bring one of our crack opium- 
drinking Sikh regiments to London, and exhibit them in 
Hyde Park. There is no more vigorous, manly, hand- 
some race of men to be found, not only in India, but in 
the world. They are the flower of our Indian army, 
and one of the bulwarks of our empire, and yet the 
use of opium among them is almost universal. It 
has always seemed to me a significant fact that among 
all the passionate appeals to British ignorance, we 
never hear one word about the Sikhs. We hear a 
great deal aboui, so-called opium dens, which, after 
all, are \ ery few and far between, but we hear nothing 
about the conataut. consumption of opium among the 
finest populations of India.' People talk glibly about 
suppre.'ising by law the growth and consumption of 
opium in India. I have great faith in the power of 
folly and ignorance, but I trust that I may not see the 
day when the attempt is made to deprive Sikhs and 
Rajputs of— I will not say a luxury— but one of the 
innoeeut and beneficial necessaries of their lives. I read 
the other day, referring to this subject, some remarks 
by a most accomplished writer, who speaks on Indian 
subject s with high authority— I hope Sir William Hunter 



■'ki>srti^S*'bF''iSF'titei*<5t' 



# 



wiir pardon me for quoting him. He said that a law 
Buch as that to which. I have just referred could only 
be enforced in British territories by liloodshed and 
arms, while in native States it could not be enforced 
- at all. I might enlarge much more on such considera- 
tions. They involve issues of political gravity, the 
existence of which appears to be unknown and unsus- 
pected in this country. I repeat, however, that these 
classes which consume opium, highly important as 
they are politically, are numerically an insignificant 
fraction of the Indian population, and that, so far as the 
people of India generally are concerned, no opium 
question really exists. I must now say something 
about China ; but Mr. Batten and other gentlemen, 
who have spoken with the highest authority, have said so 
much on this part of the subject that I shall add very 
little, tod I can add really nothing that is new. There 
can be no greater delusion than to suppose' that China 
depends on India for her supply of opium. If no opium 
were exported from India, the consumption of China 
would remain practically unchanged. Indian opium in 
China is a luxury of the comparatively rich. If they 
were deprived of it, they would suffer as the richer 
classes would suffer here if they were deprived of the 
choicest vintages of Bordeaux and Burgundy, or if 
tobacco smokers got no more cigars from Cuba. In 
such a case, in this country, the frequenters of beer- 
shops and gin-palaces would be conscious of no hard- 
ship ; and the population of China would be equally 
unconscious if it received no opium from India. A 
single province of China produces more opium than 
the whole Indian Empire. Whole provinces are covered 
with the poppy ; the cultivation goes on increasing, 
without any interference on the part of the Government 
of China. Even, therefore, if it were true that the 
people of China are being mined by opium, the cessation 
of imports from India would not diminish the evil. But 
it is certainly not true. The vast majority of the con- 
sumers of opium in China consume it in moderation ; 
and it is, as I said before, as harmless as the wine and 
beer of Europe. Moreover, as Mr. Batten has told us, 
if the Government of China should wish to undertake 
tbe task of stopping the consumption of opium, and 
preventing the importation of opium from India, it 
can do so if it pleases. It can pi'ohibit the importa- 
tion, or can impose any restrictions that it likes. 
Meanwhile, thi>re is nothing with which we need re- 
proach ourselves. If, as I wrote myself some years 
ago, India is, in deference to ignora.nt prejudices, 
deprived of the revenues which she now obtains from 
opium, an act of folly and injustice will be perpetrated 
as gross as any that has ever been inflicted by a foreign 
Government on a subject nation. India now possesses 
the rare fortune of obtaining from one of her native 
products a great revenue, without the imposition of 
taxes on her own people ; and we are asked to sacrifice 
the manifest and vital interests of those people, to whose 
good we are pledged by the highest duties, in hope of 
protecting others, against their will, from imaginary 
evils ; in other words, to inflict certain injury in pursuit 
of a benevolent chimera, which must elude us. Truly, 
to use the words of Condorcet, ' L'enthousiaste ignorant 
' est la plus terrible des betes f eroces.' I wish to say 
only one thing more, and it is that with which I began : 
what we want is the truth. How, I may be asked, if 
this widely-spread belief regarding India is erroneous, 
what is the explanation of its prevalence ? My answer 
is, that the ignorance that prevails in this country 
regarding everything Indian is enormous. The ignor- 
ance about opium is on all fours with the ignorance 
on every other subject connected with India, and this 
ignorance is not confined to those who we expect to 
be ignorant, but extends to the most highly educated 
classes. It extends to all Indian subjects, history, 
geography, the condition and habits of the people, the 
constitution of the Government, in fact to everything. 
I will give an illustration which always seems to me to 
have an useful bearing on this opium question. There 
are many curious delusions about India which it seems 
impossible to kill. When I hear educated Englishmen 
talking about opium, I am often reminded of some 
admirable remarks of Sir Henry Maine on Mr. Buckle's 
' History of Civilisation.' Mr. Buckle derives all the 
distinctive institutions of India, and the peculiarities of 
its people, from the fapt that the exclusive food of the 
natives of India is rice. It follows from this, he tells 
us, that caste prevails, that oppression is rife, that rents 
are high, and that customs and law are stereotyped. 
i have no doubt that if Mr. Buckle had been asked he 
would have said that the same cause accounted for the 
consumption of opium in India. I sometimes ask my 



English friends w;h6n they talk a,bout opiiim what tljey Sir 

suppose to be the ordinary food of the people of India. J- Strachey, 
The almost universal answer given, perhaps with some G.C.S.I. 

air of displeasure that they should be asked such a 

foolish question, is that of course it is rice. I believe ^5 Sept. 1893. 
that nine-ienths of the educated men and women of this 
country believe this to be true. When they have not 
learnt such an elementary i?act as this, that throughout 
the greater part of India rice is no more the ordinary 
food of the people than it is in England, how can we be 
surprised if they do not know the truth about opium. 
I cannot pretend to be hopeful that this ignorance will 
be dispelled before it has inflicted some ruinous injustice 
on the unfortunate people of India. In conclusion, I 
would ask those who have accepted these views about 
the iniquity of the" Indian Government in regard to 
opium, to ponder the words of a wise and benevolent 
man— John Stuart Mill. He had better m.eans of 
knowledge and knew more about India than almost any 
Englishman that I have heard of who had not hved 
long in that country, and he declared his conviction 
that our Government there had been ' not only one of 
' the purest Governments in intention, but one of the 
' most beneficent in act ever known among mankind.' 
This was true when it was written, and it is truer now. 
I believe that there is no Government in the world that 
strives so honestly and resolutely to think of nothing 
but the highest interests of the people it governs. I 
-believe that there is no country in the world in which 
the men who carry on the administration are more able 
and upright, or have a more true regard for the 
welfai'e of those committed to their care. We who have 
spent our lives in India are not all fools or impostors. 
It is, as Mr. Batten has most truly observed, remark- 
able that no sinfifle instance can be quoted of an 
Englishman who has been directly responsible for the 
well-being of India, and who has had an important 
voice in its administration, who has held the views 
against which I have been protesting. That, as Mr. 
Batten said, has been left for irresponsible persons in 
this country, whose want of knowledge is patent to 
everyone who has studied the question on the spot. 
When I hear the Government of India charged with 
the abominable wickedness of poisoning its own sub- 
jects, and poisoning millions of Chinese for the sake of 
filthy lucre, there is only one reason which prevents me 
from being filled with indignation, and this is that I 
know that these charges are the offspring of ignorance 
alone. Unfortunately this does not make them less 
serious, for of all the enemies to human progress ignor- 
ance is the most formidable, and is especially formid- 
able when, as in this present case, it is combined with 
honest enthusiasm and an anxious desire for that which 
is right.'' 

873. (Ohairman.) Sir John, I understand it was your 
wish that the paper which has just been read to us 
shoidd be accepted by the Commission as your general 
answer in relation to the first matter named in the 
Order of Reference to tliis Commission ? — Yes. 

874. Then I understand that it would save you some 
of the great strain which you might suffer from 
appearing before us to-day if we could take from you 
in another general answer the statement of your views 
with regard to the remaining matters included in the 
reference to the Commission. Perhaps it may be con- 
venient that I should lead up to your answer by reading 
over the remaining clauses in the Order of Reference. 
We are asked to inquire into " the nature of the exist- 
" ing arrangements with the native States in respect 
" of the transit of opium through British territory, and 
" on what terms, if any, these arrangements could be 
" with justice terminated.'' We are asked " to con- 
" sider the effect on the finances of India of the 
" prohibition of the sale and export of opium, taking 
" into consideration (a) the amount of compensation 
" payable ; (6) the cost of the necessary preventive 
" measures ; (c) the loss of revenue," and so forth. 
We are asked to consider "whether any change short of 
" total prohibition should be made in the system at 
" present followed for regulating and restrictmg the 
" opium traffic, and for raising a revenue therefrom." 
We are asked to inquire as to " the consumption of 
" opium by the different races, aud in the difierent 
" districts of India, and the effect of such consumption 
" on the moral and physical condition of the people. 
" The disposition of the people of India in regard to 
" (a) the use of opium for non- medical purposes; (6) 
" their willingness to bear in whole or in part the cost 
" of prohibitive measures." Upon those matters you 
are prepared, I believe, to offer us a general state- 

H 4 



64 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Sir ment, and I think it would be more convenient that 

J. Strachey, you should be allowed to make that general statement, 

G.C.S.I. without interruption in the form of questions, reserving 

our questions unbil you have made your statement, and 

15 Sept. 1893. ^g j-j-|g_y g^gj. gj. p^jj quostions upon any point which is 

necessary for the purpose of elucidating the subject P — 

Yes. Before I begin to answer these particular points, 
I should like to say that I feel that it is extremely diffi- 
cult, in fact, impossible, really to say anything on this 
subject thac has not been said over and over again 
before, and I have learned with much regret that Mr. 
Batten, who is absent from England, will be unable to 
give evidence before the Commission, for I think that 
his paper before the Society of Arts gives a more 
complete and accurate summary of all the facts con- 
nected with this question than anything I know. 

875. Then we may take it from you that you support 
and endorse the view of the question which was pre- 
sented in Mr. Batten's paper P — Entirely, without a 
single exception. 

876. We shall take care that the paper prepared by 
Mr. Batten is circulated to the different members of the 
Commission ? — The first of the questions which your 
Lordship has now put is "the nature of the e.xisting 
" arrangements with the native States in respect 
'■ of the transit of opium through British territory, 
" and on what terms, if any, these arrangements 
" could be with justice terminated." I am afraid that 
I cannot say very much upon the first part of the ques- 
tion — for I have very little personal knowledge of 
those States. 

877. No doubt we shall be very fully informed upon 
those points when we are in India P — Yes, I under- 

■ stand that the existing arrangement under which an 
export duty is levied on every chest of opium, when it 
leaves the native States in transit to Bombay, was 
substituted in 1831 for an arrangement under which 
the opium-producing States sold to the British Govern- 
ment all the opium produced in those States, but that 
arrangement was found to work in a very unsatis- 
factory way for both parties. It involved very great 
and objectionable interference in the internal afiairs of 
the States and was extremely distasteful to the chiefs, 
consequently the present system was substituted and 
agreements were entered into with the chiefs by 
which they agreed to prevent smuggling, and that all 
opium intended for export to Bombay should be sent 
by certain specified routes. I believe that those are 
the only real points of great importance which are 
provided for. On the one hand, we have no concern 
whatever with the cultivation of the poppy or the 
manufacture of the opium or the consumption of the 
opium in the native States, and they, on the other 
hand, have nothing at all to do with the opium after 
it passes the scales, as they are called, where it is 
weighed. 

878. {Mr. Pease.) Could you give us the date of the 
altered arrangement P — -1831, I think it was. 

879. I thought the first one was 1831, and that was 
altered subsequently p — No, I think it has been in 
force ever since. I believe the existing system under 
which the transit of the opium is managed is provided 
for by rules passed under the Opium Act, No. 1, of 
1878. In accordance with that Act the cultivation of the 
poppy was prohibited throughout the Bombay Pre- 
sidency, and agreements were entered into with the 
small native States included within the Bombay 
Presidency, under which they also prohibited the cul- 
tivation of the poppy, and they undertook to prevent 
smuggling and to adopt necessary measui'es for pre- 
venting the illicit importation of opium into our terri- 
tories. 

880. [Ghairman.) Is the opium brought to its final 
state of preparation for consumption in the native 
States P — Yes. 

881. The participation of the Governmi'iit of India in 
the cultivation and preparation of opium in the native 
States is limited to the imposition of an export dutj', is 
it not? — Absolutely nothing else. 

882. In Bengal the Government occupies a somewhat 
difi'erent position P — Quite different. 

883. There the Government is a producer of the 
article ? — Yes, or a manufacturer ; virtually yon may 
almost say a producer. 

884. A manufacturer P — Yes. 

835. Then we will not further interrupt yon. Will 
you kindly proceed with your statement p — The second 



part of Clause 2 says, " on what terms, if any, these 
" arrangements can be with justice terminated." 
Well, with regard to that question I can make no 
suggestion. The question, I presume, signifies: — Is it 
possible to make any arrangement by which the pro- 
duction of opium in the native States could be stopped 
or by which its export could be prevented. I can make 
no suggestion at all upon that subject, for it appears to 
me to be quite impracticable. These States have, as 
Mr. Batten says in his paper, a population of some 
22,000,000. They cover an immense area ; the habit of 
consuming opium has prevailed among the people of 
those States, particularly the Rajputs, for centuries. 
No restrictions have ever been placed upon the cultiva- 
tion of the poppy or on the sale of opium within the 
Ijoundaries of those States, and although it is very 
difficult to attempt to give any accurate statistics on 
such a point, the annual value of the crops of these 
native States has been estimated as being at least 
9,000,000 of tens of rupees. ' I can suggest no means by 
which, if such a course were thought expedient, the 
cultivation could be suppressed. It appears to me that 
political difficulties of the gravest nature would be 
the inevitable result of any attempt of the kind. I 
was referring to the arrangements which were in 
force before 1831. I do not know much about them 
in detail, but it has been stated that they were 
in the highest degree distasteful, both to the people 
and to the chiefs; that they were most harassing 
to the people ; that they invohed all sorts of inter- 
ference in the internal affairs of the States ; and I 
think there can be no doubt that an attempt to 
suppress the cultivation altogether would lead to 
results of the same kind buc of an infinitely more 
serious character. I believe, as Mr. Batten has said, 
that nothing short of an army of British officials 
scattered over the States supervising agricultural 
operations could prevent the cultivation. It has been 
sometimes said that we might prevent the export of 
opium into our own territories by a customs line, but 
that customs line would be between 2,000 and -{.OOO 
miles long, and the establishment of such a line would 
be quite out of the question. We have most ample 
evidence in India to show the results of the existence 
of such a line in the Inland Customs line which was 
formerly in existence for the taxation of salt, and which 
was only abolished when Lord Lytton was Viceroy. 
There is no doubt that that line was one of the greatest 
disgraces of our Indian Administration, and it is quite 
im|)0ssible, 1 think, that anyone acquainted with the laots 
could ever wish to see anything of the kind restored. 

886. Did they maintain a cordon round the Portuguese 
territory of Goa in connexion with the salt duty ? — 
Only within the last year or so, I think. 

887. Did we take over the salt manufacture at Goa P — 
Our treaty with Portugal has come to an end, and we 
have, I believe, been obliged to put a cordon, but that 
is on a very small scale, and we may hope temporary. 
The next point, my Lord, is the effect on the finance of 
India. 

888. The effect on the finance of India of the pro- 
hibition of the sale and export of opium p — With 
reference to this, I think the first thing that I should 
like to say is that the question of the five or six crores 
of rupees which constitute the annual net revenue at 
the piescnt time of the Government of India, is a com- 
paratively small part of the question. I think the real 
essential question is — what is the value of the Indian 
crop P The Government revenue is, as Mr. Batten 
has clearly shown in his paper, a comparatively 
small part of the annual profits derived by India 
from the cultivation of the poppy. It no more 
represents the interests involved than in this country 
the 26,000,000?. sterling that we raise by duties 
on spirits and wine and beer represent the value of 
all the liquors consumed in the United Kingdom. I 
believe the so-called Drink Bill is called 14.0,000,0002. 
a year. In India, besides the Government revenue aad 
the revenue derived from opium by the native Stales, 
there are the profits of perhaps a couple ol million 
cultivators, these are the profits of the land-owners, 
of the merchants, the dealers, and the middle- 
men, and it has also to be remembered that although 
opium is by far the most valuable product of the poppy, 
it is by no means tho only product. Poppy seed and 
poppy oil contain no opium at all, and are perfectly 
wholesome products, and they are very largely con- 
sumed both in India and in Europe. Mr. Batten in 
his paper estimates the total value of tho poppy crops 
at about 19,150,000 tens of rupees. As far as I can 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



C5 



judge, their actual viiluo exceeds rather than falls ahort 
of that amount. Poppy seed is an important article of 
trade. It is largely used throughout India as a condi- 
ment -with food and for making oil, and for the latter 
purpose it is also used in Europe. The exports of 
poppy seed from India are valued at nearly 600,000 
tens of rupees, and the value of the internal and 
external trade in the poppy seed is believed to be not 
less than 4,000,000. I cannot criticise Mr. Batten's 
figures, but I think it would be amattei' of great interest 
and importance if the G-overnment of India were 
thoroughly to investigate the question of the annual 
value of the popy crops and were to come to some 
conclusion on the subject, for they have very much 
better means than any private individuals of arriving 
at the truth. Until we know something with tolerable 
confidence on this point it is impossible to say what 
would be the probable cost to India of suppressing 
the cultivation and the sale of opium, supposing always 
such a thing to be practicable and desirable. Mean- 
while I can only say that my own belief \j8 that the 
total value of the crops is probably greater than the 
amount estimated by Mr. Batten. 

889. May I ask whether the 19,000,000 represents the 
value of the crop in tbe market? Is that the case; 
that is its market price P — The profit that is got by all 
classes out of the crop. 

890. {Mr. Mowbray.) Does that include the jjrofit in 
the native States as well us the Bengal opium ? — Yes. 
Mr. Batten in his paper gives all the details by which 
he arrives at his conclusions. Mr. Batten also said, 
converting these 19,000,000 tens of rupees at the then 
rate of exohans^e the equivalent in sterling was about 
13,000,0002., and it would be very much the same 
now ; but I should like to say on that point that it 
seems to me that these conversions of rupees into 
pounds sterling — the same thing applies when we 
come to the question of the net revenue — have 
very little useful meaning. Not many years ago, for 
instance, these 19,000,000 tens of rupees would have 
been equal to 19,000,000L sterling. We have been un- 
commonly near seeing the rupee worth Is. ; in that 
case these 19,000,000 would be worth only 94 millions 
sterling instead of 19 ; and it must be remembered that 
these immense fluctitations in the gold value of the 
rupee have not for practical purposes much afi'ected the 
value of the products of the poppy crop to the cultiva- 
tors of India. 

891. (Chairman.) Of course the loss to the cultivator 
in India in the depreciation of the rupee might be met 
by an enhancement of the price of their article ? — As a 
matter of fact, during all these great changes in the 
gold value of the rupee, prices in India have hardly 
been affected. I think it also is important to remember, 
as Dr. Watt has observed in his very excellent artice 
in the Dictionary of Economic Products, that this 
industry has existed in India for centuries, and that 
from the time of Akbar to the present day it has been 
recognised and indeed protected by the Government. 
This revenue that we derive from opium we inherited 
from the Mogul Government. 

The next point in the next clause is the amount of 
compensation payable, but it seems to me rather idle to 
talk of compensation for the suppression of such an in- 
dustry as this. It is conceivable, though I have not the 
least idea in the world how it could be done, but still it is 
conceivable that a powerful Government like our own 
might absolutely suppress the cultivation and the trade 
in opium ; but how compenKation could be given for it 
I cannot conceive. My own belief is — again it is 
an impossible supposition — that if England were to 
make a free gift to India of 100,OOU,OOOZ. sterling, it 
would be no compensation to India for the loss of one 
of the most valuable of all her natural products, for the 
destruction of a great industry and the extinction of 
one of the principal articles of her trade. The next 
question is, " What would be the loss of the actual 
revenue ? " 

892. Yes? — This question, it is not easy to answer with 
certainty, because the fluctuations in the amount of tbe 
opium revenue have been very great. Some j'ears ago it 
was as much as 8,500,000 tens of rupees, but of late years 
it has greatly diminished. The princijial cause of this, 
I think there can be no doubt, has been the lapid 
increase of cultivation in China, and the lower prices 
of Chinese opium. Other causes have, no doubt, 
contributed ; probably the increased taxation in China 
has been one cause. 

893. In the form of an import duty do you mean ? — 
Yes. A few years ago an additional import duty 

e 80970. 



was imposed in lieu of the inland likin duties as they 
were called. Then there has been for several years a 
partial failure of the opium crops in India and that also 
has led to a great diminution in the sale of opium 
and in the revenue. The last year for which wo have 
approximate figures is 1892-3. In that year the net 
revenue credited under the head of opium — I am 
speaking in tens of rupees always — was 6,371,000 to 
which have to be added the duties credited under excise 
720,000, making a total of 7,100,000, and, this was about 
the average amount for the five years ending with 
1892-3. For the present year 1893-4 we have only the 
Budget Estimate, and that, including the excise, has been 
reduced to 5J millions, but to the extent of nearly 
1,000,000 ; this large reduction is not due to an anticipated 
great fall in the demand for opium but to the expecta- 
tion of a better crop and of increased expenditure, which 
will enable the reserve stock of opium which had 
fallen very low to be replenished. It must be borne 
in mind that the fluctuations in the opium revenue are, 
as in the present year, often due not to fluctuations in 
the Chinese demand or in the price obtained, but to the 
greater or smaller outturn of the Bengal crop, and the 
expense of gathering it. But the immediate prospects 
of the opium revenue I think are certainly not favour- 
able. In consequence of a succession of bad seasons 
in India and low prices in China, and the constant 
increase of cultivation in that country, the quantity of 
opium exported has been much reduced, and other 
causes are, no doubt, operating in the tame direction, 
but for present purposes I think if we take the amount 
estimated in the Budget of the present year of 5f millions 
that is as reasonable an estimate probably as we can 
make for the present. But as I have said before, 
this sum represents only a comparatively small part of 
the interest of India in opium. If I am asked whether 
any means could be suggested, if it were considered 
expedient, by which the loss of 5|- millions of revenue 
or even a smaller sum than that 

894. That is not 5| millions of pounds sterling ? — 
No, I am always speaking of tens of rupees. If I am. 
asked if I could suggest any means by which that 
could be made good I certainly could suggest no 
means. I think there is no doubt that it is useless to 
talk about possible reduction of expenditure. I think it 
certain that, speaking in general terms, there is no 
probability of its being diminished, but that it will go 
on increasing as appears to be the case in every country 
with an elaborate system of government. In 1881 
the Government of Lord Bipon wrote very fully upon 
that subject, and declared that it appeared to them 
impossible to suggest any means by which the loss of 
the opium revenue could be recouped, and I think that 
all that they said then is quite as true at the present 
day. 

Tbe next clause of the Order of Reference to the Com- 
mission is : "Whether any change short of total pro- 
" hibition should be made in the system at present 
" followed for regulating and restricting the opium 
" traffic, and for raising a revenue therefrom." 

895. Would you draw a distinction in relation to the 
moral responsibility of the Government of India 
between an active participation in the trade as a 
manufacturer and the imposition of duties on export 
or charges in the form of license duties ? — In an- 
swering this question I assume the object in view to 
be the restriction within the narrowest possible prac- 
tical limits of the consumption of opium. I think it 
is certain that no system which could Le in British 
territory substituted for the present system could be 
so effective in restricting the quantity of opium pro- 
duced, and therefore in restricting the consumption. 
I assert very confidently that the Government of India 
has never been influenced by any desire to encourage 
the consumption of opium either in China or in India. 
On the contrary, its whole action has been in the 
direction of restricting the consumption by imposing 
the highest amount of taxation which can be imposed 
without defeating the objects in view. It appears to 
me that there can be no question that of all fiscal 
restrictions that can be imposed the State monopoly 
is the most repressive and severe. I think it is con- 
ceivable, though not at all probable, that the abolition 
of the opium monopoly in Bengal and the substitution 
for it of a heavy export duty such as that which we 
now have on the other side of India might if it 
were practicable involve no loss of revenue, but I 
think it would inevitably lead to an increase of con- 
sumption, and the difficulty of making such a change of 
system in Bengal would be extremely great indepen- 
dently of the question of the effect on the consumption. 

J 



J. Strachey, 
G.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



()6 



IXrUAX OPIUM COMMISSION 



Sir 

J. Stracher/, 

G.C.SI. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



Bengal is intersocted in all directions with rivers, the 
outlets to the sea are v rv numeron?, and the facilities 
for smugglirg are enormous. The Bengal Grovernment 
some years ago gave their opinion that they could 
see no limit to the cost of the preventive establishment 
that would be necessary. I should think that no 
country could be found where the difficulty of prevent- 
ing smuggling would be so gnat; and I suppose that 
there is no article which it is easier to smuggle. I am 
not quite sure of the fact, but if I remember rightly a. 
single pound of opium will last a consumer of opium 
a whole year. T cannot conceive the possibility of 
regulating any export duty with that maximum of 
severity of pressure which is secured by a monopoly ; 
therefore I think, if it be true that the interests of mo- 
rality are involved, then those interests are best served 
by the maintenance of the monopoly. Then, as regards 
China in particular. If the object at which we ought 
to aim is the reduction of consumption by the Chinese, 
it appears to me clear that to whatever extent we 
diminish the export of opium from India, we stimulate 
the extension of opium cultivation in C^hina, and the 
substitution of the choapoi- Chinese for the dearer 
Indian opium, and that is a iaet that has always been 
recognised by the Grovernment of India. The G-overn- 
ment of India has always seen, as,-uming what I think 
is an indisputable fact, that the Chinese will have 
opium, that a I'eduction in the supply of Indian opium 
instead of leading to reduced consumption in China 
leads inevitably to inei'eascd production and iuci'cascd 
consumption in that country. The present monopoly 
system therefore, it appears to me, by which the price 
of Indian opium is increased to a maximum, not only 
checks consumption in India itself, but it checks con- 
sumption in China also. So far as India is concerned I 
believe, as I have said in the paper of my owii which w;ir 
read, that really the only question is whether our 
restrictive measures have noc sometimes beeii too 
severe, and whether they have not to a very objection- 
able extent encouraged smuggling, and by making 
opium very dear and difficult to obtain, whether 
they have not encouraged the use of drugs which 
are infinitely naore noxious. My opinion, therefore, 
is that so far from the present system being open to the 
charge of stimulating the consumption of opium, 
whethei' by Chinese or Indians, that no system could be 
devised by which the consumption could be so severely 
checked. And as a question of morals, if it be held — 
which I myself am very far fi'om admitting — if it 
be lield that the consumption of opium for other than 
medicinal purposes is necessarily a vice, then I think 
it is clear, as 8ir Henry Maine said long ago, in refer- 
ence to obis very question of substituting an export duty 
for the monopoly : " For moral purposes there is no 
" distinction between what a despotic government does 
" itself and what it permits its subjects to do. What 
" possible diti'erenee can it make from a moral point of 
" view, whether they take a jiart of the profits from 
" the hands of the dealer or the whole of the profits 
" fi-om the monopoly?'' Sometimes the objection is 
made on economic grounds that it is very undesirable 
for a government to engage in the operations of private 
trade. I cannot say that I attach an}' particular im- 
portance to that. As a matter of fact, there is no 
ci"\'ilised government that lor the purposes of raising 
revenue has not established some monopoly or other, 
and for my part I see nothing more objectionable in the 
monopoly of ojiium than in the monopoly of tobacco. 

896. Yon have exhausted what you wish to say on 
the fourth article in ihe Order of Eel'erence ? — Ye.T. 

897. Now we come to the question of the consump- 
tion of opium by the difierent races in the <lifferent 
districts of India, and the eiieet. of such con- 
sumption on the moral and physical condition of 
the peO|le? — The only country — I cannot say of 
India, because it is not India, it is as unlike India 
as Algeria is unlike France — but the only country 
under Indian administration in ieg;ud to which it 
appears to me that iiny evidence Jias been produced 
that deserves serious considenition to show that any 
considerable section ni' the people has suUered from 
the consumption of 0])ium, is I'nrmah. JSTow it is 
indisputable that there has been a great body of opinion 
as to the injurious effect of oiiium on the Burmese. 
Two Chief Commissioners, Sir Charles Aitchison 
and Sir Alexander Mackenzie, both of them men 
who are entitled to speak on ihe subject with the 
highest authority, have concurred in that opinion, and 
there is no doubt that the same opinion has 
been vciy ,L;en.'r;ill;, hold by the majority of 



the British -itficrrs I'mphiycd 



Bnrmah. Also 



it seems to have been an admitted fact that those views 
are in accordance with those of tbo more intelligent 
classes of the Burmese themselves. " Kative opinion," 
Sir Charles Aitchison wrote, " is unanimous in favour 
" of stopping the supply of opium altogether, and ne 
" measure we could adopt would be so popular with all 
" the respectable and law-abiding class of the popu- 
" la.tion. In a matter so intimately affecting the well- 
" being of the community," he added, "these expres- 
" sions of opinion a^-e entitled to the greatest respect. 
" When practical questions of this kind arise it may 
" become a duty to yield to strong and general desire 
■' of the people, even when their opinions may appear 
" unreasonable." Now, although I have myself, I must 
say, failed to discover the facts upon which this belief 
in the injurious eflTects of opium on the Burmese nopu- 
lation rests, I cannot deny that it was i ight to yield to 
this general consensus of opinion on the )i,irt both of 
the Burmese themselves and of the Knglish officers 
most competent to form an accurate judgment, and to 
take measures for preventing the sale of opium to 
Burmese, and their possession of the drug, and this 
has ■ been actually done throughout the whole of 
Burmah. In regard to this question of the consump- 
tion of opium by the Burmese, it is, as Mr. Batten says. 
remai-kable that the authorities in Burmah seem to 
have arrived at the conclusion that opium is a benefit 
to everyone in the country except the Burmese them- 
selves. I should like to add that while there has been 
this unanimity of opinion in regard to the mischievous 
results of opium on the Bni'nicse, there lias boon an 
equal unanimity in legard to the harinlessiicss of ilie 
practice among the large foreign population, Chinese 
and Indian, of Burmah. Sir Charles Aitchison writes: 
" There are large numbers of the non-Burmese com- 
" munity, constituting perhaps the most thriving and 
" industrious section of the population, to whom the 
'' drug is a necessary of lii'e, and by whom it is rarely 
" abused. It is impossible to say precisely what the 
" numbers of the Chinese and natives of India are, but 
" they are probably not less than 200,tH30. The leo-i- 
" timate requirements of these people must necessarily 
■' be considered and provided for." Sir Alexander 
Mackenzie's views on that point were the same. He 
objected to any interference with the supjily of 
opium to the non - Burmese population. " There 
" is," he said, " a, considerable non-Burmese popula- 
" tiou of Shans, Chinese, and others, who are ac- 
" customed to the moderate use of opium, and who 
" consume it without ill eft'eots or even with beneficial 
" results." The Chief Conimissioner '• is not prepared 
" to advise the absolute prohibition of the possession or 
" sale of opium in Burmah by persons of non-Burman 
" descent. Such a step would be an unjustifiable 
" interference with the habits of a large section of the 
'■ population, and would be (juite" impossible to 
" enforce. It may be considered as established 
" beyond question that there is a legitimate demand 
" for opium among the foreign residents of Burmah, 
" which would exist whether the Government counte- 
" nanced the use of opium or not, that if Government 
" decided to declare the sale or possession of opium 
•■ generally illegal the demand would be supplied by 
" illicit means, and that the result of any attempt to 
" enforce absolute prohibition of the use of opium 
" would be the loss of a large amount ol' revenue with- 
" out any commensurate benefit." Although, as I said 
before, I cannot say that I am satisfied that while opium 
is harmless or beneficial to Chinese and others it is 
poisonous to the Burmese, still I cannot dispute tho 
authority by which that opinion is supported, and if 
it be correct, I know of only one su-gestion by which 
it can be explained. I believe there is no race of men 
among whom the demand for one form of stimulant or 
another does not exist, and it has been held by some 
—perhaps correctly— that while particular stiiuulants 
are harmless or beneficial lo some races, they are 
injurious to others. It is possible that opium taken 
even ill moderation may be injurious or a dangerous 
tenqitatioii to Burmese, although it may 1 le innocent or 
beneficial to Chinamen or Sikhs, and, as many have 
maintained is the case, alcohol taken even in moderation 
may be bad for the people of Southern Asia, whilst, 
similarly taken, it may be good for Europeans. How- 
ever this may be, Burmah is not India, and it is not 
reasonable to ajiply to India coKclnsions based upon 
observations made in a totally difierent country. It 
appears to me that as regards India, properly so- 
called, there is no evidence whatever to show that in 
any part of the country the consumption of opium is 
anywhere a, commonandcryingeA-il. Of course I admit 



SIINIFTES Ol"' EVIDKXCK. 



(i7 



that the use of opium may be abused, but I entirely 
disbelieve that ..this occurs to any genaral or dangerous 
extent. On that point, as I have said in the paper 
that was read to the Commission, I think that through- 
out this controversy it cannot be too constantly remem- 
bered that India is not a single country sach as we 
have in Europe, but a great continent, the countries 
and the peoples of which, beyond all doubt, differ from 
one another far more than the countries of Europe 
diiFcr. As Ihave said olsewhoro there is more difference 
— a great deal — between a Bengalee and a Sikh than 
between a, Scotchman and a Spa.niard. I believe that a 
very large proportion of the prevalent errors about 
India arise from false generalisations. Sensational 
descriptions of opium dens in Rangoon or Bombay will 
not in any way help us to learn the truth about the con- 
sumption of opium by Eajputs and Sikhs. Out of the 
290,000,000 of people in India, I do not suppose that 
there are 290 hundreds who have more personal know- 
ledge of these opium dens so-called than people have 
in England. I do not think that I can usefully say 
more in detail about the oonsamption of opium in the 
various countries of ^India. In the p.^per which has 
been read to the Commission I have stated my own 
conclusions. An excellent summary of the facts is 
given in Mr. Batten's paper, and with it are the speeches 
and papers of some of the most experienced Indian 
authorities 

898. "Who took part in the discussion on Mr. Batten's 
paper ? — Tes. Through the greater part of India it 
is doubtless true in every province that there are eaters 
or smokers of opium, chiefly eaters, but, in my opinion, 
there is really in the greater part of India nothing that 
deserves to be called an opium question. Certain classes, 
especially in Central and Northern India, have un- 
doubtedly consumed opium for centuries. They con- 
stitute a very small proportion of the 290,000,000 of 
people in India, but, no doubt, their positive numb.rs 
are large. I do not know what they may be, bat of 
Sikhs and Bajputs and others who consume opium the 
absolute number is large. 

899. And they belong to races which have been 
exceptionally loyal to the British authority ? — Certainly. 
Among the Eajputs and Sikhs in particular the use of 
opium has always been common, and the Sikhs in 
particular, who form so immensely important a part 
of our army, are almost invariably habitual con- 
sumers of .opium, and, with very rare exceptions, 
they consume it with just as much moderation as 
the gentlemen in this room consume their wine and 
their beer. They regard it almost as a necessary 
of life, and it is a notorious fact that these Sikhs — 
and I may say the same of the Eajputs — are physi- 
cally, I believe I might also say morally, but at any 
rate physically they are the very finest races in all 
India. As I have aaid in the paper that was read, a 
crack regiment of Sikhs need not fear comparison with 
any soldier.^ in the world ; certainly they need not fear 
comparison with a regiment of our own Guards. If 
opium is so univtr.sally destructive, how are such facts 
as that to be explained ? I believe that there is no pos- 
sible explanation except that although the use of opium 
may be abused, used in moderation it is not harmful, 
and I have no doubt that it is much less likely to be 
abused xban the use of alcohol. I do not think, my 
Lord, on tliat point I have anything more to say. 

900. The last subject in the Order of Eeference is the 
" inquiry into the disposition of the people of India in 
" regard to the use of opium for non-medical purposes, 
" and their willingness to bear, in whole or in part, the 
" cost of prohibitive measures"?— On that point, my 
Lord, I would ask you to allow me to read a passage 
from a despatch written by Lord Eipon's Government 
in India in the year 1881, which gives, I think, a 
complete answer to the question : — 

"It cannot be doubted," theysaid, "that native opinion 
in India would strongly resent any additional burdens 
being placed upon the taxpayer with a view to the 
abandonment, either whole or partial, of the opium 
revenue. It is, moreover, more than probable that the 
views of the British Government on this subject would 
be misunderstood. ' There must,' a native paper said a 
short time q,go, ' be some selfish motive at the bottom 
' of the movement made in England for the suppression 
' of the opium trade.' No doubt an opinion of this sort 
is very foolish. The high motives which guide the 
action of the Society for the Suppression of the Opium 
Trade cannot for a moment be doubted. However much 
we mav consider that the views they express do not 
take snfEcicnt account, whether from the Chinese or 



Indian ptrtutof vii^w, of the practical difficulties coil- 
nected with the problem they haVe set thcmselve.q to 
solve, no reasonable person can fail to respect their 
motives. Without doubt the gentlemen who take an 
active part in the' ;:,j;itation against the opium trade in 
England would be the first to protest if they thought 
the Indian ryots were suffering from any gi'ievous in- 
justice. But, on the other hand, it cannot be doubted 
that the opinions foreshadowed in the native print, from 
which wo have quoted abov<', are prevalent in India ; 
that they would iiud louder and more frequent ex- 
pression if it became generally understood that tl\ere 
was any serious intention of moving in the direction 
proposed by the Anti-Opium Society ; that even sup- 
posing England were to award a considerable compen- 
sation to India, it is exceedingly improbable that sucli 
compensation would adequately meet the loss involved 
in the abandonment of the opium revenue, and that'in 
consequence a sense of injustice would be engendered 
amongst the natives of this country, who would con- 
sider either that their interests had been sacrificed from 
selfish motives, or, at all events, that in our regard for 
the Chinese we had done an injustice to our own 
subjects." 

I feel confident that the opinions which the Go- 
vernment of India thus expressed, are entirely 
accurate. The only criticism upon them that I think 
possible is that they have stated the facts with too 
great moderation. Measures such as those suggested 
would, I believe, be looked upon from one end of India 
to the other with amazement and indignation, and if 
they were really enforced they would lead us into 
political dangers of extreme gravity. I do not think, 
my Lord, I can add to that. 

901. You have made a very clear and comprehensive 
statement of your views ; I should be very sorry to add 
to the task which we have already imposed upon you 
to-day by asking you any unnecessary questions. There 
are one or two points which I would like to ask you 
about. Ton have spoken in the early part of your 
evidence very confidently with reference to the effects 
of the consumption of opium, I believe, in India. You 
have said that so far as your knowledge extended you 
did not think it could be established that the consump- 
tion of opium had been generally injurious to those 
races in India who make use of opium ? — Yes. 

902. You expressed an equally strong opinion with 
reference to the people of China ? — Yes. 

903. Your observations with, reference it) the people 
of India would rest upon a large personal experience in 
India, would they not ? — Certainly. Yes. 

904. With regard to China, I suppose what you have 
told us results from the reports which have come before 
you from persons that you consider are entitled to 
speak with authority with reference to China P^Yes, 
I have no personal knowledge whatever of China. 

905. We have been told by the numerous witnesses 
repi-esenting the missionary body in China that the 
Chinese Government are understood by them and by 
the people of China to be anxious to prohibit the growth 
and the consumption of opium as supplied from the 
local growers in China, and we have been told that the 
Chinese Government have been precluded from taking 
any effective steps, and would continue to be deterred 
from taking any effective steps, so long as opium is 
permitted to be exported from ludia. What would 
you say with reference to that statement ? — I think 
that is a point upon which other witnesses — Sir 
Thomas Wade for instance, whose name I see down 
here — can give far more valuable evidence than I can. 
All that I can say upon the point is that 1 am under the 
strongest impression that it is a complete mistake to 
suppose anything of the kind, and that the Chinese Go- 
vernment has no wish whatever to prohibit the importa- 
tion of opium into China. I believe that if the Chinese 
Government desired to diminish the consumption of 
opium, of which I have seen no sign, it is quite intelli- 
gent enough to see that the diminution of the import of 
opium from India could not have that effect. Apart 
from that my belief is that there is no part of the 
revenue of the Chinese Government which that Go- 
vernment prizes more highly than the revenue that it 
derives from opium. This is paid in hard cash into the 
Customs' department at the treaty ports, and it goes 
into the Imperial Treasury. I have not got the papers 
here, but I believe that it has been made perfectly clear 
that the Chinese Government not only have not shown 
any desire to stop the importation of opium, but that 
they would be \'ery sorry to see it stopped, becaiiso they 

T 2 



Sir 

J. Strachey, 

G.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



68 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Sir 

J. Strachey, 

G. C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



■would lose— I forget how much they get, but I believe 
not less than a couple of millions sterling a year from it. 

906. Now turning to India, 1 think you have told ug 
that the larger portion of the production of opium in 
India is raised in the native States ? — Probably tiic 
largest production, because there is not only the export 
from Bombay but the large consumption by the people 
themselves. As far as the export to China goes, the 
larger quantity' goes from Bengal. 

907. You have given us, have you not, a strong 
opinion that to inierfere by prohibition in the native 
States would involve grave political difiiculties ?— I 
think very great. 

908. And you entertain a similar view with reference 
to the prohibition of the use of opium by the races 
which have made use of opium from time immemorial, 
and which represent a vury important element in our 
native army p — I cannot conceive the possibility of 
doing such a thing without the gravest political 
danger. 

909. Looking at this question from a revenue point 
of view, you have expressed your conviction that there 
would be great practical objections to the prohibition 
of opium ; that we derive a certain rt'Veiiue from that 
source, and that you do not see from what other source 
this could be compensated if this revenue wei-e lorought 
to an end p — Yes. 

910. But is it not the case that the revenue of India 
has shown a decided tendency to growth in recent 
years p — Certainlj'. 

911. And from all sources? — -I may almost say 
that there is no branch of the revenue "which has not 
increased in a vur) satisfactory way. 

912. There has been a great improvement in I lie 
revenue from railways, has there not p — Acs. 

913. And you anticipate a further oonstunt growth 
from that source, I presume ? — Certainly. Every 
branch has improved. If it had not been i'or the 
terrible exchange difficulty I should say the revenues 
of India were in a very prosperous condition ; but that, 
of course, has been a difficulty. 

914. If the expenditure had not grown in an almost 
ecjual ratio with the growth in the revenue, the Govera- 
ment of India would have been in the enjoyment of a 
very handsome surplus by this time, would they not p — 
Certainly. 

915. Under the various heads of charge, no doubt 
there are some heads of expenditure which inevitably 
arise in connexion with the efforts which we are making 
to introduce civilisation, and to improve the material 
and moral condition of the people of India; that is so, 
is it not P — Certainly. 

Jilfi. For instance, public works, the supply of water, 
and many other heads of expenditure of that natare, are 
there not ? — Certainly. 

917. The military expenditure has shown a tendency 
to very rapid growth in recent years, has it not p— Ves, 
very great. 

9] 8. That subject, I daresay 3'ou are aware, has 
excited particular attention on the part of the Indian 
Currency Committee p — Yes. 

919. You are speaking of this subject, of coarse, only 
as a civilian, but perhaps you may be in a position to 
say whether you thinlc that that head of expenditure 
may be possibly arrested or checked in future years P — 
The military expenditure P 

920. The military expenditure p — I am not able to say 
whether all the additional military expenditure has 
been wisely incurred or not, but there is no doubt, 
I think, speaking in general terms, that it is impossible 
to suppose that our military expenditure will be 
diminished. The circumstances which have, led to the 
increase of military expenditure in India are patent to 
the world. They all may be summed up in the fact of 
the advance 01 Kussia. It is foolish tn prophesy what 
is going to ha]ipen in the futurfe, but I believe for my 
part — that this is as certain as anything that we can 
foresee in regard to India — that some day we shall 
have to light Kussia on our fi'ontier, and if we are not 
prepared we know what the oousequenees will be. 
Although I cannot enter into details and say that 
this or that branch of the expenditure was necessary, 
I have not the slightest doubt that there has been 
no such urgent necessity in India as the increase of our 
military strength. And we have this to I'cmeinber also 
with regard to the advaiiceof Russia, towards the Indian 



frontiers ; we have not only to think of the ])ossibility 
of having to fight her. The fact of the advance of 
liussia is felt throughout the whole administration of 
India. It is impossible to forget that all the native 
States of India know perfectly well that there iy ihis 
j^r.'at European poweT now approaching, and that we 
may have to fight for our empire. 

921. Assuming that the change which we must have in 
contemplation is one for which we ought to stand pre- 
pared, might it not be jjossible that the preparation 
would be made quite as effectually by a general rein- 
forcement of our Imperial army and our Imperial navy 
as by a local and perhaps excessively burdensome mili- 
tary expenditure in India itself P — With regard to that 
question, England now gives no help whatever. Every 
smgle farthing that is expended ou the British troops 
that come from this country is paid for by India, and 
will continue to be so, I suppose. I do not think myself 
that it is fair that it should be, but so it is. 

922. It is possible that in the future some readjust- 
ment of the burdens of military expenditure, and the pre- 
paration for the contingencies that you speak of might 
be made which would to some extent relieve the Indian 
Exchequer p — 1 should be very happy if 1 could believe 
that there was any probability of such a thing 
happening. 

112.3. Then with reference to the question of the 
revenue derived from opium generally, looking at it 
from a financial point of view. I assume that you 
consider that there is a distinct objection to placing 
undue reliance upon such a source of revenue because 
of its uncertainty. It depends upon the fluctuations of 
crops and depends also upon the policy which may be 
followed by the Chinese U-overnment, who might or 
might not at some future date adopt a fiscal policy 
which would operate to the exclusion of the Indian 
product from the Chinese markets ? — Yes. 

924. You would be glad, would you not, that the 
Tndiiin Government should be in the position in which 
it would cease to be dependent upon this opium revenue 
for establishing a balance between revenue and expen- 
diture ? — Certainly, but not at all on moral grotmds. 

925. On financial grounds you are speaking? — 
Certainly. 

i)26. {Mr. Pease.) You mentioned the native States 
generally. Malwa has also been mentioned — would 
you give us the names of the native States p — I am afraid 
that I cannot enumerate them all. The most im- 
portant Ones would be Indore, Gwalinr, and some ef 
the Rajputana States, Udaipur, and a number of smaller 
Slates, 

:i27. Most of the evidence which we have had given 
in to us has been with regard to both eating and 
smoking. I see in your remarks with regard to the Sikh 
soldiers, you allude to their being opium-drinking 
regiments P — I think that I ought not to have said 
drinking. Sir James Lyall could give much better 
information about that. I believe that the Sikhs 
generally prefer the decoction called jie.st, but I suppose 
when a Sikh soldier goes upon a campaign he talces a 
little bit of opium. 

928. (Sir James Lyall.) Yes, they do have that. 

929. {Mr. Pease.) Do you know what proportions of 
the men are consumers of opium P — I could not say 
from personal knowledge, but my belief is the great 
majority. 

930. What is your impression as to the proportion 
among the Rajputs of those who consume opium p— That 
I could not give you except as a guess. 

931. Surgeon Sir William Moore estimates the pro- 
portion after his first inquii-y at 6 ' 3 per cent., and after 
his second inquiry at 11-2!' per cent. You have no 
reason to doubt that that is a pretty fair statement 
that perhaps from 6 to 11 \iev cent, would be the pro- 
portion of those who take opium ?— He has studied the 
question on the spot, and I should think that his evi- 
dence is as good as you are likely to get. 

932. And how would those soldiers compare with 
other sections of the community or to the proportion 
that were likely to be consumers of opium ? — ^I could 
give no information upon that point. 1 have no know- 
ledge of it. 

933. You estimated the revenue at Rx. Ti. 750, 000 1 see 
in the Budget Estimate for 1893-1.. The ^ alue of the 
net revenue of the current year is put as Rx. 6,061,200, 
that is something like three-quarters of a million less ? 
— Yes; but that does not include the excise revenue 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



The avrangement is this, Rx. 5,000,000 is credited in 
the public accounts under the head of opium ; then in 
addition to that there is the excise opium, the duties 
which are levied on opium consumed in India. I think 
I have got the figure ; it was Rx. 729,000, which has to 
be added. 

934. Which explains the difference ; it seemed a 
discrepancy P— It makes the grand total Ex. 5,790,000. 

f35. Which is paid by the Indian taxpayer? — Yes, 
that is, the Ex. 729,000. 

936. Then you stated that the loss to India, as I 
understood it, wns something like Ex. 19,000,000 ; that 
would be something like 13,000, OOOL sterling, and it 
would not merely be a loss of revenue ? — Yes. 

937. In estimating that Ex. 19,000,000 you estimated 
the whole value of the land and the value of tiie labour, 
and the services of the merchants and so forth ? — Yes. 
Those figures, as I said, I derived from Mr. Batten, and 
in his paper he has given all the details by which he 
arrives at that particular figure. 

938. None of that arises at all if the land can be 
equally profitably employed, if the merchants could 
turn their capital to some other business, and the 
labour was equally profitably employed ? — With re- 
ference to that Mr. Batten makes a remark which I 
think is very much to the point. He says, suppose you 
wanted to abolish the couiumption of beer in England 
and were to tell the hop growers of Kent that they 
might substitute for their hops potatoes and gooseberries, 
they would not think much of it ; and so I think you 
may say of the opium in India. 

939. But it is a matter of fact that the land under 
opium cultivation has been restricted and i-educed 
without any compensation being paid to the persons 
whose lands have been growing poppy before ? — 
Certainly it varies very much and has been diminishing. 

940. And is it not also true that a great proportion 
of the cultivators now would not continue the growth 
of the poppy if it were not for the advances that are 
made to them for the purpose P — I am not prepared to 
R;iy. I suppose if the advances were not given, it is 
extremely probable that the cultivation would be 
restricted. 

941. They would then be placed in the same position 
as ordinary cultivators ? — But to what extent that 
would happen I really could not say. 

942. You think that the cultivators would be con- 
siderably prejudiced if they had to cultivate their 
lands with other crops ? — They evidently think so, 
Ijecause it is perfectly voluntary the cultivation of 
opium; nobody has any pressure put upon him to 
cultivate opium. 

943. -You spoke of the policy of the Indian G-overn- 
ment having been to restrict the cultivation of opium. 
Do you recommend a policy of restriction? — No. I 
do not think I said that it had been a policy of 
restricting the cultivation. 

944. " Which was severely checking " ; that was the 
expression, I think ?'--l said I thought that the mono- 
poly system was more restrictive than any other system 
that could be substituted for it. 

945. Then do you see any object in restricting the 
growth P — Well, my own personal opinion is that the 
consumption of opium is, in the vast majority of cases, 
perfectly innocent, just as I think in this country that 
the consumption of beer and wine is. Nevertheless, I 
do not deny in this country that I think it perfectly 
right to levy high duties on wine and on beer, to say 
nothing of stronger drinks. I think it is perfectly 
right to raise as large a revenue as you can from 
articles of that kind, and so I would say with the 
opium in India. Although I believe that it is not 
mischievous, still 1 think it is quite right to levy a 
heavy duty upon it ; and also I cannot leave out of con- 
sideration the fact that there is a very strong opinion 
of multitudes of people whose opinions deserve respect, 
who do not think as I do ; and 1 accept the fact that 
practically it would be impossible for any Government 
to encourage the growth of opium to any great extent. 
It is out of the question. 

946. For moral or financial reasons P^No, I mean 

947. Out of respect to public opinion?— As I read in 
an extract from a paper of Sir Charles Aitchison with 
reo-ard to Burmah, when you have public opinion very 
strongly to this effect, even if you think it wrong you 
have got to pay attention to it. 



948. You state, I see in this paper, that " the vast 
" majority of smokers of opium in China consume it in 
" moderation, and it is, as I said before, as harmless 
" as the wino and beer of Europe." Oa.i you tell us 
upon what you formed that statement, from what in- 
formation? — ^All I can say is, that although I have had 
no porsonal experience in China, this is the conclusion 
that I have arrived at from all that I have been able 
to learn upon the subject. 

949. If the facts were different, and that it was a 
cause of demoralisation in China, would you think that 
the policy of the Grovernment ought to bo any different 
to what it is? — Certainly, but only if the facts were 
diffej-ent. 

950. That if there was demoralisation in China, the 
course of the India.n Government should be different 
from what it is ? — As I have stated in my evidence, 
my belief is that by diminishing the export of opium 
from India you do not diminish the consumption in 
China ; as a question of morals, I do not say that it is 
right to desire to get a profit from the vices of other 
people. However, I may say upon that point it is 
certainly no worse than to get it from the vices of your 
own country. 

951. But you think that the Indian Government 
should be no party to the exportation of opium to 
China if it was demoralising to the Chinese ? — No, I 
would not say that. If I am quite certain that the 
Chinese will have the opium, and that by sending 
Indian opium to China the vice in China is not in- 
creased, I would not say that it was wrong. 

952. We might as well have the profit of demoralising 
them as anybody else ? — No ; I will not admit that that 
is the proper way of putting it. 

953. You stated that there were practical difficulties 
with regard to the prohibition of the growth of the 
poppy ; is ic not so, that it is effectually prohibited in 
Madras and Bombay at the present time ? — I spoke of 
the means of prohibiting it in the native States. Yes. 

954. But is it not the fact that the manufacture in 
the native States is at present entirely in the hands of 
English officials ? — Certainly not ; they have nothing 
whatever to do with it. 

955. Under the supervision of English officials ? — • 
Certainly not. 

956. I thought that was the case ? — No ; they have 
nothing to do with it whatever. 

957. When does it first come to the attention of the 
English officials after it is manufactured?— When it 
leaves the native States this export duty is levied upon 
it ; but we have nothing else to do with it. 

958. It is not true, as we have been told, that during 
the manufacture it is under the supervision of English 
officials ? — Certainly not. 

959. (Mr. Mowbray.) ] think you told us that the 
growth of the poppy had been prohibited in the Bombay 
Presidency under the Act of 1878 ? — I believe it was ■ 
1878. 

960. And that that applied also to the native States 
under the Bombay Government P — Yes. I think, if I 
remember rightly, with the exception of Baroda. 

961. It is not, I believe, technically under the 
Government of Bombay, is it ? — No ; but there is some 
special arrangement, I believe, made with it. 

962. I only wanted to know whether before that 
prohibition there had been any cultivation of the poppy 
in the native States under Bombay P — I could not 
answer that question. I have no knowledge of it. 

963. Now, I should just like to understand clearly 
where this transit duty on the Malwa opium is levied. 
Is it levied at certain definite points on the frontier 
between the native States and the Bombay Presidency ? 
— There are certain points. I could not name them 
all, but Indore is one — perhaps the most important — 
Indore, Eutlam, and Ahmedadabad. There are certain 
points on the frontier where arrangements are made 
for weighing the opium that is brought across. There 
it is weighed and sealed up in chests in some particular 
fashion, and sent with a passport. I believe it is sent 
in special consignments under guards ; it is sent 
through to the Custom House at Bombay for export, 
and the duty, which is now at the present moment 
600 rupees a chest, is leyied at the place where it is 
weighed. 

I 3 



Sir 

J. Straehiy, 

G.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



(0 



INDIAN OPIL'M COMMiSSK.IN 



Sir 964. And is it all exported from Bombaj', or is it 

./. Strachei/, consumed — part of it consumed — some of it consumed 

G.C.S.I. in the Bombay Presidency? — Yes, by f;i.r the greater 

part of it is exported to China, but such part — I do 

1.') Sept. 1R93. not remember at this moment what proportion, but 

comparatively small it would be — ivhntevcr is required 

for the local consumption of the Bombay Presidency 
■would be sold there. 

Pl)5. And is this opium sent through the frontier 
principally liy native governments? — No; ))y native 
merchants. 

960. But, I mean, they act upon tluir own responsi- 
bility, and not as agents for native governments? — 
No. 

!Ml7. But these arrangements a.re all m;i.de with thi^ 
native governments, I suppose, that the opiam should 
pass through these special frontier stations, if I 
may call them so 9 — As I have stated, I have little 
personal knowledge of these mattirs ; Ijut, as far as I 
understand, the nati\e governments ha\'e engaged that 
all the opium shall go by pm-ticular routes, so that 
there may not be smuggling through either. No doubt 
there is a great deal of smuggling as it is. 

!iti8. You think there is? — Well, it may readily be 
supposed that Aviih such a valuable article as opium 
there will be smuggling; but as to what the jirobable 
amount of the smuggling is I could not say. 

;'G;i. But I suppose if we had not these arrangements 
it would be almost impossible to prevent smuggling ? — 
Certainly. 

970. Where dojs the opium come from which the 
Sikhs consume ? — That is grown in the Pnniab. 

971. In the Puujnb ? — For the most part, at any rate. 

'••72. Is that in the nati\-e States in the I'unjab ? — No; 
Sir James Lyall would know that Ijetter than I do ; 
it is grown under license, I believe. 

97:;. I Sir Jiiines Lynll.) It is partly grown under 
license, and on payment of a dutj' on area, and on 
condition that the pnufjco can only be Siild to the 
retail vendors, who pay a sum to Government for the 
privilege of retail '/juding. 

Ii74. (Clh" Irnwii.f A license duty ? 

;i75. [Sir James Ly dl.) Yes; and it is partly grown 
in the HiU Statis sulij' ct to the Punjab G-overnment, 
just as the JIabva opium is grov.-n in the j\Ialwa native 
States, audit comes (Uit also under the same conditions, 
that it can only !);• snld to the Govciument contractor ; 
;ind a small amount is allowed to eo;ne in from Central 
India and Pajpntani. on payment of the snme pass 
duty, or verj' nearly the same, or quite tlie sa.me, 
as that which the sjme opium iiays on export 
to China; and in certain places like Delhi, where 
thei'o has been a class of jioople who in former 
times wcr^' ;(Ccnstomcd to ns;; tli" Beng.il or Patna 
opium, a certain small amount of what thev call 
excise opium- is allowed to come in and it is taken iind. 
put into the Government Treasurv and sold to these 
bcensed vendor-' — n very sm.-dl amount : it is only from 
one or two phiccs like Delhi that that has been allowed. 

ioG. {Mr. 3[nivhri"y.) 'I lien, in fact, they have in 
India three systems ; really, lliey have the Government 
moitopoly in licngal, they hav" the native-gro'vn opium, 
paying the transit duty, and they have the Punjab 
system of growing under license. I suppo e that you 
would not be preiinred to recommend the license 
system in lieu of iLc monopoly ;ysl cm in Hengal? — 
iNo; I do not see th:it tliere wouhl )ic any advantage 
gained by it. As I said in ray ovideni'C, if the object 
is to pnt as huav}' a tax on the opium as possible. 
I think that is gained mor(! comp!ercly under the 
mtmopoly system tlian any other. 

977. Have wc any arrangements with the nalive 
States which regulate the amount of transit duty which 
we charge ? — No; that is entirely in our own hands; 
we can fix any other export duiy. 

978. And it is fi\cd, I suppose, mainly with the vicTi 
to revenue ? — lintirely. 

'.79. {Mr. M'ilsoii.) Yon mentioned in your |)apcr. 
Sir .lohn — the papia- which was read to ns about the 
growth of opium in C'liina— provinces being given up 
to it. I understand that is not from yonr own know- 
ledge? — No. 

The witn 



9b:0. Can you tell me where I could find the best 
information on that subject ? — I am afraid 1 cannot 
answer that question. I think some of the other 
witnesses will give you better inform.ation than I 
can. 

981. Then you made a remark which I did not ()uite 
catch — what the bearing of it was. It was something 
to the effect that out of ;i90,000,000 of persons in India 
there were not more than a certain proportion who 
knew anything aliout it, or not more that knew about 
it, in India than, in England. I do not know whether 
you remember the expression? 

982. (C^'i'irmiin.) Yes, it was witli reference to the 
personal knowledge of the evils of the opium dens? — 
I think what I said was — though I do not think my 
figures have any value — what I said was. I think, this : 
that oirt of the 290,000,000 of people in India I did not 
suppose there were 2'.i9 hundreds, that wouldbe 29,000, 
who had any personal knowledge of opium dens. 

983. (Jlfr. Wii-iim.) That is what I did not understand ? 
— But I did not mean to say that that number has any 
importance. 

984. (Ghairmnii.) It is merely a mode of conveying a 
general impression ? — Yes. 

'.'85. {Mr. Wihoii.) Then I only want to ask you 
about these Sikhs, to whom you referred, and their 
consumption. You said something about when the}' 
went on campaign they took a bit. Do I understand 
they do not regularly take it ? — They regularly take 
it, certainly ; and I have been told by men who have 
the most intimate knowledge of Sikh soldiers that you 
could not, in fact, take them on a campaign without it 
— that it is absolutely necessary to them. 

986. They eat that ?— Yes. 

987. Do they smoke as well ? — I do not think so. 
No. 

988. Have you any idea approximately about how 
much they consume daily P — I do not know ; i could 
not say ; it is a very small quantity. 

989. (Chairman.) You have in another part of yonr 
evidence said that a pound would represent the con- 
.sumption of a whole year ? — Yes, but I do not stick tu 
that. I spoke in general terms ; I do noc stick to the 
particular weight. 

990. {Mr. Wilson.) With reference to Mr. Mowbray's 
question about smuggling, I do not quite understand. 
Is there something like a Customs line now round these 
native States? — No, there is no Customs line; but an 
arrnugcment is made by which the native States engage 
that tlie opium intended for export to Bombay should 
go by particular routes and shall cross their trontierd 
at particular points. 

991 . A'es ; but what is the use of an arraugeinent if 
there is no Customs line to enforce it ? — The natixe States 
bind themselves to take care that it is enforced. I do 
not doubt that there is a great deal of smuggling; but 
still when it comes to exports of thousands of chests, 
you cannot smuggle that. 

992. {Mr. Pease.) I understand, Sir John, that none 
of the smuggled opium is exported — that the opium 
that is smuggled will not coine into such ciicnmstances 
as it can be exported ?— No ; it could not, certainly, on 
a great scale. 

li9o. No ; it would lie consumed in India? — Yes. 

/•vo».) ] understand that a great ]iai-c of 
grown on advances ?— Yes ; in Benaal 



994. {Mr 
the opium 
only. 

995. Bengal ?— Yes. 

99(3. Advances ? — But that is the universal custom in 
India — to give advances to cultivators of opium and 
everything else. 

997. Does Government— do the authorities provide 
advances in the same way for any other crop or 
industry ? — No. " , 

998. The other advances to which you rcl'cr are made 
by merchants and so forth ? — The Government advances 
ai'O certainly for nothing else. 

999. {Chairman.) It is the only article in Avhich they 
are engag<;d as manufacturers. Is there anything that 
you would like to add ? — No; I do not think there is 
anything else. 

'ss withdrew. 



MIN'UTEK OF EVIDKNCK. 



71 



Surgeon-Groneral Sir William Moore, K.C.I.B., Q.K.P,, oalled and cxiiminod. 



1000. (Ghmrman.) Sir William Moore, will you 
describe to us the nature of your duties, and the official 
position which you filled in India? — I have filled 
many official poeitions ; but perhaps the most important 
were as principal medical officer, for a number of years, 
in Rajpoptana, and then as Deputy Surgeon-G-oneral 
I'or five years of the Bombay Presidency, and then as 
Surgeon-General to the Bombay Presidency. 

1001. How many years altogether did you pass in 
India P— About 33 J. 

1002. In the course of your service were you led to 
give much attention to the use of opium P — I first com- 
menced investigating the use of opium so far back as 
the year 1868, and the results of my investigations were 
published in one of the selections from the Government 
of India in the Foreign Department — I forget the 
number — and I then said that opium using was not so 
prevalent in Eajpootana as had been supposed (that,' I 
think, was mentioned just now) ; and afterwards in some 
other article I said that nearly all the Eajpoots used 
opium. The anti-opium party took that up as a con- 
tradiction ; but they were not aware that about only 
one-fourth of the population of Rajpootana are Rajpoots, 
the other are Mhairs, Menas, Gonds, Bheels, and 
various other tribes, so that they made a mistake. It 
is amongst the Rajpoot population that the use of 
opium is prevalent. I do not moan t o say that all of them 
use it, but the great majority ol' them do, and especially 
the native gentlemen — the Thakoors or Barons of the 
country. 

1003. We have been giving our attention to the 
opium question from a general point of view. Can you 
tell us how were the investigations which you made 
with reference to the use of opium conducted ? — Well, in 
Rajpootana they were conducted — (I was then the 
Superintendent- General of Dispensaries and Vaccination,, 
and therefore had to travel all over the country) — they 
were conducted by noticing the people at the difi'erent 
hospitals and dispensaries, by associating with them in 
their villages, by friendships with the Thakoors and 
native gentlemen, sometimes staying in their houses ; 
in Bombay by going to the opium shops, by seeing the 
people there ; by sitting down and smoking opium 
with thena ; and in the same way at Poonah. 

1004. Well, towards what particular point were your 
inquiries directed p — Oh, purely and entirely to the 
physiological effect of opium on the constitution — the 
habitual use of opium on the constitution. 

1005. Well, what were the conclusions that you arrived 
at ? — Well, I came to the conclusion that opium 
smoking was practically harmless, and that drinking 
umal pawnee, or opium water, was practically harmless, 
not only harmless, but in many cases productive of 
very great benefit. A moderate use would brighten 
the intellect and strengthen the system, render the 
people more able to go through fatigue, and in seasons 
of want and scarcity enable them to do with less food. 
It was also in some degree a prophylactic to the 
malarious fevers which abounded in some parts of the 
country, and which I could prove by actual demonstra- 
tion. 

1006. Did you draw any conclusions with reference to 
the comparative evil eft'ects of opium and alcohol P — 
I have already mentioned that tho evil effects of 
smoking opium, in moderation are practically nil, and 
the evil effects of drinking umal pawnee or opium- 
water are practically nil, but if opium is taken to excess 
it does an injury, but it does not do so much injury as 
alcohol. It never produces any disease, excepting in 
the very last stages of an opium-eater, who may suffer 
from emaciation and diarrhoea. But that is quite ex- 
ceptional. It never produces drrinkenness, such as 
alcohol does, in fact the attitude of the opium user is 
always one of repose. He never quarrels with his 
neighbour or beats his wife, or makes arrangements to 
commit crimes, whereas the man with alcohol does all 
this ; and the man who sufiers from alcohol will get 
disease of the heart, fatty degeneration, disease of the 
liver, the kidneys, and other organs. Nothing of that 
occurs from opium, excepting, as I have said before, by 
a very large use of opium — the last stages are some 
degree of emaciation and diarrhoea. 

1007. Now, supposing opium were only obtainable in 
India as a medical prescription, what would you con- 
ceive to be the probable result of such a restriction ? — 
It would be a grievous interference with the social 



habits and customs of largo sections of tho population. 
I will give you an instance. Tlie Rajput, when he is 
going to make a journey of 10 or 15 miles, or even 
20, or even 30 miles, ihrnngh the sand on a camel, 
generally takes a cup of umiil pawnee — a stirrup- 
cup to strengthen him on the road. He would not be 
able to do that. The Rajput gentleman, after he has 
had his dinner at night, produces the opium pipe or cup 
of umal pawnee, whichever he prefers ; it is produced 
just as wine is produced in this country after dinner. 
He would not be able to do that. The camel-feeder, 
who goes out into the deserts to feed the young camels, 
and stays there for months, would not be able to do it on 
his handful of grain and his camel's milk if he had not 
opium to add to sustenance. The people who frequent 
the opium shops — and most of therji come to the opium 
shops because they are sufi'ering from some physical 
malady — would not be able to go to those opium shops, 
and would not be able to get the relief that they get 
from them. The malarious fevers of the country would 
be considerably inoreas"d in severity, and the native 
chiefs, in whose territories opium is grown, would have 
grave cause for dissatisfaction. 

1008. (Sir W. Roberts.) Have you, in your travels 
over India, distinguished bptween the effect of the 
habitual use of opium in different races? — No, I have 
not. 

1009. Von ><poke of the Rajputii p — L spok'o of the 
Rajputs. That.is tlic finest race in India. 

1010. Thejr are opium oaters ? — They arc almost 
habitual opium eaters. 

1011. Then you can speak from your own knowledge 
that they are gcnei'ally habitual opium eaters ? — Well, 
I have associated witli them in daily intercourse, and 
at times lived in gentlemen's houses. My tent has 
often been pitched close to their houses ; the Thakoors 
have come into my tent at night. 

1012. You are speaking of the reputable citizens? — 
I am speaking of the gentlemen, the Thakoors, who arc 
really the barons of the country. 

1013. And also the workmen ? — Oh, yes. 

1014. Well-regulated and well-conditioned workmen ? 
— Tes ; many such workmen. 

1015. And is it your experience that those using 
opium in that way habitually were, as a class, healthy 
people? — As healthy as they could possibly be as a 
class. 

1016. I presume there are no statistics in regard to 
the death-rate or birth-rate in Rajputana ? — No, there 
are no reliable statistics. There are statistics, but I 
would not recommend them as reliable. 

1017. Have you observed whether there was a ten- 
dency in case of an habitual opium eater to the increase 
of the dose ? — As a general rule they do not increase 
the dose, but some do. 

1018. That has been your personal observation p — 
That has been ray personal knowledge — yes. 

1019. How many times a day do they take their 
opium p — Generally at night. Then you must recollect 
that the Indian labourer who takes his opium has no 
means of solacing himself after the day's work ; he has 
no theatres, no music halls, no clubs, no societies, no 
gin shops; 

1020. And so far as you know, speaking broadly, 
there is no ovidence that the habitual use of opium in 
moderation, as you describe it, shortens life ? — In 
modoration I should say there was no evidence what- 
ever. Here is a book which gives you the history of 
the lives of iiomlj.'iy opium smokers. I do not know 
whether you have it. IJut of course I do not mean to 
say that the excessive use of opium is not deleterious, 
because it is. But these cases of excessive use of opium 
in my experience are quite exceptional. 

1021. Then, speaking of Rajputana, at any I'ato, the 
excessive use of opium is very much like drunkenness 
amongst ourselves — an exceptional condition ? — Just so. 

1022. Taking the total effect of the opium habit, is it 
your view that it is more beneficial than harmful, or 
more harmful than beneficial P — It is much more 
beneficial than alcohol. 

1023. That is your conviction ? — That is my honest 
view, after many years' experience and investigation. 

T 4 



Sur.-Gcn. 

Sir W. Moore, 

K. C.I.E., 

Q.H.P. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



72 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



15 Sept. 1893. 



Sur.-Gen. 102d!. Has your experience been gathered almost 

Sir W. Moore, exclusively among the Rajputs P — No. I have already 

K.C.I.E., stated that I was in Bombay for some time, where 

Q.H.P. I often went to the opium shops and smoked opium 

in the shops with the people. 

1025. Is there a community among whom there is a 
general use of opium in Bombay ? — It is very gene- 
rally used, and by many people who you would never 
suppose u.=ed it — clerks and omnibus conductors, buggy 
drivers, tramcar men. A. great maiiy of them use it. 

1026. Is it used in Bombay amongst the more reput- 
able, the law-abiding citizens ? — Not to so great an 
extent as in Bajputana, because the most of them in 
Bombay have taken to champagne if they can get it, or 
liquor if they cannot. 

1027-8. There is no generalised consumption ? — Xot 
in Bombay ; no. 

1029. You cannot speak of the consumption of opium 
in Bombay as we can of the use of wine or beer in this 
country ? — No ; 1 do not think you could, because it 
is not quite so prevalent. 

1030. So that if you were to stop the con.sumption of 
opium by any means in Bombay the eflfeot ivould be 
very different from stopping it in Bajputana P — Yes, 
it would; but you would do a great injury to all these 
poor people who go to the opium dens, as you call them, 
though they are not more 'dens than the liquor shop is 
next door ur two or three doors off; you do a great 
injury to them. One-half of the people who come 
habitually to these opium shops go there because they 
are suffering from some painful malady. 

1031. And is that the best course that you think they 
could adopt to get relief? — I think it is, because they 
have, probably all of them, been to the hospitals and 
not got relief. 

1032. Would one be at all right in comparing these 
persons, who frequent the opium dens in Bombay, 
to the classes that have sometimes been called the 
residuum, or the submerged tenth of society ? — A 
great many of them are of course the lower classes 
of society. The higher classes smoke their opium at 
home, or drink their opium at home ; they do not go 
to the shops. It is jutit in this way. Take a gin-shop 
in the lower parts of London ; you will find the same 
class of people, comparatively speaking, as you do in 
the opium shops in the East. 

1033. But I understood you to say. Sir William, that 
you could not regard the opium habit as at all generalised 
amongst the respectable classes in Bombay P — -No, I do 
not think it is. 

1034. It is exceptional p — But still a good many u.se 
it. 

1035. Would you give us an idea. Amongst adults 
would there be one in ten who smoke opium ? — No, I 
do not suppose there would be. 

1036. Not even one in ten ? — No. But I could not 
say for certain, Ijccause men will not tell you what rheir 
habits are, and they have a happy knack, if j'ou question 
them, of often saying what thej' think you would like 
them to say. 

1037. What is agreeable ? Are they ashamed of the 
habit P— No. 

1038. Not in Bombay. I mean among the more 
respectable persons ; those who smoke opium are not 
ashamed of the habit? — -I do not think ko ; no. 

1039. You have not perceived that they tried to 
conceal it from others P — No ; but they will not tell you 
unless you are friends of them and know them pretty 
well. They will not come and proclaim it in the 
street. 

1040. Have you been in a iSikh campaign p Have 
you had any experience of the Sikhe ? — Only to a 
small extent when I have been with regiments ; there 
have been Sikhs in the regiment ; but I have never 
been in the Punjab much — only travelling through it 
occasionally. 

1041. Ai'e there large or considerable populations in 
India airiong whom the use of opium is practically 
unknown ? — There are large sections of the population 
who do not use it ; but 1 could not say that it would bo 
practically unknown, because there would be a small 
minority of people all over the country who do use it. 

1043. And even throughout the country there is more 
or less cont-viinption p It is not conhned, I mean, to 
certain vace;^ P — I do not think it is "ontined to certain 



races, although certain races arc more particularly 
addicted to it, 

1043. How do you explain that p How do you explain 
that, as we are told, the Sikhs and Rajpoots seem to 
use opium as a diffused and general habit, as we use 
wine and beer in this country P — I think the explana- 
tion, perhaps, maybe, as regards the Rajpoots, that they 
are the gentlemen, the upper classes of the country, 
although there are a great many poor Rajpoots, and 
I think they took to it when it was more expensive 
than the means of hhe lower classes allowed them to 
get. But that is pure supposition. 

1044. Quite so ; you do not speak very positively P — ■ 
No, I do not. 

1045. And you could not give us information P — I 
could not tell you why they do it, except that they are 
the better class ; they use it just as we might use 
champagne. 

1046. Then you have no information that you could 
give us as to the relation of the opium habit to race P — 
No. 

1047. Perhaps you might have some other remarks 
to offer generally P — Yes, I have one or two other 
remarks that I should wish to ofJ'cr. It will not take 
me long. I should wish to draw attention to the fact 
that insurance societies, do not impose a higher rate 
on opium eaters. With re.spect to that they are guided 
by the medical officers of the societies. They were 
addressed on the subject some little time ago in 
Calcutta and Bombay, and they all gave the same 
answer. 

1048-9. Is there a large amount of insurance work 
done in India on the basis of a large number of facts ? 
— Yes ; many of the insurance offices were addressed 
on the point, and they would not increase the in- 
surance. They are guided by the medical men. 

1050. That would refer to natives, would it not — 
insurance of natives ? — No, it referred to insurance of 
Europeans, and natives, and all classes. 

1051. But are we to understand that any proportion 
of the European community are opium eaters or smokers 
in India P — Well, I think there are a few. I was one 
myself. 

1052. For a short time ; you were not an habitual 
smoker p — Well, I was experimentally. 

1053. But as habitual opium users ? — Ob . yes, there 
are a few. 

1054. Only a few P — Only a few. 

1055. {Chairman.) Is the practice of life insurance 
largely resorted to among the natives? — Yes, it is; 
a great many insure their lives now, during recent 
years. 

1056- With European offices ? —Yes, there are several 
offices that take insurances of native lives and European 
lives ; they do not limit themselves. 

1057. And there are some native associations as well ? 
— Some of the directors of these insurance societies are 
natives of course. Then I should like to diaw the 
attention of the Commission to some erroneous state- 
ments \yhich have been made. One is, that so much 
land being taken up in India for opium, enough was 
not left for thr urowtb of cereals, and therefore famines 
occur ; the fact being that it is only a decimal portion 
of the cultivable land that is taken up with opium. 
The famine in Eajputana, which was caused by the 
total failure of rains one year and the ravages of locusts 
the next year, was said to be caused by the want of 
food caused because of the opium cultivation in Marwar. 
I do not think there is a field of opium in Marwar. On 
I he contrary, to my knowledge, hundreds and thousands 
of people emigrated from Marwar, and went straight 
across into the opium district of Malwa, a distance of 
two or three hundred miles, where they found food for 
themselves and water and grass for their cattle, when 
they could not get it in the place where they came from. 
Then, again, the famine in Orissa, in 1868, caused 
by inundations, was said to be caused because the 
cereals could not be cultivated in sufficient amount; 
whereas there is not an acre of opium land in Orissa! 
Well, such absurd statements as those are put in print. 
Then, again, it is alleged that the opium users cannot 
attend to tiieir business. As I have' said before, some 
of the most shj'ewd business men take their opium. 
Clerks ai.d people who have work to do in offices, many 
of them you would be surprised to find taking their 
opium. Then it is said that opium smoking is more 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCK. 



73 



deleterious than drinking opium water or even eating 
opium. This is quite incorrect. Opium smoking is 
harmless ; and, besides, it is not crude opium that is 
smoked — it is a preparation of opium known as ohandul 
or chandoo. 

1058. (Sir W. Boberis.) How much per cent, of real 
opium does that generally contain p — It has never been 
investigated, but the combustion which the ohandul 
undergoes when it is put into the pipe and put into thq 
lamp must destroy much of the narcotic properties, and 
it has not yet been ascertained authoritatively what 
really goes up the pipe-stem into the smoker's mouth, 
That is a subject which requires investigation. Now, 
when crude opium is taken, it has a different effect, 
because it must bo dissolved and absorbed by tho 
stomach into the system, and therefore it is liable to 
produce, in the first instance, constipation, and after- 
wards, by slow digestion and its probable consequences, 
diarrhoea. Then, that the effect of opium is to produce 
torpor and sleep. This is quite incorrect. The first 
effect of opium is exhilarating and stimulating. I com- 
pare a pipe or two of opium to a glass or two of good 
champagne as regards its good efiects, and I compare 
several pipes of opium to several glasses of brandy and 
water ; drowsiness comes on, but without any argu- 
mentative or quarrelsome stage. There is another 
very silly thing that they have frequently said, that 
opium is so potent persons must lie down to smoke 
it ; they cannot take it standing up or sitting down as a 
Britisher would drink his gin or his beer. That is 
quite incorrect. You can smoke your opium sitting 
down, only it is custom and habit and convenience 
which causes them to recline ; you see that any day in 
the opium shops. Then it is said that opium causes 
immorality. I have stated that in small quantities 
opium is exhilarating and stimulating. No doubt, as 
with all stimulants, the passions are temporarily 
excited, but in larger doses it is exactly the reverse. 
Another statement is that opium prevents the missionary 
enterprise of converting the Buddhist and the Hindoo. 
I will not go into that subject ; I have said it already in 
a lecture I gave, that I do not think there is an atom of 
truth in the assertion. It may be mentioned that the 
ban placed on spirits by Eastern religions and the long 
fasts imposed are potent reasons why opium is used. 
The effects of ohandul, which is prepared opium, have 
been confused with those of tye chandoo, muddut, and 
hemp. Muddut is a mixture of inferior opium and bran ; 
tye chandoo is a mixture of the refuse of half-burnt 
ohandul scraped from the pipes, the refuse of opium, 
ganja or bhang, and bad tobacco. Granja is the dried 
flowers of the cannabis satvva or hemp plant ; bhang is 
the dried leaves and stalks. The effects of cbandul, 
carried to excess, are blank or sleep, or you may call it 
the nirvana of the Buddhists. The effects of ganja are 
vivid illusions of the brain which may turn to insanity ; 
and if you refer to the statistics of the Indian lunatic 
asylums you will find that while hundreds are reported 
as having come into the asylums from the effects of 
liquor and bhang only three or four or five or six would 
be returned as coming into the asylums from the effects 
of opium. And in the jails in the same way. The 
deaths from opium are practically nil, 

1059. {Sir W. Roberts.) I am only going to ask one 
more question. I do not know whether it is possible 
to answer it. How is it that the opium habit does 
not spread amongst the Europeans in India. I mean 
the habitual use of opium ? — Amongst the Europeans ? 

1060. Tes? — Because they have been brought up 
from their youth upwards to believe in beer and 
liquor, and "gin, and other things; and then it is a 
troublesome thing, smoking opium. It is too trouble- 
some for a European. 

1061. You would not admit that it was due to Bom.e 
profound constitutional difference ? — No ; I do not 
think BO. 

1062. But of course you would not be positive ? — 
I do not think the constitutional difference has any- 
thing whatever to do with it. It is simply habit, and 
bringing up from childhood. We will say the Eajput 
child sees the opium pipe from the day of his birth, or 
as long as he can notice anything; the European child 
sees the gin or the beer. 

1063. But you know new habits have arisen even 
within recent times. The original habit was the 
alcohol habit ; then came the tea habit, tb» coffee habit, 
or the tobacco habit ? — ^Yes. 

1064. And the British people did not show them- 
e 80970. 



selves_ at all loth to take up. t^ese additional habits. 
How is it that in India they have not taken up the 
opium habit P — Well, for one reason it is a troublesome 
thing to smoke opium. You cannot take it like a 
cigar, and put it in your mouth and smoke it away ; 
you must have a lamp. 

1065. But opium-eating is easy enough p — Well, but 
that is nasty ; it does not taste nice. But I have seen 
many Europeans eat a sweetmeat in India which con- 
tains a deal of opium. 

1066. But they have not acquired any habit in that 
direction ?— Well, they do not acquire the habit. I 
will not say positively why, except that I think it is 
simply a matter of bringing up from youth upwards. 

1067. [Mr. Wilson.) I do not quite understand your 
position, Sir William. If I understand rightly, you 
thick on the whole it is a good thing P — I will not go 
so far as to say it is a good thing, because I think we 
should be better, all of us, without any liquor, or 
opium, or anything of the kind ; but I mean to say 
this, that the use of opium does more good than it does 
harm. 



Sur.-Gen. 

Sir W. Moore, 

K.C.I.E., 

Q.H.P. 

15 Sept. IS9;j. 



1068. Then it is a good thing ?- 
thing;. 



-Yes ; that is a good 



1069. We are going to India ; would you advise us to 
go in for it P — I would advise you to try it certainly. 
Do as I did, go to the opium shops. 

1070. I did not say " try it," but " use it " ?— Use 
it. 

1071. You advise us to acquire the opium habit ? — 
No ; I do not advise you to acquire the opium habit, 
but I advise you to go to the opium shops and see for 
yourselves, and all of you have, a pipe or two. 

1072. You do not quite catch my meaning, I think, 
I do not quite clearly understand whether you thinJs 

on the whole it is a good thing or not to take opium P 

That depends upon the situation the person is in, and 
it depends upon whether he has the means of using 
something else which he likes better. 

1073. Would you tell me of a situation in which it is 
a good thing P— Well, I have already told you several 
situations where it is a good thing. When a Eajput 
has to ride 30 miles on his camel through the sand he 
take^ his '' stirrup cup " of opium before he starts. 
They used to bring me a " stirrup cup " of opium when 
I was starting on a march in early morning in Rajpu- 
tana. 

1074. Well, with reference to the people that you 
saw in the opium shops. You said they had probably 
all been at the hospital and failed to get relief P^Well, 
the great majority of them no doubt had been to 
hospitals, and perhaps were going to hospitals then. 

1075. Do I understand that the greater part of the 
people that you would meet in these opium places are 

practically sufferers from some serious disease ? I 

have given the numbers, I think, in a pamphlet which 
I wrote on the "Opium Shops of Bombay"; but I 
should say, at a rough guess, that half the people who 
are in these opium shops, or, as you like to call them, 
" dens," half of them have something the matter with 
them. 

1076. Previously P— They have bronchial affections, 
or nervous affections, or sciatica, or other painful affec- 
tions, and they go there habitually every day because 
they find that the opium pipe, soothes them better than 
anything else. 

1077. Do you mean that a larger proportion of the 
persons in these places are invalids than anywhere 
else P — Yes, certainly. 

1078. And that they resort there for the purpose of 
relief P — They resort to them for relief. 

1079. Have the ailments, then, anything to do with 
the previous habit of taking the opium P — The ailments 
have nothing to do with it. The people in those shops 
have been described as suffering from the effects of 
opium, whereas they have been suffering from the 
disease for which they went to the shops to get relief. 

1080. Then you said that they would not tell you 
if they took opium. Is that betJause they think it is 
disgraceful P — They would not tell you. 

1081. You said you bad asked — I think our Chairman 
asked you, or Sir W. Eoberts asked you, about these 
persons, about other people taking opium — ^you said 
they often would not tell you whether they took it or 
not P — I mean not with reference to the people in the 

K 



74 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



Sur.-Gea opium shops, because their presence there shows that 
Sir W. Moore, they take it, but with reference to the better classes. 



IC.C.I.E., 
Q.H.P 

15 Sept. 1893. 



1082. Yes ; I understand P — They would not tell you 
unless you knew them, and became acquainted with 
them. If you met a man in the street, and said, "Are 
" you an opium smoker P " he would probably say, " I 
" do not understand." 

1083. Is it because they think it is disgraceful ? — 
No ; I do not think it is because they think it is dis- 
graceful. 

1084. Then why ? What do they think P— Well, they 
would tell you if you became friendly with them, and 
knew them. But they would not proclaim it in the 

streeL. 

1085. No. But I gather from what you said, that 
there was an inclination to conceal the fact that they 
took opium. What is their motive for such conceal- 
ment P — I do not think there is any inclination to con- 
ceal it, because they will tell you if you know them. 
They will not come and volunteer information to 
anybody they meet. 

1086. (Sir J. Lyall.) Is it the case, Sir William, in 
Rajpootana, it was thought a disgrace amongst the 
fiajputs not to eat opium P — Not to eat it ? 

1087. Tes, it was the same sort of disgrace which 
used to exist perhaps two generations ago in England, 
with respect to a man who would not drink wine P — No, 
I do not think so. I recollect very well one night, I 
was in the State of Marwar, the Political Agent of 
Marwar, and myself, were sitting in our tent with four 
or five gentlemen — Thakoors — and they were asked 
what they would have, and two or three of them had 
some brandy which we had with us, but one gentleman 
said, " No, he would not take any," and all the others 
said, " Oh, no ; he wants to go home to his wife, and 
" smoke his opium pipe.'' They used to chaff one 
another in that way. 

1088. (Mr. Wilson.) I have only one other question 
— whether you have any idea of the quantity of opium 
consumed by these different classes of persons of 
whom you speak P — The quantity differs very much in- 
deed. I should say, perhaps, that the average of what 
I have seen of a man who uses opium moderately is 
three or four pipes — he would probably use three or 
four pipes. 

1089. What weight would that represent P — That 
would represent a weight of 50 or 60 grains, perhaps, 
of chaudnl, made into four or five little balls, which is 
put on the pipe at the lamp. 

1090. (Mr. Pease.) Tou spoke of the persons going 
out into the desert with their camels, and there taking 
their opium as sustenance P — Tes. 

1091. Do you consider that there is anything nourish- 
ing in opium, or that it is only a staying power for a 
while until he could obtain solid food? — It prevents 
what we used to call a few years ago eremacausis, or 
waste of tissue. The young camels are sent out into 
the de.sert of Rajpootana for the whole of one season, 
and then they are sent up to the Punjab for the next 
season, because they get a different kind of grass there, 
and they say that if they are not sent up to the Punjab 
after having had one season in Rajpootana they will 
never become strong camels; and they go out right 
into the desert districts, where there is not a vil- 
lage within 20 or 30 miles, and water is very 
scarce. Perhaps a hundred camels would be accom- 
panied by three or four men, and all these men 
take their opium with them, and they live on a little 
flour that they take with them — grain (no rice there), 
and camel's milk and opium. They would not do that 
if they had not the opium. 

1092. You think that a moderate amount of opium 
can be taken without any injury to the health. Would 
you recommend persons in this country to take regular 
doses of opium two or three times a day, and do you 
think that it would not be injuiious ito their health P — 
No, I would not recommend them to take it, and I would 
not recommend them to take three or four doses of 
spirits three or four times a day. 

1003. But you believe it would not be injurious to 
their health p — That depends on what they would take. 
Some people would take a great deal more than others, 
just as in the same way as spirits. You cannot lay 



down any quantity which a man may take. Constitutions 
differ. 

1094 With regard to a remark that I made when a, 
previous witness was giving evidence, there is no allusion 
in anything that I said with regard to the proportions 
of Rajpoots in Rajpootana, was there? What I gave 
was just your own remark, "From the above, and 
" from the inquiries instituted during the previous 
" year, it would appear that the percentage of people 
■' to population using opium in Rajpootana is not so 
" great as I, in common with most Europeans, had 
" imagined." Those are your own words? — Perfectly 
correct, sir. 

1095. There was no mistake in the quotation 1 made P 
— No mistake. But afterwards I said, in another 
article, that most of the Rajpoots used opium. 

1096. That I did not allude to in any way ? — No. - 

1097. (Sir J. Lyall.) Sir William Roberts asked you 
whether you could give any explanation of why certain 
races used opium. He mentioned the Sikhs and the 
Rajpoots. As regards the Sikhs, is it not the case that 
the reason probably is that their first teacher pro- 
hibited the use of tobacco ? • — Their first teacher 
prohibited the use of alcohol and tobacco. 

1098. I do not think he did alcohol — well, not so 
strongly as tobacco ; he deprecated the use of alcohol P 
— That may have induced the taking of opium. As I 
say, I think, in my evidence, " the ban placed against 
" alcohol and tobacco in the eastern religions may have 
" led to the use of opium, against which no ban was 
" placed." But that is purely speculative. I could not 
say why the difierent races use it, except that it is a 
habit and custom, and opium is a country product. 

1099. Was not the early use of opium among the 
Rajpoots connected partly with their constant fighting 
in which they engaged ; did not they drug themselves 
with opium ? — Probably they primed themselves with 
opium. 

1100. When they had to make a desperate assault, or 
anything of that kind? — Yes, they perhaps primed 
themselves with opium — or perhaps bhang — more fre- 
quently. Bhang is more injurious than opium a great 
deal. 

1101. (Mr. Pease.) Just one other remark I would like 
to make, and that is with regard to the question as to 
the occupation of the land for cereals and for poppy ; is 
it not the fact that there was a great famine in Rajpoo- 
tana in which about 1,200,000 people died P — Yes, I was 
there at the time. I travelled 2,000 miles in Rajpootana 
in the famine years. 

1102. And that a groat many of them went into Malwa 

seeking for food, and they were unable to find it p 

No ; they found food for themselves and their cattle, and 
water. There was what we call a, " tur " famine in 
Marwar. There was no rain, no grass, and no water, 
and the people emigrated by hundreds of thousands — 
went right up into the Punjab^went up to Goojerat. 
A good number crossed the desert into Soinde ; but the 
greater part went through Meywar into Malwa. 

1103. They were all saved that went into Malwa P 

A great number of them died on the road. 

1104. There was food for them in Mialwa P— There 
was food for them, and grass, and water. 

1105. The statement that was made from Dr. George 
Smith was, that if the land that was in Malwa had been 
cultivated with cereals, and those cereals had been sent 
into Rajpootana, it might have saved the lives of the 
people there P— But how could they be sent into Raj- 
pootana when there was no grass, and no water, and no 
railway P Why a camel would not carry more than he 
could eat. I was in Rajpootana at the time, and I saw 
all the people, and I can state from my own personal 
knowledge. 

1106. The difficulty in Rajpootana was the want of 
means of communication as much as anything ? — You 
see a man wanted food and water, and you could not 
send men, because they could not carry more than they 
would eat on the road. 

1107. (Mr. Mowbray.) What sort of proportion of the 
population of Rajpootana are Rajpoots P — About one 
fourth. That is where the mistake occurred. The 
opium habit is not nearly so prevalent among what 
you might call the aboriginal tribes— the half-castes, 
mhairs, bheels, gonds, menas. 



The witness withdrew 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



75 



Dr. F. J. MoTJAT called in and examined. 



'1108. {Chairman.) Sir William Koberts has kindly 
undertaken to conduct your esamination ? — Thank you. 
I shall be happy to answer any questions as far as I can. 

1109. {Sir W. Boherts.) I believe that you have had 
considerable opportunities of studying the opium habit 
in India P — The opium question I have, in all its rela- 
tions, but not so much the opium habit, for I did not 
come BO much in contact with it. 

1110. Will you tell us what means you possessed of 
acquiring an acquaintance with opium P — Yes. I was 
Assisiant Opium Examiner to the G-overnment, I think 
for a couple of years, when I had to analyse and report 
upon the value of each batch of opium that was sent 
down to be exported to China. Then I was appointed 
Chemical Examiner to the G-overnment. In that 
capacity every parcel of poisons that were supposed to 
have been intended for criminal purposes was sent to 
me for examination, and I had to report what I found 
in them. I never found opium in any case whatever, 
because it was not used by any professional poisoner. 

1111. What P — I never found opium in any of the 
parcels sent, or substances which might have been con- 
tained in them for illegal purposes. I afterwards was 
appointed Professor of Materia Medica and Chemistry. 
In that position I had to teach the subject of the 
nature, composition, and uses of remedies employed in 
medicine, and anaongst them was necessarily opium, 
by far the most valuable medicine we have, particularly 
in the tropics. Subsequently I occupied the Chairs of 
Medicine and Medical Jurisprudence, and taught the 
uses and abuses of opium in their therapeutic and 
medico-legal aspects. 

1112. Then am I to understand that you did not come 
very much into contact with opium eaters or drinkers 
or smokers? — I came a great deal in contact with a 
colony in the Bnrra Bazar of Calcutta, which consisted 
almost entirely of opium users. They were up-oountry 
men, Marwarees, some of them bankers, some shop- 
keepers ; men of considerable intelligence, really good 
business men, and the whole community of them were 
reputed to be opium consumers. 

1113. Ton ascertained that from your own observa- 
tion P — Yes. Of course I was well acquainted with them 
personally ; they came to me at all times when there 
was anything the matter with them, any sickness, or 
other trouble. They were not a large colony ; but they 
were a somewhat fluctuating body ; many hundreds of 
them were coming and going in my time. 

1114. Then what was your impression as to the state 
of health and longevity of these people P — I never in 
my life saw finer men of their respective classes, more 
intelligent or more active men, or men who showed less 
signs of being under the influence of any drug or nar- 
cotic than both the Chinese colony and this other 
community of Marwarees I have spoken of in relation 
to the Burra Bazar. 

1115. Do you consider that you obtained accurate 
information as to the amount of opium that they would 

use p No, because it is like tobacco smoking — where 

one man uses one cigar another will use ten ; and the 
same with regard to pipes. I do not think that you 
could establish any exact definite quantity which they 
used. Mr. Monro, who was Commissioner of Police 
here, and is now a missionary in India, after being 
Inspector-General of Police there, has given approxi- 
mately the quantity used per head of the population in 
Bengal, but you cannot rely much on it as the doctrine 
of averages does not apply to such questions. 

1116. The "mixture three times a day" is a drachm, 
I think ?— I do not know. 

1117. But used you to see these people habitually 
smoking ? — No, not habitually ; at various times of the 
day ; they did not use opium all day long. 

1118. Keourrently, if yon like p — Yes, decidedly. 

1119. Nearly all of them P — Nearly all of them in that 
particular quarter use opium, I believe. 

1120. And is it your impression that the habit con- 
tinues for generation after generation among these 
people ? — Yes. 

1121. I hope the opium habit is not so old in India 
that you can speak of it as going on for generation after 
generation ? — Yes, I can, for long before we went to 
the country it was in use. Smoking is not an Indian 
vice. 



1122. You can speak of the opium habit in some 
parts of India as having been practised generation after 
generation P — From historical evidence I can. 

1123. Yet the population continues healthy ? — Per- 
fectly he.althy ; amongst them are the finest populations 
in India. 

1124. I suppose it is impossible that you could state 
facts proving that to the Commission ? — No, because I 
never made special inquiry into this point. Those were 
the days before the opium question had become a- 
burning question, and it only became interesting to me 
from my professional position in the city in the heads 
of which I lived 13 years. They came to me on all pos- 
sible occasions to consult me as to their illnesses and 
their family distresses, and thereby I had a considerable 
personal knowledge of them. 

1125. Did the habit go en increasing as years went 
on P — No, I saw no difference. 

1126. Then you would compare the use of opium 
amongst these people to the use — the moderate use — of 
alcoholic liquors amongst ourselves P — Undoubtedly. 

1127. And quite as harmless ?— Yes, quite, in fact 
more so, because a man shows a flushed face and many 
other indications of familiarity with alcohol, but you 
could detect nothing of the kind in the case of those 
who used opium. They were all temperate ; I never 
saw, in the whole 13 years I was living amongst them 
(and I saw them daily) ; they came to me at the out- 
door dispensary, or|at the hospital, and as a friend, and 
I never saw, in all that time, an opium drunkard. 

1128. Drunk from spirits, do you mean P — No, from 
opium. 

1129. So that these particular groups that you had 
experience of had not even a minority of opium " sots," 
as they are called P — I scarcely understand yoiir 
question. 

1130. You have heard of the opium sot P— Oh, yes. 

1131. You saw nothing corresponding to that amongst 
them P — Nothing whatever. What they were in the 
evening, when work was done, and the day was over, 
and they went to their rest, we had no knowledge of, 
because they were in their own houses ; but there was 
never a brawl in the .streets, there was never a man 
amongst them brought up before the police for any 
disturbance of public order, in the whole of that time, 
and I was in constant communication with the police 
authorities, for I aided them greatly in that part of the 
city in which I lived, in maintaining order. 

1132. Still, I presume you admit that the opium 
habit has its bad side P — ^Yes, in excess, undoubtedly. 

1133. Will you explain to the Commission what you 
yourself have observed as to the evils of the opium 
habit P — I never saw anyone who exhibited such an 
amount of misuse of opium, not one in the whole of that 
time, so I cannot speak to it from personal knowledge. 

1134. So that you have nothing to say but praise of 
the habit P — Given the necessity of a stimulant, so far 
as my knowledge went, certainly. 

1135. Do you confine your opinion merely as based 
upon your own experience of these tw communities P — 
To these two great communities ohiefiy, but there used 
to come to the hospital up-country men who were 
temporarily in Calcutta. I knew nothing more about 
them than their nationality. 

1136. You did not see any sufferers from opium ? — 
No, not one. 

1137. Did they not even sufier from what we should 
expect, in this country at any rate, constipation — 
yellow eyes, you know; from embarrassed livers P — I 
knew nothing about their health until they came to the 
outdoor dispensary, or to the hospital, to consult me 
medically ; but those were not the effects that were 
visible in them at all. Liver disease was rarely found 
amongst them. 

1138. Well, would you sum up your experience on 
this question ? — You mean my general experience ? 

1139. Yes P — I would rather, if you will allow me, 
tell you my experience of opium in relation to crime 
and insanity ; that is a subje(?t I studied particularly. 

1140. We should be very glad to hear your account 
of that P — Taking the connexion between the use of 
opium and crime, I collected the statistics, and I have 
here the report of the prisons of the Lower Provinces 

K2 



Dr. 
F. J. Mauat. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



7(1 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



J)r. 
F. S. Mcuat 

15 Sept. 1893. 



for five consecutive years, wherein are represented all 
the conditions connected with the imprisonment of 
302,000 prisoners of both sexes and all ages — every 
detail connected with them, their age, sex, occupation, 
oasie, and other circumstances — all these particulars are 
contained in this volume, and in the whole of it, 
amongst that large number cf people, there was not a 
single crime that was attributed to opium, either its 
use or abuse. Had there been such, they would have 
been placed on record by the magistrates who sent in 
the returns. 

1141. .Is alcohol mentioned? — Alcohol, no; alcohol 
is not mentioned in my returns. We had a veiy small 
hospital at that time for the use of Europeans, but still 
we had a few cases of delirium tremens and similar 
afi'ections. I will hand in to you the report to which I 
have alluded, because to give you even a resume of the 
details in it would be very difficult; it is a mass of 
figures from beginning to end. 

1142. That is your account of the relation of opium 
to crime ; now with regard to lunacy, what have you to 
say ? — I was official visitor of lunatic asylums, and I had 
constantly to visit them, and report upon their state, as 
to the causes of insanity, their treatment, &c. No 
figures had then been collected to enable me tojudge, 
but I state generally in a series of papers, which 1 wrote 
in the " Lancet" (and which I hope you will allow me 
to present to the Commission), my views upon the 
subject. 

1143. (Chairman.) Will you hand me over those 
papers ? — Certainly, but there i? one which I wish briefly 
to refer to further on, then I will give them to 3- on, my 
Lord. 

Now, bore are the " ^Vdmissions to the Asylums of 
" Lower Bengal for Ten Years " (1881 to 1890), printed 
by the Calcutta Medical Society. There were alto- 
gether in 10 consecutive years 2,202 admissions, of which 
641 were alleged to have been caused by ganja, 117 by 
spirits, and 8 from opium. That represents the statistics, 
on this subject, of 74,000,000 of people, so that the 
infinitesimal portion of a man that became insane from 
the abuse of opium is really not worth taking into 
calculation. 

1144. (Sir W. Boherts.) I would like to ask you, in 
reference to this question, out of that total, were there 
more habitual users of opium, or more habitual users of 
spirits, or more habitual users of ganja ? — There 
must have been more of ganja, and there is a Commis- 
sion now examining into that question in India. The 
hemp plant gi'ows in every ditch, and it can be easily 
prepared for eating or drinking. It is a far more 
injurious drug than opium. These figures very fairly 
represent the difference in character for evil of these 
three substances. I have already given you the tables 
as to crime within tlie jails ; now how is it as to crime 
without, ^vhich came under the supervision of the 
police. Here is a paper on the opium question in 
Lower Bengal, by Mr. James Monro, who was recently 
Commissioner of Police here, and who was in the 
magistracy for a long time in India before he became 
Inspector General of Police. I shall place this docu- 
ment at your disposal. He says : " Are the tendencies 
" of the people in districts which consume opium more 
" criminal than those of other districts in which the 
" drug is sparingly used ? The answer is distinctly in 
•' the negative. The division of Orissa, which con- 
" sumes most opium in Lower Bengal, is the least 
" turbulent and troublesome in criminal respects in 
" the whole province" [that contains between 5,000,000 
and 6,000,000 of inhabitants]. " In the turbulent dis- 
" tricts of Eastern Bengal, such as Dacca, Backer- 
" gunge, Mymensingh, Khoolna, Jessore, and Pubna, 
" the consumption of opium is trifling. During the 
" years in which I was at the head of the police in 
" Lower Bengal (if a reference to personal experience 
" is permissible), I can testify that the use or abuse of 
" opium formed no perceptible factor in the produc- 
" tion of crime throughout the province. No casein 
" which the connexion of opium with crime was esta- 
" blished ever came under my notice." This gentle- 
man is now a missionary in Bengal, and a very 
able one. Then he states here: "I most un- 
" hesitatingly assert, on the ba^is of criminal statistics 
'■ and criminal experience, that the use or abuse of 
" opium is not, to apy apprecialsle extent whatever, a 
" factor in the production of crime in any of the 
" districts in the province of Lower Bengal." Now in 
this other paper* there is a reference which has recently 

• The discussion by tlie Calcutta Medical Society on the effects of the 
hahilual use of opium on the human constitution." July 18[)i. 



been made to the Chief of the Police in Calcutta as to 
the amount of crime committed under the influence pf 
opium. The following questions were asked of the 
sa'.d Commissioner of Police : — " Is there much 
" crime traceable or attributable to the habitual use of 
" opium? If so, what hind of crime? Grimes of 
" violence? Or assault? Or robbery? Dacoity ? " 
(that is house breaking) "Theft? Souse-trespass, 
" Src. ? " In reply to ivhich he says : " The only crime 
" that can be, in any way, attributable to the habitual 
" use of opium is petty pilfering, but even this is 
" rare. A petty thief, who is an habitual opium 
" smoker, occasionally steals a lotah, or other small 
" articles that come handy, to enable him to satisfy 
" his craving for the drug. No crime is known to be 
" an after eftect of opium, and police experience goes 
" to show that the use of opium does not tend to any 
" crime of daring or violence." Another question is : 
"Is there such a thing as the ' drunk and incapable' of 
" alcohol referable to opium ? " Answer : " There is no 
" such thing as the " drunk and incapable ' referable to 
" opium." Then there are some questions also put to 
two native gentlemen. I will not trouble you with that, 
but there is a great deal of detailed information there 
regarding the influence of opium on the Native popu- 
lation. One of them says that " the Chinese and 
" Siamese in the ColootoUah section of the town are 
" all opium eaters, but are nevertheless very intelligent 
" and smart." 

1145. The Chinese in the Straits Settlements P — No, 
in Calcutta. There is a colony of them. I forget now 
how many there were, but I think 300 or 400. I, how- 
ever, saw the Chinese colony of 40,000 at Singapore 
where I visited the opium farm and Chinese colony 
with the Governor, who gave them the highest character 
for sobriety, intelligence, and abstention from crimes of 
violence. 

Another deposes that "hundreds of men over 70 years 
" of age can be seen amongst the opium eaters of Bnrra 
" Bazar'' (that was the community I was referring to 
in answer to a previous question) " and they enjoy 
" good health. I know an elderly lady who will com- 
" plete her 97th year by the end of June, and who has 
" been using opium for the last 55 years. She moves 
" about without help, and eats her food well. She is 
" slightly deaf, but does not suflTer from any other 
" bodily infirmity." He further says : " The vices of 
" alcohol are unknown to opium. The police returns 
" show that opium eaters are the most peaceful class 
" of citizens, and the only criminal ofi'ence committed 

by men who take opium is petty theft, committed 
" by the low class madat smokers. Alcohol is more 
" expensive than opium. jVlcohol renders a man drunk 
" and disorderlv, whilst opium makes him solemn and 
" quiet." 

114t;. And you endorse those views .°— Quite. Some 
of these gentlemen were probably pupils of mine. They 
are now native practitioners, men of great ability and 
largo experience, who can be thoroughly rehed upon 
for their accounts of the diseases that come under 
their cognisance. Here speaks another of them:— 
" The therapeutic value of opium no one will deny— its 
" uses in dysentery, diarrhoea, cholera, rheumatism, 
" neuralgia, diabetes, cough, &c., are undoubted, but 
'• its value as a remedy, curative, and prophylactic, in 
" malarious fevers, is not so widely known. I will 
'' relate to you a circumstance which illustrates the 

value of opium in malarious districts. During an 
' ' epidemic of fever in the Terai districts near Bareilly, 

in Rohilknnd, three compounders were sent with n 
" stock of medicine. Of these three, one smoked 
" tobacco only, and he died there of fever : the second 

man, who was a bhang eater, returned to Bareilly 
'• with a bad type of remittent fever ; while the third 

man, who was a confirmed opium eater, returned 

after the epidemic was over, much improved in 
" health and experience." 

1147. That is rather a narrow experience, is it not p 
—It is a narrow experience, and these are merely typical 
cases. I do not think much reliance need be placed 
on these sniiill statistics. Such statistics should be 
drawn from a much larger field of observatiou to enable 
any sound general deductions to be drawn from them ; 
but still, there is quite sufficient in them to show that 
so far as I witnessed, opium in moderation was not a 
destructive agent in any sense, of health, morals, or 
manners, or pioductive of crime. 

1148. (Mr. Wilson.) There was just one thing that 
you read us out of that book which struck me. Oneof 
the persons whose statements you read said that opium 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



77 



inakeB them solemn. We were told itwas exhilarating P 
— It tends generally to quietude and repose, and they 
doze off to sleep in most cases ; when you wake them, up 
they are intelligent and sharp, and are able at once to go 
to their work or business. Another question I have 
heard raised in this room I should like to touch upon. I 
never found one of those gentlemen (and many of them 
were bankers, merchants, and men of good position and 
repute) who was in the least ashamed of being an opium 
smoker or eater, or made any attempt to conceal the 
fact. If I were attending them medically, and I asked 
them whether they used opium, they readily told 
me ; but in most cases it would have been a matter of 
idle curiosity for me to ask them, as I knew that they 
were practically every one of them opium consumers. 
And as to their loss of caste, and all that sort of 
assertion, I witnessed nothing of the kind. 

