China's part was most difficult. In the remote, interior provinces, poppies were grown surreptitiously, connived at by corrupt officials who made money from the crops. However, drastic laws were enacted and severe penalties imposed upon those who broke them. If poppy cultivation could not be stopped, England would not hold to her end of the bargain. Not only was there a nation of addicts to deal with, but these could obtain copious supplies of opium from the foreign concessions, over which the Chinese had no control. We shall show, in another article, to what extent this was carried on. Yet somehow, in some manner, the impossible happened. Year by year, little by little, one province after another was freed from poppy cultivation, until in 1917, China was practically free from the native-grown drug, and foreign importation had practically ended.
In this manner, first by large smuggling, then by two opium wars, was China drugged with opium. And in this manner, and to this extent, has she succeeded in freeing herself from the curse. But in one way, she is not free. She has no control over the extra-territorial holdings of European powers, for in each treaty port are the foreign concessions already mentioned--German, Austrian, British, French, Russian. And in these concessions, opium may be procured. Simply by crossing an imaginary line, in such cities as Shanghai and Hongkong, can the Chinese buy as much opium as they choose. China will never be rid of this menace till she is rid of these extraterritorial holdings. Opium shops, licensed by foreign governments, are always ready to supply her people with the forbidden drug.
We say that the China market is closed. So it is, in one way. But the British Opium Monopoly is not ended. The year 1917 saw a tremendous blow dealt to the British opium dealers, but other markets will be found. There are other countries than China whose inhabitants can be taught this vice. The object of this discussion is to consider these other countries, and to see to what extent the world is menaced by this possibility.
There are many people who advocate the use of opium, and who defend the policy of the Opium Monopoly. They argue that it is not harmful--if taken in moderation. They even assert that it is no more objectionable than alcohol or tobacco. Leaving out of account, therefore, the consensus of opinion of the medical profession as to the evils of habit-forming drugs, and accepting the theory that opium is harmless, we should then like to ask why the use of opium is so carefully restricted to the peoples of subject states, who have no voice in their own affairs? Why should the benefits of opium be confined to Oriental races, and why should not the white race be given the same opportunities for indulgence? Is there any reason for this discrimination? As a source of revenue, it certainly has advantages. Yet curiously enough, those European countries which derive much profit through the sale of opium to their subject races, seem to have an aversion to introducing it to their people at home. And there is a further coincidence in the fact that none of the self-governing colonies of European countries--Australia, New Zealand and Canada--permit this traffic. It appears to be only the subject peoples, whose well-being has become the White Man's Burden, who receive the blessings of this peculiar form of altruism. Is it because the white race is worth preserving, worth protecting, and because subject nations are fair game for exploitation of any kind?