1149. I understood that you yourself lived between 
a colony of eaters on the one side, and a colony of 
smokers on the other ? — That was so. 

1160. Then as regards these people you have bee'n 
speaking of, do any of them indulge in both practices — 
eating and smoking P — I do not think so. 

1151. (Mr. Pease.) It is the practice, is it not, to njix 
opium with ganjap — Nob amongst those that I wit- 
nessed. It is done, I was told, in the Straits Settle- 
ments and other places out of India, and there it is 
said to be extremely mischievous. 

1152. Tou drew a distinction between the action of 
the two ; but I thought they were frequently taken in 
conjunction ? — Not, so far as I knew, amongst the 
comm^uniiies I lived in the midst of. 

1153. {Chairman.) Are there any further observations 
which you would wish to make P — Allow me, my Lord, 
to read you my formulation as contained in my 
papers in the "Lancet." I say as follows, in sum- 
ming up all I know of the subject, both from reading 
and practical experience : — " I maintain, and have not 
" yet seen any authoritative proof of its inaccuracy, 
" that the habitual use of opium in India is neither 
" injurious, degrading, nor immoral ; that it has caused 
" no general mental or physical deterioration of the 
" races of any part of India in which it is in general 
" use since the control of its cultivation and distribu- 
" tion has been undertaken by the Government of that 
" portion of the country which is mider its direct rule ; 
" that it is not a general incentive to crime or des- 
" troyer of reason; that it is a valuable febrifuge and 



" prophylactic in the deltas of the great rivers and Dr. 

" malarious districts generally ; that any alternative F. J. Mouat. 

" which may, and indeed must, follow its compulsory 

" disuse or employment only as a medicine for the en- 15 Sept. 'S!','). 

" forcement of 'which no trained agency at present 

" exists would be a resort to much more harmful 
" stimulants and narcotics than opium ever has been, 
" or can be ;" [and that has really occurred ; where 
the price of opium has become prohibitory they have 
taken to alcohol ; where the circumstances have been 
the reverse, they have abandoned alcohol and taken to 
opium — so that it is no longer a speculative opinion] 
' ' that the reasons for its proposed suppression, should 
" such a proceeding be practicable, are unsound, 
" visionary, and calculated to cause much undeserved 
" misery and suffering amongst the peaceable nation- 
" alities, and would be actively resisted by the more 
" manly and warlike races of India, whose mental, 
" moral, and physical qualities are the best possible 
" proofs of the absolute inaccuracy of the anti-opium 
' ' contention ; that it shares with the many narcotics 
" and stimulants in use in all civilised countries the 
" characteristics of a poison when used in excess, but 
" in a minor degree to most of them ; that such excess 
" is exceptional in India ; that the revenue raised from 
" its sale in British India, as an excise, is no more 
" immoral or degrading than the revenue raised in 
" Great Britain from the spirit licences and other 
" means of taxation applied to alcohol in its various 
" forms, or to tobacco, which is also in universal use; 
" that the fiscal action of the Indian Government in 
" restricting i(}s use is a really humane and moral 
" measure when contrasted with the spirit licences 
" issued in Great Britain, and is itself in practice and 
" intention a thoroughly moral proceeding." That was 
the result of my observations, and those remarks 
based upon the study and use of opium in my practice 
as a hospital physician represent my firm convictions 
on the subject. If there is any other question I shall 
be happy to answer it. 

1154. {Mr. Pease.) Is it not a fact, as stated at that 
meeting from the report of which you have made some 
quotations, that opium is taken for the purpose of 
exciting sexual desire? — Yes, I believe so; but as a 
matter of fact it rapidly produces a very different effect, 
and is said to have a marked tendency to diminish the 
reproductive powers to such extent as to influence the 
increase of population; This, I submit, is deserving 
of further consideration from a Malthnsian point of 



The witness withdrew. 



Sir Geoegb Biedwood called in and examined. 



1155. {Chai/rman.) How long were you in India, Sir 
George P — Will you allow me to read my statement ? 
I can get throvigh it quicker in that way. It is taken 
from the remarks I made on Mr. George Batten's paper 
read at the Society of Arts in 1892, and is as follows : 
" I wish here to speak only of my personal observation 
" of the habitual use of opium during my 15 jears' 
" latter residence in Western India. I paid the closest 
" attention to the subject during the whole of the years 
" I was there, and had every kind of experience in 
" relation to it, having at different periods been in 
" medical charge of the Southern Mahratta Irregular 
" Horse, the 8th Madras Cavalry, the 3rd Bombay 
" Native Infantry, a battery of Artillery, the jail and 
" civil station of Sholapore, and the steam frigate 
" ' Ajdaha.' " Now with regard to that experience, I 
would like to point out the difference in the conduct 
of European troops while on the march as compared 
with that of the native troops. Whenever I marched 
with European troops they were a constant cause of 
anxiety to me, both on medical-grounds, and on account 
of the trouble they gave in their dealings with the 
natives. I recollect, on one occasion, quite a riot in 
a village through which European troops were passing ; 
they had broken into the spirit shop, and the young 
"Queen's" officer in command was ]ust about to flog 
the patel of the village for their misconduct when 
fortunately I was able to stop him by telling him 
it would be as bad as flogging a mayor in this 
country. On the other hand, the native troops, when 
they were on the march, never gave any trouble, 
either in regard to drunkenness or women. On the 
line of march this is what would habitually happen 
with them. When a halt was sounded, they would 
break themselves up into small groups of four or five. 



and sit for a while, and then one of a group would 
in a quiet way take from his pocket a little lump of 
opium, and proceed to divide it with those sitting 
with him ; and there they would sit awhile medi- 
tating, swallowing the opium and meditating ; and 
by the time the halt was at an end, and the regiment 
reformed and marched on, they were fully refreshed 
and perfectly steady. " Subsequently, and for the 
" remainder of my service, I was attached to the 
" Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy Hospital, Bombay, and was in 
" succession Professor of Anatomy and Physiology, 
" and of Botany and Materia Medica, at Grant 
" Medical College. I was also a J.P., and a visitor of 
" the jails in Bombay, and the year I was sheriff I 
" regularly visited them. Besides this, I was probably 
" more intimately familiar with all classes of the 
" native population than any other European of my 
' ' generation ; while, as an ever-active journalist " (I was 
a journalist from the first day to the last of my service 
in India), " I was mixed up in almost every discussion 
of this sort during my time in Bombay. Well, in all 
" the experience — as here precisely detailed, and 
capable, therefore, of being checked at every point — 
I thus had of the indigenous life of Western India, 
I never once met with a single native suffering, or 
who had ever suffered, from what is called the exces- 
sive use, or from the habitual use of opium ; and, 
excepting cases of accidental or wilful poisoning 
by opium, I never knew of a single instance of death 
from its use ; and I have never met with anyone 
who, in his own personal experience, has known a 
case of death, or of injury to health, from the 
habitual use of opium as practised by the people of 
any part of India proper." I exclude Burmah; I 
know nothing of it. 

K 3 



Sir 
G. Birdwood. 



78 



INDIAN , OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



Sir 1166. (Sir W. Bdberis.) You exclude suicides, of 

G. Birdwooii. course ? — Yes. " So far as I can remember, in the 

" printed tables used in Indian civil and military 

15 Sept. 1893. " hospitals for the entry of diseases, there is no 

" column for the ' opium habit,' nor for ' deaths from 

" opium.' On the strength of my personal experience 
" I should be prepared lo defy anyone to bring forward, 
" from their personal experience, a single authentic 
" record of death, or shortened life, from habitual 
" opium eating or drinking in India. If anyone can, 
" let him, and the means of verifying his or her state- 
" ment, are always, within the current generation, 
" accessible in India. On the contrary, so far as 
" my experience goes, the healthiest populations of 
" Western India are those diatinguished for their so 
" stigmatised excessive use of opium. I refer to the 
" people of Gnjerat generally, and more particularly 
" to the people of the Kaira district, and also of the 
" neighbouring district of Broach. As to opium 
" smoking, it is, from my experience of it, as innocuous 
" as smoking hay, straw, or stubble." I never could 
perceive the slightest effect from it upon myself, and 
how it has any effect on other people I do not know. 
I think it must result from the generally vicious con- 
ditions of the lives of the frequenters of the opium 
dens in China. 

1157. Do you not think there may be a special 
toleration P — -Yes, it may be that ; but there is the fact 
that morphia is very readily decomposed by heat, and 
my presumption is that the morphia is decomposed in 
the opium pipe before it reaches the lungs. I think 
this is very probable, from my own experience of the 
absolute innocuousness of opium smoking. This was 
stated by me in 1881 in the " Times,"' and the Society 
for the Suppression of Opium engaging in controversy 
with me on the subject. I had collected, through 
Messrs. Henry S. King & Co., a large number of opium 
pipes which had been used, and samples of fresh 
chatidu from every port in the Bast, but when I offered 
them to the Society for the Suppression of Opium to 
have analyses made, which would have determined this 
point at once, they politely declined ; and I made over 
the collection to the Kew Museum. 

1158. I do not quite understand how that can settle 
the question of decomposition of the morphia in the 
pipe p — If you can prove that the morphia, which is 
the " magistery " of opium, is decomposed in the pipe, 
surely it also proves that the evil effects attributed 
to opium smoking cannot be truly due to it. 

1169. They might be attributable to the slight change 
in the alkaloids P — Yes, that might be so ; that is a 
very interesting question, and it is very desirable to 
clear it up. As I said, I gave all my pipes, and all my 
samples of chandu to Kew, and there they are ; but I 
do not advise their being analysed now, because the 
virtue of the chandu may have disappeared by this time. 
But here is a very remarkable fact. The opium that 
the Chinese prefer for smoking is Indian opium. 
Now, Indian opium contains only 2 per cent, of morphia, 
whereas Turkish and Egyptian opium, the kinds used for 
the production of morphia, contain 7 per cent., 8 per 
cent., and 9 per cent, of morphia. But since the Govern- 
ment of India began fostering a falling off of the 
importation of Indian opium into China, Persian 
opium has taken its place. Persian opium has soiircely 
a trace of morphia in it, not more than 1 per cent., if 
so much. From experiments I have made on inveterate 
tobacco smokers I am satisfied that a great deal of the 
pleasure derived from smoking that drug is purely 
psychical. I do not whether there is anyone here 
greatly addicted to tobacco smoking, but if there is I 
would almost like to try the experiment now, to blind- 
fold that person, and put a cigar into his mouth, and 
pretend to light it. I am sure ho would enjoy it im- 
mensely. Nine out of ten persons on whom that 
experiment is tried find that they do not know a 
lighted cigar from an unlighted one. 

1160. But would you suggest that a new smoker, if 
he smoked in the dark, would not be sick P — Well. I 
only smoked a cigar onco in my life, and it was in the 
dark, and I was dreadfully sick. It may appear rather 
fanciful, but I myself would like to prepare a consign- 
ment of Indian monopoly opium from which the 
morphia had beoii extracted, send it to China, and see 
the result. 

1161. Do you not think that ia like a proposal to make 
a beer without alcohol ; do you think the British public 
would take beer without alcohol p — I do not think the 
British public would have th'.lr beer without alcohol, 



but I think the Chinese would smoice their opium 
without the morphia. But the great thing is to have 
some analyses, two or three, made at different ports 
of the East, it could easily be done, of chandu, and 
I hope the Commission will do it. Of course a small 
portion of the morphia may pass over, and that would 
account for a good deal, but at the same time smoking 
chandu, never produced the slightest effect upon me any 
more than if I had sucked an unlighted straw. "I have, 
" therefore, always presumed that the morphia in ' the 
' ' ' smokable extract of opium ' ia all decomposed in 
" the flame of the lamp at which the opium pipe is 
" lighted, before the smoke from it reaches the lungs. 
" This, however, is only a presumption, and in one 
" case, examined by Professor Attfield, morphia was 
" found in the ashes of an opium pipe used by a smoker 
" in the East End of London. But be this as it may, we 
" find in China, as in India, that nowhere are the native 
" populations so robust, industrious, and thriving as 
' ' in the principal opium-producing provinces of the 
" Empire." Of course I am not speaking here from 
my own experience, I am speaking on the authority of 
the Keports of Dr. Ayres (on the ' ' Jails and Hospitals 
" of Hong-Kong," a most valuable report), of Mr. 
Donald Spence, Acting Consul at Ichang, Mr. J. G. Scott, 
CLE. (in his "Report on ihe Administration of the 
Northern Shan States"), and others. 

1162. (Ghairinan.) Is Professor Ayres' Report a Par- 
liamentary Paper ? — It is a Colonial Office Paper. " I 
" well know the Bombay den kept in my time by a 
" Chinese ' gentle converfcite ' to Christianity. It was 
" the one den in a city with a population second, in 
" the whole British Empire, only to that of London. 
" Yet I never saw " 

1163. [Sir W. Boberts.) May I ask what was the date 
of that observation p — It would be 1865-66 or about 
that time. " Yet I never saw more than ten or twelve 
" opium smokers there at any time — poor, lost souls, 
" whose miserable, physical, and moral degradation 
" and depravity it would be impossible for even 
" descriptive reporters and sensational photographers 
" to exaggerate. But who were they p The dregs of 
" the lowest outcasts of the greatest emporium of trade 
" in the Old World outside London, and the sink of 
" all the miscellaneous vagabondage of the Indian 
" Ocean. And as for the real causes of their sufi'er- 
" ings I will only here say that, so far as I could ever 
" ascertain, they had nothing to do with the opium 
" pipe, which seemed to me to be simply the last 
" palliative of their ' disnatured torment,' until en- 
" franohised of it all by death, which generally over- 
" took these cases of complicated and perverted 
" nympholepsy in from three to nine months." The 
worst cases were those of smokers who had recourse 
to opium smoking on account of their perverted nympho- 
lepsy. The immorality of the young is a comparatively 
innocent thing, but all old men know that directly the 
degradation of nerve tissue begins immorality takes the 
most perverted forms, and these cases of extreme opium 
smoking were always of men in the extremity of senile 
nymphomania, and they took to the habit obviously to 
allay their torment. 

1164. May I ask if the condition resembles what 
sometimes follows in cases of organic disease of the 
spinal cord p — Exactly. 

1165. And yet no disease of the spinal cord has been 
m existence P— I had nothing to do professionally with 
the frequenters of the opium dens, but I was always 
^ very curious observer of such things quite inde- 
pendently of my professional work. I saturated myself 
during my residence in India with the observation 
and study of native manners, customs, and institutions 
and it was simply m the pursuit of this knowledge that 
I visited the Bombay opium den. " I, on the contrary, 
. j.T.° u°",l ^*^ habitual consumption is essential to 

the health, wealth, and happiness of a vegetarian 
tropical people, would freely throw the cultivation 
and manufacture of it open to private enterprise and 
raise as large a revenue from its export from India 
'■ as It would bear." Anything that would tend to 
deprive the native princes of their revenue from opium 
would be a political error of capital magnitude The 
great difficulty of our position in India is the introduc- 
tion by us of an expensive scientific government beyond 
the economic, capacity of the country to supiioro This 
IS particularly hard on the nativ,^ Stai.cs, and to deprive 
them of the one revenue which they can raise without 
cau.sing any discontent would be, as I have said a 
political blunder of the very greatest magnitude. All 
I have to say in conclusion is on the one point of the 



■: .uvr <rr :', CI!- ' ;• ' fill 
MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



'■y 
79 



new charge that has recently being brought against 
opium — that it is conducive to immorality — that, in 
the language of Dr." Maxwell, " it promotes lust." I 
think that is a very heedless charge, because it is one 
which is so very difficult to answer in the straight- 
forward way in which any answer should be given. I 
propose to read what I have written on this aspect of the 
question. " This belief that the use of opium stimulates 
Must' has recently been revived in Europe, among 
ignorant people, by Perelaers' novel ' The Opium 
" Fiend,' translated from the Dutch into English in 
" 1888 by the Rev. E. T. Venning, M.A. The belief 
" is an immemorially old one and is still popularly 
" held throughout the East from Marocco to Japan. 
" But it has no justification in anybody of well-proved 
" fact. The only secretion thai opium is held by 
" scientific observers to stimulate is the cutaneous. It 
" has been said by some to stimulate the renal secre- 
" tion, but this is not generally accepted, while, on 
" the other hand, opium is recognised as diminishing 
" the sensibility of the ureters and bladder. Of course, 
" through its action on the brain, opium may stimulate 
" the reproductive secretion, as also through its action 
" on the heart and the vascular system generally. 
" But there is no proof of this beyond the fact that 
" during healthy maturity everything serves to stimu- 
" late the reproductive instinct, and anything may in 
" which faith, as such a stimulant, is encouraged. 
' ' The classical instance , of Turkish origin, in support of 
' ' the Old World superstition,is one to which no scientific 
" credit would ever have been given but for its quota.' 
" tion by Oabanis in his philosophical work on ' Man.' 
" It is that of the 8,000 alleged opium-eating Turks 
" who fell in some forgotten field of glory, and were 
" there found after death in a state of mentulary 
" rigidity— all the 8,000! The story is too droll 
" for serious consideration ; but, as it still has in- 
" fl.uential currency, I may as well add that the 
" phenomenon recorded constantly occurs in articulo 
" mortis, and in my Indian experience of the death of 
" healthy adults by cholera was universal; and the 
" tradition is that it occurred at the death of the Prophet 
" Mahomed." It is a phenomenon thac occurs through- 
out nature. A friend of mine in Bombay, Mrs. Hough, 
had in her garden a mango tree, remarkable - for 
flowering every Christmas. She was very anxious 
to find out why it flowered out of season as well as 
in season ; and I found out that the tree had been 
blown down about 70 years previously to my inquiries, 
during a great storm about Christmas time, and 
that in the agony of threatened death it at once 
threw out blossoms. And a similar thing occurred 
to a number of yuccas growing on the Esplanade at 
Bombay, where there was a dense row of these plants 
half-a-mile long. A monsoon tide on one occasion 
swept the whole of them down, and within three days 
they all burst into bloom. It was* the creative force 
of Nature, asserting itself in death. " Sir Astley Cooper, 
" who devoted much study and research to the phy- 
" Biological effects of opium, quotes with acquiescence 
" the statement of a patient, who took opium freely, that 
" it was absolutely anaphrodisiac. The eonclusion at 
" which Sir Astley Cooper arrived has now, I believe, 
" the general consent of the medical jjrofession ; and it 
" is entirely borne out by the evidence recently placed 
" before the world in the Report of the Royal Commia- 
" sion on Alleged Chinese OcmMing and Immorality, 
" appointed 20th August 1891, and presented to the 
" New South Wales Parliament by command, and 
" printed at Sydney by Charles Potter, Government 
" printer, 1892. The extracts bearing on the present 
" qiiestion are attached to this statement." [The 
witness handed in a document.'] " The truth is, no 
" popular, that is to say, unprofessional, oriental 
" evidence on this question can be accepted; and 
" simply because of the archaic point from which it is 
" still regarded by the people of the East. They all, 
" including the people of India, regard the reproductive 
" force in man as a part of the divine creative energy, 
"to be cherished in every way, and utilised to the 
" utmost ; and their primary division of the materia 
" medica is into drugs which warm or exalt this force 
" and drugs which chill, or as they hold, degrade it ; 
" that is, into gurm and tunda ; and the names they 
" give their popular warming drugs and prescriptions 
" are to Europeans most startling. Thus the roots of 
" the Atropa Mandragora — the 'mandrakes' of the 
" English authorised version of Ihe Bible, and Atropa 
" Belladonna, are nam^d jrir-JoZi, ' house-upset ' ; that 
" is, by the procreative rage of the house-father. The 
" Belgaum Walnut (Alewites triloha), and the drupes of 



Sir 
G. Birdwood. 



" Vanguieria spinoaa ahd Raudia dumeiorum are named 
" madanphul, popularly contracted to manvphid, that 

" is, ' rage-fruit,' madan here beiiig radically the same . 

"word as m'ada, 'wine,' madh, ' honej,' niadyam, i5 Sept. 1983 

" ' magic,' and mathwa, or mad/wra, ' a ' pleasant : — 

" woman,' the name given to the two well-known 
" Indian cities of Mathura and Madura from their 
" traditionary association with the free loves of Krishna 
" and the giqpis. Several other drugs, mostof them per- 
" fectly inert, are named macJaw-WMtsi, literally 'rage- 
" rage,' meaning ' furious-rage ' ; rrmst here being 
" radically connected with the Latin mustmn and 
" mustum. The descriptive, as distinguished from the 
" astral, name of the month of February, in Bombay, 
" is must-mahina, 'sap-month,' or 'rage-month,' on 
" the 14th day of which is held the great phallic 
" festival of the Maha Siva Ratri. One of the best 
" known aphrodisiac prescriptions of the Hindus is 
" named i;«/ai, ' victory ' ; its components being nut- 
" megs, cloves, cubebs, which are spices indeed, and 
" niger seed, celastrus seed, cowhage beans, caltrops, 
" pellitory, mastic, safHower, and red oxide of mer- 
cury," simply because it is red. 

1166. There is no opium in it ? — No opium in that pre- 
scription. " But the great classical Indian aphrodisiac 
" prescription is named madana Zam-Iehva/ra, literally, 
" ' Rage Love-God,' and meaning ' Omnipotent pro- 
" creative rage,' and its constituents, besides opium, 
" are musk, nutmegs, cloves, talc, camphor, red oxide 
" of mercury, and safflower. The dose is three grains, 
" each dose containing one-sixth of a graiu of opium. 
" Such prescriptions can only act in the way imputed 
" to them through the imagination, and the truth is 
" that the names of these Indian drugs and prescrip- 
" tions, and the specific virtue attributed to them, are. 
" not based on any knowledge of their physiological 
" effects, but simply on the old, exploded doctrine of 
" phallic signatures, whether in form, texture, or 
" colour." It is a doctrine that was held by all the 
ancients, and the Hindoos are still the ancients of 
the world, for they have preserved their beliefs and 
traditions almost intact from the beginning of historic 
times down to the present day. " A good deal of this 
" superstition is still lying latent in the folklore of the 
" West, but in the East it is in rampant evidence 
" everywhere. I remember at a durbar held by Sir 
" Bartle Frereon his remarking to a native Prince who 
" had just introduced a son to him, ' Have yon any other 
" son ? ' the Prince at once indignantly protesting, ' and 
" ' is it nothing to have this one son ; and oh, if you only 
" ' knew the trouble I was at to procure him, and all 
" ' the prescriptions I took ' ; and so he went on, with- 
" out any possibility of stopping him, before the whole 
" durbar, loudly detailing all the philters he had had 
" to swallow before his one and only son was born to 
" him. Sanskrit scholars hold that aphrodisiacs played 
" an important part in Indian mythology and literature 
" from the oldest times. The antithesis of the ideas of 
" the Bast to those of the West on the present point and 
" which should be carefully kept in view in inquiries 
" such as will engage the attention of the Eoyal 
" Commission on Opium, is still more emphatically 
" illustrated by one of my earliest professional experi- 
" ences, and every medical man who has practised will 
" have had some similar experience. I was attending 
" a very high-caste Hindoo, suffering from a specific 
"local Bore. I was permitted to see it, but on pro- 
" ceeding to approach it for the purpose of cauterising 
" it, he at once started back in pious horror, thrusting 
" out his arms with outspread palms against me, and 
" exclaiming- ' Islivara, Ishva/ral' — 'the God, the 
' ' God ! ' — meaning * Stand off", stand off, oh profane 
" one!' In almost the same breath he called out for his 
" daughter, who, on coming in from the front garden, 
" was directed by the father to make the simple manipu- 
" lations which enabled me to properly apply the lunar 
" caustic." 

In regard to the question of the abolition of the 
opium trade, supposing this was accomplished, what 
would happen? Already I see, in the last number 
of the " Bombay Gazette," the effect of the res- 
triction on the output of the monopoly of opium has 
been, to increase the exports into British Indian terri- 
tory from the native States. The import of Persian 
opium into China has also increased; while China 
has actually commenced exporting opium into the 
Shan States and the Straits Settlements. And another 
very interesting fact is brought out in connexion with 
the shutting of the chandu shops in Bombay. It was 
a proper thing to do, and I only wish the Government 
here would do the same with the comer public-houses in 

K 4 



80 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



Sir 
G. Birdwcod. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



London ; but the effect of sbtitting those few chandw 
shops has been to establish (and there is a gentleman in 
this room who can confirm this from letters he has 
received from Bombay) about 100 private clubs for 
opium smoking in Bombay, which, of course, has given 
an immense impetus to opium smoking. 

1167. {Sir W. Roberts.) Have you anything further 
to say? — No. I rely, as a scientific man, only on the 
facts that have come within my own observation, and 
which I have detailed to you. I wish no weight what- 
ever to be aitached to my speculations and opinions ; 
they are interesting to me personally, but as a scientific 
observer I regard them as of no value. 

1168. (Mr. Wilson) I understood you to say, gener- 
ally, that you thought it quite harmless, as harmless as 
unlighted straw, I think was your expression ? — I mean 
to say, as far as I am personally concerned. I do not 
understand how opium smoking can be injurious. I 
believe the statement is made that the Chinese are 
injured by it. This is to me a very interesting puzzle, 
and I would like tc have it cleared up ; and it would 
be a great thing to this end to have analyses made of 
the chandu smoked in different parts of the East. 

1169. Yes, that may be very interesting as regards 
yourself, but we are speaking about the people of India 
and China. Tou do not, I suppose, suggest that it pro- 
duces no more effect upon them than au unlighted 
straw ? — Well, I do not know anything about the 
Chinese; but here I have Spence's evidence, and 
Scott's, and Ayres'. Ayres says : " As a habit I cannot 
" find it so injurious as tobacco smoking is in some 
" oases. I am an inveterate tobacco smoker myself, 
" and as far as I am concerned, it has never done me 
" any harm, but I have seen many cases of its evil 
" effects on other people. I have not been able 
" to find even this much in the case of the opium 
" smoker." This is written by a man who has been 
in charge of the hospitals and jails of Hong Kong, 
for, I believe, 20 years. " Vary few people have got 

through their first pipe or cigar without feeling 
very sick, even if they have not had a violent 
attack of vomiting; but I have tried opium smoking 
on many novices, and could find nothing approach- 
ing the effect of tobacco ; though the smoker does not 
inhale the smoke of tobacco, the effect of the nicotine 
in the case of a novice is visible to anyone. But 
though the opium smoke is always inhaled deep into 
the lungs, no effects of morphine are visible at all, 
and I doubt very much if this principle ever reache.s 
the lungs at all. As will be seen in Mr. MoCallum's 
report, there is about 6 to 7 per cent, of morphia in 
the opium sent out by the opium farmer, yet the old 
opium smoker, who has had the habit for over 30 
years, and was one of the best Chinese Government 
servants in my department, could not detect the dif- 
ference between the opium farmer's opium, contain- 
ing 7 per cent, of morphia, the same opium with an 
additional 15 per cent, of morphia added, and the 
opium farmer's opium with all the moi'phia ab- 
stracted." Now I only saw that to-day; but it 
exactly confirms my suspicion that the morphia is de- 
composed before the smoke enters the lungs, or is to 
a great extent decomposed. 

1170. I only wanted to be sure if I had properly con- 
densed the general effect of your evidence— that opium 
smoking is harmless. You do not go so far as to say 
that it is beneficial, but you say it is harmless ? — Yes, 
that is what I say. I would add that opium smoking 
in Bombay is only indulged in by riff-raff Chinese and 
others — who come frum abroad, at least that was my 
personal experience there. In my time there was only 
one opium smoking shop there — since then the number 
may have increased — and it was only the lowest of the 
people who used it for opium smoking. 

1171. I only want to ask you one other question. 
You spoke of the good conduct of native troops on the 
march. It is a fact, I believe, that opium smoking 
shops have to be shut up whenever a regiment passes. 
Do you know why that is ? — I do not know how that 
may be. I know nothing about the licensing system 
in India — it is a matter in which I take no interest. 
I speak as a sociologist and a medical man. 

1172. But you spoke about the contrast between the 
British troops and the native troops ? — Yes, the con- 
trast presented on the line of march respectively by 
spirit di inking and opium eating habits. The British 
troops were a source of all sorts of anxiety and trouble 



to their ofiBcers ; whereas the native troops on the 
march were never a source of any anxiety whatever. 

1173. You do not know anything about those opium 
shops being shut when the regiments were passing, 
through ? — Not up-country. I never heard of such a 
regulation. 

1174. (Mr. Mowbray.) Do your remarks apply equally 
to opium eating as to opium smoking ? — Oh, no, I draw 
a distinction between the two. I was only speaking of 
opium smoking when I said the opium habit was, in 
my experience, absolutely harmless.' Opium eating, of 
course, one can easily understand may be harmful, 
undoubtedly so ; all I am saying in regard to it is that 
the opium habit in India is not nearly so harmful to 
the people as the alcohol habit in this country. 

1175. But could you give us your opinion as to the 
effect on the Indian people of opium eating ? — It has 
no bad effect within my observation. The healthiest 
people I knew, the best people, the wholesomesfc people, 
and those you trusted most in their work, were always 
the opium eaters : invariably. 

1176. But you consider that eating opium is a 
stronger form of taking the drug than smoking it ? — 
Quite so, because of the morphia it contains. Nothing 
can be more hurtful, for instance, than the morphia 
habit now so prevalent in America. Of course, in 
speaking of the effects of a drug or any substance, 
one must remember that the least difference in com- 
position, or even in structure, makes the greatest differ- 
ences in its physiological action. For instance, water, 
crystallised as snow, instead of allaying thirst 
aggravates it. 

1177. But your general opinion is that in neither 
form does it do any harm ? — "Well, I will tell you what 
my opinion is : I would like everyljody to lead au ideal 
life, to live upon the fruits of the earth, and to take 
no stimulants whatever but water and milk ; but taking 
human nature as it is, I would not for the world 
disturb the opium habit of the Indian people, because 
I know that if they ceased to use opium our merchants 
would pour alcohol into the country in its place. Our 
distillers would be quick to see their new market, and 
would rush and make it all their own ; and you would 
not dare to prevent them ; and, in times of epidemic 
or famine, alcohol would decimate the people of India 
before you were aware of it. 

1178. (Sir IF. lioberts.) Eeferring to that singular 
observation of yours about the opium pipe, I daresay 
you have seen it stated that, even with regard to the 
nicotine of tobacco, which is volatile at a high tempera- 
ture, it is not nicotine which reaches the lungs, but two 
allied alkaloids derived from it ? — Yes, formed in transit. 
That is a very interesting scientific point, and with 
reference to opium can be determined only by an 
analysis of the smokeable extract, or chandu. 

117',"l. (Mr. Pease.) You are of course aware that the 
policy of the Indian Government has been to keep down 
the consumption of opium, and still to endeavour to 
maintain the revenue p — I think the Indian Govern- 
ment has acted very weakly, with criminal weakness, 
in yielding to the pressure put upon them by the Anti- 
Opium Society through Parliament. I have no right 
to criticise them, but I utterly disapprove of their want 
of conviction, or it may be of courage in this respect. 

1180. Indeed, I believe you have expressed the opinion 
that you would personally approve of the opium trade 
being thrown open to private enterprise ? — Yes. 

1181. I suppose you are aware that witnesses have 
stated that opium eating is a very deteriorating vice, 
and shows marked efl'ects on the consumer ? — That may 
be so in China, but within my own personal observation 
most assuredly that is not the case, and as I have said, 
I believe there is no European who knows all clagses of 
the natives in India more intimately than I do. 

1182. (Chairman.) To sum it all up, as regards the 
effect of the use of opium, I presume it is like other 
things a question of quantity, and you hold that the 
poderate use is not injurious, indeed I think you say 
it is beneficial ; but that an excessive use of it will have 
a pernicious effect P-— It may be so, but I have never 
seen any pernicious cflect from the habitual use of opium 
in any form. We have most of us seen how rapidly 
Iho use of alcohol leads to its abuse, but I never in 
India knew any case in which the habitual use of opium 
had proved injurious. 



The witness withdrew. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



81 



Mr. H. N. Lay, C.B., called in and examined. 



1183. {Ohairman.) Ton were for many years resident 
in China, were you not P — Yes. 

1184. How many years were you there ?-^SeTenteen. 

1185. And during that time what posts did you fill P 
— I entered the Consular service as supernumerary in- 
terpreter. I was for some time attached to the 
Magistracy at Hong Kong as interpreter in the Can- 
tonese dialect ; I then became an assistant in the 
Consulate at Canton ; and afterwards interpreter and 
vice-consul at Shanghai. I was then appointed British 
Inspector of Customs in succession to Mr. (now Sir 
Thomas) Wade, and in 1858 I was attached to Lord 
Elgin's Mission, and by Lord Elgin's express wish 
became Inspector-General of Chinese Customs. 

1186. How many years were you in the service of the 
Chinese Government P — Nine years. I was in intimate 
relations with the highest officials of the Empire at a 
time when they were in great distress and difficulty, 
and when they did not know what to do ; I was in fact 
really their adviser. 

1187. Well, you have had many opportunities of 
forming an opinion with regard to the question which 
is before us P — Yes, my Lord, I think I have. 

1188. Sir James Lyall has kindly undertaken to con- 
duct your examination. 

1189. {8ir J. Lyall.) You have written a note, Mr. 
Lay, entitled " Note on the Opium Question, and Brief 
" Survey of our Relations with China." So long ago 
as 1589, and again in 1615, opium appears in Chinese 
tariffs as an article paying import duty ? — ^Yes. 

1190. Have you seen those papers (the tariffs), or on 
what authority have you made that statement P — ^Yes, 
I have seen the tariffs, and the very use of the word 
" opium " (which in Chinese is called " a foo yoong," 
derived from the Arabic word U-fyun) proves that we 
did not introduce opinm into China, but that the Turks 
did so in the first instance. Opium was introduced 
into China in the eighth or ninth century from Persia, 
Syria, and Turkey, under the term " afuyung," which 
was corrupted into " opium." 

1191. I think Indian opium was first introduced by 
the Portuguese, was it not ? — I believe it was. 

1192. I see you say in your note, also, that in 1722 
an import duty on opium was fixed by Imperial Decree P 
—Yes. 

1193. On what authority is that statement made ? — 
The authority is the Blue Book, where it is distinctly 
stated, and further on in my note I think I can quote 
you a passage where the fact is recorded. 

1194. Again you say that this duty continued to be 
collected from that time, and that the import of opium 
was first prohibited by Imperial Decree in 1799 ? — Ysa ; 
but it was carried on just as before, notwithstanding 
the decree. 

1195. Have you seen that decree of 1799 P — No, I 
have not. I have seen the tariff of 1722, in which the 
article is admitted as an import, and a duty is fixed of 
three taels (or 11. sterling) per picul (133|- lbs), but I 
have not seen the decree of 1799. 

1196. You further say in your note that the motive of 
the decree of prohibition in 1799 was in consequence of 
the drain of silver from the country. , Qn what 
authority is that P — That is also to be found in the Blue 
Books. 

1197. Yes, but how did you ascertain that it was in 
order to prevent the drain of silver from the country, 
and not on moral grounds, that the decree was passed '<' 
— Because it omits any reference to moral grounds. 

1198. What, the decree ? — Yes, the decree does not 
contain any reference to moral grounds. 

1199. I thought you said yoa had not seen the 
decree P — I have seen the reference to it in the Blue 
Book. I have seen all the Blue Books on" the snbjeoti 
I get my information here mainly from the Blue 
Books. 

1200. The old Blue Books ?— Yes, between 1809 and 
184,0. 

1201. A Blue Book, probably, would not mention any 
moral ground, would it, upon which the Government of 
China might have acted p — No, but it would quote the 
decree — portions of it, at all events, or possibly the whole 
of it, I have not the books here. 

e 80970. 



1202. You say that after the decree of 1799, 'and down 
to the events preceding the war of 1840-41, the opium 
trade was allowed to continue, as before, by the Chinese j 
governors and mandarins, and that no article paid its 
import fees more regularly than opium did P — Those are 
the words of Captain Elliott. 

1203. Do you understand by the word "fees ''that 
the Imperial duty fixed in 1722 continued to be levied, 
or that the mandarins exacted other fees, such, for in- 
stance, as transit duties P — I think they always, from 
the first, exacted more than the legitimate fees. 

1204. Do I understand that, in spite of the prohibi- 
tion of 1799, the Imperial duty fixed in 1722 continued 
to be collected P — I have no doubt of it myself, but I 
have, of course, no evidence that such was the case ; 
but if you will refer, sir, to my note dealing with the 
year 1725, you will find that " the first Customs tariff 
" for foreign trade was proclaimed. Yung Ching, 
" the reigning Emperor, directed it to be strictly 
" observed by the local authorities. Those directions 
" were disregarded. Arbitrary and excessive charges 
" were imposed by the authorities, who, moreover, 
" sought to obtain heavy bribes by the arrest and im- 
" prisonment of merchants, and the vexatious detention 
" of shipping." 

1205. If the import trade in opium continued, un- 
affected by the prohibition, and fees or duties were 
levied quite regulai-ly, how do you account for the 
coming up of the smuggling trade which you mention 
sprang up ? — Well, the term " smuggling trade " is 
really, as we understand it, a misnomer. There never 
was any opium smuggled into Canton at all, the smug- 
gling took place upon the Canton River, between Lintin 
and Canton, after the admission of the opium. 

1206. Well, was the port at Lintin then P — No, the 
port was at Canton. 

1207. Is Lintin above Canton ? — No, some distance 
from Canton. The river is 90 miles long. 

1208. Is it, I mean, below Canton or above it ? — 
Below Canton. My note on this part of the subject 
says: "In consequence of the exactions levied upon 
" opium after its admission, a smuggling trade had 
" sprung up at points upon the Canton Biver, which is 
" nearly 90 miles in length. Upon the Viceroy's re- 
" commendation a decree was issued from Pekin in 1834. 
" enacting the severest penalties for its repression. 
" Thus we have the importation of opium expressl3 
" recognised by the Imperial Government no less than 
" 35 years after the interdictory decree of 1799." 

1209. I do not quite understand, and I should like 
you to explain, if you can, why, if opium continued to 
be quietly imported as before, and duties or fees paid 
on it, there should be any smuggling trade. What 
kind of smuggling trade was it ; what was the object of 
the smuggling trade P — The object was to avoid the 
excessive charges put upon opium by the authorities. 
They added very much more than 11. per picul — per- 
haps multiplied the duty a hundred times, or a thou- 
sand times. It thus became a constant struggle to get 
the opium into Canton from Lintin, free of these exces- 
sive charges. 

1210. Get it into Canton, or into the country 
generally ? — Get it into Canton ; it all went to Canton. 

1211. The difficulty was to get it into Canton with- 
out paying the " squeeze " P — Without paying the 
" squeeze " to the local officials. 

1212. The " squeezes " were all paid outside Canton P 
— Within the limits of the port, but some distance from 
Canton. 

1213. And this smuggling trade was carried on by 
Chinese, and I understand also by English, or other 
foreigners ? — Principally by Chinese, but of course 
there may have been here and there a European watch- 
ing his own opium. Everyone would cheerfully have 
paid a small, moderate fee of IL sterling per picul, or 
133^ lbs. Anyone would have paid that without demur, 
but excessive charges were imposed. The Emperor 
instructs the authorities to get these charges. As 
Captain Elliott observes, the officials at Pekin and the 
officials at Canton divided the profits, and the decree 
in question was a positive recognition of the trade. 

1214. This river smuggling greatly promoted piracy 
—that is, river piracy— piracy of other kinds too, I 
suppose P — I should doubt it. There was no induce- 
ment to piracy so far as foreigners went, and I never 

L 



Mr. 

n. N. Lay, 

C.B. 

i Sept. 189S. 



82 



INI«5A>«l-01>K)'M !OOMMB3SION : 



Mr. 'neard of any of our people being epgaged in piracy at 

H. JY. Lay, all, there was no motive whatever for it. 

C-^- 1216. I suppose a lot of armed boats fighting with 

, the mandarins and police of the country, and perhaps 

14 Sept. 1893. ygj.y ^ftgn successfully fighting with them, was very 
likely to lead to a kind of pu'aoy, was it not P — It is not 
recorded, even in the " Middle Kingdom," a book by 
which all the anti-opiumists have been utterly misled. 
This book was AATitten by an Ameriran. The Americans 
of that day were very hostile to us, and we were not as 
i\'itc then as wo are now, and did not attach the same 
value to a friendly feeling between the two peoples ; 
and this l)Ook, from which the anti-opinmist.'^ derive all, 
or the greater part, of their arguments, is full of con- 
tradictions and mis-statements. It does not give a 
true account at all. This note is from the of&cial docu- 
ments 1111 record, without omitting any. 

1216. Tou say in the note, I see, that in 1830 the cul- 
tivation of the poppy was already widespread p — Tea. 

1217. " Half the province of Che-kiang was covered 
'■ with the poppy, which was also extciisively grown in 
■' the provinces of Kwei-chow and Yun-nan." But 
that is rather contrary to some of the evidence which 
we heard yesterday and the day bel'ore from some of the 
Chinese missionaries — contrary to their impressions. 
I should like to know what is your authority for those 
statements y— The authority is the Bine Books; you 
will find it in the Blue Books between 18o9 and 1840. 

1218.- {(Jhainiicui.) Of course the conditions might be 
different to-day from what they were at that time P — 
The conditions are very largely different to-day ; but 
they had begun tu grow opium years before — I believe 
concurrently with the early introduction of opium into 
China. This is admitted again and again by Chinese 
officials. 

1219. {Sir J. Lyall.) I suppose Oheh-kiang is a pro- 
vince quite close to the sea, is it not?— Yes. 

1220. I suppose if the province of Oheh-kiang was 
growing opium in 1830, and it was not doing so at a 
subsequent time, it must have been repressed by some 
Government order ? — I do not think so. The Chinese 
Government have nominally repressed the cultivation 
of opium, but practically they have allowed it to go on. 
I shall submit evidence to you presently that it is 
now cultivated in every province in the Empire, and 
was cultivated in every province so long ago as 1864. 
I A-isited Pekin for the last time in 1869, and saw poppy- 
tields in flower right up to the wall of the city. 

1221. In the Tai-ping Rebellion did not the rebels 
attempt the suppression of the opium cultivation ; they 
stamped it out for a time, did they not? — No, they 
never had sufficient mastery of the country. The 
Chinese Government, at the tune of the Tai-ping Be- 
bellion, tried to put down opium cultivation, in order 
that they might get a large importation of Indian 
opium, because, whereas Indian opium paid (since our 
treaty at all events) 30 taels per picul, native opium 
paid much less because it was so easily smuggled; it was 
not like millet, grain, or rice, but being portable 
in small parcels, the Customs barriers could easily be 
evaded. 

1222. Has it not been stated that the policy of the 
rebels was to put down opium cultivation ? — Well, I 
saw a. good deal of the rebel", and I never heard any 
of them pnt tViat forward. There are a ;;o(jd many 
arguments pnt into the mouths of the rebels, and of the 
officials, which were never employed. You asked me 
just now, sir, about the Imperial duty fixed on opium 
in 1722. At page 1 of my note, September 7, 1836, you 
will find it stated tl.at : "In the reigns of Y^ung Ching 
" and K'ienlung (1722 to 1736) it was included in the 
" tariff of maritime duties, under the head of ' medi- 
" cinal drugs,' and there was then no regulation 
" against purchasing it or inhaling it." 

1223. The general purport of your note seems to be 
that the Ohiiiese Government declared war first in 
1839, and foi'ced on the war ? — Certainly. The war 
has been misnamed an "opium war " — altogether mis- 
named. The war arose out of the hostilities of Lin, 
comTuenctd lour months after his demands had been 
mot, and crmliuued for live months when he declared 
war. Ho seized the opium in March 18;j9 ; it was not till 
April 1841) that Lord Palmerston took action. 

1224. You quote in your note something which Cap- 
tain Elliott faid to the olfect that the foreign smugglers 
wore becoming so desperate and lawloKS as tu force the 
(Jhincse (rovoriiment to take some strong action? — 
Where is that ? 



1225. I read it mst now somewhere in your paper, 
quoting Caplain nSliott, I think? — Yes, sir, I have it. 
It is at page £ : " ':The manner of the rash course of 
" ' traflnc ' " (meaning the opium trade on the river., sir,, 
as I said, not the forced introduction of the article from 
abroad) '''within the river had probably con trilmted 
''• ' most of all to impress on the Chinese Govei-nment 
'• ' the urgent necessity of suppressing the growing 
" ' audacity of the foreign smugglers, and pi'eventing 
" ' their associating themselves with the desperate and 
" ' lawless of their own city. It was the opium trade 
" ' within the Bocca Tigris, not the mere o-xistence of 
" 'the trade, which had exasperated the Pekin Govern- 
" ' ment.' " The fees which were levied on opium were 
very largo indeed. Opium was extremely valuable, and 
they mulcted it to an extraordinary extent in those days. 
The authorities used to charge it ad libitum. In 1837 
(at page 5, second paragraph) the Chinese Government 
determined to legalise opium of their own accord. 

1226. That was in what year? — 1837. Opium was 
legalised throughout the year 1837. 

1227. What was Lord Palmerston's attitude in 1838 
to 1840 with ree-ard to the prohibition of the opium 
trade ? — At the end of 1837 the Chinese Government 
again altered their policj-. They had been wavering 
for a long time between forbidding the import of opium 
and interdicting the export of the precious metals. 
They were actuated purely Ijy fiscal considerations, 
not by any moral sentiments. Opium further served 
as a handy weapon against the foreigner, whom they 
hated ; but, if you look at all the despatches, the real 
])i;int is the interdiction of the export of silver. They 
would have continued to let opium in but for the 
drain of the Sycee silver. Captain Elliott informed 
Lord Palmerston that at last the Chinese Government 
had made up their minds to re-enact the prohibition 
against opium, and upon the receipt of that information 
Lord Palmerston on June 1-5, 1838, wrote : " Her 
" Majesty's Government cannot interfere for the 
" purpose of enabling British sulijects to violate the 
" laws of the country in which they trade. Any 
" loss, therefore, which such persons suffer in conse- 
" quence of the more effectual execution of the Chinese 
" laws on this subject must be borne by the parties who 
" have brought that loss on themselves by their own 
" acts." Upon this I say in my note : " This despatch, 
" standing alone, refutes the charge made that England 
" has forced opium on China. The moment Chinese 
'' prohibition is announced, instructions aro issned to 
" respect it." And those instructions wen' implicitly 
obeyed by Captain Elliott throughout. 

1228. Then what was the reason that the Avar actually 
did break nut, if it was not upon the opium question ? 
— " The Special Commissioner, Lin " (I am reading from 
page 6 of my note), " arrived to carry out the change 
" of policy. Ignoring her Majesty's Minister, Lin 
" addresso(.l the foreign merchants at Canton direct, 
" requiring them to surrender ' every particle of opium 
'■ onboard their ' storeships.' " He laid hands upon 
Captain Elliott, who was Her Majesty's Minister, he 
barricaded the factories, took away all servants, and 
cut off provisions. That was on March 15th, 1839, and 
within 14 days Captain Elliott had surrendered all 
that wo had, and the transaction was closed. Lin 
violated his promise that when the opium was given up 
permits for sliips and subjects should be given. Captain 
Elliott gave up the opium on March 28th. On that 
date ho " sends Lin dolivoiy order for 20,28)5 chests of 
" opium, and asks to be set at liberty according to 
" promise. Liu replies same day, declining to accede 
" to his request." Captain Elliott was detained a 
prisoner for seven weeks. On April 6th Captain Elliott 
tells Lord Palmerston : "'The late frequent changes 
" ' of policy of the Government in relation to this 
" 'trade left it a matter of perfect doubt to the very 
" ' day before the Commissioner's first edict appeared, 
" ■ whetlici- the avowed purposes were to be depended 
" 'upon or not, or whether the object was merely 
" 'the extensive check of the trade by subjecting it 
" ' toheightened temporary inconvenience, and exacting 
" ' some considerable fees as the price of its future relax- 
" ' ation.' He mentions ' the great impulse it had so 
" ' lately received by the public preparations of the 
" ' Imperial Government to legalise it,* and adds : ' Up 
" ' to a, very late dati^, my Lord, no portion of this trade 
" ' to Cliina has so regularly paid its fees to the officers 
" ■ of this and the neighbouring provinces, high and low, 
" ' as that of opium ; and under all the circumstances I 
" ' am warranted in describing the late measures to be 
" ' those of public robbery, and of wanton violence on the 



MMiaMffiBSi: OB/ OCWHDBJfCEl '/. 



'* 'Quedn'sioffiGenB.aaid. aubjeOts.' 'Ui'viwu' ' The utmost 
" ' conceivable; encouragement, direct and indirect, 
■" 'upon tbe one hand,, and sudden violent spoliation on 
" ' the other, ar^ the charaoterietics of the Chinese 
" ' measures concerning opium.' ,'\ , 

1229. Well, I mean to say, what was the 'actual cause 
of war, if Lord Palmerston was determined not to 
support the opium business. Was it because the 
merchants were imprisoned, or was there anything 
else ? — No. The opium had been surrendered in March, 
and Captain Elliott had been released in May. On June 
21ist, Captain Elliott addressed a letter of remonstrance 
to Lin for his breaches^ of faith, which Lin answered by 
organising a force to drive Captain Elliott out of the 
Portuguese settlement of Macao, whither he had 
retia?ed. Lin directed- Captain Elliott's expulsion, and 
a second time cut ofl ihis .supplies and withdrew 'his 
native servants. (In those days the Chinese officials 
had much more power over the natives than they have 
now, at all events in the place where Captain Elliott 
then was.) In the meantime Captain Elliott kept 
writing ' to Lin entreating him to enter into friendly 
relations with him, but Lin declined, and having 
threatened Macao at the head of 2,000 men, compelled 
Captain Elliott's retirement to Hong-Kong, whence he 
wrote, September 24-, to Lin, detailing elaborate recom- 
mendations for the prevention of the introduction of 
opium into China, and offering his assistance to effect 
that object. He says: " All opium has been delivered 
" up, all vessels engaged in the trade have be,en 
" required to depart. The flag of his couutry does not 
" fly in the protection of a trjjffic declared to be unlaw- 
" fnl by the great Emperor, "and therefore, whenever 
" Chinese officers desire to examine all or every 
" particular ship or vessel suspected to have opium on 
" board, Elliott will take care that they are accom- 
" panied by officers of his establishn;ient, and if after 
'' strict search any be found, assuredly Elliott ;will not 
" presume to offer the least objection, lihougb the 
" whole cargo be immediately seized and qonfiscated. 

" He will not oppose expulsion from the 

" country of offending merchants." He proposes 
" that no English firm shall in future be permitted to 
" transact business, or to reside in China, till Elliott 
" shall have forwarded to the high officers a plain 
" declaration signed by each member thereof, and 
" countersigned and sealed by officers of the English 
" nation, setting forth their solemn determination to 
" have no concern, direct or indirect, with the opium 
" traffic, neither to permit or knowingly sanction any 
" persons under their control to have any, and further, 
"their full knowledge of the new regulation" (you 
observe, it is "the new regu] ation ") " that they will 
" be forthwith expelled from the Empire if ib shall be 
" proved to the satisfaction of Chinese and English 
" officials that they have broken faith in the least 

" degree Every vessel ariving shall 

" make solemn declaration that she has no opium on 
" board, otherwise she shall not be permitted to 
" trade, &c." 

1230. Then Lin, refused that, and declared all trade 
closed, did he not P — Yes ; that was in December. He 
ignored that proposition altogether. On October 9th, 
Captain Elliott again appeals to Lin that British sub- 
jects may be allowed to return to Macao ; in reply to 
which he issued orders to attack some of our ships. 

1231. What was Lin's object in I'efusing Captain 
Elliott's overtures? — Hatred of the barbarian. 

1232. He wanted to expel us altogether ? — He wanted 
to expel us altogether. The moment you prostrate 
yourself before a Chinese, his answer is the knif§. ,. It 
is no use whatever giving way to them ; you' must 
insist on an "equal and a' proper' footing with them, 
and the moment you depart from' that attitude they 
become aggressive and overbearing. 

1233. I see that after th,is war of 1840-41, in the 
Treaty of JSTankin, opium was not mentioned?' — No, 
sir; there is no mention of it in, either of .our treaties 
of 1842-3 or tariff of l843. ' I should say that in reply 
to Lin's communication to British rnerohants, calhng 
upon them to deliver up the opium, they said : "If yon 
" do not wish to have it, we will pledge ourselves not 
" to bring' in any opiu,pi in future." That was on the 
25th March 1839. 

1234. 1839, just before the war?— Long before the 
w^r— 12 months. W^ar was not declared by us till 
April 1840. 

123f'. I suppose one reason why the Ohinq^eiprf^fen-ed 
not to have opium mentioned in the treaty was that it 



was understood atnonig the- Chinese! people! that the war 
arose about opium P — No ; I think not at all. 

1236. You think not ?-^Not at all. , They had broken 
faith with Sir Henry Pottinger in the first instance, and 
been guilty of great treachery. When he introduced 
the subject of opium the Chinese Commissioners pro- 
fessed their disinclination to enter upon the subject; 
they were perfectly indifferent to the importation of 
opium. That is proved by the fact that in the following 
year, 1844, they entered into a treaty' with the United 
States, G6vernHi'^lit, who fancying it would please 
them, added a clause making opium contraband. The 
Chinese never gave effect to the stipulation, though the 
Amerioans were as great importers of opium as we 
were. 

1237. Does not the fact ■ that the Americans entered 
into that undertaking seem to show that" they thought 
'it would be' gratifying to the Chinese? — Yes; the 
surmise was that if'W'ould be — it was intended as a 
Slap in the face for the English. 

1238. Do you think that if the Chinese G-overnment 
had considered, at the Treaty of Nankin, that, they 
could safely, and without danger of getting into 
further quarrels, and possibly -war, with ourselves, 
hive prohibited the import of opium, they would not 
have done it P — No ; I think they were utterly indiffer- 
ent ; they did not care one jot about it. 

1239. You think they cared about the loss of their 
" squeezes" and duties on the opium smuggled up the 
river, but they did not care about the prohibition of 
the import of opium ? — Yes. That Lord Palmerston 
was inspired by the most friendly intentions towards 
China is proved by the precise instructions he gave 
Lord Napier in 1834, as is confessed in this book, 
" The Middle Kingdom " (Yol. II., p. 470) : " You will 
" adopt no proceedings' but such as may have a general 
" tendency to convince the Chinese authorities of the 
" sincere desire of the King to cultivate the most 
" friendly relations with the jEmperor of China, and to 
" join with him in any measures likely to promote the 
" happiness and prosperity of their respective sub- 
" jects." If, therefore, the Canton authorities had 
met Lord Napier in a proper way, if they had ever 
spoken a word against opium, their representations 
would have received immediate attention, there is 
no doubt. During the whole time of my official 
connexion with China I never heard any Chinese 
official or otherwise complain of our action in 
regard to opium. Of course if jou go to a, Chinese 
— it takes a man seven or ten years to acquire the 
language sufficiently to be able to get at or near the 
mind of a Ohinese^if you say to him, "Opium is a 
" dreadful thing," he will say, " Oh, yes, opium is a 
" dreadful thing." But if you say to him, "Why, 
" you grew it years and years before we imported 
" it ; you have been growing it for 200 years," he 
" will, it is safe to say, answer , " Oh, it is all fudge 
" about opium being a dreadful thing; these people 
" like to ask us that question and get the answer 
" suited to their own views, and to please them we 
" give it." 

1240. I think that is a common characteristic of all 
Oriental peoples ? — Yes, 'with all Orientals. It requires 
some skill to know what is really in their minds. 

1241. I understand that after the war and after the 
Treaty of Nankin the trade in opium continued quite 
quietly down to the beginning of the next war, the time 
of the seizure of the " Arrow " ? — Yes, till the seizure 
of 'the " Arrow." But first there is a passage which I 
would like to read from, " The Middle Kingdom," 
which confirms what I have been saying. It is in 
Vol II., p, 500 : " No one was more desirous of putting 
" a stop to this destructive traffic than Captain Elliott, 
" but knowing the impossibility of checking it by laws 
" he naturally wished to see the many political and 
" commercial evils growing out of smuggling done 
" away. It was. indeed, much to be desired, that the 
" Chinese would take this course ; and it is very remark- 
" able that the- great reason why the Emperor and his 
" jidvisers did not '"do so was because it would be 
" detrimental to the people." The Chinese are thus 
avouched to have acted with open eyes and without 
constraint. The amount of fairness which this book 
deals out to usi is illustrated by its perverse animad- 
version upon Lord Palmerston who, the moment he 
heard that the Chinese Government wished to stop 
opium, issued positive instructions, which Captain 
Elliott carried out. 

L 2 



Mr. 

U. N. Lay, 

C.B. 

14 Sept. 1893. 



84 



INDIAN OPTDM COMMISSION : 



Mr. 1242. That is going back to the old war P— At page 

H. N. Lay, 502, Lord Palmerston's despatch of June 15th, 1838, is 

C'-B. iBStanced as "a most paradoxical hut convenient 

" position for this 'honourable' officer of the English 

H Sept. 1893. " Grovernment to assume!" An utterly pi-ejudiced 
' comment, I submit. 

124;!. Then what was the cause of the second war P — 
The cause of the second war was the question of the 
seizure of the " Arrow." It had no relatium to opium 
at all. One of tho man-of-war brigs had left a few days 
before. The " Arrow " carried the British flag, as she 
was entitled to do. After she had been lying there 
for eight days 

1244. I do not think we need go into that ? — Very 
well, sir. She had nothing whatever to do with opium ; 
she was not an opium ship, nor was she carrying a 
pound of opium. No apology could be obtained from 
the Viceroy by our Consul, and the matter was put into 
the hands of the Admiral, Sir Michael Seymour. Hos- 
tilities then ensued, into the details of which I need 
not, perhaps, enter. 

1245. Opium, then, was formally recognised in the 
tariff that was drawn up after that war ? — Tes. Lord 
Elgin went up to the north, and at Tientsin a treaty 
was concluded. The word opium was never mentioned 
at Tientsin upon our side or upon the Chinese side, 
although at that very time the American Minister was, 
as he told us afterwards, at Shanghai, offering the 
armed assistance of the United States to put down the 
traffic. The United States adopted that line, as they 
did a similar course when they made opium contraband 
by treaty in 1844, to curry favour with the Chinese. 
But what was the result ? The omission in the new 
treaty of the provision of the treaty of 1844 ! In our 
treaty, the 26th and 27th articles, it was agreed that 
the tariff should be revised, and that an officer of the 
Board of Revenue should be deputed on behalf of the 
Chinese Government to meet officers deputed on behalf 
of the British Government. The only remark I would 
make here is this : An officer of the Board of Revenue ! 
If our motive had been to force opium on China we 
should have dealt with the Imperial Commissioners 
themselves ; but this fact proves that we had no such 
intention — that all we cared for was to have someone 
(any oflBcial they pleased) sent down to Shanghai to 
consider the tariff with us. 

1246. Lord Elgin's instructions, I suppose, were that 
you were not to raise the question of opium? — He 
never gave me any such instructions, and throughout 
the whole course of my connexion with the treaty 
negotiations opium was never mentioned. 

1247. But in drawing up the tariff you must have 
thought of opium — such an article as opium could not 
have been altogether absent from your mind? — Tes, 
but that was five months after the conclusion of the 
treaty. The treaty was signed at Tientsin on June 
26th, the tariff was considered at Shanghai five months 
later, when the forces were all withdrawn. 

1248. Yes, quite so ; what I meant was that with 
regard to the tariff it would have been impossible to 
have overlooked the subject of opium at Shanghai ? 
— Yes. The 27th article of our treaty reads.- "it is 
" agreed that either of the high contracting parties 
" to this treaty may demand a further revision of the 
" tariff, and of the commercial ai'ticles of this treaty, 
" at the end of 10 years; but if no demand be made 
" on either side within six months after the end 
" of the first ten years then the tariff' shall remain 
" in force for ten years more, reckoned from the end 
" of the preceding ten years ; and so it shall be at the 
" end of each successive ten years." Now, the point 
of that is that our treaty having been made in 1858, 
the Chinese were entitled to revision of the tariff in 
1868, 1878, and 1888. Why did they not ask for it P 

1249. Well, I see you say they did not raise any 
question about opium, but I thiok I have seen some- 
where that at an interview with Sir Rutherford Aloock 
that question was brought forward, and that rather a 
moving appeal, as he said, was made by the Chinese 
Commissioners on the subject of omitting opium from 
the tariff schedule, to prohibit altogether its import ? — 
They made no appeal whatever in 1858. In 1868 they 
sent Mr. Burlingame (the United States Minister at 
Pekin) home to this country as the chosen exponent 
of their views and sentiments, and he never mentioned 
opium at all. In the following year we find Sir 
Rutherford Alcock puggesting, I suppose, to the 
Chinese Miuisterw to address him on the subject, tho 
result of which was that he undertook, I Ijclieve, a 



self-imposed misiiion to the Grovemment of India on 

the subject. That was in July 1869 ; they wrote a 
letter to Sir Rutherford Alcock, in which they say 

1250. (Mr. Pease.) Who are "they" who write?— 
The Chinese Ministers — the members of the Foreign 
Board, Prince Kung and others. There are a number 
of them. ' ' The writers hope that his Excellency will 
" memorialise his Government to give orders in India 
" and elsewhere to substitute the cultivation of cereals 
" or cotton. Day and night, therefore, the writers 
" give to this matter most earnest thought, and over- 
" powering is the distress and anxiety it occasions 
" them." But the distress and anxiety notwithstanding, 
within three months they sign a Convention (which 
I hand in) with Sir Rutherford Alcock, under which 
they obtain an increase of the tariff duty on opium 
equal to 60 per cent., showing the reality of the 
Chinese objections. 

1251. (Sir J. Lyall.) Well, but from Sir Rutherford 
Alcock's account I understand that the British Com- 
missioners as it were received this in a way which 
showed that they did not at all like the proposal P — 
Which Commissioners ? 

1252. The Englishmen who were meeting the Chinese 
Commissioners. When this proposal was put forward by 
the Chinese Commissioners they were silent, and showed 
that they did not like it P — There could have been 
no reality on the cart of the Chinese in penning such a 
letter, when three months afterwards the duty was 
increased 66 per cent. 

1253. It shows that they were not very earnest, but 
it shows that if they could not get one thing they 
would take the other, does it not ? — It was all fustian, 
their objection was manufactured to meet a supposed 
invitation for it. The treaty concluded with the 
United States, 11 years before this date, attests inoon- 
trovertibly the real views of the Chinese Government. 
The United States Minister offered armed assistance to 
stop the import of opium. What was the Chinese reply ? 
To deliberately omit from the Treaty of 1858 the provi- 
sion of the Treaty of 1844, which had declared opium 
contraband. 

1254. Another thing a good many witnesses who have 
appeared before us have said is that at that very time 
the Chinese Commissioners hinted broadly that if that 
was not done (that is, if the British Government did 
not join with them in putting down the Indian opium,) 
the Chinese Government would be driven to a policy of 
withdrawing all the restrictions from the growth of the 
poppy and the manufacture of opium in China, in order 
to kill out the import there and then and deal with the 
other trade with a free hand. Do you think that that 
is correct ? — ^No, I think that is an utterly untrue 
assertion. There is no evidence whatever to support it. 
In 1864 (that is eight years after the treaty of 1858) 
we have the Inspector-General, my successor, ad- 
dressing the Commissioners at the several ports and 
asking them as to the growth of the native dru". 

1255. Which year is that P— 1864, five years before 
the date under consideration. It was grown, you will 
find from the return made to him in that year, in every 
one of the provinces. In my note I say it was grown, 
in 1858, in 16 out of the 18 provinces. That was duo 
to no interposition on our part ; we had no voice in the 
matter at all. I will lay that return before the Com- 
mission if you please. I should like, were I to be 
allowed, to comment on one of the documents in the 
" Friend of China." I think it is a good sample of the 
sort of evidence presented by them. 

1256. Whom do you mean by " they " p— The Anti- 
Opium Society. They have continually assailed us ; 
they have been reckless in their mis-statements with 
regard to our action on the opium question. There were 
no men of higher character than Sir Henry Pottinger 
or Mr. John Robert Morrison. Then there was Lord 
Elgin, and as to the subordinates under him, not one 
had any wish whatever to support opium ; and the 
anti-opiumists have no right to use language like the 
following, which I offer as an illustration of the kind 
of statements they make : " The foulest stain upon our 
"^ Imperial history is the way in which, at the point of 

the bayonet and at the mouth of the cannon, we have 

forced the Indian poison upon the unhappy Chinese. 

No words are strong enough to describe the cowardice 

" and diabolical cruelty of our wars with China." This 

language is as disgracefully unjust as it is utterly false. 

1257. (Mr. Pease.) Where is that statement made, 
may I ask P--It is in the " Methodist Times," written. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



85 



I suppose, by Mr. Hugh Price Hughes, who seems to 
have taken up the championship of the anti-opiumists 
for the last four or five years. 

1258. {Sir J. Lyall.) Is there anything more you 
■wish to say as to the history of opium in China p We 
have now brought it down to the attempt to revise the 
treaty in 1868 ? — I may observe that when Mr. Burlin- 
game came to England in 1868, it is a very singular 
thing that, if the Chinese had felt this strong pressure 
alleged to have been exercised by us in the matter of 
opium, they did not charge Mr. Burlingame to complain 
to Lord Clarendon. Mr. Burlingame was silent on the 
subject. He negotiated a treaty with the United 
States, the articles of which I lay on the table, but in 
that treaty there is no allusion to opium. 

1259. What did Mr. Burlingame come here forp — 
As Chinese Minister, to represent Chinese views, and to 
announce that " China finds that she must come into 
" relations with this civilisation that is pressing up 
" around her ; feeling that she does not wait, but comes 
" out to you, and extends her hand." 

1260. The object was to fulfil the conditions of the 
Treaty of Tientsin, was it not p — Yes ; they appealed to 
Lord Clarendon to give them time ; but that was mere 
pretence. Why did not Mr. Burlingame think of 
opium ? There is a pile of evidence to prove that we 
never at any time forced opium, or used the slightest 
pressure whatsoever with respect to it ; and I should 
like to be cross-examined so that I might bring out 
the evidence I am able to produce. 

1261. (Chairman.) I think your general statement 
will be sufficient. Under the Order of Reference under 
which the Commission is constituted we are not called 
upon to pronounce a judgment upon the matters which 
have teen in issue between you and the writers to 
whom you have been referring ; and it will be sufficient 
for our purpose to hear what you have said in general 
terms. I do not think we should go into any greater 
detail ? — Quite so, my Lord ; but is it not of the highest 
importance to our national credit that we should be 
delivered from the stigma unjustly fixed upon us P 

1262. Ton have had the opportunity of tracing the 
history of these questions in the statements that you 
have been making to Sir James Lyall, and we accept 
what you have said as a statement of your views of the 
real course of policy which has been pursued P — There 
is one omission which I should like to supply. The Le 
Hungchang states, in answer to the Anti-Opium Society, 
" China views the whole question from a moral stand- 
" point ; England from a fiscal " (which is a downright 
misrepresentation). " The ruling motive with China is 
" to repress opium by heavy taxation everywhere ; 
" whereas with England the manifest object is to make 
" opium cheaper, and thus increase and stimulate the 
" demand in China." They have encouraged our 
opium, and we, by allowing the Chinese to overtax 
it, have stimulated the growth of the native article 
enormously in every province. I think that the most 
short-sighted policy that ever was pursued on our 
part. In the Agreement of 1876 they ask Sir Thomas 
Wade to move his Government to agree to an arrange- 
ment the efiect of which was to increase enormously 
the charges on Indian opium, and yet in the face of this 
affirm that they act from a moral standpoint while we 
act from a fiscal standpoint, whereas it is from a fiscal 
point of view alone that the Chinese G-overnment have 
treated the article from first to last, as the evidence is 
cumulative. 

1263. That is all the evidence you have to give P — 
That is all the evidence I am permitted to give. There 
is one matter I should like to produce, and that is the 
evidence of Mr. Selby, a missionary, who writes in the 
"Methodist Times" of the 8th June last. "He is 
" hopeful that if the Indian growth was forthwith 
" suppressed, China would be glad to carry out her 
" own proposal." Where is her proposal? Has she 
ever addressed a proper proposal to our Government P 

1264. {Sir J. Lyall.) You mean a proper form of 
proposal P — Yes ; to join in putting a stop to it. 

1266. May I aek what you think would be the result 
if we made a proposal now to China ? — It has come 200 
years too late. 

1266. As a man of great knowledge and experience of 
Chinese officials, what do you think would be the 
result P — Nil. They would do nothing. It is grown in 
every province, and they would do nothing. 

1267. But supposing we ofiered to prohibit the im- 
port of opium P — They have declared they would not 



entertain it. You will see what they said in answer to 
Sir Thomas Wade (p. 16 of my note) : " Meantime, in 

" 1881, Sir Thomas Wade made a special application 

" to the members of the Chinese G-overnment for a 

" declaration of oheir policy in regard to opium. The 

" Minister addressed, Sir Thomas Wade states, re- 

" plied ' that the question was not an easy one to 

" ' answer; he did not think that the central Govern- 

" ' ment had gone so far as to formulate a policy at 

" ' all." This so recently as 1881, after all the talk of 

" their having been forced to take our opium ! ' Speak- 

" ' ing from a general point of view, however, he might 

" 'say that if the habit of opium smoking could be 

" ' universally and at once abolished, the Chinese 

" ' Government would be ready and willing to sacrifice 

" ' the revenue that was at present derived from opium. 

" ' All sensible men were nevertheless agreed that this 

" ' was an impossibility. The habit of opium smoking 

" ' was beyond the reach of prohibition, and the idea 

" ' was how to turn it to account ; the only way in 
" ' which it could be turned to account was by making 

" ' it a source of revenue, and the revenue thus derived 

" ' was indispensable. There were, moreover, so many 

" ' other matters that needed reform before the opium 

" ■ question was taken in hand, that it might safely 

" ' be said that the abolition of opium had not entered 
" ' the minds of those entrusted with the Government 

" ' of the Empire.' Sir Thomas Wade then put the 

" question 'whether a gradual diminution of opium 

" ' import from India, until the trade was abolished 

" ' altogether, would meet with the approval of the 

" ' Chinese Government.' The Minister addressed, who 

" again protested that the question was a difficult one 

" to answer, replied that in his opinion ' such a jjlan 

" ' would be useless ; as long as the habit existed, opium 

" • would be procured somehow, and if it did not come 

" ' from India it would be procured elsewhere.' " 

1268. It is rather inconsistent with your view, is it 
not, that certain leading Chinese officials have appeared 
who have taken very strong measures indeed to stop 
the growth of opium P — I am not aware that they 
have. 

1269. Did not that man who reconquered Kashgar 
take such measures P It has been stated so in evidence 
to us P — It may be so, just locally ; but as a Govern- 
ment they have never done anything of the sort. I 
was in the most intimate relations with the Chinese 
Government, and if they had said to us, " Can you not 
" help us in the matter of opium ? " I should have told 
Lord Elgin, who would doubtless have made an attempt 
to meet their wishes ; but they never mentioned it at all. 
This gentleman (Mr. Selby) adds correctly : " The 
" grounds for that hope " (the hope that China would 
suppress the poppy in her own territories) " are not 
" satisfactory, for the Emperor has given his sanction 
" to the cultivation of the poppy." 

1270. (Mr. Pease.) You, no doubt, are acquainted 
with this Yellow Book of 1889: "Opium: Historical 
" Note, or The Poppy in China " ? — I do not know, I 
am sure, whether I have seen it or not. 

1271. There is a statement in it that the first prov 
hibition was in 1729, and that moral grounds were 
assigned for the prohibition P — (On heing shown the 
pamphlet) I have not seen it. 

1272. This Yellow Book says, at page 36, "In the 
" year A.D. 1729 an edict was issued on opium smoking, 
" prohibiting the sale of opium." This is Dr. Edkins' 
Yellow Book, published at Shanghai in 1889 P— Well, it 
is contradicted by this statement, in page 4 of my book, 
copied from the Blue Book: "In the reigns of Yung 
" Ching and K'ienlung (1722 to 1736) it was included 
" in the tarifl' of maritime duties, under the head of 
" medicinal drugs, and there was then no regulation 
" against purchasing or inhaling it." 

1273. It is also staled in an article by Dr. Legge, in 
the " Pall Mall Gazette " of August 16th, 1893, that 
the importation of the article was stopped in 1764. 
He says, " We find the following case in Auber's 
" 'China,' pp. 176, 177) : His Majesty's ship "Argo" 
" arrived in the Canton Waters in 1764 with treasure, 
" and it was suspected with opium also. In con- 
" sequence of the disputes which arose between the 
" mandarins and the captain the trade was stopped for 
" four months. With reference to this collision the 
" Court wrote for information. ' They had been in- 
" ' formed that opium had been shipped on her, and 
" ' other private trade, and desired a full account to 
" ' be sent home of the matter, as opium was pro- 
" ' hibited, and the importation n^ight be most detri- 

L 3 



Mr. 

H. N. Lay, 

C.B. 

14 Sept. 189». 



86 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



" ' mental to tho company's interests ' 
seen that article. - -^ 



" ? — I have never 



Mi. 

H-.-N.-Lay, 

C.B. 1274. In 1782, Mr. Fits; Hugh, a merchant of Canton, 
■ ■wrote remonstrating against the Bast India Company 

14 Sept. 1893. engaging in tlie smuggling trade? — No, I have not 
seen the letter. 

1275. You have stated that various incorrect charges 
have been made against you by the Anti-Opium 
Society, and you gave one instance, which proved to be 
a statement not made by them at all. I do not know 
whether you have any others P — They have declared 
that we have engaged in two cruel and unjust wars 
in order to force opium upon the Chinese. Both secre- 
taries of the Anti-Opium Society have stated that in 
the press, and Mr. Storrs Turner stated that in 1880 we 
were then engaged in forcing opium oi. China. As I was 
responsible under Lord Elgin for the insertion of opium 
in our tariff, with the voluntary assent, I may add, of 
the Chinese Minister, I consider that it is gross defa- 
mation of the characters of officials to advance charges 
so untrue. 

1276. Well, we have statements made by the Chinese 
authorities, but those, you say, were fustian ? — I did 
not say the documents you have just referred to were 
fustian. 

1277. No, but the statements made by the Chinese 
authorities ? — -The pretence that we have forced opium 
on the Chinese is fustian, and they are only making 
those statements for the purpose of damaging the 
English. There is no solidity or substance in their 
complaints, and that can be proved to the hilt. 

1278. The matter arises as to the credibility of state- 
ments made by different persons, and the respective 
value of their opinions p — No, it is a question of historic 
evidence entirely, and my opinion, or that of anyone 
else, is a matter of no moment whatever. It is the 
historic facts from which the}' canuot escape, and they 
must order their utterances now in accordance with 
those facts, which we can prove. 

1279. Then there has been another suggestion made, 
that the Chinese Government are rather afraid to open 
this question, because they think that the Indian 
Government will not be prepared to relinquish so im- 
portant a source of revenue, and that therefore, if they 
enter into negotiations with the idea of giving up that 
source of revenue they would do so with the idea of 
getting that recouped in some other way, which the 
Chinese Government would object to still more. Do 
you think that that is the cuseP — No, sir, I do not. 
They bad an excellent opportunity of dealing with the 
question at Tientsin, when the American Minister made 
his offer of assistance. Dr. Williams, the author of the 
" Middle Kingdom," who was stubbornly anti-English 
and pro-Ohinese in his views, was present as Chinese 

The witness 



Secretary to Mr. Reed, who concluded a separate Con- 
vention with the Chinese formally legalising opium,, 
and said it had received their willing assent. Why did 
they not impart to their friends then that they were 
opposed to opiun ? — Why, Mr. Boed would have come 
to us at once. Mr. Beed was bitterly opposed to us 
under the influence of false impressions, and he kept us 
at arms' length at Tientsin ; but when, he came tp 
Shanghai he became most friendly. He came to under- 
stand us and the Chinese better. There are m.any of 
our friends the missionaries who do not understand 
the Chinese in the least, and they go upon all sorts 
of rubbishy evidence which men who knoiy the facts 
laugh at. 

1280. (Sir W.Boberts.) I was only thinking of asking 
you if you have observed what are the effects of opium 
smoking on the Chinese, with regard to their morals 
and health ? — Well, I think most extravagant charges 
are made as to that. In my first introduction to Hong- 
Kong I was a pupil of Dr. Gutzlaff's, who had a number 
of men who wished to be Christians. I should think 
about 250 to 300 of them, and from them my 
"teachers," as they were called, were taken. They 
were all opium smokers, with rare exceptions, and 
they did not appear to suffer at all from it when 
taken in moderation. I had other teachers later on ; 
they suffered when they smoked to excess — certainly 
it makes a man suffer when immoderately indulged in ; 
a powerful narcotic, taken in excess, must have a 
weakening effect on the system, I should say. 

1281. Generally speaking, do the Chinese use opium 
smoking in what I may call persistent moderation? 
— Yes, a good many do. There is no finer race, 
in physique, than the Chinese. They are beating, as 
the Americans and Australians have found, the white 
people altogether. In the mid-provinces and the 
southern provinces there is a great deal of malaria. 
There a man's food consists entirely of a vegetable diet, 
and the ground is manured by human ordure, the odour 
from which is terribly offensive. The people live not 
in the hill country but in the low country. There is 
a large boat population too whose lives are spent over 
bilge water ; but for opium as a febrifuge, they could 
not live. I never heard from any officials or others 
who smoked opium that they suffered evil effects from 
the habit. 

1282. (Chairman.) Now, to sum it up in a sentence, I 
suppose you would wish it to be considered that the 
general purport of your evidence may be taken to be 
this : that in all the negotiations with which you were 
concerned in China, and the wars which occurred 
during your residence in China, it was not the object of 
the British Government to force the Chinese authorities 
against their wiU. to receive importations of opium from 
India P — Quite so : emphatically so. 

withdrew. 



Adjourned till to-morrow at 11 o'clock. 



At the House of Lords, Westminster. 



FIFTH DAY. 

Friday, 15th September 1893, 



Sir 
T.F. Wade, 
G.C.M.G., 
K.C.B. 

lo Sfept. 1«93. 



Peesent : 
The Right Hongitrabm LORD BEASSEY, K.C.B., (Chaibman, peesiding). 



Sir James U. Lyall, G.C.I.B. 
Sir William Roberts, M.D. 
Mr. R. G. 0. MowBEAY, M.P. 



Mr. Aeihtje Pease. 
Mr. H. J. Wilson, M.P. 

Sir Charles E. Beenaed, K.C.S.I., 

Acting Secretary. 



Sir Thomas E. Wabe, G.O.M.G., K.C.B 

1283. (Ohawman.) Sir Thomas Wade, it is a matter 
of common knowledge that you have spent many years 
in China ? — d'O years. , 

1281. Ard during the latter portion of your service 
yon were British iVtinister at Pekin p — Yes. 



called in and examined. 

1285. You are doubtless aware that this Commission 
was appointed primarily to consider the opium ques- 
tion as it affects India, but we have been allowed to 
exercise our discretion with reference to the question 
as it affects China, and wo have thought it our duty 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCli. 



NT 



to receive some evidence from those who are chiefly 
interested in > the opium question as it affects China. 
I may say that much has been urged. before us by the 
witnesses who have appeared before us from China, 
which goes to show that the excessive use of opium is 
a widely extending vice in China, and is doing great 
injury to the population. I do not Imow that I can 
convey to you better what has been put before us by 
the witnesses to whom T refer than by reading to you 
a passage from the memorial recently addressed by 
the Anti-Opium Association to the Earl of Kimberley. 
In. that memorial the following passage occurs, "In 
" China, the results to be anticipated from the stoppage 
'' of the export trade in opium from Calcutta and 
"Bombay are thus stated in a letter received by us, 

about a year ago, from one of the most competent 
"^ aud experienced observers, the Eev. Griffith John, 
" D.D,, of the London Missionary Society, who has 
" been for upwards of 35 years a missionary in the 
" great commercial centre of Hankow." Mr. John 
writes " Let China see that we are capable of saorifioing 
" millions of pounds annually for her good, and that 
" of our own free will, in obedience to the dictates of 

conscience, and from a sense of humanity, and she 
" will not be alow to acknowledge the worth and 
" dignity of the act. Nay more she may begin to 
" glorify God in us. Our intercourse with the people 

will become more friendly. Commerce will extend 
" and develope, one of the greatest obstacles to the 
" progress of Christ's kingdom in the land would be 
" removed." Then he proceeds to ask^ "Have the 
" Chinese the ability to put down the vice,'' and then 
he urges, " As long as the Indian trade in opium 
" exists, the hands of the Chinese Government are 
" tied, and paralysed. They can simply do nothing, 
" but allow things to go on from bad to worse. Their 
" best efforts, however sincere and energetic, would 
" prove abortive. If the Indian trade in the drug 
" were abandoned, the Chinese would, I firmly believe, 
" make an honest effort to stop the native growth, and 
" the event would eventuate at once in a diminution 
" of the evil. It might eventuate ultimately in its 
" complete suppression. But whether the Chinese 
" Government can put down the native growth or not, 
" our path as a Christian nation is. plain enough. It 
" is for us to wash our hands clean of the iniquity." 
I have read that passage to you. Sir Thomas Wade, 
that you may have a general impression of the testi- 
mony which has been put before us by those who have 
appeared as missionaries in China and of the arguments 
by. which their recommendations have been supported. 
Having heard so much on this subject, we felt that we 
should not be discharging our duty if we did not geek 
the counsel and information which we know you are so 
competent to give us. Can you give us a general view 
as to the history of the introduction of opium smoking 
in China, and can you give us what yon know of the 
antiquity of the use of opium, and generally speak to 
us on that aspect of the question p — I should like to 
premise that I find myself in a very disagreeable 
position in relation to this question. No man who has 
lived the time that I have in China, and who has been 
in contact with Chinese of all kinds, can deny that the 
excessive use of opium in that country is an exceeding 
misfortune to that country, and I myself have stated 
that proposition, perhaps more positively years ago 
than I should be prepared to do at this moment. That 
is to say, that without at all pretending to abate the 
statement that many people, — many thousands of 
people — do suffer from the excessive use of opium, it is 
to a great number of people precisel}' what the use of 
alcoholic stimulanis to people in our country, taken 
moderately, is; that is to say, that it will cheer the 
workman just as our workman is cheered by his glass 
of beer. You will find people who are engaged in the 
most intellectual employments, and people who are 
engaged in the very commonest employments, using 
opium with impunity, aud using it for years with im- 
punity ; and the difiiculty I refer to is this — that with- 
out being at all a dreamer, I hope being really disposed 
to do all that in me lies, and to see my countrymen do 
all that in them may lie, to abate what evil there is, the 
treatment of the question by the Anti-Opium Associa- 
tion engages me on the other side. 

I think there are various contentions of the anti-opium 
people to be combated. And first, as regards the 
question which your Lordship has just put to me, that 
is most completely answered by the work of a most 
respected missionary. Dr. Edkins, who by desire of 
Sir B,obert Hart, of whose literary staff he is a 



member, prepared a historical review of the subject 
by collecting a number of extracts from the greater 
histories of China and from lesser , works. From. 
this, to make short work of it, it will be seen that 
the introduction of opium is not, as the anti- 
opiumists, — several of them, — I have heard, frequently 
contend it is, to be set down to our charge, but to the 
charge of Asiatic neighbours and Asiatic mei'chants. 
Without assuming with Dr. Edkins that they were 
directly beholden to the Arab and the Persian, it is 
incontestible that they became acquainted with the 
poppy — as a medicine — very early in their history ; as 
much as, say, ten centuries ago ; and as for the practice 
of smoking it, according to Dr. Edkins's data, this was 
very possibly introduced from Manilla via, Formosa ; and 
that, at a comparatively recently date, I will not say 
before our trade commenced, for I should be afraid to 
assign a precise date to the commencement of that 
trade, but certainly before our trade had at all de- 
veloped itself. From early in the last century, they 
were beholden to their own production of opium even 
for a supply, which they in the opinion of the Govern- 
ment, or of certain Government officials, so abused as to 
call forth interdicts on the part of the Government, or 
those officials. All that you will find iu Dr. Edkins's 
statements. But as regards the introduction of opium, 
we have a further corroboration of my statement that it 
was not introduced first by us from a source which is 
certainly unassailable, the testimony of the Grand 
Secretary Tso Tsung-tang, the Chinese official who was 
credited with the reconquest of the far west dominion 
in China, that is to say who reocoupied that country, 
after Yakub Khan had been poisoned. He was in the 
first place a furious anti-opiumist himself; he took the 
credit of having suppressed all poppy cultivation 
in the west of China ; a sheer fiction ; he was a furious 
hater of English and French, though ho patronised 
some other foreigners in his employ. He told my 
German colleague, in 1881, that it was brought in by 
the Portuguese towards the close of the Ming dynasty ; 
that is before the middle of the 17th century. The Ming 
dynasty expired in 1644. As regai'ds our own connexion 
with the supply at all, I will not trouble you with a 
reference to the statistical tiibles which all those 
interested in it would find easy of access ; but at the 
time that we began to send anything like thousands of 
chests from India, we were even then supplying so 
small an amount that it could not have supplied one 
per cent, of the population with opium if they had been 
all opium smokers ; and further on , later, whilst I 
was in China, I read in a pnblis lied. .paper by a, mis- 
sionary — I do not mi-'ntion his name, because I am 
not perfectly sure that it was he — that the then — 
it must he between 30 and 40 years ago — that the 
then supply would not be sufficient for 2 per cent. 
of the whole Chinese population, whom we are 
reported to have been poisoning for all these j-ears. 
Now the use of opium to the disadvantage of the popu- 
lation from their own supplies was noted long before 
our opium troubles began. You will find in the State 
Papers forwarded hj Captain Elliot, magistrates com- 
plaining that it is in use, and one censor declaring, 
that it was then grown in four or five provinces. (See 
Blue Book 1840. Correspondence relating to China, 
p. 171.) I had not in my early days studied these Blue 
Books, as I have since, and without any knowledge of 
what any Ohineee official authority had said to the above 
effect, I set to work myself, in 1847, when I was study- 
ing at Canton, to acquire information on the subject. 
I was aided by a young Chinaman of a most respectable 
family, who was much connected with trade, — no opium 
smoker himself, indeed a strict Roman Catholic — 
he obtained for me information from various mercantile 
friends of his, which showed that the poppy was being 
cultivated in no less than 10 provinces of China. Now 
remember that was in 1847. Our war with China, our 
first war, came to an end iu 1842. For many years 
before that time we had had no access, except during 
the troubles contraband access, we had had no access 
as a trading people to any port in the empire but 
Canton. Now one of the quotations I had heard, and 
that so far back as 1842 or 1843 , was a quotation of 
the extent and value of the opium — I mean its value 
as a drug, not its pecuniary value, its power, — one of 
the quotations was from the far north-west of China, 
certainly 3,000 miles from Canton, where the opium 
was quoted as being very nearly as good as Indian 
opium, very nearly as powerful. But the fact that it 
was then cultivated in 10 provinces is certainly worth 
remembering, the more so that my friend gave me — 
I have the paper here which I compiled from his data — 

L 4 



Sir 

T. F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G., 

K.C.B. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



88 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Sir 

T.F. Wade, 

G.CM.G., 

K.C.B. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



my friend gave me all tho data for its preparation and 
its value in the market. 

1286. Perhaps you would like to put that document 
in ? — With great pleasure.* (Memorandum was handed 
to Chairman.) Farther, and as Captain Elliot observed, 
so far back as 1837 (See Blue Book 1H40, p 154. Captain 
Elliot to Viscount Palmerston, 2 February 1837. See 
also on true position of opinm trade, pp. 137-138.) 
it was as regularly taxed in certain localities as any 
other import, which was brought in, in the regular 
native trade ; and without then having seen Captain 
Elliot's observation above quoted, I made precisely 
the same remark to Lord Elgm when he first con- 
templated approaching the question. I think that 
as far as relates to our connexion with the intro- 
duction of opium you will consider that I have said 
enough, and as regards the native supply I do not 
think it would be necessary for me to add more. As 
regards the nature and the extent of its efl'ects upon 
smokers, I also said sufficient perhaps in my pre- 
liminary remarks. I have known people of every 
degree, I may say, using it with impunity. I have seen 
most deplorable victims of it in every degree just as I 
have in my own country of the use of alcohol. I have 
seen for instance, in the Army, brother cflBcers driven 
from the Service by the use of drink ; and I have seen 
tho unhappy private brought to punishment by the 
same caase. I have been into an opinm den and I have 
been, on rare occasions, into a gin.palace, and the 
spectacles of the two are singularly alike. I do not 
say that the one is to excuse the other. I do not say 
that our having such a vice as general drinking, and the 
deplorable scenes that one has witnessed in the gin- 
palace, are in any way to excuse the other thing ; but, 
in my opinion, experience of that sort should bar 
gentlemen from turning upon their own countrymen to 
denounce this or that particular practice, or this or 
that particular prosecution of a particular trade as if it 
was a thing exceptional and so frightful a sin that we 
are bound at once to make the kind of expiation for it 
that we did, say, for the negro traffic. And I am bound 
to add this, that when I find statements and argu- 
ments on the part of the anti-opiumist people, orally 
sometimes, sometimes in the little periodical which 
they publish, neither more nor less than what I must 
characterise as exaggerated, and when I find them 
putting in doubt the truth of men like myself, or other 
people giving testimony, I ara compelled to think that 
a cause that requires any such propping up cannot have 
under it so secure a basis as these gentlemen are 
disposed to imagine. 

1287. You have given us a very interesting sketch of 
this question in relation to the antiquity of the user of 
opium in China, and you have given us your general 
view as to the nature and the extent of the eff'eot of 
opium smoking upon those who have indulged them- 
selves in that habit. Does that exhaust what you wish 
to say in your evidence-in-ohief on that subject P — I 
think so. 

1288. Well, then, Sir Thomas, yon have had, as we 
all know, a very intimate connexion with the negotia- 
tions which were carried on for many years between 
our Government and the Chinese Government with 
reference to this and other matters, and you were 
serving in China for many years at a time when our 
relations with China were far less friendly than they 
are at present ; and, therefore, you are in a good 
position to tell us how far our wars with China were 
connected with the opium question. We shall be glad 
to hear your view, on that point P — Well, it is a point 
which I naturally could not pass by, for I know no 
point upon which what I am compelled to consider 
exaggeration on the part of the anti-opiumist pleaders 
is more conspicuous. You will bear, — at least I have 
heard more than once on public occasions, — gentlemen 
talking of the first opium war, and the second opium 
war, and then the third opium war. The first war, 
unhappily, will always inevitably be described as the 
opium war, for the seizure of the opium by Commis- 
sioner Lin was an act which led to the disappearance 
from Canton of our then representative, the super- 
intendent of trade, Captain Elliot, and of the English 
community, In their absence from Canton there was a 
collision out in the outer waters, — a collision, perhaps, 
in itself insignificant ; for I fancy it was a drunken 
brawl of sailors — in which a Chinese was killed ; and you 
had following upon that the persistence of the High 
Commissioner Lin in a demand for A. or B.— it did not 
matter which, — of six people, who were supposed to 

• See Arpendii VI, for this Memorandum. 



have been present, who were indeed found to have 
been present on this occasion, but to not one of 
whom was the homicide traceable. The upshot of that 
certainly was a declaration of hostilities, and the result 
of it, — seeing that the Chinese negotiators who treated 
with us came forward and went backward and re- 
treated more than once from agreements which were 
supposed to have been concluded, — was that the war 
was prolonged, you may say, up to its termination 
in August, 1842, when the Treaty was signed at Nan- 
king. But I consider, — reading the whole of the history 
of our relations, say from the middle of the last 
century, but at all events for t)je period immediately 
preceding this which is known as the opium war, — I 
consider that those wars were directly traceable to the 
insolence and injustice of the Chinese in their, — I was 
going to say, relations with us, but I should more cor- 
rectly say in their determination to ignore relations 
with us altogether. I am sorry to have to go so far into 
historical detail ; but it must be remembered that when 
our Government had made up its mind to abolisb the 
East Indian monopoly, in 1834, the Chinese were given 
to understand in 1831 that it was about to be abolished ; 
and that thereupon there came from the Chinese chief 
authority at Canton a, communication on that subject. 
In those days he issued edicts. His only relation with 
the East India Company's officials was as if they were 
below his servants. He issued an edict to the effect 
that if the British Government was going to undo the 
East India Company's establishment it must send some- 
one to control British subjects who might be in China. 
That "someone'' was sent in the person of Lord 
Napier, in 1834, but the local government declined to 
have anything to do with him — declined to recognise 
him as a public servant ; went out of its way, in the 
petty Chinese fashion, (which is even yet not impos- 
sible, I am sorry to say) to belittle him by using 
offensive characters for his name, and in other ways to 
insult him. Lord Napier, — read his despatches to Lord 
Palmerston, — Lord Napier was ready at once to proceed 
to hostilities. If he had had a force he would have 
proceeded to hostilities. For what purpose P Not in 
the interests of the opium trade, — not in the interests 
of trade at all, — but in order to put relations on a footing 
which would be tolerable. He had no force to support 
him. He was, you may say, fairly driven out of Canton, 
and dying sick and broken-hearted, he was replaced, 
first of all by Sir John Davis, whose name must be 
known to everybody interested in China, and later on 
by Sir Charles Elliot, who for three or four years 
certainly strove hard if ever a man strove hard to 
avoid war ; to avoid a quarrel. You will find through- 
out that period that whenever the question of opium 
crops up, — -his word, if anything, is against it. Sir 
Charles Elliot, it should be remembered, was simply a 
species of chief magistrate, — for we had our experience 
to acquire, — he was chief magistrate for the Port of 
Canton ; and to the best of his ability he did endeavour 
to keep down all irregularities in that port. Powers to 
go beyond, or force to go beyond, he certainly had not j 
but he strove to repress irregularities within his juris- 
diction. He condescended, — for it was a condescension 
and nothing else, — he condescended to accept a con- 
tinuance of correspondence with the chief authority in 
Canton, which placed him in the same position as that 
in which the East India Company's servants had 
formerly been placed. You will find that his chief, 
Lord Palmerston, — reputed a most belligerent Foreign 
Minister, — not only reprobates the trade in opium ; he 
not only reminds Sir Charles Elliot that those who 
engage in it are accepting entirely their own risk ; but 
you will even find later on that when, amongst other 
insults which they were then in the habit of heaping 
upon the community, the Chinese had brought down an 
opium smoker and strangled him in front of the British 
factories as a simple insult to that community, Lord 
Palmerstoa does not recognise it as an insult. He 
wishes to be "informed whether the foreigners to 

whom yon allude in your despatch as having resisted 
" the intention of the Chinese authorities to put a 
" criminal to death in the immediate front of the 
" factories were British subjects only, or the subjects 

and citizens of other countries also. I also wish 

to know upon what alleged ground of right these 
" persons considered themselves entitled to interfere 
" with the arrangements made by the Chinese officers 

of justice for carrying into effect in a Chinese town 
" the orders of the superior authorities." (See Viscount 
Palmerston to Captain Elliot, 15 April 1839. Blue 
Book 1840, p. 325. But see also p. 193* his Lordship's 
Despatch 20 September 1837 and of p. 258 Despatch 
of 15 June 1838.) You will by-and-bye find, my Lord, 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



89 



Lord PaJmerston holding very diffevent language. And 
why ? Because it was borne in upon him that the 
relations of the British representative with the Chinese 
authority were simply intolerable. But now that hosti- 
lities, one may say that war, had really begun, what 
was the announcement from the Throne in 1810 ? 
What was the scope of our expedition as defined by 
Lord John Russell? "It was to obtain reparation for 
" the insults and injuries offered to Her Majesty's 
" superintendent and Her Majesty's subjects by the 
" Chinese Government ; and in the second place, it 
" was to obtain for the merchants trading in China an 
" indemnification for the loss of their property incurred 
' " by threats of violence offered by persons under the 
" direction of the Chinese Government; and in. the 
" last place it was to obtain a certain security that 
" persons and property in future trade with China shall 
" be protected from insult and injury, and that their 
" trade and commerce be maintained upon a proper 
" footing." You must remember that when Captain 
Elliot was compelled, in order to save the lives and 
to secure the persons of the British community at 
Canton, to surrender the opium, he protested 
throughout against the violence that was employed 
and the general treatment of the community. I 
contend that the war even of 1839, — the misunder- 
standing which led up to it, — would never have 
occurred had there been relations, even suck relations 
as Bir Henry Pottinger subsequently obtained. Wo 
had no access whatever of an official character to the 
Chinese authorities at Canton. The only channel was 
tVio association of the Hong monopolists, many of them 
hostile to us, many of them our bankrupt debtors, 
h-iving an eye to securing the monopoly of their trade, 
but also having an eye to that which was so dear to the 
Chinese mind as then informed, — having an eye to the 
fact that the barbarian was a barbarian and that he 
must be kept under control. I say that it was owing 
entirely to that disposition that the first war came 
about. There were no means of negociation or adjust- 
ment. What was more, as Captain Elliot, (with the 
sincercst desire to prevent all irregularities,) complains 
in one of his letters to Lord Palmerston, it was vain to 
call it smuggling opium. And why? Because all the 
olficials were engaged in it. Now, remember, that there 
is a wide difference between that position, whether of a 
trading community or of its official chief, and the 
position of people who are endeavouring to force a trade 
into a country vi et armis, as it has been alleged we did 
ill the first war, and have been doing ever since. As I 
said before, the seizure of the opium is the salient in- 
cident of that war. But it is by no means the whole 
war, it is but an incident of it, and in support of that 
I quote a gentleman not likely unduly to favour 
England. In the year 18il, John Quincey Adams, a 
sufficiently well-known name, a distinguished member 

of a distinguished political family in America 

1289. What volume are you quoting from. Sir 
Thomas ? — This is a missionary publication, the 
'• Chinese Eepository," which ran for 20 years in 
Canton, and was, at the time I speak of, edited by 
Dr. Elijah Bridgman, an excellent American mis- 
sionary, who gives Mr. Adams's lecture in extenso. I 
shall read a short extract. There are also some notes 
of his, the editor's own, which I wish to read. He 
printed Mr. Adams's lecture in 1842, but it was 
delivered before the Historical Society at Massachusetts 
December 1841. It is hardly necessary to quote 
than a short passage of it. After tracing his- 
torically what had occnrred up the year 1841, he says : 

" And here I might pause ; — Do 1 hear you inqtiire 

" what is all this to the opium question cr the taking 
" of Canton? These I answer are but incideuts in 
" that movement of mind on this globe of earth of 
" which the war between Great Britain and China is 
■' now the leading star. . . . The justice of the 
■' cause between the two parties — which has the 
" righteous cause ? You have perhaps been surprised 
" to hear me answer Britain — Britain has the righteous 
■' cause. But to prove it I have been obliged to show 
•' that the opium question is not the cause of the war. 
" My demonstration is not yet complete. The cause 
" of the war is the kotow !" I do not mean to say that 
anybody was asked to kotow ; pray let me impress 
that upon gentlemen who are very exacting of verbal 
accuracy ; but that the cause of the war was the 
kotow, -'tho arrogant and insupporia' ly pretensions 
'• of China that she will hold commercial intercourss 
'•' with the rest of monkind, not upon terms of equal 
" reciprocity, but upon the insulting and degrading 
" forms of the relation between lord and vassal." 
(' sOflTO. 



.Sir 

l.F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G., 

K.C.B. 



in 
more 



. Dr. Bridgman, after an ample recognition of 
the title of a man of Mr. Adams's experience, proceeds 
judicially with the following comments : — ... 
" While, however, we difi'er from the lecturer with 
" regard to the influence the opium trade has had —— 

" upon the war, for it has been without doubt the great 15 Sept, 1893, 

•' proximate cause, we mainly agree with him as to the ~ 

" effect that other remoter causes springing from 
" Chinese assumption, conceit, and ignorance have 
" also had upon it . . . We do not see how the 
" war could have arisen had not the opium trade been 
" a smuggling trade. We think it would never have 
" gone on as it has, were the Chinese better acquainted 
with their own and others' rights . . . " — "Chinese 
Eepository, "Vol. XI., pp. 288-9. Dr. Bridgman cannot, 
of course, be expected to take so lenient a view of the 
opium trade as Mr. Quincey Adams ; that I do not in 
the least wonder at. Dr. Bridgman had been resident 
for many years in Canton and Macao and he had had a 
personal experience of the evil attending the excessive 
use of opium which Mr. Quincey Adams could not have 
had. But when he urges that but for the opium the 
war would not have arisen, my view, I confess, is more 
nearly Mr. Adams's, The origin of the war lay in the 
fact that we had no relations. The origin of succeeding 
wars lay in thb fact that onr relations were very imper- 
fect, and still needed perfecting. How many wars 
havb we had with China ? We had il;e war known as 
the opium war terminating in 1842. We immediately 
established ourselves within the walls at the different 
ports, but at Canton we were still not admitted into 
the city. It was the only place at which there was a 
high authority to whom the British Plenipotentiary 
could appeal. This wxs an Imperial Commissioner 
sent down' to Canton to reside there vis-a-vis our 
Minister Plenipotentiary, who resided at Hong Kong. 
He was inaccessible to our Minister. We were not 
admitted into the city, and the promise that we should 
eventually be admitted was put off and put off, and a 
succession of outrages occurred during the five years 
succeeding the peace of 1342, the consequence of which 
was that Sir John Davis, perhaps with more zeal than 
discretion, in the spring of 1847, went up with a few 
ships of war and demanded a settlement of the city 
question. Kiying, the then Imperial Commissioner 
engaged that it should be settled in two years. In 
1849, accordingly, the two-years' term having expired, 
Sir George Bonham approached Kiying's successor. 
The high authorities at Canton said they must refer to 
the Emperor. They ascertained that we were not 
going to strike, and then came a grand fulmination 
from the Emperor and a grand approval of the attitude 
of the Cantonese; and we were shut out of Canton 
once more. Throughout those events, if there was any- 
thing to find fault with on our side, it certainly was the 
weakness we displayed ; but as regards the charge I am 
endeavouring to rebut, be it remembered that not one 
of our grievances had anything whatever to say to 
opium. This decree of exclusion from the city was 
issued in 1849. After an interval of some few years, 
we established at Hong Kong, — which had of late con- 
siderably developed itself in consequence of the influx 
of Chinese, driven thither by tteir own rebellion or 
trouble of one form and another, — we had established 
a system of registering vessels o*" Colonial build, of 
Chinese make, which should run between Hong Kong 
and the open ports. One of these vessels, the "Arrow," 
had entered the Port of Canton, Allow me to say, first, 
that a Chinese translation of the Ordinance which was 
passed for the purpose of empowering the Colony to 
give papers to vessels of this kind had been forwarded 
by Sir John Bowring, then Governor of Hong Kong, 
and Minister Plenipotentiary, to the then High Com- 
missioner, Yeh, months before. The whole Ordinance 
was forwarded to him ; he was perfectly in a position, if 
he liked, to protest against it as an order of proceeding 
possibly likely to interfere with the arrangements of 
the Empire. He simply took no norice of it whatever ; 
but early in October 

1290. Of what year ?— Of 1856. I beg your pardon. 
Early in October of 1856, on the 6th of October, 1856, 
one of these vessels, byname the " Arrow," having gone 
into the Port of Canton, having been duly entered 
by the Consul (Mr. Parkes), had lain there for eight 
days. On the eighth day, the day unfortunately that 
Her Majesty's brig "Bittern" disappeared on a cruise 
from the inner waters, the Imperial Commissioner's 
executive pounced upon that vessel, tore down the flag, 
carried the people into the city, and alleging t'nat they 
were pirates refused to return them. Of course this 
brought on a very hot discussion; and though at an 

M 



90 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Sir early stage of this, he ceded in part, and finally went 

T. F. Wade, 'to greater lengths. Sir John Bowring insisted upon the 

G.C.M.G. opening of the city as a guarantee of better relations. 

K.C.B. His plea implied or expressed was simply that we had 

_: no access to the one authority appointed by the 

15 Sept. 1893. Emperor to deal with foreign affairs. If anything 

occurred at one of the ports it had to be referred down 

to Canton through the Plenipotentiary. I may say, 
except a visit of ceremony on his arrival, the Plenipo- 
tentiary never had a, chance of seeing this great man. 
Our Plenipotentaries went up or sent up, on more 
occasions than one, to the mouth of the Pei-ho to 
communicate with Pekin to endeavour to establish a 
better order of things. What did the Court of Peking 
say? " Go back to Canton; consult the Imperial Com- 
missioner," — whom we could never see. That was our 
position ; and in the usual way this led to a collision 
which, in the usual way, was largely misunderstood and 
misrepresented. 

1291. It was not a war arising out of a desire to force 
opium upon the Chinese? — Ihe opium had nothing 
earthly to do with it ; no more than tobacco. But I 
will be candid. It is very possible that these men were 
precisely what the Imperial Commissioner described 
them as being. In the drifting population of Hong 
Kong, through which, at that time even, some 200,000 
people came and went annually, who did not reside 
there, — with a coast such as is opposite Hong Kong, — 
you could not fail to have piracy in all directions, and 
at one time piracy was rife, and we were continually 
engaged in putting it down ; because the Chinese would 
do nothing whatever. There is another thing I should 
be prepared to admit. There had been Tory possibly some 
smuggling of salt, which was and is a prohibited im- 
port. All these things may be admitted. But the 
great fact remains that Sir. Quincey Adams hud 
insisted on as the cause of the first war, and which I 
contend was equally the cause of the second war. 
What was wanting was relations. There was no possi- 
bility of getting grievances redressed, or of coming to 
an understanding upon any given point. The result of 
that was wai'. Though there was no declaration of war. 
there were hostilities which were as like a war in 
character as hostilitips could bn ; and, the result of that 
was Lord Elgin s naission to China, and, of cwurn', the 
discrediting of Sir .Jnhn Bowring, Now, it has been 
said that Loi'd Elgin received instructions from Lord 
Clarendon to do 1 do not know what with the opiiim 
t|pestion ; but 1 have heard the stalement madi.' as part 
of an argument that this war, like other wars, was I'nr 
the purpose of pushing trade, and particularly the 
opium trade. The instructions, if read at length, it 
will be seen, point particularly to residence at Peking ; 
they point particularly to the improvement of relations. 
When they come to opium, which it would be scarcely 
possiljle to avoid coming to, with the knowledge of the 
extensive irregular traffic that was being carried on, — 
what does Lord Clarendon say? — "It will liu for Your 
" Excellency when discussing commercial arrange- 
'■ inents with any Chinese Plenipotentiaries to ascer- 
■' tain whether the Government of China would revoke 
" its prohibition of the opium trade which the high 
" officers of the Chinese Government never practically 
" enforce. Whether the legalisation of the trade would 
" tend to augment that trade niay be doubtful as it 
'■ seems to be carried on to the full extent of the 
" demand in China with the sanction and connivauoe 
" of the local authorities. But there would be obvious 
" advantages in placing the trade upon a legal foot- 
" |ing by the imposition of a duty instead of its 
" being carried on in the present irregular manner." 
That is the j-ole allusion in Lord Clarendon's instruc- 
tions to Lord Elgin. I was attached to Lord Elgin 
from the moment that he arrived in China, in 
the summer of 1857, and until the spring of 1859. 
I may ;-ay I was almost in daily contact with him ; 
indeed, except for two or three broken months, I 
was always on board the same ship with him ; and 
it is very natural that with a person attached to him 
in the capacity of Chinese secretary, which was my 
position, he should talk very freely about everything. 
I can safely say that for the first eight, nine, or ten 
months he never referred to opium as a possible 
item of negociation at all. He referred to it as a thing 
deplorable, from what he saw, — from what ho saw in 
the streets; from the emaciation and wretchedness of 
the opium smokers he came across. He could not un- 
derstand — I remember his observation on one occasioh, 
— he could not understand how it was that such a 
practioo should be so ^cueial and vet not universal, 
bci auic while he -aw very i-espeetabJe people who did 



not smoke at all, he saw also some who did smoke who 
were perfectly respectable too. But to the best of my 
recollection he never alluded, during the whole time 
that I speak of, until a date which I shall mention, — 
which was rather more than a year after his arrival, — 
he never alluded to it as a subject of negociation. We 
left Shanghai for the mouth of Pei-ho in April, 1858, 
and after a collision we got up to Tientsin, and at 
Tientsin we and the Erench and the Americans and the 
Bussians concluded Treaties. Mr. Reid, the American, 
withdrew from his Treaty a certain clause prohibitory 
of the opium trade which had been in the earlier 
American Treaty of 1845 ; he withdrew this clause to 
oblige Lord Elgin. (See Mr. Keid's letter in Blue 
Book, China and Japan 1857-1859, p. 394.) I forget 
precisely how any discussion led up to this act on his 
part, but as a fact he certainly did it. But a few 
mouths later in the excellent letter above referred to, 
— this same letter being prompted by a letter from one 
of the leading American merchants, also given in the 
Blue Book, — he urged Lord Elgin to regularise the 
trade, that is to say, to legalise it. And why p For 
the very same reason that Lord Clarendon gives : — It 
is an irregular trade, which everybody knows and 
everybody ignores ; audit was upon that, more narticu- 
larly, th.at Lord Elgin formulated his propositions 
regarding the legalization of the opium trade. Now, I 
think Mr. Lay has remarked, and it is perfectly jttst, 
that the one thing that the Chinese showed any real 
concern about — the one thing they felt any real eorcern 
about was the residence of a Foreign Minister in Peking. 
They had a most distinct objection to that ; and as soon 
as Lord Elgin had gone away from Tientsin in July, 
they had set to work to undo the concession. Lord 
Elgin went over to .lapan to make a Ti-eaty, and was 
absent there two or thj'ce months ; but the moment ho 
returned to Shanghai, the two high officers who had 
negooiated this Treaty were sent down to Shanghai as 
Imperial Commissioners, ostensibly to settle tariff and 
trade regulations. But settlement of the tariff was a 
kind of work that would not have devolved on two 
mandarins of their position at all. It had been quite 
undei-stood that the Chief Snpciinlendeut of Customs 
at Shanghai, M'liowas the maiidaiijt with whom Mr. Lay 
was associated as inspector ol' Customs at Shanghai at 
the time, vras to take it in hand. The coming down of 
these men boded something else. And what did it 
bode P It boded revocation of the clause that would 
establish a resident Minister atPckin; the. ono im- 
portant provision, in my opinion, of the wholo Treaty. 
As lo the ojiium duty, when it was projoseil, it would 
be almost a laroe to Say .--itwoiddbe an aljusu of words 
to say,— that there was any negotiation at all. There 
was certainly no objection raised to its insertion as a 
dutiable article in the tarifl'. This was put in the 
hands of two mandarins of more than ordinary position 
with Mr. Lay as their natural co-adjutor, "hu being 
Inspector of Customs; while, on the other ] art, Mr. 
Lawrence Oliphant, Lord Elgin's private secretary, and 
myself, represented the Ambassador. 

1292, [Mr. Pease.) Was Mr. Lay in tho ("hiuesc 
service may I ask P^Yes, Mr. Lay had been Consular 
interpreter at Shanghai. He was then made A'ico-consul, 
and when in 1855, after nine months, during which the 
Customs Iirspectorate was on its trial under myself and a 
French and American colleaguo, I retired, Mr. Lav was 
put in my place, and for Ihc three years followuig, 
that is up to the time of Lord Elgin's arrival, he 
had been m the above oflice. At my instance ho was 
attached to Lord Elgin, when the mission went north 
from Shanghai in April 1858. I have no hesitation in 
saymg I fhmk— it may not be exactly relevant, not in 
the direct order of these proceedings,— that if it had 
not been for Mr. Lay's presence, for the confidence that 
the Chinese naturally had in him as their own employ^, 
and for his own admirable command of the .spoken 
language, I doubt whether Lord Elgin would have got 
,1. Treaty at all; at least not a Treaty with the pro'vi- 
sions It contains. The mere commeicial matters which 
the Chinese conceded, with scarcely vrrbal deviations 
to the other Powers, to the Americans and the Russians 
and finally to the French, were to them a matter of 
mdiflerence. What was of real importance, was what 
wo really went to get and what that war of 1850-68 
was really about; the improvement of relations with 
the Chinese. They hesitated, not merely on account of 
their pharasaical upliftedness, that allectation of pre- 
cedence over all nations, which is one oi their "reatest 
misfortunes, but they hesitated, as a Chinese" in my 
couhdence mformed me, Ijoeauso once we were along- 
side of them, they would not be able to get away and 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



91 



instead of making a buffer of the Imperial Commissioner 
at the other end of the Empire, vhom a Foreign Minister 
■was never to see, they would see us face to face, and be 
compelled to talk things over. This w as humiliating to 
their , pride , no doubt, bnt they also felt a material 
inconvenience in the change before them. I contend 
that ^vithout that change we should have been just 
where we had been before when the insults to Lord Napier 
were first offered, 20 years before ; and that the one 
thing for which we did make war was the improvement 
of relations. About the means to that end there were 
differences of opuiion. Lord Elgin was not keen, when 
he had seen the whole position, for the establishment 
of a Minister at Peking. Sir Frederick Bruce, who 
knew orientals both in China and elsewhere, declared 
that there was nothing else worth having. He said, 
" Our difficulty has been with these people all along the 
" imperfectness of relations. What do yon mean by 
relations P How are you going to have relations per- 
fect ? " You cannot have relations perfect (he argued, 
quoting classical authority), unless there is a recognition 
of equality. And what really occasioned that war, that 
lasted from 1856 to 1858, was the fact thatithere was no 
equality — that there was no recognition of relations. 
Well, the following year, Lord Elgin's brother, Sir 
Frederick Bruce comes out himself, as Minister, and 
he finds the river blocked. He is not to go, except 
under impossible conditions, up to Pekin. In the 
interim, what had happened ? As I have said, these 
High Commissioners came down to induce Lord Elgin 
to revoke the concession of residence, and he did 
undertake to make residence conditional. He modified 
the provision to the effect that there should be but an 
annual visit to Pekin, and that so long as the Chinese 
conducted themselves in a way satisfactory to us, we 
would not claim the permanent residence there. When 
we came up in June 1859, it appeared that the admis- 
sion into Pekin for the simple purpose of exchanging 
ratifications was so limited that it was not to bo 
accepted without humiliation. Mind, the Chinese had 
a splendid opportunity of proving that we were wrong 
in that assumption, for we arrived at the Pei-ho with a 
French and with an American Minister. The French 
Minister's position was precisely the same as our own. 
But wo said, " We have a right to go in, and go in we 
will." We did attempt to go in, and wc were fired 
upon and beaten. The French and ourselves were thus 
thrown back, but the Americans, who remained there 
as noutrals, and against whom the fire of the forts was 
consequently never directed, did accept what was 
offered. Their Minister, Mr. Ward, was taken up to 
Pekin ; but under what conditions P Under conditions 
that were positively, I should say, rather worse than 
those with which Lord Napier had found himself 
dealing when he arrived at Macao in 1834. He (Mr. 
Ward) was carried up to Pekin in a common con- 
veyance ; while he was in Pekin, there were guards 
placed around his residence ; both he and his suite 
were prevented from going anywhere. As one of the 
Bomish missionaries residing in Peking in disguise 
at the time, wrote to his Minister, '^ humilissime 
■intravit " ; and he went out as he had come in. Now, 
if the Chinese had had any sense they would have 
put us in the wrong by conceding to Mr. Ward a 
reception that he could not have complained of. But 
they did not ; and they simply let us see that we were 
perfectly right in insisting upon admission into Peki'.i 
under circumstances of which we should not bo 
ashamed. The result of their conduct was the third 
and last war ; in order, then to force our way into 
Pekin ; in order once more, to secure endurable 
relations. 

1293. That war closed in 1860, did it not P— I was 
just going to say, sir 

1294. The second war? — Well, I consider the second 
war, the war which arose out of the " Lorcha Arrow " 
affair — . — ■ 

1295. That was in 1856 ; Lord Elgin arrived in 1857 ? 
— Yes. Hostilities had been going on, you may say, 
from the moment tlie Chinese seized the "Lorcha " ; at 
least, from about twenty days after her seizure. 

1296. And the close of that warp— I consider the 
close of that war was when Lord Elgin signed his 
Treaty in 1858. 

1297. (Mr. Mowbray) The Treaty of Tientsin ?— 
Yes ; the Treaty of Tientsin. Then (in the following 
year) we went up to bo admitted into Pekin, and we 
were shut out and defeated. 

1298. [Ghairman.) And that gave rise to the third 
;yar ?— That gave rise to the third war ; to Sir Hope 



Grant's expedition of 1860. We did then make our way 
up to Pekin, the Emperor flying to beyond the' Great 
Wall when we advanced upon Pekin, From the day 
we were established in Pekin, from that day to this 
we have had no more wars. 

1299. Well, Sir Thomas Wade, you have given us a 
very intei'esting sketch of these nnfottunate wars with 
China, and you have made it clear to us that in your 
view those wars were largely if not mainly traceable 
to the insistence of the Chinese in refusing to enter 
into friendly relations with us, and you contend that 
those wars were not prompted by a desire to force the 
Indian opium upon China P — Not even to force trade. 

1300. You remained in China a considei-able numbei 
of years after the last war was brought to a close,, and 
were conoemed in the moat responsible positions with 
the many negociations which were carried out between 
the British Government and the Chinese Government. 
Now would you say to us that in those negociations it 
was not in the contemplation of the British Government 
to coia pel the Chinese authorities to receive importa- 
tions of opium from India against their will ; that in 
those various negociations other important matters 
were in view, but this particular object of forcing the 
importation of opium was never an object with the 
British Government ? — On the contrary. You may say 
that the first time that it (opium) came up again at all 
in formal discussion was in 1868. In a casual way I 
have myself often talked the opium question over with 
different high officers, — one of them being a great 
opium, smoker himself ; bnt so far from there being any- 
thing like a suggestion that the opium trade, or that the 
opium taxation, should be re-arranged to our advan- 
tage, the first time that it appears after the war of 
1860 is when Sir Rutherford Alcock was revising the 
Treaty in 1868. 

1301. And under what circumstances does it re- 
appear .P — A suggestion was made on the part of Sir 
Rutherford Alcock to the Indian Government to 
increase the duty upon it. You will find that in the 
papers recording Sir Ruthefford Aloock's revision of 
Treaty ; in fact, it was one of the two causes which 
broke down his revised Treaty. There were two con- 
ditions, one affecting silk and one affecting opium. 
The Indian Government objected to that affecting 
opium, and both the French and various of our own 
merchants objected to that affecting silk. As regarded 
the opium, that was I think the only time that it came 
formally before negotiators until I took it up in 1876. 
And why did I take it up in 1876 P Simply because at 
Shanghai a judgment had been given in respect of the 
taxation of opium which I considered to be , unfair*" to 
the Chinese Government, our engagements with it 
considered. The article agreed to by Lord Elgin 
supplementary to the tariff which was signed in 1858 
says that opium shall be saleable only at the port, and 
Lord Elgiu, I cannot quote his despatch, but I can state 
his observation, repeated again and again to me, that 
his opinion of opium was such that he would not be a 
party to obtaining for it a participation in the favour- 
able conditions of other articles of import. All other 
articles of import were subject in those days to a great 
deal of irregular taxation which one clause of his 
Treaty was intended to regularise ; but he said: "I 
" will not be a party to flinging opium broadcast 
" through the Empire," and for that reason he. would 
not claim the transit duty certificate which, by an 
additional pajntnent of half the tariff duty, was to secure 
our general import trade against this abnormal *^ax- 
ation inland. It must have been about the year 1874 
that a case was tried at Shanghai between the agents 
charged with collecting opium revenue, or estimating 
it, — charged consequently with visiting the stocks and 
estimating the revenue in the interest of the Chinese 
Government. On the occasion referred to they came 
into collision with a body raised and paid by foreign 
residents, the quasi-municipal police, which takes care 
of Shanghai, gTcatly to its advantage, and the case 
being examined into by judicial authority, the judicial 
authority' decided that as according to Lord Elgin's 
Treaty opium was saleable at the port, therefore we had 
in fact a right to hawk it about at the port. I hfeld 
precisely the contrary opinion ; Lord Elgin's appeal to 
the Chinese Government, in 1858, put in a few words, 
was this: "It is an irregular trade of which you have 
" the fullest cognisance, regularise it, and' put What 
" tariff you like upon it ; and I will not ask for the 
'• limitation of inland duty upon it. Once it passes 
" from British hands we shall have no more to say to 
" it." Well, T consider that that being our engagement, 

M 2 



Sir 

T. F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G., 

K.C.B. 

15 Sept. 189c. 



92 



JNDLAN OIMIJM ColUMJSSION 



Sir a decision -which would justify t.he quasi-municipal 

T. F. Wade, police in interfering with tbe Chinese overseers of opium 

G.C.M.G., revenue to the prejudice of the inland dnty collection 

K.C.B. was not fair to the Chinese; and for that reason 

I volunteered in the Ohe-foo ap;rcement — an agree- 

15 Sept. 1893. ment primarily concerned no doubt with what it 
known as the Yun-nan outrage ; bat incidentally, as 
my despatches show, made to include other matters, — 
I volunteered a suggestion that just as the foreign 
inspectorate now collects the tariff duty of 30 taels, 
(30 ounces of silver) upon the drug when imported, so 
it should be empowered to collect also the abnormal 
inland revenue to which the Indian opium lit, traaKxiii 
was liable. Of this we had very imperfect information. 
We knew that it was exceedingly onerous to all trades, 
but I knew also that the Central Government was itself 
very imperfectly informed regarding the aiuount 
collected. It was vain therefore to endeavour to get 
accurate news from the provinces, but what I wanted to 
accomplish was not simply a regularisation of the trade, 
— the regularisation of the trade in opium as an import 
was not my business, — but I did desire to insure to the 
Chinese Government a defence against the foreign 
importer; a defence that I consider the Chinese were 
legitimately entitled to. Thus you will sec opium, in 
my belief, was never alluded to in negotiations, except 
upon the two occasions that I have referred to ; first, 
in 1868, when Sir Rutherford Alcock was revising his 
Treaty, and proposing an augmentation of the taiiff 
duty on opium, and last in 1876, when I signed the 
Che.foo agreement. I will not be absolutely certain, 
but I believe that Sir Rutherford Alcook's proposition 
was much of the character of my own in 1876, to wit 
that the Chinese Government should have secured to 
them the revenue to which they wore by Treaty entitled. 
Beyond that there has been no pretence to treat ; opium 
taxation has never been, as I say, even alluded to, and 
I confess that I feel something passing common 
irritation when I am told that we introduced opium 
into China, that wo taught the Chinese the way to 
smoke it, that we poisoned the nation, — that we made 
war in consequence of it, and that we finally forced it 
upon them with British bayonets in our hands ; when I 
hear, as I heard Mr. Samuel Smith, the Member for 
Flintshire, inform 200 undergraduates at Cambridge one 
evening, that at last China overborne was obliged to 
take to producing it in her own defence. It is scarcely 
possible for me, I confess, to measure terms when 
allegations of that sort are made. Think how utterly 
unfair it is to our own friends, to our own countrymen, 
what a reflection upon them it is. However, I am not 
here to entertain you with my irritabilities. 

1302. We were very anxious to have tho position of 
the past cleared up, and we have been interested in what 
yon have told us. Sir Thomas ; there was one point 
upon which the Commission would wish to have your 
opinion, and that is, as to our position at the present 
moment. We have had brought before us repeatedly 
in the course of our inquiry an important official state- 
ment made by Sir James Ferguson in the House of 
Commons, which was to this effect, that the fiscal 
arrangements, the discretion as to the imposition 
of Customs duties or the discretion, as to the total pro- 
hibition, if they thought fit, of importation of opium 
from India into China, are now entirely free with the 
Chinese Government ; Sir James Ferguson made it 
clear to the House of Commons that there were no 
condilious in tho Ti'caties now in existence between 
ourselves and China which prohibited tho Chinese 
Government, if they thought fit, from dealing in any 
way which they thought desirable with the opuim trade. 
AVe understood the statement of Sir James Ferguson 
was to the effect that if the Chinese Government 
thought fit to do so, they could, after giving twelve 
months notice, raise the tariff on the importation 
of opium from India to China to any amount that 
they thought fit ; or if they thought fit, might 
prohibit the trade altogether. Now that statement 
of Sir James Ferguson has not been accepted by all 
the witnesses who have appeared before us. They 
have contended that, that statement notwitstanding, 
the Chinese Government are not free to deal as they 
may think fit with the opium trade between India and 
China. Can jou tell us how the matter really stands p 
— Well before referring to negotiations since my day, I 
wish to promise that partly owing to my own, I will not 
say Juclies, but still owing to mc, the ralification of the 
Treaty hung fire for a long time. The cau?es indepen- 
dent of me were, I think these, that the financiers of 
the Indian Goverimient were naturally alarmed, for I 
had not prepared them for a proposition regarding 



opium at all in 1876 ; and in the next place, though 
there was not a formal intimation regarding opium 
from other Governments, there was evidence enough 
that they were not disposed to accept arrangements 
a^cciiiig it for difierent' reasons. They were not di".- 
posed, some of them, to approve my Agreement at all, 
and they were in a position to neutralise its opium 
provisions, because with a very little organization they 
could have imported opitim and if they had not 
accepted my arrangement, the Agreement stood in 
danger of falling through. As regards the statement 
of Sir James Ferguson, I am not prepared to make 
answer at this moment. 1 mean to say tha,t I do 
not venture to affirm that there is nothing on 
record to the effect that the Chinese might if they 
chose raise the duty, or that they might take this 
step or that regarding opium. With the relations 
that we now have, no stop of the sort, I _ should 
imagine, would be undertaken without preliminary 
negotiations. And allow me to say that I conceive it 
to be the farthest thing from probability that they will 
initiate anything of the sort under existing circum- 
stances. In the amount which it was agreed between 
(I think) Lord Salisbury and the Minister Tseng should 
be levied, they have got rather more, or certainly at 
least double what I would have conceded. I had reason 
to believe (in 1876) that they collected as Vi-lcin taking 
the ports all round, something like 40 ounces of silver 
in addition to the 30 ounces leviable by tariff'; that 
they collected about 40 ounces upon every picul, 
every hundred Chinese pounds of opium. N ow I would 
have conceded them more than that, though even of 
the 40 [which their native collectorate ought to have 
colleotc'd] they were not perfectly secure. I would 
have conceded them more than that in (^rdcr to set the 
question at rest. However, as I say, tho settlement 
hung fire, and Sir Robei't Hart did not agree with me 
that what I thought fair was a suflScient sum to impos 3 
upon opium. He said that it would bear a total of 
110 ounces taxation, tariff' included, without any darger 
from the smuggler, and in his position of Inspector 
General oi Customs, he was bound I think to advis,' 
the Chinese Government in that sense. If the Chinese 
Government were minded to-morrow to raise the duty 
or to make fresh arrangements regarding the revenue, 
there is not a shadow of doubt that wo should not, — as 
in former days when there were no relations at all, 
— meet them with a direct negative, we should 
not refuse any proposition they might make without 
consideration ; but I repeat it is to the last degree im- 
])robahle that they will do anything of the sort. I 
should like before I close to supplement my answer to 
the question which your Lordship put to me just 
before this one, as to the action taken by the British 
Government. I said there were two instances in which 
the question of opium had come up, one in 1868. 
when Sir Rutherford Alcock was Minister, and one 
1876 when I was Minister myself, and I mentioned 
the two propositions that had been made, both favour- 
able to the Chinese, firs^ by Sir RuLherford Alcock, 
and then by myself. I omitted, however, to men- 
tion a very much more important provision, in my 
Agreement, and that was that there should be a com- 
mission to regularize the trade of Hong Kong. About 
this naturally the Inspector of Customs was particularly 
anxious, because Hong Kong, being situated as it is, 
was in a position to export not only Indian but all 
native-grown opium right and left along the coast, 
without paj-ing any duty whatever. AVe had paid 
some, without a doubt ; but that a large portion of it 
would go into the pockets of employes, in fact that it 
would be a braach of irregular trade, no one could 
doubt for a moment. The Chinese very often argued, 
always with an allusion, more or less ttnpleasant, to 
tho jjeculiar position of Hong Kong, — as they very 
frequently contended that they were entitled to tax 
every ounce of opium that came to China, that is to 
say, geographically speaking, to Hong Kong as well ; — 
and I was prepared to concede, although it was not 
very pleasant to the Colony, that they were pej-fcctlv 
entitled to watch the trade between Hong Kong and 
their own shores in order that they might levy the 
dtttics that woitld legitimately accrue to them. For 
that reason I suggested that there should bo a joint 
commission between the Chinese and ourselves to 
arrange to regulate the trade, more particularly tho 
opium trade at Hong Kong. The result of that is that 
Hong Kong is now within the area of the Imperial 
Customs Inspectorate supervision. Allow me to say 
that, when we talk of forcing trade upon them with 
bayonets, thoso two last concessions in trade are some- 



MINLTES OF EVlJ^ENOi). 



!J3 



thing to set against 



any suoh allegation. If 



think that I have taken upon myself, not as Mr. Lay 
has put It, to increase the war-tax,— to enable the 
Ohineseto levy the war- tax through the hands of the 
Inspectorate,— but to secure to them that enormous 
increase of revenue which they now receive, whicli 
they never could have touched but a fraction of, had 
it not been for my intervention ; and that I secured 
to them the rogularisation of the trade of Hong Kong, 
I thmk that those two acts, on my part alone, may 
be set against the allegation that we have forced opium 
into that country at the point of the bayonet. 

1303. There is one last question that I should like to 
ask you. You made an important speech on this 
subject at the Society of Arts, and that is before us. 
I take it from you that, so far as it went, that correctly 
represents your general view as at present entertained 
on the subject which has been before the Oommissmn. 
There is one statement which yon made in the course of 
that speech which I should like to hear a word from you 
upon, and that it is with regard to the attitude of the 
Central Government of China with reference to this 
question. Have you reason to suppose that the Chinese 
Government are sincerely anxious to put an end to the 
opium trade?— "Well, the sincerity of parties is always 
more or less a delicate question. I attended, some four 
or five years ago, a meeting of clerical gentleman who 
were also associated with the anti-opium, let me say, 
crusade— I do nob use the word in any invidious sense — ■ 
gentlemen associated for the purpose of abating what 
they considered the great evil of the opium trade, and 
they asked me straight, " Do yon consider the Chinese 
" sincere in their denunciation of opium?" "Well, I 
could only meet the question by another: "Do you 
" consider us sincere in the denunciation of a largo 
" number of practices which we do condemn both in 
" society and in trade, and otherwise ? " You would 
feel very ill-pleased if you were told that you and your 
countrymen woi'e insincere. The Chinese notion of 
sincerity does not carry them as far perhaps in that 
direction as ourselves, but I should say a large number 
— a majority I will not say, for I am not in a position 
to judge — but 1 should say a large number are sincerely 
opposed to the opium trade, a very large number. I 
am very glad indeed that your Lordship has asked me 
the question, because I read on the occasion referred to 
a memorandnm of an interview with the Ministers of 
the Tsung-li- Yamen , that has been dealt with also in a 
way that I do not exactly like. 

1304. You spoke in the Society of Arts in April, 1892, 
on Mr. Batten's paper ? — Yes, my Lord, but did I give 
t'tie date of the interview at the Tsung-li Yamfin ? 

1305. Yes, you read the memo, of an interview on 
16th January, 18Ml. You say that, " As regarded 
" opium, certain points had been suggesting them- 
" selvep to Sir Thomas Wade upon which the opinion 
" of the Yamen would be valuable. In the first place, 

" as the Ministers were of course aware, the trade in 
" opium, native and foreign, was regarded in diif erent 
" lights lay the high authorities of ditferent provinces, 
" and their mode of action was dissimilar. Some were 
" for stamping out native opium altogether, and 
" restricting the sale of foreign opium by placing pro- 
" hibitions on the consumption of it. In other pro- 
" vinces it was regarded as a source of revenue, the 
" habit of opium smoking was not checked, but the 
" drug ivas heavily taxed, the vice being turned to 
" account as a means of enriching ths exchequer. As 
" these modes of procedure were diametrically oppo- 
" site. Sir Thomas Wade would be glad to be informed 
" what was the policy favoured by the Central Govern- 
" ment. Th Minister addressed replied that the 
" question was not an ea,sy one to answer. He did not 
" think that the Central Government had gone so far 
" as to formulate a- policy at all"? — Yes. But the 
sequel is much more important, my Lord, Shall I read 
it? 

1300. Yes, what I have read to you will lead you up 
to your answer, no doubt? — I should inform your 
Lordship that the paper which I read on that occasion 
was one o£ a collection which I have marked " Con- 
ferences on Opium." 

1307. Perhaps you would put that in.?— Yes. _ I do not 
see that I might;not. But on the occasion on which I read 
it, I did not mention the name of the Minister who 
made it because, as I observed at the time, Chinese 
Ministers do not delight in having their names carried 
about ; they are not so indiflerent to it as we are ; and 
for that reason I concealed the name o£ the Minister 



speaking; and I have seen in the Anti-Upium periodical 
that he is referred to as an anonymous Minister. "Will 
the proceedings be published necessarily ? 

1308. No; we might perhaps look at it?— "Well, I 
merely wish your Lordship to understand that this 
is a collection of conferences on opium at the Tsung- 
li Yamen, the Chinese Foreign OflSce, during the 
years 1880, 1881, and 1882, and my usage, during 
the latter years certainly of any tenure of ofiice, was to 
enter a formal report of all conferences at the Yam^n 
on anything more than an ordinary question in a 
journal. Furthermore, it was my usage to he accom- 
panied by some of my iiitcrpretorial staff or others. 
On this occasion I was accompanied by Mr. Hillier, now 
Consul- General in Corea, and there were present four 
Ministers whose names are given in the memorandum 
before you. The Minister with whom I had the conver- 
sation j ust quoted, was at that time virtually the Foreign 
Minister. Oar real Foreign Minister must have been 
considered the Prince of Kung, the Emperor's uncle. 
He was some two or three years after I left Peking 
degraded on one of the common charges in China, 
corruption, and with him fell the Minister who was 
speaking (on the 16th January 1881). He was one of 
the very ablest men that in all the years I was in China 
I ever met, and one of the fittest certainly to be a 
diplomatic Minister. He is now rising again, after the 
fashion of the Chines^, and is at this present moment 
at the head of an enormous government which is over- 
grown with opium. "The Minister addressed replied 
" that the question was not an easy one to answer. 
" He did not think that the Central Government had 
" gone so far as to formulate a policy at all. Speaking 
" from a general point of view, however, he might say 
" that if the habit of opium-smoking could be univer- 
" sally and at once abolished, the Chinese Government 
" would be ready and willing to sacrifice tLe revenue 
" that was at present derived from opium. All sensible 
" men were nevertheless agreed that this was an im- 
" possibility. The habit of opium smoking was beyond 
" the reach of prohibition, and the idea was how to turn 
" it to account. The only way in which it could be 
" turned to account was by making it a source of 
" revenue, and the revenue thus derived was indispen- 
" sable. There were, moreover, so many other matters 
" that needed reform before the opium question was 
" taken in hand, that it might safely be said that the 
" abolition of opium had not entered the minds of those 
" entrusted with the government of the Empire. Sir 
" T. "Wade went on to say that many persons, notably 
" the foreign missionaries in China, had been urging 
" on the British Government through various channels 
" the advisability and the equity of abandoning their 
" connexion with opium. Suppose, for as yet it was a 
" pure supposition, that the British Government were 
" eventually to effect a gradual diminution of the 
" opium trade from India, by limiting the import to 
" an increasing degree, year by year, until the trade 
" WHS abolished altogether, did the Minister think that 
" such an arrangement would meet with the approval 
" of the Chinese Government ? The Minister addressed, 
" who again protested that the question was a difficult 
" one to answer, replied that in his opinion such a plan 
" would be useless. As long as the habit existed, 
" opium would be procured somehow, and if it did not 
" come from India it would be procured elsewhere. Any 
" serious attempt to check the evil must originate with 
" individuals. As long as men wanted to smoke and 
" insisted on smoking, they would smoke, and a spon- 
" taneous abandonment of the habit on the part of the 
" people would regulate the supply. Nothing short of 
" this would do any good, and philanthropic efforts to 
" check the evil in the manner suggested by Sir T. 
" Wade would affect the revenue only, without in any 
" way reaching the root of the mischief." 

1309. Is there anything further that you would like 
to say ? — There are one or two things bearing upon the 
sincerity of the Chinese in the matter. It must be 
admitted by all those who have been in touch with this 
question for fifty odd years, that there is an amount of 
inconsistency on the part of the Chinese respecting it 
that puts their sincerity very much in question. There 
are several of them, as I said, that are perfectly sincere. 
The son-in-law of that great Commissioner Lin, whose 
violent action was the immediate cause of the first war, 
the son-in-law of that man was a few years ago Governor- 
General of the three provinces of which Nanking is 
the centre. He put down, — not opium smoking— he 
could not do that, — 'but all public opium divans. And 
now and then you will find individual officers taking a 

M 3 



S,r 
T. F. Wade,\ 
G.C.MO., 
K.C.B. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



94 



IN'DJAN' OPIUM CdJl.MlSSiON : 



T. F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G., 

K.C.B. 

15 Sept. 1893 



step of that kind. But it is rare. You will find all 
over the country prohibitions against opium planting 
and opium smoking; and yet, as a letter from a 
missionar}' which I saw in a paper shortly before I 
left Pekin, in 1882, stated, he had just passed through 
. a field of poppy with the proclamation pkinted in the 
middle and the white poppies growing round the posts 
of the board on which the proclamation Aras posted. 
And you have more than that ; you have the regular 
taxation of it, and you have now, if I do not mistake, 
in fact, I am' sure of it, you have a regular quotation of 
the revenue derived from the native cultivation of 
different parts. But what I was about to call attention 
to as something of an argument on the side of incon- 
sistency was the Will, as it is called, of the old Emperor 
against whom we made war in the first instance. The old 
Emperor was reigning as Tao Kuang. He was supposed, 
logioallj-, to be pronouncedly opposed to opium smoking. 
In the year 1836, that is three years before our first 
hoslilities, a censor of high reputation, Hit Nai-tsi hy 
name, proposed that opium should be legalised on a duty 
of 8 per cent., and he was not a.t all without supporters. 
But his opponents were more powerful, and it ended iu 
his being exiled to the far west of China as a punish- 
ment. It was almost immediately after that that the 
rigorous measures against the opium traffic and the 
opium smoker were revived. It should not lie forgotten 
that all those who denounced it, denounced it to the full as 
much irpon financial as moral grounds. What alarmed 
the Court ? I cannot think that the small ([uautity im- 
ported alarmed the Court so much as the evidence that 
silver was being carried out of the country to pay for 
it. But the old Emperor was justly supposed to be a 
pronounced anti-opiumist ; and it is therefore very 
- remarkable that in his Will the misunderstanding which 
lasted from 1839 to 184'2 — oui' opium war — should be 
treated in the way that it is there treated. These Wills, 
as they are called, are prepared very much as our 
Speeches from the Throne are prepared — by the highest 
authorities ; but these same high authorities must have 
also prepared the extremely lofty decree and the 
arrogant papers which were issued after we were 
excluded from Canton in 18 1-9. The Emperor died just 
at the beginning of 1850,at the end of February 1850 ; 
and then there appeared this document, which, as I say, 
is very much like one of our Speeches from the Throne. 
It is in efiect a review of his reign. After praising 
himself for his vigilance and his industry, his thrift and 
frugality, he comes to the rebellion of 1826-18'28, a very 
serious movement in his Moliammedan Colonies, and 
then to the war with England 

"When the poor fools [the Mohammedans] that 
" dwell beyond the western frontier had been chastised 
" by our troops," he says, "for many years we pre- 
" sunied not to vaunt our martial prowess, until a 
" qrrarrel arose out of a question of commerce upon 
" the eastern coasts." [These are the terms, observe, 
in which our war of 18.J9-42 is alluded to.] " Even 
" then, being as the good men of ancient times who 
" held humanity to be the chief of virtues, how could 
" we hear that our innocent baljes should be exposed 
" to the cruel wounds of the sharp-pointed spear? It 
" was for this cause that we put a^yay our annoyance 
" and entered into an important compact [the Treaty 
" of Nanking] . Giving comfort to our own dominions 
■' we showed tenderness to those from afar. And thus 
" in the course of ten years the hurtful flame has 
" expired of itself; our people and the barbarians trade 
" together in peace, and all may now perhaps com- 
" preheud that in this policy we were actuated by the 
" constant fondness of our people felt in our inmost 
" heart." 

There is not a word of reference tn opium iu that. 
After his successor had ascended the throne, he imme- 
diately, as is usual, asked for counsel of his advisers. 
The result was the presentation of some 50 odd papers, 
which I have here, either in translation or in precis. 
I do not think that opium is mentioned twice in the 
whole of them. I say that these are certain arguments 
to piove, ivcU, if it be ncjt indifference, certainly a not 
very active feeling in reference to opium. 

f-llO. (Sir J. Lyall.) Sir Thomas Wade, in the evi- 
dence before us, and in the memorial to the Prime 
Minister signed by a great number of influential people, 
reference is made to what is called the " affecting 
appeal " made by the Chinese Commissioners for the 
revision of the Tientsin Treaty, in 1869, to the English 
Government to alter its policy with regard to opiiim. 
Will you kindly tell us what your view of that incident 
is., and how far was the appeal sincere ; that is, were 
the Cliineso thinking of prohibition, or were they 



aiming at an increase of revenue ? — I was not at Peking 
at the moment ; I was on leave, and did not return 
until after Sir Eutherford Alcock's revision was com- 
pleted. But I remember an account of his last con- 
versation with the Prince of Kung before he started, 
in which the Prince had said that the only two troubles 
of China were opium and missionaries, and I should 
say (in answer to a question asked me) that this remark 
did not indicate a desire to increase the revenue ; that it 
would rather be the other way, because the Prince of 
Kung's right hand at that time was not the Minister 
whose remarks I have been reading to you, but a very 
great man ; great in this way, for though he was 
narrow, he was a singulaily patriotic, clean-handed, 
Minister — very ; and he was himself a tremendous anti- 
opiumist. He carried his antagonism to this point, 
that on one occasion when he was ill, and pressed to 
take laudanum, ho would not touch it because it came 
from the popjiy. He would have been a very likely 
man to suggest such a remark as that quoted. At the 
same time I was informed, on the very best authority, 
that when Sir Eutherford Alcock's proposition (and 
the whole of the negociations were then over when this 
conversation that I speak of took place), Sir Euther- 
ford Alcock's proposition, which promised an increase 
of revenue, came before the Minister in question, ho 
chuckled very undisguisedly over the ])rospect of the 
"Revenue's improvement. 

1311. With reference to that statement as to the 

:.ction of the United States Minister, at the time of 

negociatiug the Tientsin Treaty, I wish t() ask how you 

would explain the fact that in two Treaties recently 

concluded between the United States and Eussia the 

importation of opium is prohibited. Do you think the 

Chmese asked the insertion of the clause, or that the 

United States and Eussia suggested it for any motive? 

Well, I do not know myself about Eussia, I had 

overlooked the fact of Eussia's participation in the 

matter, but as regards the American proposition, I 

was informed at the time (I think that was in 1881), 

that it was put forward by the Americans in the hope 

that by the proposition they might in some way balance 

what they were taking away. In 1868 they negociated 

a Treaty about emigration on both sides, which was the 

doing of Mr. .Secretary Seward and Mr. Burlingame, 

the American Minister [then, however, representing 

China]. This laid down that the President of the 

United States, recognising no less than the Emperor 

of China that every human being has a right to change 

his domicile, &c., &c.— Well, in less than ten or twelve 

years after that, for reasons more particularly affecting 

the State of California, the Americans found that they 

had more Chinese than they wanted ; in fact, that there 

was a very decided set of the labour people, the Irish 

of (California more particularly, against the Chinese, 

and they wanted to undo that Treaty ; and I rather 

think that I have seen it in my own despatches recently, 

that I reported that the proposition regarding opium 

did come spontaneously from America, as a kind of quid 

pro qno. The Chinese set no kind of value upon it, 

because America was not an opium -producing country, 

nor, in general, although on occasion when it suited 

them, an opium-carrying people, 

1312. Another reason, I suppose, would be that I 
believe there is a certain anti-opium party in the 
States who have a religious belief?— Oh, necessarily; 
there is pretty sure to be ; indeed, quite sure to be. 
They have, I should think, as strong an anti-opium 
party in the States as our own. 

131.3. There is one question that goes a little beyond 
the question that Lord Brassey put, and perhaps you 
may not be able to ans\vcr it ; but I should like to put 
it You have said that a large number of respectable 
Chinese are sincerely opposed to the opium trade ; but 
do you think that the Chinese Imperial Government if 
now formally asked by us, would say that they wished 
us to prohibit the import of Indian opium into China ? 
Can you answer that ?— I think that you would merely 
draw from them one of those generalisations, such as 
the Grand Secretary Li-Hung Chung and the late 
Minister TsSng and others put forth when they were 
a]iproached by well-intentioned bodies in this country. 
In the same way, no people ha,^■o a greater happiness in 
the composition of documents tinged with morality 
than the Chinese ; but it would never enter their heads 
that the step ^vas seriously contemplated. I should think 
their first impression would be to doubt your sincerity in 
the matter ; but their answer, I think, would simply 
amount to this : Supposing that the British M.inister, or 
a body of British anti-opiumists, were to approach the 



MINUTES i)F EVIDENCE. 



95 



Chinese Grovernment, saying, " The Indian opium trade 
" is an awful curse to your country; implore the 
" British Government to give it up or to exclude it," 
they would answer, " The remedy appears to us to be in 
" your own hands ; if you do not like to export it, give 
" up exporting it." They would meet you in that sort 
of way. But, as I said before, I think they would be 
inclined to doubt your sincerity. And even supposing 
now that there was in this country the popular feeling 
against it that there was, say, against negro slavery, 
and that there was such a feeling in the country that it 
was decided to have done with the export of opium to 
China in the interests of the Chinese, I can only say that 
you might just as well pull down this edifice tbat we 
are in here in order to put out a fire in Whiteohapel. 
Because you have got in China a large opium-producing 
and opium-consuming* country, accustomed to the use 
of opium long before any troubles with us began. And 
allow me to add one thing more, apropos of Mr. Griflith 
John's remark, that the opium traffic once abandoned 
by us, we should be on beautiful terms with the Chinese, 
and that there would be the greatest possible improve- 
ment, particularly in respect of missionary enterprise, 
and in fact all round, I venture to say that T doubt it 
exceedingly, because I remain true to what I have 
urged before, our difficulties with China are of an 
entirely diiferent character. The Chinese have still got 
to learn, as a nation, that we are their equals. The 
Central Government has accepted this fact, and a very 
unpopular concession on the part of the Central Govern- 
ment'it was ; but as to the improvement of relations, 
and particularly as regards the preachers of religion — 
I do not want to commit your Lordship and the Com- 
mission to the hearing " of an Essay on Missionary 
Enterprise— but what you have got to do in that country- 
is largely to reinforce your missionary body with a very 
different description of missionary from those whom. 
you generally enlist. As the Minister TsSng observed 
to me on one occasion, " Your missionaries are getting 
" at the lower people, but you are not approaching the 
" higher. Why did Buddhism make the way it did in 
" our country," asked he, "because the works on 
" Buddhism translated into Chinese (from the excel- 
" lence of their style) appealed to the educated section 
" of the liommunity," and not only to a part but to all 
the literary men. Nor musl we necessarily commence 
with theology. 

1014. (Ghairman.) That lies outside the purview of 
the Commission ?— Quite. I was speaking simply in 
answer to Mr. Griffith John's remark. 

loi.'i. (Sir J. Lyall.) You said, I think, that when 
you were negotiating the Che-foo Convention, it 
had to be borne in mind that, if the other Powers did 
not agree to the arrangements we might make to 
regulate and restrict the opium traffic, they might 
easily organise an import trade of their own. I want 
to a.sk you where do you suppose that those other 
Powers would get the opium to import; from our 
peqple ?— There were people talking already, when I 
returned to China in 1879, there were people talking 
of changing their flag and carrying opium under flags 
not British. 

1316. I mean to say, do you think they would get it 
from India?— That would depend on the Indian 
Government. 1 am not prepared to say. But re- 
member that though they import mainly Indian, they 
also import Turkey and Persian ojiium ; and, further- 
more, there were foreign representatives who were 
prepared to support the step contemplated, because it 
would have been a weapon in their _ hands ; it would 
have been something to give up to China. 

1317. (Mr. Pease.) Perhaps you are aware that the 
secretaries of the Anti-Opinm Society, if not the 
members, always avoided speaking of the introduction 
of opium into China as having been first introduced by 
the English ?— I was not aware of it. 

1318. That has been very carefully done ?— I can only 
say that verbally I may include wrongly some people 
in the Anti-Opium Society. But anti-opinmists have 
made that statement. 

1319. But the Society has repeatedly repudiated it, 
although at one time the quantity of opium introduced 
was very small. You have said that your views had 
been to some extent modified with regard to the 
personal effects of opium. May I take the statement that 
you made in 1871— shall I read.it f— as being generally 
your feeling at the present moment ?— It was earlier ; 
I think ^t '"''''' i" 1868. 



1320. _" China.— No. 5 1871 "—is, I think, the paper. 
" It is impossible to deny that we bring them that 
" quality which, in the south, at all events, tempts them 
" the most, and for which they pay dearest. It is to 
" me vain to think otherwise of the use of the drug in 
" China than as of a habit many times more pernicious, 
" nationally speaking, than the gin and whisky-drinking 
" which we deplore at home. It takes possession more 
" insidiously, and keeps its hold to the full as tenaciously. 
" I know no case of radical cure. It has insured, in 
" every case within my knowledge, the steady descent, 
" moral and physical, of the smoke", and it is, so far, 
" a greater mischief than drink, ohat it does not, by 
" external evidence of its eflfect, expose its victim to 
" the loss of repute which is the penalty of habitual 
" drunkenness " ? — It is in my Report on Sii Rutherford 
Alcock's Treaty Revision project submiiited to Lord 
Clarendon, by his desire, in 1868. Yes; I have 
modified those views, as regards especially the question 
of cure. As I said in the course of my address to you 
just now, I have known, — I will not say many instances, 
— but I have known a certain number of instances 
where the cure has been complete, and that in one case 
which is always specially before me, in the case of a 
man who filled a position of considerable responsibility. 
He was a species of head steward (we call them 
compradores) of the British Consulate. I spent the 
year 1867 in that Consulate, and this man, who was 
a singularly intelligent, useful person, was then, as I 
conceived, in the very last stage of opium decay. He 
had every symptom of decadence. A more active, 
intelligent man, when he was not in the dream, I 
would not wish to meet. But i have sent for him 
sometimes in that year when it was pitiful to see him. 
To my utter amazement, in 1882, I think it was, on my 
way home, I met this man looking hearty and well in 
Shanghai, and I said to him, " How comes it you are 
so well " P " Oh," he said, " The Consul put me under 
a British physician, and after a certain time I was 
quite cured." " But (then I said), have you given up 
opium altogether " p "' Oh, no ; but I used to smoke 
ten pipes, and now I smoke three." But I assure you 
he was as fit as any man that you could meet at the 
time that I am speaking of. That is really a salient 
instance. I have seen others, and, to boot, I have 
noted, perhaps, I have paid more particular attention 
to it [the question of incurability] than when 1 wrote 
the words quoted. I wrote them when I was far nearer 
my long residence in thci south— I Avas eighteen years 
in the south before I went to Pekin. ^vhere 1 was 
twenty-two years — and in the south I must say I had 
oftener seen cases that might have justified strong 
language. But even then the words just quoted would 
be an exaggeration, because I had heard stone-cutters 
and people of that sort, — people with hardly rags to their 
backs engaged in the roughest possible work, talking of 
the necessity of a little opium during the cold weather. 
When in 1874 Mr. Margary travelled across China to 
the frontiers of Burmah, he noticed, in one j)lace 
especially, that his boatmen, the people who had been 
working a boat for days against the stream, that they, 
all of them, took their ration of opium regularly. I 
know, to boot, from other people who have been in my 
employ or connected with me, that they were in the 
habit of taking a certain allowance of opium just as we 
take our allowance of wine. 

1321. You speak of the war as being not a war of the 
character which has often been described. Of course 
you are aware that contemporaneous authorities of 
very high authority take a very different view at the 
same time F — Perfectly. 

1322. I observe here a remark of Mr. Gladstone's : " A 
" war more unjust in its origin, a war more calculated 
' ' to cover this country with permanent disgrace, I do 
" not know, and I have not read of. The right hon. 
" gentleman opposite spoke of the British flag waving 
" in glory at Canton. I'hat flag is hoisted to protect an 
" infamous contraband traffic ; and if it were never 
" hoisted, except as it is now hoisted on the coast of 
" China, we should recoil from its sight with horror. 
" Although the Chinese were undoubtedly guilty of 
" much absurd phraseology, of no little ostentatious 
" pride, and of some excess, justice, in my opinion, is 
" with them ; and whilst they, the pagans, the semi- 
" civilised barbarians, have it on their side, we, the en- 
" lightened and civilised Christians, are pursuing 
" objects at variance both with justice and with re- 
" ligion" P — I should like to know what Mr. Gladstone 
had then reacl of the antecedent relations between us 
and the Chinese, or what he then knew about the opium 
trade in China at all. 

'^I 4 



Sir 

T. F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G., 

K.C.B. 

15 Sept. 1893 



96 



IXDIAN Ol'IUAI COMMISSION 



Sir 

T. F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G., 

K.C.B. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



1323. That was a declaration made in the House of 
Commons in a discussion ? — I recollect it. He spoke 
one of the most magnificent speeches he ever spoke on 
the "Lorcha Arrow" affair. Iremember the ring of that 
speech, when, after reviewing the incidents, as he un- 
derstood them, of the quarrel, he asked the question if 
we thought that these things could add to either our 
honour or profit. " Why," said he, " they deepen your 
guilt." The speech, went the round of Europe. Louis 
Blanc quoted it in his printed letters. But it is wrong. 
It is written in perfect ignorance of the relations of 
England and China ; and as long as that view is held 
so long will you have all these collisions, the fault of 
all collisions with China, Uid to our charge. But it 
would be — even in the case ofwhat is called the " opium 
war " it is — inexcusable to formulate the accusations 
that I hear formulated without reading the story of the 
misunderstanding, all the incidents that had anteceded 
the final collision. 

1324. I observe in connexion with a letter which was 
written by Mr. Lay to the Times, to which a reply was 
written by Mr. Alexander, in which there is a quotation 
which is dated 18.58, from a Report on a Revision of 
Tariffs, furnished by yourself and Mr. Oliphant, in 
which you state that " one of the Chinese Commissioners, 
" whose position as Superintendent of Customs at 
" Shanghai," says the report, " naturally gives him a 
" chief voice in such matters, admitted the necessity 
" of a change. China still retains her objection to the 
" use of a drug on moral grounds ; but the present 
" generation of smokers, at all events, must and will 
" have opium. China would propose a very high duty, 
' but, as opposition was naturally to bo expected from 
" us in that case, it should be as moderate as possible." 
Would you accept that as a genuine expression of 
Chinese feeling ? — I am not sure, although I read very 
recently that over — I am not sure that 1 quite follow 
the argument in the case. 

Vi'lTj. Well, his ground i^ that the present generation 
must and will have opium, and they will propose a 
very high duty ; but as opposieion must naturally b3 
expected from us, in that case it should be as moderate 
as possible ; that we would not allow them to place as 
high a duty as they would, they having a moral object in 
view V — In truth, the duty was arranged between the 
Chinese official and Mr. Lay. 

1326. (Ghairman.) What was the date of that ? 

1327. (Mr. Pease.) That was in 1858 ?— They met us 
with an offer, I think, of 34 ounces. As I stated. Lord 
Elgin's formula was, let them tax it as high as they 
please ; only regularise it. I went on my part, and 
consulted persons in whom I could have confidence, 
particularly one, as to what was fair to put upon it. 
He had been himself a merchant, far back in the East 
India Company's time ; he was a man who thoroughly 
understood all the conditions of the trade, and he said 
30 ounces would be a fair duty. 

1328. How do you regulate what is fair for the 
Chinese to put P — Well, with reference to its value. 

1329. Why should not the Chinese have full liberty ? 
— Well, I am speaking of what we had before us in 
1858, when they were exceedingly well pleased to add 
to their revenue. The important point is that they 
did not dispute it. They did formally propose those 
34, and we abated it. That paper to which you refer, 
signed by Mr. Oliphant and myself, was drawn up by 
me, but it does not give in detail the whole of the 
interview. There is one most important incident left 
out, probably because I did not think it sufficiently 
serions ; and that is that the whole thing having been 
well thought out between Mr. Lay and the Super- 
intendent of Customs, when we met for our first 
conference, inasmuch as it was a proposal affecting 
opium, or iis it is generally called, the foreign drug, 
both Mr. Oliphant and myself came to it with a certain 
amount of i'ormality, and were beginning to talk about 
the amount, when the Superintendent, who was a very 
rough man, burst out into a laugh, and asked, " What 
is the use of talking about that when Mr. Lay and 
myself have settled the whole tiling P " And they put 
forward, I do not know if it was Mr. Lay's suggestion 
or not, they put forward 34 taels, and al'ter a very 
slight deljate oO was accepted. I am bound to observe 
that if they had asked for 100, Lord Elgin would have 
given it them. 

1330. By the Treaty of Tientsin, opium imported from 
India l;?u to pay an import duty ef 30 taels a picul P — 
Yes. 



1331. And after leaving the importer's premises was 
furtber liable to such local taxation or li-kin as the 
authorities chose to impose ? — Yes. 

1332. But when you negotiated the Chefoo Agreement 
in 1876, yon proposed in the first instance that the drug 
opium when brought into port should be bonded until 
sold P — Yes. 

1333. And that when sold the importer should pay 
the duty and the purchaser at the same time the local 
lax or li-kin and both to the Foreign Customs In- 
spectorate ? — Yes. 

1334. Will you explain what advantage this would 
have afi'orded to the Chinese over the old Tientsin 
arrangement ? — It would have secured to them, — I 
thought I had explained, that the first of my stipula- 
tions was that the rate should be even at all the ports. 
They had been in the habit of putting on one rate here 
and another I'ate there ; it was a great derangement of 
the foreign importer's business tran.sactions, and in 
some places you had a ridiculous state of things, such 
as this : the Pore of Amoy is just at the southern tip of 
the province of Fu-kien ; the Port of Swatow is just at 
the eastern end of the province of Kwang Tung, which is 
next door to it. They had positively at one of these 
two ports, — I tliiuk at one time they were putting on 
.^8, or something of that sort, whilst at this next port 
they were putting on 24 ; and then when they found 
that there was in consequence eo much opium going 
to the latter port, the one rate went down and the other 
went up ; and there was all that kind of uncertainty, 
And there was this to be said, that as .it was collected, 
not by foreign officers, but by Chinese, a great portion 
of it was lott to the Government. Though they 
believed themselves to be getting something like 40 
taels a picul all down the coast, they did not get one- 
half of it, or at all events not three-fourths of it. I 
proposed that they should get the whole of that, and 
indeed I contemplated a rise upon it ; and I attempted, 
in 1S7!I, when I returned to China, to raise it; but 
circumstances interfci-cd with the negotiations, which 
were discontinued. 

13-M-j. Indeed it was very largely to prevent contra- 
band, to make it easier for the Chinese to collect the 
tariff, I suppose?— It was to secure them, what they 
were entitled to, and. as I have informed you, I think, 
it was suggested to me by the fact that I considered a 
decision of our Supreme Court had been unduly against 
the Chinese. 

1:^36. Why did the Home n-overnment i-efuse to 
confirm the Chefoo Convention, and leave it open for so 
long a period P— For the length of the period I am in 
great part responsible, I was interrupted by various 
incidents. In the first instance, in 1876, no sooner was 
my agreement signed than all my colleagues,— at least 
no sooner had I left China for England, than almost all 
my colleagues virtually protested against the whole 
thing, alth6ugh tu o of them— but it is of no use going 
into those details. On the other part, the Indian 
Government were very naturally alarmed lest there 
should be a sudden or even a gradual increase of this 
inland taxation. They were at one time willing that 
opium should be liable to the tariff duty of 30 taels plus, 
on my estimate, an inland duty of about 40. I cer- 
tainly had contemplated making such an arrangement 
as, whilst it would add to the amount that the Chinese 
had believed themselves entitled to receive, would be 
more or less fixed ; that there might not be the irregu- 
larity attending it that theie had been. But in the 
first place, when I came to discuss it with the Grand 
Secretary Li Hung Chung I imagine that I did not 
move fast enough ; then, later on, there %\cre other 
interruptions; there were other considerations; and 
finally when my tenure of office came to a close at the 
end of 1882. the thing was not concluded. On the 
whole, that it dragged must be put down to my charge 
more or less. 

^ 1337. No doubt it did drag largely because the Home 
Government were afraid that it would give the Chinese 
Government too much liberty with regard to the im- 
position of provincial duties or internal duties P— That 
i),t first no doubt was the feeling in India, but I do not 
think it would bo fair to set down all the delay to that 
cause. On the contrary, in that year, you see, 
amongst negotiations which came into my hands, there 
were negotiations arising out of the 'Treaty of anotber 
Power which would have led, I think, in the long run 
to the disappearance of some of the difficulties afl'ecting 
trade in the interior; or, at all events, to the protection 
of imi)orts carried inland against the taxation which 



MINUTES OF EVJDENCE. 



97 



was so depressing our trade inland [and against wliich 
all foreign Powers, ourselves included, had tong been 
protesting]. As you may see very well, it was an ex- 
cellent opportunity to put an end to this. Thfl Chinese 
were waiting for a settlement of this opium inland 
arrangement; but they were all the time collticting 
li-liin. We did not interfere with their collection so 
far as it was in their own hands ; but this improved 
system, which they were right willing to see put in 
force, would have been a very fair argument in our 
hands that they should meet us half-way as regards the 
inland taxation of the regular trade and the trade outside 
opium. Well, we [the foreign Legations combined] 
had got a considerable length by the end of the year 
1879, when there was what you may remember as the 
Russian scare, which threw the whole of us back for a 
twelvemonth ; and then there were other delays and 
other delays, and I left China in the middle of 1882, 
with the business unfinished, and to a certain extent I 
may say that I was responsible for the delay ; indeed, 
in no small degree. When I returned home, after a 
certain interval, the Foreign Office, would have been, 
I think, very glad of my assistance to bring the matter 
to a conclusion, but I was, to use the simplest term, 
not equal to the effort, and the delays, I am sorry to 
repeat, must be more or less cnarged to myself. 

1338. Did the Chinese Government ask for free 
liberty as to the amount of the U-hin ? — No. In 
one sense they asked for free liberty, because I pro- 
posed in the first instance what I knew them to be 
then getting as the li-hin, and indeed offered more ; for 
whereas I felt quite sure they did not get 40, 1 was pro- 
posing 50 ; and I have since learned that if I had pro- 
posed 60 they would have closed with it joyfully ; but 
the interruptions that I mentioned [those for which I 
was not responsible] ensued, and the result is that it 
is now being taxed a great deal more than I had ever 
contemplated that it would be. 

1339. The result was that they were only able to get 
the Convention which you had made with them con- 
firmed on their accepting 80 taels ? — Is not that so ? — 
I should hardly say that. I was not in the affair at the 
close, but I should say that it was . hey who pressed. 
We did not limit them at 80. But thej pressed up to 80. 
It was they who pressed, and on Sii "Robert Hart's 
inspiration. They were asking for 80; was not we 
who were abating. They never asked for more than 
80 ; and indeed when I was leaving China, that very 
able man whose conversation I read to you a short 
time ago called on me only a few days before I left — 
called on me to say that they would be perfectly satis- 
fied with 70, which I would give them the 100 taels on 
the whole. The Grand Secretary Li, too, had told my 
Chinese secretary the same thing but a short time 
before. The was no constraint whatever, not the 
slightest. 

1340. The Chairman has asked yon, I think, a 
question with regard to Sir James Ferguson, and you 
said you could not, in the full, from your experience, 
confirm what Sir James Ferguson has said ? 

1341. (Chairman.) With reference to the full dis- 
cretion of the Chinese to deal on tariff" or prohibition 
with the importation of opium ? 

1342. (Mr. Pease.) I was going to put this question : 
It was stated by Sir James Ferguson in the House of 
Commons' debate on April 10th 1891 , that " the Chinese 
" at any time may terminate the Treaty on giving 
" 12 months' notice, and to protect themselves they 
" may increase the duty to any extent they please, or 
" they may exclude it altogether." Is that language 
in your opinion a fair description of the position of the 
Chinese in the matter of their Treaty relations with us ? 

Yes ; my proper answer to that should have been 

that " I have not read to my knowledge, anything in 
" Treaty or Correspondence that would bear out such a 
" statement as that." But I do not mean to say that 
it is not true. 

1343. And again it was stated by Mr. Curzon, the 
late Under- Secretary for India, in the House of Com- 
mons' debate on 30th June 1893 that, "under a clause 
" of the Chefoo Convention of 1866, it was possible for 
" the Chinese Government, upon giving 12 months' 
" notice, to abrogate the Treaty, or to put an import 
" tax on the article, or even, like Japan, to prohibit 
" its introduction altogether into any of its ports." Is 
that, in your opinion, a fair description of the relations 
of the Chinese with us in the matter of opium P Your 
answer will be very similar to that to the other ques- 
tion ?— No; pardon me. It mflst be '* tj)£vt J have nqt 

e 80970. 



" seen it in any Treaty or Correspondenoe. " Perhaps I 
recal things more vividly that I was connected with 
myself. In Clause 7 of the Additional Article, which 
is signed at London on the 18th July, 1885 : " The 
" arrangement rej^pecting opium contained in the 
" present Additional Article shall remain binding tor 
" four years, after the expiration of which period either 
" Government may at any time give 12 months' notice 
" of its desire to terminate it, and such notice being 
" given, it shall terminate accordingly." I should 
think thafthat covered 

1344. (Sir J. Lyall.) What would be the result of 
that notice being given P Would they fall back on th e 
Tientsin Treaty, or what P 

1345. (Mr. Pease.) Perhaps you would kindly read 
the last clause, Sir Thomas ?— " It is, however, agreed 
" that the Government of Great Britain shall have the 
" right to terminate the same at any time, should the 
" transit certificate be found not to confer on the opium 
" complete exemption from all taxation whatsoever, 
" whilst being carried from the port of entry to the 
" place of consumption in the interior." 

1346. The last clause would you kindly read ? — " In 
" the event of the termination of this present Addi- 
" tional Article, the arrangement with regard to opium, 
" now in force under the regulations attached to the 
" Treaty of Tientsin, shall revive." Yes. 

1346a. It is your view that if they were to denounce 
this Treaty, then they come under the provisions of the 
Treaty of Tientsin ; which, while it gives tJiem the 
power to increase the li-lcin, takes away from them the 
privilege of objecting to taxation as arranged by you 
through the Custom House P — Yes. Not arranged by 
me. 

1347. Well, it is in your Convention ? — It is the 
Supplementary Article [not negotiated by mej. I am 
bound to say that a great deal of what is written in that 
kind of way has passed out of my memory as being 
practically of no importance. My own conviction is 
that you will never have a proposition from the Chinese 
Government on the subject. 

1348. I would just remind you that in the conference 
held in May, 1881, a chief Minister, the Marquis of 
Tso, made a proposition going much beyond the mere 
imposition of a duty of 110 taels P — I remember 
perfectly well his proposition ; indeed, I think it was in 
a iMemorial to the Throne, that the recommendation 
that they should put 150 taels on it was made. This, 
to a moial certainty, would have enhanced the pre- 
mium acid revived smuggling all along the coast, 
whereas Sir Kobert Hart's limit was that which would 
put the trade out of the fear of the smuggler. 

1349. Is it your view, may I ask, that the English 
Goverament ought uot to interfere in any degree in 
fixing what the internal duty should be p — It ought not 
to interfere ? Do you mean morally. 

1350. No ; as a matter of what ought to be left to an 
independent nation? — Well, that is to say, whether it 
would not be more becoming to England to put it back 
to the condition of things before any agreement were 
signed : let us pay an import duty, and then leave 
the inland taxation entirely for themselves. I think 
you could not do China a greater dis-service. One of 
the curses of China at this moment is the multiplica- 
tion of the offices of the inland revenue, which are all 
corruption personified. It would be depriving China 
of so much revenue, and it would be ensuring an amount 
of maladministration of which, I think, you would be 
sorry to realise the result. 

1351. I have only further to say I am requested to 
state that the Secretary and the previous Secretary of 
the Anti-Opium Society have never used the term 
" second opium war." It is a term that has been used 
by others ; it is not a term that has been adopted by 
them P — It has been used by antiopiumists. 

1352. (Mr. Wilson.)_ Sir Thomas Wade, I want to 
ask you a few questions. At the beginning of your 
evidence I think you made a kind of comparison be- 
tween opium in China and drink in this country? — 
Yes. 

1353. And you suggested something, if not like in- 
sincerity, at least like inconsistency, in the outcry about 
opium while we tolerated drink ? — I would not say 
while we tolerate drink. I was speaking rather, I 
think, — for I had not prepared a speech, — I was 
thinking rather of the tone of the condemnation. X 
consider tbafi thpre is a sufficient analogy between the 



Sir 

T. F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G.. 

K.C.B. 

15 Sept. ISO.-). 



98 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Sir 

T.F. Wade, 

G.C.M.G., 

K.C.B. 

15 Sfipt. 1893. 



two evils to bar ui3 from indicting the opium trade in 
the way that we do indict it ; from using the exceed- 
ingly censorious language that we apj)ly to it. 

1354. That is what I understood. Bnt then I have 
no doubt that you are perfectly aware that there is a 
very large number of persons and of associations of 
diflerent kinds in this country, which from various 
points of view, and with ^■arious degrees of stringency, 
are saying \'ery strong things about drink, too ? — Yes. 

\X>h. And if any of these persons are taking part and 
using the same sort of language about opium in China, 
there is no inconsistency about them 't — Not if it is only 
the same kind. But they use about opium in China 
very much stronger language when they charge 
Government agents and communities with forcing it 
upon China. What would you think if you could charge 
a Ministry of England with forcing drink on this 
country at the point of the bayonet. 

];!5(j. I am afraid I am not a witness ? — I beg your 
pardon. It was a mere form of words. I did not 
intend to make a personal remark at all. 

13-">7. Then, another question. Tou referred to some 
period, — I am not sure what the exact period was, — but 
you referred to the fact that at that time there was not 
enough opium being sent into China for more than 
2 per cent, of the population, I think it was .f — Yes. 

1358. "Well, of course, the adult male population of 
any country is roughly estimated at 20 per cent. ; 
therefore, if there was enough opium for 2 per cent., it 
would be one-tenth of the entire male population ? — 
Pardon me ; a remark was made, I can hardly remem- 
ber now in what connexion, because it was by a mis- 
sionary whose name I said I did not mention, because 
I was not absolutely certain of his identity. I believe 
him to be a missionary of very long standing and of the 
very highest respectability ; and I entirely forget now 
in what connexion he produced the paper in which I 
read it. But I remember reading it with great astonish- 
ment. I simply gave it for what it is worth. I presume 
that he had in his mind, of course, not every man, 
woman, and child in the country, but taking the mass, 
we are in the habit of speaking of "poisoning the 
nation," and I tliink that he was in all, probability 
deprecating the severity of that remark. 

1859. I only want to see whether you agree with me 
that, even putting it in the form in which you did put 
it, it would amount in a population like that of London 
to providing sufficient for 80,000 to 100,000 of the male 
adult inhabitants of London — that would be the pro- 
portion ; that is 2 per cent. ? — Well, I should not venture 
to say so. I am almost sorry I cited the remark. 

1,360. Very well. I will not pursue it? — I cited it 
because it was the testimony of a missionary, — that is 
the way I interpreted it, — it was the testimony of a 
missionary against what I conceive to be a certain 
habit of exaggeration in condemning what is no doubt 
a serious evil. 

1361. Now, then, in reference to some questions that, 
I think, were put to you just now by Mr, Pease with refe- 
rence to the ratification of the Chefoo Convention ; I find 
that in September 1 881 , a meeting of merchants was held 
in Bombay, when they sent a memorial to the Marquis 
of Bipon, who was then Viceroy, and in the fourth 
clause of the memorial they say — " Your memorialists, 
" seeing the great injury that would have beer, done to 
" the Indian opium trade if this proposal had bei'n 
" carried into effect, petitioned the Secretary of State 
" at that time on the subject, and succeeded" (that is, 
the memorialists succeeded) " in inducing the Grovern- 
" ment to stop the ratification of the Chefoo Conven- 
" tion." You agree with that p — No. The memorialists, 
the Bombay opium merchants, did protest ; their repre- 
sentatives in China had protested to me, too, ver}- 
strongly against it ; but it did not arrest the ratification 
of the Chefoo Agreement the least in the world. 

1362. Then you think they took more upon them- 
selves than they were justified in doing.'' — I should 
think so. I think it is very natural that when the 
thing hung fire they should assume that this was owing 
to their remonstrances ; but I think they were mistaken, 
because I know that the non-ratification of it was due 
to other causes. 

1363. Well, then, Sir Thomas, I find that in February 
1870, Sir Rutherford Alcook was present at a meeting 
of the Viceroy in Council, which apparently was called 
for the purpose of conferring with him upon the pro- 
spects of the Indian opium revenue, and he gave an 



account which occupies a page or more here — an abbre- 
viation of "his statement with reference to what had 
taken place — his views, and then comes this paragraph. 
I am putting it to you to ask you how far you agree 
with what he stated. ''In answer to question put by 
" His Excellency the Viceroy and others, Sir Buther- 
" ford Alcock said that he had no doubt that the 
" abhorrence expressed by the Government and people 
" of China for opium, as destructive to the Chinese 
'" nation, is genuine and deep-seated, and that he wa.s 
" also quite convinced that the Chinese Government 
" could, if it pleased, carry out its threat of , developing 
" cultivation to any extent. On the other hand, .-he 
" believed that so strong was the popular feeling on the 
" subject, that if Britain would give up the opjum 
" revenue and suppress the cultivation in India- the 
" Chinese Government would have no difficulty in 
" suppressing it in China, except in the Province- of 
" Yu-nan, where its authority is in abeyance?" — No, 
I do not- agree with the latter part. I more or less 
protested — ^" protest " would not have been a proper 
word for me to have used at the time— but I difi'ered 
from him in opinion, and I have elsewhere recorded.the 
difference of my opinion as to the power of the Chinese 
Government in the matter. The Chinese Government 
was not so circumstanced, and has not been for very 
many years. Allow me to refer you to the correspond- 
ence of Captain Elliot in the year 1836. Even at that time 
you will find a Chinese Minister, — the one who proposed 
the legalisation of it, — admitting two things ; that opium 
is necessary to the Chinese, and that the Government 
really could not stop it. You will find it in this gj-eat 
Blue Book of 1840. 

1364. Your reply refers to the latter part of what I 
read ?— Yes. 

1365. The first part is as to the genuineness of their 
abhorrence, and their desire to get rid of it ? — Well, I 
do not think the abhorrence, as I have stated in my 
evidence, is so universal as is supposed. I say that 
there must be a very large number of Chinese who do 
abhor it, but just in the way that there is in Britain a 
great number of people, as yon said just now, who 
abhor drink and the notion of drink. 

1366. May I just read you these words again : " Sir 
" Rutherford Alcock said that he had no doubt that 
" the abhorrence expressed by the Government and 
" people of China for opium, as destructive to the 
" Chinese nation, is genuine and deep-seated." My 
question is, do you agree with Sir Rutherford Alcock 
that the Government of China had this deep-seated and 
genuine abhorrence ? — I think it is too sweeping a 
statement. 

1367. Of course you know that Sir Rutherford Alcook 
gave evidence in this country a year later ? — Yes. 

1368. What I have just read was in 1870. In 1871 he 
gave evidence in this country, and it ia somewhat in 
the same line. I want just to ask you if you agree. 
He quoted, in giving evidence here, a despatch that he 
had written on this subject, and in which he uses these 
words : It is one of the Chinese mandarins uses these 
words, that " he believed the extension of this per- 
" nicious habit was mainly due to the alacrity -witfi 
" which foreigners supplied the poison for their own 
" profit, perfectly regardless of the irreparable injury 
" inflicted, and naturally they felt hostile to aU con- 
" cernediii such a traffic." Do you agree with that?— 

I think it is too sweeping again. Indeed, what I have 
already said points the other way. 

1369. Well, then in answer to further questions. Sir 
Rutherford Alcook said : "I think it will be seen the 
" substance of the whole is this : that there ' is a very 
'' large and increasing cultivation of the poppy iia 

China, and that the Chinese Government are seriouslj' 
contemplating (if they cannot come to any terms 
■• of arrangement with the British Government for 
^' restricting the area of growth in India, and either 
"^ gradually or suddenly putting an end to its importa,- 
^' tion, as they think they have the power to do), the 
cultivation without stint in China and producing 

II opium at a much cheaper rate. Having done thsit 
they think they will afterwards be able to stamp out 

" the opium produce among themselves." I do not 
ask you whether you agree as to their power ;' but do 
you agree that that indicates some degree of (desire on 
their part to do so P— No. I have heard, the proposition 
more than once from Chinese, but I do not beliovo in 
its seriousness ; without charging them with insincerity 
as regards their desire to see -such a result. I am 
perfectly satisfied no Chinese that ever spoke to mo ia 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



99 



thgit ^ay ever belieyed .that the Government couild. 4° 
it, or that such a, result was obtainable. Just think: 
we keep on talking of opium as if the wliole question, 
dated from the time we first went to war with China, 
but, all ^hose propositions really were discussed by the 
Chinese themselves long before we had any coUjsion 
with them at all.- 

1370. Then' a little furtheron he said:— "My own 
" conviction is firm that' whatever degree of honesty 
" may be attributed to the officials and to the central 
'■• 'Government, there is that at work in their minds, 
" that they would not hesitate one moment to-morrow, 
" if they could, to enter into any arrangement^ with the 
" British, Goyqrnment and ^'^Yi 'Let our revenue go, 
",;we, care nothing about, it. vy"hat w^ want .i.s.to s^op 
'I ^he consumption of , opium, which wo Qonocive is 
'.'•impgverishing the country, and , demoralising and 
"j.bfutalising our people.'" Do I gather that you 
think they had misled Sir, Eutherford Alcook? — I 
cannot answer that with one word. The Chinese, like 
ourselves, haye a very great facility of generalisation 
when they come to dikcuss moral question? ; but I am 
very much astonished, — it ii years since I read raat, 
which I must have done, — I am very much astonished 
at its having so impressed Sii' Rutherford Alcock, who 
had been five-and-twenty years in the country. 

1371. I will only trouble you with one more, which 
has a bearing on trade. He said (as regards the be'aJring 
uploh' the Government of' China. " If I had been enabled 
" dtiring the recent revision of the Treaty to hold out 
''' tiny distinct promise or assurance to them, that both 
" as regarded missionaries and opium, which are their 
"two great grievances, something should be done' more 
" or less restrictive that would meet their wishes,. I 
" believe that' I might have got any facilities for our 
" trade that I had chosen to demand. ■ My great diffi- 
" culty was, that I could, offer them nothing in either 
", direction '.',?-r-]Sfo, nor in any direction, he might have 
added., .Our grand, difficulty, with China, is that we 
have never anything to ofier. I do not know myself 
what his cqnyjction, points 'to after 'he had been engaged 
two years in the revision. He must have -traversed 
riiost of the'ground possible, bUt I cannot irhagine what 
Sir Eutherford Alcock supposes he would have got if 
he, could havegivennp opium and missionaries ; -One is 
about as prac-tipable as the other ; but what he would 
have got in the way of trade I cannot imagine. 

1372. His idea was that if he could have given up 
opium, he could have got great facilities for trade. 
roii do not agree with that ? — I do not, because of this : 
they could 'riot have have afforded then to give up the 
abnormal taxation which overspread the country, and 
which there were hundreds upon hundreds of offices to 



collect. The real embarrassment of trade lay in these Sir 

offices, and they could not have given them up, even if T. F Wade, 

yonhad taken away opiitm and missionaries, or anything G.C.M.G., 
else you pleased to name at the time. K.C.B. 



1373. {Ohairman). Are these local tolls levied at 
different points P — They are abnormal. Mr. Lay calls 
the collection of this tax, the li-hin, a war tax, and at 
one time that would have been: more or less a ooi*rect 
term to employ. The word means, literally, one. per 
mille. It is the thousandth part, the Zi is the thousandth 
part, of what we call in foreign, commerce the tael (the 
ounce),; and hin is gold, and li-hin, — this one per niille 
upon trade, — is something like our income tax ; a. tax 
put on to meet some exti;aordinary emergency. The dis- 
turbances of the country were perplexing their Treasury 
very miich before the rebellion broke out. Then all 
through the rebellion and up to a late date, if not to 
this' moment, thoy were perplexed as to finding means 
at all ; and the rebellion itself — which lasted — the re- 
bellion proper lasted — from 1852 to 1884, and then pro- 
longed itself in different directions, — threw upon them 
an extraordinary expenditure, while the whole of their 
normal apparatus was disorganised ; and, therefore, 
they 'have been more or less obliged to keep up this 
system of irregular taxation. The whole country is 
dotted with these offices. They do not obtain on the 
spot, — ^the authorities do not obtain, — half of what is 
collected; and you will see in the Appendix to my 
Eeport on the Chefoo Agreement [presented to the 
late Earl of Derby], in 1877, two State papers, in which 
the Central Government bitterly complains that it 
cannot get returns from the provinces upon these very 
questions. I think, sir, if I may return to the question 
of my respected Chief's remarks. Sir Eutberford Alcock 
was rather viewing the situation throughout as if the 
Central Government, With the power of the Central 
Government — which is immense when the Emperor is 
in full blow — was very much more confirmed than it 
really was. It had. been terribly disorganised by the 
rebellion, and at the time he was speaking China had 
h^d seven years of a female Eegency, [1869.] 

.1374. (Mr. Wilson.) Sir Thomas, there are a great 
many more statements of the same kind ; I have got 
five or six of them more noted ; but I have gathered 
snfficiently that your opinion does not agree with him, 
and I will not pursue that further P— Of course, I am ex- 
ceedingly unwilling to say that I disagree with a 
gentleman under whom I served for very ma.ny years, 
and whose Secretary of Legation I was ; but I think 
that in those passages which you have read, there is an 
evidence of a little over-readiness to measure the situa- 
tion favourably, which I am the more astonished at, 
because on occasion Sir Eutherford Alcook certainly 
showed that he perfectly understood its difficulties. 



1.5 Sept. 1893. 



The witness withdrew. 



Mr. SteWaet LockhaM called in and examined. 



1375. {Ghairmdn.) Tou are, I believe, the Eegistfar- 
General, or, in other words, the Protector of the 
Chinese in Hong ICong ?— Yes. 

1376. I believe that you have resided in Hong Kong 
for 14 years ?— 14 years. 

1377. I think you have also resided in Canton, and also 
in the interior — in the Kuang-Tung Province P— I have. 

1378. I believe that you are acquainted with the 
Chinese' language, both to speak it and to read it ; and 
of course your position brings you into close contact 
with the natives of ,all clashes, both high and low P— 

Yes-'" ' ,' ' ,.".',;■ . 

..1379, .In fact your post constitutes you as the channel 
"qf conjmunication between the Government arid the 
.Chinese population of Hong Kong P— It .does. 

1380. Well; now, can you from- your extensive ex- 
perience -give us your opinion as to the stateof Chinese 
opinion in regard to the opium habit, looking at the 
state of things not only among the working classes, 
but also the merchants, the literati, the official classes, 
and also can you tell us what you saw during your 
sojourn in the interior, jWhich would give you an,. op- 
portunity of forming an opinion as t0;h<)w the Chinese 
regard this question?— As regards Chinese popular 
opinion in respect to the opium habit, :it is decidedly 
against it. There is a common Cantonese saying which 
sums up rather appositely " The Ten Cannots " with 
regard to the opium sot. It says, "The Ten. Cannots 
Mgarding *te Ooium Smoker '' :— " He cannot : (1) give 



" up the habit ; (2) enjoy sleep ; (3) Wait for his turn 
" when sharing his pipe with' his friends ; (4) rise early ; 
" (5) be cured if sick ; (6) help relations in need ; (7) 
" enjoy Wealth ; (8) plan anything ; (9) get credit even 
". when an old customer ; (10) walk any long distance." 
That, I think, sums up the popular view of the Chinese 
with regard to the opium habit. 

■ 1381. Well then, and that opinion is shared by high 
arid low ? — I should say it represents popular opinion on 
the subject. 

1382. Well, now, what was the result of your own 
observations with regard to the effect of opium, 
upon those who resort to the use of opium ? — I 
have s«ien moderate smokers ; and I have also seen 
smokers who certainly took the drug to excess. As 
regards the moderate smokers, it did not seem to aflect 
them much, if at all, physically, and certainly not at all 
mentally. With regard to those who took it to excess, 
from outward appearances they certainly were aifected 
physically, but in my own communications with them 
I never saw any trace of their being afi'ected mentally. 

1383. Do you believe in the possibility of a moderate 
consumption of opium ? — I do. I have seen people 
consume opium who do not indulge in it to excess. But 
of course, there is the danger of proceeding from 
moderation to excess. 

1384. Well, now, turning to the eifect of the opium 
trade on the attitude of the Chinese to vvards our Govern^ 
ment, and as it affects their general opinion of us, what 

X 2 



Mr. S. 
Lochart. 



100 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Mr. S. 
Lickait. 

15 Sept. 1S93 



do you say on that point ? — I have noticed in the news- 
papers that some of the witnesses who have appeared 
before the Opium Commission have stated that the 
British are hated by the Chinese on account of this 
opium question. So far as my experience goes, I have 
never found any hatred e.xpressed of the British on that 
account. 

1385. Do you consider that the British commerce in 
other articles of trade is prejudicially affected by the 
existence of the trade in opium between India and 
China ? — I doubt whether that is so ; because if the 
Chinese did not spend their money on the opium from 
India, they would spend it on the opium which they 
grow themselves, and which, as is well known, is in- 
creasing every year. 

1386. Speaking of Hong Kong, what have you to tell 
us with regard to the facilities for obtaining supplies 
of opium there, and with regard to the proportion of 
the Chinese population in Hong Kong who are con- 
sumers of opium ? — I drew up a return some time ago, 
under directions from the Governor of Hong Kong, with 
regard to the number of opium divans, or as they 
are very often erroneously called, " opium dens." I 
think it was in connexion with some question that had 
been asked by a Member of Parliament, calling atten- 
tion to the excessive number of opium Sivans in Hong 
Kong. I had inquiries made, and drew up a table, the 
figures of which 1 have here. 

1387. Please give the results to us ? — The number of 
public-houses or canteens per 1,000 of the total European 
and American population is 2'80. The number of opium 
divans per 1,000 of tbe total Chinese land population is 
about ■ 86 (8 • 56 per 10,000). That is, that the public- 
houses in Hong Kong for the public supply of drink to 
Europeans are proportionately more numerous than the 
opium divans for the supply of opium to Chinese. 

1388. Now, we have had comparisons made by wit- 
nesses who have appeared before us of the relative 
results of the indulgence in opium and indulgence in 
spirituous liquor, and we have been told by many wit- 
nesses that opium is far more prejudicial in its effects 
than liquor, at any rate, if moderately consumed. 
What would you say to us as to the relative influence 
of opium and liquor upon consumers ? — Comparing the 
opium sot and the drunkard, I should say the drunkard 
is a man who makes himself a much greater nuisance 
to society than an opium sot. The opium sot, although 
he may be affecting himself physically, and perhaps 
mentally, does not make himself a iraisance to society 
generally ; whereas the drunkard, as is well known, is 
not only a nuisance to his immediate surroundings, but 
very often to society in general. 

i;!8!i. In relation to the death rate at Hong Kong, 
would you be able to say that there was any distinct 
evidence that the returns are more unfavourable in the 
case of those who are consumers of opium than in the 
average of the population? — The mortality statistics 
do not tend to show that any deaths result from opium - 
smoking. I do not think that I have ever had a return 
of a death registered as directly arising from opium- 
smoking. Of course, there are sometimes cases of opium 
poisoning by swallo^Ying opium ; in fact, that is not an 
uncommon form of getting rid of life. But so far as 
the death-rate of the Chinese is concerned in Hong 
Kong it is improving ; in 1888, the death-rate among 
the Chinese per 1,000 was 32 ■ 22 ; in 1802, it was 21 • 36 ; 
and there is nothing in the death statistics to show that 
opium is the cause of a high mortality in the Colony. 
Of course, I cannot say to -what extent diseases which 
people die from may have been liable to be caught on 
account of indulgence in the habit of opinion smoking. 

1390. I believe there is a system of raising revenue in 
Hong Kong and in the Straits Settlements, and in other 
British dependencies, by what arc known as opium 
farms? — Yes. 

1391. Will you describe that system to us? — The 
opium farm is let to a man for a certain figure, and ho 
has the monopoly, and pays to the Government a 
certain fee e^ ery year for the privilege of preparing 
and selling prepared opium. This monopoly, I think, 
does not tend in any Avay to increase the consumption 
of opium ; in fact, I think that the system rather tends 
to decrease the consumption, because the opium farmei'j 
being practically a monopolist, is able to keep up the 
price of opium ; and if people want his opium they have 
to piiy a higher figure for it than they ])orhaps wonld 
have to do jf the privilege of preparing opium was not 
•; onfinrd to one person, a,-; at present, but granted to 
S'.'vcrul poople. 



1392. Do you think that under a system of free trade 
in the supply of opium, the consumption of opium 
would be more extensive than it is under the present 
system ? — I think so. The opium wonld be cheaper, 
and people being able to get it more cheaply would almost 
certainly consume more. I think in many cases a man is 
a moderate smoker of necessity, because he has not the 
money to pay for more, much as he might like to have 
it. If there was a free trade in this matter, opium 
would become much cheaper, and people would be able 
to indulge themselves more freely in it than at present. 

1393. Do you think it would be possible or politic 
on the part of the Government of Hong Kong to issue 
an edict of total prohibition of the _ consumption of 
opium ? — Prom a revenue point of view it would be 
injurious to the Colony, and I do not think it would 
decrease consumption. It is the desire of the Govern- 
ment to limit consumption as far as it possibly can 
consistently with the raising of revenue. 

1394. Do you think that, if the use of opium in 
any form was forbidden, you could enforce such a 
prohibition P — I do not think it would be possible any 
more than a prohibition of drink in this country could 
be enforced. People would smoke. I am afraid the 
habit has become so ingrained in the Chinese that they 
must have their opium. 

1395. {Sir W. Roberts.) I was going_ to ask Mr. 
Lockhart a question : WTiat is the Chinese popula- 
tion of Hong Kong ? — The Chinese population is about, 
in round figures, 220,000 ; the total population of the 
Colony being, in round figures, 231,000. 

1396. That is, there are about 10,000 Europeans?— 
And 220,000 Chinese. 

1397. Are the Chinese inhabitants of Hong Kong 
there with their wives and children in their full family 
relations ? — There is Chinese family life in Hong Kong, 
and it is increasing ; but non-family life is more com- 
mon than family life among the Chinese in the Colony. 

1398. Then they are to some extent immigrants ? — 
Certainly. The close proximity of the Colony to the 
main-land of China, facilitates the progress of the 
Chinese to and fro. 

1399. Now, opium smoking is prevalent among the 
Chinese people?— I think the term " prevalent " may 
certaily be applied to it. 

1400. May one say one-half of the adults smoke 
opium P — I should not like to commit myself to any 
statement of that kind. I think it is rather rash to 
commit oneself to any statement as to figures which are 
not based on ascertained facts. 

1401. But you think it might be described as pre- 
valent? — I think it is prevalent. 

1402. But still nothing like so prevalent as the use of 
alcoholic stimulants amongst the adults in this coun- 
try ? — I do not think so. 

1403. Some are moderate and some are immoderate ? 
— Some are moderate and some are immoderate. 

1404. Can you give us any idea — I do not want 
precise numbers — what is the proportion between the 
moderate users, those who do not injure themselves, 
and the immoderate users, those who do injure them- 
selves ? — In Hong Kong the moderate smokers are, so 
far as my experience goes, more numerous than the 
immoderate smokers. 

1405. Then you can only speak of it as a bare ma- 
jority ? — I cannot give precise figures. 

1406. That is to say you could not say now, as in this 
country we might roughly say, that out of 100 people 
who use alcoholic liquors there are certainly not more 
than ten who could be classed as intemperate ? — It is 
difficult to give figures of that kind with regard to 
Hong Kong, which has more or less of a floating popu- 
lation. I should not like to: commit myself beyond 
what I ha\c already stated, that the moderate smoker 
is much morr common than the immoderate smoker, so 
far as my experience goes. 

1407. Your impression is then that there are a great 
many that go to excess and injure themselves P — 
What I said was that the moderate smoker, the man 
who cannot afiTord to go to excess, so far as my ex- 
perience goes, is more numerous than the man who goes 
to excess. Some of course do go to excess and injure 
themselves. 

140S. You cannot express yourself more exactly than 
that 'i — No, 1 cannot express myself more exactly. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



101 



1409. {Sir J. Lyall.) Do you think that the only 
people who are moderate are the men who cannot afford 
it P— No, I would not say that ; but I think the fact of 
their not being able to afiford it operates to restrain 
many from becoming immoderate consumers. 

1410. Makes the common working men? — Makes 
them more moderate than perhaps they otherwise 
would be. But 1 do not say that men who have wealth 
and who smoke opium are hot sometimes moderate also. 

1411. (Sir W. 'Roberts.) But you would not even 
■venture to say that the opium sot was more common 
ainong opium smokers than the drunkard is among 
spirit drinkers or the users of alcoholic drinks p — I 
should not like to say so. 

1412. Is the opium-smoking increasing in Hong 
Eong ? — No, I do not think there is anything to show 
that it is increasing. 

1413. It is about stationary p — I think it is pretty 
much about the same. 

1414. Then the extraordinary improvement in the 
death-rates in Hong Kong, from 32- 21 in 1888 to 21' 36 
in 1892 is quite independent of any fluctuation in what 
one may call the opium rate ? — -I should not think 
the opium question affected the death-rate very much 
one way or the other. I think the iniproved sanitary 
works have more to do with the improved death-rate 
than anything to do with opium. 

1415. As far as you know, opium has not affected 
the death-rate then P^So far as the mortality returns 
go to show, we have no deaths attributed to opium- 
smoking. 

1416. I suppose that there cannot be any exact 
statistics as to the consumption of opium in Hong 
Kong per head of the population ? — I should think it 
would be possible to obtain accurate statistics of the 
local consumption of the Oolony. 

1417. It could not be obtained P — Yes, under the 
present system. I think I could obtain figures and 
furnish the Commission with them if it were considered 
desirable. 

1418. The consumption per head of the Oliinese ? — 
Every chest of opium that arrives in Hong Kong 
has to be accounted for ; so that it is possible to show 
the amount that is consumed locally and the amount 
that is exported. If it be considered desirable those 
figures might be obtained. 

1419. I think it might be interesting to have that in- 
formation. And, of course, you have also vital statistics 
collected regularly ; the death-rate could be got ? — Yes. 
My own annual report gives the death-rate, and 
the various diseases of which the people die. 

1420. The point would simply be this, whether there 
is any correspondence between the death-rate and the 
opium rate ; whether, when the opium rate rises — for 
I have no doubt there will be a certain oscillation, 
whether the death-rate oscillates correspondingly P — I 
do not think there has been any correspondence between 
the death-rate and the opium rate. 

1421. (Mr. Wilson.) Would you just give tis some 
general idea of what the position and duty of Protector 
of the Chinese is P — All Chinese communications with 
the Government pass through his hands ; all transla- 
tions of Chinese documents are made in his depart- 
ment ; and on questions affecting the native community, 
which arise fromitime to time, he is generally the officer 
who is consulted and advises. 

1422. (Chairman.) Perhaps you might point out that 
the appointment of Governor of Hong Kong is hardly 
ever made from among those who have had previous 
acquaintance with the Chinese population P — Quite so. 

1423. As a general rule, the Governor is one selected 
from the general Colonial service, and he goes to Hong 
Kong without a knowledge of the language, and greatly 
needing the sei-vices of an officer who has that special 
knowledge P — The Governor of the Colony is as 
a rule quite unacquainted with the Chinese, having 
had no special opportunities of learning Chinese, 
or becoming acquainted with the habits of the 
Chinese. Seeing that the Chinese constitute by far 
the largest portion of the population, it is considered 
necessary to have an officer who is acquainted with 
their language, and with their customs, whom they 
may consult, and who may to be of assistance to 



the Government in dealing with native affairs. In 
addition to these duties, he has also to perform the 
duties of registrar of births, deaths, and marriages. 

1424. (Mr. Wilson.) Of the Chinese ?— Of the whole 
community including the Chinese. 

1425. (Sir W. Boheris.) I should like to ask one 
question more. Did you ever know any of the Euro- 
peans in Hong Kong take to the opium -smoking habit ? 
— Never in my experience. 

1426. (Mr. Mowbray.) Is there much Chinese opium 
consumed in Hong Kong P — No, I do not think so. 

1427. Any P — I doubt whether there is any. 

1428. (Mr. Pease.) "What is the system of licensing of 
the two classes of houses you alluded toP — Of the 
opium divans P 

1429. Of the opium divans and the spirit houses ? 
Are they licensed ? By the same authority P Under 
similar circumstances P — The opium divans are licensed 
by the opium farmer ; and the public-houses are 
licensed in the same way as they are in this country — 
by the justices. 

1430. Is it not possible that the opium farmer may 
find it to his advantage to do his business in a smaller 
number of establishments than the business would have 
been done in if they had been licensed as the public- 
houses are ? — I should say the opium farmer would 
open as many houses as he thought would pay. I 
should think that would be his guiding principle. 

1431. I say he might find it to his interest to do his 
business in a smaller number of establishments, less 
expense than in a great number p — If he found that a 
larger number of houses paid, he would open them at 
once. 

1432. If the licensing authority was all in one hand 
in our towns and villages in this country, there would 
be a very great decrease in the number of public- 
houses ? — The opium farmer grants licences to suit the 
requirements of the place. In that return that I have 
handed in, I have given the number of people frequent- 
ing the opium divans. 

1433. I was only wanting to point out that the system 
of licensing may have some effect on the numbers of 
houses open, and the different classes P — I mentioned 
the number of houses, to show that they were not so 
excessive as seemed to be the opinion of certain 
people. 

1434. When a man becomes an opium smoker, he 
requires to have his pipe at certain intervals, does he 
not? — I believe that depends a great deal upon the 
degree to which he has become under the influence of 
the habit. I should say the moderate man could go 
without his pipe without having it at regular intervals, 
as long as he could get it at some time. 

1435. What do you mean by getting it at some time ? 
— Well, as long as he got his pipe, say when his work 
was over, or in the evening, as the case may be, whereas 
a man who is an opium sot must have his pipe at 
regular intervals. 

1436. If you watched the case of persons who have 
taken opium at regular intervals for two or three years, 
would you say that they had not become more confirmed 
in the habit, than when you first knew them ? — I have 
now in my mind a case where I am sure the smoker 
has not become more confirmed in the habit ; in fact, 
if anything, he does not smoke quite so much. 

1437. Do you think those cases are common ? — That 
I could not say. 

1438. {Sir J. Lyall.) A great many of these opium 
smokers are very much like the British liqilor drinkers, 
that is, they know more or less how far they can go, 
how much they can carry, perhaps, and are prudent 
enough not to go beyond that? — Well, I should think 
that must influence them, especially workmen, who 
know that if they go beyond a, certain state, they will 
not be fit for their work. I should think prudential 
considerations of that kind do occur to them. 

1439. Do any number of Chinese drink spirits in 
Hong Kong P — They do drink spirits. The drinking 
of spirits — of their own native spirits — ^is pretty general 
among the Chinese. 

1410. Did you ever see drunkenness ? — Very seldom, 
inaeed. A drunken Chinaman is a very rare sight 

N3 



Mr.S. 
Locharl. 

15 Sept. 1803. 



102 



INDIAlJ OPIUM COMMISSION 



Mr. S. 1441. The same men, yoU think, drink spirits as 

Lochhart. smoke opium ? — I think the drinking of spirits is far 

more general than the smoking of opinm. They very 

15 Sept. 1893. often take spirits with their meals in the ordinary way, 

— — — just as we do ourselves. 



1442. It is spirit made from rice ? — ^Yes, spirit made 
from rice. 

H43. Like the Japanese saki P — ^Very much the same. 
It is commonly known by the name of Samshoo. 



The witness withdrew: 



Dr. 

T. I. jRoivelt. 

M.D., C.M.G. 1444. (Glutirman.) Have yon been a medical officer of 
the Government ? — I have; in the Straits Settlements. 

1445. How many years ■\verc you there ? — I have 
been there altogether for about 2-5 years. 

1446. Are you still in the service P — No, 1 am now 
retired. 

1447. (Sir W. Roberts.) In your district, Singapore, 
1 suppose, is the chief place ? — Singapore, yes. 

1448. The population there consists of what elements i' 
— Roughly, I should think about 150,000 or 160,000. 

1449. And what nationalitie.^ P — Principall}- Chinese 
but also Malays and natives of India. 

1450. Sixty or eighty per cent, would be Chinese P — 
Quite so. 

1451. Were the Chinese there with their wives and 
families, or were they immigrants P — Partly both. 
There are some who are called " Straits born Chinese " 
— they live there with their families ; but there is 
a large number of immigrants also. 

1452. Were they generally opium smokers p — No, I 
should not say that ; not generally. 

1453. Not the Chinese ?— -Not generally. 

1454. Then the opium smoker was ithe exception p — 
Of course there was a large number of opium smokers, 
but those I saw principally in the hospitals. 

1455. Then amongst the working population of 
Chinese in Singapore would you recognise the general 
prevalence of the opium habit p — Nn ; I should not say 
so.. I knew cases here and there ; Ijut I do not think 
it was a general habit. 

1456. I see that you -were surgeon in charge of the 
criminal prison and the pauper hospital containing a 
very large number of inmates. Did you often meet 
these opium smokers as patients ?— 1 should think that 
of the admissions to the pauper hospital about ;>() or 40 
per cent, were opium smokers. 

1457. Did you attribute their po\erty largely to the 
habit of opium-smoking P — No, not at all ; I think it 
was due to disease. They take to opium through 
originally having fallen victims to disease. A great 
many of them are poor destitute Chinamen, and they 
fall victims to disease, and finding relief from opium- 
smoking they continue the habit. 

1458. Then the opium habit was, so to speak, an 
incident in their lives P — Yes. 

1459. And an incident in their case ; not a cause of 
their illness p — No ; it was taken more as a remed)'. 

1460. Then did you see any eases of sickness produced 
by the opium habit ; by smoking opium ?^Some of 
them took it to excess, but I should not say that it 
was at all general. The generality were certainly 
moderate. 

1461. Of the opium smokers ? — Yes. 

146'2. But you did meet with some who had injured 
their health directly Ijy opium p — Well, I should not 
say that ; I do not think so. 

1463. You would not say ]iositively. I mean you 
could not assert it positively P — No. 

1464. Now, amongst the inmates of the criminal 
prison did you meet with opium smokers p — ^^.s. 
there was a certain number of inmates who were opium 
smokers, but I do not think the proportion was very 
lar,L;c. 

1 165. A certain number of the Obinese p — ^'cs, oi the 
Chinese. 

1466. Was their crime often connected with their 
habit of smoking opium ? — No, I do not think so as a 
rule. 

1467. It was not connected ? — Not as a rule. 

1468. In that respect it differed then, as far as your 
experience goes, from the irrepressible drunkard of this 
country P- -The opium smoker is not so bad as the 
drunkard by a long way. 



Dr. T. lEviKE EowEH, M.D., C.M.G-., called i.a and examined. 



1469. Wa.s opium allowed to be smoked in the prison p 
— If, when a prisoji.er came in, he wa.s found to be an 
opium smoker, and his health gave way, and the medical 
officer considered that it was through the want of the 
opium, he was admitted to hospital, and got a cer- 
tain amount of the opium to smoke until his health got 
better again ; then lie was sent out to work in the 
prison in the ordinary way. 

147(J. Were you afraid of suddenly stopping the 
opium smoker from his pipe when he came to the 
prison ? — In certain cases where they were used to 
opium in excess, if it was suddenly withdrawn, it 
was very apt to lead to serious symptoms. 

1471. And was that the case with regard to the 
ordinary run of opium smokers who, I presume, would 
be temperate smokers ? — No, it was the exception. 

1472. Then, you could cut it off without any injurjr 
at all p — Yes, and I made a series of experiments with 
the result of finding that out ; and I found that the 
larger proportion of the men from whom the opium 
was withdrawn gained weight, that a certain amount 
I'cmained stationarj-, and that a smaller proportion lost 
weight. 

1473. Did you see any symptoms of this terrible 
craving that has been described to us when the moderate 
opium smoker was deprived of his pipe P — No, never. 

1474. As far as you know, he was not worse off in 
that respect than a tobacco smoker ? — No, certainly 

not. 

1475. I am speaking of habitual moderate smokers of 
opium P — Yes, quite so. 

1476. Have you formed any judgment regarding 
the coolies who came to the Straits Settlements and 
who were opium smokers ; were they as efficient and 
as strong and as healthy as those who did not smoke 
opium p — No ; I should say not, because most of them 
had taken, as I said before, to opium simply to relieve 
their suffering. They were not strong men originally 
— they all either suffered from cough or, perhaps, a 
little diarrhoea, or, perhaps, a little fever, and they took 
to opium-smoking, and, having found relief, they con- 
tinued the habit. And, as they were diseased, you 
could not say they were as strong as the healthy men. 

1477. Did noti your experience lead you to suppose 
that there were a good many Chinese who took to opium- 
smoking without being induced to do so by disease ? — 
I do not think so. 

1478. Your experience was confined rather to tha; 
class which you have described P — Yes. 

1479. Granting that they had been through their 
ailments led to smoke opium, as I suppose a good many 
were, did they after regaining health, in curable cases, 
still go on smoking the opium P — Yes, as a rule. 

1480. Do you think that these maintained their 
efficiency as workmen and as healthy men P — Yes ; as 
long as they did not exceed in any way. 

1481. 1 gather from you that the moderate opium 
smoker is not really in a worse position in regard to 
health than the moderate tobacco smoker p — Little 
worse. I may add that a great many lepers are opium 
smokers. The habit gives them relief, and is a good 
thing for them. 

1482. Do I understand you to say in your note that 
you "have known some of the most successful and 
" most level-headed, the most clever of the Chinese 
" merchants in the Colony, to bo confirmed but 
•' HKidcralc 0]iium smokers "P — Yes, that is so. Their 
use of ophim has been moderate. 

148;!. Did it ever pass into your mind that the 
moderate use of o]iium in oases of that sort— I mean 
men who are obliged to gain their living by their 
brains— that it helped them P— I think so. 

1484. In your opinion, it was a positive assistance to 
them P — I think so. 

14«5. And I suppose you would regard that as a set- 
off in a certain degtee to the mischief it did in other 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE,. 



103 



directions P-^Tes ; some of those I referred to were men 
who took to opium for some special reason ; they did 
not take it as one takes to a glass of alcoholic liquor, 
they took it for sotne special reason— for some ailment 
that was the matter with them, either for a coush or 
something of that kind, but it did not affect their 
general health; they were able to attend to their 
business, and they did much better with opium than 
they could have done without it. 

1486. Apparently it may be paid of opium, what many 
amongst ourselves feel— and I suppose it is the general 
view oj^pressed or unexpressed in regard to the alcohol 
habit, that the evil and the good balance themselves 
more or less completely, and you have to set the good 
against the bad; would you be disposed to consider 
of the opium habit, as you have seen it passing before 
youL' eyes at Singapore, that the good it did counter- 
balanced the evil p— I see much more to shock one at 
home from the effects of alcohol than I have ever done 
m the East from the effects of opium. 

1487. You mean the balance is rather more clearly 
on the side of opium ?— On the side of opium. 

1488. (Mr. Wilson.) Just upon this last point :— Did I 
understand you, in reply to Sir William Eoberts, to 
say that you thought that opium-smoking in modera- 
tion had no more injurious effects than tobacco 
smoking in moderation— is that what I gather p— Little 
more. 

1489. Then you said also— I think I understood you 
to say, in reply to a question of Sir William Roberts 
— that the opinm smokers were not so healthy as Other 
people, not so strong as labourers, because there was 
usually disease superadded ; do I understand that that 
is your evidence ?— Quite so. 

1490. And the disease you mentioned was a little 
fever or a cough ? — But those were only two causes ; 
there are a great many causes which induce men to take 
opium— there is leprosy for instance, there is diarrhoea, 
there is malaria, there is chronic rheumatism, pains in 
the bones — this last being a very common cause of men 
taking to opium smoking, and it relieves them in a 
way that opium in any other form would not do. 

1491. But you mentioned a cough or a little fever ? — 
I meant a chronic cough— an obstinate cough, or fever. 

1492. Then, in reference to the prisoners when in 
hospital, you allowed them under certain circum- 
stances to smoke ; was that rather as what you may call 
a luxury while in hospital, or was it a remedy? — I 
think Sir William -Roberts was asking me with regard 
to the jail — the prisoners in the jail. 

1493. In the case of prisoners in the jail hospital P — 
It was considered certainly as a luxury ; but in certain 
cases it was a necessity. 



1494. In some cases it was allowed as a luxmy to a 
sick prisoner ; in other cases you actually prescribed as 
beneficial to him ? — Tes, and in the hospitals in the 
same way. 

1495. (Mr. Mowbray.) Yon mean as beneficial to him 
because he had been in the habit of taking it, and that 
it was not good for his health to be suddenly deprived 
of it ?— Yes. 

1496. Does the G-overnment of the Straits Settle- 
ments derive a large revenue from the opium traffic ? 
— Yes, but I really could not tell you how much. 

1497. {Mr. Pease.) There is, I believe, an anti-opium 
society in Singapore, is there not P — Not I think in my 
time, but I would not be positive. 

1498 and 1499. Among the Chinese P— I was not 
aware of one existing among the Ohineiie when I 
resided there. 

1600. I have an address to all lovers of virtue in 
Great Britain signed by Shao K'ang-chi, Jung Lin, 
Hsueh P'ei-cheing, and P'an Chen. Do you know any 
of those names ? — No. 

1501. Perhaps not as I read them, at any rate P— 
They may be connected with one of the missionary 
societies. 

1502. They send an address in which they use very 
strong terms: "The danger of opium"? — I think 
opium gets credit for a great deal that is not due to it, 
and there are miserable wretches in Singapore whose 
condition is all put down to opium when it is not due 
to opium at all, but to disease. 

1503. In 1891 an address, presented to the House of 
Commons, containing 1,100 signatures, was presented 
to Parliament from Singapore ? — That is since I left, 
I know that the American missionaries have been 
moving in the matter. 

1504. Opium is a very important article of revenue, 
is it not, to the Colony of Singapore? — I think so; 
yes. 

1505. Do you know what proportion it bears t the 
whole of the revenue of the Colony ? — I do not. 

1506. It is put before me that half the revenue of 
Singapore is derived from the opinm farm, so that in 
that case the G-overnment have a very large interest in 
the maintenance of the traffic ?— Yes ; it would be so. 

1507. Yon do not know whether that is correct or 
not P — I do not know whether that is correct or not. 

1508. (Sir W. Roberts.) Is there not a large amount 
of opium diverted from some of the Chinese ports to 
the Straits — some of the Indian opium, I mean P — Yes, 
that may be so. 



T. I. Rowell, 
M.D., C.M.G. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



The witness withdrew. 



Eev. Alexander Lakgman called in and examined. 



1509. (Chair ma/il.) You are a missionary, are you 
not p — Yes, my Lord. 

1510. And how many years have you been in that 
vocation P — I have been eight years in China, in the 
Cheh-kiang province. 

1511. Do you agree with the opinion expressed by 
the missionaries who have previously given evidence 
on the opium question ? — My experience has been, my 
Lord, that all I have heard expressed by missionaries 
in this room with regard to opium in China is perfectly 
true, and is not at all exaggerated. 

1512. I understand that you wish to put in a letter on 
the subject from a native evangelist ? — This is a letter 
I received only three weeks since. It is written in 
Chinese, but I have made a I'ough translation of it. It 
was, I may state, quite unsolicited [original of the 
letter handed to the Commissioners'], and I have left the 
translation as much in the Chinese idiom as possible, 
and I should like to read it as an expression of the feel- 
ing of the Chinese Christians, and how they regard the 
opium. 

1513. Just as a matter of curiosity, how is the original 
letter written, is it stamped? — No, it is written with 
the brush — the small pencil as they call it, an otter hair 
brush. The writer says : " Pastor Gilmer tells me that 
" in England some are discussing at the present time 
" the abolition of Chinese opinm calamity, may God 
" bestow great grace, and the mighty power of the 
" !5oly Spirit, so that willingly Chinese people may be 



' saved out of their bitterness, this opium-smoking 
' injury to men, if not with the personal eye seen no 
' man could believe, this evil goes beyond water, fire, 
' robbers and thieves ; because of it homes and posses- 
sions are scattered, wives are left, and sons dispersed. 
' By reason of opium there is adultery and robbery, all 
' crimes and wickedness from this source come. The 
' selling of wives, and selling of sons, because of this is 
• an established fact. Eaters of opium are day by day 
increasing greatly, and silver money is daily seen less ; 
' this evil has come upon China, and has spread be- 
' yond all previous calamity! The holy doctrine of 
' Jesus is difficult to propagate, one half the reason is 

■ because of opium. Much is being said about the 
foreigner bringing opium, which injures our bodies, 

' and again bringing the Jesus doctrine to save our 

■ souls. The foreign country forbids opium entering 
the mouth, this is extremely meritorious.. We pray 
God to bestow the Holy Spirit with power upon those 

' in authority in England, that teachers, magistrates. 

and Queen may make an end of this business, and all 

men will be delighted ; to forbid opium entering the 

mouth is to save our country's people and give them 

' happiness, then shall we proclaim the happy sound 

' (the Gospel), repent and put away sin from the body 

■ and heart, with all- wickedness. Establish rectit'ade 
and call upon God ; but the present state is lamenta- 
ble, opium is prevalent and the saving doctrine 
prospers not. That ' was written on the 28th day of 
the third Chinese moon." 

]N 4 



Rev. A. 
Langman. 



104 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION; 



Rev. A. 1514. Ton have heard what has been urged for the 

Langman. consideration of the Oonxmission with reference to the 

animosity to foreigners, which it is alleged arises from 

15 Sept. 1893. the British connexion with the opium traffic, and yon 

are aware of the evidence which has been given with 

reference to the reasons assigned by the Chinese to the 
introduction and increase of the poppy culture in China ; 
do you agree generally with the evidence that has been 
given by other missionaries upon these subjects ? — 
My own opinion is quite established that the animosity 
shown by the Cbinese to foreigners, and to Englishmen 
especially, which I have experienced myself, has been 
chiefly on the ground of our connexion with opium. It 
was the first thing which we had to attempt to do — to 
satisfy the minds of the people, with whom we came 
in contact that we had nothing to do with the bringing 
of opium into China. As far as I could find out, and in 
districts where no foreigners had ever resided I have 
gone, and I have had the same intense hatred shown 
because of opium ; and I believe that when we were in 
trouble— at the time of the opium riots in 1891--from the 
way I have heard many expressing themselves, when I 
have been in great excited crowds which had gathered 
discussing whether they should come and pull down 
the foreigners' houses, and turn them out and kill them, 
this was the first thing, and the chief thing that they 
accused us of. We could readily enough answer their 
questions as to the foolish stories about stealing their 
children, and using their eyes as medicine, and such 
things as that ; it did not take long to disabuse their 
minds of these things, but the opium they said — the 
opium. And also when we were preaching to crowds, 
when there were no disturbances anticipated — in our 
chapel we could easily hold 160 people — when preaching 
the Gospel doctrines that we had gone to preach 
and making no reference at all to any other side issue, 
one or another would rise up in the crowd and say : 
" Come away, and do not listen to the foreign devil; 
' ' do not we know enough of him ; he has brought the 
" opium to us." Others would callus again "opium 
devils," and such like ; so that in my own mind I am 
firmly convinced the people are fully persuaded that 
we alone are responsible for the condition of their 
country at the present time, and their being compelled 
to admit the opium. 

1515. {Sir J. Lyall.) Apart from the opium, would 
not the missionary be likely to bo received with great 
disfavour in China in any case ; I mean to say, is he 
received with great disfavour as a Mohammedan 
missionary, or a Chinese missionary, would be received 
in England, if he came to try and persuade us that all 
our religion and all our morality was wrong, and if he 
tried to set up small communities partly under the 
protection of foreign Governments which differed in 
customs and in everything else from the rest of the 
Chinese ; apart from opium, is it possible that the 
missionary would not be a very unpopular characier 
with the patriotic Chinaman ? — 1 have not had the 
opportunity of experience in that way. 

1516. If that is the case — and I do not think you 
can deny it — does that not throw some doubt in your 
mind upon the genuineness of this outcry about opium. 
Is not the Chinaman very quick to see that you cannot 
answer this particular taunt, and therefore he multi- 
plies it all over the whole country? — Yes, he is quick to 
see and quick to use it, because he knows it is true and 
we cannot answer it. 

1517. Because he sees its effect upon you, and of 
course that will multiply all over the country ? — It is 
true, and we cannot answer it. 

1618. Tou cannot answer it P — Ton cannot answer it 
yourself ; and as for missionaries coming to this country 
to preach other creeds they would have to conform to 
the law of this country, and they would be protected in 
that way. 

1519. Would it not be excessively unpopular ; would 
it not excite great animosity P — I hardly think so, 
because all missionaries who labour in China are treated 
as foreigners, and they experience the same animosity 
until the people learn where they have come from and 
what their object is, as I have seen. I have heard the 
mobs in China saying, " Bring evidence that you are 
" here for no other purpose than to preach morality 
" and virtuous doctrines to us." 

15i.iO. {Mr. Mowbray.) Do you agree with the view of 
the Chinese that we are responsible for having intro- 
duced opium into China F — The history of the 

15J1. I only want your own opinion ; wc have had 
the history of the question lelated to us from various 

The witnp^s 



points of view, and we do hot want to go through it 
again P — I can only say that I always had to concede 
what they accused us of, namely, that we English were 
the people who brought opium, and that we were the 
only people that brought opium when we entered the 
country. 

1522. But you arc quite aware that it is a disputable 
proposition ? — Prom all the knowledge I could gain I 
never could dispute it to a Chinaman, because we were 
on the ground, and there were the facts before us ; and 
in the ])rovince in which I have laboured for eight years 
they were thoroughly conversant with the history of 
the trade, and believed that opium was only brought 
from India, which is an English country as they called 
it, to their country. 

152:1. Tou have heard the evidence that has been 
given to-day, that it was introduced into China long 
before we introduced it ? — Yes ; when I have put that 
view forward in China, I have got this answer, " We 
" had it in China. Cldna is a large nation, and we 
" required all the opium we had as medicine, and medi- 
" cine only. Foreigner, you know very well that when 
" a man became addicted to opium he lost his head, 
" and many a head was taken off because a man was 
" found to be addicted to opium habit." The smoking 
of opium ivas formerly against the law, but now it is 
not against the law, because our opium is prevalent. 

1524. If the importation of opium from India into 
China were prohibited, and if at the same time 
Chinese opium were solely consumed in the country ; 
then do you believe that the Chinese themselves would 
acquit us of the responsibility which they at present 
attach to us, and do you think that your labours 
would be lightened ? — I do believe it, sir ; I think our 
labours would be vastly helped. And I have often put 
the question to the Chinese, in discussing the matter, 
" How is it that you cultivate so much opium your- 
selves on all hands ? " They laugh, and reply, " Our 
" opium which we produce is not so poisonous as the 
" opium which you give us. We will cultivate our own 
'■ and use it, and live the longer and have our silver to 
" ourselves." I have known a mandarin to take his 
soldiers and go outside a city and cut down the poppies 
that have been growing round ; that was six years ago. 

1525. I notice that you have twice used the phrase, 
" And we will keep our silver to ourselves ; '' you are 
aware that that, of course, is one reason which is given 
for the hostility of the Chinese to the importation of 
opium ? — Tes, because so much silver goes out of the 
country. There is one thing which 1 should like to 
remark, if I may be permitted, and that is in reference 
to the effect that opium has on the rising generation. 
There is a young man in connexion with our work and 
he had six children. He buried the whole six before each 
had reached the age of three years. One of those six — 
I think it was the fourth child — I myself had tried 
all I oould to save, but the child died, and subsequently 
in speaking over the matter the man said to me, " How 
" can it be expected that I can rear my child ; my 
" father was an opium smoker before I was born," and 
his father died an opium smoker. I said to him, " Do 
"you really believe that ? Does it affect the children P " 
He said, "All our people believe it." I said nothing 
more to him, but it so fixed itself on my mind that I 
set myself to find out the feeling of the people in the 
district on this very question, and I found that it was a 
common saying, " Chih yu yen pu wli yang san tai " — 
" The opium smoker cannot see his third generation " — 
that is the way they put it. 

_ 1626. (Mr. Wilson.) I think you said you had been 
eight years in China ? — Yes, sir. 

1.526a. During how many of those years have you had 
a sufficiently familiar knowledge of the language to be 
able to converse with the people, and to get from them 
their opinions at first hand P — After the first year. We 
have a course of study laid out for us, that takes two 
years, but after the first year we are in full communica- 
tion for half the day, that is, in preaching and talking and 
mixing among the people for half the day. That con- 
tinues for the second year, and after the second year 
we are supposed to be through our course of study of 
the Chinese language, and to give all our time amongst 
the people, so that for six full years I have had full 
liberty in the use of the language. But the course is 
limited to that length, because what we have got to 
study is not the literary aspect of the language, but 
simply the spoken language, so that we can make 
communications cvnd read two or three boolcs, 
Tvithdrew, 



MINUTES OF KVIDENCE. 



105 



Sir Lepel Griffin, K.C.S.I., called Id and examined. 



1527. (Chairman.) You have seen consiiloraljlT ser- 
vice in India, I believe? — Yes. 

1528. Would you tell us in what parts of India your 
experience has lain ? — In the Punjab and Central India. 
The first 18 years of my service was in the Punjab, 
about half the time as secretaiy to the G-ovcrnment 
and the last part of it was as head of iho administra- 
tion in Central India,. 

1529. Did you throughout your service come prac- 
tically into contact with the question that has been 
submitted to this Commission P — In the Punjab my 
contact with it was more general, but it is u subject to 
which I have always given a good deal of attention as 
many things I have published show ; but in Central 
India I was more directly concerned with it, because 
I was the head of the whole opium revenue department 
of the Native States. I.'he Agent of the Governor 
General is ex officio the opium agent for the whole 
of the Native States, including a great part of 
Eajputana. 

1530. {Sir J. Lyall.) What is the system of the 
British Government m taxing opium grown in native 
States — what interference, or supervision over the 
cultivation do thry exercise, if luiy P — IVrhiips in a few 
words I had better explain the fiystem — as briefly as 1 
possibly can. 

15:!1. {Chairman.) If you ivoiild, please. I should 
like to have it before ii.s ? — Tlie opium agency in -whiit 
is called MaUva, wKich contains all the opiiiiij-growiiig 
States of Central Iiidi;i, used to consist in a monopoly, 
but that was given u]) manj' years ago, and now it 
is only a system of passesi. The Government has no 
concern whatever in the cultivation or in the manu- 
facture of opium. Its hei»dt|Uaiters are at Indore, 
and it has sub-agencies at Bhopal, Udaiput, Jaora, 
Chitor in Udaipur, for the Eajputana opium, Mande- 
sorc, which is in Gwalior, and Katlam. The opium 
from these places is sent direct under pass to Bombay 
— all that is intended for export. The Indore agency 
is the central and the largest, and the number of 
chests which used to pass in my time through that 
agency in 1880 was very great. The average would 
be about 45,000 chests a year, though now it has I 
dare say diminished to something like 30,000 or 35,000, 
bub the average used to be about 45,000 chests of llO 
lbs. each in weight. 

1532. {Sir J. Lyall.) You say that the Government 
does not interfere at all in the cultivation ? — Not 
at all. 

1533. Has the Gnvernment ever attempted to urge 
any native State to extend the cultivation within your 
knowledge? — ISo, on the contrary — well I may say 
distinctly " No " to that. It has not ; but personally as 
the bead of the administration I have had to try to 
interfere to a certain extent in the interests of good 
administration, because in 1882 and 1883, when there 
had been great over-production and the prices fell vei y 
much, all the native States ivished to get the same 
amount of revenue that they had before, from a vcv^- 
much cheaper drug, so that there was a great deal of 
distress in consequence, and 1 interfered very con- 
sider-ably and got the rates reduced largely, especially 
in Gwalior. 

1534 The rates on the cultivation p — The rates on 
opium land. 

1535. In some of the Anti-Opium Society's memorials 

some of the recent memorials and in evidence that 

has been given before the present Commission I have 
seen that there have been references to certain aj^reo- 
ments, concessions, ami ]iayments which the Britisli 
Government has ma.'o with, or to, some of these native 
States, and the in -ijutncnt in the memorials and iu the 
evidence is that tlio.se concessions or payincntM are to 
increase the cultivation— to increase the out-turn of 
opium ; can you tell us what is the pui-port of those P 
—Nothing of the kind has ever, practically, ccm.c 
under my notice. 

1536. Are there any agreements with any native 
States to prevent their cultivating opium ?— The culti- 
vation of opium, is, as far as I am aware, perfectly free 
in every native State. 

1537. In every native State P— How can we interfere ? 
I- 80970. 



1538. Q. Arc there any concessions or paymouta, I 
mean that we make to them, to guard tho revenue 
against smuggling or anything of that sort P What can 
those concessions and payments be in your opinion P 
—A. 1 do not know what they are ; I u.ni not acquainted 
with them. T do not think any such exist. If so they 
must be of so old a, date that tliey have becomo 
obsolete. If you could tell me one I should be aljle to 
tell you at once if it were in force, but I do not 
remember anything of that sort. Opium cultivation 
in Native States is practically free in ever3' way. Of 
course there is prevention against smuggling, but that 
is a question of our own revenue. The opmm is 
entirely exported by mil, and when it has been 
weighed by us at the Central Office it does not leave 
our hands until it gets to the railway, and there it 
cannot be taken without a pass. It is sealed, more- 
over, and it does not leave the hands of our agents 
until it reaches Bombay. There is a good deal of 
smuggling, but that is a different question. 

1539. How do the native States who produce opium 
raise their own opium revenue ? — They raise their 
revenue in several ways. It is very difficult to say 
what proportion of their re\ejiue comes from opium, 
but a very large part of it is so derived. The people of 
England are very little aware of the high rates opium 
land pays in native States. The best opium land is 
probably iu Gwalior, Indore, and B.utlam. The highest 
rates in my exiicrionco are paid lor opium land in 
Gwalior, wiieio they go ufi to about lis. 40 a boega. 
Taken roughly — a bcega is equal to about half an acre— 
the revenue is about lis. HO an acre, or practically, you 
might say, 8/. an acre, because in native India the 
]-upee has not depreciated at all ; it buys just as much 
as it used to do. 

1540. Do they have any Excise system too besides 
that P^- Certainly, besides land revenue they have an 
export duty, which is very often from Rs. 25 to Rs. 50, 
chest. Perhaps lis. 60 is too high, but from Rs. 20 to 
Rs. 40, say, they have also a tax on the opium water, 
the liquid opium, which is very much drunk by 
Rajputs and locally consumed. Besides there is the 
transit duty, which is very high, on opium, but that, 
I thiuk, I swept away in all Central India. 

1541. What would be the result if we were to stop 
the transit of opium from the native States through 
British territor}' ? — In what way P 

1542. What would be the result on the people of the 
native States and on tlie government of the native 
States P — Yon mean if you prohibit the export, not if 
you prohibited the cultivation ? 

1543. No ; prohibit the export P — Of course, you can 
prohibit the export. 

1544. But I mean what would bo the result. I 
suppose it would kill the greater part of the cultiva- 
tion p— Of course it would ruin the trade, if it was not 
supported by smuggling. It would ruin the native 
States and it would mal<e thera to a man disloyal to 
you. It would ruin the merchants, too, and would to 
a very preat extent ruin the peasants. Opium is tho 
life-blood of native India: it is the tiling by which 
they get the whole of their spare surplus revenue. 
The whole of their pomp and state depends on their 
opium revenue in my part of the country. 

1545. {Chairman.) In those native States in which 
opium is largely grown p — Yes, in those. Of course, 
1 ordy speak of those, but those are the most 
important. 

15ki. Of the n;itive States .? — Indore, Gwalior, and 
Bhopal are the great opium-growing States with some 
smaller ones that I mentioned just now. 

1547. What is tlie aggi-egato ])0])ulati(ju of Dios.:! 
native States that aou have iDCntioiLcd appi'oximat-ily P 
— 1 should ill ink aljout ten millions in Central India. 
Then there is Udaipur and a great part of Raj pu tana, 
but there the opium is more grown for local consump- 
tion ; it is not so much exported except from Udaipur 
which is also under our agency in Central India, but 
the opium instead of coming to us at Indore for 
Bombay goes by way of Ajmere and Ahmadabad. 

1548. With regard to these Nativ-es Slates to which 
you have more particularly referred, you say with con- 

f) 



Sir 
L Griffin, 
K.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. U93. 



106 



INDIAN OPIU3I COMMISSION 



Sir 
L. Griffin, 
K.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



ftdence that an edict of prohibition of the exportation 

of opium ? — Would make them bankrupt. 

]54i». It would attbrt their finances in a very Eerious 
degree, and invoho the Government of India in great 
unpopularity ? — The greatest. You see opium is grown 
only on irrigated land, on land thiit is too good prac- 
tically for the rough cultivation of wheat and poor 
grains, so that it would be practically throwing it out 
of cultivation. If you can get 81. an acre for your 
land as opium land and only one rupee for it as wheat 
land, it is a great difference to the cultivator. 

1550. Is it a very exhausting crop P— It requires a 
great deal of manure and a great deal of preparation. 
It is an expensive crop to gro'sv. I do not know that it 
is exhausting, if the land is manured well. It is a 
question of that. The poppy is grown on the same land 
3'ear after year for any number of years. 

1551. (Sir J. Lyall.) We have dealt with the result 
of prohibiting export. I suppose there are no Treaty 
obligations which prevent our prohibiting the export, are 
there .i^ — An autocratic Government can do anything. 
It would be a most tyrannous act, which no civilised 
Government has ever done before that I know of. 

15.">'2. Has the Government of India any powers by 
which it might interfere with the cultivation of opium 
in those native States ? — Not without violating all the 
traditions of the Governuient of India for the last 50 
years. As I said before, you can do anything. The 
question is : Is it politic or is it just ? There is no Treaty 
right b\' which you can interfere with the cultiva- 
tion of a particular crop in a native State ; it would be 
monstrous. 

1553. Does much smuggling exist at present ; what 
are the police precautions Y — A great deal exists, and I 
cannot say that we are very successful in stopping it. 
I dare say I have had about 100 cases of smuggling a 
year, mostly into the Central Provinces. It is a very 
difficult countrj-, as you know, an exceedingly difficult 
frontier, an immense number of passes and a difficult 
river, and 140 lbs. of opium which a man could easily 
carry would be worth a couple of thousand rupees. 

1554. Are there any particular precautions taken P — 
We stop and search anything suspicious on the rail- 
ways ; but the precautions (my administration was 
almost entirely native territory) are as a rule taken on 
the frontiers of British territory by the Government 
of Bombay, and the Government of the Central Pro- 
vinces. Take the police precautious themselves ; not 
to go beyond your question, if there was prohibition 
of export then it is obvious what would follow. You 
would have a preventive system of a most stringent 
and enormous kind, which would be impossible. It 
would cause far greater evils than those you would 
try to remove. 

1555. So far as you have observed what is the effect 
of the consumption of opium on the peasantry in 
Central India as consumers ? — Well, they are not 
consumers to any great extent. It is too expensive for 
the peasants as a rule all over India. The Rajputs, who 
are more to the north and in some parts of Central 
India, consume it, and there are a good many Rajput 
States, but the Mahrattas are not as a, rule addicted 
to opium. They take it, but not very largely ; not 
so much as the Bajputs and the Sikhs in the Punjab. 
Those take it largely. 

1556. But those peasantry who cultivate it in the 
Malwa States — you do not think that they consume it 
largely ? — I do not think that they consume it very much 
any more than the people of Ep^e^'iiay who produce 
your champagne drink the champagne. They drink 
some thin wine costing 50 centimes a bottle. It is 
not a common practice, opium-catiug in India ; it is 
too expensive. It is like the working men in London 
smoking Havanua cigars. 

1557. In your capacity, exercisin;^ the powers of a 
High Court in Central India, did you see any reason to 
suppose that crime was promoted by the consumption 
of opium, in the same way that it is promoted in 
England by the consumption of alcohol ? — No ; that 
idea is an entire fiction from beginning to end. I 
have never seen a case in my life, either as a magis- 
trate or as a judge of a High Court, in which crime 
has been produced by the use of opium ; at any rate 
within my recollection. 

1558. With regard to the medical men serving unler 
you in Central India, have you ever seen any reports 
of theirs about the effect of opium ? — I have called for 



reports from them more than once on the subject ; but 
I do not remember that anything of any iiarticular 
importance was oyer said. Medical men will see the 
had cases, and abuse in anything is bad. Of coarse 
taken in excess, which is not the case usually in India, 
there arc ba 1 results ; but I do not think that they 
have ever said that opium fills their lunatic asylums, 
or hospitals, or affects their returns in any particular 
way. 

1559. You were a long time in the Punjab, and came 
across a great many Sikhs. Did you ever notice auy 
particular effect of l;he opium habit upon Sikhs? — 
Well ; the Sikhs are a very hard race, and they would 
take more opium than most people, without injury, no 
doubt. Our regiments are full of opium eaters. I 
do not think they are a bit worse than anybody else. 
As you have asked mo that question perhaps you 
would allow me to make one remark which is of great 
importance. I think nobody known better than your- 
self that the Sikhs are prohibited by their creed — 
or rather by the founder of thf second phase of their 
creed — from smoking tobacco, which is a universal 
practice throughout India. In default of this they take 
to opium and hemp and to a great extent to alcohol. 
They were very hard drinkers — the Sikhs — long 
before we ever came to India. I think that this Com- 
mission should consider the point that all races almost 
seem to want some stimulant of one kind or another ; 
whether the fact of the Sikhs being prevented from 
smoking tobacco, which ).s their natural stimulant, and 
at once taking to alcohol and to opium is not a very 
strong reason against any sudden action here in the 
direction of prohibition. If you prohibit opium 
smokers from having opium, will they not take to 
alcohol, which is very much worse. It is onlj- a 
suggestion. 

1560. Your impression is that the effect of alcohol in 
India is very much worse than the effect of opium ? — 
With alcohol we see its ill effects. But the people of 
India, I think, are a very temperate race. I do not 
wish to take away their character. You see more 
drunkenness in London in one night than you see in 
India in ten years. But alcohol is a thousand times 
worse than opium ; it is preposterous to argue the 
question. 

1561. Have you formed any opinion as to the future 
of the China trade from your knowledge of the export 
opium trade from Central India? — I have of course 
formed a very decided opinion up to a certain date ; 
but I have not been connected with it for the last 
U\'o or three years ; and all I could say on that 
point is that the opium trade, so far as it has passed 
through my hands, was about say an average of two 
millions to two-and-a-half millions sterling a year, 
all opium going to China. The trade fluctuated largely, 
and although it fell off very much in 1881 and 1882, 
yet it revived considerably in 1883 to 1 8S5 and 1886. 
when it rose again, I think, to about 39,000 chests. I 
think myself that the opium trade with China will 
revive ; I sincerely hope it will, because it is in my 
opinion the most unobjectionable part of the Indian 
revenue. But it is a very open question, and unless 
you intimately know the Chinese side of the question, 
it is very difficult to say. Of course four times as 
much is now grown in China as is exported from India, 
and if that .increases ■very largely perhaps the opium 
exports of India may fall oil'. But it is to be 
remembered that it is the higher classes of China who 
take our opium, which is of a very much better quality 
than the coarse Chinese drug, and they will continue 
to take ibjust in the same way as we buy champagne 
from France. 

1562. (I/r. Fease.) Sir James Lyall asked you a 
question with regard to the use of the term money 
compensations or other concessions. In the paper that 
I have before me, which is " The Moral and Material 
Progress of India," 1878, it says ; — " The native States 
" have engaged so to manage their opium cultivation 
" and production as to safeguard the British revenue ; 
" and in exchange for this service they receive either 
" money compensation or other concessions." What 
is the meaning of that expression in this Government 
Blue Book. That is what Sir James Lyall wanted to 
know. 

156:;. (Sir J. Lyall.) Yes P — A. Let me hear it again. I 
do not quite follow the idea of it. It is quite clear that 
for a great many years past no payment to any native 
State could have been made on such account without 
passing through ni>' hands, so that it is perhaps 



MtNUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



J 07 



■w.roiigly stated. Oh, yes, well, I presume this 
rnin-ely means" the native States have engaged so to 

manage their opium cultivation and production as to 

safeguard the British revenue." 

1.^)64—5. {Mr. Feaso.) It is the latter clause to which 
Sir .James Lyall drew attention, not to that, r.ith re- 
gard to " the compensation or other concessions," a 
few lines further ou, and "in exchange for this 
service they receive either money compensation or 
other concessions." The question is, what the " money 
comiiensation or other concessions " were that they 
received for protecting the Biitish revenue P — Well, 
that question I am not able to answer at a moment's 
notice, because I do not remember that they received 
anything whate^'er. They certainly do not now. It 
is possible that in the old days, when the revenue 
system was formed, some concessions were made 
to them in order that they might agree to all their 
opium coming through British hands at Indore, and of 
course safeguarding the British revenue in that way. 
There may have been some ancient arrangements for 
compensation. But the system goes back about 60 
years ; the opium agenoj' was started in 1830. 

1560. {Sir J. Lyall.) This refers to the present, but 
it may not refer to any States under your control; it 
may refer to native States outside P — I do not think that 
there is any opium which comes into British territory 
which did not pass through my agency. 

1.j67. I mean to say ? — It may refer to the 

Bombay States, very likely ; certainly not to any of the 
States in Central India ; we give them nothing what- 
v.ver. They are bound to send their opium through our 
hands. 

1568. {Mr. Mowbray.) T suppose, unless you acted in 
concert with the native authorities, it would be prac- 
tically impossible to prevent smuggling ? — The native 
States cannot prevent smuggling themselves. It is 
always a difficulty, but it is now stopped as far as it is 
possible. 

1569. What I meant rather was that the officials of 
the British Government were more able to check 
smuggling because of their acting in concert with the 
native authorities ? — Oh, certainly, the native autho- 
rities are perfectly loyal in the matter to us. 

1570. And if the export were to be stopped by the 
British Government? — Of course you wonld have all 
the native States against you, smuggling ; you could 
not stop smuggling then on an enormous scale. No 
preventive system would succeed. 

1571. {Mr. Pease.) May I ask whether there are any 
tables of exports from those native States from which a 
comparison could be drawn to show what the import- 
ance of the opium export is compared with the total 
exports ? — I can tell you everything about that that you 
wish to know. 

1572. You said it was a very important item in con- 
nexion with their exports ; can you tell us what propor- 
tion it bears to the total exports ? — Of the native States ? 

1573. {Ghairman.) What proportion does the revenue 
derived from opium bear to their total revenue p — It is 
an exceedingly difficult thing to say, and I have never 
been able to distinctly find it out. In the first place 
they are exceedingly averse to giving any statistics, 
and in the days of the great Scindia, who died a few 
years ago, although he was a very great personal friend 
of mine, I never could get any statistics out of him. 
He would never give any. The Government of India 
might call for statistics as much as they chose ; you 
could never get Scindia to give them. 

1574. Do they keep accounts ?— Oh, they keep regular 
accounts themselves, admirable accounts. After his 
death things became different. We now know what it is 
they levy on the land for opium cultivation, but it is 
very difficult to say what area is under cultivation, 
because we have no 'one to measure it, unless they tell 
us themselves. We know what amount of opium leaves 
each State, and the weight of it to an ounce. We do 
not know what amount is consumed locally. Of that 
there are no sfatistics. 

1.^75. {Mr. Pease.) Have you any information as to 
the value of other exports ?— The value of the opium 
which is exported? 

1576. No, the value of other exports as a guide ; as 
to the value of the opium export as compared with 
others ? — Yes, we have, to a certain extent. 

1577. Could you pive us a general idea of its propor- 
tional value ?— You see each State must be dealt with 



by itself. There are very lew things which are exported 
from Central India, except opium, wheat, and cotton, not 
very much. Other things are not exported in any large 
quantities. I cannot answer your question ; it is not one 
to which my attention has been directed for some time, 
but I fould ciisi'.y give it you from my own reports, 
which I have submitted for every year from the Central 
India agency. But our statistics are very uncertain, 
except for seaport towns, as to the internal trade of 
native India. Opium is distinctly the most important 
of the exports. 

1578. {Mr. Wilson.) I think you said something about 
the export of Malwa opium having fallen off ? — Largely. 

1579. 46,000 chests P — I am not able to say what it is 
to-day. I have been out of India for two or three years. 

1580. Can you tell us at all what influence that has 
had on the prosperity of native States, either as to the 
revenues of the rulers or the prosperity and condition 
of the cultivators? — Well, curiously enough, a para- 
graph in the very last official report that I wrote on the 
subject of opium covers, I think, that exact point, 
if you will permit me to read it. It is only a few lines. 
This was the last report I wrote on opium, and it is 
almost the last sentence of that report. ' ' The continued 
" depression ia the opium trade is causing much 
" anxiety to native chiefs, who seethe principal source 
" of their revenue in danger of decaying, while there is 
" imujediate loss and ruin to Malwa cultivators. The 
" native durbars try to avoid redaction in their rates 
" for opium lands, and compel the cultivators to pay 
" the same rental for lands the produce of which has 
" enormously fallen in price. The consequence is great 
" distress and general complaint." 

1581. Would you be good enough to explain a little 
further what you said as to the quality of this land and 
why other crops do not flourish on it ; is it too rich ? — 
Some crops would flourish on it very well, no doubt — 
sugar-cane, for instance. In India the land is roughly 
divided into irrigated and non-irrigated laud ; and 
opium requires a great deal of water, for it is grown 
at a time of year when there is very little rain, so that 
it has to be irrigated from tanks or wells. In Central 
India it is almost exclusively watered from tanks, and 
this makes the land very valuable, so valuable that it 

' is hardly worth while using it for a cheap crop, and 
wheat is in Central India a cheap crop. It is a very 
rich country, and I have seen in many States the wheat 
rotting on the ground, because they could not carry it 
away. 

1582. You referred to opium water ?— It is a mere 
preparation of the opium. 

1583. Is it exported, or used locally ? — Locally. 

1584. Only locally ?— Yes. 

1585. It is a by-product ? — Yes, it is ; it is a sort of 
solution of opium which the Rajputs take every morn- 
ing before breakfast. A native Rajah with all his 
Court sitting around him will call for his attendant, who 
will pour some of it into his hand, and he will drink it 
ofl', and every one of the men round him will drink it 
in the same way. It is what the Russians would call 
Lakuska — a sort of fillip to commence the day. 

1586. {Sir W. Roberts.) It is a daily thing P— Tes. 

1587. {Mr. Wilson.) It is so strong that a small 
quantity will have an exhiUrating effect ? — Yes, it is 
what they want ; it is their pick-me-up ; it does not 
hurt them. 

1588. How long does the effect last ? — The Rajah 
after taking that has his durbar, and sits there for a 
couple of hours, does his business, then he goes into 
his zenana, then he goes to sleep, then perhaps he has 
some more ; we do not know what happens there. 

1589. {Ghairman.) He tiikes more than one dose in 
the course of the day? — I think most opium eaters 
take at least two, but 1 do not say everyone does. 
Some of the Rajahs I know intimately, and they are not 
always the best specimens of their race ; but I do not 
think opium has any particular effect on them one way 
or the other. 

1590. (Mr. Wilson.) Would yon explain a little further 
about the smuggling ; I do not understand. You spoke 
about its being a difficult country ; about passes and 
river, and so forth. What prevents any amount of 
smuggling at this moment ; is there a coastguard ; are 
there preventive officers either inside the native State 
or outside ? — You see it is not the interest of the native 
States. They have no interest in preventing smuggling 

O 2 



Sir 
L. Griffin, 
K.C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 189.3. 



108 



INDIAN OPIUM I COMMISSION 



Sir 
L. Griffin, 
K.C.S.l. 

1 j Sept. 1893. 



"«r^ 



r? — That lias to be done by the 
must reniciiibef tliiit. I am 
iudia. 



except the good opinion of the Agent of the Grovernor- 
General. Their revenue is not hurt. We leave the 
prevention of smuggling, except on the main lino of 
road, which I have always held to be British territory, 
though the native States try to persuade us that it is 
not, to the native States; but uii ihc nii'.w.iyrj, wliicli 
are British territory, wo prevent it through our own 
officers. 

1591. It is no use preventing something thart can go 
round the other wayT 
British officers. Ton 

speaking o! native India. 1 am Jiving i)i native 
and have nothing to do with British territory. 

1592. i understand, but what I understood you to say 
was. that if the ])resent an-angements were abolislicii 
there would be an enormous increase of smuggling? — 
No doubt. 

1690. I do not see what prevents any amount of 
smuggling now ? — There is a good deal now. as I say. but 
it would be very much increased, because you would have 
every one against you. You would have the whole of 
the native States, the whole government as well as the 
people; they would all encourage smuggling. Smug- 
gling would be I'ra excelsis; Scindia and Holkar themselves, 
and all those great chiefs whom you cannot interfere 
with, would smugple on an enormous scale, and convey 
the opium to their own frontiers by thtir own ])olice 
probably. Kow, it they do not, exert themselves to 
prevent smuQ;,^]ing they hear of it from tlie head of the 
Administration. But iuBritish territory thejauveutive 
work is done by officials with wliom I have no concern ; 
they are subordinate to other authorities, such ay the' 
Bombay Government, or the Centi-al Provinces, or the 
North-west Provinces. 

159'!'. (Sir W. Boherts.) Yen have seen no doubt 
practically a L'rrat deal of this opium habit, havi' you 
not amongst Kajpuls and oflieisy — Ves, habitually, 
constantly. 

l.Mi.j. Is it your impi ession that it is t,'onerally prac- 
tised in moderation ? — I think so. I do do not mean 
to say that it has no bad effects. I have had servants 
who have been very inefficient from taking opium, but 
I have never had to discharge one for it. It makes a 
man very indolent, very often. Would you allow me to 
say one thing, the people who take it most — I only speak 
of the parts of India that I know — -the people who take 
it most, the Sikhs and the Bajputs, are the finest races 
in India. 

1596. And have they been taking it from generation 
to generation ? — Yes, long before we came to the 
cotiiitry. 

1597. Has it been your impression that th^se races, 
the Bajputs and the Sikhs, have a different re-action in 
regard to opium from some other races iu Inilia, that is 
to say, that thev tolerate it better, that they are con- 
stitutionally a little different ? — I cannot speak of races 
that I do not know. 

1598. How is it that Europeans do not j)ick up the 
habit in J ndia ; have you formed any opinion us to 
that? — Every race has a particular craving. Uu- 
fortunately, the Bugliih craving is for gin aitd for 
brandy. Each race has a tendency to .-omu particular 
stimulant, I think. 

1599. Then you think it is rather a special consti- 
tutional peculiarity of the Eastern people — the Chinese, 
and these Baiputs, and the Sikhs — that their tendency 
is to opium, and not to liquor? — They are vt-vy fond of 
liquor, if they can get it. Many of my distinguished 
friends like champagne and brandy mixed. That par- 
ticular mixture killed Scindia. 

1599a. i'o you think it possible that the Europeans 
resident in India might take to the opium habit ? — I 
think, if you stop the alcohol in India, as a great many 
people are trying to do, they will take to opium 
nrobably. 

1600. A certain number? — They will take to some- 
thing ; they will take, perhaps, to hemp. 

1601. Your impression is very strong that on the 
public health of India opium has had no deleterious 
effect .'' — Well, sir, it would be amistakeif I were to give 
you the impression that the ])eojde of India were at all 
addicted to opium. Some classes in certain races are 
habitues of opittm, but opitim, as I said before, is not 
an Indian vice at all; if it is taken, ic is taken in 
moderation ; and what I have seen so many people say 
is in my experience utterly wrong ; r,hat it has a 
tendency to require the increase of the dose if yoti take 



it. I know hundi'eds of people who take the same 
quantity, the same little pills of opium evei'y day of 
their lives ; they do not increase it at all. 

1602. The people who you say take that, are not 
l)eopIe who arc deteriorated in chaiacter or health? — 
JSiot the least; the best peojjlc in the race, of very 
fine physique. 

1603. And the opium is not like drink among our- 
selves — the exception p — No, sir, there is no crime in 
connexion with the opium at all. 

1604-5. No violence; but I mean the man who goes 
to extremes — to excess — the opium sot, as he has Ijeen 
called, is an exception among opium smokers ? — You 
cannot ste them, unles.s yovi go and look for them. 
They are not in the general population at all. You 
may find them in the largo cities, no doubt, as you find 
all sorts of things in slums, but that has not anything 
to do with the general population. In what we call the 
opium dens, of course you may see people in Calcutta, 
or, for the matter of that, in Lahore ; but they are out- 
casts or beggars, or drunken creatures, who would take 
to any stimulant. 

IGOG. They are, in fact, people who are a little bit 
allied to the criminal classes in this country ?— Ye-:, 
exactly so. 

1607. A drunken class : — Ye.s. 

IGOB. (Cliaivmiin.) The general effect of \-our evidence 
has been that, from your wide opportunities of observa- 
tion in India, you have not seeji that what is called the 
opium habit has ]iro(luced widespread and gr.ave moral 
evils among the population of India ? — No, I do nut 
think there is a single resident iu India v/ho knows 
anything on the subject who would possibly say s ). i 
do not think I am singular in mj' opinion. 

160:-). Then with regard to the native States, with 
which yon may have been officially concerned of late 
years, yoti have made it clear to us that in your opinion 
the prohibition of the present export trade in opium 
would occasion a grave disturbance of their finances, anii 
that it would be resented by the general body of the 
population who are engaged in the cultivation of th j 
opium? — Yes. If you wish to have a rebellion in India, 
I know no better m iiy. 

IGIO. You have further made it clear to us that in 
your view the prevention of smuggling would be 
impossible ? — Impossible. 

1611. In the sixth order of reference to this Commis- 
sion, we ai-e directed to ascertain what would probably 
be the disposition of the people of India in the event of 
a change of policy being adopted on the part of the 
Government, and a general prohibition of the cultiva- 
tion and the use of opium being attempted. Now, 
)-ou have been long resident in India ; what, in your 
view, would be the attitude of the people of India in 
the event of a prohibitory policy being attempted.?- — 
AVell, 1 do not think that the people of India have ever 
considered the possibility of anything so impracticable. 
But, of course, it would cause the utmost irritation 
amongst the people who are accustomed to take opium, 
the Sikhs especially, and the Sikhs are the backbone of 
our arnry in India, which we shall have to double in 
the course of the next 10 years. I do not know whether 
it is desired to make them disloyal. 

1612. But you wish to put it to us too, that in your 
view, they would be made disloyal if we made this 
attempt?— I do not say that from mj' knowledge of 
India; I say that from my knowledge of human 
nature. 

1613. Then, in looking at the state of public feeling 
in this country, on this question of opium, which 
lias been reflected in the debates in the House of 
Commons, and in the divisions which have taken place 
on the motions made in the House of Commons, can 
you offer any suggestion by which the relation of the 
Government of India to this question might be in 
some degree modified ? Do you think that it would 
bo desirable and practicable that the Government of 
India should cease to take the position of a manu- 
facturer and a producer of the article, and should 
limit its intervention to the imposition of duties for 
revenue purposes? — Well, but what would be gained 
by that ? You would only have a very much larger 
production, if it were free. It would exactly do what 
some people do not wish to be done — it would stimulate, 
instead of stop the production, as far as I can see. 

1614. You would recommend that no change should 
be attempted in regard to the position of the Govern- 



:M1NDTKS of EN'IDENCE. 



109 



ment of India as holding the monopoly of the opium 
production H — In tho [jresent temper of public opinion, 
which of conrse must be respected more or less, 1 
would not stimulate it. My own personal feeling 
is that I would not stimulate the production of 
opium; I would invito tho Government of India, as I 
have invited thorn on many previous oecasionp, to con- 
sider it as a mere matter i.f common sense. Opium is 
a luxury, it is oidy used by people who can aiiord it, 
and whatever fables may be woven by people aboat 
Ohina — which we cannot absolutely disprove — tho whole 
body of evidence regarding India shovvs thiit it does no 
harm whatever. You take off a burden of five millions 
sterling of taxation from the peasants of India ; and 
you place it upon a foreign country which is perfectly 
^villing to pay it, and you are asked by irresponsible 
people to abandon that revenue at a time when j-ou 
want tho revenue very much increased, and when you 



must increase it, unless 3'Ou lose India. It is madness. 
Thcro, is no justification for it; and if I might make 
one observation on my own account 

1615. \Vo shall be very glad to hear arything that 
you would like to siiy to us s' — It is merely with re- 
ference to what you were saying. I would say that it 
seems to me that much of the ovidence which has been 
given be"oro the Commission by missionaries in Ohina 
is flawed and tainted iu two ways. The first is this ; 
that the missionaries, since this has been raised into a.n 
ethical question, are compelled, in their own personal 
interests, to denounce it ; and secondly, that, as in 
China, every disturbance is due, not to opium, but to 
the missionary teaching, the missionaries are compelled 
to throw the odium of the popular dislike to them- 
selves on to the opium question. That is tho whole 
history of this agitation. 



Sir 
J.. Griffin, 
K. C.S.I. 

15 Sept. 1893. 



The witness withdrew. 



Mr. IIeney Lazakus called in and examined. 



Mr. II. 

Lazarus. 



1616. {M.V. Mowlray.) 1 understand that you wrote 
to the secretary of tho Commission wishing to give 
evidence upon this sub.iect ? — Yes, sir. After reading 
the report in "The times" of Monday of certain 
evidence which had been given before the Commission, 
and which caught my attention accidentally. 

1617. At present I believe you are living in St. 
Pancras ? — Yes, sir. 

1618. But you resided in Ohina I believe, in Shanghai ? 
—Yes. 

1619. Between 1878 and 1881 P— Yes, sir. 

1620. Well now, will you tell the Commission any- 
thing which you wish to say. You were engaged m 
commerce, I believe, there P — Yes, sir. 

1621. Nob in the opium trade, I believe ?~Absolutely 
not, nor had I any connexion with it. 

1622. What was your business P — I was the first to 
erect a tannery in Shanghai cju the European system, 
and at times I had as many as from 300 to 350 men in 
my employ, but the average number was 200. 

1623. All natives of China?— Every one. xU first 
they were superintended by three European overseers, 
eventually I only had one. We trained some of the 
natives as overseers in the various departments. 

1624. Were you brought in constant and daily com- 
munication with your men? — Yes, and not only with 
them, but with merchants and the go-betweens of the 
merchants — the native dealers in Shanghai of nearly all 
trades . 

1625. Now will you tell the Commission anything 
you wish to say as to the effects which you noticed of 
opium-smoking on the classes with which you were 
brought into contact ?— Well, first of all, take, perhaps, 
the higher classes, the dealers, and those persons m 
business with whom you were brought into contact .^— 
It is 15 years since I first went to China, and it is 12 
years since I left. 

1626 (Ghairman.) Just make a continuous statement? 
I have' taken out a list from my old contract book of 
some 38 names of men with whom I was in communica- 
tion and if this Commission goes to China, which I 
hope it will, they will have an opportunity of consulting 
them I had a conversation with Pong-kee and Ken-wo ; 
with one of those two men I had a particular conversa- 
tion with regard to opium, in fact out of curiosity I 
often had some conversation with nearly all the native 
dealers I came in contact with, and I may say paren- 
thetically that there are very few men m that class 
of life who are not capable of carrying on a inore 
intellectual conversation than you could ever hold 
with men of a similar class in this country. 1 think 
I could best give evidence to this Commission it 
they would allow me to refer to two or three state- 
ments which appeared in "The Times report of the 
evidence given before the Commission, and ivhich occa- 
sioned my writing to you. One of the missionaries 
said that " in the cases where a man is an opium smoker, 
" during the time that he is under the mdueuco of the 
" druc he can do his work as well as anybody, and 
" probably owing to the extra stimulation, a little 
" better than most folks, but when a man is under the 
" influence of the depression which follows he is abso- 
" solutely worthless, and it is only while he is under 



" the stimulation that he is of value.'' Well I can only 
say that with regard to the whole of my men I never 
once had one of them unfit for work as a consequence 
in any way of the use of opium. 

1627. And were they all opium smokers ? — No, sir. 
Certainly not all opium smokers but they were taken 
indiscrimina.tely from the labouring classes, and numbers 
of them were opium smokers on theirown confession. My 
manager invariably asked them when they came, because 
he was informed that an excessive opium smoker was a 
lazy man. You may imagine that very few men will con- 
fess to going to excess in it, and in fact tho wage that a 
Chinese labourer receives makes it absolutely impossible 
that he could do so. I believe that the average wage 
of a labourer throughout China is from four to five 
dollars a month. That will give you some idea, espe- 
cially if he has to keep a family on it, how much he 
can have to spare on such an expensive luxury as 
opium. As a matter of I'act, many of these men were 
opium smokers, the high wages the^- earned at the 
tannery afforded them the means, but never one of 
them was incapacitated fur work through opium. And, 
moreover, at first I used to employ a European doctor 
in the tannery, having so many men ; but after a time 
my manager discovered that a Chinaman who was 
taken with colic, diarrhoea, or constipation, those 
being some of their most common troubles (possibly 
but not probably due to opium), could be treated with 
patent medicines more efficiently than with anything 
else. I do not wish to mention their names, because 
I do not desire to advertise these patent medicines, 
which were many of them largely compounded of 
opium. I used to keep a stock of them, and when- 
ever tlie laen were taken ill they were given u, few 
doses, and they etfected a remarkable cure. I never had 
any trouble with the management, and amongst all the 
men that I employed I never had one who was so 
seriously ill as to be away from his work for three 
days at a time. 

1628. May I take it that 30 far as your experience of 
the workmen you employed went you found that those 
who smoked opium were no worse than those who did 
not P — ^Absolutely not, sir. Then in answer to a 
question by Mr. Pease one of the missionaries said : 
" He never met a Chinaman who defended opium- 
" smoking; they all looked upon it as a thing to be 
" ashamed of." That is such a statement that I do not 
believe you could get one intelligent, unprejudiced 
Englishman who had lived for six months in Shanghai 
or any other part of China who would not say that 
it IS a terrible perversion of the truth. I have not 
only been brought into contact with the working 
classes, but I have also come into contact with many of 
the belter classes who wei'e opium smokers, and I 
positively went in for it myself, just to see what it was 
like. I shall be able to give the Commission an abso- 
lutely certain answer to the question why it will never 
be taken up generally by Englishmen. It is simply 
because it is too slow, it takes too much time. For one 
little pipe of opium you have to lie down in order to 
smoke and roast it before a lamp. It requires *Dme- 
thing like three or four minutes before you can do away 
with one little ball. I tried to produce sleep, but it had 
very little effect on me, after having smoked eight 
pipes in succession. 

3 



110 



IXDIAX OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Mr. H. 1629. How long did you continue that? — Only three or 

La-.arus. four times. I did not want to acquire the habit. I 

could not afford to waste the time. I was only 

\:> Sept. 1893. wanting to go through a number of pipes in order 

to experience thaL delightful sleep which I had heard 

was produced, but the Chinese rather laughed when I 
snoke to them about it. 

ItilJO, That I take to be your explanation of the 
reason that the Europeans in China do not take to 
opium-smoking ? — I say that no European who has the 
slightest energy in him ever could take to opium 
smoking. 

1631. Have you anything to say with regard to the 
higher classes of people that you came into contact 
with, the dealers and the merchants ? — Yes, I should 
have come to them a little bit later, especially that one 
that 1 got the most information from, Eong-kee. That 
man had teeth absolutely black, he was about as 
marked a specimen of an excessive opium smoker and 
eater as could be found, and he was a notorious one in 
Shanghai. I can say without hesitation, without fear 
of contradiction, that for intellectual power, energy 
and straightforward dealing in business there was not 
a man amongst the native traders who would surpass 
him. oSTot only I, but my brother, whom I had the 
misfortune to lose in Cbina, and all the merchants 
that I spoke to and knew intimately, agreed that there 
was no straighter broker than Pong-kee. I said to 
him " Why for smoke so much opium ; your teeth are 
black?" His face was so wasted that you might 
almost have made your hands meet in the hollow of 
his cheeks. "' Give it up," I said, "you would be so 
'■ fine a man if you gave it up." He Avas very tall and 
broad, but as thin as possible. I would not like to say 
the value of the opium he smoked a day, but it was 
something considerable. He told me " Suppose I do 
" not smoke one day, I must die.'' The effect of 
leaving it off one day would have been his death. I 
am telling you this to show that, even in the case of 
a really excessiv.j smoker, it is not true to say of such 
a man that he is wanting in intellectual power ; and 
to say that he is lazy is simply an absolute lie ; and I 
would not confine my observation to that one man, but 
would instance others whose names I picked out : 
Cheng-ohing, Ah-ling, Wah-oheong, Yuet-sung, Poong- 
tai, Olio-kei, Fau-chung, Ae-dong. Nam-woo ; there are 
38 of them, and at a distance of 12 years' time it is 
impossible to say which were the opium smokers 



among them. Many were opium smokers. 1 imagine 
there are very few gentlemen of any position in China, 
I mean to say men who could aft'ord it, who do not 
have an occasional pipe, but the statement that a man 
must constantly go on increasing and increasing the 
dose, is about as true as that an Englishman cannot 
drink without going on till he gets drunk, or having got 
drunk once he must get drunk every other time. 

1632. (CUairman.) We are much obliged to you for 
the testimony you have given from your point of view 
and expressing the general results, according to your 
judgment and j'our experience ; is there anything 
further that you want particularly to say ? — Yes, my 
Lord, there is a most important question. You have 
been told here that the cause of the dislike among 
the Chinese of Europeans is the opium traffic. I say 
without any hesitation that that is the grossest mis- 
statement. I went up the country — and I have 
brought with me a map of the interior — for six 
weeks. I was in a houseboat with a native crew. I 
visited, amon.gst other places, one of the missionary 
stations, and for situation I never saw anything more 
delightful. You go up to the missionary station, which 
was on the top of a hill, by two zig-zag paths, and 
on the one side there was a series of pictures of 
what would become of Chinamen if they did not get 
converted. They were being pushed down by the forks 
of devils and stirred about in a fire. It seemed to me 
infinitely sad that civilised men should offer that as an 
inducement for conversion to anything. I went back 
to my boat, and I asked my ''boy " to come with me — 
a boy is the name for a butler at Shanghai, he is at 
the head of your service — I asked the ''boy " what did 
the people think of these things, and he gave me to 
understand what I imagine this Commission and any 
sensible man must realise, that the missionaries and 
their ways are really the great trouble and the great 
drawback to the liking of Europeans all over China. 

1633. I do not think we can go into the missionary 
question ; we are only here to deal with the opium 
question ? — I may say with regard to my domestic 
servants I had a very large staff, and I know that they 
smoked opium, because when sometimes the smell was 
rather too strong — although the natives' quarters are 
separated from the English — I utod to ask them to 
desist ; but never one of them, all the time I was in 
China was incapacitated in any way from having used 
the drug. 



The witness withdrew. 
Adjourned till to-morrow at 11 a.m. 



At the House of Lords, Westminster, S.W. 



SIXTH DAY. 

Saturday, 16th September 1893. 



PKESENT : 



C. E. Bernard, 
K. C.S.I. 

IG Sept 1.S93. 



Tire KiGJiT HoNouKABLE LORD BRASSEY, K.O.B. (Chauisian, riiEsiDiNs). 



Sre James B. Lyall, G.C.I.E. 
Sin. William Rohekts, M.D. 
Mk. R. G. (-1. MowBiiAY, M.P. 



Sir CiiAiiLEs E. Beh>'AKD, K.C.S.I., the Acting 

1(131. (Oliairmcm.) I believe you have received letters 
iron) hvo gentlemen who were summoned to give 
evidence before t'ni.s Commission f — Yes, my lord. 

M:'.m>. From Sir Joseph Fayrer ;ind Sir Hugh Low ? 
—They ivere both unable to attend. 

Ili3i;. But yon ha^ e received letleis from them in 
which they r.'presoiit their view.'* upon the qiiestion 



Mr. Akihue Pease. 
Mr. H. J. WnsoN, M.P. 

Sir Charles E. Behnaud, K.C.S.L, 

Actiiiij Secretary. 

Secretary of the Commission, examined. 

which is before this Commission ? — They have sent 
papers to be submitted to the Commission. 

1037. Would you kindly read the communications 
which you have received ? — 

The opinion of Sir Jotjoph Fayrer, Iv.CS.I., surgeon 
ami physician of 30 years' experience and practice 



MINUTES OP EVIDENCE. 



in 



in many parts of India, on the opium question, to 
be submitted to the Koyal Commission, he being 
unable to be present. 

" It is most strenuously urged by a large and in- 
Muential and, as I belieye, thoroughly conscientious 
party, that the use of opium either by eating or 
smoking, is attended with the most pernicious results 
causing, sooner or later, demoralisation and destruc- 
tion _ alike of body and mind. They seem to be of 
opinion that the degraded condition of the habitues of 
opium eating or smoking houses, whether in India or 
Ohma, represents the natural, and one might almost 
t^ay, the inevitable results of the use of opium . Ideally, 
one would wish that stimulants and narcotics, such as 
alcohol, hemp, opium, tibacco, chloral, and sundry 
others of recent invention, had no existence ; but, un- 
fortunately, human nature is so constituted that it will 
not forego the use of these drugs, each and all of 
which is liable to be abused, and when so abused, pro- 
duces the most degrading and pernicious effects upon 
the human race. One of the curses of our own country 
and of our own race is the abuse of alcohol— the 
amount of disease, misery, and crime produced by it is 
incalculable. With any who might enter upon a cru- 
sade against this form of indulgence, which should 
correct the abuse and limit the use of it within rea- 
sonable bounds, I confess that I should have the 
greatest sympathy; but I should never expect to 
succeed in excluding alcohol altogether from use as 
food. There cannot be a doubt that, in the great cities 
of India, in China, and probably elsewhere in the East, 
the abuse of opium is cari-ied by a certain, but a 
limited number to a great extent, but" to nothing like 
tho extent to which the abuse of alcohol is carried. It 
is well known that over large areas of country in 
India, by tens of thousands of people, opium in 
moderation, is habitually used by the Natives ; and 
that they have a thorough belief in its efficiency to 
protect them against malarious diseases ; and that 
under its influence all the functions of life arc bettor 
performed ; that life is not shortened ; and that jihysioal 
and mental conditions are improved and not deterio- 
rated. This I know to receive tte support of those 
who know far more about the subject than I do, and 1 
am not aware of anything to controvert it. 

It is said I believe by its opponents, that the tendency 
of opium eating is ever to increase — to induce, it may be, 
slow but sure degradation and destruction. I do not 
believe this. In the coarse of many years' experience in 
India I have known so many who have been habitual 
consumers of a small quantity of opium without in 
any way suffering from it, or without any tendency to 
increase the habic, that lam unabJe to agree with those 
who state otherwise. One of my most intimate friends 
— a native nobleman, with whom I frequently asso- 
ciated — died after the age of 80. He was a man of 
remarkable intellectual, mental, and physical vigour, 
of wonderful powers of endurance of fatigue, a, great 
sportsman, a splendid shot, as complete an example of 
a native gentleman as one could wish to see. He was 
an opium eater and consumed his two or three doses a 
day with unerring regularity. This he had done for 
many years when I became acquainted with him. He 
never increased the quantity, nor had he done so for 
several years ; he showed no signs of degeneration, 
mental or physical, or anything suggestive of a per- 
nicious habit. It must be in the experience of old 
residents in India to have met with similar cases. 

"It seems to me that this crusade against opium, 
though well meant, is not reasonable, it is as unfair 
to argue from the habitues of opium-smoking houses, as 
it is from the frequenters of gin palaces and other 
haunts where the most degraded forms of alcholic abuse 
may be met with in our own country. Both, in 
extreme cases, are an evil; but the moderate use either 
of alcohol or opium must be left to the discretion of 
those who feel called upon to take them. 

' ' There is another drug which is also in frequent use 
in India, cannabis sativa, the hemp, which is infinitely 
worse than opium. I find no objection taken to this 
drug by the anti-opium party. I can see no medical 
ground that would justify violent interference with the 
custom in question. 

" Control and limit the abuse of opium, but to inter- 
fere with and suppress it altogether seems to me 
unjustifiable. I know no reason why opium should be 
interfered with and alcohol be exempt. The evils of 
the one are far inferior to the evils of the other, and 
the moderate use of both — as I have said — should be 
left to the discretion of those who want them. It seems 



to me to be. clearly proved that the moderate use of .5,-,. 
opium is not attended with the evil results ascribed to C.E.Bernard, 
it, though, as with alcohol, a certain number of persons K.C.S.I. 
will abuse it. 

"I repeat, therefore, that on medical grounds I see 16 Sept. 1893. 

no reasons for abrogating the present regulations con- 

corning opium in India. I confine myself entirely to 
the medical aspect. 

" J. Fayker, M.D., F.E.S. 

" 31st August 1893." 



Tho opinion of Sir Hugh Low, K.C.M.G., who was for 
many years employed as administrator of Pcrak 
and other States of the Malay peninsula under 
the British Government. Sir Hugh Low was 
unable to attend and give evidence during the 
time the Soyal Commission sat iu London. 

" Such knowledge as I have on the subject was 
acquired in the protected Malay State of ' Porak,' in 
the Malay Peninsula, and in the colony of ' Labuan ' 
in Borneo ; and I am decidedly of opinion that there is 
no such abuse of the drug in those places as would 
make it politic further to interfere with its importation 
and sale, than is done at present under the existing 
Government regulations. 

" The practice in ' Perak ' was to lease for a term 
of years, usually three, the right to collect the Groveru- 
meut duty of 7 dollars per ball on all opium imported, 
the sole right to prepare the crude opium into the State 
in which it was used, and also the monopoly of the 
retail sale of the prepared drug. The regulations under 
which the ' farm ' as it was called was conducted 
provided a maximum price at which opium might be 
retailed by the farmer, reserved to the Government 
control over the quality, of the drug supplied to the 
public, and provided for the licensing of retail shops. 

" The ' Revenue farm,' thus created was disposed 
of by tender, but not necessarily to the highest biddei-. 
Debts for ' Ohandoo,' as the prepared opium was 
called, were not recoverable in the courts. 

" There were three classes of the population which 
used the drug. 

" 1st. The labourers, chiefly Chinese, employed in 
tho extensive mining industry. These for the most 
piirt used it moderately, and as «■ prophylactio against 
miasma, and formed by far the most numerous and 
the poorest class of the consumers. 

" 2nd. Shopkeepers, artizans, clerks, domestic ser- 
vants, and others who were in possession of lai'ger in- 
comes than the workmen in the mines. There was a 
greater tendency to abuse in this class than in that 
preceding. 

" 3rd. Wealthy Malays and Chinese of the highest 
social positions. 

" My impression is that two-thirds of the Chinese 
population were smokers of opium, but amongst the 
Malays very few of the country people were addicted 
to the practice. The criminal classes of both nation- 
alities used it freely. 

" Very few cases came under my notice in which 
the habit of smoking opium appeared seriously to 
affect the general health, but such was undoubtedly 
occasionally the case. 

" The quantity of opium imported into Perak was 
very considerable, and the revenue derived from it by 
the Government was large in proportion. I will 
endeavour to procure on my return to London some 
figures on these points. 

" I never heard of any case in which crime was com- 
mitted under the influence of opium, and persons under 
itu influence give no trouble to the police. I have been 
informed by respectable Chinese that its use iu modera- 
tion clears the intellect, and renders men more capable 
of transacting important business. The use of opium 
was prohibited in the prisons of the State, and deten- 
tion in these, where the sanitary conditions were 
excellent,the food good, and labour regular, invariably 
resulted in improved physique of the inmates. 

" Hugh Low. 

'■ 11th September 1893." 



The following extract was submitted to the Royal 
Commision by Mr. H. IST. Lay, C.B., as it bears upon 
the charge that opiuiti was being forced upon the 
Chinese. 

O 4 



112 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



„. ExTHACT from a Tkade Oieculab, issued by Messrs. Bush 

C E B r -d Brothers, merchants of Newchang, a port of N.W. 

' K.C.S.I. 



China, under date January 1881. 



16 Sept. If393. 



***** 
" Opium. — It -vrill be noted that the import of Malwa 
is about one-half of what it was in 1871*, the dilibreiice 
being 1,0G4 piouls (chests)= taels, 608,754.. This falling 
off is due, we understand, to the increase of the native 
poppy, as well as to the higher value ruling for the 
Indian drug. The latter still obtains a great preference 
over the others, but consumers cannot afford to pay 
too great a price for the superior quality. There is 
plenty of evidence to show that the iiuthorities of this 
province at any rate do not use very serious exertions 
to prevent the consumption of the foreign drug, but on 
the contrary they prohibit the cultivation of the poppy 
because as was pointed out in a proclamation some 
time ago, it is essential to keep the military chest %udl 
sup-plied by the duty levied on Indian opium. Tliis, 
we take it, is rather a strong argument against thr 
assertion that opium is forced upon the Chinese.'' 
* * * -^ ^^ 

Birsii Broiiieus ' 



LuiEH from Mr. T. W. Du:?r, for )!0 years a merchant 
ill China, whose offer to give evidence came too 
late for the Koyal Commission to take advantage 
of it; ordered Ijy the Commission to bepiinted 
with the previous letters submitted fo them. 

" In answer to your note of yesterday I send you 
herewith my ideas about opium. Having lived in 
several of the outports in China during 30 years, I have 
become somewhat familiar with the habits of the 
natives and have had a great deal to do in business 
with men who indulge in the opium pipe. My opinion 
is, that under the circumstances of their living, food, 
climate, and habitations, opium to theto has no dele- 
terious effects, indeed quite the contrary, for it is a 
positive need and they could not do without it. In 
what I say here, I do not refer to the occasional abuse 
of the drug in some of the large towns like Shanghai, 
because there as in all large places, you may come 
across scenes of debauchery, perhaps not so bad as seen 
in our large centres of ' civilization ' arising from 
alcoholism. 

"The Chinese in Southern and mid-China feed on 
rice, vegetables, tea, and other foods containing a large 
per-centa.ge of water, with now and then a taste of beans, 
curd, and perhaps once or twice a year a little pork. 
In these provinces they sometimes take a little spirit, 
a d being warmed it becomes very weak ; this luxury 
does not extend much to agricultural districts. They 
live in malaria and never if they can help it on high 
ground; their houses principally consist of a ground 
floor without boards, with the smallest of rooms above 
this, — generally averaging about 14 feet to the I'oof c.r 
under. Their highways are canals into which all their 
towns drain. Their fields, heavily manuied with 
human ordure, eventually drain into these waterways. 
They have no waterworks to filter for them. The 
floating population is namorous and more so than in 
any other country; penned up in badly ventilated 
' holds,' living in a stifling atmosphere over bilge 
water, without opium taken as a febrifuge they could 
not possilily exist. You will easily understand, I think, 
that under all these conditions ojaum is a positive 
need. It is all very well for fully fid and stimulated 
faddists, who take wheaten food and meat with other 
articles of nourishment, to think they can do without 
opium, but let them live under these conditions for 
soms years. They would in my opinion change the 
subject very quickly. You never hear of foreigners 



taking opium, in China for reasons that they live under 
very different conditions. Indeed foreigners, whether 
missionaries or traders, are far better off both as regards 
food and dwelling than in this country. 

" The Chinese who live in mountainous districts and 
ill the north where alcohol is taken do not have so 
much desire for opium. It is only on the malarious 
plains or fenny and marshy districts where it is con- 
sumed and needed, and even here generally in a mode- 
rate form. 

"All nations I contend need a stimulant, either in 
the form of strong food or drink, and this is my own 
experience through most of the countries of the world 
either by land or sea. 

" Again the Chinese have but little amusement either 
out or indoors, not being an excitable race they derive 
consolation and pleasure, — securing health too,. — with 
their pipe in their solitude (perhaps with less harm 
than our people do in their music hall or village 
tavern). The cleverest and best men I have always 
found smoke opium occasionally, and workmen and 
boatmen especially are always the most active who 
occasionally indulge in the small amoitnt they can 
afford to spend on this medicine (as it is called in 
China). 

" In conversing with foreigners Chinese will some- 
times speak against the habit of opium smoking, and 
especially so to missionaries and others who they know 
have not the habit. It is mere politeness on their pai-l- 
to bo always in accord with their gni'Kt or host. I havn 
never in all my life heard any Chinese blame cnr 
Covernment for its introduction, on the contrary it i ;■; 
understood to have been grown in the country for llie 
past 100 years. It is now called 'foreign medicine ' I v 
all those who ^ell it, because the best come.s from India, 
the next best from Persia, and some from Turkey. The 
nati re opium burns the throat, and until lately ami.s 
seldom used alone, generally mixed with the Matwn or 
Patna drug. In 1865 I passed through large field,s of 
poppies near Pekin on the road to the G-reat Wall, and 
it would then have been grown in larger quantities 
generally, but for the unsettled state of the country, 
after the Taeping rebellion. Proclamations were at 
this time given out prohibiting its growth, not because 
they did not require opium, or on moral grounds, but 
on account of the difficulty of raising the revenue : 
opium taking smaller bulk than rice or grain, could 
more easily evade the barriers, while the Pekin authori- 
ties could not have existed without the revenue of 
thirty taels per picul, collected through the foreign 
customs on their account. The opium revenne lias 
been of the greatest service in centralizing the Govern- 
ment at Pekin and has taken what would have been a 
powerful weapon out ot the hands of the different 
viceroys. 

" While having the greatest respect for some of our 
missionaries and others engaged in keeping up this 
continual cry against this Indian opium, I cannot help 
thinking they are not sincere, and if so are dreadfully 
mistaken in trying to govern the habits of (iOo millions 
of people ill China and India. I am afraid it is (iinie 
more in the way of advirtisement and in the ztal for 
their cause. I would like to think better things of 
them, but when I occasionally read such distorted 
accounts in their prints, 1 cannot help feeling that tliey 
Mveniit minding their own shortcomings. The nafiun (if 
Cliiiia is quite ( apable of taking care of itself. Pln>i- 
oally there is no Kner raec of people on the globe than 
the Cliinese, who have arrived at the economic science, 
of living cheaper than any other race, and wlio can 
if need be work harder than any other and in any 
clime. I fear they are our masters now, without the 
swoid, for economy of living must make them so, a.^ 
the Americans and Australians have uheady found nut. 

"Yours sincerely, 

"T. W. Duff. 



Mr. 

W. Lochharl, 

F.R.C.S. 



Mr. Willia.m Lockiiaut, F.R.C.S., called in and examined. 



IH'v;, il'liairman.) Will you bricllyhtale. tin positions 
which you have tilled, and the places in which you 
have resided, where you have had the opportunity of 
forming an opinion, on the <)uestions which have been 
f^ubmittcd to this Commission ?— With pleasure, my 
Lord. I went out to China as a medical missionary in 
the year 1838. I was located for a time at Macao, I 
then went to Chu^an, then to ]Sring-])0, and finally to 
Shan.g-hai, and during the latter part of my rosirlcncft 
in China, 1 had a large hospital in Peking, I had 
some lalf-d('/,ei, hospitals in these various parls of 



China,. \ left, Cliiia- in IMIil 1 was 2-'; yn,ii„ at work 
as a medical missionary tbeii', having had op]«ir- 
tunity of constant intercourse with the people, and 
was mixed up with thenl in all their life. I am abso- 
lutely a medical missionary, that is my voeation. 

1639. (,s'/r W. Boherls.) Then you have had a v,.i\ 
large experience ? — Very large. 

1640. Of the ellVcls of opium in China?— In China 
alone, except -wha.t I have .'■een incidentally in England. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



113 



1d41. What has beoii your impression acquired 
during all these jcars of the effect of opium on the 
people of China ?— Many of them take it in small quan- 
tities. It is not particularly injurious to them if they 
continue to take it in small quaatities, but ib is so 
seductive a thing.that they very generally increase it, ; 
ana if th.ey fall into evil ciroumstanceii and become 
poor, they take to it in larger quantities. When they 
become the victims of the opium habit, it is decidedly 
parnicious and injurious to them, in every respect. 
'I'hey fail physically, their mental faculties are not so 
particularly impaired, when they are not in the act of 
smoking opium, but their general system becomes so 
deteriorated, and so debased in every way, that the 
people who are the victims of this habit, are not allowed 
to give evidence in any legal proceedings, in any of the 
courts of justice in China at all. They are not con- 
sidered as people of the community who are above 
corruption, and they would not be allowed to give 
evidence in any legal proceeding. 

1642. Does that description apply to habitual opium 
smokers who are temperate, or merely to those who 
take it in excess ? — The latter part of my description 
applies siniply to those who take it to excess, as a 
means of dissipation. 

1643. The people who correspond to our drunkards ? 
— Exactly ; and I may state that the proportion of 
1 hose who take it in m.oderate quantity is about 10 per 
cent. ; those who take it in excess, from 3 to ft per cent, 
of the total population, and that is all. "When ever 
those large numbers are stated as victims of the opium 
habit, or when people say that it is one-third of the 
population, or one-sixth of the population, they are 
totally wrong, because there is not enottgh of opium in 
ihe country to enable them to take it, to the extent 
ivhich they ought to take, if they took it in excess. 

Imeaii by " ought to take," that they are necessitated 
to take it to relieve them from the excessive langour, 
.•ind the pain aud distress they sutler, from the want of 
their usual stimulant. 

1641, I think it luis boon rather cxjjlained to us that 
I hose numbers apply, not to the .'.ntire population, but 
nnly to the adult? — I never sav/ a child smoking opium 
in China, it is entirely confined to adults. 

16 15. With reference to the adults, it might be said 
roughly that about ten per cent. ? — About ten per cent, 
take it in small quantities. 

1646. And that is your view P — That is my view. 

1647. I believe with that explanation, it is the view 
geneiviUy given, that it is not ten per cent, as applied to 
the entire population, but merely to the adult; that it 
does not amount to more than one per cent, of the total 
population ? — Just so. 

1643. That would be about right do you think, adult 
males I understand?— Women also take it, but not to 
the same extent. I have no means of knowing the 
dilFerence between the numbers of females or males that 
take opium. Women do smoke opium, but not so 
many as men. 

1649. Would it accord with your general experience 
in the parts of China that you have been in, that about 
one in ten oi the adult males are opium smokers ? — 
Yes. 

1650. And that about seven per cent, of the adult 
makes use it moderately and without injury, and about 
three per cent, use it injuriously? — About three to five 
jier cent, use it injuriously. 

1651. And from five to seven per cent, uee it modc- 
lately ? — Moderately. 

1652. And without injury P— Without injury. 

1653. Or even beneficially ? — Well, the trouble is, 
when persons begin to smoke opium they ai-e apt, 
i:nder almost all circumstances, to increase the quantity, 
and then they become victims to what 1 call Hie opium 
l.abit. I should not say that even the moderate use of 
o[>ium was beneficial. 

1654. But you would call it still the opium habit if it 
were persisted in moderately ? — Well, you might ; by 
■ he victims of the opium habit I mean those ivho sufler 
IVom the excess. May I say as to the reason why 1 
limit the numbers in the way that I do ?_ The reason of 
my limiting the numbers is this, the importation of 
Indian opium is roughly about 100,000 cwt., and the 
native growth is about the same quantity, so that the 

e 80970. 



amount of opium used in China is about 200,000 cwt., 
which is reduced by the making it into smokable 
extract, about 20 per cent. — 20 or 25 per cent. — in fact, 
one-third of the opium is mere vegetable extract ; and 
so the smokable extract is reduced to one-third, and 
if you divide that among the population it comes out 
very much in the figures that I speak of. 

1655. But we are told that the quantity of native 
opium is four or even ten times larger than that im- 
ported ; I think that is the nature of the evidence given ? 
— I have no means of contradicting the statement, only 
personally I do not believe it. I have no present 
means of contradicting the statement, because I am 
absent from China, but I very seriously doubt that 
there is any more than the 100,000 piouls that I 
.spoke of. Some years ago it was 60,000 piculs. I 
know it has increased to 100,000 piculs. It may bo 
a little more, but not very much. Practically, I think, 
that is about the correct statement. 

1656. You evidently think that the statements made 
about the amount of China opium are not suificiently 
exact to be relied upon ? — Exactly so. 

1657. It is some time since you left ? — I left in 
1864. I have kept up my connexion with China ever 
since ; I am just as much in connexion with China, 
now as I was when I was living there ; I am just as 
much interested now in what is going on in China, 
as ever I was, and I have endeavoured to keep au 
courant with this question of native opium. 

1658. The information that reaches you is not to the 
elTect that the production of native opium is 
increasing? — Yes, it is increasing but not beyond tho 
figure that I have stated. Tt does constantly increase, 
I know that ; si jce I came home it has increased from 
60,000 cwt. to 100,000 cwt. 

1G69. That is the native opium ? — The native opium. 

1S60. But then that is an estimate I presume ? — 
There is no cen.sus of the population, nor is there any 
regulation of the opium hinds to that extent which 
would enable you accurately to define the quantity ; it 
is partly a guess I admit. 

1661. I am going to ask you a very ijeneral question : 
Is it your impression from all your ktiondedge of this 
question that there is any national effect of an injurious , 
nature, produced on the Chinese by the consumption of 
opium ? — In the proportion of those who use it in 
excess it is very injurious. In my knowledge of various 
commercial men, artisans, skilled workmen, with whom 
I was personally acquainted and whom I knew inti- 
mately in all their relation? of life, I know that they do 
take it, and it does not interfere with their business, 
nor when they take it to a small extent does it interfere 
with their health or their life. A man who smokes ■ 
opium moderately will consume about a drachm a day, 
those who take it to excess will taks from, four to ten 
drachms a day. 

1662. That is of the smokable extract ? — Yes, the 
smokable extract. 

1663. Containing about one-third of opium ? — No ; 
the smokable exti'act is very puj'a upiiim. It is one- 
third of the crude opium. 

1664. What name do they give to the thing which is 
actually smoked ? — They call it Ta-yen or great smoke. 
Everybody knows that they cannot smoke crude opium, 
it must be reduced to a watery extract.* 

1665. It is mixed with some vegetable matter ? — 
They take as much smokable extract out of the opium 
as they possibly can ; it is the pure smokable extract 
that they use. 

1666. Yon have taken some interest in comparing in 
your own experience the effect of alcohol and opium? 

— Yes. 

1067. What is your experience with regard to the 
comparison of tho effect of opium in China on the 
Chinese, and the efi'ect of alcohol on the people of this 
country? — Opiitm is personally hurtful to individuals 
Alcohol is a much greater social evil to the individuals 
that take it to excess. The action of opium is more 
personally injurious than that of alcohol ; as a social 
evil there is no comparison between the two. He that 
takes alcohol to excess is a nuisance to society, a man 

* Note by witness :— The crude opium is boiled with water ; the solu- 
tion is strained and boiled down to a certain consistence soff ewhat 
thielier than treacle, and that is the smokable extract. 



Mr. 

W. Lockhart, 

F.R.C.S. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



114 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Mr. that smokes opium to excess subsides into quietness 

W. Lochhart, the moment he has had his pipe ; though he may be 

F.R.C.S. cruel at home and sell his wife and his business to 

buy opium, he is not publicly a nuisance, and I believe 

16 Sept. 1893. (to go further than your question) that alcohol is an 

— infinitely greater curse than opium. 

1668. You mean that the use of alcohol, as practised 
in this country, is a greater curse to the community 
here ithan the use of opium, as practised in China, is 
to the Chinese ? — Exactly, that is my distinct and 
definite opinion formed on very large experience, and 
Tvith great care taken in the elimination of all extra 
circumstances, to enable me to form a definite opinion 
about it. 

1669. As regards suicide, opium is used for suicide? 
— Very largely. 

1670. Yery largely? — Vei-y largely. The smokable 
extract when it comes into a person's possession is 
generally in a little cup, sometimes a man who is 
respectable and with some amount of money has a 
little silver box that he keeps it in ; the common 
people use a little porcelain cup for it. When wishing 
to commit suicide, they put their finger into the cup 
and get out about a drachm or two of the opium, put 
into their mouths and very soon die. It is very much 
more fatal taken in that way than through the use of 
the pipe. 

Ifi71. Some of it is destroyed by the heat of the 
pipe, I suppose ? — Very little ; when in the pipe it does 
not burn ; the morphia is not burnt out of it. Of 
course in the sinokable extract, and in all the circum- 
stances in which opium is used, the power is the 
amount of morphia in the drug, that is of course, as 
you know, what affects people ; and when the pipe is 
submitted to the lamp it is only held just so that it 
will begin to smoke, then they draw in that smoke 
into their months and into their lungs as far as they 
can introduce it, and afterwards expel it. The morphia 
is not destroyed ; very little of it in fact is destroyed, 
it never burns away when applied to the lamp, it is only 
heated. 

167'2. Speaking of suicides again, is it your imjjres- 
sion that the uge of opium in China provokes a ten- 
dency to suicide P — No, I think it is only when they get 
into very grave difficulties, into debt and circumstances 
of that kind, family discord, and so on, tint they take 
opium. Women especially use opium as a means of 
suicide, sometimes after quarrelling with their 
mothers-in-law, because the females all live in one 
compound. Their mothers-in-law are sometimes very 
disagreeable, and to spite their mothers-in-law, and to 
place the death at their door, they will take opium. I 
have known that again and again, njany I have been 
called to, and when 1 asked,' "What is the reason of 
" this?" I have been told, " Oh, she quarrelled with 
her mother-in-law." 

1673. Then your implication is that the use of opium 
does not cause an increase in the number of suicides, 
and that if they did not use opium as a mode of suicide 
thev would use some other mode ? — They would hang 
themselves generally or cut their throats ; I have s(!en 
every plan that they adopt — sometimes drown tbem- 
selves. I have been called to them under all these. cir- 
cumstances— cutting their threats, hanging themselves ; 
but more generally in the large majority the suicides 
were by taking opium. It is the pleasantest mode of 
committing suicide that I know of. 

1674. Speaking of those persons who have adopted 
the habit in excess, I presume they applied to you 
in the hospital sometimes ? — Very largely ; many 
thousands. 

1675. From your experience in the hospital, did you 
find that they were curable V — Yes, sir. 

1676. How would you express your opinion on that 
point ; were they as easily curable as a confirmed 
drunkard? — Quite as curable. I think more so. They 
used to come to me under the despair of the increased 
quantity of opium that they had to take to produce the 
given effect of quietude, and beg to be delivered from 
the evil that thus came upon them. They were victims 
of this increased quantity, and they would remain in 
the hospital. I required that they should remain with 
me, give me their pipe, promise that they would not 
buy any more opium, and in fact I prevented it, as far 
as it was possible to do so. And then I used to help 
them by medicine of various kinds, stimulants, and 
with some opium in the medicine that I gave them, 
nnd grfirlually diniini'^bed the opium, nnd <^a.ve thfni 



tonics and stimulants, ammonia and such like, and 
they got well in large numbers. I do not say that some 
of them would not sliu back again into the opium 
habit after they left me, but they were delivered from 
the vice and went out to their usual avocations as before 
they were submitted to the opium. 

1677. Well, I think we have got pretty completely 
from you, your impressions a? a medical man of the 
effect of opium in China ? — May I state one thing, I 
ivish to emphasise very particularly one thing regard- 
ing the Qse of opium in China. We do not, and never 
have forced the use of opium upon China. It is re- 
peatedly and over again stated, that we force the 
Chinese to take opium, JSTow, wo have never done that ; 
it is only taken the same as Manchester goods, and 
or.ner articles of merchandise ; we have never forced it. 
The British Government had this legacy of opium from 
the East India Company, they continued the cultiva- 
tion, that is the management of the opium farms in 
India, and sent the opium to China, it was never sent 
by Grovernment vessels; it was never, except in the 
finst instance, sent even by the East India Company in 
their vessels ; it has always been sold in Calcutta, and 
then sent by merchants to China. It is said that when 
the vessels go along the coast, they frighten the people 
to make them buy opium. It has never been the case. 
The Bishop of Gloucester once said, and this has been 
quoted over and over again, and it is because of that I 
wish to enter my most emphatic protests — he said th'it 
we took a ball of opium in one hand, and u, revolver in 
tbe other, and said to the Cbinese : "If you will 
not buy this opium, I will shoot you." That is an 
exaggerated statement altogether. There is not a 
particle of truth in anything regarding the forcing of 
opium upon the Chinese. It has never been done, and 
is certainly not done at the present time. I have been 
so much mixed up with the ]icople of China that I 
know all the particulars of their lives, and I know that 
there never was a question raised that either the 
Government or merchants have forced opium open 
them. It would l)e very desirable if the Government 
could relieve itself of the cultivation or the support of 
the poppy trade in India, and that they should give 
up the opium "go-down," nnd throw trade in opium 
free. You cannot abolish the growth of opium in 
India ; it would be timply impossible ; but it might bo 
very much diminished, and the English Government 
should not engage in trade, still less should they 
engage in sueh a thing as the opium trade. Eor the 
Enghsh Government to be mixed up with the produc- 
tion of opium is, I think, a most injurious circumstance, 
and both as a missionary and as a man, I should verv 
much deprecate the continuance of the present systeji 
on its present grounds. Let them take the duty on it as 
it leaves the coitntry, but give up the "go-down," 
reduce the area of cultivation as much as iiossible, and 
thus show that practically we wish to save, as far as 
possible, the Chinese from excess in the use of opium. 

1678. (Mr. Wilson.) Some years ago, you published a, 
book on this question? — Yes, I did. 

1679. "\\"nich I have here ; you quote therein a paper 
that was prepared partly by yourself in 1855 ? — Yes. 

liiSO. That is nearly 40 years ago now ? — It is. 

1681 . Are yoar views substantially the same now ?— 
Very much the same. I have had more experience, 
which certainly has modified some circumstances ; one 
cannot live 40 years among people without in some 
degree modifying his views. If I have modified my 
opinion 1 will at once say so. I do not know to what 
you are alluding. 

168ii. I notice you state there, as you hare stated 
this morning, that you treated several thonsaiid cases 
ia the hospital at Shanghai ? — I did. 

1683. Did those people come to the hospital on 
account of the opium habit, or was it that they came 
for other diseases, and i ncident ally were opium smokei's ? 
— Because they were opium smokers and wished to be 
relieved from the habit, not from other diseases. I do 
not say that a man might not ha-\o some trouble 
besides his opium. Very likely he would have severe 
diarrhoea and colic, the result of opium smoking, wbicli 
he would wish to be relieved from as well as the opium. 
He knew the opium produced this; and substantially 
they came to be relieved from the opium habit. 

1684. I think wo have had it stated hei-c that a large 
number of the people, if not llie great proportion "f 
those who take opium, take it to relieve pain and suf- 
fering from other diseases. That is not your opinion ? 
— No, some do. not the lar^o proportion of them. If 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



115 



the question is : Does a large proportion of the people 
take opium to be relieved of pain P I simply say it is 
not the fact. They tako it as a means of dissipation. 

1685. I see that at another place you say, "It is so 
cheap that the ordinary working c]asses,the labouring 
population, can very readily supply themselves with 

" what they want ? "—With opium '? 

1686. Do you think that would bo the same now ? — 
In regard to native opium it would. 

1687. That applies to native opium ? — Native opium. 
The Bengal opium is more expensive, but it is far better, 
and rich people always take it ; there is more morphia 
in it, it is more effective, aud it is a very much dearer 
ai-ticle. It is not mixed with so many other ingredients 
us the native opium. The native opium is very impure. 

1688. Have you known many cases of Europeans 
taking the native opium ? — No. 

1689. Anyp — To a small extent, yes ; a large extent, 
"JSTo. 

1690. Why do they not?— It takes a great deal of 
time to smoke opium. European merchants have not 
time to do it, and there is a distaste on the' part of 
Europeans to take opium, they do not do it. If they 
'iid use opium, they would take it in the form of 
Itiudannm ; they would not smoke it ; and when taken 
in the form of laudanum about one-tenth of what is 
taken by the pipe -ivould produce a very marked effect 
upon them. 

1691. I take it in China it is almost entirely smoking ? 
— Entirely. 

1692. There is not any eating? — Not very much. It 
i3 largely smoking. 

1693. When you speak of taking opium you refer to 
smoking ? — The man who is in the habit of taking 
-jpium, and not having time to go and smoke, would put 
Uis finger in the opium cup and put the opium into his 
mouth, but that is not the usual plan. 

1694. I see that you refer to this, that they continue 
this smoking for a longer or shorter time according to 
the efi'ect wished to bo produced ? — Tes. 

1 695. After the effect has got to a certain point, are 
Ihey sufficiently masters of themselves to be able to go 
on up to the limit of producing the precise ett'ect ? — 
Yes. 

1696. They can P — Yes. If they give up the pipe and 
lie down they go to sleep, but if they keep themselves 
awake chey can go on smoking opium for a lengthened 
period, until the point must come when they are obliged 
to put down the pipe ; then they become sleepy. 

1697. I suppose that with a drunkard in London the 
more he takes the Ics;.' control he has P — Yes. The use 
of opiiiLii in very difl'erent, it produces a tranquilising 
effect and they become tranquil ; they are not violent 
and boisterous as a drunkard is. 

1698. Now, why do i<hey lie down ? — Partly for 
resting, the use of the pipe almost necessitates their 
lying "down, that is the use of it as the Chinese use 
it; they lie down with their face, it may be, on a level 
with, thie lamp they use. The bowl of the pipe is not 
a large bowl like the bowl of a tobacco pipe, and the 
little mouth of the bowl is brought to the flame and 
the resuMng fumes inhaled. They could not do it 
very easily if they were sitting up ; they could do it, 
but that is the usual habit, a mau lies down to take his 
pipe. V/hen people are visiting in China they do not 
sit on chairs. Generally at least the host and his chief 
guests sit on a large Icind of couch or platform as you 
may call it, and it is usual for a host to say to his 
friend: "Let us have an opium pipe," and then it is 
brought in. and laid on this couch on which they sit. 
It is not a sofa, jfc is a platform. I should say it is 
more easy for the'n to do it in that way than sitting up 
and smoking. 

1699. With reference to the general question of the 
introduction of opium in China, and whether it was or 
^■, as not forced on China by us, had you any greater 
opportunities of knowing about that than any other 
student of Blue Books, and the official documents ?— I 
think so. 

1700. How would you know the opinions of various 
statesmen in India and China ?— Partly by conversation, 
and generally by knowing what took place at the time 
the opium was first introduced to China by the Arabs. 

1701. We have had a statement about that at very 
creat length, and wo have various documents and so 



forth. What I wanted to know was whether you in 
China, where I take it you were at that time (and I ask 
especially because I suppose there were not very many 
daily newspapers, or anything of that kind), had direct 
personal opportunities of knowing any better than the 
members of this Commission would have from careful 
study of the official documents P— -I knew all the 
official documents that came out, I had the opportunity 
of conversation with the Chinese on various subjects of 
this kind ; I had no further opportunity than that ; I 
knew the official documents that were published, they 
were open to me to read, and I spoke to the Chinese 
about them. 

1702. (Mr. Mowbray.) To what do you attribute the 
general belief, which we have heard exists among the 
Chinese, that we have forced opium upon them ? — I 
have never heard it, sir. 1 have never heard anything 
like it. Such an accusation was never made to my 
knowledge. 

1703. {Mr. Pease.) With what society were you con- 
nected as a missionary? — The London Missionary 
Society. 

1704. Were any of the members of your church 
opium smokers ? — They were no longer members of the 
church if they used opium. 

1705. You did not allow any opium smoker to be a 
member of your church ? — -No. 

1706. Why P— Because of the disgrace they brought 
upon themselves and their fellow-converts by smoking 
opium. 

1707. Eirst they were respectable .men when they 
begun to smoke opium, were they not P — Yes, but they 
got degraded by that process, and then the constant 
progress of degradation that goes on with all the 
victims of excessive use of opium. You could not trust 
them. 

1708. With regard to the proportions which you 
gave us, were you speaking from your own personal 
knowledge in 1864 ? — -Yes. 

1709. With regard to the proportions of opium 
smokers, you have had no personal opportunity of 
obtaining information since 1864? — Except of the 
quantity that is produced and imported. 

1710. Calculating from the returns P — Erora the 
returns. I know as much about it now as I did then ; 
it is a matter of calculation. 

1711. I gather that you have a very strong belief 
that tlic Indian Government ought to free themselves 
from any connexion with the growth of opium? — 
Certainly. 

1712. {Bir J . Lyall.) You have a strong feeling that 
the Indian Government ought to free themselves from 
direct participation in the growth of opium ? —Yes. 

1713. ![ suppose you are aware that the Anti-Opium 
Society now, does not ask that the Government should, 
abolish its monopoly, and is of opinion that the aboli- 
tion of the monopoly, and the substitution of an export 
duty would lead to the largely increased amount of 
opium sent to China ? — I doubt it. 

1714. That is the opinion the Society has expressed ? 
— -I know, sir, but I do not accept it. 

1715. You said that opium smoking is prohibited by 
a rule of the Church among Christian converts? — 
Yes. 

1716. Is drinking spirits also prohibited? — They 
never do it ; it is done so seldom, that it is not counted ; 
if they did, the same rule would apply to them : but 
the Chinese do not habitually drink spirits. I have 
seen drunken men in China, but they do not drink, 
they are not a drinking people ; they do not drink 
spirits. I would not say that they never do, but it is 
so seldom, that we never take any particular account of 
it. I have seen drunken man in China, but very 
seldom. 

1717. In Japan, where the import of opium is pro- 
hibited by Government, the drinking of spirits, the 
same sort of spirit that is used in China, prevails very 
largely ? — Samshee, yes. I believe it does. 

1718. And the Japanese G-overnment, as I sawmyself 
when I ivas there, raises a very heavy revenue from 
spirits ? — Yes. 

1719. Do you think it is likely that, if opium smoking 
were stopped in China, spirit drinking would prevail ? 
—I think not. 

P 2 



Mr. 

W. Lockhart, 

F.R.C.S. 

16 Sept. 18S3, 



11(5 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Mr. 

ir. Lockhart, 

F.R.C.S. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



1720. You think if you could stop the opium smoking 
that the people would be temperate ? — I think they 
would ; they are not disposed to drink spirits ; they 
do not favour the doing of it. As to what the actual 
advantage would be I will not prophesy 4 but I think 
that they would not give way to spirit drinking; i 
think the Chinese would not do it ; they are a stalwart, 
strong people. After the Anglo-Saxon race I believe 
they come next ; they are splendid soldiers ; they are 
of line phj'siqne, and can exhibit a great amount of 
strength in tlieir ordinary avocaiion';. I like the 
(lliine^c people exceedingly; tin 'v are a superior Tare 



of men, very diti'erent when they become officers of 
Government; but in their ordinary life they are a 
noble set of men, and I extremely like them. I like 
living among them, and I greatly admire them. 

1721. It is the general opinion, I believe, in China 
and Japan that they are much more trustworthy and 
honest in business, whether as merchants, or as labourers 
than the Japanese are ; have you not heard that ?— 
They are a better people altogether than the Japanese ; 
the Japanese are far below the Chinese in physique, in 
mental power, in general iibilily. and certainly in 
edncat ion. 



The witness withdrew. 



Dr. G. Dods 



1722. (Chairman.) Will you state the positions that 
you have filled, and the places where you have resided, 
and the opportunities which you have had of forming a 
judgment upon the question which hiis been referred 
to the consideration of this Coirimission P — I resided 
for six years in Canton, and pa."t of the time I had 
charge of a native hospital. 1 was 12 years in Hong 
Kong, and part of the time I had charge of the jail 
in which there was n, large number of Chinese 
prisoners. 

1723. In what service were you engaged ; wore you 
under the Government ? — No. 

1724. In private practice? — Yes. but I was in the 
Government service when I was attending to the 
prisoners in Hong Kong prison temporarily. 

1725. In the Chinese Government service? — No, 
Hong Kong ; the British Government. 

172G. (Sir ir. Boherts.) Can you tell us generallj' 
what ai-o the effects of opium smoking upon the popu- 
lation of those places where you resided ? — The efl'ccts 
are not at all evident generally. 

1727. You have, of course, seen? — I have seen, of 
course, numbers of opium smokers, and people have 
been pointed out who were called victims of the habit, 
emaciated wretches ; but in many cases on making 
inquiry, I found that these people were dying of some 
disease, and smoked opium to alleviate their pain ; but 
of course, there are other cases in which the constitu- 
tion was ruined simply from the use of opium, but I 
consider them very rare. 

1728. And did you think that the habit of opium 
smoking was prevalent in the population, high and 
low ? — To a, moderate degree. A great many of the 
best men smoke opium, the merchants and officials. 

1729. Could you say roughly what proportion of the 
adult males ? — No, I could not. 

1730. One in ten, for example ? — I should not think 
so many. 

1731. Not so many? — 1 should not think so. 

1732. But the great majority of the consumers smoke 
moderately ? — Moderatel}', yes. 

1 733. Under the circumstances you did not observe 
any harm? — No, on the contrary. Tor instance, some 
of the very shrewdest merchants in Canton I have 
known, before they completed a bargain with our 
English merchants for tea or silk, to ask him to excuse 
them for a little while they went home to smoke a pipe 
of opium, and they came back and concluded the 
bargain. It cleared their brain, and they coiild do 
their business much better. 

1734. Such persons never went to an opium shop in 
their lives P — No, they used opium in a moderate degree. 

1735. Did you observe that there was a strong ten- 
dency to increase the quantity, or that the habit 
.should degenerate into a vice or an excess P — No, I did 
not observe that. Perhaps when smokers grow very old 
and had no ))usiness to attend to, (ben probably they 
increased the quantity of opium, or in the case of men 
who were I'uined they very often became victims to it 
just as a drunkard does in this country. 

173,1;. Did you observe that it was very difficult for 
those who had contracted the habit to throw it off if 
they were willing ? — It would depend upon this very 
greatly ; if they had the mind to stop, they used to 
come to the hospitals to get some sort of cure, as 
they called it, for the opium smoking, and in many 
cases they were relieved of the habit. I used to give 
them stimulants instead of the opium, and in the case 
of the prisoners in the jail they were not allowed to use 
opium ai all, and a great many of ihe criminal classes 



Di!. Geoege Dons, called in and examined. 

are opium smokers; and I think in only two occasions 
did ] require to give these prisoners a dose of ojiium 
alter it was once stopped. The cessation of their 
stimulant did not seem to do them any harm ; of ccurte. 
they were depressed for a day or two, but it never 
bcemed to do them any harm. 

J 737. You slopfcd it suddenly ?— Yes, suddenly. 

1 738. Arc you sjieaking of a large number of cases ? 
— Yes, very large. There were 5(jO or 600 prisoners in 
that jail, and I should think fully one half of them would 
be opium smokers. And myo■l^n servants also were 
oi)inm smokers, at least, some of them were; but they 
rarely s-moked except once a month when they gotlbei.- 
pay. It was ju.st part of a sort of amusement in which 
they indulged when they got their pay. They used to 
smoke once a month, but at no other time. 

]73;i. They went on a sort of spree? — Exactly; it i^ 
the iiccompaniment to a spreo in China. "When a nnin 
gives a dinner to his friends they always finish up with 
a pilio of opium. 

1740. There must be a good many analogies between 
the opium habit and the alcohol habit? — I'es. In that 
respect they indulge in it as a sort of luxury ; it is only 
the rich who can afford to indulge in it really. I lave 
seen some of the natives who live in the marshy 
districts who say that they could not live there witliont 
smoking opium, because they always got fever, ami 
they complain of what it costs them to buy the opium. 

1741. (Mr. Wilson.) I gather you do not agree with 
Dr. Lockhart in what he has just said. Would you tell 
us very briefly in what respects you differ ? — I did 
not notice that I disagreed with him very much. If 
you will tell mo on what points you thought \\u 
dicagrccd. 

1742. Do you think you substantially agree ? — Well, 
no ; not in all that he said. 

1743. Perhaps it would take less time than if I were 
to ask you questions ; you heard all he said, will you 
tell us on what points you did not agree p 

1714. (Ghairman.) AVas there any statement made by 
Dr. Lockhart in which you do not feel inclined to 
agree ? — I agree with him in the main. 



1745. On what points do you disagree? — Well, I do 
not think there are quite so many opium smokers as ho 
mentions, but then, of course, that varies very much in 
different parts of China ; and then again he remarked 
that there would not be much drinking going on. That 
may be in the part of China in which he resided, but 1 
have seen a good deal of spirit-drinking going on, 
especially in Hong Kong. 

1746. (ilfr. Wilson.) When did you leave China? — I 
left it in 1877. 

1747. I thought you would differ a good deal in 
regard to the number of persons who are suffering 
from other diseases and who tal^ opium to alleviate 
them. 1 gathered that he considered the proportion of 
opium smokers who did it to alleviate pain was small ? 
— Was small — yes. I agree with him there too. I 
merely mention that I have seen some oases whiili 
might have been pointed out as opium smokers, ;.mi 
which when 1 inquired I found to take opium to relic \u 
their pain or their cough. 

1718. (Mr. Mowbray) Did you consider that while 
yon were there the tendency increased — the number of 
opium smokers increased — 1 think you were in Canton 
and Hong Kong 18 years altogether? — Yes. I had no 
means of knowing that. 

171!:'. It was not sufficient to strike your attention if 
it was BO? — No, certainly not ; you can only tell that 
by the increased consumption. 



MINUTES OF EVI])ENCE. 



117 



1750. And conld you tell at all as to the proportion 
of the people who smoke native opium or Indiuu opium 'i 
No, I could not do that either. 0£ course, in Hong 
Kong they almost always smoke the foreign drug, and 



I agree with Dr. Lockhart in saying that I never heard lir. G. Dods. 

the Chiiiosc blame the English for introducing the 

drug. The only people I heard blame the English wore 16 Sept. 1893. 
the American missionaries. 



The witness withdrew. 



Mr. David McLare.v called in and e.xamined. 



1751. (Chairman.) I believe you were formerly pre- 
sident of the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce P — Yes, 
for thi'ee years. 

17-^'2. Am I to understand that in your commercial 
life jow were actively concerned in the trade with 
China" — No, my lord ; not with the direct trade with 
China. I was engaged all my commercial life in the 
wholesale tea trade in Scotland ; but so far back as 53 
years ago — my attention was called to this opium ques- 
tion, because when I was a very young man the tea 
trade was entirely disorganised by the occurrence of the 
first war, known as the opium war ; and from that 
time I began to take a very deep interest in it. 
I should like your Lordship to know that in what I say 
to-day I do not want to give opinions on the question, 
but rather to bring forward what facts I have been 
able to collect, especially from statistics of the trade 
between India, China, and England. 

1763. We shall be happy to receive a general state- 
ment from you of your views? — Well, my Lord, if the 
allegations of the demoralising consequence of the 
opium indulgence could be proved to a certainty, I 
should expect to find that the opium trade would 
not be a profitable trade in the end. I hold that there 
is nothing more certain, than that a thing cannot be 
morally wrong and commercially or politically right. 
I resolved to make an inquiry into the effect of 
this opium trade on our legitimate trade with China. 
I do not say that the results which will be brought out 
are the consequences of the opium trade, but I wish to 
submit very carefully the figures which J will lay 
before you. If we saw in a village a public-house, and 
next door to it a draper's shop, perhaps kept by brothers, 
and saw the public-house crowded, we would know 
very well that the draper's shop would come vei-y 
badly off. Now that is just what I think the figures 
that I shall bring before you will prove. Perhaps it 
will be necessary to premise that the trade with China 
is quite singular in several respects. In the first place, 
between India and China, it was a monopoly in the 
hands of the East India Company up to the year 
1813; and it was a monopoly between the United 
Kingdom and China up to 1834, when the East India 
Company's charter terminated. It is admitted on all 
hands that the trade has been a most anomalous one ; 
so much so, that 12 years after the termination of the 
East India Company's charter, a special Committee 
of the House of Commons was appointed to mquire 
into it. I shall bring before the Commission the 
result of the inquiry. I have prepared two tables, my 
Lord, and they will enable you to follow the figures 
which I give, much more easily. The trade is remark- 
able for this, that it has been very much affected by 
chan<^e=' in the treaty and political relations between 
the two countries. I do not know that any trade has 
been so much afi"ected in that way as the China trade 
has been. Taking the year 1834 as a starting point, the 
second line on the table before you will show the state 
of trade between India and China at the time of tlie 
expiry of the East India Company's charter. You will 
see there that the entire export to Chma m the three 
vears following the expiry of the charter, was 3,014,770L; 
the average annual export of opium m these years 
was in roSnd figures, 2,000,000Z._l,955,236i. ai-e the 
figures-forming, you will observe, 66 per cent, ot 
the amount of the exports as a whole. Then ™w 
cotton, which was the great export of India to China 
at that time next to opium, was 878042^., forming 
25 per cent. At the same time you will observe that 
the imports into this country from China were 3,779,385*. 
almost entirely tea; and the average of the exports ot 
British manufactures at that time-entirely m the 
hands of the Ease India Company, was 8u0,159i. I 
now call your Lordship's attention to the next great 
change that took place, namely than which followed 
what was called the opium war. You will find in the next 
Hue, during the years 1837, 183^ and 1839-the three 
yea;s preceding the opium war-the following statistic : 
The export from India to China had risen to 4,597,47W., 
and the opium to 3,209,9582., or 69 ner cent. : raw 
cotton was l,189,162i., or 25 per rent 



per cent. ; raw 
I will not call 



attention to the other columns till afterwards. Then 
followed the opium war, terminated by the Treaty of 
Nankin, which forms a good starting point for com- 
parison. I propose to call the attention of the 
Commission to the three years preceding the opium war, 
and the four years following it, to Bee what the results 
of the Treaty were. By the Treaty of Nankin there 
were four other ports in addition to Canton opened to 
British commerce, notably the port of Shanghai at the 
mouth of the Yangtse-Kiaug, and it was reasonably 
expected that there would be a very large addition to 
the commerce of this country wi!h China. That, how- 
ever, was destined to disappointment. You will observe 
that there was a very great increase in the imports 
from China. After the Treaty of Nankin they rose to 
5,323,388L The exports to China from the United 
Kingdom were 1,783,888?., but then the exporls of opium 
from India for the same time were 3,7l2,920/., or 74 
per cent, of the entire amount of the exports from that 
country. The state of the trade was so bad at that time 
that the Committee to which I have referred was ap- 
pointed by the House of Commons, Their report, 
which was a unanimous one, was to the effect that the 
result of the extended intercourse with China had by 
no means realised the just expectations which had been 
naturally founded on a freer access to " so magnificent 
!i market," as they termed it, and they also reported 
that in the great proportion of the trade, the losses at 
that time, taking both ways, might be freely stated at 
from 35 to 40 per cent. 

1754. There had been a considerable increase, had 
there not, in the exporls of British produce and manu- 
factures to China ? — Yes ; I was coming to that. There 
was a considerable increase in the amount, but the trade 
was ruinous. Both cotton and woollen manufactures 
showed a decline on the years preceding the report of 
the Committee ; and the cause they assigned was the 
difficult}' of providing a return from China. They 
accordingly recommended a reduction of the duty ou 
tea at the earliest period which might seem fit in the 
wisdom of the House. It was not till 1853 that the 
reduction began to take place, and then to only a limited 
extent. The immediate result was as had been anti- 
cipated ; the greatly increased importation and con- 
sumption of tea. Taking the five years before the 
committee's report, say 1842-46 after the Treaty ol' 
Nankin, the average imports from China to the United 
Kingdom had been 5,323,3882., whereas in the five years 
following the reduction of the tea duty they were no less 
than 9,157,001Z. or a diff"erence of 3,833,6132. of which • 
a considerable part, it is right to say, was due to the 
importation of silk which at that time was very high in 
price. But the natural expectation that such a greatly 
increased import from China would be accompanied by 
a corresponding increased export to China, as the Com- 
mittee anticipated was entirely disappointed. The 
average increase, you will observe, of these years after 
the reduction of the tea duty was only 180,0002., not 
one twentieth part of the increase of the imports. The 
Chinese were paid for these largely increased ship- 
ments to Britain by a largely increased export of 
opium, that increase being more than 2J millions. If 
you look at the first column you will see that after the 
Treaty of Nankin it was 3,712,9202. and that after the 
time of the reduction of the tea duty it had risen to 
6,365,3192. The export of British manufactures average 
at that period, you will observe, 1,964,2422. That brings 
us to the year 1857, and there is one incidental fact 
which I should like to bring before the Commission in 
that year. In that year — one of those which is embraced 
in the period before you — there were four countries or 
rather nations, each of which imported almost the 
same amount from Great Britain, namely about from 
1,400,0002. to 1,700,0002.; these nations were Chili 
with a populsition of 1,400,000, Egypt with 4,000,000, 
Cuba and Domingo with 4,400,000, and China with 
400,000,000, and that, you will observe, was 23 years 
after free trade with China. This small export to China 
could not be attributed to foreign competition. In the 
same period the shipments of British produce and manu- 
factures to all countries had more than doubled, instead 

P 3 



Mr. 
D. McLaren. 



118 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Mr. 
D. McLaren. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



of the fractional increase of the shipments to China. 
The next great change which tools: place in the rela- 
tions between the vwo countries was effected by the 
Treaty of Tientsin, negotiated l)y Lord Elgin, which 
followed the second China war. The provisions of that 
treaty, as the Commission are doubtless aware, were 
very important. The Yangtse-Kiang was opened, up 
as far as Hankow ; other ports also were opened, and 
. — most important of all — the opium importation was 
now legalised. Up to that time it had been a smug- 
gling trade. If yon will allow me to go back upon 
the Treaty of Nankin — there was one impoi-tant thing 
that I forgot to mention, namely, the ceding of the 
island of Hong Kong, which was given " for the pur- 
pose of careening and refitting ships." These words 
were put into the treaty, upon the authority of Mr. 
Matheson — not the Mr. Matheson who was examined 
here the other day, but his uncle, of Messrs. Jardine, 
Matheson & Co. — " to pacify the Emperor, who did 
did not contemplate more than that." Notwithstanding 
the most strenuous efTorts to get the Chinese Govern- 
ment to legalise the importation of opium, at that time, 
they deteminedly refused, and the trade still remained 
a contraband one. In the course of time the possession 
of Hong Kong rendered the " receiving ships," which 
Mr. Donald Matheson spoke of here the other day, 
unnecessary, because " go downs " or warehouses were 
built in Hong Kong, and it very soon became an 
enormous depot of opium ; and that, notwithstanding 
that the G-overnment of Britain had entered into a sup- 
plementary treaty, in which they bound themselves to 
discourage smuggling. That treaty was from the very 
first a dead letter. I have gone back upon that because 
it introduces the question of the legalising of the opium 
trade. The results of that great change will be brought 
out by contrasting the figures of the five years fol- 
lowing with those of the years immediately preceding, 
of which I have already spoken. The Commission will 
observe that the results there brought out arc, in round 
figures, an increase in the imports from China to the 
United Kingdom of 7'29,000Z. ; the exact figures are 
9,sytl,I03Z., against 9,l.'i7,001L ; there is an increase in 

the exports from the United Kingdom to China of 
2,-17(),lt)0L ; but thurc is an increase of the exports of 
opium to China of :j,174,892Z. I cannot tell how the 
trade with this country was distributed amongst the 
various Chinese ports ; but I shall not be surprised if it 
be found that there was no great increase, if any, at 
the port of Canton ; not only because the opening of 
other ports to the north threw it to a disadvantage, but 
in consequence of the fearful incident, if I might call it 
so, of the bombardment cf Canton for 'J7 hours, while 
during that time only two shots were fired from the 
walls upon our fleet. That you will find, my Lord, in 
Lord Elgin's private letters. I cannot too sti'ongly 
press upon the attention of the Commission the impor- 
tance of studying that volume of Lord Elgin's private 
letters. I have a suspicion that, if one could get access 
to the originals, the Commispion would perhaps find 
that eVen more information is to be got there. He 
says, as regards the origin of the war, " that wretched 
" question of the ' Arrow ' is a scandal to us. Nothing 
" could be more contemptible than the origin of the 
" existing quarrel . I thought bitterly of those, who for 

• the most selfish objects arc trampling imdor foot 
" the ■" 

17-J6. I do not think we want to go any further into 
the history of the Chinese wars P — I will afterwards 

1756. "We have heard very full statements on both 
sides, and we do not want to pursue that subject 
further ? — Veiy well, my Loi'd. 

1767. It has really practically nothing to do with 
the question which has been referred to the considera- 
tion of this Commission F — Very good, I was not aware 
of that. Then the next two lines of the table refer 
to periods of five years after the Che-foo Convention, 
and in the last line which I added in writing this 
morning, you will find the present state of the com- 
mercial figures. I ought to say that the statistics 
of India, are given in parts of two years, whilst the 
statistics of this country aie giiun Irom the 1st of 
January to the 31st of December. The average of the 
annual o> porta from India to China during lSb8 — 1891, 
was 13,956,0(i.". Ex. Of these opium was 8,207,818 Ex. 
That was about 58^- per cent. The Commission will 
note how this per-centage has varied. It is now down 
to a lower figure than it was (iO years ago. It is now 
less than 60 per cent, of the whole export from India 
to China. Eaw cotton on the other hand has fallen 



from 34 per cent, to 2 per cent., but for a very 
obvious reason. The people in India are now using 
their own cotton, and part of the export to China is 
yarn, which has been manufactured in India. There 
is another remarkable figure here, the imports from 
China to the United Kingdom are now down to 
6,717, 512L, a very gt eat diflerence. You will observe 
that from 1878 to 1882 it was more than 12,000,000?., 
that diminution is consequent upon the smaller im- 
portation of tea^ — the greater part of what is con- 
sumed here coming now from India. 

1758. India ? — Yes. The next figure is a more im- 
portant one, namely, the average exports of British 
produce to China. These are now 8,585,911Z., and if 
you will cast your eye to the line above that, you will 
find that the amount of our export to China is now, 
off and on, about 8,000,000L It is needless to follow any 
comparison further in this line, because there are some 
things that complicate it so much. There is the great 
increase of the opium growth in China ; there is the 
great increase of the tea imported from India, and 
there is notably the very rapid falling of the exchange, 
which make it impossible to institute satisfactory 
comparisons. But if the Commission will turn to the 
next table there is something very interesting there. 
When Lord Elgin went out in 1857, he negotiated two 
treaties ; the one was a treaty with China legalising 
the importation of opium into that country; the other 
was a treaty with Japan by which opium was declared 
to be contraband. That treaty has been most 
rigorously enforced. There is not an ounce of opium 
imnorted into Japan excepting strictly for medicine. 
They have enforced that in a way that never could 
have been anticipated. I ought to have said that the 
United States had made a similar treaty before Lord 
Elgin went there, so that our policy, which hitherto 
had been to push the export of opium to Asiatic 
countries, — for examjjle, notably in Siam, — had to be 
entirely departed from ; and our relations with Japan 
continue on that footing till this day. Now, we had 
no intercourse whatever with Japan before that treaty, 
and if your Lordship will glance at the state of trade, 
given every four years in succession, the result is very 
striking. It begins with 1860-63, the average for those 
years was 481,792Z,, and it goes on — I need not quote 
the figures, they are before you — but you will observe 
it rises steadily until the last four years in the table — 
where it is 3,707,444?., that is to say, very nearly the 
half of what we send to China with a population of 
400,000,000, while that of Japan is estimated at about 
4iJ millions. Now, as I said, I do not express any 
opinion ; I submit these figures for the Commission to 
inquire into. I believe it is almost impossible to resist 
the conclusion that the very flourishing state of the 
trade with Japan, as compared that with China, is due 
to the absence of the disturbing element of opium. 
But that is not all 

1759. You yourself desire to draw that inference ? — 
I draw that inference, I may be wrong, but I submit 
the figures. 

1760. It is an opinion ? — That is an opinion, but 
these arc facts. I make myself responsible for these 
figures. 

1761 . You recognise that Chinese ability to purchase 
British manufactures and produce has been prejudicially 
affected, has it not, by the deterioration in the quality 
of their tea ; the Chinese tea has been less in demand 
in England ? — No doubt. 

1762. And therefore Chinese ability to buy British 
manufactures and produce has, to that extent, been 
impaired F — It has to that extent been impaired. 

1763. That is a consideration apart from the opium 
question altogether, is it not F— Of course, to that 
extent. 

1764. So far as it goes ?— Yes, but then on the other 
hand, they are importing opium very largely from 
India. If you look back — I tbrgot to call j'our Lord- 
ship's attention to the note at the foot of the ]u'eceding 
table — it will be observed there, " The column Total of 
" Exports from India to China includes treasure," but 
that is nothing, no treasure goes immediately to China. 
" The balance of treasure imported from China to India. 
" over that exported from India to China, for the thirty 
" years between 1857 and 1887, was Ex. 91.254,274."" 
Now I am not competent to give an opinion upon the 
efi'ect of the importation of silver into China upon the 
exchange 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



119 



1765. I am afraid we must not go into that as an 
opium question P — I say I cannot do it, but that is a 
fact which surely should bo noted in the present state 
of affairs in India. The immense amount of treasure 
which has been coming into India from China. But 
coming back to the Japan table, there is a small column 
in manuscript yoa will observe which has much interest, 
namely, the exports from India to Japan. Not only 
has our own trade from the United Kingdom to Japan 
increased to a large extent, but there is a very 
■flourishing trade apparently going on from India to 
Japan. 

1766. In what articles ? — Not one ounce of it 
opium. 

1767. No, I know that ? — I cannot analyse them very 
materially. 

1768. But it is not a trade in opium, we know that p 
— No, a considerable proportion, I think, is yarn manu- 
facture. 

1769. Probably from the Bombay mills ?— From mills 
in Bombay, yes. I did not take these out, for I had not 
time to do that this morning, but the last figures I have, 
I think, are Il."t;. 1,289, 787Z. Theyhave risen every year 
from India to Japan ; and that is in addition to the 
4,000,000Z. which we send to Japan from this country. 
I think that the conclusion of the whole matter is, in 
the pithy words of the Taoutai (chief magistrate) of 
Shanghai, he said, " Cease sending us so much opium, 
" and we will be able to take your manufactures." 

1770. If they spend their money in buying opium, they 
cannot afford to buy our manufactures ? — That is just 
what he said. I have the Blue Book here, but you will 
find it in the evidence as given by Mr. Montgomery 
Martin, the Colonial Treasurer for Hong Kong. That 
concludes, my Lord, the evidence which I have to give 
in regard to the trade of this country with China and 
India. But when the Commission go to India they 
will have a very important subject to investigate, 
namely, the effeoo of the cultivation of opium in India, 
both economically and morally. I have a table here 
which is very interesting, giving the number of acres 
from the year 1848 up to the year 1873, which were 
sot aside in British territory for the growth o£ the 
poppy. 

1771. We havi- had that from other witnesses ? — Oh, 
very good ; but 1 do iiof, know if attontiou was called 
to this, that it is ^-cry singular how the product of an 
acre of poppy land is diminishing from period to period. 
The first three years, from 1848 to 1851, which I have 
here, the product seems to have been 20 lbs. 4oz. an 
acre. The next three vears I have down here are from 
1859 to 1862. I take three years at the beginning of 
the series, three years in the middle, and three years 
at the end. From 1859 to 1862 the product seems to 
have been 16 lbs. 5 ozs. an acre ; in 1870 to 1873 it had 
fallen to 12 lbs. 4 ozs. an acre ; and I have a table 
beyond that, but I have not been able verify it, though 
I have it here ; therefore I do not wish to give any 
more than up to the date I have mentioned. 

1772. Any information of this kind the Commission 
will have opportunities of gathering very fully in the 
course of their local inquiry P— Yes, I merely call the 
attention of the Commission to it before going out. 
Well, there is only one other question about that, which 
I am' very anxious to bring before the Commission. 
There was some doubt expressed as to what had been 
the nature of the policy of the opium department in 
India, I think it was Mr. Penn who said that he had 
seen something in print which made him think they 
were willing to take as large a, crop as could be got. 
This is Mr. Wilson's statement of policy in his last 
Budget speech. 

1773. Of what date ?— 18th February 1860. 

1774. That is a long time ago ?— Oh, yes. I am not 
aware, however, that the policy has been departed 
from. " His Honour pointed out that in Bengal durmg 
" the last three or four years all the leading crops— 
" wheat, rice, potatoes, and sugar— had increased in 
" price from 70 to 100 per cent., and he urged the 
" necessity of a further rise in the price paid for opmm 
" that it might maintain its ground against the other 
" articles. The aovernment of India have therefore 
" sanctioned a further rise to four rupees per seer, 
" which we hope will have the necessary effect and 
" secure us against a further decline in the cultiva- 
" tion." He says further: " I have no doubt our true 
" policy is to keep up the supply to the full demand 
" and to obtain a moderate price for a large quantity.' 
Those were his words. 



1775. Well that was the view of Mr. Wilson who was 
in charge of the Finance of India more than 30 years 
ago p— Yes, an.d I am not aware that it has been changed 
since. 

1776. We shall obtain the latest view in the course of 
our local inquiry in India P — The only later one that L 
have is Sir Cecil Beadon. In his evidence befor'^ the 
Indian Finance Committee of the House of Com- 
mons • 

1777. {Mr. Mowbray.) That, I think, was 32 year,^ 
ago — 187J P — If there has been any change made since 
then it has not fallen under my notice. I am speaking 
of the question of policy. 

1778. {Ohairman.) I think we have had it sufficiently 
established that the Indian Government recognise 
that the opium income is an exceedingly precarious 
source of income, and looking at it purely from a 
financial point of view their desire is to be entirely 
independent, or as far as possible independent of their 
opium revenue P — That is so. That opinion of the 
yjrecariousness of the opium revenue is as far back as 
1831. The Court of Directors in Leadenhall Street 
warned the Indian G-overnment over and over again 
about the precarious nature of the opium revenue. 
The only other point I should like to submit to you' 
Lordship, is this : — I see there have been considerable 
differences of evidence brought before the Commission 
on some points, more especially differences in the 
evidence brought forward by missionaries and that 
brought forward by other witnesses. Novt I have 
not a single word of reflection against missionaries, 
but I think it is quite right that the Commission 
should take note of what the Govei'nmeut officials have 
to say in this matter and of what the G-overnment 
itself has said. I may mention first that, of the East 
India Company, to the effect that the Indian Govern- 
ment have always recognised the pernicious character 
of opium. Lord Cornwallis defended the East India 
Company's maintaining the monopoly of opium manu- 
facture on the ground of their thereby being able to 
restrain the consumption of "the pernicious drug." 
It is specially to be noted that in 1817, the East India 
Company's directors said, " Were it possible to 
" prevent the use of the drug altogether, except 
" strictly for the purnosc of medicine, wo would gladly 
" do it in compassion to mankind; but this being 
" absolutely impossible we can only endeavour to 
" regulate and palliate an evil which cannot be 
" eradicated." Andjt.is a very striking fact that 
in the last document which was presented by the 
East India Company to the Government before the 
sovereignty of India was taken from them, one of 
their pleas for retaining the sovereignty of India in 
their hands was that it would enable them to restrain 
the consumption of so pernicious a drug. That is the 
statement to the Government of this country. Then 
the Government offloials — I ask the attention of the 
Commission especially to this evidence — Mr. Majori- 
banks 

1779. On what date ? — I forget the date ; it was 
before the China war. I am speaking now of the 
testimony as regards the effect of opium which he had 
seen in Canton. You are aware that the Bast India 
(company' did not sell opium in Canton, it was sold by 
private m.erchants, but Mr. Majoribanks was the presi- 
dent of the Bast India Company's Select Committee 
of Supercargoes at Canton for the disposal of the 
Company's property and purchasing teas, and ho 
said: — "Opium can only be regarded, except where 
" used as a medicine, as a pernicious poison. The 
' ' misery and demoralization caused by it are almost 
" beyond belief. Any man who has witnessed its 
" frightful ravages and demoralizing effects in China 
" must feel deeply on this subject." That is the 
statement of Mr. Majoribanks. Then I have to the 
same effect Sir George Staunton. 

1.780. I think we have had this sufficiently put 
before us ; the opinion of what may be called the early 
authorities has been very fully sot before us ? — Yes. 
Coming down later, then, there is the very decided 
statement of Sir I'homas Wade, who was here yester- 
day. 

1.781. Yes, but we have had his view, both the view he 
expressed now and his earlier view, both have been set 
before us ? — I observe he attributed his change a good 
deal 

1.782. But we had that very clearly from him yester- 
day i — He attributed his change of view as to the 
moral results of opium chiefly to the action of the Auti. 

P 4 



Mr. 
D. McLaren. 

16 Sept. 18S3. 



120 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Mr. 
D. McLaren. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



Opium Aetooiation. I need not go further back, but I 
have the testimony of Mr. Montgomery Martin, and 
of Grovernor Pope Hennessey— the one as Treasurer 
and the other as Governor of Hong Kong. 

1.783. We have had so many witnesses who have 
.given us their personal impressions, that I do not think 
we want to go into evidence at second hand F — Then, 
there was Mr. Lay also, who has expressed an opinion. 

1.784. Well, we have had Mr. Lay here P— Well, he 
said that this opium trade was ham-stringing the Chinese 
nation. 

1.785. Well, we have heard Mr. Lay himself? — Well, 
that is what he said before. I think that that may 
conclude my evidence, unless, by the way, the question 
has been raised, whether we forced this trade upon 
China or not, but your Lordship says that that is 
outside the purview of the Commission. 

1.786. We had that very fully yesterday ?— Yes, 
Sometime it is alleged that there is considerable 
pressure used upon the ryots to grow the poppy. 

1.787. Well, we shall hear of that in India :■■— Yes. 
Then I would call your Lordship's attention especially 
to the refusal of the Bombay Government to grant 
licences for the cultivation of the poppy upon the 
tcvounds of its demoralising influences. They said if 
opium cultivation were allowed in Scinde it could not 
consistently be prohibitod in the rest of the Presidency. 

1788. That is in the public documents that are before 
us? — I am not aware. It was my duty to gather 
up 

1789. My duty is to save the time of the Commission 
where I know that you are entering upon points that 
have already been placed before us. We are very much 
obliged to you for the evidence you have given, and the 
interesting commercial figures you have prepared. 

1790. (Sir J. Lyall.) Your argument, sir, strikes mc 
as being mainly from an English commercial point ot 
view ?— Well, chieil}'. 

1791. YoQ would destroy an important Indian export 
trade, but the compensatory profit you expect, I gather, 
would go mainly to England, in fact, India is yoTir 
public-house to be put down, and England is your 
draper's shop ? — They are pretty analogous in the 
present state of exports from the two countries. 

1791a. Yoii mentioned that a great export of Indian 
yarns and piece goods has sprung up from Bombay to 
China? — Yes, of yarns chiefly. ♦ 

1792. And it has, I believe, continued to increase, 
has it not ? — I think it has. The last year I saw it had 
very materially increased. I have got here what is not 
before you ; it may answer your question. In 1883 to 

1887 the yearly exports from India to China averaged 
13,036,266Z., of which opium was 9,770.775/., leaving 
for all other produce 3,265,491/. ; but in the last years 

1888 to 1891 the average yearly figures arc thrse : 
exports from India 13,956,065^., and opium 8,207,818/., 
leaving for all other articles 5,748,247/. 

1793. That export of Indian yarns and piuce goods 
does not appear in these tables of yours, does it ? — Xo. 
for this reason, that when the tables were begun there 
was no such thing ; it was law cotton then that was the 
export. 

1794. DoL's not the substitution of Bombay y.-u'iis 
iuid fabrics for British goods in the China market 
account for some of the decrease or absence of increiisc 
of British exports of yarns to China P — I think it might, 
^iru tanto, certainly. 

1795. Is not the small import of British manufactm-e 
to China largely duo to the conservativr character of 
the Chinese in matters of dress, food, luxuries, &c., 
which makes them especially slow amongst all nations 
in adopting foreign clothes, ornaments, articles of 
luxury, or of food ? — That was not the opinion of the 
House of Commons. There has been no diversity about 
that, they say most distinctly in their report Uiat it was 
not duo to any disinclination to purchase English manu- 
factures. 

1796. With regard to the contrast Ijetvvccnthc growth 
of Japanosi! trade as compared with China trade, is 
not the character of the Japanese, at any rate, very 
difl'ercnt in that respect from that of the Chinese ? — 
I suppose it is. 

1797. Did you e\cr see a Japanese gentleman in 
England in Japanese i:ostumc? — I am not awaic that I 
ha\r. 



1798. You do see a Chinaman though p — Oh, jes. 

1799. He never wears any other costume than his 
own native costume? — Oh, they are totally different, I 
admit that. 

1800. The Japanese always used an European umbrella 
till he began to make thena in the European style him- 
self?— Y^es. 

1801. The Chinaman generally uses a native umbrella? 
— Yes. 

1802. You agree, [ understand, with the Anti-Opium 
Society that on moral grounds tbe growth of the pop)).y 
in India, and the export of Indian opium to China ought 
to be prohibited ? — Yes. I am not alone in that. I 
think it is prohibited, will you allow me to say, most 
rigorously at this moment in the Presidencies of Bengal 
and Bombay. 

1803. You would stop the growth of the poppy andtho 
export of opium to China ? — Of course, if the poppy were 
prohibited to be grown there would be no export to China 
of opium ; but what I was anxious to call attention to 
was this : One of the papers which I will put in to-day 
is the Opium Act of 1878, and the first article on that 
Act is to the following efi'ect : "The following are pre - 
" hibited :— (a.) The growth of the poppy " an(3 so forth. 
Y''ou are quite familiar with it. All that is prohibited 
over the whole of India. 

1804. Not the whole of India?— Yes. 

1805-6. Not the whole of British India, it is not pro- 
hibited in the Punjab for instance ?~I know that the 
Punjab is exceptional, but to read that Act one would 
nol: gather that from it. 

1807. But do you think that is a bad thing ?— Which, 
the prohibition? 

1808. Y'cs ?— A capital thing— all that the Govern- 
ment haye to do is just to witiidray the license. 

h'-0:i. That i^, you do agree that it should Ije pro- 
hiljited ?— Yes. 

1810. Tobacco is a poison in the same sense as opium, 
is it not ? — I neither chew tobacco nor smoke tobacco! 
but — allow mo to say— it is a ^-ery singular thing that 
you should mention that — tobacco is entirely prohibited 
in the British Islands for revenue considerations, for 
revenue considerations not one leaf cf tobacco is allowed 
to be grown. 

1811. Just as opium in Bengal for revenue considera- 
tions ? — In Bombay you mean. 

1812. Xo, in Bengal .P— It is not prohibited in Bengal. 

1813. Well, it is exactly the same thing, to keep 
the whole thing in the hands of Governm'ent ?— The 
prohibition in India is in Bombay and Madras for the 
sake of revenue, and the prohibition of tobacco in this 
country is for the same reason. 

1814. Tobacco you say is a poison ? — Yes. 

1815. There have been Anti-Tobacco Societies as well 
as Anti-Opium Societies, have there not ?— I am not 
aware, 1 am not a member of any such society at ary 
rate. 

1S16. Have you ever read the account given in pjr- 
cccdings of Anti-Tobacco .Societies p— No, I am net 
conversant with such accounts. 

1817. tif the evil effects of tobacco smoking ?— Ihaye 
not read that literature, but I am quite aware" that there 
IS not much good comes out of it. I think some of my 
best friends- I have a very eminent friend, one of the 
most emii;ent preaciicrs of the day, and he enjoys his 
pipe very well, but 1 think he would be as well without 
it. But that IS a matter of opinion, I am not here for 
opinions, but to give facts. 

1818. I think it may be admitted that excessive 
tobacco smoking destroys tbe nerve, involves loss of 
memory, and loss of mental and bodily cner"-Y 'ind 
sometimes leads to disease and death ; do vou 'not 
think that may be admitted .^'-Supposo I admit that 
that would be i; > reason for prohibiting tobacco a; 
compared with opium. If one man comes to that 
unfortunate end with tobacco, there are 50 or 100 that 
do so from opium. 

^ 1819. At any rate it is a useless and expensive habit, 
IS it not?— I will not pronounce an opinion, I have 
noyer tried it, some people think they would be very 
much the better for it, I should be very sorrv to 
ciindcmu it. "^ 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE, 



121 



1820. Suppose an anti-tobacco society in Spain, or 
through the Spanish Cortes, wereto propose to force 
upon the Island of Cuba, which is a Spanish depen- 
dency, the prohibition of the gro-wth of tobacco or the 
export of Savannah cigars to America, would it not 
be similar to the proposal that England should prohibit 
the grov.'th of the poppy in India, or the export of Indian 
opium 10 China, where the Indian opium, among opium 
smokers, holds much the same position as Havannah 
tobacco does among American tobacco smokers ? — 
I cannot say that I see the parallel ; but as you mention 
that, I may just mention I hold in my hand a mercan- 
tile opinion on this question. It is not from the 
Chamber of Commerce of Edinburgh, of whiob mention 
has been made— where I presided— but from another 
and older body, the Merchant Company of Edinburgh, 
and they say : — 

_" That while your petitioners are desirous that the 
principles of free trade, now happily recognised in the 
legislation of this country, should be maintained in all 
their integrity, they nevertheless consider that a traffic, 
the demoralising results of which are "essential to and 
" inseparable from its existence," is placed beyond the 
pale of the operation of these principles. Your peti- 
tioners also consider that such a traffic ought not to be 
made a source of public revenue in any form, but that 
i", ought to be prohibited by everj' Government, as are 
other trades which lire contrary to the moral sense of 
manliind. 

" May it, therefore, please your honourable House to 
rivo your sanction to sufh measures as shall bo nccea- 
■■■ary effectually to probibib the growth of the poppy 
and the manufacture of opium throutrhout the whole of 
British India ; and also to prohibit its exportation, 
when grown and manufactured in independent Indian 
States, from all the British ports in India; and your 
petitioners will ever pray. 

" Signed in name and Ijy appointment of a stated 
general meeting of the Company of Merchants, held 
within their hall. Hunter's Square, Edinburgh, this 7th 
day of February, in Eighteen hundred and fifty-nine. 
" Robert Chambers, Master." 

1821. Tou do nob think it is a parallel case? — No, 
This body many years ago asked the House of Com- 
mons to prohibit it under the signature of Robert 
(ihambers, the well-known publisher, who was then 
Master of the Merchant Company. 

1822. (Mr. Mowbray.) 1 suppose with regard to these 
statistics which you have put in, you would be as ready 
as anybody to admit that it is very difficult to draw any 
conclusions as to trade between one country and another, 
unless you took into consideration the trade with other 
countries too? — I quite admit that. 

1823. That there may be what I should call a three- 
cornered trade? — There is that here, India, China, 
England. 

1824. Exactly. Then I wanted to draw your atten- 
tion to some figures which have been laid before us 
to-day ; I wanted to draw your attention to the figures 
in the line 1842-1846, and the line 1854-1858 ?— Yes. 

1825. Yon pointed out to us that the export of 
British goods to China in those two periods shows a very 
small increase ? — Yes. 

1826. And you said that that was a very disappoint- 
ing thing ? — It was. 

1827. And you also showed us that there was a con- 
siderable increase in the export of opium from India to 
China ? — Yes, two and a half millions. 

1828. Now, I wish to draw your attention to the 
figures in the column of the export of British produce 
to India, which shows a very large increase in those 
two periods— an increase of 6,OO0,000L ?— Yes. 

1829. And also to the very enormously increased 
imports from China to the United Kingdom, which 
show an increase of nearly 4,000,000? ?— Which year 
is that. 

1830. I am taking the same two periods, 1842-40 and 
1854-1858, in your paper ?— Yes. 

1831. An increase of nearly 4,000,000L ?— Yes. 

1832. From 5,300,000L odd to 9,100,0001— Yes. 

1833. Well, now I wish to put it to you whether it is 
not possible that the increase in British trade to China, 
which might have been expected, went i.,..i. ectly in an 
increase in British trade to India, and an increase in 
the Indian trade of opium to China ?— In the first place 
i said, when I had ihe honour of beiug ,-:amuioned here, 

,. P()970. 



that I am not here to give opinions so much as to pre- 
sent the facts for the Commission to form their own 
conclusions ; but I thinlc there is not the slightest doubt 
that a large parb of the importation of goods from 
China to this country were paid for by opium from India 
to China. There is no doubt about that ; that is what I 
want to prove. A man sends home a quantity of tea 
to this country — 10,00uL worth — and the importer of 
the tea, v/hen he finds that he cannot get manu- 
factures to send out, exoepb at a loss, sends an order to 
India, and opium is sent in payment. 

1834. I wish to ask you whether it is not possible that 
although you do not get the increase directly with 
China you do get an increase, an increase which here 
figures as 6,000,0002. in the exports in that period 
to India ? — It is very possible ; but you will observe 
that the trade with India has been increasing very 
steadily all through, and also along wibh that, the next 
column — the trade to all countries. If British trade 
with China has been falling off it is not because wo 
have been losing our ground with other countries. 

1835. But that suggestion of mine is a possible 
interpretation of your figures ? — It is well worth 
consideration. 

1836. Then the only other point about your figures 
I should like to ask you about is that the trade with 
China, so far as I understand those figures, for the last 
15 years has been practially stationary ? — Very much 
so. 

1637. But that the export of opium from India to 
China during the corresponding period has been very 
largely reduced? — Very largely reduced indeed. Of 
course the reason for that is obvious. The enormous 
increase of poppy growth in China. 

1838. Still the reduction of the export of opium from 
India to China has not led to a corresponding increase 
of direct export from England to China ? — No, for this 
very good reason, that the Chinese were smoking 
their own opium, and were no more able to buy our 
manufactures than if they had smoked Indian opium. 

1839. Are you of the opinion that if the Indian 
Government were to prohibit the export ol:' Indian 
opium, the smoking of native opium would cease ? — I 
think Sir Rutherford Alcock came all the way from 
Pekin to Simla, and expressed his opinion at that time ; 
he said, " There is something at work in the Chinese 
" Government's mind which makes mo persuaded they 
" would give up their revenue from opium to-morrow 
" if we would do it." 

18-10. The only other point I should like to put to you 
is that the trade with Japan , which has grown so enor- 
mously, according to your figures, in the last 10 years 
is practically a new trade ? — Excuse me, you cannot 
call it a new trade. 

1841. Not perhaps in the last 10 years ? — No. 

1842. But taking from the original starting of your 
figures which was 30 years ago ? — 30 years ago. 

1843. Yes ? — Why I do not call it a new trade ; 
30 years ago, as things go now-a-days. We do not call 
that a new trade. 

1844. Japan 30 years ago was a new market ? — It was 
a new market then, yes. 

1845. And would you not naturally expect that trade, 
with an entirely new market in the first 30 years for 
which that market was open, would increase in a larger 
ratio than with a country which had previously been 
open ? — I should think it would increase in a larger 
ratio, certainly for the first 8 or 10 years ; but that 
will not account for the contrast when you come up 20 
or 30 years. May I say about that that the increase with 
Japan has been a very steady increase. My tables do 
not give the figures for last year; but the Blue Books 
show that the trade with Japan has not increased in 
the last year. That can be seen by looking at the Blue 
Book ; but however that may be, there is a very 
remai'kable increase, you will observe, of the trade to 
India, in this last table, which you are now examining 
nre upon. The periods are difi'erent from those in the 
previous table. They are the regular averages of every 
consecutive four years from 1860, and to begin with 
they are 19,000,000 in the first four years, and when 
we come up to the last they are o5,500,000. So that 
our trade with India has very steadily increased. 

1846. Has ueaily doubled ? — Well, not (]U'te ; 
rou'^hly speaking'. 



Mr. 
D. McLaren. 

16 Sept. 1898. 



122 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Mr. 
D. McLaren. 

1 Sept. 1 393. 



1847. If we were to take the same figures with regard 
to China, I think yoii will find the figures have very 
nearly doubled too .' — Yes. 

1848. I admit they are much smaller p — "Yes, but 
what were they when they began P if they begin small 
they will very soon double. 

1849. {Mr. Wilson.) The general purport of your 
evidence is, it would appear from figures which you 
have put before us, that in your opinion if the opium 
trade with China were to cease, we might expect a con- 
sider.T-blo increase of British exports to China ? — I have 
very little doubt of it. 

1850. That would bo a gain tc England; would not 
Ihnt bo a serious financial loss to India'r — If no substi- 
tute could be got, it would ; but I do not think it follows 
of necessity that the only resource of India in reserve 
is in opium. I may mention I spoke about the acreage 
which is given to poppy. I speak under the correction 
of gentlemen who know better than I do, — poppy land 
is generally the very best land, and the best irrigated 
land. An acre of sucb land, according to the opinion 
of an eminent agriculturist in Scotland, of whom I 
inquired, would produce nbout 1 ton of wheat or 7 tons 
of potatoes, instead of which it produces 12 lbs. 4 oz. 
of opium, if so much now. I cannot help thinking 
that there is surely some room for development there 
of what would be a material benefit both to the people 
of India and to the revenue. 

1851. I think reference was made to some trade in 
cotton to China ; is there any trade in manufactured 
cotton from India to China now ? — Manufactured 
''Otton ? 

18.5:1. Yes P — Yes, there is same now — not so much as 
of yarn twist. 

1853. Yarn?— Yes. 

1854. Would you think it at all likely that that would 
increase to any substantial extent P — I am not at all an 
authority on that subject. I have not been in India or 
China, nor have I been in that trade. 1 hand those 
figures to the Commission for their examination. 



1855. (Ghairman.) Mr. McLaren, summing up your 
evidence as given us, does it come to this, that appear- 
ing before us as a commercial man you have wished to 
press upon the Commission that it is advantageous to 
British commercial interests to prohibit the export of 
opium from India to Chma ? — That is it. 

18.5 J. .\iid has it not been j'our contention that, if 
China spent less on the purchase of opium from India, 
she might possibly be able to buy IBritish manufac- 
tures more freely ? — I said I would not express an 
opinion, but really I think that is self-evident. 

1857. That is your view of it ? — Y es. 

1858. Then yon have called attention to the stationary 
condition of the export trade in British manufactures to 
Chinp,, ai] 1 you have com|jared it with the more pro- 
gress ivo condition of our export trade to Japan ? — Yes. 

18.')!). China being a country which takes opium 
largely, and Japan being a country which refuses to 
import opium P — In which it is contraband altogether. 

1860. I think j'ou hare said that in your opinion the 
ability of China to pay for British goods lias been pre- 
judicially aff'eoted by the large expenditure by China in 
the purchase of Indian opium ? — That is my own 
opinion, 

1861. Tliat is your vievi', is it not P — But it is alto the 
opinion of Chinese statesmen. 1 quoted the Taoutai, of 
Shanghai, who summed it up in the pithy saying, 
" Cease sending us your opium, and we will be able 
" to buy your manufactures." 

18i;'2. I think, to conclude, you have also admitted 
.yourself that it may be the case that China has become 
Jess able to pay for British goods because Chinese teas 
have deteriorated in quality, and Indian tea has become 
more popular in the British market y— Quite so. 

The wittiess withdrew after putting in the following 
Tables, which are printed as part of his evidence ; — 

^Ti-ade Statistics (Tables I. and II.) submitted by 
Mr. David ]\lcLnren to the Commission, and cited 
rope.itedly in his ovidcucc given above]. 



Statistic-s of Trade between India, Ceixa, J.u'ax, and the United Ki.\c;dijm. 



Pt'iioit. 



Avt-r;i^'(' Annual Exjiorts from India to China. 



Opium. 



Per I 
cent. 



Cotton. 



Por 

CfUt. 



1K21--2.-. 
(Statistics jinftp] fed ,it lliis 
])crii)d.) 

1 ?:!:'. :j.-,. 
I'^asf India Cntnjt;ni,v ^lonu- 
poly expu'eci ls;j[. 

1837-3!1. 
Preceding tlie Opium M^ai'. 

18J2-l(i. 
.Vfter Treaty of IN'ankin. 

1854-.W. 
I'recedint' ttie second Cliina 
War. 

1869-82. 
After Treaty of Tientsin. 

1878-83. 
Under Clictoo Convention. 

1883-87. 

188S-91. 



Rx. Rx. 

l.n.^s.:^.",^ .jt i>70,4.'j.i 

(Tills lor .year' 1 1 This for year 

182-,.) 



1827. ) 
l.ti.:. 



;1,71L>.'.I2II 71 

n.">;:,:;i'.\ -,t 

'.1,31(1.211 I 87 

ii,',iii'j.8i,", ; St 



y,77ll,775 
8,2I)7,K1S 



75 



87S,II.12 

1,18(1,1 ()2 

111:17, -.77 

«7;i,.137 

l,iiils,7l,'-, 
811,401 

:i2,-.31H 



Total. 



Rx. 

l,:).,ii,ii',n 



:i,iil 1,7711 



171; 



A\'eraKe 
Am mat 

Imports ; 

China to 

United 

Kingdou;. 



Average Annual Exports nf Brilisli jirodircc 
and manufactures to 



3,082,nit 



3,779,385 



i,.s,-,.s 






9.157,0111 



111,971. i;,Ml 1 9,«S(i,.t03 
11,1C2,7S,S ., 12,602,927 I 



13,03G,2CG 



9,951,7,51 
C.717,512 



India. 



All 

Coimlnis. 



010,637 



.S5II.159 



911,500 
5.013,159 o,.323,3SS ' 1.7s.l,S88 



l,9i;i,242 



Period. 



;;,i:62,012 ' — 1821-25 
(This for year 

1827.1 

2,877,881 - 1S33-35 

1,079,259 I ll,782,'-'i20 1k;;7-39 

B,8il,061 53,997.893 1813^6 

12,821,021 1119,171,921 , 1S51-5S 



l-S,S57,9(li I 128,8511,0,83 ■ 1,8,59-03 

8,1151.823 , 29.697,715 I 210„5,80,191 . 1878-82 

7,966,183 ' .33,807,300 221,913.231 18S3-87 

8,.5S5,ail I 32,(178,182 I 2t8„558.9(,0 1SS,8-91 



N.B,— " Kx ' is the sign for 10 rupees, Ira-imrly equivident to \l. or nearly so, before the fall in exchange. 

The col I 111 in Total of exports from India to Cliina includes Treasure. The balance of Trcasnre imported trom China to India, over that exporled 
from India to Chino, for the 30 .years between 1857 and 1887, was Ex 91,2,i4,27l. The returns consulted do not give Treasure ,stalistn» el -.tu 
earlier date. 

The foregoing table is compiled for the llrst foui- colutnns from a continuous scries of returns. " India and Clnna (Mxports and Imtioi'ts) " 
38, Ses-ion 2— 1859 : 347—1871: and 234— IS'^S, The averages in the remaining coUnnns are conipileil from the ahslraets ,il the Boaril of Trade 
R^'tnrus— m the greater part of the Table, from tlio abstracts given iit Oliver and L'oyd's AliiMna-, in the remainder (lo.K'f lie ollicial returns. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



123 



II. 

Statistics of India Exports to Japan and of Beitish Exports to Japan, China, and India. 



Annual Export of Indian Produce and 
Manufactures to ,Ia[)au from 
1«85-G to 1891-2. 



Yeiir.s. 
]88:.-G 

1880-7 

1887-8 

1888-9 

1889-90 

1890-91 

1891-92 



273,504 
374,089 
711,994 
1,035,30.5 
l,'21l?,998 
1,210,276 
1,289,787 



Export of British Manufactures and Produce in Periods of Four Years 
consecutively from 18G0 to 1891. 



A\-eraRe of Years. 



1860-63 
1864-67 
1868-71 
1872-75 
1876-79 
1880-83 
1884-87 
1888-91 



Japan. 


Cliina. 


India, including 
Strait Settlements 
and Ceylon.* 


£ 
481,792 


4,298,490 


19,015,796 


1,298,713 ' 


6,202,285 


22,,',I8,137 


1 ,436,337 


9,108,834 


21,790,747 


1,846,177 i 


8,680,557 


25,411,603 


2,372,364 


7,4,'52,775 


26,037,020 


2,627,812 


8,295,891 


.33,417,794 


2,509,236 


8,1CG,521 


33,453,342 


3,707,444 


8,585,911 


35,517,083 



Mr. 
D. McLaren. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



• It "ill be observed that in this Tatilc the column for "India" includes the Strait Si'Ulements and Ce.vlon; in the other Table, India Drly is 
mf ludcil under that heading:. Ilencc the difference in the figures in the last line oi* Ihat column m the two Tables. 



Eev. T. G. Selby called in and examined. 



ISO !. {Cliairman.) You have been a missionary in 
China in connexion with the Wesleyan Mission ? — Tes, 
I was 12 years in the interior of China. 

186 1. I believe yon have published a pamphlet on 
the subject which has been referred to the ootisidera- 
tion of this Commission? — Yes, your Lordship. 

18G."i. "Will you briefly state to us what are the points 
that you wi^h to put before the Commission ? — I have 
rr:id c.irefully through the evidence eiven by the mis- 
sionai ies who have spoken ; I do not wish to go over 
the s.i:iie ground again. 

186G. Thank you ; we are obliged to limit repetitions ? 
— I an in almost complete agreement, and I believe 
that evidence is very conscientious and very carefully 
sifted. 

1867. I should like to ask you one question which you 
have suggested. Can you give us any explanation of 
the conflicting accounts which have been given by 
European residents in China as to the elTects of opium 
smoking ? — I think that the missionaries come into 
contact with very much larger numbers of the Chinese 
people. If I may be allowed to take my own experience 
as an illustration, I have addressed 100 or 200 China- 
men every day for 12 years, and the pew in China has 
perfect liberty of reply. "Very long discussions always 
follow the addresses given in mission halls, and we get 
at a very wide area of Chinese opinion in this W'ay. 
Some of the officials of the British Government in the 
difi'erent parts of China, whilst they are admirable Chinese 
scholars, do not speak the local dialects. They get 
their information at second hand ; we get ours at direct 
hand from the Chinese masses themselves, and I think 
that the judgment of the missionaries represents a very 
much wider observation of Chinese life than is possible 
oven to merchants or to consular officials. 

1868. How many years were you in China ? — 12 years, 
your Lordship. 

1869. What parts of China have you resided in ? — In 
the Canton Province, in the town of Patshan for seven 
years, and in the city of Shiw-Chau-Eoo, on the Canton 
North River, for four or five years. 

1870. You have been kind enough to place upon each 
of our' desks a pamphlet, entitled " The Poppy 
II:!rvc-;t. A Study of Anglo-Indian Ethics " ? — Tes. 

1871. I presume that that pamphlet represents your 
deliberate views on this question ? — Certainly. 

1872. I will promise faithfully to read the pamphlet ? 
— Thank yotj. 

1873. I have no doabt my colleagues will be equally 
prepared to give it their attention. And may we take 
it that that pamphlet is a complete general summary of 
the results which you have arrived at from your con- 



siderable experience in China? — Certainly. I can 
sustain it by further OYidenco if it is wished for on any 
of these points. 

1874. Well, we have been hearing, of course, as yon 
loiow during several long days, imyiortant evidence on 
this subject, and, as you have said, it is very valuable 
to hear from you that you in u, general sense coirflrm 
what has been .stated to us on this subject by the mis- 
sionaries who have heen examined. I do noli think it 
will advance the case if I ask you to repeat what you 
have alrealy, in the general statement that you have 
made, confirmed ? — Certainly. 

1875. {Mr. Pease.) How far do you think these 
pictures represent current public opinion upon the 
opium question in China ? — They are drawn from 
Chinese sources entirely ; the colouring only is English. 
I have met with them distributed through every part 
of the Canton Province ; in some parts of the Kwang-si 
Province as well. I think that they very fairly reflect 
the average opinion of the Chinese themselves upon the 
subject. 

1876. {Mr. Wilson.) 1 think you said in your opening 
sentence that you agreed in almost every particular 
with the evidence which has previously been given here 
by other missionaries ? — Yes. 

1877. Are there any points upon which you do not 
agree ; that you would like to qualify at all ? — No, I 
do not know that there are. The guesses at the per- 
centages of smokers were, of course, ver}' vague. I 
did form an estimate once of the per-oentage of the 
smokers and of the per-centage of the mortality amongst 
the smokers through opium smoking. It was by a 
rough and ready method. I sent my teacher round to 
every opium shop in the city of Shiu-Chau-Eoo. I 
collected from each proprietor statistics of amounts 
sold each day. The Chinese opium smoker generally 
buys twice a day because there is a morning and 
evening boiling of the opium, and my conclusion was, 
taking the use of an ounce of opium as the line :it which 
it was almost .sure to become fatal in the course of a 
few years, that the opium we supplied to the Chinese 
cost China at the very lowest estimate half to three- 
quarters of a million lives every year, besides, of 
course, the Chinese who were demoralised, and the 
women and children who suffered through the opium 
debauchery of the head of the household. 

1878. (Sir W. Uoberts.) How did you arrive at the 
conclusion that the amount of opium supplied through 
India was responsible for the loss, I think you said of 
three-quarters of a million lives F — I got out tables of 
the amounts consumed by certain numbers of opium 
smokers, and then where the ounce was consumed 
daily, I took that as a proof of the fact that it would 

Q 2 



Rev. 
T. G. Selhy. 



124 



JXUIAN OPU'M IJOW.MISSIUX 



Her. 

T. G. Sctbj. 

16 Sept. 189;!. 



probably proxr fatal in the course of a few years, and 
then I compared that ^vith the total import of Indian 
opium into China. 

1879. And was jour assumption, a8 it ivc n.', that this 
ounce would be given daily to each man ■' — Tu one 
smoker, I presume. 

1880. At a single dose P — Well, it would b3 smoked 
in the course of the day. I have known exceptional 
oases where Chinamen have smoked two or three ounces 
a day. I know the case of one of the Cliineso officials 
who had servants standing by his liedside getting his 
pipes ready the Avhole of the day. Of couise these 
lire very extraordinarj- cases, and opium smoking very 
often jn-oves fatal at ;i much earlier period tlian that, 
in fact, comparatively small doses in some cases jjrove 
very debilitating, and at times fatal. Thctcm|)crament 
of the smoker has to l)e taken into account, the occu- 
pation, the food, and many other things. 

The witness 



1881. I think you are not a medical man, are you ? — ■ 
I am not, sir. 

1882. Then you do not agree in the evidence we 
ha\'e had fi-ora medical men who have appeared before 
us, some of them, that the opium habit bad very little 
effect on the mortality rate in China? — Weil, take the 
evidence of Hong Kong where the deaths are registered. 
There is not the certificate of a qualified English doctor. 
I assume that the word of the native practitioner is taken 
upon a question of that sort. And then in a colony 
like Hong Kong, whore you Ijave a floating population, 
those who become incapacited from opium naturally 
go back to their homes, and the men in the full vigour 
of their power are kept there. 

1883. Then your impression is that the opium habit 
in the districts that you have known had an unfavonr- 
aljle efi'eot upon the general health of the j.'Opulation H 
— Certainly ; and I have seen opium smokers die almost 
at my feet. 

withdrew. 



T)eputy-Surg.- 

Geiierai W. P. 

Partridge. 



Deputy-Surgeon-Geueral W. P. Paktkidge called in and examined. 



1884-. (Cliairman.) Will you state to us what means 
you have had from your previous experience of form- 
ing a judgment upon the matters which have been 
referred to this Commission ? — I am a Deputy Surgeon- 
(icneral in the Bomliay Array, and I have served there 
for 30 years from 18.J5 to 188-5. I have been in chaige 
of two gaols in Bombay for I'l years, and also I have 
had charge of civil surgeoncies in different places in 
Gujerat and Bombay and ITpper Sind. I have been 
once to Hong Kong ; that was only on sick leave. 

1885. So that vou are in a position to have foimed 
an opinion — a professional opinion — as to the effect of 
the consumption of opium upon those who resort to 
the practice ? — Yes. 

1886. Well, will you sum up in a general .'■tatemont 
the conclusions at which you have arrived p — The 
first point I want to bring bel'orc the Commission is 
with regard to opium being a harmless thing, as it 
has been represented by Sir George Birdivood and 
others. Sir George argued that men became ill from 
debauchery and from rheumatism and various illnesses, 
and that they took opium as a palliative ; that that was 
the reason why tlie opium dens were filled ; and that 
opium in that sense became a blessing rather than a 
curse. He argued that the burning of the opium 
destroyed its powers of intoxication to a great extent. 
To show that that is a mistaki-, I just mention what 
I know to be the case in some of the low huts 
where opium is smoked by the father of a i'amily, 
when he goes away for a week the children become 
restless and fretful, and do not know what is the 
matter; this shows that the mere liimes in the place 
have a direct effect upon the children while they are 
there. 

1887. (Mr. T'eimi'.) Is this effect not produced as long 
as the smoking is continued P — JN'o as long as the 
children get their stimulant, they are soothed and quiet, 
but directly the father goes away for a time, they miss 
it, and they do not know what it is they miss. 

1888. Then the children have liecn the consuinfr.-, 
as well as 1 lie parfnts V — Thi'ongli the snioki — of 
course. Sir George IJirdwooJ ays that o|]jum-siiiokiiig 
is .'is innoxious as smoking hay, and he re-afTirmed 
that here, that it was absolutely innocent. Well, if 
that was the case, it would be absolutely impossible to 
do any harm by smoking to excess. There can be no 
doubt that there is ample evidence that you can smoke 
to excess, so of course that statement cannot hold 
water. Then with regard to the opium dens, in 
Bombay, I only can meet a theory with facts. It is 
said that simply the low pi'ople who commit ciimes 
and so on are found there. Well, that is, to a certain 
extent, trae, and it is also true that people — and a 
great many people— found in the dens have taken to 
it for rheumatism and pain, and thus acquired the 
habit. But I want just to show — I will only mention 
the cases in a few words, on account of the lateness 
of the time — I want to show from positive evidence, 
that a great many of the people who are found in the 
dens do not come from sickness or anything of tho 
kind. The evidence that I want to lay before joa is 
derived from the personal knowledge of a lady, Miss 
Sunderbai Powar, who has been lately in England 
lecturing about opium. That lady is a Christian, she 
was of high caste Brahmin parentage, and she was one 



of the first seven pupils in the normal school which my 
wife started in Bombay. 

1889. (Sir J. Lyall.) I suppose you know, sir, that tho 
dens are abolished, I mean if the argument is in favour 
of the abolition of Ibc dens, it is hardly worth whdo 
going on with it P — I am not referring non- to Ihe 
abolition of the dens, but to the kind of people who 
are found there. I have known Miss Sunderbai 
Powar for 14 or 15 years, at any rate, so I can abso- 
lutely rely upon her statements. She mentions a case 
hereof one of her own relatives, who was very rich, 
and tome years ago he took to smoking opium. The 
consequence was, that he sold and lost everything, and 
has sunk so low that he beats nis w^fe nearly cvci-y 
day ; he is a mere skeleton in appearance. 

1890. I think we all admit that a large proporti.jn 
of people who take opium take it to exct-ss, aid 
that a good many talce it merely for intoxication. 
I do not suppose you would deny that some of 
these have taken to opium because they have been 
previously diseased P — I said that some do btcanse 
tbey are previously diseased, but I want to show, hv 
actual cases, that there are a groat many miserable 
emaciated creatures who were noD diseased at all, bu; 
were strong, well, and healthy, when they commenced 
the habit. 

1891. I think that is admitted P — Of course the time 
is very short. If you will allow me to put in these 
papers, and read them for yourselves, I shall be veiy 
glad to do so. 

1892. (Ghalrman.) Just give u-i the points that yon 
want to insist upon? — I want to show case after case of 
actual people who we know were brought down t.j 
this degraded condition, simply through taking opium. 
Here is one case from the "Bombay Guardian" of 
August 5th, 1893, of a lad, stated to be " the only son of a 
'■ horse merchant. The father was suiBcicntly wealthv 
" to spend ten thousand rupees on the wedding of his 
" son, when, according to custon, the latter was 
" married while a little buy. Unfortunately for the 
" child his father had a quarrel with hi^ partner in 
" busines:, Tlie partner, to rovongo himself, bribed 
" the servant, who had control of tlie buy, to give his 

young charge, regularly, sweetmeats mixed with 
" opium. There was no difficulty in carrying out tho 
" wicked design. Very soon the opium crave began. 
" When the parents discovered it, they were alarmed, 
" and tried to rescue their boy from the imperious 
" habit, but to no purpose. At last, he ran away 
" from home, never communicating with his parents 
" and young wife, and when the photograph that wo 

reproduce was taken, he was a confirmed frequenter 
" of opium dens in Bombay, wrecked body and soul by 
" opium, albeit for that reason a valuable contributor 
" to the Government revenue." 

1893. We may take it from you that cases th::t 
answered to that description are numerous ?— These 
are positive facts, not mere theories. 

1894-5. That there are many people whom you could 
individually name, and that other witnesses from their 
experience could individually name, who have been 
brought to a. state of degradation by the excessive use 
of opium. That is your testimony, and we accept it ?— 
Yes ; many who became what we find them, from opium 
smoking and not from sickness. 



MINUTKS Ol'' EVIDEXr].;, 



ii[ 



1896. lb is established, I think, to the satisfaotiou of 
every member of the Commission that such cases are 
unhappily numerous?— Yes; well my opinion about the 
opium eatino;, and. smoking, and drinking is that it is a 
vice, that it injures the health, and that it d-,'grades, as 
all vices do, the moral nature of tliose who indulge in 
it, only to a greater degree than other vices ; and that 
it is far more detrimental than alcohol, bad as that is ; 
that the opium crave soon overcomes habitual opium 
takers, whether they consume much or little, and that 
it cannot be overcome except by the grace of God. 
That opium takers are conscious of their degradation 
and bswail it, but cannot, unaided, leave off the habit. 
We l-:now this from the fact that we have had petitions 
for the abolition of the opium trade sent in by the 
frequenters of the opium dens themselves, 'fhat the 
manufacture and sale of opium, except as a medicine, is 
a great sin. Ijnst want to emphasise that the Govern- 
ment of India sends out annually to China., say, 80,000 
chests, or 5,000 tons of opium or 78,400,000,000 grains ; 
4 grains would kill a man if he is not accustomed to 
take it, and, therefore, we send, simply for the sake of 
revenue, to China every year as much as would kill 
19,600,000,000 of people. 

1897. (Sir W. Roberts.) Are you aware that a similar 
calculation, or an analogous calculation, with regard to 
the salt that we take would bring out the same 
astounding sort of conclusion P — No, I not know anything 
about salt. 

189S. In this way, that about 1 lb. of salt is a fatal 
dose P — Yes. 

1899. But people in the course of a year take about 
12 lbs. of salt ; the salt that you take would kill you 
12 times over in ii year. Such a calculation as that is 
not of much value ? — Supposing that is so — well it is a 
i'act that so much poison is sent m\t. 

1900. It applies to salt in the same way ? — Very 
well. Here is some testimony up to the date of Slst 
.filly 1893, about the closing of those opium dens, which 
Sir James Lyall was speaking about. They were closed 
for smoking only, of course, and we know that a private 
and confidential circular was sent by the Commissioner 
North-West Provinces to all Commissioners and collec- 
tors North-West Provinces and Oudh, to tell them that 
there was nothing illegal in opening an opium den next 
door and providing pipes, so tliat in other words, 
though they must not smoke opium in the dens, they 
might smoke it next door. When that was known in 
Bombay the people 

1901. {Chairman.) You say that confidential circulars 
have been issued by the Government of the North- West 
Provinces in that sense ? — I tvill show you the date — the 
circular was issued on the 26th July 1892; "by the 
■' Government order of the 25th September 1891, the 
" Viceroy ordered that in future in all provinces of 
" British India clauses should be inserted in opium 
" licences prohibiting the smoking or consumption of 
" opium, and its preparation in any other form on the 
" premises " ; that is Eesolution, No. 4,033, the object 
being apparently to reduce the evil to a minimum by 
giving no facilities for its consumption on licensed 
promises. Then Mr. Stoker, of the Civil Service, Com- 
missioner of Excise for the North-"\V'esfc Provinces and 
Oudh, issued tlio following circular: — 

"To all Commissioners and Co]leotor.= . 

"N.W. Prov. and Oudh, 
" SiK, 2Gfch July 18.42. 

''You are already aware that henceforth the 
Ohandu and Madak smoking is absolutely prohibited 
on the premises licensed for the sale of the drug. It is 
impossible to doubt that this prohibition will be 
followed by the opening in many places of unlicensed 
places of resort where .iinokers can obtain the facilities 
which they require, and that such places will have to 
be kept under observation both for general reasons and 
also with a view to prevent the use of illicit opium. 
As the law now stands the anthorities have no power to 
suppress consiwnption on premises where opium or its 
preparations are not sold. There is nothing in the laio to 
prevent anyone opening a saloon for the accommodation 
of opium smoker,-, who bring their own chandu. He 
can supply lamps and service and charge a fee for their 
use, and the law cannot touch him ! Unless he is 
detected selling opium or its preparations, or foundin 
possession of more than legal quantity. On this point 
the opinion of the Board of Revenue is, that it is not 
altogether advisable that .?uoh places should bo sup- 
pressed. Collectors should watch such establishments 
carefully so as to prevent the sale of illicit opium. The 



known conditiuns of chandu smoking render ttio main- 
tenance of some common place for the consumption of 
the drug an almost absolute necessity. No effort shunhl 
be inade to suppress such places as it is bettor that they 
should be known and thus liable to supervision." 

That was a private and confidential circular issued 
by Mr. Stoker. Mr. Caine, M.P., brought it out, and 
it has been ordered to be withdrawn, but the mischief 
of course is done ; they can sell opium in the licensed 
shops, and open any number of dens elsewhere. 

1902. (Sir J. Lyall.) Is it not a fact that they could 
not be suppressed. Is not that statement of the law 
correct. " There is .nothing in the law to prevent 
" anyone opening a salooji for the accommodation of 
" opium smokers who bring their own chandu '' P — 
The opium dons are practically not closed 

1903. What Government formerly did was to give 
the licence to a man to keep an opium shop open 
for opium smoking? — Yes, selling and smoking. 

1 904. And of course he was a vendor ; he had a large 
amount of opium, or he had also a licence to manufac- 
ture the crude opium into smoking opium ? — Yes. 

1905. Well, that was done away with. I myself pro- 
posed it first, as long ago as 1883, as Pinancial Com- 
missioner to the Punjab. It began to be done away 
with in the Punjab the following year, and a long time 
afterwards, in 1891, it was generally prohibited. But 
that circular says that there is no law to prevent men 
clubbing together, having got the amount of opium they 
can get from the licensed vendor, resorting to some 
other room, and either themselves boiling their opium 
or using a nnmmon servant to boil the opium, and then 
smoking it there. Unless you can prove that there is 
some man who keeps a shop and sells opium iiimself to 
other people, the law does not enable you to prohibit, 
but that is all that the circular says after all ? — Mr. 
Stoker circulates the information for the benefit of those 
people who might think that they mnst stop. 

1906. Not for the benefit of those people, but a con- 
fidential circular addressed to the oflRcials to tell them 
how far they oan'go ? — Yes, these men know he may do 
that. 

1907. A man does not know it. The question is 
whether the police shall interfere with these people or 
not, or whether the Revenue officials should do so. He 
says you must look out and see whether this man sells 
opium in an illicit way P — Yes. 

1908. But there is no law to prevent it P — There is 
no law to prevent them opening smoking dens. Many 
of these poor men have no pipes, and smoking would be 
prohibited if there were no dens. 

1909. There is no law prohibiting the use of a pipe 
unfortunately. That circular is only a statement of 
fact ? — It is only a statement; it is only a circular. 

1910. You admit there was nothing wrong in the 
circular P — No. It was a decided hint to them to 
explain to these people that they might sell it for the 
purpose of smoking. 

1911. It was not addressed to them, it was addressed 
merely to the officials ? — To the officials. 

1912. I believe the reason it was confidential — I do 
not know anything about it — was that it .should not be 
said that they suggested it. If printed as a public 
circular, it would have boen in the possession of all 
opium vendors as all circulars relating to their ti-ade 
are, and then it would have proved a direct incite- 
ment no doubt, but being confidential that could not 
be said. 

1913. (Chairman.) It was an instruction to the offi- 
cials confidentially to tell them how far they might go 
in interfering themselves. 

1914. (Jfr. Mowbray.) It has as a matter of fact been 
withdrawn as " being capable of misinterpretation," I 
think that was the language of the Government of 
India P — Yes, it was withdrawn when it became public. 

1915. (Chairman.) I think that is all we need have 
on that point p— That was merely introductory to the 
evidence of two men. I will just give what they said 
oil this very point. One of the dens in Bombay was 
visited, and they knew it was going to be closed, in 
fact, while it was being visited, this den was closed. 
When the men who were smoking were asked whether 
they were glad or sorry that the opium den was closed, 
there were only two who were sorry, and they said that 
they were so because they thought they would suffer so 
much pain on giving it up. Other groups were ques- 
tioned, and they all agreed that it was a good thing to 

Q 3 



JJepul-j-Sur;;.- 

Crenerul W. Ji' 

Partridge. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



i2M 



liNDlAN OPIUM (,'OMMJSStOX : 



Deputy- Sv I y.- 

General IT. P. 

Cartridge. 

iG Sept. 1893. 



close the shops for smoking. (Jne said, " C'urse it, 
" curse the opium, it hfis shattered my body. Once 
" L was strong enough to wrestle with 10 men, but 
" look at me now; a child can push mr down." 
Another auid, " Look at me, 1 am ruined and poor, and 
" nearly dead, but what is done is done and cannot be 
" helped. For 30 years I have been a slave to this 
" habih, and it has eaten my strength away, dried up 
" my Ijlood, and deadened my senses. For every 4 
" pice (1(/.) I spend for food, I spend 4 annas (Ad) for 
" opium. We are ruined, and soon may die and now 
" the dens are closed there is hope for the nildren." 
That is just simply the testimony of two of the men, 
on the 31st of July last. 

1916. (Sir J. Lyall.) "What is this intended to prove ; 
that the dens should be closed ? — To show that the men 
thcmselvi'S hated them. 

1917. But the dens arc closed ? — They are closed for 
smoking only. It is said that they do not demoralise 
people ; I have got in my mind, now, a lady, highly 
refined, educated, and polished, in England, u, personal 
friend of mind — whom I know perfectly well. She took 
to opium in the form of chlorodyne, and she became 
filthy dirty, shut herself up in her room, would not 
wash herself, or do anything; she was deceitful and 
untruthful, and she became more like a beast than a 
woman. That was not from any previous disease at all, 
but simply from the habit. 

1918. (Chairman.) That is a tasc establishing your 
general proposition, which we fully accept, that the 
cases are numerous in whicli people are grievously 
deteriorated by the excessive use of opium P — Like Dr. 
Heron and Ni'il, and some other murderers, who were 
all opium eaters. Well, 1 need not show that. Then 
a good deal has been said about opium eaters often 
being healthy men. Supposing that were so, I do not 
see that that alters the case at all. A vice is just as 
muc-h a vice in a fat man as in a thin man. I do not see 
that that makes any dilferencc at all, if the thing is a 
vice. It biis been conclusively proved to my mind that 
opium renders a man insensible to ties of affection ; 
renders him intensely selfish, so that he does not care 
about his wife or his children, or his family, or any- 
thing else ; so it must be a vice and nothing but a 
vice. Sir William Moore praised opium because it 
enabled a Rajput gentleman to go a long journey, and 
the camelmen to endure privation, and to do with less 
food, and so on. All these effects we perfectly aamit — 
I do at least. I know that in Upper Sind they have 
got little hardy mares that will travel bO miles on a 
stretch straight on, and the}- have got a lump of opium 
round their bits ; that is the way they enable these 
little mares to ti'avel so far, and in the recent long- 
distance ride in Germany they injected morphia under 
the horses skin to enable them to go. We admit all 
these facts. If I was in the mutiny and I was obliged 
to run whether I Co aid help it or not, I would take any 
stimulant that I had, but these .irc mcnly exceptional 
cases, and it is not fair to take them as instauces. 1 
have ridden 40 miles in one night on a camel without 
any "' stirrup cup " at all ; I had nothing but a lot of 
dirty water out a camel's mussack to take on a hot 
iSind night, therefore I think Sir Willi.im Moore's 
Kajput gentleman could have done just the same with- 
out kis opium drink. But it seems to me that the 
fallacy of all this that has been said by pro-opiumists 
about men bciiifc bright, clever, intelligent, and so 
iin, all lies in thi,-.. oui' point, that they are looked 
upon only while they are under the intlueiice of opium. 
Everybody is bright; tliere is no doubt that up to a 
certain extent he may be while he is being stimulated. 
I think the strongest point, that pro-opiumists have 
made ibr trs w;is what Sir John Strachey said the other 
day, that the Sikhs could not go to »v;ir without a 
supply of opium. A man is all very well, while he is 
in camp ; I have had Sikhs in some of the regiments I 
ha\e been with ; they are all right, but if you go on 
service and the)' cannot get their opium, thej' ai-e done 
for. 

1919. (,S'ii- W. BoherlR.) That is the same with daily 
meals P — Precisely, but you provide for daily meals ; 
you do not ].irovide opium, aL least the Government does 
iiof. That is all I wish to say on the first subject. A 
,i;ood many jminls that tell in our favour have been 
iidmittod by the pro-opiumists. Then I wanted to say 
a word on another subject if you will allow me. Dr. 
Mouat s;iifl that opium does not swell the number of 
patients iu ho.^pituls. Of course, I have had charge of 
Jots of liospitii.lR in the last :-!0 years, and I have had 
chiirgi'. of jails also. Dr. Mouat says that in the 



statistics that he took in 1841-47 in Calcutta, out of 
56,392 patients admitted into hospital, '■ not a single 
" case of disease or death attributable to opium was 
" found." Directly I heard that, I said " Why, there 
" is not the slightest difficulty in explaining this." 
Wo havj to send in Government lie turns of the sick 
people under certain printed heads. Amongst these 
there are "diseases of the brain," "diseases of the 
" spinal cord," "diseases of the respiratory organs," 
&o. There is a column for " alcoholism," there is 
no column for opium at all, and therefore a man 
who comes in with disease of any kind, dysentery or 
diarrhoea, caused by opium, is not put down as an 
opium patient, but is put down as a man with dysentery 
or diarrhoea. Dr. Mouat ought to have said "attributed " 
andnot "attributable. " Then Dr. Sir G-eorge Birdwood, 
I think, and Dr. Mouat and several others, if I remember 
right, said that there were no deaths from opium, that 
opium did not cause death. "W'ell, if there were great 
neglect of sanitary arrangements in a street, and a 
man died of typhoid fever, if that man was put down 
in the Return as having died of typhoid fever, would it 
be true to say that he did not die of neglect of sanitary 
arrangements ; and opium causes conditions of body in 
which certain diseases set in, and therefore it is not 
right to say that opium is not the cause of the death. 

1920. Tou would call it a pre-disposing cause, would 
you not P — Just as the neglect of sanitary arrange- 
ments is u, pre-disposing cause of typhoid fever — 
exactly the same thing, and that seems to me a very 
simple thing. Then Dr. Mouat said that opium does 
not fill our jails with criminals. \\^ell, I have had 
charge of the " House of Oorrection " and the common 
jail in Bombay for 14 years, and I have always had 
people Buffering from opium in the jails — a perfect 
nuisance they are ; but, of course, when an opium 
eater steals money or clothes or any thing else to 
satisfy his craving it stands to sense that ho is not put 
down as " opium eater ; " he is pnt down as " thief," and 
that is simply and solely the reason you have no returns 
in jails of opium criminals. I have alwajs had the 
greatest trouble with those opium prisoners. They have 
to be examined most carefully ; they conceal opium in 
their hair, in their mouths, under their nails, under 
their armpits, between their legs, and in all kinds of 
possible, and almost impossible, places. You have to 
search them all over. There was one m.an who pre- 
tended to have a great gumboil, and would not open 
his mouth. I insisted on oijeuing it. and a great piece 
of opium came out. And then, besides that, there is 
no difSculty in an opium eater having a friend outside 
getting opium in the jail. I do not say anything about 
bribmg the warders — that is done sometimes — but at 
a pre-concerted signal their friends throw it over the 
wall. It is in such a little quantity that they can 
easily get it. I have always stopped lic(uor entirely, 
even in cases of deliriii/m tremens, and i ha"\'e never 
been afraid of any b^id effects from doing so ; btrt I 
have been absolutely afraid to stop opium. I was 
afraid of the men killing themselves. If you stop the 
opium they howl all night. One witness said that he 
had never heard a man howling, but it is quite common. 
Of course, I am speaking of habitual opium eaters. A 
man will keep all the other prisoners awake at night 
with howling if yon stop his opium. I have been 
obliged to give them a little opium Irom time to time. 
I always gave so little that they were not, of course, in 
the least bit satisfied with it, but I dared not stop it 
altogether. You cannot get any work out of these men ; 
they are not fit for anything. Dr. C. A'alcntiue, President 
of the Medical Training Institute, Agra, is not able to 
come here now, but you may see him in <igra, in India. 
He gives a testimony which will bo important. He 
says; " 25 years ago I made this matter a special study 
" in the central prison of Jeypur. There wero from 
" 800 to 900 prisoners, more than three-quarters of whom 
" used opium, and quite h^lf of them to excess. I had 
ample opportunities of studying its cH'ects upon their 
" moral and physical nature." This is not according to 
my experience, because we got the wretched miserable 
Hindoos in Bombay, but he is among the Rajputs. 
" l^uite one-half of the violent forms of crime was" com- 
" mitted under the oifccts of opium. With a plug of 
" opium in his mouth a Rajput ivas ready to burn a 
village, loot a mail cart, cut a person down with a 
sword, cut off a woman's nose, or throw a child into 
" a well. In the first or second stiige of the action of 
the drug the opium eater was fit for any form of 
mischief. When the third stage has set in he was 
" useless — a maudlin idiot. When the efi'ect had passed 
" off the opium eater was miserable and unable for 



MINUTES OF EVIDHNCE. 



12^ 



^^ mental or physical exertion. I have never known 
^^ an instance of a confirmed opium eater voluntarily 
laying aside the habit." This .can be confirmed by 
Dr. Valentine on the spot. So much with reference to 
prisons. 

1921._ (Ghairman.) We must confine ourselves as far 
as possible at this late stage of our English inquiry to 
evidence at first hand P— The next point is, " Do 'yon 
"consider that opium is a prophylactic against fever." 
Ihere is one authority, just to mention it in two words, 
iJr. Morrison, the medical missionary at Rampore 
Bauleah, Bengal. He has treated from 6,000 to 10,000 
patients annually for 15 years, and though 80 per cent, 
suffered from malaria he never heard one native hint 
that opium prevented fever. That is my experience too. 
For 30 year.s I have been in India, i have been in 
malarious places. I have been in Gujerat, North Sind, 
and so on, but I have never once been asked by any 
native for opium as an antidote for fever ; they never 
hinted at such a thing, and I do not believe that any of 
the natives use it as a prophylactic for fever. I should 
like to say one word about the children. 

1922 We shall be glad to hear that ?— In the petition 
sent to the House of Commons by 48 native medical men 
in Bombay — this is a copy of it; I bring it because there 
is a picture of two of the leading medical men in Bombay 
upon it, Dr. Atmaram Pandurang and Dr. R.N. Khory. 
It is stated in the 5th paragraph " That your petitioners 

also desire to draw your attemidii to the great harm 
" which results from the practice of giving opium in the 
" form of a small pill to children. This is done by 
" parents to save themselves trouble, but the evils that 
" spring from the practice are of a serious nature. 
" Numerous cases of opium poisoning arise from it, many 
" of which end fatally." And yet we find that Govern- 
ment is selling children's pills. " Here is a translation of 
a Government notice posted up in the Null Bazar, 
Bombay, dated July 15th 1891; signed by "J. M. 
" Campbell, Land Revenue, Onstoms, and Akbari 
^' Collector." " At present the right of selling children's 
" pills has been given to the Bombay opium contrao- 
" tors, and such pills can be bought of all Goverrunent 
" opium shops in Bombay." Government is selling pills 
for children, and children are remarkably susceptible 
to opium. My own grandchild, the daughter of the 
Chief Presidency Magistrate in Bombay, when six weeks 
old, was nearly poisoned by a nurse who put opium under 
her finger-nail and gave it to the child to suck to keep 
her quiet. She was insensible for 15 hours. 

1923. [Sir J. Lyall.) I beg your pardon, did you say 
the Government are selling pills ? — The Government 
are selling pills for children. 

1924. You mean the licensed vendors, the retail 
vendors ; that is not Government ? — Tes, but Government 
has given the permission. "At present the right of 
" selling children's pills has been given to tbe Bombay 
' ' opium contractors." That is by the British Govern- 
ment. It is signed by the Collector of Customs and 
Akbari, Mr. Campbell. They have given them a special 
licence to sell children's pills in the bazar. 

1925. {Chairman.) Do you admit that in certain cases 
these pills might be desirable as a treatment ? — Ton 
might just as well (urn .i box of opium pills loose in a 
nursery and let the ignorant English nurse use them 
as she likes. 

1926. In competent professional hands ? — But they are 
not. Here is a picture of an opium baby I did myself 
in Bombay with his mother. They feed these children 
on opium until they are very thin, absolutely skeletons. 
I remomlier a child in the common jail in Bombay 
more like a dried monkey than a human being, a 
thousand times worse than that child. That one has 
got a great big belly, thin arms, and an old man's face. 

1927. You are a limner of no mean skill, Dr. 
Partridge ? — Well, I draw a good deal. Cases I have 
seen are a thousand times worse than that child. 

1928. {8ir W. Boherts.) I was going to ask you whether 
these pills were sold by druggists ? — No, they are only, 
sold at opium shops by permission of Government. 

1929. {Sir J. Lyall.) It would not require permission 
of Government ? — Tes, nobody is allowed to sel 1 opium 
pills. 

1930. I mean to say, a man is allowed to sell opium 
only up to a certain limit, but it woul d require no separate 
permission to sell a pill .►' — Well, but these are called 
children's pills. 



1931. That is a name that has been given them by the 
seller, not by Government ? — But this is a Government 
notice, written and signed by Mr. Campbell on the 
15th July. These are the words of the Government 
stuck up in the Null Bazar, Bombay. 

1932. What is the wording P — ' ' At present the right 
' ' of selling children's pills has been given to the Bombay 
" opium contractors, and such pills can be bought of all 
" Government opium shops in Bombay." That is the 
official document. 

1933. What date is that P— 15th July 1891, signed 
by J. M. Campbell, Land Revenue, Customs and Akbari 
Collector. It is one of the most staggering things I 
ever read when I know that children are so easily 
killed by opium. 

1934. You are a man of a certain amount of Indian 
experience; do you not think that the fact was that 
the chemists were selling opium under the name of 
children's pills, and that it was found necessary to 
restrict the sale therefore to licensed opium vendors P — 
It would not restrict the sale ; I should call it in- 
creasing it. 

1935. I suppose the chemists were stopped ? — I do 
not know anything about that. 

1936. The native chemists ?— The haldms give pills 
out of their own dispensaries. Somebody said the old 
women gave opium ; they do not do that. 

1937. {8ir W. Boherts.) Is there no explanation of 
that circular ? — I have no explanation. 

1938. {Sir J. Lyall.) Do you not think the explana- 
tion I gave is probably the right one P — I do not know 
at all, except the fact of the circular. Of course you 
can speculate to any extent about it. 

1939. {Chairman.) I might put this question to you. 
Are you aware that after an inquiry in the House of 
Commons reference was made to India, and it was 
ascertained that there were formerly 300 unlicensed 
shops where children's pills could be bought, i)U.t since 
the matter has been put under regulations thei-c arc 
now only 12 such shops ? — I did not know that ; but it 
does not make the slightest difl'erence it' it is so, ex- 
cept in the quantity that is sold. Tou would have to 
go into one kind of shop instead of another. But if 
you ask any English mother if she would like an 
ordinary — sensible, if you like, — nurse to havo a box 
of pills to give to the children just as she liked, why 
she would be half dead with horror. 

1940. {Sir J. Lyall.) Is there anything in the English 
system which would prevent a mother giving opium 
pUls to her child P — Well, they give it in some of these 
syrups and things. 

1941. A mother may go to a chemist's shop and buy 
all the opium she likes and give it to her child ? — They 
have no right to do it, whether they could or not. 

1942. My opinion is that there is practically no 
restriction? — Oh, there is some restriction. 

1943. There is no real restriction, I think. 

1944. {Chairman.) There is no practical roslriotion 
in this country ? — It is not prohibited ; you cannot 
stop it, but you can hinder it ; a chemist could be 
punished for doing it. 

1945. {Sir J. Lyall.) He could for poisons, but I 
doubt if he could for opium ? — He is bound to put a 
label " poison " on opium. 

1946. {Chairman.) Persons can purchase a poisonous 
substance in England and use it for an injurious 
purpose ? — Yes. There is another point ; it is an im- 
portant one, because it comes from the Ophthal- 
mic Surgeon in Bombay, Dr. Machonachie, a man 
whom I know very well. " A boy aged 18 months 
" was taken to him from Thana in February lSf>3. 
" The child had been suffering from opium diarrhoea, 
" and had been to Dr. Lazarus of the Scotch Free 
'' Dispensary, Thana, who told the parents that the 
" practice of giving it opium must be stopped. This 
" the parents promised to do. Soon, however, its eyes 
" became ulcerated and it was taken to Bombay." " Dr. 
" Machonachie pronounced the case hopeless. ' Its eyes,' 
" he said, 'have been ruined by opium.' It is very 
" common for natives to dose their children with 
'■ opium, and it often causes this condition of the eyes. 
" I have hundreds of native children brought to me 
" whose sight is utterly destroyed by opium. Some 
" are even in a stupor when brought here." They are 
ill-fed, and opium is given to quiet them. The child 
was taken back to Thanii and shown to Surgeou- 

Q + 



'Depuly-Sura.- 

Getieral W. P. 

I'artridge. 

16 Sept. 1893, 



128 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 




6 Sept. 1893. 



'Jeputy-Surg.- Major Kirtirkar at the Civil Hospital, who Haid : — "I 



' have many cases of children dosed with opium. 
" I register them in my books as chronic cases of 
" opium. They usually begin with diarboea and often 
" lose their eyesight by suppuration of the cornea. 
" This is verij common among natives." In further 
" confirmation of this : there is a. statement in " Bombay 
Guardian," August 5, 1893. From Captain Yeshwanti 
Bai of Salvation Army : " An infant one month old 
,, was brought to me frgm another village for medical 
" treatment. The little mite's eyes had been utterly 
" destroyed through the evident administration of 
" opium, which the mother confessed to have given 
" in large quantities, and its face was already getting 
" that old mannish expression seen in opium-drugged 
" babies. I am always having babies brought to me 
" affected in some part or other through opium." 

19 17. [Mr. Wilson.) You referred to those unlicensed 
opium dens, or saloons as we call them, and the Despatch 
of Lord Kimberley on the subject, suggesting that the 
laiv wanted strengthening p — No ; I do not myself know 
anything about it. 

1948. The Despatch of the 1.6th March of this year ; 
you do not know anything about it ? — No ; I do not 
know anything about it. 

1949. It is a Parliamentary paper ; I wanted just to 
ask you : You have referred to the opium criminals in 
jails, do you know anything at all about the propor- 
tions ? You can only express a very common opinion ? — 
No. We geni'rally had, I suppose, eight or nine opium 
f-aters — no smokers. I have never had an opium smoker 
in jail in my life; they do not smoke opium except in 
the dens in Bombay. (lenerally tliere wore eight or 
nine I suppose, some of them bid enough to be in 
hospitals, some of them sent to their work. 

1950. Do 1 understand that you consider that a good 
many of them had got into jail through crimes com- 
mitted in order to obtain opium ? — The usual crimes 
with opium criminals are gambling and stealing. 
These petty crimes are what they come into jail for. 
An opium eater must have his opium. 

1951. My question was, whether yon have any idea 
as i'O the proportion of those cases to the total number ? 
— No, I cannot tell you for certain at all. We always 
had some seven or eight perhaps. 

1952. (Sir J. Lyall.) You criticise Dr. Monat as to 
no deaths being attributable to opium according to 
Bengal jail returns P — Yes. 

ly"'3. Could not and would not Dr. Mouat and the 
other doctors below him have had a column added of 
" Opium habit " as well as " Alcoholism " if they had 
thought tlie iacts called for it ; would it not have been 
their duty if they had thought that deaths were nttri- 
butable to opium, to ask that a column should be 

The witness 



added? — Yes, I thin so. For a long time there was no 
column for alcoholism ; I think that has been added 
comparatively recently ; in fact, for many years I do 
not remember a column for alcoholism at all ; that has 
been added lately. 

1954. I suppose you know Dr. Mouat pretty well ; I 
suppose we may assume that he did not think that 
deaths were attributable to opium, or he would have 
had a column added ? — On the principle, you see, that 
they do not look upon opium as the primary cause of 
it, and as I said, they would not necessarily put typhoid 
fever as " neglect of sanitary arrangements"; you 
would have in the return of mortality in England 
" typhoid fever." 

1956. It would be just as much their duty to put in 
a column for " opium deaths " as to put a column for 
deaths due to alcoholism P — J should think so ; if I were 
Inspector Greneral of Prisons, I should. 

1956. You referred to Dr. Valentine's evidence about 
the audacity of criminals under the effects of opium ; 
do you not think that he would himself admit that the 
intention of committing violent crimes of that kind 
precedes the taking of the drug, and that it is taken by 
such criminals merely to give them temporary strength 
and courage P— No ; I do not think that at all. I do 
not think that he means that at all. 

1957. You have had much experience in India — 
medical experience — how would )'(ni propose to csta- 
l)lish a system in India whereby opium would be 
available lor moiliral purposes and nut for suih pur- 
poses as doses to keep children quiet. You referred to 
tlic common hibitP— There would Ijc more diflieulty in 
doing it in India than in England. If we cannot 
re.strain it in England altogebher, of eour.se it would be 
more difficult in India. 

1958. There are no chemists you know, except per- 
haps one or two in the principal towns p — There are 
plenty of shops where native medical men dispense 
their own medicine. 

1959. But are those people reliable ? If you allowed 
them to deal in opium at all, would thej- not turn 
their shops into (jpium shops ? — Very likely ; they are 
all bribable, the lower classes as well as the others. Of 
course there are many who would not misuse the 
license, just like chemists in England. 

1960. You would suggest no method ? — There is" but 
one method. Government could absolutely stop the sale 
of opium. The less opium there was in the market the 
less they would be able to get. Now it is as common 
a thing as dirt ; a child could go and buy opium up to 
a certain amount. They ne^•e^ think of prohibiting 
it. You cannot stoj) children going to public-houses 
buying beer although it is illegal, but you can check it. 
withdrew. 



Mr. 



Mr. 



P. I'lirner 
and 
T. Hutton. 



Mr. PoLHiLL TcruNEB, and Mr. 
(Ghairman.) You have both been 



servmg m 



1961 
China as missionaries ? — {Mr. Huiton.) Yes 

1962. Are you generally acquainted with the testi- 
mony which has been given by the various representa- 
tives of the missionary societies whom we have had the 
advantage of hearing ? — Yes. 

1963. You will perhaps take it from me that so far 
as the Commission has had the opportunity of con- 
firming the opinion, we are satisfied that the missionary 
bodies at any rate by a large majority are impressed by 
the fact that the opium trade has involved a great moral 
harm on tbe Chinese people. You may accept it that 
we have received this testimony, and so far as the 
evidence of the missionaries who have appeared before us 
is concerned it is ]iraetically almost unanimous ; there- 
fore we do not wish unnecessarily to repeat the same 
evidence. You have sought to appear before ns, as I 
understand it, because your field of labour has been 
in the mountainous districts of China ? — {3Ir. Turner, ^ 
Exactly. 

1964. In what parts of China have you been serving? 
— Kan-suh more especially, the most north-westerly 
province — three provinces, Kan-suh, ISi-chuen, and 
Shen-si. 

1965. Has Mr. Hutton been in the same districts P 
Will you state what they were P — (Mr. Sutton.) On the 

lei'S of Mongolia, in the north-west of Kan-suh, and 



Thomas Hutton called in and examined. 

1966. We have had your missionary station map p- 



also through the north of the Shcn-si I'roviuce. 

mapped id out here i:<hoiijiiiij map\ 



I have 



view as to the 
people among 
sir, is just the 



The red line is the route that I took through China. 

1967. Would you say that there is a difference in 
type in the people among whom you have laboured as 
compared with the Chinese of the south p — (ilfr. Turner.) 
In the province of Kan-suh they are a little more 
stolid, more like our northerners in England, but the 
main characteristics are the same. 

1968. Will you tell us your general 
effect of the opium habit among the 
whom you have laboured? — My belief, 
sanre as that of those missionaries who have given 
testimony as to the physical and moral eH'ect on the 
natives. The particular town in which I was labouring 
was a mountainous town, about 7000 feet above the 
level of the sea. 

1969. The name of it was ? — Sining. in the Province of 
Kan-suh. Wherever I have travelled opium is con- 
sumed just as largely as in any other province that I 
have visited. In that town they told me on more than 
one occasion that 50 years ago the drug was unknown, 
but now it is just as largely smoked as anywhere in 
China. The people themselves say by eight-tenths of 
the population. That is a little exaggerated of course, 
but I think one-third is not too large ; but I have always 
wherever I have been had the introduction of opium 
attributed to us. Yang yen, foreign smoke, is the name 
they give to 0| lium ; Yang ren is the name wo are called, 
— foreigners, and of course ihey couple the two together. 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



129 



1970. The opium consumed in the vicinity of Siuing 
Isore the name of a foreign smoke ? — Foreign smoke. 
Yes. . 

1971. But as a matter of fact was the opium smoked 
in the vicinity of Sining a local production P — It is now, 
probably at the beginning it was not, but they accused 
us of bringing it to them. 

1972. But now at the present moment P — {Mr. Button.) 
Native opium is called a foreign smoke, although it is 
produced in Chinese territory ; that is the stigma that 
is put upon us. 

1973. We understand it is called foreign smoke,but,as 
a matter of fact, is the opium which is consumed in the 
vicinity of Sining a locally produced article ? — {Mr. 
Turner.) It is now produced locally. 

1974. Is there any other special point that you would 
like to bring before us ? — {Mr. Turner) No, your Lord- 
ship, I have not. 

1975. And now, Mr. Hiitton, you have put before me 
a map with a track upon it representing ajourney that 
you have made P — {Mr. SiMon.) Yes, your Lordship. 

1976. Describe your journey would you ? — With 
regard to a letter which was read from a gentleman of 
the name of Mr. Duff this morning, if it is the same Mr. 
Duff as 1 think it maybe, I think he was a merchant in 
the Port of Ohin-Kiang. During the last three years I 
have been in China, I was also stationed in that port. 
There' was one remark in the letter referring to the hill 
tribes; he says, "they are not' so addicted to opium- 
" smoking as the people who live in the plains." Well, 
on this journey that I took 

1977. Beginning at Shanghai was ic ?— From Shang- 
hai to Hankow, up the Han River, and through Kan- 
suh toNingh-sia on the Mongolian frontier ; then along 
the Great Wall, throagh the province of Shan-si and 
Ohih-li to Tien-tsin. With the exception of a few mis- 
sionaries that I met with at our different stations, and 
a few Koman Catholic priests, I did not meet with any 
European officials, Cpnsuls, or merchants, until I 
reached Tien-tsin. I was away nearly two years on that 
journey. I wore the Chinese dress, to a great extent 
partook of Chinese food, and, except when I was travel- 
ling by boats, I stayed in Chinese inns ; and throughout 
the hilly districts I should think that eight out of ten 
people who used to stay in the inns at night used to 
smoke opium. 

1978. {8ir W. Boherts.) That would be only adult 
males you are speaking of? — Adult males. That is 
especially more in those parts which were higher and 
healthier than in the low and flat parts of the centre 
and south of China. I should think there were more 
opium smokers in the Province of Kan-suh than down 
south. The Province of Kan-suh is very much given 
up to it, and the statements of those gentlemen who, 
like Dr. Lookhart, have given evidence after being at 
home for 10 or 20 years confirm my conviction that of 
late years opium-smoking has very much increased. I 
asked a native at Ningh-sia on the Mongolian border, 
a man ihat I employed as a teacher, how many smoked 
opium there, and he said that out of every 100 he 
thought 80 smoked opium. 

1979. That is again speaking of the adults ; the adult 
ihales ?— Yes ; but in some of the towns 20 or 30 per 
cent, of the women also smoke opium. 

1980. {Chairman.) You have shown us that as far as 
your powers of observation have enabled you to form a 
judgment, and you have had unusual opportunities of 
travelling through a rarely visited part of China, the 

'Opium habit appears to be on the increase. Now what 
would you say as to its moral and physical effects ? — 
I used to employ three men on a cart journey. Two of 
them did not appear to take opium, but the third man, 
an opium smoker, at nearly every place we got to had 
his cart detained on account of debts that he had con- 
tracted on a previous journey, and I finally had to 
abandon that man altogether, and sacrifice what I had 
advanced for the use of his cart, and I had to hire 
another man. Then we employed a man for a cook ; 
he was an opium smoker. If we had known that, we 
should not have engaged him, for opium smokers are 
not to be trusted in buying things for us on the streets. 
We found that we had to pay for the provisions which 
he purchased nearly half as much again as we had to pay 
when we employed another man who did not smoke 
opium. In the practical experience that I have had of 
these men I should never, if possible, employ in any 
position of trust a man who smoked opium m any 
degree. 

e 80970. 



1981. {Sir J. Lyall.) All these remarks apply exactly 
to drinkers of spirits in England in the same class of 
life, do they not ?— No, I do not think so. As far as I 
can see, I do not think that drinking has the same 
demoralising effect upon men as smoking opium. Of 
course, the Chinese are in a lower grade to some extent, 
than that of people here at home. I agree with the 
evidence that has been given liy other missionaries 
that opium-smoking has a worse effect upon men, 
morally and fphysioally, than alcoholic drinks. 

1982. {Ghairmaii.) In the North of China is the popu- 
lation of a higher physical ability, would you say, than 
the people living further south P — Yes. 

1983. And notwithstanding the fact, as you say, that 
SO per cent, are smokers of opium P — I was going to 
qualify this a little : that is true so far as they are not 
carried away by the opium habit. By the Chinese it is 
attributed to another reason. In the northern parts of 
China much more wheaten bread is eaten, whereas in 
the central and soathern parts to a great extent the 
natives exist on rice, and of those who live on wheat 
the Chinese themselves say : " They are Northern men ; 
" they have been living on wheat." 

1984 And they are stronger men P — They are 
stronger. 

1985. And better able to take a certain quantity of 
opium with impunity ; is that the case ? — [ have not 
met with any men that I have considered could take 
it with impunity. 

1986. Any opium ?— Yes. 

1987. Now, Mr. Turner, you have heard the opinion 
of your colleague in the missionary field with reference 
to the moral and physical effects of the consumption of 
opium ; what do you say on this point ; do you confirm 
what he said? — {Mr. Turner.) Thoroughly. All my 
experience goes to show that a man who smokes opium 
has a barrier placed in the way of listening to any 
truth that yon may tell him about Christianity, which 
is not in the way of a man who does not smoke opium. 
It is a barrier raised by the mere fact of the man 
becoming an opium smoker which does not exist 
without his smoking opium. And for the physical 
matter, I am sure anybody, who has laboured in the 
interior where we have, could not have any two opinions 
about it. A man beginning to smoke opium is on the 
downward road. I do not think the oases where a man 
goes on smoking a small quantity are many. 

1988. You think that once you begin to use it at all 
you readily pass on to excess P — Yes. 

1989. {Sir J. Lyall.) You seem to put some weight 
on the fact that opium is called " foreign smoke." I 
should like to know for what reason ? — -Yes. {Mr. 
Hutton.) 1 have been in China altogether about eight 
years ; I had a chapel, kept it open in the afternoons, 
and had visitors coming in. Our preaching is in the 
form of question and answer to a large extent, and in- 
variably the first question is. What country do you 
belong to ? and when we said that we came from 
England, in many cases they replied, " Oh, that is 
" where the opium comes from." I explained to them 
that it came from India ; but that is not sufficient, for 
they said, "India is under British rule." 

1990. And so the name affects the people's ideas and 
prepossesses them against you ? — In the Chinese ■ lan- 
guage there are several terms for opium, but the com- 
monest is " yang," a term of reproach. 

1991. I do not know whether it is the case in China, 
but it is the case in the great part of the East, is it 
not, that a terrible and disgusting disease is called a 
foreign disease in the same way ? — Yes, the same term 
is used for that disease. 

1992. It is so in China ? — Yes ; I have seen that 
placarded about too. It is understood that opium is a 
foreign thing, and, of course, the terminology is not 
changed in applying it to the opium which is grown by 
the natives themselves. 

1993. But there is evidence that opium was imported 
by the Arabs and Portuguese before we ever imported 
it ; and is it not probable the name dates from those 
times before we had anything to do with it ? — I have 
read a good deal as to the original introduction of 
opium, but I am not qualified to give any opinion upon 
it at all ; for practical purposes it is fathered upon the 
foreigners, and we are practically the foreigners ir 
China. 

R 



Mr. P. Turner 

and 
Mr. T. Button. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



130 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Mr. P. Turner 

and 
Mr. T.Hutlon. 

16 Sept. 1893. 



1994. (Mr. Mowhray.) Are there many other mis- 
sionaries besides English missionaries in the part you 
have been P You mention that the first question asked 
was where you came from P — Yes, there are some 
American missionaries in the coast regions ; but the 
only missionaries in the more distant stations that I 
have referred to are our own China Inland Mission- 
aries, and the lioman Catholic priests in Kiang-su. 

1995. Do the Chinese make any difl'erence between 
the English missionaries and the American mission- 
aries P — They are beginning to do so. These things are 
changing in China; the Chinese are getting much 
more enlightened on these matters than they were. 
They used to class all missionaries together ; now 
tiiey make a distinction between Protestants and 
Roman Catholics, and they have also got the length, 
t.1 some extent, in the parts where missionaries are 
more commonly known, of distinguishing between 
French and English and German, and so forth. 

1996. "Would you say that the American missionaries 
succeeded better because they could not have the opium 
question thrown in their teeth P — That is a question 
which I could not answer. 

1997. And can you say anything with regard to the 
Belgian priests that you have met with, whether their 
work was less hampered than your work ? — I think the 
Roman Catholics are all agreed, so far as their profes- 
sion goes, with all missionaries in China, that opium- 
smoking is wrong, and that no opium smoker should be 
admitted to their church. But many of the Chinese 
condemn all foreigners en masse ; they want to get rid 
of them altogether. 

1998. Whether they have introduced opium or not ? 
— I do not think they can get the length of distinguish- 
ing sufficiently. 

1999. [Mr. Wilson.) You have spoken about these 
servants that you have had, cartmen and others that 
you had, who were dishonest or unsatisfactory ; were 
they what have been called in this room, confirmed 
sots, or were thoy what you would call moderate 
smokers, that is to say, how far have they gone P — I 
should say they were not as far gone as some I have 
seen. I have had men coming to me, and begging to 
be cured of the opium habit. I used to carry opium 
medicine and sell it, and the Chinese, who had not 
much money, would give really a large sum to buy that 
cpium medicine. They felt the habit on them so 
strongly that they would do anything to get rid of it ; 
so, while we gave other medicines away, we always 
made it a rule to sell opium medicine to these men, 
and they were willing to pay a good price in order to 
get cured. 

2000. These servants of yours, would you call them 
moderate smokers, or would you call them confirmed 
Bots P — Well, I do not approve of the phrase moderate 
at all, in the sense of moderate smoking of opium, 
because I think to any extent it is an injury. They 
were not so confirmed as many in the use of it, and did 
not take so much, but the Chinese vary greatly in the 
amount they use. (3fc. Turner.) I should say that a 
sot was a man that did nothing, who was unable to 
follow any other occupation than just smoke during 
the day, but a man who would be able to go with a cart 
could hardly be called a sot. 

2001. (Sir W. Roberts.) I understand, Mr. Hutton, from 
you, that you passed through populations, or resided 
amongst populations of whom 80 per cent, of the adult 
males were opium smokers P — (Mr. Hutton.) This was 
the opinion given to me by my teacher. I asked his 
opinion on the number of smokers in Ning-hsia, and he 
said it was an exception to find a man who did not 
smoke. 

2002. Did those populations appear to you weakly 
and degenerate P — Yes, the people in that city did. 

2003. The entire population seemed to yon to be de- 
generate? — Yes, and they complained to us — it is not 
exactly bearing upon this question ; but they said that 
within 10 years rice has increased in price from 20 to 
;iO per cent., because the rice growers had taken to grow 
opium, and the wliole outside of the city in every 
aistrict was just covered with the poppy. 

2004. You are quite clear that they were an unhealthy 
population P — Yes. 



200.x {Sir J. Lyall.) Does not the same land grow 
rice that grows poppy P — The land was very rich there, 
it was irrigated by water from the Yellow River, and 
the opium from that place was said to be of very fine 
quality. 

2006. I think I have read that they take a crop of 
rice off the land in the winter, and then a crop of opium 
in the spring P — I think it may be so. 

2007. You say that the whole population of the town 
looked degenerate, which you attribute to opium, but 
a recent traveller in Yunnan said that, though the 
population was extraordinarily addicted to opium, they 
looked to him very robust and energetic, and they 
were extremely industrious. Can you explain that your 
impression is the other way? — My impression is, the 
opium is doing them a great injury. 

2008. {Sir W. Roberts.) But were they aflfeoted, I 
mean speaking broadly of the entire population, did 
they appear to you affected, or were they successful 
commercial people P — Well , I have seen in the case of 
opium smokers, the same conditions as I have seen at 
home before I went out. Some of the best workmen 
that I knew at home were slaves to drink, and I 
knew a man at home that would come to work 
on a Thursday morning, and could earn as much 
money in a few days as the man who had been at 
work the whole of the week. I think that there may 
be some exceptions amongst the Chinese opium smokers 
in the same way ; but my own conclusion would be that 
if that man had not taken the drink for three days 
in the weel:, he would have been so much better than 
the other men instead of reaching their level. I 
have had coolies in China that did not smoke opium, 
and I have just been amazed at what they could carry, 
and the hardships that they could undergo. I knew 
a non-smoker who started with me one morning about 
7 o'clock, travelled all day on foot through the snow, 
carried a coolie load for me amounting to about 40 lbs., 
and all day long he kept in front of me. I was 
walking, and had nothing whatever to carry. We got 
to our destination about 8 o'clock in the evenin", 
and during the time he travelled about 30 miles, and 
that man was quite fresh in the evening after travelling 
all day. There is no doubt about the Chinese being 
a wonderful race, of great powers and physical en- • 
durance ; but they would be better than they are if it 
were not for the opium. 

2009. (Chairman.) Have you anything more that you 
would like to say to us P — (Mr. Ttorner.) I think the 
Chinese, wherever I have met them, admit that opium 
is a curse, an unmitigated curse ; and I have heard of 
some cases where coolie owners would not employ coolies 
who smoked ; but now I believe the habit is getting so 
universal that it is very difficult to get two or three 
coolies who do not smoke. Three coolies are usually 
employed to carry a sedan chair, and it is very seldom 
that you can get two of them who do not smoke ; it is 
most exceptional. As a rule they smoke very often, 
but one who does not smoke is almost an exception. 

2010. (Sir J. Lyall.) Those chair-bearers perform 
extraordinary feats in the way of carrying-, do they not ? 
— They do, but no doubt the opium has a militating 
effect against their work. They have to stop at any 
rate once in the day and keep yon waiting while they 
smoke their opium, and anybody who rides in those 
chairs with opium smokers know what the dis- 
advantages are ; you have men thoroughly unreliable. 
— (Mr. Hutton.) May I just add one thing. I was 
going to say I think most of the opium dens are 
brothels, that the two things go together ; but I never 
met with a confirmed opium smoker that took wine to 
any extent. The two things cannot go together. Opium 
smokers have told me that they could not drink wine if 
they took opium. And opium smokers can take very 
little food. When we arrived at inns in the evenings 
after a day's journey, those that do not take opium can 
sit down and eat three or four big basins of rice and 
vegetables ; but the poor opium smoker is shaking and 
wanting his pipe ; that is all he cares for. 

2011. That is sufficient to account almost by itself 
for the emaciation, I suppose, which is commonly 
observed P — Yes, that accounts in part for their weak- 
ness as compared with the other men. 



The witneesep withdrew, 



MINUTES OF EVIDENCE. 



131 



Mr. Alexakder Michie called in and examined. 



2012. {Ghairman.) You have had great experience 
have yon not, Mr. Michie, in China and Japan ? — As 
regards length of time, my Lord, yes. 

2013. You have been 40 years years in Hong Kong, 
Shanghai , Tientsin, and Japan P — Yes 40 years from 
first to last. 

2014. You have been occupied as a merchant, have 
you not ? — Yes. 

2015. You have also been in the interior of the 
Si-ohuen Province ? — Yes. 

2016. As delegate of the Shanghai Chamber of Com- 
merce ? — Yes. 

2017. You have had considerable acquaintance with 
Chinese officials have you not ? — Yes, a certain amount. 

2018. When did you return from China?— This 
summer ; three months ago. 

2019. Can you tell us what in your opinion, as far as 
you have been able to gather, is the general public 
opinion about the opium habit ? — Amongst the Chinese, 
my Lord. 

2020. Amongst the Chinese ? — I think it may be said 
generally that the use of opium is deprecated. It is 
usually spoken of in an apologetic manner. A man 
who smokes opium, heavily is always ready with some 
excuse for doing so. 

2021. You think it more generally deprecated than 
the use of alcohol in European countries ? — I do not 
think so. 

2022. How far does the opium habit prevail, as far 
as your experience goes ; is it very prevalent ? — It is 
universal as regards area, but its prevalence in a par- 
ticular community is a matter that is extremely difficult 
to be definite upon. 

2023. Should you say that opium smoking was as 
common as tobacco smoking is in Europe or less 
common ? — Probably ranch less common than tobacco. 

2024. Is much tobacco smoked in China ? — Yes very 
largely ; they are constantly smoking tobacco. 

2025. Do the same people smoke tobacco and opium ? 
—Yes, sir. 

2026. Have you had many employees who have 
smoked opium ? — I have had large numbers one 
way and another in my employ, but I do not recall 
many cases of opium smokers. Probably they were 
numerous, but it is not easy to tell. It is not always 
easy to distinguish the opium smoker from a non-opium 
smoker, unless he has carried it to a great excess. 

2027. Yon never had to dismiss a man, a clerk, or 
comprador, or any of those men, on account of opium 
smoking ? — No, never, but I must say that I always 
shared the common prejudice against employing an 
opium smoker. If you could help it you would prefer 
a man who was not an opium smoker ; for one thing, 
if you are travelling he is a nuisance because the 
odour is unpleasant, like the smell of stale tobacco 
about the clothes. And yon can tell at once if there 
is anyone in a boat's crew that smokes opium, the 
smell is disagreeable ; and so on board steamers the 
same objection is felt, and in restaurants and so on. 

2028. It has been said by a great many witnesses 
that they do not believe in such a thing as the moderate 
use of opium, that is, they believe that, if a m-in 
once takes to the habit of smoking opium, he must 
inevitably become an immoderate smoker of opium 
sooner or later, and probably sooner ? — I have heard 
these statements for many years, but I must say I have 
never been able to see on what ground they rested. 
And so far as my own observation goes the fact is 
not so. I think moderate smoking is very much 
more common than inveterate smoking. For example, 
you can hardly go to a Chinese dinner without 
having the opium pipe there; and when the guests 
have sat a long time at the table, and eaten a great 
deal, and drunk a good deal, one will retire to the 
divan where the opium pipe is and have a whiff of 
opium, and by-and-bye when he has finished he rejoins 
the other guests ; another one will go, and so on, jnsc 
as you take a cigarette after dinner, or a glass of wine. 
That is the common practice. And amongst the men 
who did so I did not notice that there were many 
whom you would call confirmed opium smokers. The 
difficulty, of course, of obtaining information on such 
subjects in China is very great. I have often myself 



Ilfr. 
A. Michi'e. 



tried to get some details, but could i arely get beyond 

generalities. Even medical missionaries, friends of my 16 Sept. 186'. 

own, whom I have asked what is the effect of opium, 

what is the pathological effect, and so on, could only 
answer in generalities, and they said that they really 
had not the opportunity of following the thing out. 
They see a man to-day, and they do not see him again ; 
perhaps they have him under their observation for a few 
weeks, and they do not hear of him any more, and so it 
is in what you may call sociecf, you cannot trace the 
history of the man, at lea.=t I have never been able to 
get any facts of that sort. 

2029. (Mr. Pease.) With regard to your saying they 
leave the table where they are and take a whiff and 
come back again, on many occasions do they not lie 
down and take a dose after thoy have taken a whiff? — 
Many of them will lie down and smoke opium the 
whole night. 

2030. But those who just leave the table and go and 
take a whiff and come back, do you find them bright 
and lively — there is no sleepiness about them P— On 
the contrary, they are brightened by it. 

2031. You did not observe any reaction after the 
opium ? — ^Well, you do not see them afterwards ; you 
go home to bed, and they go home to bed, and there 
is an end of it. 

2032. {Sir J. Li/all.) It has been said by many 
witnesses that the habit of opium-smoking destroys 
the honesty and the truthfulness of the people who use 
it. Have you in your dealings with Chinamen — you 
have had to deal with a great many Chinese merchants 
and people I suppose ; have you noticed any difference 
in honesty and truthfulness between the opium smokers 
and the non-opium smokers ? — I cannot say that I 
have. Dishonesty in opium smokers is common enough 
amongst the poor people, who become dishonest in 
order to buy opium ; but amongst the merchants and 
official classes I have not noticed that which has been 
stated by so many people, in my own experience. 
Perhaps I have been singularly fortunate, but it so 
happens that amongst the men whom I have been 
obliged to trust in an extraordinary degree, more so 
than I have had to ti'ust anyone, even of my own 
countrymen, amongst those have been some of the 
most inveterate smokers, and I have never found that 
my confidence was abused on that account. 

2033. Opium-smoking is not known in Japan ; it is 
prohibited in Japan? — Ko; opium-smoking is not 
known in Japan. 

2031. How do the Japanese compare with the Chinese 
in honesty and truthfulness ? — Well, it is generally 
asserted that they are inferior to the Chinese in solidity 
of character and solidity of physique, and all that. 

2035. I suppose you went out to China with some 
views about opium; did you change or modify your 
views ? — I got some ideas when I got there, I think ; 
in fact I took for granted the general report that was 
current, chiefly on the authority of missionaries. Pe 
haps I took exaggerated views of it — I was very young- 
hut I almost expected China to be depopulated in a 
few years ; but after 40 years' experience I do not find 
that such expectations have been verified at all. 

2036. It has been very commonly said that our 
connexion with the opium trade has had an important 
effect on the Chinese attitude towards Englishmen P — 
I do not believe anything of the sort; I have never 
found a trace of that. I think a Chinaman will always 
say what he thinks you want him to say, and I think 
it is exceedingly dangerous to draw any general con- 
clusions from what a Chinaman tells you, especially in 
answer to leading questions. If it is permitted to refer 
to an illustration, perhaps wide of the mark, I would say 
that we have had lately a great deal of a particularly 
offensive class of literature published by the Chinese, 
in which every conceivable thing is raked up that 
would detract from the character of foreigners gener- 
ally. The most disgusting and extravagant charges 
have been circulated broadcast by eminent literary 
men, and I think that, if there had been any strong 
feeling in regard to opium, there would have been 
some trace of it in some of these publications ; but, so 
far as I am aware, it is quite absent, and I take tliat 

as tolei'ably conclusive evidence that that strong anti- * 

English feeling is not on account of opium. 

2037. Do you think there is any difference observa- 
able in their attitude towards, for instance, ths 

R 2 



132 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



Mr. 
A. Michie 

16 Sept. 1893. 



G-ermauB and the French, and towards us ? — No, not 
certainly not to our detriment. May I refer to the 
evidence given by one of the last witnesses P 

2038. (GJiairman.) If it is with a view of expressing 
an opinion of your own, yes P — I heard one of the 
gentlemen saying that the Chinese were beginning to 
discriminate between the English and the American 
missionaries. That recalled to my mind a circumstance 
that occurred in Pekin some years ago when there was 
an American Bishop or some high oflBcial connected 
with some of the mission churches. He had interviews 
with certain Chinese officials, and he was employing 
as his interpreter another American missionary whom 
I knew very well and who told me the history. He 
was perhaps the most apostolic missionary that I 
ever came into contact with. And the Bishop wished 
him to say to the Chinese that the Americans occupied 
a different position from, the English missionaries, that 
they had not done this and that, and that particularly 
they had not gone to war with them and they had not 
brought opium to them and so on. But his interpreter 
refused to translate. He said it was mean and it was 
in its effect untrue. 

2039. What are your views as to the relative effects 
of excess in opium or alcohol P — "Well, that is an exceed- 
ingly difficult question to answer. I can only say that 
I have had very intimate friends who were addicted to 
both, and of the two I think I prefer those that 
were slaves to opium rather than those who were 
slaves to drink ; I would trust them more. I would 
trust an opium-smoker sooner than a drunkard. I 
speak without prejudice, having had among my friends 
some of my own countrymen who wei'e unfortunately 
slaves to drink, and I have had Chinese fiionds who 
were slaves to opium, and of the two I would prefer — 
it is a matter of my own judgment — to trust the 
Chinese. 

2040. {Sir W. Boherts.) Ton have mixed a good 
deal with the better classes of Chinese apparently, the 
literati and merchants p — Yes to a certain extent, a very 
moderate extent. Ko foreigner mixes much with the 
literary class. 

2041. You have seen them in their inner life P — Yes. 



2042. And is a large proportion of that class opium 
smokers P — ITo doubt. 

2043. Would you roughly say one-half of them ? — 
Such aa estimate would be a mere guess. 

2044. Would it be your impression that fully one-half 
of them were opium smokers ? — Probably ; yes, I should 
say so, but still these estimates must always be taken as 
being vague. 

2045. You would not call that class a degraded class ? 
— Certainly not. 

2046. Or a class showing degenerate health? — No, 
certainly not. 

2047. Has this habit of opium smoking, among these 
better classes been going on for two or three generations, 
or more successive generations P — I should think so, 
but that is another point in which it is extremely difficult 
to be accurate, because foreigners who get out to China 
for the first time are very apt to be told that everything is 
new ; that everything that is objectionable is recent ; that 
it was not so in the old times. I found that when I was in 
the Si-chuen Province 25^years ago ; they were saying 
then what they say now, that they had just begun to 
smoke opium. 

2048. And we may take it from you, that from your 
long experience in China you have known persons who 
were opium smokers filling respectable positions, 
having good characters, and being good citizens all 
that time ?^ — I think so. I have left men with whom 
I have had to do in Chinese ports so far gone with 
opium, having taken it for many years, that I considered 
their lives were not worth a j^ear's purchase, and I 
have returned after many years and, to my surprise, 
have found them as vigorous as myself and carrying on 
their business as keenly as ever. 

2049. You look on the opium habit as like the alcoholic 
habit and that you think if they moderately indulged in 
opium they would not be injured P — T would not say that 
they would not be injured, all I say is I know habitual 
opium smokers who have carried on their business with 
great vigour and for many years. 



The witness withdrew. 



The Commission adjourned till the 15th November at Calcutta, 



AFPENOIX. 



133 



APPENDIX I. 



Paper read by Mr. G.:H. M. Batten before " The Society of Arts," on the 24th March 1891. 



[Mr._ Batten was unable to give evidence before the 
Commission, as he was out of England. His paper was 
cited in Sir John Strachey's evidence. And the Com- 
mission directed that it should be printed as an appendix 
to Sir Johi Strachey's evidence.] 

THE OPIUM QUESTION. 

By G-- H. M. Batten (formerly of the Bengal Civil 
Service). 

The violent and persistent attack, by an English 
association, on one of the most valuable of the products 
of India, with the avowed object of sweeping it from 
the face of the earth, renders it the duty of everyone 
who has the welfare of India at heart to examine the 
grounds on which that attack is made. Having for a 
long period served the Government of Her Majesty the 
Queen in India, and ha-ving had special opportunities 
of making myself familiar with the facts relating to 
Indian opium, I accepted the invitation of this Society 
to read a paper on the subject, with the desire to help, 
so far as in me lies, to clear away the widespread 
ignorance of it which prevails in this country. 

Apart from moral considerations, the question, so far 
as India is concerned, is generally discussed as if it 
were one affecting only the public resources of the 
Indian Administration, but it is much more far-reach- 
ing. The amount ofrevenue realised is but a part, and 
not the greater part, of the actual pecuniary value of 
the poppy crop and its products, while the weU-being 
and happiness of hundreds of thousands of the people 
of India would be greatly affected by its extinction. I 
propose in this paper first to show the real value of that 
crop, and what it is that India is asked to sacrifice in 
order to satisfy the theories of a party of English 
philanthropists, whose excellent intentions in the cause 
of morality are only equalled by their determination to 
ignore all but the one side of the question, on which 
they have fixed their attention, and which serves their 
purpose. 

It must be admitted that one of the surest signs of 
the progressive prosperity of a country is the increase 
of its external trade. The conditions which favour the 
development of foreign commerce are peace and liberty ; 
the establishment of good and equable laws and their 
just administration ; the utmost freedom, consistent 
with the rights of others, to individuals in utilising the 
sources of production at their disposal ; the extension 
of facilities of communication within the country and 
with other countries ; lightness of taxation — in a word, 
all the conditions of good government. Tried by this 
test, the British Government of India can show a 
splendid record. So long as the exclusive trading 
privileges of the East India Company existed they acted 
as a check on the free development of foreign trade, 
but on their final abolition in 1833, when the trade of 
India was thrown open to the mercantile world, it 
rapidly increased. In 1833-34 the value of the total 
exports of merchandise from British India was under 
Kx. 8,000,000 sterling. In fifteen years after that, they 
had about doubled. The increase then became more 
rapid, and, when assisted by the extension of railways 
in India, advanced by leaps and bounds. In the year 
1890-91 the value of merchandise exported from India 
was over Ex. 100,000,000, or more than twelve times 
the exports of 1833-34. 

Long before British rule was established in India, 
•pium was exported thence to China, and the trade in 
it, in common with all other trade, naturally developed 
nnder that rule. In the five years ending with 1833-84, 
the average quantity of opium exported was about 
17,500 chests. The highest point to -W^hich it has ever 
attained was in 1879-80, when 105,608 chests were 
exported, but the present average is about 90,000 chests. 
Thus, while the general exports have increased twelve 
fold, opium exports have increased only about five and 
a half times in volume in fifty-seven years. The cause 
of this will be fotind in the restrictive measures of the 
Govfernment of India, to which I shall presently refer. 
India is essentially an agricultural country, and 
nearly the whole of its exports consists of products of 
the soil. One of the most important and valuable of 



these products is the opium-yielding poppy. It is im- 
possible to state with accuracy when this plant was 
first introduced into India. There is little record of its 
early history, but it is known that the Muhammadans 
had succeeded, in the 15th century, in introducing t_e 
cultivation of the poppy into Cambay and Malwa, and 
that when the Emperor Akbar, in the latter half of the 
next century, established the Moghal Empire over 
Central India, he found Malwa opium a characteristic 
product of that country. 

Dr. George Watt, who has repently compiled a com- 
plete monograph on the subject of opium, which has 
been printed by order of the House of Commons, points 
out that , Abul Pazl (the historian of Akbar's times) 
" specially states that poppy culture was chiefly prac- 
" tised in Eatehphur, Allahabad, and Ghazipur. We 
" learn that the founder of the Moghal civil dynasty 
" and his successors regarded opium as of necessity a 
" State monopoly. They found it, however, at once 
"; the most convenient and successful course to farm 
" out the right to manufacture and to sell the drug." 

Dr. Bernier. the Erench traveller, who was in India 
from 1656 to 1668, speaking of the Eajputs and their 
martial qualities, wrote : '" Prom an early age they are 
" accustomed to the use of opium, and I have been 
" astonished to see the large quantity they swallow." 

Tavernier, who was in India at the same period, inci- 
dentally mentions the Dutch trade in opium, which 
they obtained from Burhanpur in exchange for their 
pepper. 

Captain A. Hamilton, in 1727, wrote : " The Chiefs of 
" Calicut for many years had vended between 600 and 
" 1,000 chests of Bengal opium yearly up in the inland 
" countries, where it is very much used." 

The Abbe Eaynal, in 1770, described Patna as being 
the most celebrated place in the world for the cultiva- 
tion of opium, and stated that, besides what was carried 
into the inland parts, there were annually 3,000 or 
4,000 chests exported, each weighing 300 lbs. 

There is ample evidence in the old records of the 
India Ofi&ce, which have lately been examined by Sir 
George Birdwood, to prove that a large trade had been 
going on in opium between India and surrounding 
countries long before the East India Company, in 1773, 
undertook the supervision of the manufacture of opium 
in Bengal, Behar, and Orissa. 

The Company, in fact, inherited from the Moghal 
Government this important and legitimate source of 
revenue on an article of luxury which India had shown 
itself capable of producing in high perfection, and for 
which there was a large demand both in and out of that 
country. At first they continued the system of farming 
out the exclusive right of opium manufacture, but this 
was found to entail many abuses. Amongst them was 
the pressure brought by the contractors, in spite of the 
most stringent regulations to the contrary, on the culti- 
vators, whom they forced to carry on the cultivation, 
and whom they cheated in various ways. It also led to 
the adulteration of the drug and its illicit vend. The 
consequences were so injurious to the revenue, that, in 
1797, the contract system was abandoned, and the 
Government assumed the monopoly of manufacture 
through its own agencies, a system which has remained 
in force until the present day. There was, indeed, at 
that time, no practical alternative. The strongest 
opponent to the system of Government manufacture 
would hardly contend that the growth of the poppy and 
the mannfacture of opium should have been left free 
and unrestricted, as that would infallibly have led to a 
great increase in the produce of the drug, and probably 
to its deterioration. On the other hand, if it ever 
entered into the conception of the court of directors to 
suppress, in the interests of morality, the cultivation 
of the poppy in the territories then in their possession, 
it is doubtful whether they would have had the power 
in those times to have done so, and it is certain that 
they could not have controlled the production of the 
vast poppy-growing tracts outside those territories in 
Malwa, Cambay, and elsewhere. The only result would 
have been ; that the opium consumers in India would 
have been supplied from sources outside British terri- 
tory, and that the export trade would have been trans- 

E 3 



134 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION; 



ferred to ports other than British. It would certainly 
have been impossible in those days to establish a 
Customs line to prevent the entry of opium into the 
Conapany's possessions. The Company would have 
sacrificed its revenue, and no one would have been bene- 
fited except the people of the territories outside the 
Company's possessions, at the expense of those within 
them. 

The State monopoly continues to be administered by 
the Bengal Government, although its operations now 
extend into the North-west Provinces and Oudh. 
Under it, no person may cultivate the poppy except with 
a licence from the Government, and every cultivator is 
bound to sell the opium produced from his crop to the 
Government, in whose two factories, at Patna and 
Ghazipur, it is manufactured into the opium of com- 
merce. A portion of the manufactured opium is re- 
tained for consumption in India through vendors 
licensed by the Excise Department, and the remainder 
is sold monthly, by auction, in Calcutta to merchants, 
who export it. The Government prescribes rules for 
the cultivation of the poppy, the manufacture, pos- 
session, transport, import or export, and sale of opium, 
and any contravention of such rules is subject to strin- 
gent penalties, which may extend to imprisonment for 
one year or fine of 1,000 rupees, or both. Poppy ille- 
gally cultivated, and opium the subject of any offence 
against the law, is liable to confiscation, together with 
the vessels, packages, and coverings in which it is 
found, and their other contents, and the animals and 
conveyances used in carrying it. 

Like most crops, the poppy is subject to wide seasonal 
fluctuations, which formerly greatly affected the market 
prices of opium, led to speculation and gambling 
amongst the buyers for export, and caused correspond- 
ing uncertainty in the Government revenue. When, 
owing to the shortness of the supply, the price in Calcutta 
rose high, the direct effect was to stimulate the produc- 
tion of other opium competing in the foreign market 
wilh the Bengal drug, and amongst these the native 
production of China. Thus — and I would call particular 
attention to this fact, as having an important bearing 
on the question before us — the diminution of the supply 
of Indian opium to China was an incentive to the exten- 
sion of poppy cultivation in China. To remedy the 
evils thus arising from the uncertainties of the seasons, 
the Government decided, twenty -five years ago, to limit 
the sales of opium in Calcutta to a quantity which would 
permit the formation of a reserve stock in plenteous 
years to meet deficiency in years of scarcity. 

In the six years previous to 1867, the number of 
chests sold in a year varied from 21,423 to 64,111, and 
the price from Rs. 1,449 to Es. 966 per chest. In 1867 
the system of regulating the quantities annually sold, 
with the view of preventing such extreme oscillations in 
the price, was commenced. 

In 1869, owing to short crops, before there had been 
time to form a sufiBcient reserve, there were less than 
45,000 chests brought to auction. Sir Eichard Temple, 
who was in charge of the financial department, in his 
Budget statement, made the following remarks : — 

" The Government of Bengal is taking active measures 
for increasing the supply of opium for the China market to 
50,000 chests annually, and for securing a reserve supply 
which may assure the public as to the quantity to be 
brought to sale, and may conduce to the checking of 
undue speculation in prices. There is fear that unless 
the supply can be improved next season, after these 
two deficient seascras, the cultivation of the poppy in 
China itself will he stimulated. For some time past 
positive accounts have been received of the increase of 
this culture in China. So it is clear that unless Bengal 
produces enough opium the Chinese will raise it for 
themselves. And ir the Chinese will have opium, they 
may as well get it first-rate from us, as second-rate at 
home, and they may as well consume it taxed as untaxed. 
Again, if they do not procure it from us, they might 
procure it from other countries of Asia. The culture of 
the poppy in Persia is increasing, and some 4,000 chests 
are exported annually from that country." 

Here we have an exposition of the policy of the 
Government of India. Eecognising the fact that the 
Chinese demand a large supply of opium, and that to 
whatever extent India was unable to satisfy that 
demand, it would be met, either by increase of the 
produce in China itself, or by increased imports from 
other countries, the Government of India has thought 
it right, in the interests of the people of India, to shape 
its measures so as not to lose the natural advantages 
India posBcsses in the superior quality of its produce. 
Any one familiar with the records of the Government 



of India relating to this subject, must admit this is a 
fair representation of its policy and motives, and that 
nowhere in those records can be found any indication of 
a desire to stimulate the consumption of opium by the 
Chinese. 

In pursuance of this policy, the Government yearly 
regulates the extent of the poppy cultivation, guided 
chiefly by the market prices and the stock of opium in 
hand. No one is forced to grow a crop of poppy against 
his will. The sole inducement is the price off"ered by 
the Government for the produce. For the past ten 
years this price has been 5 rupees a seer, which is 
exactly equivalent to 2J lbs. troy. The Government 
makes advances, not bearing interest, before the crop 
is sown, and from time to time during its progress, thus 
saving the ryots from the exorbitant demands of the 
village money-lender. The crop, which is sown in the 
autumn and gathered in the spring, succeeds an autumn 
crop usually of Indian corn. The yield of opium per 
acre varies. For the five years ending 1889-90, the 
average produce per acre was a little over 16 lbs. avoir- 
dupois, which, at 5 rupees a seer, gave the cultivator a 
gross return of near 40 rupees per acre. In addition to 
this, he receives payment for the poppy flower petals 
and the stalks and leaves, which are used in the factory 
for packing the opium cakes. The total average annual 
payments by the Bengal Government to the poppy 
cultivators exceed Ex. 2,000,000. 

Besides the produce purchased by the Government, 
the seeds of the poppy are an important article of con- 
sumption and commerce. They are eaten parched, or 
employed as a condiment in the preparation of food ; 
but perhaps their chief use is for the expression of oil, for 
which purpose they are not only largely used in India, 
but are exported in considerable quantities, chiefly to 
Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. The 
average produce of seed per acre, after deducting what 
is required for sowing, is stated to be about 260 lbs., 
yielding, by native processes, from 80 to 100 lbs. of oil. 
This oil is edible, and is used largely in Europe, either 
as a substitute for, or adulteration of, salad oil. It is 
also used for illumination, mixing with paints, soap, 
and vamish-making. The oil-cake is eaten by the 
poorer classes and by cattle, being rich in nitrogen. 
The young seedlings, which are removed at the first 
weedings of the crop, are sold and eaten as a salad. I 
may state that these by-products of the poppy crop are 
perfectly free from opium. 

In spite, therefore, of the labour entailed in the cul- 
ture of the poppy, which requires frequent watering, 
and in spite of the vicissitudes of the season, which 
greatly affect this crop, the cultivation is popular, and 
the refusal of licences is looked upon as a grievance by 
the ryots, as well as the landowners, to whom they pay 
their rent. 

As I have already stated, the cultivator is bound by 
law to deliver the whole of the opium produced to the 
Government agents. It is then manufactured at the 
factories at Ghazipur or Patna, into the opium of com- 
merce, under the supervision of the scientific experts 
who are employed by the Government. The greatest 
care is taken to preserve the purity of the drug and the 
uniformity of its consistence. It is owing to this care, 
added to the natural advantages of soil and climate, 
that Indian opium has maintained its high reputation 
in the Chinese market, where it is admitted by the 
practical test of price to be far superior to the drug 
produced in China. Sir Robert Hart, the Inspector- 
General in China, in a report written in 1881, states 
that " the native product sells for one-half of the price 
" obtained for the foreign drug." By "consistence" 
is meant the per-centage of fine opium obtained after 
evaporating the moisture. The standard differs in the 
two agencies. At the Patna factory (Behar Agency) 
the standard is 75. and at Ghazipur (Benares Agency) 
the standard is 70, for what is called "Provision 
opium," that is, opium to be sold for export, while for 
Excise opium, intended for consumption in India, the 
standard at each factory is 90. By the end of July, 
the manufacture is finished, but the airing and drying 
are continued until October, when it is formed into 
balls, weighing each ;!,V lbs. avoirdupois, and packed in 
chests. Forty balls are allotted to each chest of pro- 
vision opium, which thus contains 140 lbs. From the 
difference of consistence a Behar chest contains 105 lbs. 
of fine opium, while a Benares chest only 98 lbs. of fine 
opium. A chest of Excise opium from the superior 
consistence contains one cwt. of fine opium. 

The Provision opium is sent to Calcutta, where it is 
sold for export at auction by monthly instalments. 
The average quantity sold annually for the five years 



APPENDIX. 



135 



ending 1889-90 was 55,349 chests. Dm-ing the last 

K^fnoA^* ^^^^^ ^®^'^' ^^^^ *° *® ^^^ °^ 1^91' it was 
57,000 a year. During the present calendar year, 1892 
xth as been notified that not more than 54,000 chests 
will be sold. In determining the number of chests to 
be annually manufactured and sold, the Government is 
guided principally by the state of the reserve stock, 
the aim being to keep up a reserve equal to half a 
year's supply. It is also guided, as I have already 
stated, by the prices obtained at auction. If the prices 
rise much, production in China and Persia is stimulated, 
and it is necessary to increase the production in India 
to maintain its market ; on the other hand, if the prices 
fall low, and opium becomes cheap, consumption is 
stimulated, and the production has to be restricted. 
The object of the Government, as I have explained, is 
to maintain, so far as possible, uoiformity in the 
price, and thus "to avoid fluctuations in the market and 
in the revenue. 

The average annual auction sale proceeds for the five 
years ending 1589-90, were Ex. 6,267,703, giving the 
average of Rs. 1,132 per chest. In the year 1890-91 
they fell below Ex. 6,000,000, owing to the extension of 
the cultivation in China. The published statistics of 
the exports of opium from Calcutta, closely conform to 
these figures, showing an average export of 56,388 
chests, valued at Ex. 6,175,542. 

The Bengal Government supplies the Excise Depart- 
ment not only in Bengal, but also in all the other pro- 
vinces, except the Madras and Bombay presidencies, 
with opium for consumption in India. The average 
quantity so supplied is about 4,500 chests a year, and 
the price credited to the Opium Department is Es. 7J a 
seer, equivalent to Es. 435 a chest. The average 
receipts from this source amount to Ex. 200,000 a year. 
The opium is sold to the consumers through licensed 
vendors, to whom it is supplied at an enhanced price, 
and who have to pay fees for the licenses to vend. The 
average receipts by the local governments from this 
source amount to about Ex. 800,000 a year. 

The declared value of the poppy seed exported from 
Bengal on the average of the five years ending 1890-91, 
was Ex. 175,000. 

Summing up these figures, we obtain the following 
result for the Bengal poppy crop :— 



Auction sale proceeds on opium for 
export - - - 

Excise opium credited to opium de- 
partment - . - - 

Eeceipts of Provincial Government 
from the vend of Excise opium - 

Value of poppy seed exported 



Ex. 

6,000,000 

200,000 

800,000 
176,000 



Total Ex. - 7,175,000 



In order to arrive at the ultimate annual value of the 
Bengal poppy crop, we must add several items which 
cannot be precisely estimated. Those are the profits to 
Indian mereihants and shippers on the ojiium exported, 
the profits to the Indian vendors of Excise opium, the 
value of the poppy seed consumed in India as seed-oil 
or oil-cake, and of the young plants used as food, and 
finally, the value of the illicit opium, which, in spite of 
all precautions, the cultivators are able to pass into 
consumption. On a moderate estimate, the value of 
this large trade cannot be taken at less than Ex. 
3,000,000, bringing up the annual total value of the 
Bengal poppy crop to over Ex. 10,000,000, or, say, 
7,000,000Z. sterling. 

The territory in which this crop is produced may be 
described as a belt of country between 600 and 600 
miles in length, with an average breadth of 180 miles, 
running north-west and south-east, between the 78th 
and 85th parallels of longitude, and the 24th and 29th 
parallels of latitude. The total area may be taken at 
about 100,000 square miles lying in the provinces of 
Behar (Bengal), the North-West Provinces and Oudh. 
The average area cultivated with poppy for the five 
years ending 1889-90 was 527,200 acres, but in the last 
of those years was only 482,567, or 754 square miles, 
only three-quarters per cent, of the whole tract referred 
to, and this for only half the year, as another crop is 
almost invariably obtained from the same land during 
the other half. In the year 1889-90, no fewer than 
1,322,355 cultivators were employed on the crop, while 
over 3,000 Hindoos and Muhamedans were employed by 
the Government in the factories and administration of 
the department. 

The only other province in British India where the 
poppy is allewed to be cultivated is the Punjab. Jt is 



there grown under license in nearly every district. In 
1839-90, the total area so cultivated was 14,458 acres, 
or under 23 square miles. Formerly, an acreage duty 
of Es. 2 per acre was charged throughout the province, 
but, under new rules, it may be increased to Es. 8, and 
has been increased to Es. 4 in several districts. The 
cultivator may dispose of his poppy crop standing, to 
license-holders, who extract the opium; or he may 
extract the opium himself, and dispose of it, or of the 
produce, in the shape of poppy heads, to licensed 
vendors. The average annual supply of opium from 
this source, for the three years ending 1889-90, was 
something over 1,650 maunds, which would be equiva- 
lent to 1,100 Bengal Excise chests, though, probably, 
the opium is less carefully manufactured, and is of a 
lower consistency. The poppy heads are used as an 
infusion, forming a poppy tea, which is drunk by the 
Sikhs, who are forbidden by their religion to use 
tobacco in any form. The value of the Punjab poppy 
crop can only be estimated. The average retail price 
of the opium is about Es. 20 a seer, or Rs. 800 a maund, 
so that, from this source alone, it yields Rx. 132,000 on 
the average annual produce. Adding the value of the 
poppy heads, seed, and other by-products, and of illicit 
opium, which cannot fall short of Rx. 18,000, we get a 
total of Rx. 150,000, or say 100,000Z. 

Outside of British India, the cultivation of the poppy 
is confined to certain native states in Central India 
and Eajputana, and the territory of the Gaikwar. The 
Opium there produced is known by the generic name of 
Malwa opium. There are no trustworthy statistics 
showing the acreage under poppy, or the total quantity 
of opium produced. After providing for the home con- 
sumption within the native states, which must be a 
very large quantity, as the habit of consuming opium 
there has been long established and is widespread, the 
remainder is consumed in those parts of British India 
not supplied with Bengal opium, also in Hyderabad 
and Mysore, or is exported by sea to China, the Straits 
settlements, &c. 

The importation of Malwa opium into British terri- 
tory is subject to very stringent regulations. Previous 
to the year 1831, by separate treaties with the native 
States, the British Government reserved to itself a 
monopoly of Malwa opium, which was purchased by 
the British Eesident at Indore, and sold by auction 
either at Bombay or Calcutta. But in that year it was 
deemed advisable, chiefly on account of the large 
quantity of opium smuggled to the Portuguese settle- 
ments on the coast, to relinquish the monopoly (which 
involved much unpalatable interference in the internal 
aflTairs of the native States), to open the trade to the 
operations of private enterprise, and to substitute, as a 
source of revenue, the grant, at a specified rate of 
duty, of passes to cover tUe transist of Malwa opium 
through British territory. This rate was at first fixed 
at Rs. 175 a chest, but as the resources of the admini- 
stration for the prevention of smuggling improved, the 
British Government have been enabled gradually to 
increase the pass duty until it amounted to Rs. 700 per 
chest. In fixing the rate, regard is had to the prices 
obtained for Bengal opium. If the rate be too low, 
Malwa opium is unduly favoured in its competition 
with Bengal opium, and if it be too high, not only is 
smuggling encouraged, but the price of Bengal opium 
rises, leading to an increased cultivation of the poppy 
either in Bengal or in China. The present rate on 
opium for foreign export is Rs. 600 a chest, except on 
a small number of chests, weighed at Ajmere, where 
the rate is Rs. 625. The rate on opium imported for 
local consumption in the Bombay Presidency remains 
at Rs. 700 per chest. 

All opium transported out of the native States of 
Central India, Eajputana, and Baroda, has to be 
weighed and tested at scales established at convenient 
places in those States under the superintendence of 
officers of the British Government. The transport is 
permitted only under passes granted on payment of the 
duty and by certain specified railway routes. The 
annual quantity passed at the scales may be taken now 
at 30,000 chests. A chest of Malwa opium contains 
the same quantity as a chest of Bengal provision opium, 
namely 140.] lb. avoirdupois ; but its consistency is con- 
siderably higher, being from 90 to 95 per cent, of fine 
opium. Consequently, it has a higher average value. 
The average exports for the five years ending 1890-91 
were 32,640 chests, valued at over Ex. 4,000,000. The 
remainder of the Malwa opium leaving the native 
States— about 2,000 chests— is consumed in India, 
chiefly in the Bombay Presidency; but the Madras 
Pfesidency, Hyderabad, and Mysore a,re also supplied 



136 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



from this source, and some goes to the Puujub. The 
value of these 2,000 chests may be taken at about 
Ex. 250,000, making a total value, for 32,000 chests, of 
Ex. 4,250,000. To this must be added, as in the case 
of the Bengal opium, the profits of the merchants and 
shippers exporting the opiilm, and of the vendors in 
India, say nearly Ex. 1,500,000. 

The average annual exports of poppy seed from 
Bombay are valued at Ex. 212,697. They amounted, in 
1890-1, to Ex. 310,930. Thus, the total annual value 
of the Malwa opium brought into British territory, and 
of the Malwa poppy seed exported from India, cannot 
be less than 4,000,000L 

There remains to be considered the value of the 
Malwa opium consumed in the native states of Central 
India, Eajputana, and Baroda; also the value of the 
Malwa poppy seed not exported from India, and of the 
other by-products of the crop. As I have already 
said, there are no data available for ascertaining or 
estimating the acreage under poppy oultivarion in the 
native states in question, much less for determining the 
quantity and value of the whole products of that crop. 
The population of those states is 21,750,00u, or about 
one-tenth of the population of the rest of India. We 
know that the people of these states have, for centuries, 
been in the habit of consuming opium., we know that 
the restrictions placed on the cultivation of the poppy, 
and on the vend of opium in British India, do not exist 
in these states, and we know that a vast quantity of 
opium is smuggled out of them. If we estimate the 
value of the crop, exclusive of the value of the product 
licitly exported, at 2,00O.(»00Z., it will certainly be under 
the real value. 

The total annual value of the poppy crops in India 
thus appears to be as follows : — 



Bengal crop 

Punjab crop ... 

Malwa crop, licitly consumed in 

British India and exported by 



Malwa crop, consumed in Central 
India, Eajputana, and Baroda, 
and smuggled thence 



£ 
7,000,000 
100,000 



4,000,000 



Total 



2,000,000 
- £13,1000,000 



This is divided between the producers and manu- 
facturers, the landlords, the British and native admini- 
strations, the middlemen, merchants, shippers, vendors. 
&c. of India, and is paid by the ultimate consumers, 
principally Chinese. 

Before leaving the commercial side of the question, 
there is one point to which I should like shortly to 
refer. It is the effect on the rupee exchanges which 
would be produced by the cessation of the opium trade 
from India to China. The disbursements of the 
Government of India in England, usually called the 
Home Expenditure, are now about 17,O0O,O0OL an- 
nually. In order to provide this sum, the Secretarj- 
of State draws bills on India, which arc purchased by 
persons in England who have to make paytnents, 
chiefly for the purchase of produce to be brought from 
the East for sale here. The Secretary of State's bills 
are, therefore, paid by the excess of exports from India 
over the imports to India. It is evident that, if there 
were a reduction in the excess exports from India, the 
demand for the Secretary of State's bills would be 
pro tanto reduced, and the exchange value of the rupee 
would fall. India exports to Oliina — including the 
Treaty Ports — annually, merchandise to the value of 
near 14,000,000 of tens of rupees, the greater pari of 
which is opium, and imports from thence merchandise 
and treasure of the value of very little over 5,000,000. 
How and where is the account adjusted? It is in 
England, to which China sends tea, silks, and other 
produce. Practically, therefore, the opium sent by 
India to China is paid for by remittances from England 
to India, which form part of the demand for the 
Secretary of State's bills. The cessation of this part of 
the demand would, therefore, have a very injurious 
eifect on the rate of exchange at which those bills are 
sold, and would increase the heavy loss to which India 
is put by the rise in the silver price of gold. 

Thirteen millions sterling is a very moderate esti- 
mate of the sum India is asked to sacrifice annually by 
suppressing her opium trade. The demand for this 
sacrifice is made not by the people of India, not_ by 
the people of China, not by the responsible admini- 
strators of those countries, but by j^an irresponsible 



party of philanthropists seeking to obtain their ends by 
the despotic action of the Parliament of the United 
Kingdom, in which India has no representatives. 

What are the reasons put forth for demanding the 
despotic destruction by a foreign country of a valuable 
Indian industry, which, besides satisfying an internal 
demand in India itself, provides one-tenth of the whole 
export tiade of merchandise from India p 

The basis of this demand is the hypothesis that, 
except for medicinal purposes, the use of opium is 
wholly pernicious, that it demoralises and ruins, body 
and soul, the consumer, and that it produces no 
countervailing benefits which for a moment can be 
compared with the evils it causes. 

A second reason given is that the English people 
have created the demand for opium by th^ Chinese, 
that they have compelled the importation of Indian 
opium into China by force of arms, and that they are, 
therefore, morally responsible for the asserted degrada- 
tion of the Chinese from the use of this drug. 

I shall now proceed to examine the validity of these 
reasons, and I shall begin with the second. 

If there is one fact more certain than any other 
connected with this question, it is that the people of 
China have used opium for centuries before the people 
of England had any voice in the affairs of India. A 
valuable "Historical Note on Opium in China" has 
recently been drawn up by Dr. Bdkins, of the Chinese 
Customs Service, and published by order of Sir Eobert 
Hart, the Inspector-General of the Imperial Maritime 
Customs of China. Prom this note it appears that 
opium was first brought to China by the Arabs early in 
the 8th century, and it is frequently mentioned by 
Chinese writers of that time. It seems at first to have 
been valued for its medicinal qualities ; but that it was 
not confined to this is proved by quotations from, the 
Chinese poets of the 10th centuary. One, named Su 
OhS, writing on the poppy, which he grew in his 
garden, says : — 

"It is sown with wheat, and ripens with panicled 
millet ; when growing, it may be eaten like the vege- 
tables in spring. The seeds are like autumn millet. 
When ground, they yield a sap like cow's milk ; when 
boiled, they become a drink fit for Buddha. Old men, 
whose powers have decayed, who have little appetite, 
who, when they eat meat, cannot digest it, and when 
they eat vegetables cannol distinguish their flavour, 
should take this drink. Use a willow mallet ani a 
stone basin to beat it. Boil it in water that has b#en 
sweetened with honey. It restores tranquility to the 
lungs and nourishes the stomach. For three years the 
door has been closed, and I have gone nowhere and 
come back from nowhere. I see here the ' Hermit of 
the Shade ' (a Taoist priest) and the long-robed Buddhist 
priest ; when they sit opposite I forget to speak. Then 
I have but to drink a cup of this poppy-seed decoction. 
I laugh, I am happy, I have come to Ying-ch'uan, and 
am wandering on the banks of its rivor. I seem to be 
climbing the slopes of the Lu Mountain in the far 
West.'; 

Eecipes for the use of opium medicinally appear 
from time to time in the works of Chinese writers of 
every subsequent century. Barbosa, a Portuguese 
geographical discoverer, who wrote early in the 16th 
century, affords evidence that the Arabs had begun to 
grow opium in India, and that it was exported to Siam 
and Pegu; and that it was brought to Malacca by 
Arabs and Gentiles (Hindoos) to exchange for cargoes 
of Chinese junks. In the Chinese tariflfs of 1,589 and 
1,615 opium is entered and rated. After citing a mass 
of evidence on the subject. Dr. Edkins concludes 
that— 

"It appears plain that from the latter part of the 
15th century, the manufacture of native opium has 
existed in China ; and it is not only in recent years that 
there has been both native and foreign opium in this 
duuntry." 

It was not, however, until the first half of the 17th 
century that the practice of smoking opium commenced 
in China. This practice followed on the introduction 
of tobacco which was brought to China about 1620. Dr. 
Edkins writes : — 

" In the time of the last Ming Emperor, who reigned 
from 1628 to 1644, tobacco smoking was prohibited, 
but the habit spread too rapidly to be checked by law. 
The origin of opium smoking- is thus accounted for. 
Various ingredients were in various countries mixed 
with tobacco to try their effect; among them '-vf^iB 
opium." 

In spite of repeated prohibitory edicts the habit of 
iobacoo smoking became almost universal. 



APPENDIX. 



137 



" This immense popularity of tobacco smoking was 
an indication of the readiness of the Chinese nation to 
adopt the use of narcotics. The same thing which took 
place in the 19th century with opium smoking occurred 
in the 17th century with tobacco smoking. The Con- 
fucian mind was shocked, the sense of propriety was 
wounded ; but this did not prevent the rapid spread of 
both these modes of indulgence in all circles. Prohibi- 
tory edicts were issued in vain by Emperors animated 
by paternal affection for their people." 

Opium, smoking seems first to have commenced in 
Formosa. A native author quoted in 1746 described 
the process of smoking opium mixed with tobacco and 
hemp. It was used as an aid to sensual indulgence. 
In the year 1729 an edict was issued on opium smoking, 
prohibiting under the severest penalties the sale of 
opium, and the opening of opium-smoking houses. 
From that time forward they have been in theory a 
crime, but in practice have never been so treated. 
Opium continued to be imported and passed at the 
custom-houses, and the cultivation of the poppy in 
China continued to extend. It was not until 1773, after 
the coaquest of Bengal by Olive that English merchants 
took up the import trade, which had steadily increased. 
in the hands of the Portuguese, and it was not until 
1781 that the East India Company became the traders 
in the drug. In 1767 the imports into China are said 
to have reached 1,000 chests, and the duty was three 
taels a chest. The statistics of trade from India were 
not then registered with the care and accuracy intro- 
duced later by the Bast India Com.pany. It will be 
seen that the Abb^ Raynal, in 1770, gives an export of 
from 3,000 to 4,000 chests from Patna alone. It was 
nominally imported as a medicinal drug, but in practice 
was used as a medicine and for smoking. It is thus 
amply proved that the English are not responsible for 
the introduction or use of opium in China. 

In the beginning of this paper I have shown that the 
extension of the opium trade is only a part, and not an 
undue part, of the general extension of foreign trade 
which has developed under the English administration 
of India. But, it is said, the English have forced this 
trade on the Chinese. The war with China, which 
terminated in 1842, has been called the Opium War, 
and its immediate cause was no doubt the seizure and 
destruction by the Chinese of a large number of chests 
of Indian opium belonging to English merchants. 
But contemporary history shows that the real objections 
of the Chinese were not to the import of opium, but to 
the necessity of paying for it in silver. Commander J. 
Eliot Bingham, who served in that war, and wrote its 
history, shows that the imports into China of opium, 
metals, cotton, &o., exceeded the exports of tea, silk, 
&c., by 2,600,000 sterling. The Chinese held the 
economic fallacy that this state of things was injurious 
to their country, as it drained away their silver. The 
Imperial edicts enlarged more on the abstraction of 
their sycee silver than on the injury from opium to the 
morals of the people. One high Chinese official memo- 
rialised the Emperor " to permit the barbarian mer- 
" chants to import opiam as a medicine, and to require 
" that, after having passed the Custom House it shall 
" be delivered to the Hong merchants only in exchange 
" for merchandise, and that no money be paid for it ;" 
and further, that the exportation of money and sycee 
silver be prohibited. But to whatever extent the wars 
with China were connected with smuggling of Indian 
opium, it is certain that since 1858, when the Treaty of 
Tientsia was signed the Chinese Government has had 
a perfectly free hand in the matter of the importation 
of opium. By that treaty certain commercia,l conces- 
sions were arranged which included the legitimatising 
of the import of opium, subject to a duty being levied 
thereon. But in the treaty itself there was no mention 
of or allusion to the opium trade. Lord Elgin wrote 
that he intentionally abstained from urging any treaty 
recognition of that trade. The preparation of the tariff 
devolved on Mr. Lay, the Chinese Secretary to Lord 
Elgin's special mission, at the desire of the Chinese no 
less than that of Lord Elgin. Mr. Lay, in a letter to 
the " Times " of the 22nd October 1880, wrote :— 

"When I came to 'opium,' I inquired what course 
they proposed to take in respect to it. The answer 
was, ' We have resolved to put it into the tariff as 
foreign medicine.' I urged a moderate duty in view 
of the cost of collection, which was agreed to. This 
represents with strict accuracy, the amount of ' extor- 
tion ' resorted to ... . The Chinese G-overnment 
admitted opium as a legal article of import, not tinder 
constraint, but of their own free will deliberately." 
e 80970. 



In the " Times " of the 25th of same month, a letter 
appeared from Mr. Laurence Oliphant, who was secre- 
tary to Lord Elgin's Mission, in which he confirmed 
the statement made by Mr. Lay. He says he, with the 
Commissioner appointed by the Chinese Government, 
went through the tariff elaborated by Mr. Lay with tlio 
subordinate Chinese officials : — 

''When we came to the article ' opium ' I informed 
the Commissioner that I had received instructions from 
Lord Elgin not to insist on the insertion of the drug in 
the tariff, should the Chinese Government wish to omit 
it. This he declined to do. I then proposed that the 
duty should be increased beyond the figures suggested 
in the tariff; but to this he objected, on the ground 
that it would increase the inducements to smuggling . 

. . I trust that the delusion that the opium 
trade now existing with China was ' extorted ' from 
that country by the British Ambassador may be finally 
dispelled." 

In 1876, a convention or agreement, called the 
Chefoo Convention, was arrived at between the Govern- 
ments of Great Britain and China, in which the British 
Minister, Sir Thomas Wade, promised to move his 
Government to make certain special arrangements as 
to the import of opium. These arrangements were 
finally carried out by an additional Article, signed at 
London in 1885. By this Article an addition to the 
import duty of 30 taels per chest was agreed to. It 
amounts to a further 80 taels per chest, and frees the 
opium from any further duty or tax whilst in transport 
in the interior, being, in fact, a composition of the lijcin 
tax. When the package is opened at the place of con- 
sumption, it is subject to any tax which may be levied 
on native opium. 

During the three years ending 1890, the average im- 
port of opium into China was 78,360 piculs or chests, 
valued at 30,577,235 Haikwan taels. The average im- 
port duty was 2,355,650 taels ; the opium Uhin, 6,278,922 
taels, making a total receipt averaging 8,634,572 
Haikwan taels per annum. What is called the par 
value of a Haikwan tael, measured in gold is 6s. 8d., 
that is, there are three such taels to the pound ster- 
ling. At this rate, the receipts of the Chinese Govern- 
ment from the import of opium are equivalent to 
2,878,0002. a year. The great appreciation which has 
taken place in the value of gold has, of course, lowered 
the exchange value of the silver tael, and this, no 
doubt, affects China in the payment of debts to gold 
standard countries ; but for internal purposes the value 
of the tael has been little affected. This large revenue, 
equal now to about 2,000,0002., and forming more than 
one third of the entire Customs revenue of China, is 
collected by the department presided over by Sir 
Eobert Hart — a department admirably administered, 
and scrupulously accounting for its collections to the 
Imperial Government at Pekin. The Itl-in for which 
the payment of 80 taels per chest is a composition, was 
formerly collected as transit duties by the local Chinese 
authorities through whose provinces the opium passed. 
The Imperial Government received only such portion 
of the collections as they could manage to get out of 
the Provincial Governments, who, on the other hand, 
strove to retain as much as possible. The arrange- 
ments under the Chefoo Convention are, therefore, 
very advantageous to the Imperial Government at 
Pekin, which cannot afford to dispense with this large 
revenue derived from the import of opium. 

Another result of the Chefoo Convention has been 
greatly improved arrangements for the prevention of 
smuggling of opium f lom Hong Kong. A mixed Com- 
mission was appointed, including a Chinese officer of 
high rank, which resulted in an Ordnance of the Hong 
Kong Legislature passed in May 1887, by which the 
movement of opium into, within, and from Hong Kong 
is strictly regulated with the view to the prevention of 
smuggling into China. 

It is clear then that Indian opium is now imported 
into China with the full approval and consent of the 
Chinese Government, who are at liberty to terminate 
the present arrangement at any time by giving twelve 
months' notice of their desire to terminate it. It is 
equally certain that Great Britain would never fire a 
gun to force Indian opium on the Chinese. 

I have already referred to the early history of opium 
in China. Sir Eobert Hart said, in 1881, that " Native 
" opium was known, produced, and used long before any 
'■■ European began the sale of the drug along the coast." 
The production of opium in China has gone on steadily 
increasing, and has been encouraged by the restrictions 
and heavy taxation placed on India opium by the Go- 
vernment of India. All travellers and the consular 



138 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



authorities testify to the vast areas under poppy cultiva- 
tion. The produce of native opium has been estimated 
to 1)6 from three to ten times the quantity of the im- 
ported drug, Chinese opium is now njuch better pre- 
pared than it formerly "was, and it has practically driven 
Indian opium out of the markets of Northern China, 
and, so far as wc Icnow, it supplies the bulk of the de- 
mand in tlie inland and western provinces. The local 
drug is much cheaper than imported opium. The Burma 
revenue omoers are constantly striving to prevent 
imjiortation of cheap Chinese opium into Burma. 

Of the numerous recent travellers ia China I will 
quote only Mr. Hosie, a consular agent, who, in 1883, 
travelled from February to June through the provinces 
of Sse-ch'uan, Yiinnan, and Kueichon. His diary has 
almost daily references to the extensive poppy cultiva- 
tion through which he passed. In many places it was 
tbe piiiicipal crop. With regard to the Government 
prohibition he writes : — 

" I liave noticed in several places west of the pro- 
vincial caijital a proclamation, dated the 9th November 
lS82,bythe Governor-Lxeneral of Sse-ch'uan, prohibiting 
the cultivation of the poppy, and enjoining a more ex- 
tended sowing of the cereals. It was always more or less 
mutilated, whether intentionally or not I cannot say. 
At all events poppy was frequently growing on the side 
of the road opposite to that on which the proclamation 
was posted. It is one thing to issue instructions, another 
to see that they are carried out." 

The prohibition is evidently in the nature of a pious 
opini'in, meant for show and not for use. 

Mr. Hosie, writing on the f>th June 1883, says : — 

" It seems superfluous daily to mention poppy as a 
crop. To-day, however, it was exceedingly prominent, 
growing everywhere on the hill-sides and bottom lands. 
Large rice bowls, heaped with the drug, were exposed 
at the door of almost eveiy shop in every hamlet and 
village, not a bowl here and there, but several, eight 
being a very common number. In fact the whole 
country reeks and stinks of opium." 

AVith these facts before us, how can it be maintained 
that the consumption of opium in China can be affected 
by the imports of Indian opium, except in so far that 
these supply a purer and more expensive article, the 
suppression of which -irould lead to larger products of 
native opium of inferior quality ? 

I will here quote the opinion of the Rev. F. Galpin, 
of the English Methodist Free Church, a respected 
missionary at Ningpo, an important port on the east 
coast of China. When asked, about ten j'ears ago, to 
join in a jietition to the House of Commons against the 
opium, he refused to do so, and, in his letter of refusal, 
wrote : — 

" I beg to express my hearty dissent from the idea 
presented in the petition that the Chinese people or 
Government are really anxious to remove the abuse of 
opium. The remedy has always been, as it is now, in 
their own hands. Neither do I believe that if the im- 
portation of Indian opium ceased at once, the Chinese 
Government -would set about desti'Ojing a very fruitful 
means of revenue. On the contrary, I feel sure that 
the growth of Chinese opium would be increased 
forthwith." 

I could multiply to any extent the evidence of the 
extensive cultivation of poppy in China, bnt I think I 
have said enough to show that it is a fact which cannot 
be denied. 

'I will now proceed to discuss the crucial question a>; 
to the effects of consuming opium, of which there aro 
various forms. In China the usual form is by what is 
called smoking opium. In India it is eaten. In Europe 
it is drunk in the form of lauda,num, or a tincture pre- 
pared in spirits of wine. We must consider what is the 
clfect on the average consumer, and not confine our 
attention to the cases of those persons only who indulge 
in the habit to excess, cases which I shall show are 
exceptional. 

The Anti-Opium Society look at only one side of this 
question, and they arrive at their conclusions by gene- 
ralising over the whole number of opium consnmer.s 
the results observed or recorded in the (^ase of fre- 
quenters of what are calletl " opium dens." Even in 
these cases they make no allowance foi' the fact that 
many of the indulgers in the drug have been led to the 
habit by painful diseases, from which they have sought 
anel found relief in opium, and that these diseases — not 
due but antecedent to the re.sort to, the drug — largely 
account for the wretched appearance and condition of 
the patients. This is Lnuch as if one who derived his 
knowledge of the effects of alcohol solely from the gin 
palaces, or loiver drinking shops in London, should con- 



clude that habits of intoxication, brutality, and social 
and physical degradation there to be seen, were typical 
of the mass of alcohol consumers in England ; in short 
that everyone who was not a total abstainer was a con- 
firmed druni<ard. We know this is untrue, and that 
the great body of Englishmen, whether of the upper or 
the working classes, take their liquor in moderation, 
and with positive benefit to themselves. So, too, with 
the consumers of opium in China and India. To prove 
this there is the evidence of numerous Englishmen who 
have resided for a long time in those countries, and 
whose duty it has been to acquaint themselves with the 
facts. Some of this evidence I will put before you. , 

It may be safely said that all but a \-ery small per- 
centage of the people of this country are absolutely ig- 
norant of the normal effects of the habit of using opium. 
The popular ideas on the subject which prevail are 
largely due to Thomas De Quincey, who, in. 1822, pub- 
lished the confessions of an English opium eater. Many 
have I'cad this fascinating work, and many, more have 
heard of it, and look upon I)o Quincey as the " shocking 
example" of such a habit. But I venture to say that 
his confessions completely disprove the allegations put 
forward by the opponents of the use of the drug. De 
Quincey (I am quoting Mr. Henry Morley) inherited a 
delicate and nervous constitution. His father died of 
consumption at the' age of 39. In his youth he ran away 
from school, and, in the course of his subsequent ad- 
ventures, passed through n period of hardship and want, 
He wrote that while wandering in Wales, where he 
seldom slept under a roof, he ivas reduced to one meal 
a day. 

''From the keen appetite he says, produced by con- 
stant exercise and mountain air, acting on a youthful 
stomach, I soon began to suffer greatly on this slender 
regimen, for the single meal which I could venture to 
order was coffee or tea. Even this was at length with- 
drawn, and afterwards, so long as I remained in Wales, 
I subsisted either on blackberries, hips, haws, &o., or on 
the casual hospitalities which I now and then received 
in return for such little services as I had opportunity of 
rendering." 

Soon after this he came to London. 
" And now began the latter and fiercer stage of my 
long sufferings ; without using ij, disproportionate ex- 
pression, I might say, of my agony. For I now suffered, 
for upwards of 16 weeks, the physical anguish of hunger 
in various degrees of intensity, but as little perhaps as 
ever any human being can have suffered who has 
survived. . . Let it suffice to say that a few 

fragments of bread irom the breakfast-table of one in- 
dividual (who supposed me to be ill, but did not know 
of my being in utter want), and these at uncertain 
intervals, constiluted my whole support." 

To the.-e hardships he attributes the pains, which 
subsequently drove him to the daily use of opium. In 
1804, when he was just 19 years of age, after suffering 
for about 'JO days from excruciating rheumatic pains 
of the head and face, with hardly any respite, at the 
advice of a friend he took his first dose of laudanum. 
He thus describes the result : — 

" That my pains had vanished was now a trifle in my 
eyes; this negative effect was swallowed up in the 
immensity of those positive effects which had opened 
before me— in the abyss of divine enjoyment thus 
suddenly revealed." 

From this time, for about eight years, he regnilarly 
took laudanum, though not daily. He writes : "And 

how do I find my health after all this opium eating ? " 
And he thus answers the nueslion : — 

" If I dared to say the real and simple truth, though 
to satisfy the theories of medical men I ought to be ill, 
I never was better in my life than in the spring of 1812 • 
and I hope sincerely that the quantity of claret, port! 
or • particnlai- Madeira ' which, in all probability you! 
good reader, ha\ e taken, and design to take, for every 
term of eight years during your natural life, may as 
little disorder your health as mine was disordered by 
the opium I had taken for eight years between 1804 and 
1812." 

In this last year he suffered much in bodily health 
from distress of mind connected with a very melancholy 
event, and in 1813 the internal pains he had suffered 
from in his boyhood again attacked him. He then began 
to take opium daily, and the habit so grew upon him 
that in a few years he was taking it at the rate of 340 
grains a day, or about half a pint of laudanum. With 
marriage in view he gradually reduced it 40 grains. In 
1816 he married, and had a large family of sons and 
daughters. Re occasionally relapsed into excess of 
opium-taking, until the close of 1844. Prom that time 



Appendix. 



139 



He reduced hi? allowance to 6 grains a day, and in his 
latter years De , Qijincey's life passed peacefully,, free 
wholly from distress of mind. He died in 1859, in his 
75th year. Here we have, then, the instance of a man, 
of a naturally delicate and nervous constitution, whose 
early life was subject to great physical hardship, who 
from the age of 19 indulged in the use of opium — 
for, a Ipng period in excessive quantities — and who 
yet retained his mental qualities unimpaired, led an 
active literai'y life, was one of the m.ost brilliant, accom- 
plished, and intellectual writers England has produced, 
and who lived to the good age of 75 years. 

Now what does De Quincey, with his unparalleled 
experience, says of the eifeotsof opium-taking? Here 
are his own words with respect to its bodily eJfects : — 
" Upon all that has hitherto been written on the 
subject of opium. Whether by travellers in Turkey (who 
may plead the privilege of lying as an immemorial 
right) or by professors of medicine, writing es cathedra, 
I have but one emphatic criticism to pronounce — Lies ! 
lies! lies!"* 
Again — 

" It is not so much affirmed as taken for granted, by 
all who ever mention opium, formally and incidentally, 
that it does or can produce intoxication. Now, reader, 
assure yourself, meo periculo, that no quantity of opium 
ever did or could intoxicate. As to the tincture of 
opium (commonly called laudanum), iJiat might intoxi- 
cate if a man could bear enough of it. But why? 
Because it contains so much proof spirit, and not because 
it contains so much opium. But crude opium, I affirm 
peremptorily, is incapable of producing any state of 
body at all resembling that which is produced by 
alcohol, and not in degree only incapable, but even in 
hind. It is not in the quantity of its eflfects merely, 
but in the quality that it differs altogether .... 
The main distinction lies in this, that whereas wine 
disorders the mental faculties, opium on the contrary 
(if taken in a proper manner), introduces amongst them 
most exquisite order, legislation, and harmony." 

With respect to the allegation that th3 elevation of 
spirits produced by opium is necessarily followed by 
a proportionate depression, De Quiucey simply denies 
it— 

"Assuring my reader that for 10 years, during which 
I took opium at intervals, the day succeeding to that 
on which I allowed myself this luxury was always a day 
of unusually good spirits." 

Again — 

'' With respect to the torpor supposed to follow, or, 
rather (if we were to credit the numerous pictures of 
Turkish opium eaters), to accompany the practice of 
opium eating, I deny that also. Certainly, opium is 
classed under the head of narcotics, and some such 
effect it may produce in the end ; but the primary 
effects of opium are always, and in the highest degree, 
to excite and stimulate the system. This first stage of 
action always lasted with me, during my noviciate, for 
upwards of eight hours ; so that it must be the fault of 
the opium eater himself if he does not so time his 
exliibition of the dose (to speak medically) as that the 
whole weight of its narcotic influence may descend upon 
his sleep." 

De Qnincey, in fact, used to take his dose before 
going to the Italian Opera, as he found it greatly in- 
creased his mental activity and appreciation of the 
entertainment. He observes that it is remarkable that, 
during the whole period of years through which he had 
taken opium, he had never once caught cold (as the 
phrase is) ; not even the slightest cough. _ It was not 
until De Qnincey commenced to wean himself from 
the habit of taking excessive doses of the drug, that he 
experienced what he calls the pains of opium. It kept 
its hold on him " by the tortures connected with the 
" attempt to abjure it." Nevertheless, he succeeded, in 
a few weeks, in bringing down the quantities to a 
maderate amount. He writes : " The issue of my case 
" is at least a proof that opium, after a 17 years' use 
" and an eight years' abuse of its powers, may still be 
" renottnced." 

So much for the experiences of an English opium 
eater. They are quite consistent with the assertion 
that the moderate use of opium, by a person in good 
health, may be continued for years, not only without 
any harmful efi'ects, but with absolute benefit. 



« Since De QuinoEy wrote this, the views of the medical profession as 
to the cflcctii of opium consumption (especially such members ot the 
nrofession as hiivu had wide experience m India and Olnna) have 
KTSatly inodifled, and are nnvr more in accordance With the conclusions 
of Pe 'Quincey. 



Let us now see what is the effect on the Chinese, 
who resort to the more innocuous habit of smoking 
opium. In February 1882 three lectures were given in 
St. James's Hall by the late Mr. William Brereton, and 
were subsequently published under the title, " The 
" Truth About Opium." Mr. Brereton lived and jir'.ic- 
tised as a solicitor for nearly fifteen years in Hong 
Kong, where he had daily experien ce of the custom ami 
eflfects of opium smoking. He was in no way en,ga,Gjed 
in the opium trade, and had no jjecuniary interest in it, 
but felt it is his duty to endeavour to dispel what he 
called the unfounded delusions which have taken pos- 
session of the public mind on the subject. His book is 
a storehouse of facts and arguments. It is wiitten 
in a bright and intelligent style, a.nd I strongly recom- 
mended its perusal to anyone interested in the question. 
The fact ha\'e never been denied, or the arguments 
answered by anyone having a personal knowledge of 
the subject. I shall take the liberty 9f quoting largely 
from this book. 

Mr. Brereton commences by stating that, having had 
daily intercourse with the people from whom the best 
and most trustworthy information on the subject of 
opium and opium smoking could be obtained, his experi- 
ence is that opium smoking as practised by the Chinese 
is perfectly innocuous, and that this is a fact so patent 
that it forces itself upon the attention of every intelli- 
gent resident in China who has given ordinaiy atten- 
tion to the subject. He quotes numeroug high autho- 
rities in support of this view. The first is Dr. Philip 
Ayres, Inspector of Hospitals of Hong Kong for many 
years, who both in India and in China made the subject 
of opium consumption a special study, and who had a 
large native practice amongst the Chinese. 

In a report to the Government of Hong Kong for the 
year 1881, Dr. Ayres wrote : — 

" I have come to the conclusion that opium smoking 
is a luxury of a very harmless desoiiption." 

In an article of the " Eriend of China," witten by Dr. 
Ayres, he says : — 

" My opinion is that it (opium smoking) may become 
a habit, but that that habit is not necessarily an 
increasing one. Nine out of twelve men smoke a cer- 
tain number of pipes a day, just as a tobacco smoker 
would, or as a wine or beer drinker might drink his two 
or three glasses a day, without desiring more. I think 
the excessive opium smoker is in a greater minority 
than the excessive spirit drinker or tobacco smoker. In 
my experience, the habit does no physical harm in 
moderation . . . I do not wish to defend the 

practice of opium smoking, but in the face of tho 
rash opinions and e.xaggeratod statements in respect of 
this vice, it is only right to record that no China resi- 
dent believes in the terrible frequency of the dull, 
sodden- witted, debilitated opium smoker met with in 
print, nor have I found many Europeans who believe 
that they ever get the better of their opium smoking 
compradores in matters of business." 

Another authority is Mr. John Crawfurd, E.E.S., a 
savant of high reputation, who had been (Jovernor of 
Lhe Straits Settlements, and who had resided and 
travelled for many years in those parts of the East and 
India. In 1856, he published a " Dictionary of the 
" Indian Islands and Adjacent Countries." This is 
what he writes about opium : — 

" Opium is at present largely consumed in the 
Malayan Islands, in China, in the Indo-Chinese coun- 
tries, and in a few parts of Hindustan, much in the 
same way in which ardent spirits, malt liquor, and 
cider are consumed in Europe. Its deleterious 
character has been much insisted on, but, generally, 
by parties who have had no experience of its effects. 
Like any other narcotic, or stimulant, the habitual use 
of it is amenable to abuse, and as being more seductive 
than other stimulants, perhaps more so, but this is 
certainly the utmost than can be safely charged to it. 
Thousands consume it without any pernicious results, 
as thousands do wine and spirits, without any evil con- 
sequence. I know of no person of long experience and 
competent judgment who has not come to this common- 
sense conclusion." 
He then proceeds to quote Dr. Oxley — 
" A physician and naturalist of eminence, and who 
has had a larger experience than any man of Singa- 
pore, where there is the highest rate of the consump- 
tion of the drug." 

Dr. Oxley wrote : — 

"The inordinate use, or rather abuse, of the drug 
most decidedly cloes bring on early decrepitude, loss of 
appetite, and a morbid state of the secretions ; but I 
have seen a man who has used the drug for 5iJ years 

S 2 



140 



INDIAN OriUM COMMISSION : 



in moderation, witliout any evil effects ; a,Bd one man I 
recollect in Malacca who had t;o used it was upwards of 
eighty. Several in the habit of smoking it have 
assured me that, in moderation, it neither impaired the 
functions nor shortened life; at the same time, fully 
admitting the deleterious effects of too much.'' 

Mr. Urawfurd sums up the question by this asser- 
tion : — 

" Not the use, then, but the abuse of opium is pre- 
judicial to health, but in this respect it does not 
materially differ from wine, distilled spirits, malt 
liquor, or hemp juice." 

Dr. Batwell, First Assistant Opium Examiner in 
the service of the Grovernment, gave the following 
evidence : — 

" Having passed three years in China, I may be allowed 
to state, as the result of my observation, and I can 
affirm thus far, that the effects of the abuse of the drug 
do not come very frequently under observation, and that 
when cases do occur, the habit is frequently found to 
have induced by the presence of some painful chronic 
disease, to escape from the suffering of which the 
patieni has fled to this resource. . . As regards 

the effects of the habitual use of the drug on the mass 
of the people, I must affirm that no injurious results 
are visible. The people are generally a muscular and 
well-formed race, the labouring portion being capable 
of great and prolonged exertion under a fierce sun, in 
an unhealthy climate." 

Dr. Batwell concludes by observing that : — 
" The proofs are still wanting to show that the 
moderate use of opium produces mr)re pernicious effects 
upon the constitution than does the moderate use of 
spirituous liquors ; whilst, at the same time, it is certain 
that the consequences of the abuse of the former are 
less appalling in their effect upon the victims, and less 
disastrous to society at large, than are the consequences 
of the abuse of the latter." 

For many years previous to 1858, Dr. Sinibaldo de 
Mas had been the Envoy Extraordinary and Minister 
Plenipotentiary of the Court of Spain atPekin. He had 
travelled much in China, India, Java, Borneo, and 
Malacca, and learned the Chinese language. In 1858 
he published a book in French entitled " L'Angleterre, 
le Chine, et I'lnde," in which special reference is made 
to the opium question, with which he says be had made 
himself fully acquainted. I will only quote a few 
words : — 

" It is a well known fact that in all these countries, 
notwithstanding their unwholesome climates, the opium- 
smoking Chinese are remarkably healthy and strong. 
These very opium-smokers are employed as farm 
labourers, masons, and porters, enduring great fatigue 
and performing the mose arduous labours : they have 
acquired such an excellent reputation as colonists that 
efforts have been made during the last few years to 
induce them to settle in Lima and Cuba. The per- 
centage of deaths among these people does not exceed 
the usual rate, and I must confess that having known 
numbers of Chinese enigrants in the various countries 
I have mentioned, I have never heard of a single death 
or any serious illness having been caused by opium 
smoking." 

Baron Richtholen, the most experienced traveller 
who ever visited Ssc-ch'uan, alter noticing the extra- 
ordinary prevalence there of the habit of opium 
smoking, says : — 

" In no other province except Hunan did I find the 
effects of the use of opium so little perceptible as i" 
Sse-ch'uan." 

Mr. Colman Baber, who knew more of that province 
and its people than any living Englishman, says : — 

" Nowhere in China are the people so well off, or so 
hardy, and nowhere do they smoke so much opium." 

]\Ir. "W. Donald Spence, Her Majesty's Consul at 
Tchiing, in 1881, visited the capital of 8se-ch'uan. He 
reported the enormous extent of the cultivation of the 
poppy, ii,nd described whole districts as being one vast 
poppy field, and he thus speaks of the pesoplo : — 

"I found, the people of Sse-ch'uan stout, able-bodied 
men, better housed, clad, and fed, and healthier looking 
than the Chinese of the Lower Yang-tsze. I did not 
see amongst them more emaciated faces and wasted 
forms than di.scase causes in all lands. People with 
slow wasting diseases, such as consumption, are, if they 
smoke opium, apt to be classed amongst the ' ruined 
victims' of linst}' observers; and amongst the cases of 
combined debilily and i)|iium smoking I saw, some 
were, by I heir own n.eeount, jisenilo-viotims of this 
ty[c. There wei-o some, too, whoso health was com- 



pletely sapped by smoking combined with other forms 
of sensual excess. And no doubt there were others 
weakened by excessive smoking simply, for excess in 
all things has its penalty. But the general health and 
well-being of the .Sse-ch'uan community is remark- 
able : to their capacity for work and endurance of 
hardship, as well as to the material comforts of life 
they surround themselves with, all travellers bear 
enthuiastio testimony." 

Time will not allow me to extend these quotations, 
although there is a mass of concurrent evidence on the 
subject. I will, however, add that of Sir Henry 
Pottinger, H.M.'s Govei-nor-General and Minister Pleni- 
potentiary in China, contained in a despatch written 
some 60 years ago, to the Foreign Office : — 

■' I cannot admit in any manner the idea adopted by 
many persons, that the introduction of opium into 
China is a source of unmitigated evil of every kind 
and a cause of misery. Personally, I have been unable 
to discover a single case of this kind, although I adm.it 
that, when abused, opium may become most hurtful. 
Besides, the same remark applies to every kind of en- 
joyment when carried to excess ; but, from personal 
observations since my arrival in China ; from in- 
formation taken upon all points ; and, lastly, from 
what the mandarins themselves say, I am convinced 
that the demoralisation and ruin which some persons 
attribute to the use of opium, arise more likely from 
imperfect knowledge of the subject and exaggeration, 
and that not one hundredth part of the evil arises in 
China from opium smoking which one sees daily 
arising in England, as well as in India, from the use of 
ardent spirits, so largely taken in excess in those 
countries." 

The picture drawn by the opponents of opium is that 
those ^vho are in the habit of using it are a set of 
degraded, depraved, miserable wretches, enfeebled in 
mind and body, unfit for the active duties of life — 
thie\es, vagabonds, and beggars. They do not admit 
— or, at any rate, never refer to the possibility of — the ♦ 
existence of moderate consumers, who, although they 
take their daily dose, are not only none the worse for it, 
but are actually benefited. The only exception which 
I have found is the Venerable Ai'chdeacon Moule, who 
was for many years a missionary in China, and who has 
recently published his recollections of his life in that 
country. The Archdeacon is violently opposed to the 
opium trade, and has no words too bad for it : but he 
writes^: — " Instances which have come under my notice 
" make me think that opium smoking is already 
" taking the place, not of abuse of alcohol (which it 
" has hitherto held) in Chinese moral estimation, but 
" of the use of alcohol ; and that it is becoming pos- 
" sible to take the drug in moderation." He very 
sensibly adds that the Chinese have a fair right to say 
to the English people, " If you would prohibit oui' 
" opium, abolish your alcohol." 

But this ingenuous discovery of the possibility of the 
Chinese taking opium in moderation, as the mass of 
Englishmen take alcohol in moderation, has been 
known to every resident of China who has taken the 
trouble to inform himself of all the facts, and has not 
confined his attention to opium dens. 

I will now examine the evidence as to the effect of 
opium consumption by the people of India. A Parlia- 
mentary Blue Book was published on this snbject a few 
weeks ago. It contains the reply of the Government 
of India to a memorial of the Society for the Sup- 
pression of the Opium Trade, complaining of the 
increased consumption of the drug in India — a com- 
complaint which has been triumphantly disproved. 
This Blue Book contains the opinions of experienced 
officers engaged in the administration of the country, 
writing from their own personal knowledge, which it 
was a part of their duty to acquire, as to the effects of 
opium consumption on the people of India. 

Now, let us see what these experienced gentlemen 
say. I will quote their evidence from every part of 
India. 

The Province of Assam has a population of a little 
over 4,000,000, or about 2 per cent, of the whole popu- 
lation of British India. They consume 13 per cent, 
of the whole quantity of opium retailed by licensed 
^■enilors in British India. The following is the testi- 
timony of Mr. Driberg, Commissioner of Excise in 
Assam : — 

"I am not prepared to admit that the present use 
of opium in Assam is a 'vice.' In most cases it is a 
necessity, ^^'hen ^^ c first iicquirod Assam (I now 
S|icak of the Assam Valley) e\ery villager grew his 
own ojnum, just as he now 'loes his vegetables or his 



APPENDIX. 



141 



chillies for his curry. He has no tax to pay for his 
opium field, no restrictions placed on him. The former 
rulers recognised that a certain amount of the drug 
was necessary. Taking it broadly, and excluding tea 
gardens, the valley is inhabited by two classes ; the 
Cacharies, Lalongs, Meohes, and other aboriginal tribes, 
who reside on the higher submontake tracts, or along 
the high banks of the larger rivers, and the Hindus, 
the Kolitas, Koshes, Keots, and others who reside in 
the low-lying country, subject annually to inundation, 
and always damp. The former people do not use 
opium ; they do not require it ; but the lowlanders use 
it. They are the opium eaters of Assam. They live in a 
low, damp part of the country. Year after year parts 
of their villages are submerged and temporarily aban- 
doned J and these people use opium to counteract the 
damp and malaria. They themselves say that they 
would die from fevers, if they did not use opium ; and 
I have known medical men, who have had much ex- 
perience of the province, hold the same view. These 
people are opium eaters, but not of the class described 
in the papers. They are good agriculturists, good sub- 
jects, and good fathers of families. They take their 
opium just as a good Englishman would take his peg. 
Of course, there are Assamese who take too much opium, 
just as there are Englishmen who take too much 
liquor ; but, that opium eating is always a vice I am 
not prepared to admit, so far as Assamese are con- 
cerned; and, that it is increasing, I deny, and the 
statement I have referred to proves my view. lu the 
Surma Valley, little opium is consumed. The people 
there use ganja, rather than opium ; a.nd even there, 
the consumption of this drug is smaller now than it was 
in 1874-75, and the duty is higher." 

The views of Sir Charles Elliott, Lieutenant-Governor 
of Bengal, an officer of long and wide experience in 
India, will be gathered from the following paragraph 
of his report to the Government of India : 

"As to the proposal to limit the possession of opium 
to one tolah instead of five, its effect on the ordinary 
consumer of opium would be undesirable. A quarter 
of a tolah is a common, perhaps the commonest, dose 
taken daily by those who are addicted to the use of 
opium, and it is within Sir Charles Elliott's personal 
knowledge and experience that this quantity is taken 
by innumerable persons in all parts of India, from 
Eajputana and the Punjab to Assam, without any 
injury or physical deterioration ; that heavy tasks are 
easily performed under the stimulus it supplies ; and 
that the prevalent belief is that the stimulus is whole- 
some, even in a dry climate, and is especially bene- 
ficial in moist and marshy countries like Eastern 
Bengal. The consumer of such a dose can now procure 
his supply for 20 days by one visit to an opium shop ; 
if the limit were reduced to one tolah, he would require 
to visit the shop every four days — an annoyance which 
there is no reason for imposing upon him, and the 
inposition of which would lead to increased smuggling 
and to breaches of the law." 

The opium agent of Behar writes : — 

"We have to consider the consumer's of opium in 
the malarious alluvial tracts -nhich form a great pro- 
portion of the area of these provinces. The use of 
opium by these people is not so much a vice as a neces- 
sity. Their vegetable diet would not keep them alive 
without stimulants, and I deubt whether it would bo 
for their benefit to stop their opium and drive them to 
ganja or spirits. On the comparatively dry laterite 
soil the people are spirit drinkers. On the alluvial mud 
they either use opium or the far more deleterious ganja.* 
I do not believe that the prevention of the cultivation 
of the poppy in British India would cut ofl the supply 
of a drug which bears so high a value as opium, which 
the T)eople believe to be so necessary to them, and 
which from its small bulk is, if the smell is disguised, 
very easily smuggled. I also doubt whether there is 
any equally efficient febrifuge within the reach of the 
people, and whether their health would not suffer 
greatly if they could not procure opium. It does not 
appear to produce such insanity as ganja does, and 
where people are as well fed as the Mahomedan ryots 
of Eastern Bengal, I am informed that opium smoking 
does not injure them. It is said to be opium smoking 
on insufficient food that affects the health. 

"In conclusion, I may say that I believe there has 
been much exaggeration as to the scenes of intoxication 
to be witnessed in the chandu and madak shops. A^ ^ 
have already said, there is none in the retail opium 



Hemp. 



shops. I have visited shops in which more than a score 
of persons have been smoking chandu or madak with- 
out seeing any person lying intoxicated, or unable to 
answer my questions intelligently. I have also, how- 
ever, seen persons in other shops lying asleep^ and 
presumably intoxicated, but not many. It is, I believe, 
usual for the smokers of chandu, the Chinese prepara- 
tion of opium, to sleep, presumably intoxicated, before 
leaving the premises ; but in the madak shops this i» 
by no means always the case, and I have seen many get' 
up and go away quietly from the shop after smoking the 
drug. They have told me that they have no desire to 
sleep after it." 

The Commissioner of Excise in the Central Provinces 
writes : — 

" The eating of opium (as distinguished from smoking 
it) in moderate quantities, though generally held in 
disrepute and regarded as a vice by those who do not 
indulge in it, is not considered to be always harmful. 
Indeed, the current belief is that in certain localities 
and for certain ages and constitutions its use may 
be actually beneficial and conducive to health and 
longevity." 

The Financial Commissioner of Burma says :— 

" The Chinese at Bhatno and also in Mergui assured 
me that they could not exist in malarious countries, 
such as those in which the jade and amber mines and 
the tin mines are situated, without opium. As far as I 
know the use of opium is universal amongst the Chinese 
and hill tribes in feverish tracts. I believe that they 
seldom abuse the use of the drug, and I have every 
reason to suppose that its use is beneficial under certain 
conditions." 

Sir Charles Aitohison, who was Chief Commissioner 
of Burma, says : — 

"There are large numbers of the non-Burmese com- 
munity, constituting perhaps the most thriving and 
industrious section of the population, to whom the drug 
is a necessity of life, and by whom it is rarely abused." 

Mr. Copleston, the Commissioner of Excise in Burma, 
gives similar testimony. He says : — 

" The use of opium by the Chinese and natives of 
Madras, who consume a considerable quantity, is not 
known or believed to work special evil either to indi- 
viduals or to society, the reason being that these people 
do not abandon labour and active pursuits in order to 
eat or smoke opium, and its bad effects are therefore 
thrown off. The Chinese especially are well nourished, 
and this fact, too, appears to be an important one. In 
this case opium may almost be called a legitimate 
luxury." 

It is true that the authorities in Burma seem to have 
arrived at the strange conclusion that opium is a benefit 
to everyone in that country, except the Burmese them- 
selves, to whom it is said to be an unmitigated evil. 
No definite evidence of this is adduced. It seems to be 
based on the expressed opinion of certain Burmese 
gentleman who do not use the drug. 

The Government of Madras reports the result of the 
visit by an official to most of the " opium dens " in the 
town of Madras : — 

"1. Most of the smoking dens were visited, and in 
each from 10 to 20 smokers were seen. They were of all 
ages — from 20 to 60 years of age — and comprised both 
Muhammadans and Hindus. Several professions were 
represented — jutka drivers, native doctors, musicians, 
professional beggars, butchers, sweetmeat sellers, and 
petty shop-keepers. Some were smokers of a few 
months, some of 20 and 30 years' standing. 

" 2. In most cases the smokers left immediately after 
they had finished their smoke. They purchased 8 pies 
to 2 annas and 6 pies worth each. Each smoker usually 
brought some sweetmeats or sugar-cane with him, and 
ate or chewed it while smoking. This, it was said, 
was done as the opium produced a bitter taste in the 
mouth. 

" 3. To see any smoker more affected than a man 
who had taken his usual glass of liquor was very rare, 
and in such cases it was said that the man had either 
taken his smoke out of time or had smoked more than 
he was used to. 

"4. No women or children were seen in the dens, 
and it was staced that they do not frequent them. 

".5. Cases of emaciation from the effects of opium 
smoking were not seen, Many of the old smokers seen 
were, on the contrary, very robust and well-conditioned ; 
notably among these might be mentioned the keeper of 
one of the dens, a Chinaman, who is reported to have 
smoked for over 30 years, and who is now over 50 years 
of age ; a vendor of country spirits, a smoker for over 

S 3 



142 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSrON ; 



20 years ; and a Muhammaden Hakim of about 45, who 
has smoked for over 10 years. 

" 6. Most of those spoken to admitted that the habit 
once contracted was difficult to give up, but they said 
that it did them no more harm than the workmen's 
glass of liquor did, if they did not exceed their usual 
quantity. 

" 7. Several complaints were made that the opium 
was now so dear, that what a few years ago cost Ij or 4 
pies could not now be purchased for 1 anna." 

The report from the Government of the North-West 
Provinces does not enter into the question of the eflcct 
of consumption of opium on the people. The poppy is 
largely cultivated in these provinces, and the facilities 
for the illicit use of the druL;- are naturally great. The 
absence of any mention in the Government reports of 
any marked evil effects on the population is, at any 
rate, negative evidence that no glaring abuses exist. 

The Government of the Punjab reports : — 

" The ratio of consumption of opium to population is 
not so high as to be a cause of anxiety in regard to the 
health and morals of the people. In the few tracts 
where the habit may be said to be general among cer- 
tain classes of the population, it is of old standing, and 
does not seem to do so maoh. harm as might bo ex- 
pected. The people, on the contrary, assert that they 
find it a protection against fever." 

The Commissioner of Excise in that province 
writes : — 

" The Government of India requests that the general 
questions raised may be discussed as far as they affect 
the Punjab, and in replying to the Government of 
India it should, I think, be forcibly pointed out that, 
apart from financial considerations, any attempt to 
prohibit the sale of opium, except for medicinal pur- 
poses, would in this province be most unpopular, and 
consequently politically inexpedient ; while, if the 
poppy were grown without restriction, and the sale of 
opium were allowed free, the consumption of opium 
and its preparations would inevitably increase. Sikhs, 
Hindus, and Muhammadans alike eat opium, and at 
present the residents in the Phnlkian States are the 
largest consumers. 

" The memorialists themselves adrjiit that in 
malarious tracts opium is useful as a prophylactic, and 
I think that the opportunity afforded by the presenta- 
tion of this memorial should be taken to state clearly 
that the poppy has been cultivated and opium eaten in 
the Punjab from a period antecedent to British rule : 
that the drug, when taken in this form in moderation, 
is not believed to be necessarily prejudicial ; and that, 
although indulgence in the habit may legitimately be 
restricted by taxation, and thereby made a source of 
revenue to the State, prohibition and unrestricted 
consumption are alike out of the question.'' 

The collector of Nasik, in the Bombay Presidency , 
writes : — 

"My own opinion is — and it is formed after -2:; years 
service actually among the people and in nearly every 
part of the Bombay Presidency and of the Mysore 
Province — 

"1. That opium smoking or eating, as practised by 
the vast majority of people who use the drug, is not 
carried to excess. 

" 2. That the moderate consumption of opium is no 
more harmful than the moderate consumpUon of liquor, 
and in many cases, like the moderate consumption of 
liquor, is distinctly beneficial. 

"3. That the incrensed revenue from opium is due 
(a) to the more effectual steps to prevent smuggling, 
(6) to the increasing population, and (c) to the increasing 
prosperity of the people, which gives them more money 
to Spend on luxuries. 

"4. That the 'opium sot' is a much less harmful 
person to his family and to his neighbours, and the 
community generally, than the drunkard ; and 

" 5. That Government, even if it tried, could no more 
prevent the consumption of opium than the consump- 
tion of drink. It would be useless to attempt to achieve 
either end : it would be worse than useless. .It would, in 
my opinion, be a blunder, for I can sec no weight in the 
reasoning that would prevent the vast bulk of the 
population indulging moderately in the opium luxury, 
simply because a very small minority harm themsulvcs 
by indulging in it to excess. 

"As regards those parts of India which I know well, 
and those alone, it is a gratuitous assuhiption that 
opinin smoking causes ' \videspread miseiy and demora- 
lisation,' and so iil-o is it that ' the Biitish connexion 
with the opium trade ' is a 'serious hi udrance to mis- 
sionary work.' Apart from the fact that the Govern- 



ment of India has nothing to do with missionary work, 
I have never once in 23 years heard a single missionary 
— and I have met dozens — specially refer to or quote 
the opium trade as interfering with his endeavours. 
The pi'opositiou is true in the abstract, no doubt, but 
in the same manner tha,t the abstract proposition is 
true that the existence of public-houses in the slums of 
Jjondon interferes with Christian, effort there." 

The Collector of Khandesh, also in the Bombay 
Presidency, who has served many years in that district, 
expresses his disbelief that the consumption of opium is 
having any bad effects on the people of agricultural 
districts. He writes : — 

"Reading the extracts printed in the selections 
forwarded )jy the Government of India, it strikes . me 
that the gentlemen who penned the highly coloured 
accounts of opium dens must have been shbwn the 
worst haunts in large towns, and that they and those 
who think with them inveigh against the use of opium 
much as teetotallers at home attack the use of spirits 
and beer and wine, because of the evils of the gin 
palaces of our great cities. I am not prepared to 
admit that the use of opium in moderation is more 
harmful than the use of whisky. Every one who has 
served in Gujarat must have seen many sturdy Kajputs 
who took their opium regularly and were none the 
worse for it." 

Mr. Campbell, collector of Bombay, after quoting 
the accounts of opium dens given by the .A.nti-Opium 
Society, goes on to say : — 

'■ In my judgment, the picture which these accounts 
give of the opium smokers is overdrawn and mislead- 
ing. The statement that in Bombay houses children 
smoke, is supported by so much precision and detail as 
to make it difficult to suppose the writer ^vas mistaken. 
At the same time, cases of allowing children to smoke 
must he extremely rare. I have never seen a child 
smoking, or who had smoked, or who was intended to 
smoke. I have never seen a child in a smoking house, 
except the child of one of the shopmen, who professed 
to be, and was, I believe, aghast at the idea of allowing 
his child to smoke. I have not heard, either from 
inspectors or smokers, of the case of a child being 
allowed to smoke ; on the contrary, after special 
inquiry, the Chief Inspector assures me that such 
cases are unknown. As to the men smokers, and the 
effect of smoking on their character, appearance, and 
health, the descriptions under their review seems to 
me misleading. 1 have no fault to find with the 
general description of a Bombay chandul house, given 
at page 9 of the reprint :^' A dirty, dilapidated, non- 
' descript .shop, with its shutters up. . . Eaised 

' platforms, ivith some hundred recumbent and semi- 
' recumbent figiires, all men, except three women and a 
' few lads. . . Groups of smokers, some half 

' lying, half sitting, others curled np, or reclining at full 
' length.' Except that, so far as I have seen or can 
learn, no youths under 11 attend these smoking-houses, 
this description seems to me accurate. The Poonah 
description is also moderate : — ' A low-roofed room, 
' with 25 to 30 persons, in groups of fire or six round 
' each lamp, most of them intent on their pipes, a few 
' in a semi-conscious state.' On the other hand, I 

have seen nothing to justify the following passages : 

' Human swine of both sexes most immodest 

' attitudes .... handsome young women sprawl- 
' ing on the senseless bodies of men.' Such sights, I 
believe, are not to be found in Bombay smoking 
houses. In a room of 40 or 50 smokers all but three 
or four are awake. The bulk of them have done a 
hard day's work. They are tired and indolent. In 
opium-smoking houses assaults or acts of violence are 
almost unknown. Of the smokers very few are unable 
to answer questions clearly and readily. Even those 
asleep awake when lightly shaken. Even when sud- 
denly aroused they can rit once tell their name and 
calling. ' If you had to go out now and work, could 
' you go?' Almost always the answer is 'Yes, we 
could.' Again, as to the effect of opium smoking on 
character. It is true a share of the smokers are beg- 
gars, and a share of them are bad characters. It is 
true the houses are watched by the police, for thieves 
meet in them and scheme crimes. Still, are all cir 
nearly all the smokers ne'er-do-wells P Not ne;irly all. 
So far as I have seen, a Bombay opium-smoking liouse 
is much like Dr. Mnrison's description of a Bcno'al 
smoking house -. — Almost all the smokers are of the 
labouring classes, tailors, day labourers, and one or 
two shopkeepers. So far as I could judge by qiiestibn- 
ing the smokers in Bombay smoking houses, about 
two-thirds are regular working craftsmen and labourers. 



-APPENMX. .'J , 



uz 



I asked the assistant collector to frame a separate 
estimate. His estimate was:-r'At the fewest 70 per 

cent, regular craftsmen and labourers ; at the most 20 
' per cent, beggars, and 10 per cent, bad characters.' 
I made a further personal test in three houses taken at 
random. The result -was : — In one house of 11 smokers 
all -were craftsmen in regular -work ; in a second house 
of 25 smokers all were craftsmen in work ; in a third 
house of 47 smokers one was a woman, nine were 
beggars, the rest were craftsmen and labourers. I 
have made the chief inspector take a similar test in 
14 more houses. The result is, of 227 smokers 188 are 
workers, 38 are beggars, and one is a thief. It is pro- 
bable that some among the workers are bad characters. 
Still care was taken to ascertain that in most cases the 
smokers are actually employed on the work they named. 
The estimate that two-thirds of the whole smokers are 
able to do, and do, regular work as labourers, weavers, 
embroiderers, sailors, drivers, cartmen, blacksmiths, 
mill hands, fitters, barbers, and also as small traders 
and shopkeepers, sellers of firewood, fish, tea', coffee, 
tobacco, and cloth seems well within the mark. 

" Similarly, as regards the efieot of the smoking on 
the health and the appearance of the smokers, the 
descriptions seem to me overdrawn and misleading. 
' Of horrible destructions of God's image more terrible 
' than delirium tremens, idiocy, or lunacy,' I have seen 
none. Of the starved and emaciated shrivelled warn- 
ings I have seen surprisingly few. The bulk of the 
men, I should say over two-thirds, though smokers of 
8, 12, 20, and in one case of 40 years' standing, were in 
body and face to look at well nourished and healthy. 
To many of them I, in surprise, asked the question 
which Dr. Morison asked in Bengal: — Tou have smoked 
four or five years and are stout and strong. How is 
this P The explanation in Bombay is the same as the 
explanation in Bengal ; — Smoking does not injure those 
who are well fed as it injured the starving. On the 
point of appearance and harm to health I checked my 
,first impression by my assistant's experience. His 
answer was : — ' Almost none, except the old and the 
' beggai-s, not more than 10 per cent, in all are emaci- 
' ated.' I made a personal test in three houses. In 
one of 11 smokers all seemed healthy and well 
nourished ; in a second of 25 smokers, one old man was 
emaciated ; in a third of 47, though the- beggars looked 
dissipated, none were notably withered or broken. In 
the 14 houses specially tested by the chief inspector, 
10 were found emaciated or slightly withered. In 
almost every case the emaciated and withered were 
over 50 years of age. So far as I can judge, the 
assistant collector's estimate is correct, that, except 
some of the old and some beggars, very few opium 
smokers are notably withered or emaciated." 

The whole of Mr. Campbell's report deserves 
attentive perusal. 

The last report I shall quote is that of the Commis- 
sioner in Sind. He says : — 

" The society assumes that the consumption of opium, 
even in a moderate degree, is detrimental to man both 
physically and mentally. It is far from certain, how- 
ever, that this assumption is correct, and we have the 
evidence aiforded by whole tribes who have habitually, 
from generation to generation, taken opium. As 
instances may be taken the Eajputs and Bhils. Their 
energy, endurance, and bravery cannot be said to have 
been afliected by their addiction to opium. Throughout 
the country one meets with people who take opium in 
moderation, and for much the same purpose and with 
much the same result as the English gentlemen of the 
present days takes his wine." 

Such is the evidence of persons who are m the best 
position to know the facts. I could add much more to 
the same effect. It completely establishes the conten- 
tion that it is the abuse and not the use of opmm which 
is harmful, that the moderate use is the rule, and that 
excess is the exception. „,,„„•, n , .. 

1 now come to the proposals of the Society tor the 
" Suppression of the Opium Trade." as to the actual 
practical steps to be taken to arrive at their object. I 
find them in a pamphlet published by the Secretary of 
that Society in 1890. The first two and the fourth are 
thus stated:— „ ,. . ^. j., 

1. That the Bengal system of licensing the growth 
of the poppy and of manufacturing opium be at 
once stopped, except so far as may be needful for 
legitimate medical use. 

2 ■ That the necessary measures be at once taken, by 

raising the tax or otherwise, to prevent any 
extension of the cultivation of the poppy in 
Malwa, so as to compensate for the diminution 
of %h.6 supply from Bengal. 



4. That the retail sale of opiuip. throughout Indi^ be 
limited by measures having the same; object as 
the provisions of the Pharmacy Act in Great 
Britain, namely, to restrict the sale to that which 
is required for medical use alone. 

It will be observed that nothing is said of the poppy 
cultivation in the Punjab; perhaps the Society are not 
awai'e of its existence. I assume that they would 
propose to stop that also. Otherwise smuggling from 
that province would assume enormous dimensions. 
Then, I would ask, what is meant by ''legitimate 
" medical use ? " When we find whole tribes of people, 
living in malarious and fever-stricken tracts, using the 
opium daily as a prophylactic, is that a legitimate 
meiiical use? Oi' is it intended that no one shall be 
permitted to purchase opium except under the written 
authority of a duly certificated member of the medical 
profession ? How many of the opium consumers in 
India are within reach of an English doctor P Oould 
you trust the native Baids Hakims, and Pan saris, the 
doctors and druggists of the country, with this power P 
Anybody with any knowledge of India would laugh at 
such an idea. How then are yon to meet this great 
praoticaldifl&culty ? 

It may be possible in British territory, by the exer- 
cise of despotic power, to prevfeht the poppy being 
grown, but what are "the necessary measures" so 
vaguely suggested for preventing its extension in the 
native States ? Every tyro . in Excise or Customs 
administration knows that the power to raise duties on 
an article in large demand lis limited by the means of 
preventing its illicit production and sale, and that if 
you increase the proiits of smuggling, you wUl pro- 
portionately have to increase your preventive measures. 
Unless British officers and establishments were ap- 
pointed to overrun the native states, and to interfere 
with the agricultural operations of the people, the 
cessation of the growth of the poppy in British terri- 
tory would infallibly lead to an enormous extension of 
the cultivation in native States. The export thence of 
opium could Only be prevented rby , Customs barriers 
and patrols round Eajputana and Central India, involv- 
ing a line between 2,000 and 3,000 miles in length; and 
heavy expenditure on the establishment. , How would 
the native states concerned regard such measures? I 
have no hesitation in saying that the discontent occa- 
sioned not only in those states, but amongst our own 
people, including the Sikhs — from whom the fiower of 
our native army is recruited — would constitute a very 
serious political danger. 

I was myself in charge of ; a Customs' line, 2,500 
mile's in length, the greater part of which was main- 
tained to keep salt produced in native states from 
entering British territory without the payment of a 
heavy duty. I am well acquainted with the evils of 
that barbarous system, the destruction of which I was 
one of the first to advocate, and spared no efforts to 
accomplish. It was achieved by entering into treaties 
with the states possessing salt sources, under which 
British establishments are permitted to supervise their 
salt works, and tax the produce before it leaves them. 
But this could be accomplished only by paying the 
states concerned compensation, in the shape of lump 
sums of money and annual assignments, which are 
met from the taxation of the salt consumed by their 
people. But how are you to conciliate the native 
states for interference in their poppy cultivation ? 
Will the people of India, or the people of this country, 
submit to be taxed in order to compensate these native 
states, and to reconcile their rulers to an army of 
British preventive ofiicers scattered over their terri- 
tories? And if you reconcile the rulers by paying 
them, how are you to conciliate their people, who have 
been accustomed for centuries to the unrestricted use 
of opium ? Without such preventive measures British 
India will be supplied with the Malwa drug, which, 
from its' great value in a small bulk, is comparativel.y 
easy to smuggle. And these preventive measures 
must be of the strictest kind, involving the searching 
of the persons and goods of all travellers, and domi- 
ciliary visits, to detect the carriage, and prevent the 
storing of the drug. 

I now come to the third proposal of the Society for 
the Suppression of the Opium Trade. It is as 
follows : — 

3. T^iat the Chinese Government be approached 

jwith proposals for diminishing the export of 

Malwa opiuhi, simultaneously with the suppres- 

, sion of the growth of the poppy throughout 

' China. 

S 4 



iu 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



I do not wish to use disrespectful language, but I 
can hardly speak of such a proposal with gravity. 
The Chinese Government, who have for centuries ful- 
minated futile edicts, threatening the heaviest pains 
and penalties against the growth of the poppy and the 
use of opium, but whose officials have never had the 
will or the power to enforce them, and who are known 
to connive at the open and unconcealed infringement 
of the law, are to be " approached " by the British 
G-overnment, with this request : " Now that we are 
' doing our best to deprive you of Indian opium, 
' which your people for centuries have demanded on 
' account of its superior quality ; now that -we have, 
' by our restrictive measures, encouraged the growth 
' of the poppy in China, and the home production of 
' an inferior article, to such an extent that whole pro- 
' vinces are covered with its cultivation ; now that we 
' are mulcting your import customs revenue of about 
' 2,000,0002. sterling a year ; will you be good enough 
' at once to stop the cultivation in China, and deprive 
' your people of an article which we believe to be an 
' unmitigated evil, although there is a large body of 
' Bnglishmon who, from personal experience, have 
' testified that it is harmless to the great mass, who 
' are moderate consumers?" How would such a 
request be met ? If the solemn and self-possessed 
Chinaman has any sense of humour, by inextinguishable 
laughter. 

But why should our philanthrophy stop here ? I read 
a statement a short time ago in a paper called the 
" Fooohow Echo," to the effect that some of the Chinese 
are planting poppy in the place of tea. If they meet 
with success, it is said others will follow their example 
and give up tea altogether. It is the competition of 
Indian tea in the mai'kets of Europe which has lowered 
the profits on China tea. Let us trust that India will 
not be asked by the Anti-Opium Society to give up 
producing tea in order to prevent the Chinese turning 
their tea gardens into poppy fields. And what of the 
hypocrisy of a people who not only derive nearly half 
of their public revenue from the consumption of alcohol 
and tobacco, but support from this consumption an 
enormous commercial industi-y of brewers, distillers, 
hop and barley growers, merchants, importers, agents, 
and vendors, what of their hypocrisy in asking India 
and China to forego the profit derived from the opium 
trade C 

I am aware that many of the opponents of opium 
would also prohibit the use of alcoholic drinks in the 
United Kingdom, but before " approaching" China let 
the people of this country set the example and make 
the liquor traflSc, except for purely medicinal purposes, 
illegal ; let them forbid by law the cultivation of the 
hop plant, and the growth of barley for distillation or 
malting ; let them forbid the import of wine and spirits 
from the Continent of Europe and elsewhere, and then 
they will be in a position to " approach " China with a 
prayer for the destruction of the poppy cultivation and 
the trade in opium. 

It has been suggested that if the culture of poppy 
were prohibited other crops would take its place and 
thus supply a great part of the loss. But would the 
farmers of Kent be satisfied if the temperance party 
were to say to them, " We will pass a law to prohibit 
" your cultivating hops. Tou can, however, grow 
" potatoes or gooseberries instead ?" 

It is true that a more moderate party in this country 
does not go the length of prohibibing the cultivation of 
the poppy and the manufacture of opium in Bengal. 
They are shocked at the direct management by the 
Government of these industries. No question has been 
more fully discussed in India than this, there are 
volumes of correspondence relating to it, but the upshot 
of all these discussions has invariably been the recog- 
nition of the fact that, under any other system, the 
cultivation could not be so well restricted, that smug- 
gling would be more rife, that the cultivators would be 
more rife, that the cultivators would be brought under 
influences of speculators, from which they are at 
present guarded, and that whatever evils now exist 
would be largely increased. The Society for tho Sup- 
pression of the Opium Trade recognise this, and in the 
pamphlet I have quoted declare that the proposal is 
entirely inadequate, and that their demand is nothing 
short of absolute prohibition. 

India has had the advantage of drawing from Eng- 
land, for more than 100 years, a number of upright, 
honest, and able administrators. It is remarkable that 
there is not a single instance of an Englishman who has 
been directly responsible for the well-being of India, 
and who has had an important voice in its administra- 



tion, who has ever suggested the prohibition of the 
cultivation of the poppy. That has been left for a 
party of irresponsible persons in this country, whose 
want of knowledge is patent to everyone who has 
studied the question on the spot. 

I will give one recent and striking instance. There 
is internal evidence that no one who joined in the 
memorial of the Society for the Suppression of the 
Opium Trade, of the 30th July 1890, which is published 
in the recent Blue Book on the consumption of opium 
in India, had the most elementary knowledge of India, 
or if there were such a person he could not have read 
the memorial. In it Lucknow is described as being in 
the Punjab, and Lahore as being in the North-Western 
Provinces ! This blunder is as stupenduous as would 
be that of persons memorialising for the suppression 
of alcohol in Europe, who should place Paris in Scotland 
and Dublin in Holland. 

There have just come into my hands two articles 
from native newspapers, published, one in Calcutta, 
the other in Bombay. The Calcutta paper is called 
"Bengavasi." It has the largest circulation of any of 
the Bengal papers, being about 20,000. The following 
is a translation of an article which appeared in that 
paper on the 30th January last : — 

" What harm does Government's opium business do 
to us ? Does Government press us to eat the drug P 
Or is it that the sight of an opium shop creates such a 
craving for the article that one cannot help eating it P 
Now, the opium shops, as such, possess no attractions 
for the people, their existence merely making it easy 
for habitual opium eaters to buy it for their use. We 
believe that most of those who use opium sufi'er from 
some disease, and use it medicinally. Opium is a 
medicine in gout and in all diseases of the bowels and 
kidneys. That opium used in old age prolongs life is 
also a common belief. For all these reasons many 
people use the drug in large or small doses, and 
gradually become confirmed opium-eaters. It is not 
the sight or appearance of the opium shops, which by 
the way is the most revolting possible, that attracts 
men thereto. Nor is it the case that men eat opium 
for the purpose of showing their loyalty to Govern- 
ment, which trades in that article. Nor, again, do 
people go to the opium shops from the consideration 
that by buying opium they would help to rescue 
Government from its financial embarrassment. Ha- 
bitual opium-eaters can do without their daily bread 
rather than forego their regulation dose of the drug. 
Again opium is largely used as a medicine in all 
systems of the medical treatment — allopathic, homoe- 
pathic, ayurvedik. People resort to the opium shops 
for all these purposes, and not a man is attracted to 
them by their mere appearance, as is the case with 
liquor shops. An opiuni shop has nothing of the wine 
shop's attractive glitter of glass and beauty of label. 
Nor does a dose of opium produce that exhilaration of 
spirits which makes the wine-bibber sing and dance in 
joy. What attractions then does an opium shop 
possess for the public ? We do not really see that an 
opium shop licensed by Government can hold out any 
temptations to men. Its appearance is rather calcu- 
lated to repel men from it. If it had been otherwise, 
if the mere sight of an opium shop had been enough 
to attract customers, we would have freely condemned 
the opium business of the Government. 

" A person under the influence of opium does not 
become querulous or boisterous. Nor does a habitual 
opium fater bring beggary and destitution upon him- 
self and family, and die an untimely death. The 
number of untimely deaths among opium eaters is 
very few. If it had been otherwise, we sho^ild have 
been the first to condemn the opium trade, and ask 
Government to discontinue the sinful business. 

"It is true that opium is used for committing 
suicide. But those that will commit suicide will 
commit it even if they do not get opium for the pur- 
pose. Government does not trade in arsenic or ropea, 
and yet many people put an end to their lives by swal- 
lowing the former or drawing the latter round their 
necks. If Government discontinues its opium busi- 
ness, others will take it up, and there will still be cases 
of suicide from opium poisoning. We are, therefore, 
really unable to understand what harm is done by the 
Government's trade in raw opium. 

" These remarks apply in some measure to the 
different preparations of opium, and particularly to 
guli. The guli shops present a most repulsive appear- 
ance. As it is, however, desirable on various grounds 
that such shops should cease to exist, the writer would 
not object to Government's directing their abolition. 



ApPENDi:^. 



m^ 



' y^\^^^ S°°^ ■'^ill the changes now proposed to be 
made in Connexion with GrovetnmeHt's opiiim bnsineSS 
do to the country? And is it possible to do the 
amount of good that is Expected ? We do not sef) that 
the G-OTernment's opium business does any harm to 
anybody. Opium cultivation will not cease even 
if Government gives up the business. Nor is it 
desired that that cultivation should cease. Now, sup- 
pose Government gives up the business, and somebody 
finds himself at liberty to grow and sell and purchase 
opium. _ Suppose the opium shops, flourishing as before, 
with this difterence only, that the signboards put up 
in front of the shops no longer contain the words ' By 
' order of Government.' The accounts are made up, 
and they disclose a large deficit in the finances. Go- 
vernment, however, must meet its regular expenditure, 
and that means that the people must raise the money 
from other sources. It is thus clear that the people 
will gain nothing by the abolition of the Government's 
trade in opium" 

The " Bombay Samaohar,'' a Guzerati paper, which 
has the largest daily circulation in Bombay, has the 
following article on the 19th February last :— 

"The opium agitators in Ecgland seem to be insen- 
sible to the great pecuniary loss that would be inflicted 
on the people of India by a prohibition against the 
production of opium in India and its export to China. 
To the ranks of the opium agitators in England an 
addition has now been made in the person of Miss 
Sundrabai Powar, an Indian lady. In an address 
recently delivered by her at Sheflield, Miss Powar 
asserted that the use of opium had created great mis- 
chief in India, and that as she could not quietly bear 
this sight she had gone to England to plead for the 
abolition of the opium monopoly. It is not known in 
Bombay who Miss Powar is, and what she did while 
she was in India to stop the alleged evil efiects of the 
consumption of this drug. Miss Powar accuses the 
Government of India of having encouraged the opium 
trade in the interests of revenue, but no mischief what- 
ever, we assert, has been- created in India by the con- 
sumption of opium. On the other hand, considerable evil 
has been caused by a free use of country and European 
spirits, particularly among the educated persons, and 
the Government of India is very particular about in- 
creasing its re'^'enue from this source. Miss Powar 
ought to bear in mind that there is more need for 
checking the consumption of spirituous drinks than 
the use of opium." 

Mr. Samuel Laing, when Finance Minister of India 
in 1862, made the following remarks : — 

"This much seems certain in speculating on the 
probable continuance of a demand for opiiam in China. 
Every civilised or semi-civilised race of mankind seems 
to affect some peculiar form of nervous stimulant, and 
as the natives of Northern Europe take to alcohol, so 
the Chinese take to opium. Possibly, in each case, the 
craving is for something to supply an innate want. 
The Englishman, the Dane, the German, and the 
Eussian resort to that the speciflc effect of which is to 
raise the spirits and produce temporary exhilaration. 
The Chinese, whose greatest deficiency, as shown by 
the whole history, religion, and literature of the race, 
is in the imaginative faculties, resorts to that which 
stimulates the imagination, and makes his sluggish 
brain see visions and dream dreams. Be this as it 
may, the fact is certain that, under all circumstances 
and in all climates, as the Englishman is a drinker of 
beer, so is the Chinaman a smoker of opium. We have, 
at the bottom of our opium revenue, one of the great 
natural instincts of a large population, upon which 
English Chancellors of the Exchequer confidenWy rely 
for half their revenue." 

I have not dealt with the comparative physiological 
efi'ects produced by the use of alcohol and opium, and 
other drugs ; but I hope some of the more scientific 
gentlemen here this evening will speak on this poini. 
From all I have learnt on the subject, I believe that 
the excess of the tise of alcohol is far more destructive 
to the human frame than that of opium, for one attacks 
the tissues and the other produces only functional 
derangement. If the people of India are deprived of 
opium, the consumers of it, it will infallibly have 
recourse to alcohol or to hemp, which grows wild in 
many parts of the country, arid the effects ef which 
are, when taken in excess, maddening. 

Indeed much of the evil character which is given _ to 
opium is due to its being frequently adulterated with 
or used with hemp. The hashish, from which the 
English word " assassin " is derived, and the hang, 
which is notoriously the stimulant used by fanatics in 
e 80970. 



India when intent on reckless slaughter, are nothing 
but hfemp. It *ould be beyond' the pOVi^ei' Sveli' of' 
Parliament to eradicate hemp from India. 

From the mass of evidence to be found in the writings 
of members of the medical profession who have acquired 
their experience amongst the people who use opium as 
a stimulant, I will quote a few passages. 

Dr. W. B. O'Shaugnessy, in the "Bengal Dispen- 
satory," 1841, writes : — 

" The longevity of opium eaters is, in many parts of 
the East, of proverbial notoriety. . . When the habit 
is but moderately followed, it appears to occasion no 
greater evil than the proportionate indulgence in wino 
or other spirituous liquors." 

Dr. D. McPherson, in his book on " The War in 
China," 1843, has the following passage : — 

" From the earliest periods in every nation, an« 
among every people, we find some description of stim- 
ulus in common use among them ; and were we to be 
led away by the popular opinion that the habitual use 
of opium injures the health and shortens life, we should 
expect to find the Chinese p, shrivelled, and emaciated, 
and idiotic race. On the contrary, although the habit 
of opium smoking is universal amongst the rich and 
poor, we find them to be a powerful, muscular, and 
athletic people, and the lower orders more intelligent 
and far superior in mental acquirements to those of 
corresponding rank in our own country. The Chinese 
themselves affirm that the use of the drug acts as a 
preventive against disease, and, in this opinion, when, 
smoked in moderation, I am inclined in part to agree 
with him. The particles, by their direct and topical 
influence on the nerves of the lungs, which carry the 
impressions they receive to the heart, brain, and spinal 
cord, and through them to all parts of the body, may 
thus, to a certain extent, guard the system against 
disease, and, by its tonic influence, strengthen the 
several ogans. This opinion gains strength, when we 
call to mind that a peculiar active principle in opium 
— the narcotine — has of late been employed, with con- 
siderable success, in Bengal, as a substitute for quinine. 
It may also be mentioned that, at the time fevers pre- 
vailed so extensively among our troops at Hong-Kong, 
but comparatively few of the Chinese suffered, though 
exposed throughout to the same exciting causes." 

Dr. Cornish, Sanitary Commissioner for Madras, 
drew the attention of the Government to the great 
consumption of opium in the Godavery district, An 
investigation was ordered, and the officer who reported 
on it, in 1874, came to the following conclusion : — 

" I believe that the extensive use of opiium in this 
district is due to the extensive prevalence of fever, and 
that if fever could be checked, so would the use of the 
drug. Conversely, I think it unadvisable to attempt 
arbitrarily to stop its consumption at present. " 

Dr. Vincent Richards, who was in medical charge of 
Balasor, in Orissa, where opium eating is very com- 
mon, made very careful inquiries into the matter, and 
collected elaborate statistics connected with it. He 
wrote, in 1877:— ,..-,, 

' ' I estimated that about one in every twelve or four- 
teen of the adult population used the drug, and I 
believe the habit is somewhat increasing. The greatly 
increased' consumption of the drug dates from the 
famine year 1866, when it was, if I remember rightly, 
nearly trebled ; since when it has, I believe, pretty 
steadily increased. This is not the result of a growing 
abuse of the drug by individual consumers; but of a 
more extended use cif it amongst the general popnla-i' 
tion. There can be no doubt that opium eating was 
greatly resorted to in the famine year, because it 
mitigated the suff'erings arising from hunger and sick- 
ness, and enabled the poor people to live on less food 
. Opium eating — at any rate at Balasor — does 
not conduce to either crime or insanity, since the inha- 
bitants are a particularly law-abiding race, and the 
insanes are only "0069 per cent, of the population. 
. . . . The general conclusions I arrive at are — 1st, 
that opium is taken habitually by about 2 to 10 per 
cent, of the adult population of Balasor, and that the 
average daily allowance for a man is 7 grains, and for 
a woman 5 grains ; ■2nd, that moderation is the rule ; ' 
3rd, that moderate doses include from 2 to 16 grains 
per diem, according to circumstances ; 4th, that opium 
eating is much more common in unhealthy localities 
than in healthy ones, even though they are situated in 
the same district ; 5th, that the drug may be, and is 
sometimes, taken in very large doseS' — 30 grains and 
upwards — without producing any very seririuS ill-effefft,! 
much depending on the constitotion of the individual, 

T 



146 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION: 



and his habituation to its use ; 6tli, that whatever the 
efFeotB of the excessive use of the drug may be, when 
taken in moderation, it is positively beneficial, where 
such diseases as fever, elephantiasis, rheumatism, &c., 
are prevalent, and when food is scarce ; 7th, that the 
effects of even the excessive use of opium are harmless, 
both to the individual and to society, compared with 
those of the excessive use of alcohol." 

The views of Sir William J". Moore, who had an 
extended experience in Rajputana, and was afterwards 
Surgeon-General with the Government of Bombay, are 
well known, and I hope that he will again state them 
on this occasion. They fully accord with those I have 
already quoted. There are literally volumes of evidence 
of a similar character. 

We have, then, a great consensus of opinion arrived 
at by a number of independent persons of high character 
and reputation ; gentlemen of ability 8,nd integrity, who 
have attained to responsible positions, in ivhich they 
have had the best opportunities of ascertaining the 
truth ; whose duty it has been to state the truth ; and 
who have had no personal interest in perverting it. 
They deliberately declare that the daily use of opium in 
moderation is not only harmless, but of positive benefit, 
and frequently oven a necessity of life ; that this 
moderate use is the rule, and that excess is the excep- 
tion. On the other hand, we are told by a society, 
chiefly consisting of Englishmen who have no personal 
knowledge of the facts, that all this evidence goes for 
nothing, and that the use of opium, except for strictly 
medicinal purposes, is an unmitigated evil, and ruins 
everyone who habitually has resort to it. If we 
accept this view, which differentiates opium from every 
other stimulant used by great masses of people, we 
must believe that all those experienced persons who 
have testified to the direct contrary are either grossly 
incapable or grossly dishonest. It is no use mincing- 
words ; a man must be one or the other who, having 
lived for years amongst an opium-consuming peoole, 
and having made a careful study of the efl'eots of the 
habit, deliberately declares as the result of his inquiries 
that which is untrue. And on what is the opposition 
based P Chiefly on the statements of English mission- 
aries in China. I respect the sincerity and the high 
and noble purposes of these gentlemen, but as the 
French phrase it, they have the defects of their 
qualities. They are filled with a burning zeal to better 
the physical and spiritual condition of the poor and 
miserable Chinese with whom they are brought into 
contact. In the prosecution of the objects for which they 
are struggling, they find numerous instances of the 



degradation which is prodncad by the abuse of opium. 
They are met by the astute Chinaman with the 
argument that opium is an evil thing, and that the 
English who import it into China are out of court 
when advocating morality. They fall into the trap, 
and jump to the conclusion that it is the opium trade 
which prevents their making faster progress in the 
evangelisation of China. Only one side of the question 
is brought prominently to their notice, and that the 
worst side. Their experience is almost' entirely 
confined to towns on the sea coast. They knew little 
or nothing of the millions of the healthy, industrious 
population in the interior of the country to whom the 
use of opium is as common, as moderate, and as 
beneficial as that of beer is to the people of England. 

In conclusion, I would say to the Society for the 
Suppression of the Opium Trade — You may make this 
a party question ; you may win votes relying on the 
uninstructed philanthropy of your fellow countrymen ; 
you may, through Parliament, use the despotic power 
of the British Government to destroy one of the most 
valuable products of India, and subject the people to 
new taxation in order to supply the loss of revenue now 
paid chiefly by the Chinese ; you may deprive hundreds 
of thoneands of Her Majesty's Indian subjects of a 
prophylactic which enables them to resist fatigue, to 
sustain privation, and to save life ; you may thereby 
increase sufi'ering, sickness, and mortality ; you may 
cover India with an army of preventive officers to 
watch another army of smugglers, created to satisfy a 
natural demand of which you have suppressed the 
legitimate supply ; you may harass the people by 
personal searches and domiciliary visits ; you may thus 
create discontent amongst our native subjects, and 
disaff'ection in the best forces of our native army ; you 
may, by unwarranted and unprecedented interference in 
their internal administration, and, owing to the pecu- 
niary losses both rulers and subjects will sustain, 
disgust and alienate the native States of Central India 
and Rajputana, our bravest and most loyal allies ; you 
may arive the consumers of opium to alcohol and hemp ; 
you may do all this, but you will never persuade the 
Chinese to follow in your footsteps, and abandon the 
ever-increasing culture of the poppy. In short, you 
may inflict on India a cruel injury, the extent and the 
consequences |of which yon are incapable of calculating ; 
but you will fail in any way to benefit China, unless you 
count it a benefit greatly to extend the cultivation of 
the poppy, and the manufacture of opium within her 
borders. 



APPENDIX II. 



Historical Note on Opium and the Poppy in China. — By Dr. Edkins, of the Chinese 

Customs Service. 

Shanghai, May 1889. 



[This paper was cited by witnesses before the Com- 
mission ; it is now out of print and unobtainable. The 
Commission therefore ordered it to be reprinted as an 
Appendix to the China evidence.] 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 



Introduction ... 

The poppy among the Greeks and Romans 

The poppy among the Arabs 

The Arabs in China 

The Arabs at Canton 

Eirst mention of cultivation of the poppy in China 

in the eighth century 
Second mention of cultivation of the poppy in 

China in the eighth century 
Early poem on the poppy - 

The two Arab travellers - - . - 

The poppy enters the Chinese Pharmacopoeia 



Page 
147 

147 

147 
US 
148 

148 

1^18 
148 
148 
148 



Poem of Su Tung-p'o 

Poem of Su Chk 

Notes on Su Ch£'s poem . ■ . . 

Materia Medica of the eleventh century by Su Sung 

Cultivation of the poppy mentioned 

Medical use of poppy seeds 

The white variety of Papaver somniferum 

Twelfth century use of seeds to counteract the 

effects of mercury -* . _ 

First use of capsules in twelfth century 
Another poem on the poppy 
Use of capsules in dysentery shown by extracts 

from three authors .... 

Use of capsules probably derived from the West, 

bui this is still not proved 
Use of capsules in North China in twelfth century 
Use of capsules in North China in thirteenth 

century . . . _ 

Use of capsules in South China in thirteenth 

century 
The capsule "kills like a knife " - 
Use of capsules in fourteenth century 



Page 

148 
148 
148 
148 
149 
149 
149 

149 

149 
149 

- 149 

149 
149 

149 



149 
150 
150 



APPENDIX. 



147 



_. . Page 

i* irst mention of opium extract was in fifteenth 

century - . . . . . 15Q 

Arabian method of obtaining opium - 150 

Wang Hsi's directions for use of opium - . 150 

AVaug Hsi's directions for procuring opium from 

the poppy 150 

Wang Hsi s knowledge, how acquired - - 150 

Fullest details, where found - . . 150 

Mtide of preparing opium in the sixteenth century 150 

Medical use of opium in the sixteenth century 151 
Prohibition of foreign trade encouraged Native 

production - - - . - 151 

KuNG Yun-lin's prescription - . - 151 

Medical use of poppy bracts of red and white 

varieties of Papaver somniferum - 151 
Golden elixir pill ■ . 151 
Native account of foreign trade before the pro- 
hibition ■ - . . 15] 
Bad eflPeots of prohibition . . 151 
Grood effects of permission to trade - . 161 
Duties levied . . . 151 
Tariff of A.D. 1589 - . - .161 
Tariffof A.D. 1615 ... 151 
Li Shih-ghAn's Materia Medica - 151 
Poppy as a flower - . . . - 152 
Another account of the mode of obtaining opium 152 

from the poppy ..... 

Resume - . - - 152 

Opium in Java in 1629 - . . .162 

BoNTius' opinion of opium . . . 152 

Opium-smoking arose from tobacco-smoking - 153 

Tobacco-smoking, when introduced - - 153 

Prohibition of tobacco-smoking - - - 153 

Manohu prohibition of tobacco-smoking - - 153 

Spread of tobacco-smoking - - - 153 

Opium-smoking in Formosa - - . 163 



Page 

ICempmr's AmcBniiates exoUooe . - - 153 

Tobacco : KjsMPrBa's account - - ■ . 153 

Hookah or water pipe . . - - 154 

Summary of Kjemppbr's account - - - 154 

Object of the water pipe - - - - 154 

Cigars -...-. 154 

How opium is made in Persia ... 154 

Preparation of opium .... 154 

Kjeksier's visit to Java in 1688 - - . 155 

Mention of use of opium .... 155 

First opium-smoking shops - - 155 

Medical use of opium in 1723 - - - 155 

Early opium-smoking in Formosa - - 155 

Opium-snaoking came to Formosa from Java - 155 
Another account of early opiuni-smoking in 

Formosa - - - - - - 155 

Prohibitory edict of 1729 - - - - 166 

Spread of opium-smoking in' the eighteenth 

century -...-- 156 

Native opium in Tiinnan .... 166 

Who cultivated the poppy in Tiinnan P - - 156 

Use of capsules in 1742 - - - . 156 

Present use of capsules .... 157 

Eoppo Booh oi 1753 - • - - 167 

Five kinds of duties in 1753 - - - 167 

The three tariff books - - - 157 

Prices ruling in 1755 - - 157 

Opium-smuggling in 1782 - - 157 

Opium -smoking in 1793 - - 157 

Opium -smoking in 1800 .... 157 

Statements in HaAAem-Vu-aMh . . - 157 

Local arrangement in 1822 - ■ - 157 

Native testimony on the deleterious effect of 

opium -....- 158 

Statistics of the present Native production - 158 

Concluding note - - . . . 158 



The poppy 
among the- 
Greeks and 
Komans. 



INTEODUOTION. 

This Historical Note on Opium in China, which has 
been prepared by Dr. Edkins, of the Chinese Customs 
Service, is published by order of the Inspector General 
of Customs. 

E. McKean, 

Statistical Secretary. 
Inspectorate General of Customs, 
Statistical D enartment, 
Shanghai,' May 1889. 



Opium: Histokical Note, oa the Poppy in China. 

1°. 

That the poppy was cultivated very early in Italy is 
clear from a passage in Cornelius Nopos, who, in his 
account of Tarquin, mentions it in a way to show that 
in the time of the last of the Eoman Kings it was com- 
monly sown in gardens. Tarquin's son was in a city of 
Btruria, devising means to betray it to his father with- 
out himself losing the confidence of the people, who 
believed father and son to be iu a state of hopeless aliena- 
tion, he having come to their city with wounds on his 
body, which he said had been inflicted by his father as 
a punishment. He sent a messenger to his father for 
advice. The father* took the envoy into his garden and 
struck down all the talliwt iiopjiies. Sextns TarquiniuR 
knew what this meant, and by procuring the death or 
removal from the city of all the chief inhabitants, 
succeeded in persuading the remainder to submit to his 
father's rule. 

The poppy is also alluded to in Homer as a garden 
flower. He describes an arrow aimed at Hector as 
missing him, but striking in the chest another son of 
Priam. He proceedK ," Just as a poppy in a garden hangs 
" on one side, its head laden with fruit and with the 
" dew of spring, so he bent on one side his head, made 
" heavy by his helmet."t The first mention of poppy 



* Huic, nuutio, quia, credo, duhiaJ fidei videbatur, nihil voce respon- 
sum I'st Eex, velut dclibtTalnmrtus.iiihortumiBdmmtransit.seauente 
iiunliofilii: ibi, iiiambuJaus tacitus, summa papaverum capita dicitur 
baculo ueuussissc— Livy, i., S-*. ^ ./.>>/ 

+ jt.'i^Kmv S" lis 6T6pei)cr€ Kapij jSaAev, ?)t eyi /ojTrry, 
(copiriji fipi$oii4vn vmhfal re ilapiv^aiv. 
Ss Mpoia'^^/ivse icSpr) w^KriKi fiafvvSiv. lUad, viu. 306-8. 



juice is by Hippocrates, who calls it mis nnJKavos. From 
m6s, "juice," was formed feioy in Greek, and Opvu/m in 
Latin. MtJKui> is the Greek name of the poppy. Hip- 
pocrates lived in the fifth century before Christ. He 
was famous as the founder of Greek medical literature, 
and to him certainly the virtues of the poppy were 
known. 

In Virgil we find the poppy described as pervaded by 
lethean sleep ("Lethsao perfusa papavera somno." — 
Georg., i, 78), and he sometimes speaks of the " lethean 
poppy " or the " sleep-giving poppy " (" soporiferumque 
papaver." — JEneid, iv., 486). He borrowed from Greek 
mythology, according to which the waters of the river 
Lethe, which flows through the regions of the dead, 
cause those who drink of them to forget everything, as 
is said also to have been the case with the lotus-eaters 
of Homer. The poppy is in Virgil connected not only 
with the mythology of the world of the dead, but with 
the worship of Ceres. This goddess is represented as 
holding the poppy in her hands. Conjecture has been 
busy in attempting to account for this, and it has been 
supposed that it was because the poppy grows wild in 
corn fields in European countries, or because the seeds 
of the white poppy were eaten as food to give an 
appetite, Ceres being thought of by the ancient mind 
as the bountiful giver of food. To the ancient imagina- 
tion, however, it would be quite enough to think of the 
poppy as the prettiest of the flowers which grow up wild 
in the midst of wheat, and on this account to dedicate 
it to the service of the goddess of the wheat-field. 
When, in the first Christian century, Pliny wrote his 
'•Natural History" (20, 18 (76), 199) and Diosoorides 
his " Materia Medica," the word " Opium " was already 
introduced, and the sleepy effects of it were everywhere 
known. 



2°. 

The Arabians of the Caliphate studied Greek 
medicine and practised it. Opium became well known 
among them by its Greek name, which took the form 
a/i/MTO, through the Semitic habit of changing p. to/. 
In Persia it appeared with the same form (afyun), in- 
terchanged with ahyun and apyun, which latter became, 
as will be seen, the parent of the Chinese name ya-pien. 
Both the Arabs and the Persians had national names 
for the poppy : the Arab called it hhash-kliash, and the 
Persian kohndr. Hence we may gather that the poppy 
was anciently known as a garden flower as fax eastward 

T 2 



The- poppy 
amorie; Che 
Arabs. 



148 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



The Arabs 
in China. 



The Arabs 
at Canton, 



First 

mention of, 
cultivation 
of the poppy 
in China in j 
the eighth 
century. 



Second 
mention. 



Early poem 
on the 
poppy. 



as Persia, while its medical applications were made bv 
the Greeks.* ' '' 

In the times of the Caliphs the Arabs bega,n to visit 
China,t especially after the founding of Baghdad, 
A.D. 763, and became traders in drngs, precious stones, 
brocades, rose water, and such things. Previous to 
the T'ang dynasty the poppy was apparently unknown 
to the Chinese botanists and physicians, and when it 
was brought to them their attention was drawn to the 
form of the heads which enclosed the seeds, then used 
in making a soporiferous decoction according to the 
directions of the Arab doctors ; consequently they in- 
vented names for it, based on the appearance of the 
poppy heads. The seeds looked like millet seeds, if not 
in colour, at least in shape, and therefore they called 
the heads mi-nang, " millet bags." 

'The early arrival of the Arabs by sea at Canton may 
be illustrated by the following extract from the " Pan- 
yii-hsien-chih " :—" In the T'ang dynasty, on occasion 
" of the opening of trade with foreign ships, the 
•' Mahommedan King Mahomet sent his mother's 
" brother from Western countries to China to trade. 
" He built a tomb and monastery, called respectively 
" Ghien-huang-t'a and SuaisJieng-ssii. iSoon after the 
" monastery was completed he died, and was buried in 
" the tomb [still existing outside the JSTorth Gate], in 
" accordance with his intention," 



were already m 

But the first dis- 

the work of Oh'cn 



In the reign of T'ang Ming Huang, in the first half 
of the eighth century, an author named Oh'en 
Ts'ang-ch'i, in a work which he calls " A Supplement 
to the PSn-ts'ao," quotes from an earlier writer, Sung 
Tang-tzii, a statement that " The poppy has four petals. 
" It is white and red. Above them is a pale red rim. 
'■ The seeds are in a bag, which is like one of those 
" arrow-heads which have air-holes to make a sound 
" as the arrow outs through the air. Within there are 
" seeds like those of millet." 

At this time, early in the eighth century, the Arabs 
had been trading with China for at least a century, for 
Mahomet's death occurred A.D. 632, and that of his 
uncle not long afterwards. It was easy for the poppy 
to be cultivated with the jasmine and the rose every- 
where throughout the country. We loiow. indeed, 
from the "Nan-fang-ts'ao-mu-chuang," a work which 
dates from the beginning of the fourth century, that 
the jasmine and the henna, plants which must have 
come with the Arabian commerce 
China when that book « as written, 
tinct mention of the poppy is in 
Ts'ang-ch'i. 

In the work on trees, called " Chung-sbu-shu," 
written by Kuo T'o-t'o, it is said that " The poppy, 
" ying-su, a aovn on the 9th of the 9th month or on 
" the 15th of the 8th month, the flowers will be large 
" and the heads full of eeeds." This passage occurs in 
the " T'u-shu-chi-ch'eng. J The author's biography 
was written by Liu Tsung-yiian, and we therefore know 
that he was living in the latter part of the eighth 
century. He resided near the capital, in Shensi. From 
this it must be concluded that the poppy was then 
cultivated in the neighbourhood of ivhat is now Si-an-fu 
(provincial capital of Shensi). 

The -poet Tung T'ao, a native of Oh'eng-tu-fu, in 
S2echwan, in the closing years of the T'ang dynasty, 
wrote a poem, entitled " A poem on leaving a winding 
" Yalley and approaching my Western Home." It 
says "Passing the dangerous staircase I issued from 
" the winding defile of the Pao Valley. After 
" travelling across all the intervening plains and 
" rivers I am now near my home. The s,adness of 
" the traveller in his journey of 10,000 /; is to-day dis- 
" sipated. Before my hoi-sc I see the mi-nang flower." 
This short poem shows that at the time ivhen it was 
written the poppy was curtivatcd near Cli'eug-tu-fu. 



4P. 

From about 756 to 960, a space of two centuries, little The two 
is said in Chinese books of the Arabs ; yet at that time j^™** *n»Tel. 
two Mahommedan travellers came to China and wrote 
accounts of what they saw and heard. Eeoently their 
works have been translaied into European languages. 
This shows that the Arabs did not cease during this 
interval to visit China. Information in regard to the 
medical qualities of the poppy would be originally 
furnished to th« Chinese by the Arabs ; it is on this 
account that in the Pen-ts'ao of the K'ai Pao period 
(A.D. 968 to 976) the poppy is introduced as a healing 
plant. 

5°. 

In the j'car 97o the Emperor Sung T'ai-tsu gave an The poppy 
order that Liu Han, and a, Taoist, Ma Chih, with ch^^f^ 
others, nine in all, should prepare the medical work Pharraa- 
known as " K'ai-pao-pen-ts'ao." In this the poppy is ™P<«ia. 
called ymg-tzii-su, and it is stated that " Its seeds have 
" healing powers. When men have been taking the 
" stonct that confers immortality, feel it powerfully 
" operating, and cannot eat with appetite, they maybe 
" benefited by mixing these seeds with bamboo juice 
" boiled into giuel and taking this." 

The name ying-su here used, and previously by the 
earliest T'ang dynasty authors on this point, means 
"jar millet," from the resemblance of the poppy head 
to the kind of jar which the Chinese call ying. 



Pooia of 
Su Timg-p'o. 



Among the poets of this period were two brothers 
named Su ; one was the celebrated Su Tung-p'o. In a 
poem of his occurs the following passage : " The Taoist 
" advices you strongly to partake of the drink called 
" chi-sii-f]iui. The boy may prepare for you the broth 
" of the ying-su." 

The brother, named Su Ch6, wrote a poem which no Poem ot Su 
called '' A Poem on the Cultivation of the jMcilical *-''''• 
Plant (Tirig-fu). or Poppy " : — 

" I built a house on the west of Ihc city. The ground 
" in the centre was laid out in rectangular divisions. 
" Where the windows and doors left a spnce, firs and 
" bamboos helped to fill up the vacancy. The thorny 
" bushes were pulled up, and a garden made to grow 
'" good vegetables and other plants. The gardener 
" came to nie to say, 'The ying-su (poppy) is a good 
" ' plant to have.' It is called ying because, though 
" small, a is shaped like a ying (jar); it is called sti, 
" because the seeds are small and look like su (millet). 
" It is sown with wheat and ripens with panicled millet 
" — chi {Pitnicum mi I i aciyum) ; when growing it may be 
'■ eaten like the vegetables of spring. Its seeds are 
" like aiituriin millet. When ground they yield a sap 
" like cnws' milk ; when boiled they become a drink fit 
" for Buddha. Old men whose powers have decayed, 
" who have little appetlte,who when theyieatmeat cannot 
' digest it, and when they eat vegetables cannot dis- 
" tinguish thtir flavour, should take this drink Use a 
" willow mallet and a stone basin to beat it. Boil it in 
" water that has been sweetened with honey. It does 
" good to the mouth and to the throat It restores 
" tranquillity to the lungs and nourishes the stomach. 
" For three j'ears the door has been closed, and I have 
" gone nowhere and come back from nowhere. I see 
" here the Hermit of the Shade (a Taoist priest) and 
" the long-robed Buddhist priest ; when they sit oppo- 
" site I forget to speak. Then I have but to drink a 
■' cup of this poppy-seed decoction. I laugh, I am 
" happy, I have come to Yiug-ch'uan, and am wander- 
" ing on the banks of its river. I seem to be climbing 
'■ the slopes of the Lu Mountain in the far west." 

There is a small river in the province of Anhwei Notes on tlie 
which is called Ying-shui. The citj' mentioned was on Po^""- 
the banks of that river, which is famous in history. 
The mountain called Lu-shan is in Western China, on 
the north of the celebrated 0-mei-shan. The poet went 
to live at Ying-ch'uan when he was old. As a boy he 
had lived with his brother near the Lu Mountain. 



* Oniuni is als" iiipniionwl in the .li-Tnwdfiii ■•T;ihimd" (sc\Hilh 
cenliirv) Ali.«lii Zar:ili, li., -10 {iipliil-nj as licing a tlaiiuyvoiis iiittliciuc. 

t China in tlir ■■mHv Hhh .lyiKi^ly ojieiitJ lor.M..n Iniilr l.vwi.yiil 
f'ochin Chin'i Under tlic Wpi tlymist.v inteninii.nial trade iviis ehl;ilr 
lisbed at certain points on the linidcr between Morlh and Soiitli China. 
In the Sung dynasty, A.D. 1)71, a sn|,ei'n,U'i.dent was anponded at 
Canton, HanKi'.linw, and Ningpo, to overloolt fereisu trade. Earlier 
than this wo read of an offlcek- called Sliili-po-ssn. appointed to Canlon 
to superintend foreign trade, as ilic Idle imrlieN. Tins was m the 
T'ang dynasty. . , ,. t-, i, , ■ 

1 Kindly lent from the Eussian Legation Li .rary, Peltin. 
' I'This statement shows that at tliat time thero prevailed an exten- 
tive useof niercurv,tal(en under the idea that it would prolong life, 
and that the eUe'cti were fourd (o bi \ eiy iiijnnons. 



6°. 

The Emperor .Iru Tsuiig, of the 8uiig dynasty, about 
the year 1057, ordered the compilation liy Su Sung and 
others of the work known as " T'u-ching-p6n-ts'ao." 
The magistrates of all cities were ordered to supply 
information on all medical plants in their vicinity, 
according to the method before employed in preparing 
the previous work, called " Ying-kung T'ang Pen-ts'ao," 
made in pursuance of an order given by the Emperor 
Kao Tsnng, in the T'ang dynasty, to the Prince named 



" 31ateri:i 
Mcdica " J 
of the 
eleventh 
centuiy by 
Su Snog. 



APPENDIX. 



149 



Cultivation 
of the poppy 
mentioned. 



Jledical use 
of poppy 



Tile wliite 
variety of 
Papaver 
somniferum. 



Ying Kuo-kung. In this work it is said by Su Sung 

that "The poppy^ is found everywhere. Many persons 
cultivate it as an ornamental flower. There are two 

" kiiids, oiie with red flowers and another with white. 
It has an odour not very ^agreeable. The fruit is 
like a flower vase, and contains very small seeds. 
Gardeners manure the land for the poppy every other 

" year. The seeds are sown in the 9th month. In the 
spring they are, if thus manured, seen growing with 
great vigour ; otherwise they will not thrive, and if 
they grow at all they are weak aiid slender. When 
the capsules have become dry and yellow they may 

" be plucked." 

He also says that ' ' In cases of nausea and vomiting 
a drink made from poppy seeds in the following 
" manner will be found serviceable. Three-tenths of a 
" pint of the seeds of the white poppy, three-tenths of 
an ounce of powdered ginseng, with a piece 6 inches 
" in length of the tuber of the Chinese yarn, are 'to be 
" cut and ground flne. iBoil it, adding 2^ pinl.s of 
" water. Take of this six-tenths of a pint, and add to 
" it a little syrup of raw ginger with flne salt. It 
" should be mixed well and distributed into doses, 
" Which may be taken early or late, and no harm will 
" follow from taking other kinds of medicine at the 
" same time." 

The biography of this writer in the " History of the 
Sung Dynasty " says of him that he was a man of large 
mind, who would not take part in quarrels. He held 
to the rules of politeness and the laws of the State. 
Though high in station he lived like a poor man. From 
the invention of writing downwards, whatever there 
was to read and to learn in classics, histories, and the 
works of various authors, togetherwith diviners' books, 
the 12 musical tubes, astronomy, astrology, mathe- 
matics, and medical botany, there was nothing with 
which he Was not familiar. 

In regard to what kind of poppy is meant by 8u 
Siing, writing in the 11th century, it may be well to re- 
fer here. to' the statement made by the German traveller 
Kasmpfer, who towards the end of the 17th century 
was attached as physician to the Embassy sent to Per.«ia 
by the King ,of Sweden. He says that the poppy from 
which opium was then manufactured in that country 
was the white poppy. It becomes plain, then, that in 
the time of Su Sung, though, the name of opium had 
not yet appeared in books, yet the plant that was able 
to producq it was commonly known. The celebrated 
English botanist, Lindley, says that the poppies from 
which opium is made are those with red and those 
with white flowers. 



Use of 
capsulesi n 
dysentery 



" macaroni and the like, and there be well steamed. 
"It is then to be sprinkled with a solution of red 
" leaven, steamed again for a short time, taken out, 
"' and made up in cakes shaped like fish." 

A poem of Hsieh K'o, written in the Sung dynasty, 
is found in the work known as " Kuang-ch'iin-fang- 
p'u." " There seem tfl be tiny spots of ointment cf 
' ' lead on the tips of the flowers. It is as if they told me 
" that the spring is advancing, but the snow is not yet 
" melted. I see a thousand poppy heads full of black 
" seeds. The east wind will blow and they will be like 
" millet of the best size and quality." The comparisou 
with snow indicates the colour of the poppies. 

Tang Shih-ying, a native of Fuhkien when the Sung 
dynasty was closing, says in a medical work, while 
speaking of the use of the poppy capsule in medicine, in sKown by 
cases of dysentery, " This is thought little of by most, (r'Shree 
" but when dysentery is of long continuance, without .authors. 
" gatherings of matter locally and pain resulting, 
" and it is right to use astringents, if this remedy 
" were not hand how could use be made of this mode 
" of treatment P But there ought to be other drugs 
" accompanying it, to modify the effect." 

Another Simg dynasty writer on medicine, named 
Wang, Oh'iu, in a woi'k to which he gave the name 
" Pai-i-hsiian-fang," writes that poppy seeds and cap- 
sules miy with advantage be used together for both 
kinds of dysentery. The seeds are prepared in a pan 
over the fire. The capsules are roasted on a gridiron. 
After being pulverised they are made up into pills, with 
honey, of the size oi wu-tung seeAs (Eleoaoeca verrucosa). 
Thirty pills are taken at a time, with rice gruel. These 
pills have been tried and found most efficient. 

Another Sung dynasty author, Wang Shih, in his 
work " I-ohien-fang says, "The effect of the poppy 
" capsule in curing dysentery is nothing less than 
" magical. But in its nature it is extremely astringent, 
" and easily causes vomiting and difficulty in digesting 
" food; consequently, patients are airraid of it and do 
" not venture to take it. Yet if it bo prepared over 
" the fire with a little vinegar, and black plnms be 
" added on account of their acid qualities, its use will 
" be found satisfactory. 

" If the four drugs known as the four noble medicines, 
" viz., tang-shen (a coarse ginseng grown in China), 
" pai-shu (Atractylodes alba, a medicinal plant like an 
" artichoke), China-root, and liquorice, be mixed in due 
" proportion and taken with it, there will be still less 
'■ tendency to check digestion and prevent the food 
" from proceeding on its way. The results will be 
" most excellent." 



Twelfth 
century use 

of seeds to 
counteract 
the effects of 
mercury. 



First use of 
capsules in ' 
twelfth cen- 
tury. 



7°. 

At the beginning df the 12th century, in the reisn of 
Hui Tsung, one of the Court physicians, named K'ou 
Tsnng-shih, compiled a work called " PSn-ts'ao-yen-i." 
In it, he says that the flowers of the poppy are in some 
kinds extremely abundant in their leaves, and that the 
number of seeds in the heads is beyond computation. 
" They are in size like those of the t'ing-U,* and white 
" in colour. The seeds are cooling in their nature; if 
" taken in good quantity they are beneficial for such 
" affections as diarrhoea, and act favourably on the 
'" bladder. Those who have been taking cinnabar, if 
' ' they have them ground and boiled with water, a,dding 
" honey, and prepared in the form of broth, will find 
" them beneficial in a high degree." 

In the botanical section of the T'tt-shu-chi-ch,' eng 
the following extract is found; taken from the work 
" Shan-chia-oh'ing-kung," by a Sung dynasty medical 
writer named Lin Hung, who, from his language im- 
plying the use of the capsules of the poppy with the 
seeds, we must suppose to have belonged to the 
Southern Sung. He is speaking of what he calls poppy- 
milk fish, by which is meant the juice hardened into 
cakes and taking the shape of fish "Take poppy- 
" heads, wash them well, and grind out their juice. 
" First place some meal in a jar, covering the bottom. 
" By means of a gauze bag filter the poppy milk tipon 
" it, removing the portion that floats above and allow- 
" ing the thicker part to remain. Place it in an iron 
" pan and let it boil for a little. Sprinkle rapidly some 
" weak vinegar on it, and take it up from the pan into 
" the bag and press it into a cake. It should then be 
" placed in such a covered pan as is used for steaming 

• This plant is stated by Williams to be cruciferous, and like, the 
mustardiinishape and leaves. iSee the drajving in the Pfln-ts'ao which 

sa^-s it ,13 used as a liRht aperient. 



West, but 
tliis is still 
not proved. 



Li Shih-chen, in the " Pen-ts'ao-kang-mu, or Chinese Use of cap- 
"Materia Medica," follows a chronological order in sulespro- 
his arrangement of passages taken from the works of derived 
the : medical authors who preceded him. It. may be frp™ the 
concluded, therefore, that the use of the poppy capsule 
in medicine began with the Southern Sung dynasty, 
that is, in the latter part of the twelfth or in the 
thirteenth century. Tang Shih-ying published his 
work A.D. 1265, and Wang Shih is by Li Shih-chen 
placed later. The latter does not say whence the use 
of (the capsule was derived ; it may therefore be 
supposed that it was introduced from the West, where 
its healing virtues were known from the most ancient 
times. ' 



Use of cap- 
sules in 
North 
China in 
twelfth 
century. 



In the work called " Hstian-ming-fang, by Liu Ho- 
chien, ot the Chin dynasty, it is said that for asthmatic 
cough, with perspiration, in summer and winter of 
several years' standing, the poppy capsule may be used. 
2i ounces in weight should be taken. The stem and 
outer membrane should be removed. Let it simmer in 
vinegar. Take one ounce and mix with half an ounce 
of black' plums ; let it be' slowly heated and then 
pulverised. Take for a dose two-tenths of an cnnce. 
Let it be administered in hot water and drunk at 
bed-time. 

Li Kao, a physician of the same period (born A.D. 
1180, died 1262), says the poppy capsule is efficient as an 
astringent and in strengthening the system. It operates 
on the kidneys, and is useful in the cure of disease 
afTecting the bones. 

10°. 

Wei I-lin, of the Tiian dynasty, a native of Kiangsi ,, . 

and^ of the city of Chien-chang, published a book called South Ciiina 

'■ T§-hsiao-fang," made up of prescriptions collected by intliirteenth 

-^ crntury. 



Use of cap' 
sulesin 
North China 
in thirteenth 
century. 



150 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



The capsule 
" kills like a 
knife." . 



Use of cap- 
sules in 
fourteenth , 
century. 



himself and his iiuccstors for four generations before 
his time. He says that in cases of obstinate diarrhoea 
of a chronic nature the poppy capsule may be used. 
The stringy parts should be removed, and it should be 
dipped in honey and held over the fire. Then pul- 
verise it. As a dose use half an ounce. Take it 
with honey and hot water. These capsules have the 
power to strengthen the constitution. The effect is 
immediate. 

In the 'Yiian dynasty the next name is that of Ohu 
Chen-heng.* He says that " The poppy capsule is 
" used extensively for cough at the present time in the 
" case of those who are weak and consumptive. It is 
" employed to take away the cough. It is used also for 
" diarrhrea and dysentery accompanied with local in- 
" flammatiou. Though its effects are quick, great 
" care must be taken in using it, because it kills 
" like a knife. He also says, " Many persons to cure 
" cough employ the poppy capsule, and it may be 
" used without fear, but in the first place the root 
" of the disease must bo removed, while this 
" should be reserved as a restorative method to com- 
" plete the cure. In treati'ng dysenterj' the same 
" is tiTie. Unnatural symptbms have to be expelled 
" and lumps removed. It would not be right to 
" employ at once such medicines as the capsule and 
" lung-hu (dragon's bones, certain fossil bones of 
" existing and of extinct animals) in order to check 
'■ abiuptly the action of the stomach and intestines, for 
" the unnatural state of things would reappear with 
" increased severity. Other modifications of an un- 
" healthy kind would supervene, and disease would 
" spread without limit." The expression " it kills 
" like II knife " ma}' be taken as proof that the 
capsule of which the author is speaking is that of the 
opium poppy. 

That a red tint was common in the poppies of that 
time may be concluded from the following couplet in a 
poem of Feng Tzil-chen, the Yiiau dynasty: — "They 
" carry in their hair poppies which are in colour like 
" the red clouds after rain and asters resembling the 
" hoar frost." 

11°- 

The first name that we meet with in the Ming 
dynasty is that of a brother of the Emperor Ch'fing Tsu 
(Tung Lo). He was called Chou-ting Wang. He says 
in the " P'u-chi-fang " section of " Chiu-huang-pen- 
ts'ao," a medical work, " The poppy capsule prepared 
" in vinegar is to be used for dysentery and bloody 
" evacuations. One ounce with half an ounce of 
" orange peel (ch'vn-ji'i) should be reduced to powder. 
" For a dose take throe-tenths of an ounce with black 
" prunes and hot water." 

In the Ming dynasty, which lasted through the 15th, 
16th, and part of the 17th centuries, the trade of 
China by sea with India, Arabia, and the islands of the 
Eastern Archipelago greatly increased ; at that time 
the Chinese ships, being provided with the mariner's 
compass,t ventured a little farther from land than 
before, and the extension of the Mongol Empire to 
Persia had helped to spread intcroonrse by sea between 
China and that country. Cheng Ho, who was sent on 
a diplomatic mission to all important seaports from 
Canton to Aden, succeeded so well on his first voyage 
that he was repeatedly dispatched afterwards, and 
brought back a fairly minute account of the places he 
visited. He was in diplomatic communication with 
the chief persons in authority in Aden and some other 
Arabian ports, in Hormuz on the Persian Gnlf, in 
sevei-al cities in India, such as G'o'.i., Cochin, Qnilon, 
and Calient, as well as other cenii-es oC trade nearer 
home. (Ian we wonder that all the ]irincipal e\]iorts 
in those countries became knowji to the merchants of 
Canton and Amoy ? They were then probably, next to 
the Arabs, the chief traders in the Indian seas. When 
the Portuguese ajipearcd nnexpecteilly at Cochin in 
1498, they commenced at once a career of conquest, 
and quickly made them.selves masters of Aden, Hormuz, 
Goa, Cochin, Calicut, Mal.acea, and many other cities. 
With military prestige they joined gi'eitL a.e.iivityin 
commerce, and became the chiif merchants in the 
E.ast. Al' this time, as we learn from Barbosa, opium 
was arpong the articles brought to Malacca by Arabs 
and Gentile merchants, to exchange for the cargoes of 



Chinese junks. He also states that opium was taken 
from Arabia to Calicut, and from Oambay to the same 
place, the Arabian being one-third higher in price than 
the Cambay. The opium exported from this seaport 
may be assumed to have been manufuctured in Malwa, 
which lies quite near it. 

The Arabs, then, had already begun to grow 
opium in India in the 16th century. In addition to this 
we are also told that from places on the Coromandel 
coast opium was exported to Siam and Pegu. Here we 
also find clear indications of the activity of Arab 
traders in extending the cultivation of the poppy in 
India. The Chinese also at this time imported opiumi 
themselves, to be used medically. It is important to 
note this for the proper understanding of the history of 
opium in China. 

12°. 

Wang Hsi, an author who died in A.D. 1488, pub- 
lished a work which he named " I-lin-chi-yao. In it he 
says that " Opium is produced in Arabia from a poppy 
' ' with a red flower. Water should not be allowed to 
" go over its head. After the flower has faded in the 
" seventh or eigth month the capsule, while still fresh, 
" is pricked for the juice." 

He also says, "In chronic dysentery use opium of 
" the size of a small bean, and adniinister it with waim 
" water before the j.atient takes food (as in the early 
" morning), when the stomach is free. Take one dose 
" a day, and , avoid onions , garlic, and soups of all 
" kinds. If thirsty drink water with honey in it." 

He also says, " Opium may be used to cure obstinate 
" dysentery of long continuance. ^^Tien the flower of 
" the poppy has fallen and thehead is developed, after 
" waiting four or five days take a large pricking 
" instrument and piick from 10 to 20 holes in the fresh 
" capsule. Next day, in the morning, when the sap 
" exudes, use a bamboo knife for the purpose of 
" scraping it into an earthenware vessel. Let it dry 
" in a shady place. On each occasion of using it take 
" a piece of the size of a small bean, and let it be 
" administered on an empty stomach and mixed with 
" warm water. Let the patient avoid onions, garlic, 
" and all soups. If he be hot and thirsty let him drink 
" water with honey in it." 

This author, it will be observed, died 10 years before 
Vasco de Gama arrived in India. His biography, in 
the " History of the Ming Dynasty," shows that he was 
in oificial charge of the Province of Kansuh for more 
than 20 years. His duties included the care of the 
Maliommedau population of Hami, Turfan, and other 
western cities. He must have known well the produc- 
tions, the medical practice, and the customs of the 
Mahommedan countries ; hence his minute acquaintance 
■with opium. 

J.n the first of the three preceding paragraphs tbe 
" Pen-ts'ao " account of Wang's remedy against diar- 
rhoea has been followed; in the paragraph which comes 
after it the fuller statement found in the Corean work 
" Tung-i-pao-ohieu " has been given. It seemed better 
to insert both in this list of passages, because they bear 
on the point of the manufacture of opium by the 
Chinese in their own country in the 16th century, of 
which there can remain little doubt if the extract from 
the " Tung-i-pao-chien " be fairly considered. The 
author first mentions the disease and then details the 
mode in which the medicine which is to cure it mav be 
obtained. 

Both accounts are professedly taken from Wang 
H.si's book. In the al)Benee of the book itself it cannot 
l>e ilecided which is the more eorrect. Probability is in 
favour of the last, because it is fuller than the other. 



13- 



In the Miug dynasty, in the middle 
century, we find an author, Li T' 



First 

mention of 
opium ex- 
tract was in 
fifteenth 
centuiy. 
Arabian 
method of 
obtaining 
opium. 

"Wang llsi's 
directions 
for use el 
opium. 



Wang Hsi's 
directions 
for pro- 
curmg 
opium from 
the poppy. 



Wang Hsi's 
knowledge, 
how 
acquired. 



Fullest 
details, 
wherefoimd 



* iSfC fni' p;iiiicn]rn-N IJj-etscinicidrr' " lUilanicon tSiniiMmj, jKitir [11. 
}lc liveil ill Ihc srcoiiil hiili oMtir fourlcenth ci'nli'r\. His bio!.n'itpli\' 
IS I'oliJid ill 1 lj(! ■ \ ri:m-sluh,' 

t Tlie iloaliii^ cdnipji.ss is iiicntieiinl bv Hsu (Jhing. !iniba.ssutlor Id 
Cnrcii. :is liiLviiii^ iircri in nsc en board of Ins ship in hjs voyage from 
INJiir^po to (Jorea in the .ynir A.i>. 11^-. 



of the bixLcenth 
ig,* in his work 
I-hsiao-ju-mSn," saying opium or a-fu-yung is made 
in the I'ol low hiL; manner ;, — Bcl'ore the head opens the 
pojipy i^ approached with a bamboo needle >iid the 
eajisule pierced in 10 or 1.^ places, from whieli sap 
comes out. The not morning a liaraboo knife is iised 
lo serajte the sa]i into a vessel of earthenware. AVhen 
a good quantity has been collected it is seal d up Avith 
paper and placed in the sun for a fortnight, and then 
the opium is ready. Its infiuence and ett'ects are most 
powerful, and luTich must not be used. 



Mode of lire- 
paring 
spium in the 
sixteenth 
century. 



* Un bdnnKcd lo Cliiiu-iin-fr. in SIhum. 'I'linv wa.s m the Sung 
d.\ nasty iuiollirr Li T'ing, who wrote on divination and the I-cbing. 



APPENDIX. 



151 



Prohibition 
of Foreign 
trade en- 
conra^ed 
native pro- 
duction. 



Knng Yiin- 
Ini's f)re- 
scription. 



Medical use 
of poppy 
bracts of 
red and 
white 
varieties of 
IPapaver 
somni- 
fei'um. 



Golden 
elixir pill. 



Native ' 
account of 
loreign 
trade beforel 
the pro- 
hibition. 



He also says, " In cases of dysentery with weakness, 
" and when chronic, with all sorts of dysentery indeed, 
" a good remedy will be fonnd in 4 ounces of huang- 
" lien iJusticia) prepared over the fire with wu-chu-yu 
" ( Boymia Hutmearpa) which has been separately made 
" to simmer in water beforehand. To these are to be 
" added 1 ounce of putchuok and 1 mace of opium. 
" This mixture is pulverised and rolled into pills with 
" paste made of ground rice. The piUs are to be of the 
" size of green beans. 20 or 30 are to be taken at a 
" time, accompanied by a warm draught made with the 
" kernels of lotus seeds which have been stewed in 
" water. The patient is then to go to sleep well 
" covered. The effect is marvellous." (Taken from 
the "Tung-i-pao-chien.") 

This author lived during the time when foreign trade 
was prohibited. He is mentioned in the " History of 
the Ming Dynasty" as belonging to the Chia Ohing 
period (1522 to 1567), after which by a new law 
European vessels were allowed to trade with China. 
During the first half of that reign the Japanese made 
frequent raids upon the Chinese coast. This caused 
deep indignation, and not only they but all foreigners 
were forbidden to trade with China. This was in the 
year 1623. This naturally rendered foreign medicines 
scarce and dear, and therefore we are not surprised to 
find exact directions given by contemporary medical 
authors as to how opium might be manufactured from 
the poppy, it being then a highly esteemed drug and 
having been recommended by medical authors for half 
a century or more. 

14°. 

The next author to be cited in the Ming dynasty is 
Kung Tiin-lin or Kung Hsin. He says in curing 
white and red dysentery use opium putchuok, huang- 
lieii (Jwstieia), and pai-shu (Atraciylodes), each in equal 
quantity. Pulverise in a mortar and mix into pills 
with rice, making the pills of the size of a small bean. 
The old and the young must take half as much as the 
middle-aged and the strong. Take the mixture with 
rice water after being without food for some hours. 
Avoid sour things. Take nothing raw or cold. Take 
no oil, fat, tea, wine, or flour. The disease will be 
certainly checked. If thirsty drink a little rice water. 

Another method is to take from the bud of the poppy 
flower before it has opened the two green leaves which 
enclose it and drop off when the flower opens. Pul- 
verise them and take one-tenth of an ounce with rice 
water. The effect will be marvellous. According as 
the diarrhoea is of the red or white kind, use the bracts 
of the red or white poppy. 

This use of the bracts which envelop the poppy flower 
is peculiar to this author. He was a native of Kiangsi 
and belonged to the Medical Board in Pekin. 

He also made a pill celebrated for its healing power 
and called the golden elixir. It was thought to be 
able to cure 24 difierent diseases, which are detailed in 
the "Pen-ts'ao " of Li Shih-ehSn, with a statement of 
the decoction to be taken with the pill in each case. 
In this pill, I-lirchin-tan,* Opium was used to the 
extent of one hundredth of an ounce and mixed with 
glutinous rice, to be divided into three pills, one being 
a dose. If inefi"eotual, another was taken. It was for- 
bidden to take many of these pills. Vinegar was not 
to be used, for fear of internal rupture of the visceral 
organs resulting in death. 

In Kung Sin's work, called " Wan-ping-hui-ch'un," 
cited in the " Tung-i-pao-chien," there is another golden 
ehxir, for pain above or below the diaphragm. 2-i mace 
of opium, with 1 mace of asafoetida, half a mace of 
putchuok and of aloes, and a quarter of a mace of cow 
bezoar. The three last were first pulverised together. 
Opium and asafoetida were placed in a cup and made 
liquid by dropping water upon them and stirring over 
a fire. The whole was mixed with honey and made into 
pills of the size of green beans and gilt. When the 
body was hot the pills were taken with cold water; 
when the body was chilled they were taken with boiling 

water. n .,i -.x. 

The same'physician also made purple gold pills with 
bezoar and other drugs, to help the good efi"ects of 
opium. The preceding passages are from Li Shih-chSn 
and the " Tung-i-pao-chien." 

15°. 
In the work ".Tung-hsi-yang-k'ao," an account of 
counties 'belonging to the Eastern and Western Seas, 

* This was also used in Pekin, says Li Shih-ch6n, as am a prodisioc 
and quite extensively, beyond tae i-anRe of refiular medirane. 



Bad effects 
of prohibi- 
tion. 



it is said, " In the Sung dynasty, when merchant 
" vessels went to sea the high ofiicials of the ports 
" from, which they sailed went to the seashore to 
'• escort them. I have gone up the mountain at 
' ' the entrance of the bight leading to Oh'uan-chou-fu 
'' (Amoy) and seen the inscriptions, with dates, 
" on the rocks which record these things. At that 
" time the regTilations were very stringent, as if 
" the matters in hand were of great importance. In 
" the province of Fuhkien, in the Sung and TUan 
" dynn sties, superintendents of foreign trade were 
" appointed at each port, under the name 8Mh-po-ssu,' 
" At the beginning of the present dynasty (Ming) this 
" system remained unaltered, but was afterwards 
" allowed to fall into neglect. In the period from 
" 1465 to 1506 it happened that in the more powerful 
" families connected with commerce there were ad- 
" venturous persons who went on large ships beyond 
" seas to trade. There were at that time bad men who 
" secretly opened out new paths in which to gain 
" profit, while the officers placed in charge failed to 
" secure, openly at least, in these profitable trans- 
" actions any share for the Government. At first they 
" succeeded in gradusilly enriching themselves, but 
" in course of time this sort of trade degenerated into 
" a rivalry as to who should shoot his arrow farthest 
" and into various irregular proceedings." The same 
work further says that " Along the seashore there is 
" much land which is so full of potash and soda that 
" the farmer can realise no harvests from it. It is only 
" possible to look on the sea as the soil to be worked. 
" This led to various employments connected with the 
" sea. The ricli collected a revenue from imported 
" goods, and safely brought back with them the sheaves 
' ' which they reaped in the harvest of the waters. The 
" poor also laboured for a wage, and stretched out the 
" hand to seize the pint measure of rice which they 
" needed to support them in their toil. But the day of 
" rigorous prohibition arrived. These people could 
" not. ns before, gain a living through the arrival of 
" merchant ships. They were strong and hearty. 
" They would not fold their hands and sit down 
" inactive in poverty and want. Troubles consequently 
" occurred in succession, resulting in disturbances of 
" the public peace. Men of this class hid themselves 
" in places beyond the local jurisdiction, and having 
" rudely impinged on the law's net they dared not 
" return to be apprehended. In addition to this they 
" conducted barbarians from a distance on various 
" occasions into the places to which they belonged." 

The author proceeds to say that when the prohibition 
vi'as withdrawn from foreign commerce and revenue 
collected from goods and merchant vessels, the Govern- 
ment gained in revenue and the people in tranquillity. 
In particular the local military expenditure was sup- 
plied to a fixed extent each year from this source. He 
then remarks, " The duties levied were of three kinds, 
" according to the rules then in force : there was the 
" water duty, the land duty, and the supplementary 
" duty. The water duty was tonnage, and was levied 
" on the representative of the ship. The land duty 
' " was duty on goods, fixed ad valorem, and levied, 
" according to the quantity of goods, on the merchant 
" doing business on shore. In respect to this, from 
" fear of smuggling, it was the rule that the snper- 
" cargo {ch'uwii-sliang) should not deliver goods until 
" the presentation of a memorandum addressed to the 
" merchant on shore who was the buyer of goods, 
" stating the amount of duty for the goods mentioned, 
" and directing him to go to the vessel and pay the 
" duties there; after this the goods might be removed. 
" As to the supplementary duties, they were levied in 
" case of an error in the declared measurement of the 
" vessel in feet, to be be added to (or substracted from) 
" the tonnage." 

Further, in the year 1689 a tarifi' was issued, stating 
the duties to be levied on each kind of good? and 
approved by the military commandant. In this tarifi' 
myrrh, gum olibanum, and asafoetida, with other 
articles, are entered at a fixed rate of 3^ mace per cwt. 
for myrrh, and 2 mace per cwt. for the other two. 
Opium is rated at 2 mace of silver for 10 catties, or 
2 ounces per cwt. In the year 1616 a new tariff was 
issued, in which opium appears rated at 1 ^a'a mace for 
each 10 catties. 

16°. 

Li Shih-chen, author of the " Pen-ts'ao-kang-mu," Li Shih- 

finished that work A.D. 1578. After saying that the jj-f^^.^^ 

poppy is called yu-mi because it is a grain (mi) which Mediea. 
can be used in making presents, and hsiang-lcu because 

T 4 



Good effects 
of permis- 
sion to 
trade. 



Duties 
levied. 



Tariff of 
A.D. 1589. 



Tariff of 
A.D. IGlo, 



152 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION 



Poppy as a 
flower. 



it resembles millet (Icti), he adds that it is sown in 
antnmn, and in winter is above ground in the form of 
tender stalks which may be used as food and constitute 
au excellent vegetable, the leaves being like lettuce. 
In the third or fourth month the flowering part of the 
plaut is well advanced and protected by bracts, which 
fall off when the flower opens. There are four petals, 
which, taken together, are as large as a saucer. The 
capsule is in the centre of the flower, folded in stamens. 
The flower falls on the third day after opening, leaving 
the capsule at the top of the stem. It is 1 or 
2 inches in length, and in size like the ma-tou-ling (a 
drug, capsule of the bladder tree). It has a lid and a 
short stalk. In shape it is much like a wine jar. In 
it there are many white grains, which can be used for 
making a sort of porridge for taking with ordinary 
food. If the seeds are ground with water, and mixed 
with green beans first ground so as to make a jelly, it 
will be found excellent. Oil also can be made from the 
seeds. As to the capsules, they are much used in 
medicine, hut are not mentioned in the old " Pharraa- 
cop(£ia " From this it may be concluded that in ancient 
times the capsules were not used. 

The author refers here to the Northern Sung dynasty, 
A..D. 960 to 1126, when the poppy first appeared in the 
" Pharmacopoeia." 

He proceeds, " In Kiangsu the double poppy is called 
" li-cli'un-hiia, flower of the bright spring. This is 
" said by some to be a variety of the ying-sii^hua ; but 
" this is a mistake. Its flower changes perpetually. 
" It may be white, or red, purple, pink, or apricot 
" yellow, or it may be half red or half purple and half 
" white, and is very beautiful, and this is the reason 
" that it is called the li-oh'im. It is also known as 
" the Moutan pseony's rival and the flower of the 
" embroidered coverlid." He also says of the seeds of 
the poppy that they cure diarrhoea and relieve feverish 
symptoms, and of the capsules that for medicinal 
purposes they should be well washed and softened in 
water. " The stalk and outer skin should be removed 
" and also the stringy fibres within. Let them be 
" dried in a dark place and cut very small. They are 
" then to be well mixed with lice vinegar and placed 
" ovor the fire to simmer, after which they are fit for 
■■' use lis a drug. They rany also be prepared with 
" honey instead of vinegar. In taste and nature the 
" capsules thus prepared are sour, astringent, and 
" slightly cooling, without being poisonous. With 
" vinegar, black prunes, or orange peel they are most 
" effectual in curing diarrhoea, asthma, rheumatism, or 
" pain in the heart and abdomen." 

Proceeding to speak of opium, he says, " Formerly 
" opium was not much heard of; recently it has been 
" used by some in medical recipes. It is said to be the 
" juice of the ying-su-hua (or poppy). "While the head 
" of this flower is still green, in the aftei'noon take a 
" large needle aud prick the outside skin, taking care 
" not to wound the inner hard shell. It is to be 
" pricked in from three to five places. The next day, 
" when the sap has come out, take a bamboo knife and 
" scrape it into an earthenware cup. Let it be dried 
'■ in the shade. It being made in this way accounts 
" for the fact that this article when bought iu shops has 
' ' mixed with it pieces of the skin of the capsule. It is 
" a sour astringent, and can cure, etc. Especially is 
" the elixir I-li-chin^tan, made with it, useful for 
" curing a hundred diseases." 

17°- 

In the " T'u-shu-chi-oh'ung" we find a passage from 
a work on flowers by an author named Wang Shih-mou, 
who lived at the end of the 16th century.* He saya, 
" After the pseony (shao-yao) the poppy is the most 
" beautiful of flowers, and grows most luxuriantly. 
' It changes readily. If care be taken in watering and 
" planting, it becomes very handsome, and assumes a 
" thousi.nd varieties of shape and coloui'. It even 
" becomes yellow or green. Looked at from a distance 
" it is lovely ; when nearer it becomes less attractive. 
" I have heard that the seeds can be used as food, and 
" have a strongly astringent eflect." 

In the work on flowers published in the time of 
Kang Hsi, under the name " Kuang-ch'iin-fang-p'u," 
there is a poem on the poppy by Wu Tu-p'ei, of the 
Ming dynasty. "In the court which fronts the hall, a 
" long Avay down, when the daylight is lengthened, 
" before the terrace are flowers of the genii breathing 
" out abundant fragrance. A vapour encircles them, 

• He diBcL KjIK). See Biography 176 in " Ming History," 



" and there are rain drops upon them, where they put 
" forth their lovely forms. They have a red tint and 
" glossy lustre, and their appearance is beautiful. They 
" are sown in mid-autumn and must wait for the coming 
" year. They open their flowers in early summer, and 
" are companions to the declining sun. Another thing 
" to be praised is their seeds, heaped up in large capsules 
" one after the other. Why, then, be content with 
" what is ugly and only gather rice and such-like 
" grain P " 

In the " T'u-shu-chi-ch'eng ' there is a passage from 
a work called " Ts'ao-hua-p'n " the book of plants and 
flowers, which says, " The poppy has a thousand petals 
" and all the five colors. Its petals are shorter than 
" those of the flower called yii-mei-jen, and more 
" graceful. Through the whole garden the spring 
" alighting upon they seem to fly as they move to the 
" breeze. The seeds are sown in spring." 

18°. 
In the work called " Wu-li-hsiao-shih," written at the Another 
end of the Ming dynasty and the beginning of the the°modeof 
present, it is said of the poppy that it is sown in the obtaining 
middle month of autumn, at noon. After flowering, thrnopD?'" 
the seed vessel grows into the shape of a vase. The 
tiny seeds can be eaten as porridge. Oil is also obtained 
from them, and the capsules are useful in medicine ; 
they are powerfully astringent. When the capsules are 
still green, if a needle be used to puncture them in 10 
or 16 places, the sap will come out. This should be 
received into an earthenware cup, which may be covered 
carefully with paper pasted round the edge. Let the 
cup be exposed to the sun for 14 days ; it is then opium, 
ready for use as an astringent, and restrains reproduction 
most powerfully. 

19°. 

Carefully weighing what is said in the passages pre- E^sum^. 
ceding, it appears plain that from the latter part of the 
fifteenth century the manufacture of native opium has 
existed in China, and it is not only in recent years that 
there has been both native and i'oreign opium in this 
country. Let the reader examine the various accounts 
of the manipulation by four diiferent authors. Wang 
Hsi's book cannot now bo procured, but judging by 
what is quoted from him in Li Shih-chen's work, he 
meant to describe the method of poppy culturo in 
Ai-abia, and spoke particularly of a kind which yielded 
the opium sap in the 7th and 8th months or later. 
When, however, he speaks, as in the passage translated , 
from the '' Tung-i-pao-chien," of obstinate diarrhoea 
needing opium to cure it, and advises the physician to 
make opium direct from the poppy in a way which he 
describes, he must be speaking of a Chinese made 
article. Li T'ing's account differs in too many points 
from that of Wang Hsi to be regarded as a second-hand 
statement based exclusively upon it. If so, then Li 
T'ing is a third and independent witness on this 
subject, the fourth being the author of the work 
" Wu-li-hsiao-shih." 

20°. 

Early in the seventeenth century a Dutch physician Opiumin 
named Jacobus Boutins went to reside at Batavia, and J*™™!^^'' 
died there. What he wrote on medicine was after- 
wards included in the work of Gulielmus Piso, 'f De 
Indio3 utriusque Be natural! et medica Libri XIV." 
(Elzevir, 1658).* The preface of Bontius is dated 
Batavia, 1629. He says that those nations which use 
opium seem drowsy, and are dull in commerce and in 
arms ; but unless we had opium to use in these hot 
countries, in cases of dysentery, cholera, burning fever, 
and various bilious affections, we should practice 
medicine in vain. This was the basis of the ancient 
medicines, theriac. mithridate, and philonium. 

The poor Indians use the leaves and branches of the Bontius' 
poppy to prepare an inferior sort of opium, w'hich they opinion of 
obtain by drying in the sun. This they call pust, and °i"""- 
they themselves are nicknamed pusti. The rich, who 
indulge in the more expensive drug, are known as 
afyuni. The Greeks knew the danger of opium but 
not its merits, which are clearly divine, and wliich they 
failed sufficiently to explore. 

Bontius prescribed curcuma, made from opium and 
the Indian crocus, Hsi-tsang-lmng-hua. This was his 
refuge in dysentery, cholera, phrenitis, and spasms. 
He took refuge in opium as a sacred anchor, he tells 
us, in desperate cases. He used poppy seeds and poppy 

' Kindly lent by Dr. E. Bretsclmejder, 



APPENDIX. 



153 



Prohibition 
of tobacco 
smoking. 



Manchu 
prohibition 
of tohacco- 
Hmoking, 



He says that opium helps nature to conquer 
the enemy by inducing sleep, and that he could prepare 
it BO that it should not injure even an infant. 

21°. 

Towards the end of the Ming dynasty the practice of 
taking opium medically or otherwise by swallowing it 
was destined to be soon changed for the habit of opium- 
smoking. It is requisite, therefore, in proceeding with 
this record to enter on the subject of tobacco and 
tobacco-smoking, in order to introduce by easy transi- 
tion this new step taken by the Chinese in the use of 
opium. 

22°. 

In the latter years of the Ming dynasty tobacco 
cultivation and tobacco-smoking were introduced into 
China from the Philippine Islands. Here the Spaniards 
had settled, and they were in constant communication 
with America. The tobacco plant crossed the Pacific 
and flourished in the neighbourhood of Manila. The 
first place in China where it was planted was at Amoy ; 
it was brought there by Fuhkien sailors trading to 
Manila. In the work above cited under the name 
" Wu-li-hsiao-shih," written about A.D. 1650, we are 
told that tobacco was brought to China about A.D. 
1620, which would be about the same time that King 
James I's " Counterblast to Tobacco" was being circu- 
lated in England as a new publication. Tobacco was 
called the smoke plant " or tampaku, or toM-purhuei. 

In the time of the last Ming Emperor, who reigned 
from 1628 to 1644, tobacco-smoking was prohibited, 
but the habit spread too rapidly to be checked by law. 
The origin of opium-smoking is thus accounted for. 
Various ingredients were in various countries mixed 
with tobacco to try their effect ; among them was 
opium. Arsenic was another ingredient, which is 
still used by the Chinese in what is called "water 
tobacco.'' 

The Manchus now took the place of the Ming dynasty. 
There is a historical work called the " Tung-hua-lu," 
which gives the events of the first century of Manchu 
rule in the form of a chronicle. In the year 1641 there 
is in this book an account of an edict which has refe- 
rence to tobacco. The Emperor asks the princes and 
high officers, " Why do you not lead the soldiers your- 
" selves in the practice of archery P The elder youths 
" should practise the horn-bow and winged arrow ; the 
" younger should be skilled in using the wooden bow 
" and willow-twig arrow. Our dynasty in military 
" exercises makes archery the chief thing. To smoke 
" tobacco is a fault, but not so great a fault as to 
" neglect bow exercise. As to the prohibition of 
" tobacco-smoking, it became impossible to maintain 
" it, because you princes and others smoked privately, 
" though not publicly; but as to the use of the bow. 



" this must not be neglected." The edicts afterwards 
promulgated against opium were just as inefifectual as 
those against tobacco-smoking ; and among the causes 
of their failure must be included the love of opium- 
smoking by many in high positions, favourites and 
others, whom it would be very difficult to punish. ^ ^^^ ^^ 

In a work called " Shun-hsiang-chui-pi," written 10 tobacpo- 
or 20 years later than this edict, tobacco-smoking is smoking, 
described as spreading to the city of Soochow and as 
being quickly adopted by all classes of the people. The 
author states that this circumstance was much to the 
detriment of morality ; it had previously been a difficult 
thing to uphold moderation in living, but after this it 
was far more so. Women as well as men, the inhabi- 
tants of villages as well as of large towns, fell into the 
snare, till the habit became almost universal. This 
immense popularity of tobacco-smoking was an indica- 
tion of the readiness of the Chinese nation to adopt the 
use of narcotics. The same thing wiich took place in 
the 19th century with opium-smoking occurred in 
the 17th century with tobacco-smoking. The Con- 
fucian mind was shocked, the sense of propriety was 
wounded ; but this did not prevent the rapid spread 
of both these modes of indulgence in all circles. Pro- 
hibitory edicts were issued in vain by Emperors animated 
by paternal affection for their people. Tobacco was a 
less evil than they supposed ; opium-smoking was a 
far greater evil than they feared. In both oases the 
Emperor was powerless. The Emperor Ch'Sng Tsung, 
as we ought to call him, but who is better known as 
Tao Kuang, is much to be respected for his strong 
moral convictions on the subject of opium. He made 
really great efforts to cope with this evil, but it was 
in vain. The fondness of the people for inhaling a 
narcotic was too strong for him to overcome. He failed 
utterly in the attempt to put down opium -smoking even 
in the City of Pekin. It was as hard to persuade his 
own people to abandon a bad habit as to conquer 
England in war. 

The habit of tobacco-smoking became national, and opjum- 
went on extending itself for a century, till soon after smoking ini 
the close of a long reign of Kang Hsi the attention of Formosa, 
the Grovernment was drawn to opium-smoking as a new 
vice in Formosa and at Amoy. It grew up in the same 
part of the conntry where tobacco-smoking had been 
introduced. 



23°. 
One of the most valuable works to be consulted on 
the subject of early opium-smoking, its connexion 
with tobacco-smoking, and the opium trade as it 
existed at the end of the 17th century, is the 
Amoenitates exotiaoe of Kaempfer. Some passages from 
this work, recording his observations on tobacco, hemp, 
and opium, will now be given. They were first pub- 
lished in 1712, but the original notes from which they 
were compiled were taken 20 years earlier. 



Ksempfer's 
Amoenitates 
exoticEC, 



Tobacco : 

■Kasmpfer's 

account.' 




[Pipe for emoking tobacco througn water.] 



"Nicotiana ante sesqni circiter secnla toti antique 

orbi, adeoque et Persiae, ccspit a Lnsitanis transvect- 

oribus innotescere. Nomen ubique habet tcibaci, et 

pro diverso gentium idiomate tdbdk, tobacco, tonibah et 

80970. 



tembaJeii, ab insula hujus nommis Americana, quee 
herbae copiam inventoribus dederat. Plantae vix nomen 
innotuerat, quin simul cultura celebrari ubique coeperit, 
et fumandi usus omne humanum genus stupenda 

U 



154 



TXDIAX OPIUM COMMFSSION : 



velocitate incant.!i-\-erit. flaiitam, Hyosciaml spceifm 
si negamus, ex classe tamcn veuenatarum nequai^uam 
eximenda fixerit; cum vertigines, anxietatesetvomitus, 
quos fumigata in non absuetis conoitat, malignitatis 
testes sint luculenti. Experimentis Redianis constat, 
olei ejus guttulam recenti immissam vnlneri, pnllos 
Tolucrium enecare, hominibus vero inferre pericnlosa 
symptomata. Vidi bajulos circa Ca.sanam Tartariae 
qui perforatum cornu bubulum foliis plenum, super 
positis oarbonibns, paucis haustibus evaouabant ; ex 
quo instar epilepticornm prosternebantur, pituita 
spumoque difiBuentes. Quam vero venenata sint folia, 
eorum tamen fumus Consuetudine homini fit familiaris, 
ut, non miodo non noceat malignitate sua, sed be- 
nigniori sale serum ex capitis reoeasibus eliciat, ac 
cerebrum hilaritate impleat. Quod ut praestet felicius, 
Persse fumum trabunt per maobinam, aqua ultra 
dimidium plenam, quse foetidum et cerebro inimioum 
sulpbur imbibens, fumum transmittit ab omui maligni- 
tatis aorimonia defsscatum, frigefactum et sinoerum. 
MacMna ilia, quam Ichaliaan vel hhalmun vooant 
ampulla est sesquidedalis altituoinis, vitrea, oblengo 
ponata coUo ; cujus orificium olaudit orbioulus aaneus, 
in sesquipalmarem diametrum expansus, duos in medio 
perraittens tubulos inA'icem adsolidaios, seneos ; unum, 
cujus inferior pars in ampuUam demissa, aquEe immer- 
gitnr ; superior recipit nicotianas cum impositis 
carbonibus retinaculum, infnndibulo seu buccina3 
orifioio simile : alterum Ijreviorem, cujus demissa 
extremitas aquam non attingit : superior [ncnrvata 
arundinem excipit longam, qua fumns attrabitur. 
Tubulorum propago, proxime sub orbioulo, telaxylina 
arete circumvoluta est, in eam orassitiem, qua3 vitri 
oriflcium cum modica colli parte expleat atque claudat 
arctissime : ita evenit, ut ad suctum non possit nisi ex 
infnndibulo fumus suocedere ; qui jucundo strepitu 
aquam penetrans, prime inane vitri spatium occupat, 
inde per arundinem ad os sugentis atque ipsos pulmones 
pertiugit ; attractio enim, non bucca aut labiis, ut 
vulgo solet, sed toto pectore peragitur, quo ipso fumus 
per pulmones so diffundit. Si acrior berba sit, conoieam 
prius aquffi immergunt exprimuntque , ut a crudiori 
acrimonia liberetur : quod idem a Sinensibus et 
Japonibns i'actitatum vidi. Modum fumandi per 
macbinam e Persis edocti sunt Arabes Hindostani, seu 
Indi magni Mogolis, et, qui cum religione mores 
Arabum adoptarnnt, nigritte quidam insulares ; sed 
bis, quod vitra deficiant, pro ampulla servit excavatus 
cortex ononrbitarum. Turci, Sinenses, Japones, 
Europasornm more fumum trahunt per fistnlam, 
receptaculo tabaci accensi insertam. Nigritai gentiles 
fumum sine instiumento bauriunt, rotatis foliis in 
turbinem, cujus basin accendunt, apice labris retento 
et Bucto.'' 

Tbe Persian pipe for smoking tobacco tbrough water 
hero described by the traveller is the parent of that 
now in use among the Chinese, and of the Indian 
hookah. The Persians taught its use to the Arabs of 
Hindustan, tbe Hindus, and the black inhabitants of 
Asiatic islands. It spread with the religion of the 
ArabK wherever they went. 

K£einnfer's°^ According to Kfempfer's account, tobacco-smoking 
account. had during a century and a half been gradually spread- 

ing through all countries. It ivas introduced into 
Persia by the Portuguese while prosecuting their 
trading operations in the ports of the Persian Gulf. 
The poisonous qualities of tobacco he proves by what 
he had himself seen of its effects. Fowls die if tobacco 
oil is injected into a recent wound. He saw at Kasan 
portei's smoking in a peculiar way. They filled a cow's 
horn with tobacco leaves, placed it over burning coals, 
and smoked through a hole in the 'horn ; after a few 
whifis they fell down in a state of something like 
foaming epilepsy. Yet be adds, when smokers are 
accustomed to the use of tobacco it soothes the brain 
and promotes cheerfulness. 

Otijfct of The invention of the water-pipe was intended to 

assist iii removing the poisojious and unpleasant quali- 
ties of tobacco. Tbe smoke on passing through the 
water is free from sulphurous fumes, moderated in 
strength, cooled, and purified. Glass vessels were 
first used, with brass fittings. The natives of the 
Eastern Archipelago, not having glass, used the cala- 
bash instead. 

The author adds that while the Turks, Chinese, and 
Japanese all smoke with a pipe, like the Europeans, 
the black natives of the islands have a way of their 
own ; they roll the tobacco leaves into a twist, which 
they light at one end and smoke from at the other. 



Hookali or 
wuter pipe. 



the water 
pipe. 



Cipnrs. 



" Alterum atque inteyni usus Tcheif ex papavere How opium 
sumitur : quo Indi Persaeque hortos et agros conserunt, if ™«"le in 
ut lactesoenten suocum ex laesis capitibus proliciant. ■P^"'"" 
Hunc succum Buropa Opimm ; Asia cum j33gypto 
afiuun et ofman vocat. Persia idem prseparatum, ex 
reverentia, appellat theriahi, i.e., Theriaoain; nam haec 
illis est poetarum ilia galene, hilare, et eudios, id est, 
medicina animo sereiutatem, hilaritatem et tranquilli- 
tatem conferens ; quo olim tergemino elogio theriacale 
antidotttm Andromachi appellatum legimus. In Perside 
coUectio ejus celebratur per ineuntem sBStatem, pro- 
pinqua maturitati capita decussatim sauciando per 
superficiem. Cultei' negotio servit quintnplici acie 
instructus, qui una sectione quinque infligit vulnera 
longa parallela. Ex vulnusculis promanans suocus 
postridie scalpro abstergitur, et in vasculum, abdomini 
prffiligatum, colligitur. Tum altera oapitum faoies 
eodem m.odo vulneratur, ad liquorem pariter proli- 
ciendum. At, hsec collectio, ob capitum impar incre- 
mentum et magnitudinem, aliquoties in eodem arvo 
instituenda est. Solent in plantis nimium ramosia 
superflua capita prius amputari : sic reliqua magis 
grandescunt, et succo implentur majoris efficaciae. 
Primas collectiouis lacryma, gohaar dicta, prtestantior 
est, et graviori pollet cerebrum demulcendi virtnte, 
colorem exhibens albidum, vel ex luteo pallentem ; sed 
qui color ex longiori insolatione et ariditate infuscari 
solet. Altera collectio succum promit, priori, ut 
virtnte, ita pretio inferiorem, coloris plerumque 
obscuri, vel ex rufo nigricantis. Sunt, qui et tertiam 
instituunt, (jua obtinetur lacryma nigerrima et exignae 
virtutis. 

■' PrEeparatio Opii potissimum in eo consistit, ut, Preparation 
;iqua3 pauxillo humectatum, spatha crassa lignea con- of opium, 
tinuo et fortiter ducatur et reducatur in patina lignea 
et plana, donee elaboratissimae picis consistentiam, 
tenacitatem et nitorem induat. Ita diu multumque 
subactum, ad ultimum manu non nihil pertractatur 
nuda, et demnm, in cylindros breves rotatum, venale 
exponitur; forcipe dividendum, cum particulas emp- 
tores petuat. Hac serie pertractatum Opium appellatur 
theriaah malideh, i.e., theriaoa molendO prseparata, 
vel etiam theriaak afimm,\A est, theriaca opiata, ad 
differentiam theriacffi Andromachi, quam iili vocant 
theriaah fanmh. Prsparandi hie labor perpetuus est 
propolarum, quos vocant hJi.eifruus, quasi Germanice 
diceres trunlceii Kramere, quo illi, in foris et quadriviis 
sedentes, bracbia sua strenue exercent. Massa ha!c 
saepe numero, non aqua, sed melle snbigitur, ea copia 
admisso, quaa non siccitatem modo, sed et amaritienl 
temperet : et hsec specialiter appellatur hcelirs. In- 
signior prseparatio est, qua inter agitandum adduntur 
nnx myristica, cardamomum, ciuamomum et maois, in 
pulverem subtilissimum redacta ; qnaliter prseparatum 
Opium cordi et cerebro insigniter prodesse creditnr. 
Vocatur in specie polmiia, vel, ut alii pronunciant, 
folonia, puta Philonium Persicum, seu -mesue. Alii 
omissis aromatibus, tantum croco et ambra massam 
infarciunt. Multi prasparationem in usum proprium 
ipsi perficiunt domi suas, ne a propolis admiscendorum 
paucitate vel multitudine decipiantur. Praeter hoc 
triplicis prasparationis Opium, quod sola pilularum 
forma deglutitur, prostat, vel etiam a domesticis con- 
fioitur, liquor Celebris nominis coconar dictus, Graa- 
corum quod puto MTj/tofreiov ac Homerianum nepenthes, 
quod a bilaacibus propinari aflfatim per horarum 
intervalla solet. Parant hujus liquorem alii ex foliis, 
aqua simplici per brevem moram coquendis ; alii ex 
capitibus contusis infusione macerandis, vel iisdem 
supra filtrum repositis, aquam eandem septies octiesve 
superfundendo : admixtis pro cujusque placito, qnse 
sapori gratiam concilient. Tertium addo opiati genus, 
electuarium Isetificans et lastificando inebrians ; hujus 
electnarii, cujus basin idem Opium etiam constitnit, a 
seplasiariis et medicis, prout quisque ingenio pollet, 
varie elaboratur, ac diversis ingredientibus ad robo- 
randos et cxhilarandos spiritus dirigitur ; undo varias 
ejus extant descriptionea ; quarum primaria et famo- 
sissima est, qua3 debetur inventor! Hasjem BegH, quan- 
do-quiden) comedentis animum miris perfundere|gaudiis, 
et magicis cerebrum demulcere ideis et voluptatibus 
dicitur. 

"Opium quod Buropaeis, si graniunius velpaucorum 
dosin exoesseris, lethifernm nefas audit, a praenomi- 
natis populis longa adsuetudine ita familiare redditum 
est, ut drachmam multi sine noxa deglutiant. Mnlta 
hoc abnsu, vel longiori ejus usu, acciuntvjr mala ; 
emaciatur enim corpus, laxantur vires, contristatur 
animus, stupescit ingenium : nnde videas instar stipitum 
somnolentos et quasi elingues sedere in conviviis opii 
lignritores. Saepe oblati mihi sunt, quos a caninp 



APPENDIX. 



155 



First opium- 
smoking 
shops. 



appetitu Opii percurarenij sostro centum aureorum 
protnisso, si hoc citra damnum et vitiB dispeudium 
prssstitero. Exempla Opii voraoiuni non est, quod 
adducam, cum eorum pleni sint medicorum libri. 
Oaipita papaveris teneriora aceto condita uonnuUi in 
mensa secnnda appetunt; alii alia ex iisdem sorbilla 
conficiuut, pro bud quique placito." 

Kffimpfer proceeded from Persia in June 1688 to 
B»tavia, wliioh city — then, as now, the chief seat of 
the Dutch power in the Bast— he reached in September 
1689, _ after visiting the settlements Of that nation in 
Arabia Felix, India, Ceylon, and the Island of Sumatra. 
lie stayed in Java eight months, and then went to 
Japan. Of the use of opium in Java he gives the fol- 
lowing account : — 

•'De Opio, ejhsque Persis et Indis communi usu, 
diximus. Addo abusum execrabilem, qui viget inter 
Indos nigritas, ad efferandum animos ad homicidiorum 
patrandorum audaciam ; dum vel vitse sues, vel in- 
juriarnm pertsesi, se devovent morti, per nltionem et 
mortes aliorum oppetenda. Bo fine Opii deglutiunt 
bolum : ex quo intentionis idea exasperatur, turbatur 
ratio, et infrssnus redditur animus, adeo, ut strioto 
pugione, instar tigridum rabidarum, excurrant in pub- 
licum, obvios quosvis, sive amicos, sive inimicos, 
truoidaturi, donee ipsi, ab alio perforati, prosternantur. 
Actus hie vocatur hamuh, apud incolas Javse et 
ulterioris Orientis crebro spectabilis. Vocabuli sonum 
ibi horret, quicunque audit ; nam qui vident homi- 
cidam, illi vocem ham/uk summopere exclaipiant : 
monituri inermes, ut fugiant, et vitas suae prospioiant : 
dum ad extinguendam beluam accurrere debet, quisquis 
armatns et cordatus est. Opii etiam extemus usus est 
apud nigritas : nam eodem aqua dilute nicotianam 
inflciunt, ut accensa caput vehementius tnrbet. Vidi 
in Java tabernas levidenses ex arundine, in quibus id 
genus tabaci hanriendum exponebatur prsetereuntibus. 
Nulla per Indiam merx majori lucre divenditur a 
Batavis, quam ajvwun, quo carere adsueti non possunt, 
neo potiri, nisi navibus Batavorum ex Bengala et 
Choromandela advecto. 

The iabernce levidenses ex arundine here spoken of 
■were the first opium-smoking shops of which we have 
any record. According to the statement here given, 
opium diluted with water was smoked with tobacco. 
This sort of tobacco was exposed to passers-by to be 
smoked when, two centuries ago, the learned German 
traveller was taking walks in Batavia to observe the 
customs of the native population. He uses the word 
hav/rio ; that this here means smoking, and not drink- 
ing, is plain from another passage (in Amasnitates 
exoticm, page 642), where ho says the black inhabitants 
smoke without a pipe (sine instrumento Tiav/riunt), by 
rolling tobacco leaves into a whirl, which they light 
at the lower end and smoke from at the upper by 
holding it with their lips and drawing. Of opium 
from the Ooromandel coast, which then formed a part 
of the lading of the Batavian ships to take back to 
Java, we now hear nothing ; but the Bengal portion of 
this lucrative trade finds its lineal successor in the 
Patna opium of the present day. 

24°. 

In the year 1723, shortly before the first edict against 
opium-smoking, a medical work was published with 
the name " Chi-yen-liang-fang,"* by Nien Hsi-yao, 
a bannerman in Pekin of high rank and great influence 
in his day. He places among his prescriptions a pill 
called Wan-ying-tan, made of opium mixed with bezoar, 
camphor, and other drugs, 13 in all. He states that it 
could cure the diseases of all seasons, including fevers 
Iieginning with chill (sliang-han), epidemic fever, heat 
apoplexy (chung-shv,, severe or slight), paralysis, head- 
ache, slight fefver, vomiting with diarrhoja, ague, pain 
in the heart, abdominal pain, and the like. Two pills 
are prescribed for severe cases, and one when the attack 
is slight ; they are to be taken with cold water. 

He also recommends a plaster called Yil-chen-lmo, to 
be attached at the navel. It adds to the vigour of the 
body and saves it from decay, warms the kidneys, 
strengthens the loins and knees, removes cold and wet 
chill, with all abdominal pains, and is useful for healing 
all sorts of aifeotions to which men and women are 
subject. It is made by mixing opium, musk, yang-ch'i- 
shih, oiibanum, cloves, and the like ; 14 other drugs are 
added. By gradual decoction it is prepared for use and 
employed as required. There is another prescription, 
called the PcM-yang-ling-huei-shen-fang, or marvellous 
recipe of the efficacious tortoise for the preservation of 

* Kindly lent ty Dr. Dudgeon. 



Earlyopium- 
sujoking in 
Formosa. 



came to 
Pormosa 
rom Java. 



health ; it is formed by mixing opium with ah'an-su 
(a medicine made of the oily part of toads) and such 
things, and adding 33 other kinds of medicine. It is 
prepai'ed with oil for use. 

25°. 

There is a work on Formosa called " T'ai-hai-ts'ai- 
f6ng-t'u-k'ao," which was published in 1746. It con- 
tains extracts from earlier works, and among them one 
by a native of Pekin named Huang Yu-pn, who was 
at some earlier date sent to Formosa and wrote an 
account of what he saw there, which was published 
under the name " T'ai-hai-shih-ch'a-lu." He gives the 
following statements from this Work on the subject of 
opium-smoking. Opium for smoking is prepared by 
mixing hemp and the (root of the) grasscloth plant 
(Pachyrinus angulatus or, may be, Pueraria Thunbergia, 
i)r. Bretsohneider) with opium, and cutting them up 
small. This mixture is boiled with water in a copper 
pan or tripod. The opium so prepared is mixed with 
tobacco. A bamboo tube is also provided, the end of 
which is filled with coir fibres from the coir palm. 
Many persons collect this opium to smoke mixed with 
tobacco. The price asked is several times greater than 
for tobacco alone. Those who make it their sole busi- 
ness to prepare opium in this way are known as opium 
tavern keepers. Those who smoke once or twice form 
a habit which cannot afterwards be broken off. Warmth 
is conveyed in a vaporous form to the to/n-t'ien* (" red 
field," located in the kidneys), so that the whole night 
can be passed without lying down. The aborigines 
smoke as an aid to vice. The limbs grow thin and 
appear to be wasting away; the internal organs collapse. 
The smoker unless he be killed will not cease smoking. 
The local ofiicerB have from time to time strictly pro- 
hibited the habit. It has often been found that when 
the time came for administering the bastinado to 
culprits of this class, they would beg for a brief respite, 
that they might first take another smoke. Opium came 
from Java. 

Of the various early narratives which describe the Opium 
habit of smoking opium with a bamboo pipe, the account ^^^'j^^ 
we have here seems to be the most minute. It is not """"' 
stated in what year it was written, but the year in 
which it was reprinted as an extract was 1746. In 
reference to the last sentence, which says that opium 
came from Java, it should be observed that it agrees 
with what Kffimjjfer in his book states. He found that 
diluted opium was mixed with tobacco to ofi"er to 
passers-by to smoke; he observed this during his 
residence in Java. We learn from this that it was 
tobacco-smoking which led to opium-smoking. During 
the reign of Kang Hsi Koxinga occupied Formosa for 
a time. It was about that time tliat the island received 
the name " Taiwan." In the Ming dynasty we meet 
only with the names Tanisui and Kelung. In the days 
of Koxinga many Chinese colonists went over from the 
mainland to reside there. There was constant com- 
munication with Java by trading vessels. Many 
wanderers without a livelihood from various countries 
went there from time to time, and it was through this 
class of persons that the pernicious habit of opium- 
smoking originated in Formosa. 

26°. 

In the work named "T'ai-wan-chih," or topogra- Another 
phical account of Taiwan, f it is said, " It is not known account of 
" from what place the practice of opium-smoking Was smoking'in' 
" introduced. The opium is boiled in a copper pan. Formosa. 
" The pipe used for smoking is in appearance like a 
" short club. Depraved young men without any fixed 
' ' occupation used to meet together by night to smoke ; 
" it grew to be a custom with them. Often various 
'■ delicacies prepared with honey and sugar, with fresh 
" fruits, to the nuaber of 10 or more dishes, were 
" provided for visitors while smokiug. In order to 
" tempt new smokers to come, no charge was made 
" for the first time. After some time they could not 
;' stay away, and would come even if they forfeited all 
" their jjroperty. Smokers were able to remain awake 
" the whole night and rejoiced, as an aid to sensual 
" indulgence. Afterwards they found themselves 
" beyond the possibility of cure. If for one day they 
" omitted smoking, their faces suddenly became 

* The Chinese letter \i;i.-, u threefold meaning. The seat of the tsing 
(semen) is three inches below the navel ; that of breath is in the brain. 
The seat of the soul ' is in thii heart. The first is here chiefly meant. 
See " Tung-i-pao-chien," 1, 12. 

t Kindly lent by Dr. Dudgeon, who was the first io discover the 
niitive account of fhe origin atid first progress of opium-smoking in 
Formosa. 

U 2 



156 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



Prohibitory 
edict of 1729. 



Spread of 
opium- 
smoking in 
the 

ei/^hteenth 
century. 



" shrivelled, their lips opened, their teeth were seen, 
" they lost all vivacity, and seemed ready to die. 
" Anothersmoke, however, restored them. After three 
" years all such persons die. It is said that the 
" barbarian inhabitants of Formosa thus use craft and 
" cunning in order to cheat the Chinese residents out 
" of their money at the expense of their lives. The 
" foolish are not sensible of their danger, and fall 
" victims. This habit has entered China aljont 10 or 
" more years. There are many smokers in Amoy, but 
" Formosa is the place where this vice has been most 
" injurious. It is truly sad to reflect on this." 

27°. 

In the year A.D. 1729 an edict was issued on opiura- 
• smoking, prohibiting the sale of opium and the opening 
of opium-smoking houses. The Government found 
itself face to face with a dangerous social evil of an 
alarming kind. The physical effects of opium-smoking 
as displayed in the shrivelling up of the features and 
an early death, as thus described by eye-witnesses, pro- 
duced a deep impression in Pekin. The sellers of 
opium were to be punished, not the buyers. The 
masters of opium shops are dealt with moat severely, 
as being the seducers into evil paths of the young 
members of respectable families. Sellers of opium 
were to bear the wooden collar for a month, and be 
banished to the frontier. The keepers of shops were to 
be punished in the same way as propagators of depraved 
doctrines ; that is, they were to be strangled after a few 
months' imprisonment. Their assistants were to be 
beaten with 100 blows, and banished 1,000 miles. 
Everyone was to be punished except the smoker ; for 
example, boatmen, local bailiffs, neighbours lending 
help, soldiers, police runners, in any way connected 
with the matter, all had punishments assigned them. 
The same was true of magistrates and Custom House 
superintendents in the seaport towns where these things 
had happened ; all were to bear some penalty. Only 
the opium-smoker was exempted. It was felt, perhaps, 
that his punishment was self-inflicted; he would die 
without the help of the law. This edict was followed 
by another the next year for the checking of evil prac- 
tices among the colonists of Formosa. All guilty of 
robbery, false evidence, enticing the aborigines to 
commit murder, the sale of gambling instruments or of 
opium for smoking, are to be punished with death or 
banishment. 

Opium-selling for smoking purposes has from this 
time forward been regarded as a crime by the ruling 
authorities. From their point of view it is considered 
as criminal in proportion to the mischief it causes, 
which is without doubt great beyond computation. 
The very earliest instance of legislation on this matter 
is here before the reader. It was based on local events 
occuring on the sea-coast, a long way from Pekin. 
The gradual spread from the province of Fuhkien, to 
all the provinces was still in the future and was not 
before the minds of the legislators. The sale of opium 
was connected in their minds with gambling, robbery, 
and false accusation ; its special guilt consisted in its 
being a temptation to evil on the part of the salesmen, 
as the drug was destructive of the physical health, com- 
fort, and life of their victims. The effects proved the 
criminality. Further, it was closely conjoined with 
various crimes already condemned in the statute book. 
It sprang up in a lawless locality at a great distance 
from Pekin ; there was therefore no inclination to 
leniency from the fear of offending persons or classes 
whom the Government would not like to offend. Thb 
law was in consequence promptly made, decided in 
tone, and severe in detail. Was this law acted upon P 
!No allusion was made to it by the Jesuit missionaries 
in the " Lcttres ^diflantes " or in the " Memoiros 
concernant les (jhinois." The habit of opium-smoking 
is not mentioned in these works. The trade in opium 
certainly remained as before. 200 chests a year 
continued to be imported, and in 1767 that quantity 
had gradually increased to 1,000 chests. The duty was 
Tls. 3 a chest.* It would appear, then, that the old 
tariff of the Ming dynasty was still followed in the 
main. The sale of opium was prohibited by statute, 
but we do not find proof that it was refused as a drug 
at the Custom Houses of Amoy and Canton. The import 



• The " Hui-kuo-t'u-chih, chapter 53, lolls us that in 1663 the duty on 
opium as a inerticiil drug was Tls. .3 a piciil, and that, besides this, Tls 3 
and 'J- or 5 caridanns wero t-oUected at a later period on each parcel), 
without .saying!: wliii-t a parcel was. It is added that on account of tlio 
^owth of opium-smoltint? in the latter part of the eiahteenth century 
the Viceroy of Canton jietitloned the Emperor to prohibit the import- 
ation, which was done m 17'.i6. 



Native 
opium in 
in Tiinnan, 



steadily increased during the time it was in the hands 
of the Portuguese, till English merchants took it up in 
1773, after the conquest of Bengal by Olive. The Bast 
India Company took the opium trade into its own 
hands in 1781. At that time the minor portion only of 
the imported opium was devoted to opium-smoking — 
at least we may assume this. The Superintendents of 
Customs in those days would continue to take the duty 
on opium as a drug. What was contraband they would 
say was ya-pien-yen, which means opium for smoking ; 
the drug ya-pien would still pass the Customs as 
medicine. This seems to have been the reason that the 
import still continued to increase at about the same 
ratio as before the edict of A.D. 1729, not till after 
40 years reaching a quantity amounting to 1,000 chests. 
Medicine claimed opium as a most powerful agent, and 
since the commencement of the trade at Canton and 
Amoy, whether the merchants were Portuguese, 
Chinese, Arabs, or Dutch, it was as medicine that it 
had been sold. When Defoe says of his hero in 
" Robinson Crusoe " that he went from the Straits to 
China in a ship with opium, it was as a drug that he 
pictured it to himself. Up to that time it was in fact 
a part of the trade in medicine ; not long after it 
became a trade in a drug used medically and for 
smoking combined. 

28°. 

The native growth in Tiinnan of the opium poppy 
can be traced to about the same time, or a little later. 
In the history of that province, published in 1736, it is 
stated that opium was then a common product of the 
department of Tung-ch'ang-fu, in the western part of 
that province, where it borders on Burma. It may have 
been introduced by the Mahommedans, who were fond 
of it themselves, as a powerful medicine, or it may 
have been brought there from Burma and Thibet. 
It is spoken of in the accounts we have of the trade 
of the 16th century as having been introduced 
along with woven fabrics by traders coming from the 
coast of India. Negapatam and Meliapur are men- 
tioned as exporting both opium and woven fabrics to 
Pegu and Siam. The seeds of the poppy may therefore 
have been taken by the Burmese route to Tiinnan. 
This native opium would be intended, not for opium- 
smoking, but to be used medically, as by a physician's 
prescription, or by the contraction of a habit of daily 
consumption in a way like of that De Quinoey and 
Coleridge. 

The Mahommedans have long been a, power in the 
province of Tiinnan, and their agency is to be sus- 
spected in this early cultivation of the poppy in that 
part of China. It was they that first learned from the 
Greeks the wonderful soothing powers of this drug. 
They cultivated the poppy in Arabia, then in Persia, 
then in India. It was from them, in the Ming dynasty, 
that the Chinese learned the way to cultivate the poppy 
and derive the opium jnice from the capsules. It was 
they that carried on the trade in opium, before the 
arrival of the Portuguese, between the various sea-ports 
of the old Asiatic world. 

It was probably by Mahommedan pilots that the ^"/yj"' 
ambassador of the Ming Emperor was conducted to the poppy in^ 
sea-ports of Arabia, Persia, and India in the voyage we Yunnan, 
find on record. It was through information given by 
Mahommedans residing as merchants at Canton that 
the Portuguese were known by the Chinese historians 
as Faranggis or Franks. It was because the Mahom- 
medans wished to keep the profits of the trade in opium 
and other articles exclusively to themselves that they 
prejudiced the Chinese Governors of Canton and 
Fuhkien against the Portuguese, and induced them to 
refuse the liberty to trade. We need not be surprised, 
therefore, if later on the cultivators of the poppy in 
Tiinnan, in the commencement of last century, were 
Mahommedans; they may have been simply the con- 
tinuators of the Ming dynasty cultivation, or they 
may have commenced afresh with seeds brought from 
Burma. 

211'. 

In the year 1742 an Imperial work on medicine was Use of cap- 
published under the name " I-tsung-chin-chien." In this sulesinl7«. 
book, as a remedy for weak and injured lungs the cap- 
sules of the poppy are directed to be used, and ginseng 
and apricot kernels, together with seven other medi- 
cines, prepared in the form of a decoction, to be drunk 
warm. Mention is also made of a poppy ointment for 
scalds and burns. Fifteen poppy flowers are to be used, 
and if not to be had, capsules are to be taken instead 



APPENDIX. 



157 



Present use 
of capsules. 



•' Hoppo 
Book " of 
1753. 



Pive kinds 
of duties in 
1763. 



The three 
tariff books. 



Prices ruling 
iu 1755. 



of them. A ditty of four lines in rhyme says that this 
ointment for burns and scalds is made with sesamum 
oil and poppy flowers or capsules mixed with water 
and boiled down ; white wax and true calomel are 
added. When smeared on the part affected the pain at 
once subsides. There is also a remedy for ulcers and 
tumours in which the capsules are used. It is a powder 
formed of olibanum and huang-ch'i {Sophora tometitosa 
or, say some, Ptarmica Sibirioa* a labiate plant used 
as a tonic). A ditty of four lines, used as a recipe, 
says that olibanum and hwang-ah'i may be used for 
persons of a weak constitution who are afflicted with 
painful tumours and ulcers ; such tumours if they have 
not grown to their full size will be at once dispersed, 
and if they are already mature they will break. The 
roots of tang-huei {Aralia edulis), shao-yao {Fmonia 
aUnflora), ginseng, Sophora tomentosa, Muan-Jismng,-^ 
and Ti-huang (comfrey, i.e., Symphytum — Williams), 
together with olibanum, myrrh, poppy capsules, and 
liquorice, are used to make this powder, which is also 
useful for bruises, sprains, wounds, and fractures. 

In addition to these recipes, there are several others 
in the same work which also contain the poppy capsules. 
They are omitted for brevity. At present in Pekin 
the capsules sold in drug shops are derived from the 
Papaver somniferum, cultivated at the town of An-su 
(near Pao-ting-fu), from Shansi, from Canton by sea, 
and from other places. They are bought and sold at 
the annual drug fair at Oh'i-chou, a city lying to the 
south-west of Pao-ting-fu. 

30°. 

An account of the "Bbppo Book" of 1753 has been 
lately prepared by Dr. Hirth and is printed in the 
" Journal of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic 
Society " for the year 1882. The "Hoppo Book" is an 
explanation of the Custom House books in use at 
Canton in 1753 ; it was translated in that year, and 
contains varied information on the manner of settling 
the duties on all goods imported and exported at 
Canton. The author was an English merchant, whose' 
name is not known. The division of the tariff is much 
the same as that of the present Chinese one, but imports 
and exports are not distinguished. Pive kinds of taxes 
were then levied on foreign trade : — 

I. An import duty, according to a fixed tariff, 
payable on all merchandise imported. 
II. An export duty, payable on all exports, inclusive 
of re-exported goods proceeding to Ningpo and 
other ports on the Chinese coast ; it consisted 
of a taritt' charge of 6 per cent, ad valorem. 

III. Extra charges on exports and imports, such as 

for remitting the duty to Pekin, for weighers, 
linguists, Ac, and for servants of the Board of 
Revenue. 

IV. Tonnage. 
V. Present. 

The three books relating to the tariff at Canton 
which had then been authorised by the Board of 
Revenue at Pekin are partly translated in this work, 
which also contains the manner of settling duties then 
in use at the Port of Canton : — 

1st. " OhSng-hsiang-ts6-li," or the book of true and 
fixed duties. 

2nd. " Pi-li," or the book of comparisons. 

8rd. " Ku-chia," or the book of valuation. 

The first of these books was made A.D.' 1687, and is 
kept as it was, unaltered. The book of comparisons 
was first sent, with about 160 articles collected together 
iu it, to the Board of Revenue in Pekin, for approval, 
in the year 1733. After this time every two or three 
years additional articles were added and sent to Pekin 
for approval; so that this book was continually 
increasing. 

The third book is a register of the value of all goods 
exported or re-exported from Canton, for the purpose 
of laying on them an extra charge of 6 per cent., to be 
added to the other duty on such exports and re-exports. 

Here we are astonished to find that in 1755 a picul of 
silk could be valued at Tls. 100, and one of tea at Tls. 8 ; 
that white sugar was worth Tls. 1.50, brown sugar, 
Tls. 1, sugar candy, Tls. 2.50, rhubarb, Tls. 1.5Q, per 
picul ; and that musk was valued at Tls. 1.50 per catty ; 
while opium was not worth more than half an ounce of 
silver per catty. The value of a chest of opium would 
therefore amount at that time to not quite $100. The 
existence of opium as an article of trade at Canton in 



the middle of last century is certainly beyond doubt; 
it is also mentioned in the Kang Hsi tariff of 1687, and 
there pays a duty of three candareens per catty, con- 
stituting exactly 6 per cent, of the fixed value appearing 
in the valuation book. 

31°. 
In passing on to the year 178,2 an extract may be 
here inserted from a letter, dated 7th July 1782, of an 
official nature addressed from China by Mr. Thomas 
Pitzhugh to Mr. Gregory in London. It was presented 
to Parliament, and is 'taken from the " Commons" 
Report," 1783, vol. vi.* " The importation of opium 
" to China is forbidden on very severe penalties : the 
" opium on seizure is burnt, the vessel in which it is 
" brought to the port confiscated, and the Chinese in 
" whose possession it is found for sale is punishable 
" with death. It might be concluded that with a law 
" so rigid no foreigners would venture to import, nor 
" any Chinese dare to purchase this article ; yet opium 
" for a long course of time has been annually carried 
" to China, and often in large quantities, both by our 
" country's vessels and those of the Portuguese. It is 
" sometimes landed at Macao and sometimes at 
" Whampoa, though equally liable to the above 
" penalties' in either port, as the Portuguese are, so to 
" say, entirely under the Chinese rule. That this 
" contraband trade has hitherto been carried on with- 
" out incurring the penalties of the law is owing to 
" the excess of corruption in the executive part of the 
" Chinese Govern tnent. ... In the year 1780 a 
" new Viceroy was appointed to the government of 
" Canton ; this man had the reputation of an upright, 
" bold, and rigid Minister. I was informed that he 
" had information of these illicit jjr.ictices, and was 
" resolved to take cognizance of them." 

32°. 

England sent an Embassy in 1793, and China was 
minutely described by Barrow and Staunton. The 
habit of opium-smoking had then been slowly growing 
for 60 years. Singularly, they only say when speaking 
of it that many of the higher mandarins took opium ; 
they do not describe the mode of smoking. Staunton 
says, " they smoke tobacco mixed with other odorous 
" substances, and sometimes a little opium." Yet it 
cannot well be doubted that they referred to the habit 
of opium-smoking. In the geographical work called 
" Hai-kuo-t'u-chih '' we are told that opium-smoking 
commenced only in the last years of the Emperor Chien 
Lung, that is, about 1790. The explanation of this 
statement is found in the fact that it was only then 
that the habit reached Pekin and became so general 
that public attention was called to it in Government 
documents. At about the same time the local autho- 
rities at Canton began to complain of rapid increase 
in the trade in opium. In 1800 there was an edict 
issued prohibiting opium from being brought to China 
in any ship. It was from this time that the more 
distinctly smuggling period commenced. It was a 
contraband trade, but connived at by Viceroys and 
Governors ; they felt a diSiculty, and concluded not to 
touch the evil with any firm intention to heal. How to 
treat it they knew not. The evil grew beyond their 
power of control. They regarded it as the " vile dirt of 
foreign countries ;" they feared it would spread among 
all the people of the inner land, wasting their time and 
destroying their property ; they advocated the prohi- 
bition of the trade, and the Government consented to 
their advice, and frequently issued prohibitory edicts,, 
but too often some of the officials themselves smoked, 
or their nearest friends smoked, and so the hand of 
interference was paralysed ; and the demand for opium 
continuing, the import was never seriously che<;ked till 
the time of Lin Tse-hsu and the war of 1841. 



Opium 

srauKBliiig 
in 1782. 



Opium- 
smoking 
1793. 



In 1800. 



33°. 



statements 

in'Hai-kuo- 

t'u-oliih.' 



In the geographical work " Hai-kuo-t'u-chih " the 
following remarks also occur. In the year 1796 a pro- 
hibitory edict was received, but the official authorities at 
Canton still allowed opium-receiving ships to anchor at 
Whampoa at a distance of only 4 English miles from 
the city. From this time smuggling proceeded year by Local 
year unchecked till 1822, when a local .irrangement was ™i"Ji',> 
decided on, according to the terms of whicll a charge ™ " ' 
was made of a regular amount on each chest; of this 
the officers, from the Viceroy dowuwai'ds, whether civil 



• Williams's " Dictionary,'* iiage 316. 

t Hs.iung from Szecliwan. Htlongs to Levisficnii:. 



* Quoted in " Poppj' Plagu 



' page 40,_by .1, F. B. Tinliiig 

U 3 



158 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Native testi- 
mony or. the 
deleterious 
elTect of 
opium. 



or military, at the port connected with shipping all 
received a share. Most of this went to the office of the 
superintL'ndent. Some received it on board the ships, 
and others in the City of Canton. These snms were 
paid regularly month by month to the Chinese officers. 
Tu some cases opium itself was given, instead of silver, 
in large and small portions. On each occasion of this 
kind one or more chests would be given and sometimes 
as many as 150 chests. This irregular and illicit mode 
of proceeding lasted till the year 1840. 

34". 

The following passage occurs in a botanical work, 
" Chih-wu-ming-shih-t'u-k'ao," published about 40 
years ago : — " The poppy is not mentioned before the 
•' T'ang dynasty, A.D. 618 to 907. In the ' Pen-ts'ao ' 
" of the period 968 to 976 the poppy is placed in the 
" lower division of cereal plants. In the Sung dynasty 
" a decootinn of poppy seeds was thought highly of, 
" biit at that time the medical efficacy of the capsules 
" and seeds was understood to extend only, as being 
" astringent, to the cure of diarrhoea and dysentery. 
'• In the Ming dynasty, 1368 to 1644, the pill called 
" I-li-chin-tan, or golden elixir, came into use, and was 
" found to be very deleterious if much was taken. Of 
" late years opium has spread throughout the Empire 
" — a universal poison. Its effects are as bad as those 
" of the poisonous plant known by the name of Tiian- 
" cJi'ang-ts'ao, as producing internal rupture in the 
" intestines. Yet as the guilt is not in the flower, it 
" finds its place in botanical works on flowers." 

35° 
Statistics ot Mr. Donald Spence, British Consul at Oh'ung- 
native^*™'' oh'ing-fu, in Szeohwan, in the year 1881, made inquiries 
duction. 



into the amount of opium produced at that time in the 
four south-western provinces. He states that iu Szeoh- 
wan the consumption of native opium within the 
province amounts to 54,000 piouls. while 123,000 piculs 
are sent to other provinces ; of these, 70,000 piculs are 
exported in an easterly direction, 40,000 piculs paying 
duty, and 30,000 piculs being smuggled. Tiinnan 
produces annually 35,000 piculs, and Kweiohow 10,000 
piculs, while Hupeh supplies to the market not more 
than 2,000 piculs. In all, the production of native 
opium amounts to 224,000 piculs Mr. Spenoe's Report 
on the native production of opium was forwarded to 
the Foreign Office of the British Government, and was 
subsequently presented to Parliament and printed. If 
a comparison be made of the amount of opium produced 
iu the four above-mentioned provinces, viz., 224,000 
piculs, with the quantity of foreign opium imported in 
1882, viz., 66,900 piculs, it will be seen that the opium 
of native production is more than three times as nauch 
in quantity as that introduced from India and else- 
where. 



36°. 

In Mr. Tinling's " Poppy Plague " there are 75 pages 
of closely printed information on the history of British 
opium, chiefly collected from the Parliamentary Papers 
of 1783, 1787, 1831, and 1840, and from the East India 
Company's Seports of 1812 and 1813. The present 
historical note is made up of information from the 
Chinese side and from Kaempfer, who is not alluded to 
by the authors of the "Poppy Plague" and "Our 
Opium Policy." 



INDEX. 



Aden, 160. 

A-fa-yimg, old name of opiilm, 150. 
Afyun {afitmn, abyiin, apyitn, ofiuun, 147, 154, 155. 
Afyuni, 152. 

Amoeniiates exoticce, extracts from, 153-155. 
Araoy, tobacco plant, introduced from Philippine 
Islands, 153. 

Opium-smoking in, 15<i. 
Arabia visited by Giieno Ho, LjO. 
Arabs, their knowledge of the poppy, 147, 1 18. 

At Canton, 148. 

Uncle of Mahomet buried at Canton, 148. 

Two Arabian travellers, 148. 

The Arabs as traders in 15th century, 150. 

They grew opium in India in 16th century, 160. 

The iVrab national name for opium, 147. 

Arabian method of obtaining opium, 150. 
Aralia edMlis {tang-huei), 157. 
Arsenic mixed with tobacco, 153. 
Asafoetida, 151. 
Atract'i/lodes alba (pai-shu), 149, 151. 

Bonhrs, 154, 

Baghda(5, 148. 

Bakbosa, account of trade in opium, 150. 

Batavia, 1 52, 155. 

Bezoar, 151. 

BoNTius, a Dutch physician in Java, 1.52. 

his opinion of opium, 153. 
Burma, opium cultivation in, 150. 

CaliculrlGO. 
Cam bay ,150. 



Canton, Superintendent appointed at, to overlook 
foreign trade, 148. 

Official corruption on a large scale, 1822 to 1840, 
157, 158. 

Upright and bold Viceroy in 1780, 167. 

New prohibitory edict in 1796 not obeyed by the 
Canton authorities, 157. 

Another prohibitory edict iu 18t*0, 157. 

Capsule of poppy, called mi-nany, 148. 

First medical use in 12th century, ]49. 

Use in dysentery, 149. 

Use, whence derived, 149. 

Use in North China in 12th and 13th centuries, 149. 

Use in South China in 13th century, 149. 

Use against diarrhcva and cough: " it kills like a 
knife," 150. 

Use in 14th century, 150. 

Use ill 1742, 156. 

Pricked for its juice in 1488, 150. 

Pricked for its juice in 16th century, 150. 

Process in preparing, 149, 150. 

Oli'aii-su, 156. 

Ch'en Ts'ang-ch'i, 148. 

Cheng Ho, voyage to Aden, 160. 

Ch'eng-tu-fu, cultivation of poppy in, 148. 

Glii {Panicmu miliaaeum), 148. 

Ghi-eu-shui, 148. 

Chi-yen-liang-fang , a work by Nien Hsi-yao, 155. 

Chicn-huang-t' a, 148. 

Oldli-wu-ming-eliih-Pu-h'ao, a botanical work, 158., 

China-root, 149. 

Chiu-livang-ytM-ts'ao, a medical work of 14th century> 
150. 



APPENDIX. 



159 



Chou-ting Wakg, 1!>0. 

Chij OHf!N-H*NG, writer on the poppy capsule, 150. 

Ohung-shu-shu, a work on trees, 148. 

Cigars, 154. 

Cochin, 150. 

Cochin China, trade with, 148. 

Ooeonar {Mkndr), Persian name for poppy, 147, 154. 

Oomfrey {Symphytum), 157. 

Compass, floating, in 1122, 150. 

CoBiTEiinjs Nepos, story of poppy, 147. 

Coromandel coast, export of opium from, 150, 155. 

Cownierhlast to Tobacoo of King James I., 153. 

Crocus Indica, mixed with opium, 152. 

Curcuma, 152. 

Customs books at Canton : the tariff, the book of com- 
parisons, the book of values, 157. 

Defoe's reference to opium, 156. 

Drugs mixed with opium to modify the effect ; putchuok, 
Juatieia, Boym,ia Mutwcarjia, 161. 

Dudgeon, Dr. discoverer of native account of opium- 
smoking in Formosa, 155. 

Duties of three kinds : 
mentary, 151. 

On opium, 166, 157. 



tonnage, tariff, and supple- 



East India Company, 166, 158. 
Bleeiuarium, 154. 
Eleocoaca verrucosa, 149. 
Eudios, 154. 

'Pi.sG Tz0-ch£n, 150. 

FiTZHUGH, Mr. Thomas, 167. 

Folonia (polonid), 164. 

Foreign trade prohibited,161 . 

Permitted, 151. 

Formosa, origin of opium-smoking in, described by 
Huang Yu-pu, 165. 

Injurious effects of opium-smoking in, 155, 156. 

Galene, 154. 

G-AMA, Vasco de, 150. 

Ginseng, 149. 

Goa, 150. 

Gohaar, 154. 

Golden elixir pill, 151, 162, 158. 

Greek name for opium, 147. 

Gbegoet, Mr., 157. 

Sai-huo-t'u-ohih has statements on opium, 167, 158. 

Duty on opium as a medical drug in 1662, 166. 
Hami, 150. 

Hamuk opium suicide, 155. 
Hangchow, superintendent appointed at, to overlook 

Foreign trade, 148. 
Happy inebriation, 154. 
Hasj^m Begt, inventor of Mectuarmm, 164. 
Hilare, 154. 

HippocEATES knew the poppy, 147. 
HiRTH, Dr., account of Hoppo Booh, 167. 
Homer's use of the poppy, 147. 
Hookah or water pipe, 153, 154. 
Hoppo Booh, 157. 
Hormuz, 150. 

Esi-tsang-hung-hua, name of the India crocus, 152. 
Ssiang-Tm, a name of the poppy, 151. 
HsiEH K'o, writer of a poem on the poppy, 149. 
Hsiung (LevisticvMi), 167. 
Hsu Ching, ambassador to Corea. 150. 
ffsiian-ming-fang, a work by Liu Hq-ohien, 149, 



Kuai-sMng-ssu, 148. 

Suang-ch'i {Sophora tomeniosa), 157. 

Huang-lien (JuBticla), 151. 

Huang Yu-pu, author of a work on Formosa, 155. 

Hupeh province, production of native opium, in 1881, 
158. 

Hynseia'mus, 164. 

I-chien-fang, a work by Wang Shih, 149. 
I-hsiao-jurmen, a work by Li T'ing, 150. 
I-li-chin-tan, 151, 152, 158. 

Used as an aphrodisiac, 151. 

Used to cure many ailments, 152. 
I-Un-ehi-yao, a work by Wang Hsi, 150. 
I-tsung-eliin-ohien a work on medicine, 156. 
Iliad, reference to poppy, 147. 

Java, 156. 

Justicia (huang-lien) , 151. 

K^MPEEB, 149, 153, 1.54, 155. 

His work, Amaenitates exotiocB, 153. 

His account of tobacco, 153. 

Summary of his account, 154. 

His visit to Java in 1688, 156. 

Mention of opium-smoking shops and of use of 
opium, 155. 

K'ai-pao-pen-ts'ao, 148. 

Kasan, 154. 

Khaliaaii (hhaliu/un), 154. « 

KhasJi-hhash, Arabian name for poppy, 147. 

Kheif, 1.54. 

Kheifruus, 154. 

Kohndr [cocona], 147, 154. 

K'ou TsTFNG-SHiF, medical writer on the poppy, 149. 

Kuang-cV un-fang-p'u, a work on flowers, 149, 152. 

KuNG YuN-LiN (KuNG Hsin), prescription by, 151. 

Keoommended the use of the bracts of the poppy 
flower, 151. 

His work, Wan-ping-hui-cli'un, 151i 

Kuo T'o-t'o, author of Ghung-sliu-shu, 148. 

Kweiohow province, production of native opium in 
1881, 158. 

Levistiov/m, 157. 

Li-ch'ua-hua, a name of the poppy, 152. 

Li Kao, 149. 

Li Snin-CHfeN's Materia Medica, 149, 151, 152. 

Li T'ing, author of I-hsiao-ju-men, 160, 152. 

Described about 1650 the preparation of opium, 
160, 152. 

Li T'ing, writer on divination and the I-ching, 160. 

Lin Hung, a writer on poppy capsules, 149. 

Lin Ts£-hsO, 157. 

LiNDiEY, the botanist, 149. 

Liquorice, 149, 167. 

Lro Han, 148. 

Liu Ho-chien, author of Hsilan-ming-fang, 149. 

Liu Tsung-yuan, 148. 

Livr, story of poppy, 147. 

Local arrangement of charges in 1822, 157. 

Lung-hu, fossil bones, used with the capsule, 150. 

Ma Ohih, 148. 

Ma-tou-ling, 152. 

Mahommedans traded to China in Mahomet's time, 148. 

In Chinese Turkestan, 150. 

In Yiinnan, 156. 
Malwa, manufacture of opium in, 160. 
Manchu prohibition of tobapco-snjokjng, 153. 

U 4 



160 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



Manila, the tobacco plant in, 153. 

Mariner's compass used in twelfth century, 150. 

Materia Medica of eleventh century, 148. 

Medical use of capsules probably derived from the 
West, but this is not proved, 149. 

Of opium in sixteenth century, 150. 

Of opium in 1723, 155. 

Of poppy seeds, 149. 

Of poppy seeds to counteract the effects of the 
exorbitant use of mercury, 149. 

Medical writers in China first mention the poppy in 
eighth century, 148. 

Medicines mixed with poppy capsules are tang-sMn, 
licd-shu, asafostida, putohuck, Ohiua-root, 
liquorice, cow bezoar, 149, 151. 

Mekoii, Greek name of poppy, 147. 

Meliapur, 156. 

Mercury, use of, 148,' 149. 

Mesne, 154. 

" Millet bags," 148. 

Mi-nang, name for poppy heads, 148. 

Ming dynasty mode of preparing opium, 150. 

Prohibition of tobacco-smoking, 153. 

Mithridate, 152. 

Musk, value of, in 1755, 157. 

Nan-fang-is' ao-mu-chuang, 148. 

Negapatam, 166. 

Nepenthes, 154. 

NiEN Hsr-YAO, a medical writer in eighteenth century, 
mixed 13 drugs with opium, 155. 

Ningpo, Superintendent appointed at, to overlook 
Toreign trade, 148. 

Opium, a G-reok word ; its Latin form and Arab and 
Persian names, 147. 

Manufactured in Persia from the white poppy, 149. 

In Java in 1629, 162. 

In India in sixteenth century, 160. 

How made iu Persia, 154. 

Taverns at Batavia, 156. 

Sale of, punished by death in 1729 and 1782, 166, 157. 

Deleterious effects as stated in CMh-wu-ming-sliih- 
t'u-h'ao, 158. 

Importation prohibited in 1796, 166. 

Value of, in 1756, 157. 

Statistics of native production in 1881, 158. 
Opium -smoking arose from tobacco-smoking, 153. 

In Formosa and Amoy, 153. 

First opium-smoking shops, 165. 

In 1793, as described by Sir G. Staunton, 157. 
Opium-smuggling in 1782, 157. 
Orange peel taken with the capsule, 150. 

Fachyrizus angulatus, 166. 

Pceonia alhiflora [shao-yao), 157. 

Paeony, 152. 

Pai-i-hsiian-fang, a work by Wang Ch'iu, 149. 

Pai-shu {Atractylodes alba) , 149. 

Pan-yii-hsien-ohih, 148. 

Paniowm miliaceum, 148. 

Pao-yang-ling-ltuei-shen-fang, 155. 

Pwpaver somniferwm, white and red varieties, 149. 

To be used for white and red dysentery respec- 
tively, 151. 
Pekin, failure of efforts to check opium-smoking in, 

153. 
Pen-ts'ao-hang-mu, 149, 151. 
Pen-ts' ao-yen-i, 149. 

Persia produced the white poppy in thp sjjfteenth 
century, 149. 

How opium is made there, 154. 



Persian G-ulf visited by the Chinese, 150. 

Persian national name for opium, 147. 

Pha/rmacopcBia mentions the poppy, 148, 161. 

Philippine Islands the source of Chinese tobacco- 
smoking, 153. 

Philonium Persicum, 152, l-'34. 

Pill called Wan-ying-tan made of opium and 13 drugs, 

155. 
Pipe for smoking tobacco through water, and object of 

invention, 153, 154. 
Piso, GuLiEr.MTJS, work published in 17th century, 162. 
Plaster called Yu-chen-kao made of opium and 16 drugs, 

1.55. 

Polonia {folonia), 154. 

Poppy as a flower, 147, 152. 
In Italy and Greece, 147. 
First cultivated in China in 8th century, 148. 
Second mention of cultivation. 148. 
Early poem on, 148. 
Other poems on, 149, 152. 

Poppy-milk fish, 149. 

Piqipy Plague, by Mr. J. F. B. Tinling, contains his- 
tory of British opium compiled from official 
papers, 157, 158. 

Poppy seeds mentioned in K'ai-pao-pen-ts'ao, the Phar- 
inacopoiia of 973, 148. 

Portuguese become chief merchants in the Bast, 160. 
Introduced tobacco smoking into Persia, 164. 

Preparation of opium described by KjEMPPER, 154. 
Described by L; T'ing, 1650, 150. 
Described by Li Shih-chen, 1578, 151. 
Described in the work Wu-U-hsiao-shih, 152. 
Triple preparation, 154. 

Prices ruling in 1755, 157. 

Prohibition of Foreign trade encouraged native pro- 
duction, 151. 

The Japanese raids caused the prohibitions, 151. 

Effect of prohibition seen in local lawlessness, 151. 

Prunes taken with the capsule, 150. 

Ptarmica Sibirica, 167. 

Pueraria Tliunhergia, 155. 

Punishment of death for sale of opium in 1729 and 

1782, 166, li,7. 
Prist, 1.52. 

Putchuck, 151. 

Quilon, 150. 

Seeds of poppy used in medicine, 162. 

Shan-chia-ch'ing-hung, a medical work, 149. 

Shao-yao {Painia alhiflora), 162, 157. 

8Mh-po-ssii, Superintendent of Foreign trade, 148, 151. 

Shun-hsiang-chui-pi, 163. 

Si-an-fu, cultivation of poppy in, 148. 

Smuggling regularly connived at by Viceroys and 

Governors from 1800 to 1840, when it was put 

down by Lin Ts^-hsu, 167, 158. 
Soochow, tobacco smoking in, 153. 
Sophora tomentosa, 157. 

Spence, Mr. Donald, British Ooneul, statistics of 

native production of opium in 1881, 168. 
Stj Ch£'s poem on the poppy, 148. 
Su TuKG-Po mentions it, 148. 
Su Sung, medical author on the poppy, 148. 
Su-Ttjng-po's poem, 148. 
Sung Yang-izu, 148. 
Symphytum (comfrey), 157. 

Szeohwan province, consumption of native opium in 
1881, 158. ^ 

T'ai-hai-shih-eh'a-lu, a work on Formosa, 155. 

T'ai-hai-ts'ai-fcng-t'u-k'ao, a work on Formosa, 156. 

Taiwan, 166. 

T'ai-wan-chih, lfl.^. 

Tfl/TOitfZ of Jerusalem mentions opium as a dauferovis 
mediciuo, 148. 



APPENDIX. 



161 



Tan-pu-huei (tampahu), a name for tobacco, 153. 

Tan-t'ien, 155, 

Tomg-kuei (Aralia edulis), 157. 

Toung-shm, (ginseng), 149. 

Tao Kuans, efforts to put down opium-smoking, 153. 

Tariff in Ming dynasty, 151. 

Tabquin, 147. 

Te-hsiao-fang, a work by Wei - I-lin, 149. 

Theriaale, 154. 

TheriaU (Theriaeam), 152, 154. 

Thibet, opium cultivation in, 156. 

Ti-hvang {Symphytum), 157. 

Ting-li, a cruciferous plant, 149. 

TiNLiNG, Mr. J. F. B., author of Poppy Plague, 157, 158. 

Tobacco and tobacco-smoking, 163. 
When introduced, 153. 
Spread of, 153. 
In Soochow, 153. 
Smoked through a horn, 153. 
Smoked throgh a water pipe, 153, 154. 

Tohak (tahacao, tombah, iembahii), 153. 

Tonnage dues in Ming dynasty, 151. 

Trade, good effects of permission to, 151. 

Foreign, prohibited 151. 

Foreign permitted, 151. 

Freedom in, led to local tranquillity and aided the 
funds required for the maintenance of a military 
force, 151. 

At Canton, Hangchow, and Ningpo, under a super- 
intendent, 148. 

In the Ming dynasty, detailed in Tung-hsi-yang- 
k'ao, 161. 

Ts'ao-hua-p'u, a work on plants and flowers, 152. 

T'u-cMng-pen-ts'ao, second Pharmacopoeia of Sung dy- 
nasty, mentions the cultivation of the poppy, 148, 
149. 

T'u-shu-ehi-ch'eng, 148, 149, 152. 

Tuan-ch'ang-ts'ao, a poisonous plant, 168. 

Tung-hsi-yoMg'k'ao, a Ming dynasty work on ocean 
trade, 151. 



Timg-hua-l/u, a historical work, 153. 

Twng-i-pao-ehien, a Corean work on medicine, 150, 151, 
152. 
Describes the preparation of opium from the poppy 
capsule, 152. 

Turfan, 150. 

ViKGiL, use of the poppy, 147. 

Wan-ping-hui-eh'un, a work by Ktjng YCn-un, 151. 
Wan-ying-tan, made of opium and 13 drugs, 155. 
Wang Oii'ro, author of Pai-i-hsilan-fang, 149. 
Wang Hsi mentions opium in I-lin-chi-yao, 150. 

Describes the preparation of opium from the cap- 
sule, 150. 

How he came to know the medical practice of the 
Mahommedans, 150. 

Wang Shih, author of I-ehien-fang, 149. 

Wans Shih-Mot7, author of a work on flowers, 152. 

Wei I-lin, author of Te-hsiao-fang, 149. 

Women smoked tobacco in 17th century, 153. 

Wu-chti-yu, {Boymia Butoecarpa), 151. 

Wu-li-hsiao-shih, 152. 

W^b-tung, (Eleococca verrucosa), 149. 

Wu Yu-p'ei's poem on the poppy, 152. 

Ya-pien, a name for opium, 147, 166. 

Yang-eh'i-shih, 155. 

Yang Shih-ying wrote on use of capsules in dysen- 
tery, 149. 

Ying-himg, T'ang, Pen-ts'ao, 148. 

Ying-su, poppy seeds, explanation of name, 148. 

Ying-sii-hua, 152. 

Ying-tzO-svi, poppy, 148. 

Yii-mi, a name of the poppy, 151. 

Yung-ch'ang-fu, opium grown in, in 1736, 156. 

Yung T'ao's poem on the poppy, 148. 

Yiinnan province, growth of opium in, 166, 158. 



e 80970 



162 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



APPENDIX III. 



Printed hy order of theBoyal Gommission in accordance with the remarhs at questions 492 and' 493. 
Memorial presented by the Anti-Opium Society in November 1892. 



To the Eight; Hon. the Earl of Kimberley, K.G., 
President of Her Majesty's Council and Principal 
vSecretary of State for India. 

Mt Lobd, 

On behalf of the Society for the Suppression of 
the Opium Trade, we beg to lay before your Lordship 
the following considerations : — 

1. Tour Lordship is doubtless aware that, on the 
10th of April, 1891, the House of Coromons, by a 
majority of 31 votes, adopted, in principle, the 
following resolution, moved by Sir Joseph Pease, and 
seconded by Mi'., now Sir Mark, Stewart : 

This House is of opinion that the system by which 
the Indian opium revenue is raised is morally 
indefensible, and would urge upon the Indian 
Government that they should cease to grant 
licences for the cultivation of the poppy and sale of 
opium in British India, except to supply the 
legitimate demand for medical purposes, and that 
they should, at the same time, take measures to 
arrest the transit of Malwa opium through British 
territory. 

We have good reason to believe that the recently- 
elected House of Commons contains at least as large a 
majority of members opposed to the continuance of the 
opium trade as the last, and that there is not the 
slightest probability of its reversing that vote. 

2. The emphatic condemnation of the opium trade 
thus pronounced by the late House of Commons was 
the result of a widespread feeling amongst the 
thoughtful people of this country, and especially 
amongst the Christian Churches, hostile to the 
continuance of the opium trade at present carried on 
by the Indian Government. The public conscience is 
shocked, not m.erely by the sad and shameful record of 
the wars by which the legalisation of this traffic was 
wrung from China, but by the continuing fact that the 
British nation raises revenue wherewith to provide for 
the cost of governing India by trading in an article 
which is prepared for vicious use, which brings misery 
to countless myriads in China and other Eastern lands, 
and the sale of which, in our own country, is subject to 
restrictions based on its recognition by the entire 
medical profession as a dangerous poison. The 
repugnance of the British people to the whole system 
has been manifested, during the p.ast three years 
especially, liy several hundreds of public meetings, 
generally crowded, enthusiastic, and often influential 
and representative in a marked degree. At these 
meetings, resolutions condemning the trade have been 
adopted, almost always with absolute unanimity. 
During the session of 1891, 3,352 petitions were 
presented to Parliament for the suppression of the 
opium trade, bearing 192,106 signatures ; 9.56 of these 
petitions being officially signed. Since the vote on Sir 
Joseph Pease's motion, memorials to Government, 
praying that speedy effect might be given to that vote, 
have generally taken the place of petitions ; from the 
Wesleyan Methodist body alone memoiials to this 
effect have been presented, bearing 271,680 signatures. 

3. The late Government took some steps towards 
satisfying the public sentiment with regard to the 
opium traffic. In pursuance of declarations made bj- 
Sir James Eergusson (in the absence of Sir John 
Gorst), and the late Eight Hon. W. H. Smith, in the 
course of the debate on Sir Joseph Pease's motion, it 
directed that the area under poppy cultivation in the 
Behar and Benares agencies shoiild at once be 
restricted ; and in accordance with such restriction the 
Government of India reduced the number of chests for 
sale in the current year from .57,000 (the number sold 
by auction at Calcutta during each of the four previous 
years) to .51,000 chests.* Your Lordship's predecessor. 
Viscount Cross, also sanctioned proposals made by the 
Indian Government, in response to a memorial presented 

* Eeply by the Hon. G. N. Curzoii, M.P., to question put by Sir 
J osepti Pease, Bart., M.P., Feb. aB, 18tl2. 



to him by this Society in 1890, for the abolition of 
licensed opium-smoking dens throughout India, and of 
the extremely objectionable " minimum guarantee " 
clause contained in the opium licenses used in the 
Presidency of Bombay.* 

4. Whilst gladly accepting these measures of reform 
as steps in the right direction, we are unable to 
recognise them as satisfying the conscientious objec- 
tions of the Christian and thoughtful people of this 
country to the existing system. The scope of these 
measures obviously falls far short of carrying out the 
resolution which the House of Commons has approved. 

5. Under these circumstances, we have read with 
much satisfaction the observations with regard to the 
opium question made at Penicuik, on the 11th of July 
last, by the Eight Hon. W. B. Gladstone, now Her 
Majesty's Prime Minister. After referring to the earlier 
history of the opium trade, and to the disgraceful wars 
waged by this country with China, which resulted in 
the legalisation of the import of opium into that 
country, Mr. Gladstone is reported to have said : — 

" There is still the growth of opium in India. There 
is still a considerable revenue, though not nearly what 
it was, connected with it, and there is considerable 
desire, 1 believe, in this country to get rid of that 
connexion altogether. I, gentlemen, can only say this, 
that subject to the obligations of good faith, I shall be 
most delighted to see, and even, if I can, to forward, 
any measure within the bounds of reason for limiting 
that connexion and bringing it, if it can be done, 
altogether to an end." 

6. Accepting these utterances as representing the 
views of Her Majesty's present Ministers, we beg to 
submit to your Lordship the following suggestions as 
to the mode in which effect may best be given to them, 
and at the same time to the decision of the House of 
Commons. It will be convenient here to distinguish 
between the various branches of the opium trade, as 
they will require separate treatment. 

These are : 

(1). The Bengal opium monopoly, under which the 
Indian Government grants licenses to culti- 
vators in the Behar and Benares opium 
agencies for the cultivation of the poppy, 
makes advances to them without interest, 
purchases from them their entire crop, 
manufactures the poppy- juice into opium m 
the Government factories at Patna and 
Ghazipur, and finally sells the prepared 
opium bj monthly public auction at 
Calcutta, except that portion which is 
reserved for sale by the Excise Department 
in India. 

(2). The Malwa transit duty system, under which, 
by arrangement of the Indian Government, 
opium grown and prepared in some of the 
native States of Central India pays to the 
Government of India, on its passage to 
Bombay for export, a heavy transit duty, 
equal to nearly two-thirds of the present 
wholesale price at Bombay ; the revenue 
obtained from it by the native Princes being 
only a small percentage of that received by 
the Government of India. 

(3). The Excise system, under which the exclusive 
right of selling opium is farmed out to 
licensees, whose interest it becomes to 
increase the sale to the utmost possible 
extent, and to spread the degrading vices of 
opium-eating and opium-smoking amongst 
the people of India. 

(1). The system adopted in the Punjab of licensing 
the growth and preparation of opium for 
local consumption only. 

7. As regards (1) the Bengal opium monopoly, we 
would urge upon your Lordship that the Indian 



• Despatcli of Viscount Cross to the Governor-General of India, dated 
December 17, 1891. [Blue Book, Consumption ot Opium in India (1892, 
0. C502),p. lOS.] '^ 



APPENDIX.'" 



16^' 



Goveriiiiient should be instructed still further to reduce 
the area of poppy cultivation for the coining season, so 
as to limit the production of opium to that -which 
medical use requires, and at once to stop the GoTern- 
ment opium sales at Calcutta.* At the present time 
" a specially prepared article " is issued from the 
Government agencies to the Medical Department, 
which "takes the place" in India "of the European 
form of the drug." With this exception, opium is not 
prepared in India for medical use, but solely for sensual 
indulgence. There would, probably, be no serious 
difficulty in so treating the opium now in store as to 
adapt it for medical use ; but, however this may be, it 
is plain that the mere fact that a certain amount of 
opium is in stock at Calcutta cannot affect the duty of 
a Christian Government, at once to withdraw from a 
traffic which it perceives to be immoral. 

8. As regards (2) Malwa opium, wo would point out 
that the present wide extension of poppy cultivation in 
the native States is due to the policy of the British 
Government itself. On this point the following state- 
ment is made by Mr. St. George Tucker.f of whom 
Dr. Medhurst tells ns that, " Having, at the earnest 
solicitation of the Government, taken upon himself the 
management of the Indian finances, he rescued them 
from a condition of extreme jeopardy, and left them 
upon a respectable basis ; subsequently he became a 
Director of the East India Company, and twice filled 
the important office of Chairman of the Direction." In 
a note handed by him to the Court of Directors, in 1829, 
Mt. Tucker says: "Ever since I had the honour of 
being a member of this Court, I have uniformly and 
steadily opposed the encouragement given to the exten- 
sion of the manufacture of opium ; but of late years we 
have pushedit to the utmost height, and disproportionate 
prices were given for the ai-ticle in Malwa. We 
contracted burdensome Treaties with the Rajput States 
to introduce and extend the cultivation of the poppy.' 
These Treaties were repealed about fifty years ago. At 
the present time, the native- States J engage J "so to 
manage their opium cultivation and production as to 
safeguard the British revenue; and, in exchange for 
this service, they receive! either money compensation 
or other concessions." Dnder these circumstances, it 
is, we submit, clear that the same moral grounds, 
which can alone justify the existing prohibition of 

>oppy culture in by far the greater portion of British 
ndia, require tjaat Her Majesty's Government should 
prohibit the transit of opium from the Central States 
through British territory to the sea, except in the case 
of opium prepared for medical use. It would, however, 
bo desirable, in our view, that the arrangements 
already existing between the Indian Government and 
the native States should be revised, in order that the 
I'estriction of the culture to medical requirements may 
be effected by a mutual prohibition, enforced alike in 
British India and in the Malwa States. The adoption 
of this course would relieve the Indian Government of 
the necessity of establishing a special service on the 
borders of these States to prevent the export, and 
would at the same time put an end to the smuggling of 
opium into adjoining British territories, which is 
already so serious an obstacle to the efforts of British 
officers to diminish the consumption of opium. 

9. As regards (3) the Excise system, as it afi'ects 
opium and other narcotic drugs, we simply ask that 
principles which have long been recognised in the 
legislation of the United Kingdom be applied for the 
protection of our fellow- subjects in India, Numerous 
petitions and memorials received from India during the 
past two years, great public meetings in many 
important Indian towns, which have been addressed by 
some of the most thoughtful and influential natives, and 
articles that have appeared in many organs of native 
opinion, alike give evidence that grave dissatisfaction is 
felt in India at the facilities offered by the existing 
system for the sale of these drugs. At home, under 
the Pharmacy Act of 1868, § none of these drugs can be 
sold except by duly qualified druggists, and with a 
label showing them to be poisons ; whilst the prepar- 
ations of Indian hemp are classed amongst those 
dangerous poisons which may bo sold only to persons 
known to the seller or introduced lo him by some such 
person, entry being made in a register of the particulars 



• Beturn of Dr. Watt's article on opium, printed by order oC the 
House of Commons, 1891, p. 7. 

t Papers relating lo the opiuni trade in China, 1S42-1866, presented 
to the House of Commons, 1S57, p. 54. 

X statement exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress and Con- 
dition of India, 1887-88, p. 8. 

§ 31 Vict. 0. 121. 



I 



of each sale. As regards opium, the provisions' of the 
law in force in this country arc, we believe, generally 
considered by medical men to be insufficient, and their 
laxity has been condemned by coroners' juries ; still 
less would they be suitable, in their present form, for 
the requirements of India. We would urge upon your 
Lordship to request the Indian Government without 
delay to prepare and adopt such regulations under the 
Indian Opium and Excise Acts as may be found best 
suited to adapt to the requirements of British India the 
fundamental principles, that the Sale of poisonous drugs 
is to be restricted to medical and scientific use, and 
that discretionary powers for such sale should be 
entrusted only to responsible and carefully-selected 
persons, who possess adequate knowledge of the dele- 
terious properties of these drugs, who can readily be 
called to account for any improper use of the discretion 
conferred upon them, and whose remuneration in no 
degree depends on the amount of their sales. 

10. The case of Burma falls within the general 
principles, the adoption of which we have urged in 
paragraph 9. Six years ago, on the occasion of the 
annexation of Upper Burma, we presented to your 
Lordship a memorial deprecating the introduction of 
the Excise system, as regards opium, into that province. 
We then stated our views with regard to the two 
provinces very fully ; and we have since had occasion 
to recur to the subject in our memorial presented to 
Viscount Cross on the 30th of July, 1890, paragraphs 
10 to 13, and in another, dated March, 1892, paragraphs 
8 and 9.* We notice that, since the date of our last 
memorial. Sir Alexander Mackenzie has replied to the 
despatch addressed to him by the Indian Government 
under date 29th July, 1891, f and we understand that m 
this reply he gave full reasons for adhering to his 
former opinion as to the desirability of prohibiting the 
sale of opium to Bur mans, and further expressed a view 
in accordance with that which we laid before your 
Lordship's predecessor, that it was unnecessary and 
undesirable to make an exemption in favour of the 
Chinese residing in Burma. We sincerely trust that 
no farther delay will be permitted in sanctioning 
throughout Burma the measures which have been so 
carefully elaborated by the Chief Commissioner, and 
which the officials and people of the province so 
earnestly and unanimously desire. 

11. As regards (4), the Pan jab system of licensing 
the cultivation, we would submit that this should be at 
once put an end to. The prohibition of poppy culture 
has- been already enforced by the Indian Government, 
in 1799 as regards Lower Bengal and Orissa, as well as 
throughout Southern IndiaJ; about 1860 in Assam§ ; 
and at other dates elsewhere. " The policy of Lord 
'■ Cornwallis, Lord Teignmouth, Lord Wellesley, and 
" Lord Minto, who circumscribed the produce within 
" the narrowest limits, confining the cultivation of the 
' ' Pf PP.y to two of our provinces, and actually eradicating 
" it from districts where it had been previously culti- 
" vated,"|| was, no doubt, largely based on fiscal 
reasons ; but it will hardly be contended that fiscal 
reasons can justify that which motives of morality, and 
the desire to protect our own subjects from an evil con- 
tagion would not warrant. We are assured by com- 
petent witnesses that the Sikh people would generally 
welcome the adoption by Government of measures 
which would enable them to rid themselves of a habit 
which they recognise to be a debasing and injurious 
one. ' 

12. We are well aware that the measures thus indi- 
cated as necessary to give efi'ect to the decision of the 
House of Commons, and to the convictions held by the 
great mass of thoughtful and Christian people in this 
country involve the abandonment by the Indian Ex- 
chequer of a still considerable, though steadily de- 
creasing, revenue. Sir Joseph Pease, in the debate of 
last year,^ expressed his willingness to accept the 
following addition to his resolution, which, however, 
the expiry of the time permitted for discussion pre- 
eluded' him from formally moving : " This House is oi 
" opinion that such annual grants should bo made to the 
" Government of India as the then probable amount of 
" deficit, and the then circumstances of Indian finance 
" seem to require." In so doing he represented the 



• Blue Book, " Consumption of Opium in India," 1892, p. 110. 

t I'j'd., p. 102. 

t Ueturn, l)r. Watt's article, p. JO, 

§ Evidence of Sir C, Beadon: Boport ofiEast India I'mance Com- 
mittee, 1871, question 3524. 

IIMr. St. bleorge Tucker; Papers relating to the opium tnide in 
rhina, 1S4;:-185C, presented to the House of Common?, 1857, p. ,51. 

t Reprint fl-om Hansard's Report of the Debate, p, 12. 

X 2 



164 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



view repeatedly expressed by this Society, that the 
Buppression of the opirnn trade must not be allowed to 
add to the taxation of the Indian people. We believe 
that the people of this country will be ready to make 
up any deficiency which, in the judgment of the respon- 
sible Government of the day, may be properly attri- 
butable to the withdrawal of the Indian Government 
from the export trade in opium, and which cannot 
otherwise be provided for except by placing fresh 
burdens on the peoples of India. At the same time, 
we are convinced that in many directions it is possible 
to introduce greater economy, oDmbmed with « jiial oi 
even improved efficiency, into the administration of 
Her Majesty's Indian Empire- -we would especially 
refer to the recommendations of the Simla Commission 
of 1879, on military expenditure, and to your Lordship's 
own suggestions contained in the Blue Book, " East 
" India (Eeduction of Expenditure), 1885." The de- 
velopment of Indian resources, on the lines pointed out 
by the Indian Famine Commission of 1881 , has already 
produced a very gratifying increase in the revenue of 
India, and we believe that further attention to this 
important subject would in the course of a very few 
years, entirely fill up the void that must temporarily 
be occasioned by the cessation of the opium revenue 
from abroad. The withdrawal of the facilities now 
provided by Government for the consumption of opium 
in India itself would operate in the same direction ; as 
Sir Charles Atchison's report on opium in Burma, sup- 
ported by many other authorities, shows that the opium 
habit seriously interferes with the due cultivation and 
development of the land. The stoppage of the trade in 
opium with China would probably give a powerful 
stimulus to the exports of other Indian produce to that 
country, which already show a marked improvement in 
recent years, and would thus contribute materially to 
the prosperity of India. It would also, in all pro- 
bability, have a very beneficial efiect on silver ex- 
changes, by putting an end to the drain of silver from 
China to India in payment for opium, thereby enabling 
the Chinese to substitute the use of silver for their 
present cumbrous copper coinage. It would thus tend 
to check the depreciation of silver which is at the 
present time so serious an embarrassment in the 
finances of India. 

13. Whilst we have thus dealt in detail with the 
various branches of the opium question, we regard the 
immediate stoppage of the monthly auction sales of 
opium at Calcutta as by far the most important and 
pressing of the measures which we desire to urge upon 
your Lordship. These sales are a feature of the trade 
which has been admitted to be indefensible by some of 
the most eminent amongst Indian administrators, 
including the honoured names of Lord Lawrence, Sir 
Bartle Erere, Sir Herbert Edwardes, Sir Donald 
Macleod, and Sir William Muir. It is true that most 
of these favoured the substitution of a system in Bengal 
similar to that which exists in Bombay, a proposal to 
which we have frequently expressed our unhesitating 
opposition, and which the vote of the House of Com- 
mons, condemning both systems alike, has made it 
unnecessary now to discuss. It is, however, true, as 
these distinguished statesmen perceived, that the 
manufacture and sale of opium by Government itself 
is that which most strikingly and conclusively identifies 
the Indian Government with an immoral traffic. Tl^" 
total cessation of these sales could not fail to have th' 
happiest results. To the people of India it would be '• 
much-needed evidence that the British nation putsi 
morality before revenue, and refuses to traffic in the 
vices of its subjects or of their neighbours. It would 
inevitably be followed by the Governments of other 
British settlements in the East which at present derive 
a large portion of their revenue from pandering to the 
vice of opium-smoking. To the Dutch Government of 
the East Indies, which prohibits the cultivation of the 
poppy in its own territories, but which f(jllows the evil 
example of British rule by deriving a great revenue 
from the sale to its own subjects of opium, purchased 
chiefly in India, it would facilitate the withdrawal from 
a pernicious system which is working havoc throughout 
the Island of Java. Above all, to the great Chinese 
people such a withdrawal would be a token that we 
have at last truly repented, as a nation, of the grievous 
wrongs which we have inflicted upon them — wrongs 
which, by a strange inconsistency, are often fi-ankly 
admitted by statesmen who yet see no objection to our 
contmuing to reap the profits of a trade which our cruel 
and unjust wars originally forced upon the Chinese. 

14. In China, the results to be anticipated from the 
stoppngc of the export trade in opium from Calcutta 



and Bombay are thus stated iq a letter received by us, 
about a year ago, from one of the most competent and 
experienced observers, the Eev. Griffith John, D.D., of 
the London Missionary Society, who has been for 
upwards of .35 years a missionary in the great com- 
mercial centre of Hankow. 

" Let China see that we are capable of sacrificing 
millions of pounds annually for her good, and that of 
our own free will, in obedience to the dictates of con- 
science and from a sense of humanity, and she will not 
be slow to acknowledge the worth and dignity of the 
act. Nay more, she may begin to glorify God in us. 
Onr intercourse with the people would become more 
friendly ; commerce would extend and develop ; one of 
the greatest obstacles to the progress of Christ's 
kingdom in the land would be removed; the people 
would listen more respectfully to our message ; and the 
day of China's regeneration would begin to dawn. Many 
obstacles would still remain, but having got rid of this 
we should feel that we could face the rest with hearts 
light and brave. We should then begin to hope for 
old Cathay as we have not ventured to do hitherto. 

But have the Chinese the ability to put down the 
vice P As long as the Indian trade in opium exists the 
hands of the Chinese Government are tied and para- 
lyzed. They can simply do nothing, but allow things 
to go on from bad to worse. Their best efforts, however 
sincere and energetic, would prove abortive. If the 
Indian trade in the drug were abandoned the Chinese 
would, I firmly believe, make an honest effort to stop 
the native growth, and the attempt would eventuate at 
once in a diminution of the evil. It might eventuate 
ultimately in its complete suppression. 

But whether the Chinese Government can put down 
the native growth or not, our path as a Christian nation 
is plain enough. It is for us to wash onr hands clean of 
the iniquity. The trade is immoral and a foul blot on 
England's escutcheon. It is a disgrace to ourselves as 
a people and unworthy of the place which we hold 
among the nations of the earth." 

Similarly the Rev. Christopher C. Fenn, one of the 
secretaries of the Church Missionary Society, who is 
and has lor many years been connected more particu- 
larly with the work of that Society in China, writes as 
follows in the " Church Missionary Intelligencer " of 
March last : — 

"It will be known throughout China — -for there are 
Protestant missionaries in almost every province — that 
the import of opium from India to China is stopped ; 
and it will be very widely known also that in taking 
that step England has sacrificed considerable pecuniary 
gain. Every British official in China will henceforth 
feel it his duty to discourage, as far as his influence 
reaches, the grovrth, supply, and the consumption of 
opium, in order to promote both the admission of other 
English and Indian commodities, and also the produc- 
tion of those articles which can be exchanged for such 
commodities. Every Chinese official, from the highest 
to the lowest, will know that the most stringent and 
strenuous efforts to put down the growth and import 
of opium will never be in any way thwarted by the 
British Government, or tend in the smallest degree to 
embroil the friendly relations between England and 
China. Many of these will be disposed to take vigorous 
measures to stop the terrible evil, being encouraged to 
do so by the overwhelming majority of their own coun- 
trymen. It is impossible to believe that any check to 
such measures will be applied by the central Gfovern- 
ment. The chief authorities will not dare, whatever 
their own desires may be, especially when, as now, dis- 
content is widely spread, thus to defy public opinion. 
May it not be hoped that before many months are 
passed — say within three or four years — the anti-opium 
feeling will have gradually become so strong as to 
sweep all before it. There is in China no dislike to 
paternal Government action. On the contrary, for this 
purpose at least, it will be earnestly asked for, and 
tirmly and successfully applied. The cancer that has 
been eating into the vitals of Chinese life will be 
torn out ; and once again, in many places, a population 
morally and physically vigorous, will be ready to 
" receive the engrafted Word." A powerful stimulus 
will be given to the desire for friendly intercourse -with 
Western Nations ; prejudice against European civiliza- 
tion and inventions will be removed; the construction 
of lailways will be encouraged; a free interchange will 
be established of the products of British and Chinese 
industry ; and two mighty and peaceful empires, linked 
together in commerce and amity, will bestow on each 
of them an eff'ectual barrier against northei-n aggression. 
The message of sahation will once again resume its 



APPENDIX. 



165 



westward course. America will be stirred up to a holy 
and generous emulation. Prom the western shores of 
that continent and by railway across its northern hills 
and plains, thousands of ardent evangelists from the 
British Isles, from the United States, from the Canadian 
Dominion, with the Gospel in their hearts and on their 
lips, will speed forward, with the sun, to the abodes of 
this ancient but still vigorous nation, will supply the 
lamentable defects of the noble but mournful teaching 
of Confucius, and will sow seeds of Divine Truth, that 
may grow up in a soil still strange to it, and yield at 
length some new proof of its transforming power, to 



the glory of Him who is Truth and who is Lore. 
' Grlory be to God in the highest ; on earth peace, good- 
will towards men.' " 

We can desire no greater honour for your Lordship 
and for the Government of which you are a member, 
than that you may be the instruments in the Divine 
hands of bringing about so blessed a consummation. 
We are, with great respect, 

Tour Lordship's obedient servants, 

(Signed, on behalf of the Society for the Suppression of 
the Opium Trade), 



Joseph W. Pease, President. 

J. C. LivEHPOOL (Bishop). 
John Sakum.* 
J. "W. Carliol.* 

[* As rejfarda the general matter of 
the Petition, not as regards all 
its expressions.] 

A. Cotton, General R.E., 
Madras. 

F. B. Metee. 

W. F. MOUtTON.f 

Lt "With sotne reserve as to para- 
graph 9.] 

Mark J. Stewart. J 

[t Approves generally, except as to 
the fourth sentence of para- 
graph 12.] 

Basil Wilbbrporce. / 

Donald Matheson, Gliairman. \ 
H. W. Maynard, Treasurer. 

GEORaE GiLLETT. 

Henry Gurnet. 

T. Hanbury. 

John Hilton. 

Nicholas Hurrt, Member of 
Board of London Congrega- 
tional Ministers. 

James Legge, Professor of Chi- 
nese, University of Oxford. 

David McLaren, J. P., D.L., 
Ex-Chairman of the Chamber 
of Commerce, Edinburgh. 

George Pieecy. 

Samuel Southall. 

"W. S. SWANSON, D.D. 

C. W. Trembnhbere, Lt.-Gen. 
Henry Wigham. / 

BoBT. Prxngle, M.D,, Brigade-Surg., 
H.M.'s Bengal Army, Deputation 
Secretary. 

Joseph G. Alexander, Secretary. 



Arthur Albrigiit. 

Joseph Angus, M.A., D.D. 

Thos. J. Baenardo. 

John Barran. 

(Rev.) George S. Baerett, Norwich. 

Alfred Henry Baynes, Genl. Sec, 
Baptist Missionary Society. 

Henry J. Bergubr, Vicar, S. Philips, 
Arlington Square, N. 

W. Bickford- Smith. 

J. B. Braithwaite. 

H. Broadhuest. 

Henderson Burnside. 

W. S. Cainb. 

Gordon Oalthrop. 

Sir William T. Chaelet, Q.C, 
D.C.L. 

A. M. W. Christopher, M.A., Rec- 
tor of St. Aldate's, and Hon. 
Canon of Christ Church, Oxford. 

William S. Clark. 

P. C. Clayton. 

J. J. Colman. 

J. Llewelyn Davies. 

John Bdmonu, D.D. 

J. Passmokb Edwards. 

Christopher C. Penn. 

Theodore Pry. 

James P. Gledsione. 

Benjamin Gregory. 

H Gratton Guinness, D.D. 

P. T. Haig, Major-General. 

Dan. Bell Hankin. 

Wm. Harvey, Ukley. 

Alfred Howell. 

Isaac Hoyle. 



Henrt Scott Holland, § Canon of 
St. Paul's. 

[§ To the general intention of the Petition.] 

Thos. Hughes, Q.C, Judge of Circuit 
No. IX. 

Samuel Hulmb. 
Alfred Illingwouih. 
E. E Jenkins. 
A. McArthur. 
Justin McCarthy. 

Alex. McLaren, D.D., Union Chapel > 

Manchester. 

James E. Mathieson. 

W. C. Maughan, Hon. Sec. Glasgow 
Auxiliary. 

H. C. Milward, Vicar of Lyonshall 

(late Vicar of Eedditch). 
W. Mobgan, Bryn-golen, Shawford, 

near Winchester. 

H. C. G. Moule, M.A., Principal of 

Ridley Hall, Cambridge. 
G. S. Muie. 
Arthur Pease. 
Wm. T. Radcltpfe. 
J. J. Ridge. 
Fredk. Sessions. 
Thomson Sharp. 
H. C. Squires. 

T. Alfred Stowell, M.A., Rector of 
Chorley, and Hon. Canon of ivlan- 
chester. 

Joseph Sturge. 
Joseph Thomson. 
J. P. B. Tinling. 

H. W. Webb-Peploe, Vicar of St. 
Paul's, Onslow Square, S W. 

S. D. Waddv. 
Benj. Whitworth, J.P. 
Philip H. Wicksteed. 
John Wilson, M.P. (Govan). 



Members of the General Council. 



APPENDIX IV. 



Correspondence with the Foreign Office concerning the operation of existing Treaties with 
China in regard to the importation of opium into China and the duty thereon, as bearing' on 
the declaration made by the Right Honourable Sir James Fergusson, on beJialf of Her 
Majesty's Government, in the House of Commons, on the 10th April 1891. (See Questions 
2.r.2 and 253.) 

they may increase the duty to any extent they please 
or they may exclude it altogether. This, I think I may 
say, that if the Chinese Government thought proper to 
raise the duty to a prohibited extent, or shut out the 
article altogether, this country would not expend one 
pound in powder and shot or lose the life of a soldier in 
an attempt to force the opium upon the Chinese." 

More than one of the witnesses brought forward bv 
the Anti-Opium Society has stated before the Roysa 
Commission that China is not really ft ce to take her 

X 3 



Sir, 15th September 1893. 

I AM directed by the Chairman of the Royal 
Commission on Opium to ask you to lay the following 
matter before the Right Honourable the Sesretary of 
State. 

On the 10th April 1891, Sir James Fergusson, speak- 
ing in the House of Commons on behalf of Her Majesty's 
Government, is reported by Hansard to have said: — 

" The Chinese at any time may terminate the treaty 
on giving 12 months' notice, and to protect themselves 



166 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



own course in this matter. In order that the position 
may be clear, I am directed to forward extract from 
proof of the evidence given by Dr. Maxwell on the 
subject. 

Lord Brassey would not himself desire to go behind 
a statement made in Parliament by a member of the 
Government, speaking on behalf the Government, on a 
question of this kind. Still, as the doubt has been 
raised, perhaps Her Majesty's Government would 
desire it authoritatively to be set at rest. The state- 
ment, made by Sir James Fergusson in April 1891, has 
been on occasions referred to in Parliament ; and it 
was cited in the debate of the 30th June last in the 
House of Commons.* 

It has been suggested to the Commission that the 
statement quoted above from Sir James Pergusson's 
speech consisted of two parts. In the first sentence he 
referred to the additional article of the Chofoo Con- 
ventionf which can be terminated at 12 mdnths' notice 
by cither party. Ou the termination of that article 
the regulations under the Treaty of Tientsin are 
revived, and by those regulations " transitj dues on 
" it (opium) will be arranged as the Chinese Govern- 
" ment see fit." The second sentence declares the 
policy which will guide Her Majesty's Government if 
or when China raises the question in the future. 

The Boyal Commission on Opium would be glad if 
you could favour them with an authoritative statement 
Upon the question that has been raised. 

I am, &c. 
(Signed) C. E. Bbrnabd, 
Acting Secretary to the Commission. 

To the Under Secretary of State 
for Foreign Affairs. 



Mem.. Sept. 
19, 1893. 



Art. 24. 



Art. 26. 



Art. 27. 



Art. 28. 



Sir, 



Foreign Office, 

September 25, 1893. 
I AM directed by the Earl of Roscbery to acknow- 
ledge the receipt of your letter oi the 15th instant and 
to transmit, for the information of the Royal Commis- 
sion, copy of a memorandum drawn up in this 
Department giving information respecting the treaty 
engagements between this country and China on the 
subject of the importation of opium. 

I am, &c. 
(Signed) T. V. Listee. 
■ Sir C. E. Bernard. 



MiMosASDtJM respecting the Treaty Engagements 
between this Country and China on the subject of 
the Importation of Opium. 

There is no mention of opium in the Treaty of 
Tientsin of the 26th June 1858, or in the previous 
Treaty of Nanking which was thereby confirmed. 

The Treaty of Tientsin declares that British subjects 
shall pay on all merchandise imported or exported by 
them the duties prescribed by the tariff, subject, how- 
ever, to most favoured nation treatment. 

It declares further that (inasmuch as the tariff fixed 
uu<ler the Treaty of JSTanking was no -longer equitable) 
the tariff shall be revised so that it shall, as revised, 
come into operation immediately after the ratification 
of the Treaty- 
It was further agreed that L'ituer of the contracting 
parties might demand a further revision of the tariff 
and of the commercial articles of the Treaty at the end 
of 10 years ; but that if no such demand was made 
within six months alter the end of the first 10 years, 
then the tariff should remain in force for 10 years more, 
and so on at tht- exjoiration of each 10 years. 

With regard to transit dues it was declared that the 
Chinese authorities should declare, within a period of 
four months, the amounts leviable, which should be 
fixed as nrarly as possible at the rate of 2i ad valorem. 

In pursuance of Article 20 of the above Treaty an 
agreement was signed by Lord Elgin and the Chinese 
Plenipotentiaries on the 8th November 1858, which con- 
tained rules anil regulations iti explanation of the 
Trctity, and fo which ji, revised tariff w;is attached. 



• Hansanl Jor ."0th .hm.' Jai;j, p,i,m'. (Ill I. 

t Vivm: 7 of Coiiitimnil JMjir-i', No. WW of ]n.si;. 

+ I'iiKo 11 ol' Pti.iij;iii]ciiUiry I'MfiM' ul lyiii, on " Ulijii; 



'i'lTillil.'!,." 



It was therein declared that the said tariff and rules 
should be " equally binding on the Governments and 
" subjects of both countries with the Treaty itself." 

Rule 5, " Regarding certain cotnmodities heretofore 
contraband " relating, among other articles, to opium, 
ran as follows : — ■ 

The restriction a affecting trade in opium .... 
are relaxed under the following conditions : — 

" 1. Opium will henceforth pay 30 tael» per picul 
import duty. The importer will sell it only at the port. 
It will be carried into the interior by Chinese only, 
and only as Chinese property ; the foreign traders will 
not be allowed to accompany it. The provisions of 
Article 9 of the Treaty of Tientsin, by which British 
subjects are authorised to proceed into the interior 
with passports to trade, will not extend to it, nor will 
those of Article 28 of the same Treaty by which the 
transit dues are regulated : the transit dues on it will 
be arranged as the Chinese Government see fit ; nor in 
future revisions of the tariff is the same rule of revision 
to be applied to opium as to other goods." 

In the tariff annexed to this Agreement opium is 
included with an import duty of 30 taels per 100 
catties. 

In the Chefoo Agreement of 13th November 1876, 
section 3, relating to trade, it is declared that foreign 
concessions at the ports are to be regarded as the area 
of exemption from li-Tcin. 

The 3rd subsection of section 3, relating to opium, 
is as follows : — 

" On opium Sir Thomas Wade will move his Govern- 
ment to sanction an arrangement different from that 
afi'ecting other imports. British merchants, when 
opium is brought into port, will be obliged to have it 
taken cognizance of by the Customs and deposited in 
bond, either in a warehouse or a receiving hulk, until 
such time as there is a sale for it. The importer will 
then pay the tariff duty upon it, and the purchasers the 
li-lcin, in order to the prevention of the evasion of the 
duty. The amount of li-lcin to he collected will bo 
decided by the diflferent provincial Governments 
according to the circumstances of each." 

On the 18th July 1885 an additional article to the 
Chefoo agreement was signed in London, amending the 
above stipulation as to opium, and the agreement, to- 
gether with the additional article, was ratified on the 
6th May 1886. 

In lieu of clause 3 of section III. of the Chefoo 
agreement, it was arranged (by the additional article) 
that foreign opium when imported into China should 
be taken cognizance of by the Imperial Maritime 
Customs and should be deposited in bond and not 
removed thence until there should be paid to the 
customs the tariff duty of 30 taels per chest of 100 
catties, and also a sum not exceeding 80 tabls per like 
chest as li-hin. 

The opium might then be re-packed, a certificate 
should bo issued gratuitously tc the owner which should 
free the opium from any further tax or duty whilst in 
transport to the interior provided that the packages 
had not been opened or the Customs seals, &c. tampered 
with. 

These certificates were to have validity only in 
Chinese hands, and should not entitle foreigners to 
accompany the opium inland. 

On the opening of the packages at their destination 
the opium should be treated, in respect of taxes or con- 
tribution, as native opium, in calculating which taxes 
the li-hin should be deducted from the market value. 

This arrangement was to remain binding for four 
years, after which either party might give 12 months' 
notice to terminate it ; and in the event of its termina- 
nation the arrangements under the regulations attached 
to the Treaty of Tientsin (1858) should be revived. 

The contracting parties might by common consent 
adopt modifications of the additional article which 
experience might show to be desirable. 

In an exchange of notes, dated 18th July 1885, it was 
stated that if the Chinese Government failed to bring 
the other Treaty powers to conform to the provisions of 
the additional article, Her Majesty's Government might 
at once withdraw from it, and revert to the previous 
system of taxation. 

The object of this was no doubt to protect the British 
flag, as, if the foreign f 1 1 Acrnments did not agree, 
Brilisli merchants could import under foreign flags. 

The present position of thc^ question appears to be — 

That British merchants may import opium on pay- 
ment of a duty of 30 taels pei' 100 catties, and that 
opium so imported shall remain in bond tlutil that duty 



Eule 5. 



1 picul= 
100 catties. 



China No. 3 
(1886), 
p. 3. 



p. 4. 



APPENDIX. 



1.67 



is paid with, tlie addition of a li-kin not exceeding 
80 taels per 100 oajities. 

Ttat these payments shall frank the opium to the 
place of consumption, where no further tax shall be 
levied than is payable on native opium, Vhe amount paid 
as li-kin being calculated off the value. 

That this arrangement may be terminated by either 
party by giving 12 months' notice. 

That Her Majesty's Governm.ent may moreover ter- 
minate it at once, if the other Treaty Powers do not 
conform to its provisions. 



Th&t in the event of its termination the importation 
of opium shall be regulated by the conditions attached 
to the Treaty of Tientsin, namely : — 

Import duty, 30 taels per picul, with transit dues as 
Chinese G-ovemment shall see fit, &c. 

A. H- Oakes, 

Foreign Office, 

September 19th, 1893, 



1 picul= 
100 catties, 



APPENDIX V. 



Extracts from the Minutes of Evidence given before the Royal Commission on alleged 
Chinese Gambling and Immorality and Charges of Bribery against Members of the 
Police Force, appointed August 20th 1891. Presented to the New South Wales Parlia- 
ment by command. Sydney Charles Potter, Government Printer, 1892, 



IPui in by 8ir Oeorge Birdwood as part of Ms evidence, 
and ordered to he printed.'] 

Hannah, examined 10th December 1891. 

13,760. Do you smoke opium P — I have smoked it, 
but I was very sick and had to knock it off. Now and 
then I have a couple of pipes unbeknown to my 
husband. 

13,763. Is it not a difficult matter to break yourself 
of the habit P — I do not know. I think it is easy enough 
to knock it off. 

Adelaide, examined 10th December 1891. 

13,830. Do you smoke opium P — No ; I did at one 
time, but have not for four years. It did not agree 
with me. 

13,836. If you smoke opium continuously, does it not 
destroy the vitality and energy, and make you feel 
altogether unfit for any ordinary duties P — It does to a 
certain extent. 

13.836. Does smoking opium render you unconscious, 
so that you would be absolutely at the mercy of anyone 
who would be in the room with you P — No, it does not. 

13.837. You have your senses about you the whole 
time P — Yes. 

13,840. "Which has the greater effect on you, drink or 
opium ? — Drink certainly. 

Ellen, examined 10th December 1891. 

13,892. Do you smoke opium P — I do. 
13,893., .Constantly P— Yes. 

13,894. When did you first commence P — About three 
years ago. 
,13,919. You do not drink?— No. 

13.920. Does opium smoking have the same effect as 
drink, do you know ? — No ; it has no effect. 

13.921. When you smoke opium does it render you 
unconscious P — ^No, 

13.922. Why not give it up now P — I cannot. It is 
pairt of myself to smoke it. 

13.941. How much opium do you use in a day P — 
Sometimes 2s. and sometimes Is. 6d. worth. 

13.942. Do most of the European girls who go with 
Chinamen use opium P — Yes ; the most of them do, I 
thinlc. 

13.943. Do those who use opium as you do take in- 
toxicating drink r — No ; I have not seen two women 
who smoked opium drink as well. I used to drink 
terribly myself before I took to opium. 

13,965. Could any man take advantage of you when 
you wore under the influence of opium ? — No one in the 
world could. 

14,010. Do you not think opium smoking is a great 
evil P — No, I do not think so. A woman that smokes 
opium has always got her senses about her. 



14,011. Do you not find that it takes away all your 
energies, and makes you poor in health and thin ?— No, 
I have not altered in the least since I have smoked ; in 
fact, I am stouter. 



Ellen, examined 14th December 1891. 



their 



14.555. If men smoke opium, does it affect 
power with women P — Yes, it does, in one way. 

14.556. They have not the same desire for intercourse 
with women P — No ; they do not care about women. 

14.557. If you were lying down on a bunk smoking 
opium alongside a Chinaman who was also smoking 
opium, the probability is that he would not care to have 
intercourse with you ? — Not if he had the opium habit, 
he would not. Tbe man who has the opium habit is 
not like another man ; he does not care for women. 

14,620. How often during the day do you smoke 
opium ? — Three times. 

14.623. Eorhow long after you have had your smoke 
does the effect remain in your system p — As soon as I 
have a few pipes I feel all right again. 

14.624. How much opium does it take to put you 
properly under the influence for the time being p — It 
takes 6d. worth for the time being, but I always smoke 
Is. worth. 

14.626. Are you not in that state even partially un- 
conscious P — ^Not at all. 

14.627. Does it not do so with others P — It never 
makes anyone unconscious. 

14.628. Are you quite sure P— Well, I can speak for 
myself. I can smoke opium all day and night too, and 
it will have no such effect upon me. 

14,634. It is a rule that persons who smoke opium do 
not care for drink P — Yes ; as a rule they do not care 
for drink. It will never do for the two things to go 
together. 

14.643. Does not opium smoking render you unfit for 
workp — No ; as soon as I have a smoke I am all right. 

14.644. Does it not affect your appetite'p— No ; I caii 
eat far better than I could before. 

14.650. Would it not be better for you to break your- 
self of the habit P — It might be better for me. to break off 
a certain amount, but if I were not to smoke I daresay 
I should be on the streets. I have no desire to go out 
now. 

14.651 . It kills all lustful inclination ? — Yes. 



Maegaeet, examined 14th December 1891, 

14.819. Is it a fact that opium smoking will make you 
so unconscious that you do not know what people are 
doing to you p — No. It has never done so to me. 

14.820. You always know what men are doing about 
you? — Of course, It never made me stupid at all. 

14,826. Does the habit of opium smoking in men kill 
the desire for sexual intercourse ? — Nobody has said 
anything to me like that. 

X 4 



168 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



14,849. How much opium do yon smoke ? — About 2s. 
or 2a. 6d. worth a day. 

14,860. How many years have you been smoking 
opium P — Five years. 

14,880. Do girls that smoke opium also drink liquor P 
— I never saw a heavy opium smoker drink. 

14,882. What would you consider heavy opium 
smoking ? — 5s. worth a day would be heavy. 

14,886. And you say opium smoking does not make 
you stupid ? — No ; it does not. 

14.938. This opium smoking has a terrible power 
over you when you take to it ? — Yes. It is very hard 
to knock it off, although there are Chinamen who have 
been smoking for 20 years, and have knocked it off. 

14.939. Does opium smoking have a tendency to make 
a person lustful P — No. It makes them the other way. 
They have no inclination at all, when they smoke very 
heavy. 

14,961. With regard to opium smoking, do not you 
think it will injure your health if you persist in it ? — It 
has never interfered with my health. 

14,982. Have you heard that one effect of using 
opium is to destroy the appetite for intoxicaiing 
drinks ? — I have heard of cases where heavy drinkers 
have taken to opium, and have never thought of drink- 
ing afterwards. 

Minnie, examined 14th December 1891. 

15.022. Do you smoke opium ? — Not now ; I used to. 

15.023. How long ago is it since you stopped? — 
About 10 months ago. 

15.024 . How long had you been smoking up to that 
time ? — Very nearly three years. 

15,026. How much opium per day did you smoke ? — 
'is. or 4s. worth. 

15.030. Now, what effect has opium smoking upon 
you P — It is a habit ; that is all. 

15.031. I know that it must have some effect. Now, 
what I want to know from you is, the effect of opium ; 



does it make you dream, or ardently desire anything, 
or does it make yon simply stupid and helpless P — It has 
no more effect upon me than an ordinary smoke. 

15,038. The opium destroys the desire for strong 
drink ? — Yes. It seems to quieten you altogether. 
There is no desire to go out and about, or anything, 
unless a person happens to be of a very lively dispo- 
sition. 

15,056. Opium never made you unconscious ? — No. 



Pauline, examined 14th December 1891. 

15.294. When you have had your opium smoke, are 
yon conscious of what is going on H — Certainly. 

15.295. It does not make you unconscious so that a 
man could do anything with you and you not know it P 
— No, you cannot be drugged with opium. 

15.296. Is it a fact that men who smoke opium have 
no desire to have any connexion with women ? — Quite 
right, they do not. 

16.297. Now I want you to describe to the Commis- 
sion what is the effect of a good strong smoke of opium P 
— It does not affect you in any way. 

15,303. Supposing it has been stated by a person who 
visited one of these opium-smoking houses that he saw 
two or three girls there, only one of whom was con- 
scious, and that after trying to wake the other girls, on 
questioning the one that was awake, she explained that 
they were under the influence of opium , and it would 
be no use trying to wake them for two or three hours ; 
what would you say to such a statement P — Well, they 
might have been drinking. Opium would not do that. 

15.306. How often do you smoke ? — Three times a 
day. That is to say, I used to when I was smoking 
much. 

15.307. What did it cost you P— 2s. 6i. a day. 

15.308. What does it cost you now? — It costs me 6^. 
a day. I have been knocking it off for three months. 



APPENDIX VI. 



Memorandum on Cultivation of the Poppy and Production of Opium in China, put in by- 
Sir Thomas Wade, when before the Indian Opium Commission, 15th September 1893, in 
answer to Question 1286. 



[The Paper was originally prepared for submission 
to the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 
in 1847, but was never read. — T. F. W.]. 

The poppy, called in Chinese the ying-suh hwa, or the 
U-ch'un hwa, is said to be cultivated in the provinces of 
Yiin-Nan,* Sz'-Ch'uen, Kwang-Si, Kwang-Tung, Kwei- 
Chan, Hu-Nan, Hu-Pih. Cheh-Kiang, and Fuh-Kien. It 
prows wild in Kan-Suh. In Yiin-Nan it is planted on 
the rice-grounds in the tenth moon (October, November), 
and IB cut in the third of the ending year (April, May). 
A Chinese acre, cultivated in this manner, yeilds some 
twenty dollars, and about one hundred if exclusively 
devoted to the poppy. The colour of the blossoms is 
yellow, white, and brown. The smell and taste of the 
drug manufactured from it differs in different pro- 
vinces ; the best being produced in Lan-chau, in Kan- 
Suh. This is strongest in flavour, and nearly as good 
as the imported opium. In Kwang-Si, near Hwui- 
chau, and in the prefectures of Nan-hiung, and Shau- 
kink, in the province of Kwang-Tung, some tolerable 
opium is manufactured, but that of the other provinces 
is inferior. The poppy may be planted at any time of 
year, the best positions being near sandy ground. It 
attains a height of two or three feet, and the juice is 
extracted as soon as the pods, which hang in bunches 
and are of different sizes, are formed. 

The following is described to be the process in Yiin- 
Nan and Kwang-Tung. The person employed to 
collect the juice proceeds to the ground with a large 



' The orthotrranhy of tlip Cbine^t' lerma rfiferred to in this Paper is 
Ihot u^i'd by Dr. \Vell8 \\ illieims in liis VVpik. " Tho Middle Kingdon)," 
T, F. \V, 



joint of bamboo girt in front of him. In this is bent a 
copper tube about a Chinese foot in length ; the pointed 
end of this is thrust into the pod, the other resting in 
the bamboo vessel, into which the juice descends 
through the tube. The pod which is now pressed and 
shrunk is hereupon closed, and may be used again 
when it has recovered its full size. The juice so 
collected is thrown into a large earthenware vat, 
which is sunk in a pit boarded over and covered with 
earth a few inches deep. For every catty of liquid 
there is thrown into the vat jf ^ or yfj of arsenic ; the 
quantity being smaller as the flavour of the juice is 
stronger ; and the strength will depend upon the 
province in which the plant is grown. Once in ten 
days the boards are removed from the mouth of the 
vat, and the pit is exposed to a night's dew, and covered 
up again. It lies in this way for about two months, 
and is then made up into paste, which can be heated for 
use. 

In some instances the syrup is mixed with red earth, 
in which case the proportion of arsenic must be 
doubled, and the vat must not be exposed to the dew ; 
but the boards should be felt with the hand in about a 
month, and if found warm the paste is in a fit condi- 
tion to be made up. If they be not so, the pit should 
be opened, and the liquid examined. It is eventually 
made up in balls and sold like foreign opium. 

The flavour of the drug varies according to the soil 
in which the poppy is grown, and the skill of the 
maker, but there does not appear to be any fashion- 
able preference for that produced in any particular 
locality. In the district of Yang-shau and Hwang-ni of 



APPENWIX. 



169 



ihe prefecture of Shau-king, in the province of Kwang- 
Tung, women are much employed in the manufacture. 
The crop in Kwang Tung was said to be in 1847 from 
8,000 to 10,000 piouls, so vastly has the quantity pro- 
duced increased since Commissioner Lin's proceedings 
in 1839. The best quality sells for about 500 dollars 
per picul in Canton, the inferior for half that sum. 
The native drug is said to be most consumed in Kwang- 
Tung, Kwang-Si, Sz'-Ch'uen, Kwei-Chau, and Shen Si. 
It resembles Patna in smell, is not equal to Bengal in 
strength, it is mixed with Patna and Turkey, but not 
Benares. "When two years old it is preferred by some 
smokers to any foreign drug. 

At Ting-chau Pu, in the south of Puh-Kien, the 
white poppy is much grown; the neighbouring districts 
are thence supplied with native opium, some of which 
finds its way even to Puh-chau (Pooohoir). It costs 300 
or 400 cash the tael, but is weak in quality, coarse in 
flavour, and is not produed in qualities sufficient to 
compete with the foreign article. At Kien-ning Pu, in 
the south of the province [Pah-Kien], large plantations 
of poppy are also said to exist. Its maturity is indi- 
cated by the falling of the leaves, and swelling of the 
capsule ; the milky sap which flows from an incision 
made into these, when it has become black by a day's 
exposure to the sun, is scraped ofi" and collected. 
After having been boilsd to a consistence, it is made 
into cakes of a horse-hoof shape about three inches 
thick ; but it is not coated with the leaves of the corolla 
like foreign opium. 

In Cheh-Kiang the cultivation of the poppy is chiefly 
confined to the prefecture of Tai-chau, to the southward 
of that of Ning-po. It grows most in Hwang-yen and 
Ning-hai, which are coast districts ; is sown from the 
middle of the eighth moon to the end Of the ninth. The 
plants are manured with urine until they are well grown, 
and, if then transplanted, decay. They flower towards 
the end of the second moon, the blossoms being white, 
pink, purple, and variegated ; more than two are seldom 
left ; the rest are lopped ofi". In the fourth moon, when 



the plant has attained the height of from three to five 
feet, the petals fall, and two or three incisions are made 
with a bamboo spatula into the now ripe capsules, which 
are about three inches long, and one and a half thick ; 
part of the epidermis is also scraped oli'to allow the juic e 
to exude. The person employed then returns to gather 
the exuded juice on the spatula. This ho transfers to 
his hand, which when full he empties into a vessel 
attached to his waist. The j uice is collected early in the 
morning, at which time it is a whitish tint, but turns 
black in the sun. This process of extracting it is 
repeated two or three mornings running. 

Partially inspissated juice fetches at Tai-chau, 500 
cash per tael. The best quality is made from the juice 
obtained from the first incisions. The most common 
adulteration is from an admixture of flower petals and 
scrapings of the capsules pounded in, a mortar, and 
formed into lumps of an irregular shape. This is used 
by the poor people of T'ai-chau. Each capsule is 
supposed to yield three or four candarins of opium ; one 
Cbinese acre, from ten to twenty catties, at an average 
price of from thirty to forty dollars. The T'ai-chau is 
sold a little in Ning-po, but is almost exclusively con- 
sumed by the T'ai-chau people, either as drug, or in 
adulterating foreign opium. They believe that if buried, 
in jars, for three or four years, it is superior to Patnain 
quality ; but as it loses about half its weight by this 
process, it is seldom brought into operation. It is said 
to leave an acrid taste in the mouth, to inflame the 
palate, and to enervate the system more speedily than 
the foreign opium. 

Its growth, without being directly encouraged, is 
connived at. It only remains to add that no accurate 
data are obtainable with reference to the extent of 
ground under cultivation ; the quantity produced ; or 
the amount of money levied by mandarins in the shape 
of fees ; all queries on these heads being replied to in 
the " thousand myriad " numbers in which the Chinese 
are wont to reckon. 



e 80970. 



170 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



ANALYSIS OF EVIDENCE. 



(Names of Witnesses an-anged in Alphabetical Order.) 



The Kevekend JOSEPH SAMUEL ADAMS. 

Belongs to the American Baptist Mission and has 
lived in China and Upper Burma, 287-2!)li ; oppor- 
tunities for observation in China, 338-340. 

Prohibition of Burmese authorities against use of 
opium in Upper Burma by Burmese, 293-294, 306- 
308, 356-358, 368 ; supported by the general opinion 
of the country, 309-311 ; prohibition of Burmese 
authorities against use of alcohol in Upper Burma, 
369-370. . 

Attitude of Burmese Government as to consumption 
of opium by other inhabitants of Upper Burma, 312- 
316, 375-376. 

Regulations of the Government of India in Burma, 
317-320 ; public opinion in Burma a.s to total pro- 
hibition, 322-330 ; his opinion as to it, 336-337, 377- 
379. 

EfFecc of opium Bmoking, 295, 301, 359, 360, 364- 
367 ; immoderate use the rule, 296-297 ; tendency to 
resume the habit after abandoning it, 299. 

Opium valuable in certain ailments but no jn'oteo- 
tion against fever, 208. 

Consumption of alcohol by Burmans, 331-334. 

Efi'ect of the opium habit on native churches. 33'j. 

Proportion of opium smokers in China, 300, 302, 
361-363 ; his opinion as to the opium habi'. in China, 
341 ; its effect on the spread of Christianity. 342- 
343 ; comparison between opium and alcohol, 347. 

Power of China to increase the import duty on 
opium, 344-347. 

Peeling of Chinese officials a.s^o the opium habit 
and the cultivation of oiiium, 34^3 Ifl. 

Peeling of Chinese officials towards England, 350- 
3.M. 

Interest in the United Kingdom in the anti-opium 
movement, 351-3.j5. 

Mit. JOSEPH G. ALEXANDER, LL.B. 

Is a barrister and secretary to the Society for the 
Suppression of the Opium Trade, 464-465 ; places 
before the Commission papers showing proposals 
made by the Society for the Sunpres.sion of the 
Opium Trade for dealing with the opium question, 
466-497. 

Sir GEORGE BIRDWOOD, K.C.I.E., C.S.I. 

His experience in Western India, 1155 ; never met 
with an instance of injury from the use of opium 
except from poisoning, ib. 1182. 

The healthiest populations in Western India con- 
sume opium. 1156; opium smoking quite innocuous, 
ib., 1168-1170; question of the decomposition of 
morphia in the opium pipe, 1157-1161. 1178. 

Opium den in Bombay frequented by the dregs of 
the population, but they were not brought to their 
state of degradation by opium, 1162-1165. 

Effect of opium on the sexual passions, 1165-1166. 

A political error to deprive Native States of their 
revenue from opium, 1165. 

Consumption of opium by Native soldiers, 1155, 
1171-1173. 

Opium eating a stronj^er form of taking the drug 
than opium smoking, 117G ; his observation has not 
shown opium eating to be harmful, 1174-1175, 1177- 
1181 ; the alcohol habit in Great Britain worse than 
the opitim habit in India, 1174. 

Favours opium trade being thrown open to private 
enterprise, 1165, 1180; deprecates policy of keeping 
down the consumption of opium in India, I17!i. 

Mk. BENJAMIN BROOMHALL. 

Is general secretary of the China Inland Mission, 
498 ; scene of the work of the mission, 499. 

Expresses his conviction as derived from informa- 
tion received from missionaries upon evil effects of 
opium smoking and connected matters, 501, 502; 
quote 1 reports from Yunnan. .j03; from Kwci-chau 
and Sichuin, 504-507; from Kan-suh, 508-515; from 
Sben-si, .516-518; from Shan-si, 510-522 ; from Gan- 
hwuy, 523- .524; from Honan, 525; from Cheh-kiang, 
52(1 ;' from Chih-li, 527-530. 



Quotes extracts of more general application from 
communications by missionaries in China to show 
the increase in the consumption and cultivation of 
opium and the evil results of opium habit, 531-536. 

Would prohibit export from India to China, 546- 
548; his opinion that such prohibition is the only 
chance of giving a real check to the use and growth 
of opium in China, 5.17 ; question whether Chinese 
Government would be able or willing to stop the 
growth and use of opium, 543-544, 547 ; attitude of 
the Government of India as to the export of opium 
to China, 538-542 : Sir James Fergusson's declara' 
tion, .j45. 

The Revekend FREDERICK BROWN. 

Is a missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church 
Mission and has served in China, 67-3-675. 

Evil effects of opium smoking, 676-677. 

Effect of opium consumption on missionary work. 
677-678 ; reads petitions from Native Churches in 
favour of the suppression of opium, 678, 683. 

Consumption of Indian opium in Shan-tung and 
Chi-li, 679-680. 

Effect of conversion to Christianity on the status 
of natives of China, 686-690. 

Me. GEORGE GRAHAM BROWN. 

Has been a missionary in China for more than six 
years, 550-551. 

His opinion as to the evil effects of opium con- 
sumption on the Chinese in Lanchau, 5-"i2, 564-569, 
599-607; consumption of Indian opium in Lanchau, 
553-555, 570 ; no Persian opium consumed there, 
555; proportion of opium consumers to adult male 
population, 594-507; growth of the habit and increase 
of the cultivation of opium in Lanchau, 5,57-560; 
demeanour of the people in Lanchau towards Euro- 
peans, 57.V577; action of local authorities in Lanchau 
to enlorce edicts prohibiting the consumption of 
opium, 571-574, 592-593. 

Suicides from opium, 5(i0-5(i2. 

His opinion as to the probable result of prohibiting 
export of opium from India, 578-5^1; favours this 
course, 608. 

Relative strength of Indian and China-grown 
opium, 582-591. 

Db. GEORGE DODS. 

Was engaged for 18 yaars prior to 1877 in private 
practice in Canton and Hongkong and temjjorarily in 
Government service in Himgkong, 1722-1725. 

Extent of the opium habit, 1728-1731 ; did not 
observe the number of opium smokers to be on the 
increase, 1748-1750 ; opium generally smoked in 
moderation, 1732; effects of opium smoking not 
generally evident, 1726-1727 ; no harm in moderate 
smoking, 1733-1 7:U; the habit does not tend to de- 
genera,te into excess, 1735 ; not difficult to throw off 
the habit, 1736-1739; opium said to be a necessity in 
the marshy districts, 1740. 

^Agrees in the main with Dr. Lockhart, 1741-1744, 
1747, but not entirely as to the number of opium 
smokers, nor as to the extent of spirit drinking, but 
those vary in different parts of China, 1745. 

Not lamiliar with the' proportion of smokers using 
Indian opium, 1750; never beard the Chinese blame 
the English for introducing opium, ib. 

Mb. T. W. DUFF. 

His letter read, 1637 ; lived in China for 30 years, 
ib. ; considers opium not to be deleterious to natives 
of China but to be a necessity, ib. ; this due to con- 
ditions under which the Chinese live in Southern and 
Mid-China, ib. ; occasional abuse in large towns, ib. j 
foreigners do not require opium in China, as they 
live under different conditions, ib. ; nor do the 
Chinese living in mountainous districts and the north, 
where they consume alcohol, require it, ib.; all 
nations need a stimulant, ib. ; Chinese speaking with 
foreigners will speak against the opium habit from 
])oliteness, ih. ; n(!ver beard any Chinese blame the 



ANALYSIS OF EViDENCK 



171 



British Government for introducing the drug, ib. ; 
cultivation of the poppy in 1865 smaller than it 
would otherwise have been owing to the unsettled 
state of the country, ib. ; proclamatiocs forbidding 
its cultivation at that time issiied owing to difficulty 
of collecting the revenue, ib. ; opium revenue has 
greatly assisted the Chinese Government in cen- 
tralising authority at Pekin, ib. 

The Revemnd A. ELWIN. 

Has been a missionary attached to the Church 
Missionary Society in China for 23 years, 610. 

Effect of opium smoking in Hangchau and neigh- 
bourhood, Oll-eirj, 623-624, 633; tendency to in- 
crease the dose, 630-632 ; proportion of opium 
consumers in Hangchau, 616-617 ; spread of the 
habit, 618; increase of cultivation, 621, 635-636; 
attitude of the local authorities in Hangchau as to the 
edicts, 619-620 ; Indian opium consumed in Hansrchau, 
621. 

Chinese feeling as to the connexion of the British 
Government with the opium trade, 622-623. 

Effect of opium smoking on coolies and chair- 
bearers, 611, 625-630. 

Opinion as to whether the introduction of Indian 
opium has led to the increased growth of the poppy 
in China, 636-638. 

Sia JOSEPH FAYREE, K.G.S.I., M.D., P.B.S. 

His letter read, 1637 ; served 30 years in India, 
ib. ; agrees that ideally people would be better with- 
out stimulants and narcotics, ib. ; opium abused to a, 
limited extent in large cities in India and China, ib. ; 
habitually used in moderation over large areas in 
India, ib. ; believed to be a prophylactic against 
malaria and to facilitate the performance of all the 
iunctions of life, ib, ; does not believe that the 
tendency of opium eating is ever to increase, ib. ; 
cites an instance in his personal experience in support 
of his view, ib. ; use of hemp drugs infinitely more 
harmful than that of opium, ib. 

The Revekend CHRISTOPHER FENN, M.A. 

Is secretary to Church Missionary Society in 
charge of the China correspondence, 430 ; not per- 
sonally acquainted with China, 433. 

Number of missionaries working in China under 
the Church Missionary Society, 431. 

Opinions of missionaries under the Church Mis- 
sionary Society as to the effects of the opium habit in 
China, 432. 

His opinion as to wheliher action of the British 
Government with the opium trade prejudices mis- 
sionary work in China, 434-435. 

Popular feeling in China as to the attitude ot 
England towards the opium traffic, 436 ; inability of 
missionaries to correct erroneous impressions on the 
subject, 437-442 ; Sir James Pergusson's declaration, 
438 ; his opinion that the prohibition of export of 
opium from India to China would be the best means 
of convincing the Chinese Government that England 
would not compel them to import opium, 438, 442- 
449 ; action of the Indian Government in relation to 
the opium trade, 439-441. 

J)&. WILLIAM GAULU. 

Is a medical missionary who has worked in Swatow 
and England, 823-832. 

Prevalence of the opium habit in Swatow, 833-835 ; 
among the literary claPS, 849-852 ; opium chiefly used 
in a smoking mixture, sometimes by eating it, 836 ; 
in his opinion there can be no moderate use of opium 
except as a medicine, 853-854. 

Considers the habits of morphia eating and opium 
smoking and eating to bo interchangeable, 837-84.5 ; 
does not consider opium smoking to be a prophylactic 
against fever, 84i)-8l8. 

Considers that the effects of opium cannot differ in 
essence in respect of different races, 855 ; the hold 
which opium takes on those who use it greater than 
that of alcohol, 856, 857. 

Opium smokers more liable to diseases than others, 
858. 

Missionary labourers interfered with by the opium 
habit and Chinese feeling towards Englishmen, 859- 
862. 

Sii4 LEPEL GRIFFIN, K.C.S.I. 

His opportunities for observing the opium question 
in India, especially as opium agent for the Native 
States in Central India, 1527-1529. 



The system of taxing opium grown in Native 
States, 1530-1532 ; the chief opium-growing States, 
1545-1547; no attempt made by Government to 
increase the cultivation, 1533-1535 ; cultivation not 
interfered with, 1536>-1538 ; methods of raising opium 
revenue in the Native States, 1539-1540 ; proportion 
of their revenue from opium export to their total 
exports, 1571-1577 ; decline in the export of opium, 
1578-1580; probable effect of prohibiting export from 
Native States, 1541-1544, 1548-1549 ; such an act 
would be tyrannous and be resented, 1651-1609 ; no 
treaty rights under which the Government of India 
can interfere with the cultivation of opium in Native 
States, 1552 ; concessions to Native States, 1535, 1538, 
1562-1567 ; character of his land on which opium is 
cultivated, 1549-1550, 1581 ; his opinion as to the 
probability of the revival of the export opium trade 
with China, 1561. 

Extent of smuggling, 1553 ; precautions against it, 
1554, 1590-1593 ; if export were prohibited, it would 
be impossible to control smuggling, 1568-1570, 1610. 

People of Central India not consumers of opium to 
a large extent, 1555-1556 ; opium has no effect on 
crime, 1557 ; his opinion that it has no appreciable 
effect on the public health, 1558, 1601-1603 ; produces 
no widespread evils in India, 1608 ; alcohol worse 
than opium, 1560. 

Use of opium water, 1582-1 589 ; opium generally 
taken in moderation, 1594-1595; the opium habit 
among Sikhs, 1559; Sikhs and Rajputs, the finest 
races in India, have been taking it for generations, 
1595-1597 ; question whether Rajputs and Sikhs 
tolerate opium better tban other races, 1597-1599; 
Europeans and the opium habit, 1598, 1599a-1600; 
opium sots a degraded class in large cities, 1604-1607. 

The prohibition of the cultivation and use of opium 
would irritate the people, especially the Sikhs, and 
would make them disloyal, 1611-1612. 

Recommends no change in present arrangements, 
1613. 

His opinion as to the character of much of the 
missionary evidence on the opium traffic, 1615. 

Mil. THOMAS HUTTO^r. 

Has been a missionary in the north of China, 1961, 
1965 ; agrees with other missionaries as to the evil 
effects, morally and physically, of opium smoking, 
1968 ; opium is called foreign smoke, 1970 ; though 
it is produced in Chinese territory, 1972 ; the 
Chinese attribute its introduction to the British, 
1989-1993; attitude of the Chinese towards mis- 
sionaries, 1994-1998 ; travelled for two years as a 
native of China, 1975-1977; opium smoking common 
in the north, 1977-1978 ; and among women in 
some of the towns, 1979 ; the habit on the increase, 
1978 ; his experience that opium smokers are unre- 
liable as servants, 1980-2000 ; the population in 
Northern China stronger than in the south, 1982- 
1984 ; they consume more wheaten bread, 1983 ; 
found the population on his travels degenerate and 
unhealthy, 2001-2004, 2007 ; the physique of the 
Chinese naturally good, 2008 ; opium smokers cannot 
take wine, and take very little food, 2010, 2011 ; opium 
smoking worse than spirit drinking, 1981. 

The Reverexd ALEXANDER LANGMAN. 

Has been a missionary in China for eight years, 
1509-1510, 1526-1526a ; agrees with views expressed 
by other missionaries as to evil effects of opium 
smoking, 1611. 

Produces a letter from a native evangelist describ- 
ing these effects, 1512-1513. 

Animosity of the Chinese to foreigners, and 
particularly to Englishmen, due to the connexion of 
the British Government with opium, 1515, 1523. 

His opinion that if the export of opium from India 
to China were prohibited the work of the missionaries 
would be made easier, 1524. 

Belief of the Chinese as to opium smoking resulting 
in the extinction of families, 1525. 

Mb. H. N. LAY, C.B. 

Was many years resident in Cliina in the Consular 
service and in the service of the Chinese Govern- 
ment, 1183-1187. 

Introduction of opium into China and its entry 
in the tariffs, 1189-1193 ; question of prohibition in 
1729, 1270-1272 ; and in 1724, 1273 ; Mr. Pitz Hughes' 
letter, 1274 ; decree of prohibition of 1799, 1194- 
1201 ; opium continued to bo imported and duty to be 

Y 2 



17:^ 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



collected after this decree, 1202-1204 ; the smuggling 
trade, 1205-1-215, 1224-1225 ; cultivation of the poppy 
■widespread in China in 1830, 1216-1220; the Tai- 
ping rebellion, 1221-1222 ; cultivation in 1858 and 
1864, 1265 ; opium legalised by the Chinese Govern- 
ment in 1873, 1226 ; it then determined to prohibit it 
again, 1227; Lord Palmerston's despatch, ij. ; action 
(.f the Chinese Government in 1839, 1223, 1228-1232 ; 
opium not mentioned in the Treaty of Nankin, 1233 ; 
his view that the Chinese Government was then 
indiflferent upon the subject of the import of opium, 
1235-1239, 1241; Chinese officials never complained 
to him of the action of the British Government in 
respect of opium, 1239-1240; the seizure of the 
" Arrow," 1241 ; this, and not opium, the cause of 
the second war, 1243-1244; opium not menti.med in 
the course of the negotiations in 1858 regarding the 
Treaty of Tientsin, 1245-1246; but entered in the 
tariff subsequently prepared, 1247-1248 ; action of 
the Chinese Government and Sir Rutherford Aloock 
in 1869,1249-1253; his opinion as to the allegation 
that the Chinese Government threatened to withdraw 
all restrictions in China in order to destroy the 
import from India, 1254 ; his view that in all the 
negotiations it was not the object of the British 
Government to force opium in China, 1282 ; the 
Chinese Government had always regarded opium 
from a fiscal point of view, 1262 ; Mr. Burlingame's 
mission tb England in 1868, 1258-1260 ; his opinion 
that if the export of opium from India were pro- 
hibited, the Chinese Government would not prohibit 
the consumption of opium, 1263-1269 ; his opinion 
that the Chinese Government is not deterred from 
opening the opium question by the fear that the 
Indian Government might claim to be recouped for 
loss of revenue, 1279 ; complains of the manner in 
which the action of officials as to opium in China has 
been misrepresented, 1256-1257, 1275-1278. 

His opinion that statements as to evil effects of 
opium smoking among the Chinese are exaggerated, 
1280; opium generally used in moderation, 1281 ; the 
physique of the Chinese very good. I'i. ; opium taken 
as a prophylactic in the malarial districts in the mid- 
provinces and southern provinces, ib. ; immoderate 
use injurious, 128U. 

Mr. HENRV LAZARUS. 

Was engaged in China in commerce unconnected 
with the opium trade from l.S7s to 1881, 1618-1621 ; 
employed on an average 200 natives of China, 1623- 
1624; many were opium smokers, 1627; those who 
smoked opium were never rendered unfit for work by 
it, and were as good as the rest, 1626, 1628 ; domestic 
servants not incapacitated by smoking, 1633. 

His own experience of opium smoking is that it is 
too tedious for Europeans to take to it, 1628-1630; 
excessive smoking does not destroy intellectual power, 
1626, 1631 ; not necessary to increase the dose, 1631 ; 
opium traffic not the cause of the dislike of the 
Chinese to Europeans, 1632. 

The Reverend JAMES LEGGE. 

Is Professor of the Chinese language and literature 
at Oxford, 166 ; has resided in Hong Kong and 
Malacca and visited China, 166-168. 

His experiences of opium smoking in Malacca and 
China, 169, 170; opinion of the respectable classes as 
to the habit. 170. 171 ; prevalence of the habit, 172. 
173, 200, 201, 212. 

Characteristics of the people of China, 174-176 ; 
opium smoking prejudicial to work, 177 ; the majority 
of persons who smoke opium gradually come more 
and more under its influence and smoke to excess, 
178, 209, 210;, the habit of smoking opium results 
only in evil, 179, 207. 

Feeling of the people in China as to the attitude of 
England as regards the opium traffic, 180-184. 

Power of the Chinese Government to exclude 
Indian opium, 185-187. 

Introduction of the cultivation of the poppy and 
the use of opium into China, 188-192 ; increase of 
cultivation in China, 193-197. 

Consumption of alcohol in China, 198, 199, 204. 

Opium prohibited in Japan, 202 ; consumption of 
alcohol in Japan, 203. 

Probability of the Chinese Government stopping 
the growth of opium in China, 205; England's atti- 
tude in first Opium War, ib. 

Opium smoking not to his knowledge generalised 
in any community in China, 211 ; Chinese population 
of Hong Kong hi 1894 approached this condition, 211. 



Me. STEWART LOCKHART. 

Is Protector of the Chinese in Hong Kong, 1375 ; 
his duties, 1421-1424. 

Chinese popular opinion decidedly against the 
opium habit, 1380, 1381. 

j\foderate consumption possible, 1383; proportion 
of moderate smokers, 1403-1410; moderate use need 
not end in excess, 1434-1437 ; relative effects of 
moderate and excessive smoking, 1382 ; distinction 
between the drunkard and the opium sot, 1388, 1411 ; 
his experience against the idea that the Chinese hate 
the British on account of the opium question, 1384. 

Does not think that the existence of the opium 
trade affects British commerce prejudicially, 1385. 

The population of Hong Kong, 1395-1398 ; opium 
divans in Hong Kong, 1386-1387, 1428-1433,; ques- 
tion whether opium consumption affects the death- 
rate in Hong Kong, 1389, 1414-1416, 1419, 1420; the 
opium farms in Hong Kong and the Straits, 1390- 
1392 ; not in favour of an edict of total prohibition 
in Hong Kong, 1393, 1394 ; opium smoking prevalent 
among the Chinese population, 1399-1401; not so 
prevalent as the use of alcohol in Grreat Britain, 
1402; opium smoking stationary in Hong Kong, 
1412, 1413 ; consumption per head of the Chinese 
population in Hong Kong, 1416-1418 ; never heard of a 
European taking to opium, 1425 ; Chinese opium not 
consumed in Hong Kong, 1426, 1427; consumption 
of spirits by Chinese in Hong Kong, 1439-1443. 

Mr. WILLIAM LOCKHART, F.R.C.S. 

Was a medical missionary under the London Mis- 
sionary Society in China for 25 years up to 1864, 
1638, 1703. 

Opium generally smoked in China, 1691-1693 ; 
many Chinese take opium in moderation, 1641 ; they 
generally increase the dose with evil results, ib., 
1642, 1653, 1661 ; proportion of moderate and exces- 
sive consumers among the population, 1643-1652, 
lfi.J4, 17<.»8-1710 ; opinion as to the effect of opium, 
1661 ; does not regard even moderate use as bene- 
ficial, 1653; consumers in excess can be cured of the 
habit, 1674-1676 ; opium not generally taken to 
relieve pain, hut for dissipation, 1684 ; power of con- 
trol of opium smokers, 1694-1697; reason why the 
opium pipe is smoked lying down, 1698 ; extent of 
opium cultivation in China, 1654-1660. 

Alcohol a greater social evil than opium, but opium 
more personally harmful to individuals, 1667 ; alcohol 
a greater curse in England than opium in China, 
1668. 

Suicide by means of opium, 1669-1673. 

Opium not forced on China by the British G-overn- 
ment, 1677, 1699-1701 ; never heard this alleged in 
China, 1702 ; advocates the Government of India 
abandoning the monopoly and reducing the area of 
poppy cultivation, 1677, 1711-1714 ; China opium 
cheaper and more impure then Bengal opium, 1685- 
1687. 

Consumption of opium by Europeans, 1688-1690. 

Opium smokers not permitted to belong to his 
church, 1704-1707, 1715 ; the same rule would apply 
to spirit drinkers, 1716 ; spirit drinking prevails in 
Japan, 1717-1718 ; in his opinion it is unlikely if 
opium smoking were stopped in China that spirit 
drinking would prevail, 1719, 1720 ; the Chinese 
altogether superior to the Japanese, 1721. 

Sir HUGH LOW, K.C.M.G. 

Letter from, 1637; formerly administrator of Perak 
and other States in the Malay Peninsula, ib. ; expe- 
rience in Perak and Labuan, ib. ; farm of right to 
collect duty in Perak, ib. ; drug consumed generally 
in moderation by labourers, chiefly Chinese, in mines 
as a prophylactic against miasma, ib. ; also by shop- 
keepers, artizane, servants, ib. ; more tendency to 
abuse among this class, ib., also by wealthy Malays 
and Chinese, ib. ; two-thirds of the Chinese popula- 
tion smokers, but very few Malays, ib. ; used by 
criniinal classes of both races, ib. ; general health 
affected in occasional but few cases, ib. ; opium habit 
had no influence on crime, ib. ; moderate use of 
opium said to clear the intellect, ib.; use of opium 
prohibited in State prisons, detention in which in- 
variably resulted in improved physique, ib. ; no such 
abase in Perak or Labuan as to justify further 
restrictions, ib. 

Mr. D. MATHBSON. 

The contraband opium trade, 790-792; liable to 
littacks from pirates, 803-804. 



ANALYSIS OF EVIDENCE. 



173 



His account of the events of 1839-1841, 793-796 ; 
•jomments on the o,ttitnde of British Government 
from 1841-1858, W2. 

Incidents which led him to condemn the opium 
traffic, 797-793 ; at couBiderablo injury to his pecu- 
niary position, 824. 

Eecommends the prohiV)iHon of export Of bpium 
from^ India to China, 800, 831, 805-Sll. 

His opinion that compariBon cannot be made 
between the eiport of spirits from England and the 
export of opium from India, 810-823. 



Dr. MAXWKLL. 

Is a doctor of medicine and secretary to the Medi- 
cal Missionary Association, 21'J, 21.5; was a medical 
missionary in Formosa, 216. 

Character of his experience, 217, 218; extent of 
the opium habit, 219. 2.38, 239, 258-260; children 
not allovred to take opium in Formosa but learn to 
do so in when pretty young, 274. 

Comparative efiects of opium smoking, tobacco 
smoking, and dram drinking, 220, 273. 

Habitual consumption of opium the rule, 221 ; con- 
sumers become ^slaves to the drug, 222-224. 

Physical evils of the opium habit, '22-5 ; moral evils ; 
226; social evils, 227. 

Opium not in his opinion a prophylactic against 
malaria, 228. 

Consumption of Indian opium in China and increase 
of consumption of native opium, 229-235 ; Persian 
opium, 281-286. 

Opium smoking universally regarded in China as 
a vice, 236. 237. 

Indian opium traffic tends to hinder Chri.^tian 
missionaries in China, 238 ^ 239, 264-272. 

Opinions of Iho medical profession in the United 
Kingdom as to the habitual use of opium, 240 ; 
medical opinion in India, 241, 242, 245; medical 
opinion in China, 243, 244 ; no statistics exist as to 
public health in Formosa. 261. 

Power of the Chinese Grovernmenfc to exclude 
opium, 246-256. 

Comparison between opium smoking and opium 
eating, 262. 

Action of Government of India as io export of 
opium, 264-269, 275-280. 

Suicides from opium in China and India, 274. 

Mk. DAVID McLARBN. 

Formerly President of the Edinburgh Chamber of 
Commerce, 1751. 

Presents tables of statistics of trade between India, 
China, Japau, and the United Kingdom, 1862. 

The Committee of 1848, 1753; increase of exports 
from China after the reduction of the tea duty, 1754 ; 
not accompanied by corresponding increase of im- 
ports from England, ib. ; increased import of opium 
from India, ib. ; possibility that anticipated increase 
of trade between England and China at that time 
went indirectly in an increase of trade with British 
India, 1822-1835. 

History of trade with China, 1753-1758; contrasts 
trade of England with China with England's trade 
with Japan, 1758-1760, 1765-1769, 1840-1848 ; con- 
trast between Chinese and Japanese in the matter of 
dress, &c., 1795-1801. 

His opinion that import of opium from Inda into 
China prevents China from buying English manu- 
factures, 1758-1764, 1769-1776, 1849, 1850, 1855- 
1856 ; the substitulion of India for China tea has 
impaired the ability of China to purchase English 
manufactures, 1761-1764, 1862 ; export of yarns from 
India to China, 1791^-1795, 1851-1851; England's 
trade with China stationary daring the past 15 years, 
though import of opium from India has largely 
decreased, 1836-1837 ; this owing to Chinese smoking 
native opium, 1838, 

Produce of poppy per acre under cultivation in 
India declining, 1771, 1772. 

Policy of the Government of India in 1860 to take 
as large a crop as possible, 1772-1774 ; refers to this 
policy as not having been changed, 1774-1776. 

Quotes opinions of officials as to the pernicious 
character of the drug, 1778-1785. 

Advocates prohibition of poppy cultivation in India 
and the export of opium to China, 1802-1821 ; his 
opinion that the smoking of native opium would then 
be stopped, 1839. 



Mr. ALEXANDRE MIOHIE. 

Is a merchant with 40 years' experience of Ohiua, 
2012-2018. 

The use of opium deprecated by public opium 
among the Chinese, but not more than the use of 
alcohol in European countries, 2019-2021 ; extent to 
which the opium habit prevails in China, 2022-2025 ; 
few opium smokers among his employees, 2026-2027 ; 
moderate smoking more common than inveterate 
smoking, 2028; effect of moderate smoking, 2029- 
2031 ; opium smokers not more dishonest than others, 
2032 ; opium smoking among the better classes, 
2040-2041, 2047; those classes not degraded or of 
degenerate health, 2045-2046, 2048-2049 ; no opium 
smoking in Japan, 2033 ; the Japanese alleged to be 
inferior to the Chinese, 2034 ; opium trade has not 
atfected the attitude of the Chinese toward? English- 
men, 2036-2038 ; considers excess in alcol'ol worse 
than excess in opium, 2039. 

Sukgeon-Genbral Sir "WILLIAM MOORE, K.C.I.E., 
Q.H.P. 

Served 33J years in India, 1000, 1001. 

Investigated the opium question in Rajputana and 
Bombay, 1002-1004, 1024; no generalized consump- 
tion in Bombay, 1025-1029, 1032-1039. 

His conclusion that opium smoking is practically 
harmless, and opium water not only harmless 
but beneficial in moderation and a prophylactic 
against fever, 1005, 1057, 1058 ; excess in opium not 
so injurious as excess in alcohol, 1006; opium more 
beneficial than alcohol, 1022, 1023; use of opium on 
the whole beneficial, 1067-1073 ; a large proportion 
of visitors to opium dens have ailments which they 
go there to I'elieve, 1074-1079 ; the habit uoc regarded 
as disgraceful, 1036-1039, 1080-1085 ; the prohibition 
of the sale of opium in India, except for medical 
purposes, would be an interference wiDh the haibits 
and customs of large sections of the population, 1007, 
1030, 1031. 

Effect of the habitual use of opium on different 
races, 1008 ; prevalence of the habit among the 
Rajputs, 1009-1014, 1107; the Rajputs a healthy 
class, 1015 ; no reliable statistics of births and deaths 
in Rajputana, 1016; habitual opium consumers gene- 
rally take their opium at night, 1019 ; no general 
tendency to incre.se the dose, 1017, 1018; excessive 
use deleterious but the exception, 1021 ; habitual use 
in moderation does not shorten life, 1020; amount 
consumed by opium smokers, 1088, 1089 ; the use of 
opium among men tending camels in the desert, 
1007, 1090, 1091 ; has had little experience with the 
Sikhs, 1040 ; tobacco forbidden by the first Sikh 
teacher and the use of alcohol deprecated, 1097, 1098 ; 
large sections of the population in India do not use 
opium, 1041 ; cannot speak as to the relation of the 
opium habit to race, 1042-1046; early use of opium 
by Rajputs during their constant fighting, 1099, 
1100. 

Insurance offices do not impose a higher rate on 
opium eaters, 1047-1057. 

Erroneous impression that the cultivation of opium 
leads to famines by reducing the land for the growth 
of cereals, 1057 ; the migration during the famine in 
Rajputana from Marwar to Malwa, 1101-1106. 

The opium habit among Europeans, 1051-1064; 
does not spread among them owing to habit rather 
than to constitutional difference, and also because 
opium smoking is troublesome, 1059-1066. 

Dr. F. J. MOQAT. 

His opportunities of studying the question in India, 
1109-1112. 

His experience of the use of opium by Marwaris 
and Chinese in Calcutta, 1112-1119 ; the Chinese 
opium smokers and tiie Marwaris opium eaters, 1149, 
1150 ; the habit has come down in India from former 
generations, 1120-1122 ; regards consumption of 
opium in moderation, as in the case of these two 
colonies, as quite as harmless as the moderate use of 
alcohol among Europeans, 1123-1131, 1134 ; opium is 
also valuable as a prophylactic and febrifuge in 
malarial tracts, 1153 ; the use of opium in excess 
bad, but'he has no experience of use in excess, 1132, 
1133 ; his experience with other classes attending the 
hospitals, 1135-1137. 

His experience of opium in relation to crime and 
insanity in Bengal, 1139-1144. 

More habitual consumers of ganja than of either 
spirits or opium, 1144; ganja not mixed with opium 

Y 3 



174 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION : 



in India, 1151, 1152 ; quotes, with approval from a 
discussion by Calcutta Medical Society, 1144-1147. 

ConsTisiers of opium not ashamed of the fact, 1148 ; 
suppression of the use of opium would lead to in- 
creased co.'isiiinption of more harmful stimulants aiid 
narcotics and would be actively resisted by the more 
manly and warlike races in India, 1153 ; use of 
opium for the purpose of exciting sexual desire, 
1154. 

Deputy Subgeon-Genekal W. P. PARTRIDGE. 

Is a Deputy Surgeon-General in the Bombay Army 
and served in India 30 yeurs, 1884 ; the opium habit 
a vice, 1888, 1896, 1918; worse than a'eohol, 18flti ; 
the fumes from smoking aft'ect persons other than the 
actual consumers, 1886-1888 ; many persons who 
resort to opium dens are not led to do so by sickness 
though some are, 1888-1895. 

Confidential circular issued by the Government of 
the North -Western Provinces and Oudh as to opium 
dens, 1900-1914 ; opium dens condemned by opium 
smokers, 1915-1917 ; opium a pi'edisposing cause 
of death, 1919, 1920, 19.52-1955; opium eaters in 
jails, 1920, 1949-1951 ; the danger of stopping opium 
in such cases, ib. ; violent crime committed among 
Rajputs under the influence of opium, 1920-1956 ; 
opium not a prophylactic against fever, 1921 ; opium 
given to children and arrangements fur the sale of 
pills for children, 1922-1946. 

Possibility of prohibiting the sale of opium in India 
except for medical purposes, 1957-1960. 

SiK JOSEPH PEASE. Babt., M.P. 

Is President of the Society for the Suppression of 
the Opium Trade, 2 ; has not visited India or China, 
but has received constant communications on the 
subject froni those parts of the East in which opium 
is used, 108, 109. 

His views as to the connexion of the Indian 
Government with the manufacture and sale of opium, 
and as to the immorality of the opium trade with 
China, 4-13, 105 ; the export trade to China the most 
important branch of the subject. 16, 112 ; regards 
the position of the Government in Bennjal as worst, 
147, 148. 

Statistics of the opium trade with China, 14, 15, 
18 ; statistics of the cultivation of the poppy, 40-45. 

History of the Chinese opium trade, 20. 

Policy of the British Government as to compelling 
the Chinese Government to import opium, 21-23. 

Cites opinions given in support of the views of 
the Society for the Suppression of the Opium 'irade, 
24-39. 

History of the opium question in the House of 
Commons, 46-63. 

Public interest in the opium question in the 
United Kingdom, 54, 55 ; action of foreign countries, 
56-59, 139-143. 

Treaties prohibiting the importation of opium into 
China, 60-62. 

Cites opinions as to the evil effects of the opium 
habit in China, 63-71 ; and in India, 72-77; quotes 
extract from speech of the late Lord Shaftesbury as 
to the medical aspect of the case, 79-84 ; cites 
opinions of Indian officials in the Blue Book of 1892, 
8.5-93. 

His views on the financial aspect of the case, 94, 
95 ; the increased expenditure on the army in India 
95, 96 ; the need for the development of lailways in 
India, 95-98 ; quotes from official papers as to the 
uncertainty of the opium crop, 100. 

GroTith of opium in China stimulated bj' import 
from India, 12, 13, 133 ; import of Persian opium 
into China, 134, 136; objection of Sir James Per- 
gusson to allowing cultivation in the Bombay 
Presidency, 36, 37, 137-139; anxiety of the Indian 
Government in 1869, and later, to increase the area 
under poppy, 3, 110; subsequent poliey of reducing 
the area. 111. 

Disposition of Government officers in India to 
restrict local sale, 16, 17 ; the Indian system as to 
internal consumption is now strongly repressive, and 
could only be improved by total prohibition of the 
cultivation of poppy except for medicinal purposes, 
and the sale by license of medical opium, 113, 114; 
question whether the English system of sale by drug- 
gists prevents purchases for non-medical purposes, 
115-118. 

Use of opium by natives of India, 119-121. 



Views on the transit duty on opium paid by Native 
States, 101-103, 106, 107 ; concessions to Native 
States, 102, 103, 148-151 ; growth of poppy in Malw.., 
157; fall in price of Malwa opium chests, 158; 
transii duty reduced to stimnlate cultivation, 159, 
160. 

Origin of manufacture by Indian Government, 
162-165. 

TiiE Reverend GEORGE PIEROT. 

Pounded the Wesleyan Mission in China, 1 ; his 
opportunities for observation in China. 2, 3., 

Cites instances and states his opinion as to the evil 
effects of opium smoking, 453-460. 

Agrees generally with the evidence previously 
given by missionaries, 461, 462. 

BniGADE-SuBGEON R. PRINGLE, M.D. 

AVas in ihc med'cal 33rvice of the Government of 
India tor 30 years, 691-6 :»4; considers opium in- 
valuable medicinally, but useless as a dietetic, and to 
febrifuge only as being a sedative, 695 ; if taken in 
small doses in fever districts its eH'ects would be 
harmful, 706 ; if ample supplies of quinine made 
available in malarial districts in India, there would 
be no need of opium as a febrifuge or a prophylactic, 
747-760. 

Evil efiects of opium habit in India not visible to 
any extent, except among the dregs of the population 
in towns, 695, 702, 712 ; indulgence in opium incon- 
sistent with self-respect in India, 695, 711, 722-724, 
742-746. 

Opium not served out by him to troops when on 
service in a very malarious district, 698-701 ; the 
effects of opium on native troops, 734-738. 

Tendency of opium consumers to increase the 
dose, 703, 704 ; the immorality of the opium habit, 
705, 707. 

His view as to the attitude of the Government of 
India in relation to the opium trade, 708. 

His view as to withholding opium from habitual 
consumers, 708-711, 714-722,' 733, 741, 742. 

Recommends that opium should be cultivated only 
for medicinal purposes, 713, 714. 

Policy of the Government of India as to opium 
and liquor, 725-729. 

Advocates stopping the sale of spirits as well as of 
opium, 729. 

Facilities for purchase of opium in India and 
England, 729. 

No difference in the effect of opium on different 
races, 730. 

Advances to cultivators in India for poppy and 
other cultivation, 738, 739. 

Dr. E. IRVINE ROWELL, M.D., C.M.G. 

Was employed 25 years as a medical officer of the 
Government in the Straits Settlements, 1444, 1445 ; 
now retired, 1446. 

Population of Singapore, 1447-1449 ; Chinese in 
Singapore, 1450, 145] ; opium smoking not gene- 
rally prevalent among the Chinese there, 1452-1455 ; 
Chinese opium smokers in the pauper hospital, 
1456 ; the opium habit among them generally the 
result of disease, 1457-1459 ; the majority moderate 
smokers, 1460, 1461 ; Chinese opium smokers in he 
criminal prison, l'!64, 1465; their crime, as a rule, 
unconnected with the open habit, 1466-1468 ; opium, 
as a rule, immediately withdrawn from prisoners, 
but allowed for a time in exceptional cases, 1469- 
1470; in some cases as a necessity, 1492-1495; no 
injury fi-om the stoppage of opium in cases of 
habitual moderate smokers, 1472-1475; Chinese 
coolies who smoked opium ordinarily not so healthy 
as others, as they had taken to opium to relieve 
disease, 1476-1 I7t^, 1489-1491; continued to smoke 
after regaining their health and without prejudice to 
efficiency, so long as they did not <!xceed, 1479, 1480 ; 
moderate opium smokers no worse in health than 
moderate tobacco smokers, 1481-1488 ; the moderate 
use of opium of assistance mentally, 1482-1485 ; the 
good of opium exceeds the evil, 1486, 1487. 

Revenue in Straits Settlements from opium, 1496, 
1504-1507 ; Indian opium in Singapore, 1608. 

Anti-Opium Society in Singapore, 1497-1503. 

TuE Reverekd T. G. SELBY. 

Was for 12 years a missionary of the Wesleyan 
Mission in the interior of China, 1863, 1864, 1868, 
1869. 



ANALYSIS OF EVIDENCE. 



175 



His pamphlet "The Poppy Harvest: a study of 
Anglo-Indian Ethics," embodies his views, 1870- 
1873 ; the cartoons reflect the average opinion of the 
Chinese on the subject, 1875. 

Agrees with the eyidence given by other mis- 
sionaries, 1866, 1876, 1877; missionaries brought 
more into contact with the Chinese people than other 
persons are, 1867. 

Estimate of mortality caused by opium imported 
from India, 1878-1881 ; the opium habit has an un- 
favourable effect upon the general health, 1^83. 

Siu JOHK STRACHEY, G.C.S.I. 

Had 38 years' experience in India, 864-865 ; his 
opportunities for observation, 866-868. 

The financial aspect of the opium question, 
869-871 ; estimates profits to all classes out of the 
opium crop at a great deal more than Rx. 19,000,000 
a year, 888-890, 936-937 ; 100,000,000?. would not be 
adequate compensation to India, 891 ; revenue from 
opium about Rx. 5,750,000, 892-894, 933-935 ; geuei al 
revenue of India is increasing, 910-913; and also 
expenditure, 914-916 ; increase of military expendi- 
ture, 917-922 ; opium revenue uncertain, 923-925 ; 
impossible to find taxation to take its place, 909 ; can 
suggest no means of making this loss of revenue 
good, 894 ; reduction of expenditure impossible, ib. ; 
opium generally consumed in India in moderation, 
and.is beneficial, 872, 901, 903 ; consumption gene- 
rally infinitesim ally small, but certain classes have 
consumed it from time immemorial, 872, 898 ; 
consumption has diminished, while population has 
increased, 872 ; danger that smuggling may result 
from high price, ih. ; the habitual consumers, notably 
the Sikhs and Rajputs, are the finest races in India, 
t'&., 898, 899 ; consumption among Sikh and Rajput 
soldiers, 927-932, 985-989 ; danger of prohibiting 
consurnption in India, 872 ; China does not depend 
on India for her supply of opium, ib. ; Indian opium 
a luxury, i6. ; production in China out of all propor- 
tion to that in India, ib., 979 ; most consumers in 
China take it in moderation, 872, 902, 904, 948 ; the 
Government of China free to prohibit importation of 
opium from India, 872 ; his opinion as to its wish to 
do so, 905 ; the sacrifice of Indian revenue would be 
an act of folly and injustice, 872 ; question whether, 
if opium is demoralising to China, the Government 
of India should continue export it there, 949-952. 

Endorses the view of the opiuui question presented 
in Mr. Batten's paper, read before the Societv of 
Arts, 875. 

The arrangements with the Native States in India, 
in respect of opium, 876-881, 926, 963-966, 977, 978; 
production in Native States, 906; manufacture in 
Native States not in hands of European ofiicials, 
964-958 ; prohibition of the growth of the poppy in 
Native States in the Bombay Presidency, 959-962 ; 
can suggest no means of stopping production of 
opium in, or preventing its export from, Native 
States, 885, 907; objections to a customs line 88-5- 
887 ; no customs line at present, 990, 991 ; smuggling 
of opium grown in Native States, 967, 969, 992, 993. 

The position of the Government in Bengal as 
regards the production of opium, 882-881. ; object of 
the Government of India to restrict consumption 
both in China and India, 895 ; the state monopoly 
the most repressive of all fiscal restrictions, ib. ; sub- 
stitution for opium monopoly of heavy export duty 
might not diminish revenue but would lead to 
increase of consumption both in India and China, 
ib. ; great difficulty of preventing smuggling from 
Bengal, if monopoly abandoned in favour of export 
duty, ib. ; no distinction from the point of view of 
morality can be drawn between a system of monopoly 
and an export duty, ib. ; no greater objection on 
economic grounds to a monopoly of opium than to a 
monopoly ol' tobacco, ib. ; would not recommend the 
substitution of a licensing system for the Bengal 
monopoly, 976. 

Burma the only countrj- under the Government of 
India as to which evidence showing the injurious 
efiects of opium is produced, 897 ; this evidence only 
refers to consumption by Burmese, ib. ; no evidence 
that the consumption of opium is a crying evil any- 
where in India proper, ib. ; great difi'erence between 
the races inhabiting difl'erent parts of India, ib. 

Prohibitive measures in India w^nld lead to 
political dangers of extreme gravity, yuU, y08. 

Possibility of substituting other crops for opium in 
India. 938-942 ; advances to cultivators, 994-998. 



Practically impossible for the Government to en- 
courage the growth of opium to any extent, 943-947, 

Opium consumed by the Sikha grown under license 
in the Punjab and in Native States under the Punjab 
Government, 970-975. 

The Revekend W. S. SWANSON, D.D. 

Was in China up to 1881 in connexion with Presby- 
terian Missions, 751, 753, 754, 756; during 20 years 
in Puh-kien never saw any poppy cultivation, 755 ; 
agrees with the views of other missionary witnesses 
as to the evil effects of the opium habit, 767 ; opinions 
of Ihe Chinese on the subject, 758, 765-767; advo- 
cates the entire suppression of export of opium from 
India to China, 759 ; probable effects of such a policy 
on the Chinese Government, 760 ; attitude of the 
Chinese officials as to enforcing the regulations pro- 
hibiting the use of opium, 761 ; question whether 
the Chinese Government is free to prohibit the 
import of opium from India, 762-764. 

Spirit drmkingin China, 768-770. 

Tobacco smoking in China, 771-774. 

Number of Chinese converted to Christianity, 776- 
778. 

Classes fiom which converts arc drawn, 779-789. 

The RBVEfiEND HUDSON TAYLOR. 

Is founder and general director of the China In- 
land Mission and a member of the Royal College of 
Surgeons, 380-383 ; his opportunities for observation 
in China, 384-387. 

Effects of opium smoking on the Chinese, -388, 389, 
391, 412-415, 420-422 ; on chair-bearers and coolies, 
409-411. 417-419. 

Prevalence of the opium habit in China, 390 ; the 
opium habit worse than the alcoholic habit, 423. 

Unpopularity of the English with the Chinese 
owing to the opium traffic, 393-395, 424-427. 

Present attitude of public opinion in Great Britain 
as to compelling Chinese Government to import 
Indian opium, 396 ; value of communicating Sir 
James Pergusson's declaration, 397, 398, 402 ; sug- 
gests it might be officially communicated to the 
Chinese Government, 399-401. 

Question of the extent to which considerations of 
revenue influence the Chinese, 403. 

Very few opium smokers can abandon the habit, 
404 ; age to which opium smokers live, 405-408 ; 
rate of mortality among the Chinese, 416, 417. 

Question whether, if the Indian Government 
stopped the export of opium to China, the Chinese 
Government would prohibit the import of other 
foreign opium into China, 428, 429. 

mk. polhill turner. 

Has been a missionary in the north of China, 1963- 
1964. 

The main characteristics of the Chinese the same 
in the north as in the south, 1967. 

Opium largely consumed in the north, 1968-1970 ; 
ia called fOT'eigu smoko though produced in China, 
1970, 1971, 1973. 

Agrees with Mr. Hutton as to evil effects, morally 
and physically, of opium smoking, 1987, 19S8. 

The Chinese condemn opium as a curse, 2009 ; 
opium interferes with the endurance of chair-bearers, 
2010. 

Sir THOMAS P. WADE, G.O.M.G., K.C.B. 

Served 40 years in China and was British Minister 
iit Pekin, 1283, 1284; opium not introduced into 
China by the British, 1285, 1317-1319 ; was known as 
a medicine in China ten centuries ago, 1285 ; smoking 
of recent date, but introduced from Manilla before 
our trade developed, ib. ; Tso Tsung-tang's opinion 
that it was introduced in 17th century, ib. ; supply 
from India at first not more than enough for the 
consumption of 1 per cent, of the population, ih. ; 
30 or 40 years ago sufficient for 2 per cent., ib, 1357- 
1360; cultivation in 10 provinces in 1847, 1285; 
opium regularly taxed like other imports in certain 
places, 1286. 

Many Chinese suffer from excess of opium, but to 
a great number it is a stimulant, like beer is in 
England, 1285, 1286; his views expressed in 1871, 
1320; since modified by him, ifc. 

Wars with China directly traceable to the deter- 
mination of the Chinese to ignore relations with 
England, 1287, 1289, 1321-1323; quotes from the 
" Chinese Repository " h: support of this view, 1289 ; 

Y 4 



176 



INDIAN OPIUM COMMISSION ; 



the seizure of opium only an incident of the first 
war, 1287 ; the capture of the "Arrow," 1289, 1290 ; 
opium not the cause of the second war, 1291 ; Lord 
Clarendon's I'eforence to opium in his instructions to 
Lord Elgin, ih. 

The Tientsin Treaty, ib. ; Mr. Eeid subsequently 
urged Lord Elgin to regularise the trade, ih. ; oiiiiini 
entered iu the tariff withont any objection by 
Chinese, il. ; manner in which the rate of duty was 
fixed in the tariff, 1324-1529; the real concern of the 
Chinese was about the residence of a Foreign Minister 
atPekin, ih., 1292; refusal of the Chinese to admit 
Sir Eredericl^ Bruce into Pekin, ib. ; this led to the 
third war, 1297-1298 ; forcing the opium trade never 
an object with the British Government, 1299, ]3U0 ; 
the subject of opium not mentioned after 1860 till in 
1868 Sir Eutherford Alcock suggested an increase of 
duty, 1300 ; objected to by the Indian Government, 
1301 ; not referred to again till the Chefoo Con- 
vention, when the object of the reference was to 
ensure the Chinese Government, its revenue against 
foreign importers, ib., 1331-1353; delay in con- 
firming the Convention, 1302, 1336, 1337, 1361-1363; 
the Chinese did not ask for free liberty as to the 
amount of likin, 1338, 1339 ; the jegularisation of 
the trade at Hong Kong, 1302 ; question of the power 
of Chinese Government to prohibit importation, ib. 

The attitude of the Chinese Government towards 
the opium habit, 1303 ; quotes from his conferences 
with Chinese Ministers on the subject, 1304-1308; 
individual Chinese oflBcers at times take rigorous 
measures against opium, but the feeling of the 
Central Government not very active, 1309; does not 
agree in Sir Rutherford Alcook's opinion on this 
point, 1363-1370. 

Inclusion of the prohibition of the import of opium 
in the treatj' of 1868 between China and America due 
to the American Government wishing to give some- 
thing in order to secure the encouragement of immi- 



gration, and also probably to an anti-opium party in 
the States, 1311, 1312. 

Sir James Pergusson's declaration, 1302, 1340- 
1343 ; if the Chefoo Convention were denounced, the 
provisions of the Treaty of Tientsin would come into 
force, 1344-1347 ; the prohibition of the export of 
opium from India to China would be futile in pre- 
veiiti;ig the consumption of opium, 1313 ; nor would 
it remove our difficulties with China, ib., 1371-1373; 
the sincerity of a proposal by British Government to 
prohibit export would probably be doubted by the 
Chinese, 1313 ; proposal of Chinese Minister in 1881 
tor higher rate of lilcin. 1348 ; England would do a 
disservice to China if it abandoned interference with 
the internal duty, 1349, 1350. 

Mr. MAECUS wood. 

Is connected with the China Inland Mission and 
has served in Gan-hwuy and other parts of China, 
639-641. 

Prevalence of the opium habit, 642, 658 ; evil 
effects of opium smoking, 643, 656-657, 668-672. 

Public opinion in China as to opium smoking, 644, 
661-662 . 

Opium not taken in moderation, 645. 

Extent to which Indian and native-grown opium 
are resnectively consumed in Gan-hwuy, 646. 

Peeling of hostility of Chinese towards British 
partly due to connexion of British Government with 
opium trade, 647, 648, 655, 656 ; feeling of the com- 
mon people towards missionaries, 649, 650. 

Considers that Government should prohibit the 
export of opium Irom India, (150 ; it is the only way 
out of the diflnculty from a missionary's point of 
view, 651-654 ; and would, in his opinion, induce the 
Chinese to put down the growth of native poppy, 
659, 660 ; consumers of opium not permitted to join 
native Protestant churches, 662-667. 



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