1"A Fair Chance for Asia," by Putnam Weale, page 227.
IV
SINGAPORE
In January, 1917, we found ourselves at Singapore, a British dependency, situated at the end of the Malay Peninsula, and one of the greatest seaports of the Orient. We were stopping at the Hotel de l'Europe, a large and first class hotel. The first morning at breakfast, the waiter stood beside us, waiting for our order. He was a handsome young Malay, dressed in white linen clothes, and wearing a green jade bracelet on one wrist. We gave him our order and he did not move off. He continued to stand quietly beside our chairs, as in a trance. We repeated the order—one tea, one coffee, two papayas. He continued to stand still beside us, stupidly. Finally he went away. We waited for a long time and nothing happened. At last, after a long wait, he returned and set before us a teapot filled with hot water. Nothing else. We repeated again—tea, coffee, papayas. We said it two or three times. Then he went away and came back with some tea. We repeated again, coffee and fruit. Eventually he brought us some coffee. Finally, after many endeavors, we got the fruit. It all took a long time. We then began to realize that something was the matter with him. He could understand English well enough to know what orders we were giving him, but he seemed to forget as soon as he left our sight. We then realized that he was probably drugged. It was the same thing every day. In the morning he was stupid and dull, and could not remember what we told him. By evening his brain was clearer, and at dinner he could remember well enough. The effects of whatever he had been taking had apparently worn off during the day.
We learned that the opium trade was freely indulged in, at Singapore, fostered by the Government. Singapore is a large city of about 300,000 inhabitants, a great number of which are Chinese. It has wide, beautiful streets, fine government buildings, magnificent quays and docks—a splendid European city at the outposts of the Orient. We found that a large part of its revenue is derived from the opium traffic—from the sale of opium, and from license fees derived from shops where opium may be purchased, or from divans where it may be smoked. The customers are mainly Chinese.
I wanted to visit these Government-licensed opium shops and opium dens. A friend lent me two servants, as guides. We three got into rickshaws and went down to the Chinese quarter, where there are several hundred of these places, all doing a flourishing business. It was early in the afternoon, but even then, trade was brisk. The divans were rooms with wide wooden benches running round the sides, on which benches, in pairs, sharing a lamp between them, lay the smokers. They purchased their opium on entering, and then lay down to smoke it. The packages are little, triangular packets, each containing enough for about six smokes. Each packet bears a label, red letters on a white ground, "Monopoly Opium."
In one den there was an old man—but you can't tell whether a drug addict is old or not, he looked as they all do, gray and emaciated—but as he caught my eye, he laid down the needle on which he was about to cook his pill, and glanced away. I stood before him, waiting for him to continue the process, but he did not move.
"Why doesn't he go on?" I asked my guide. "He is ashamed to have you see him," came the reply.
"But why should he be ashamed?" I asked, "The British Government is not ashamed to sell to him, to encourage him to drug himself, to ruin himself. Why should he be ashamed?"
"Nevertheless, he is," replied the guide. "You see what he looks like—what he has become. He is not quite so far gone as the others—he is a more recent victim. He still feels that he has become degraded. Most of them do not feel that way—after a while."
So we went on and on, down the long street. There was a dreadful monotony about it all. House after house of feeble, emaciated, ill wrecks, all smoking Monopoly Opium, all contributing, by their shame and degradation, to the revenues of the mighty British Empire.
Packet of opium
Packet of opium, actual size, as sold in licensed opium shop in Singapore. The local government here derives from forty to fifty per cent of its revenue through the sale of opium.
That evening after dinner, I sat on the wide verandah of the hotel, looking over a copy of the "Straits Times." One paragraph, a dispatch from London, caught my eye. "Chinese in Liverpool. Reuter's Telegram. London, January 17, 1917. Thirty-one Chinese were arrested during police raids last night on opium dens in Liverpool. Much opium was seized. The police in one place were attacked by a big retriever and by a number of Chinese, who threw boots and other articles from the house-top."
Coming fresh from a tour of the opium-dens of Singapore, I must say that item caused some mental confusion. It must also be confusing to the Chinese. It must be very perplexing to a Chinese sailor, who arrives in Liverpool on a ship from Singapore, to find such a variation in customs. To come from a part of the British Empire where opium smoking is freely encouraged, to Great Britain itself where such practices are not tolerated. He must ask himself, why it is that the white race is so sedulously protected from such vices, while the subject races are so eagerly encouraged. It may occur to him that the white race is valuable and must be preserved, and that subject races are not worth protecting. This double standard of international justice he must find disturbing. It would seem, at first glance, as if subject races were fair game—if there is money in it. Subject races, dependents, who have no vote, no share in the government and who are powerless to protect themselves—fair game for exploitation. Is this double-dealing what we mean when we speak of "our responsibility to backward nations," or of "the sacred trust of civilization" or still again when we refer to "the White Man's burden"?
Pondering over these things as I sat on the hotel verandah, I finally reached the conclusion that to print such a dispatch as that in the "Straits Times" was, to say the least, most tactless.
V
THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS OPIUM COMMISSION
From time to time, certain people in England apparently have qualms as to Great Britain's opium traffic, and from time to time questions are raised as to whether or not such traffic is morally defensible. In February, 1909, apparently in answer to such scruples and questionings on the part of a few, a very interesting report was published, "Proceedings of the Commission appointed to Enquire into Matters Relating to the Use of Opium in the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States. Presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of His Majesty." This document may be found in the New York Public Library and is well worth careful perusal.
This Commission consisted of about a dozen men, some English, some natives of the Straits Settlements. They apparently made an intensive and exhaustive study of the subject, carefully examining it from every angle. Countless witnesses appeared before them, giving testimony as to the effects of opium upon the individual. This testimony is interesting, in that it is of a contradictory nature, some witnesses saying that moderate opium indulgence is nothing worse than indulgence in alcoholic beverages, and like alcohol, only pernicious if taken to excess. Other witnesses seemed to think that it was most harmful. The Commission made careful reports as to the manner of licensing houses for smoking, the system of licensing opium farms, etc., and other technical details connected with this extensive Government traffic. Finally, the question of revenue was considered, and while the harmfulness of opium smoking was a matter of divided opinion, when it came to revenue there was no division of opinion at all. As a means of raising revenue, the traffic was certainly justifiable. It was proven that about fifty per cent of the revenues of the Straits Settlements and the Federated Malay States came from the opium trade, and, as was naïvely pointed out, to hazard the prosperity of the Colony by lopping off half its revenues, was an unthinkable proceeding.
The figures given are as follows.
There was one dissenting voice as to the conclusions reached by this Opium Commission, that of a Bishop who presented a minority report. But what are moral scruples against cold facts—that there's money in the opium trade?
This Commission made its report in 1909. But the opium business is apparently still flourishing in the Straits Settlements. Thus we read in the official Blue Book for 1917, "Colony of the Straits Settlements" that of the total revenue for the year, $19,672,104, that $9,182,000 came from opium.
What per cent is that?
VI
OPIUM IN SIAM
Bangkok, Siam, January, 1917. Siam, an independent kingdom. As a matter of fact, "protected" very sternly and thoroughly by Great Britain and France, so that its "independence" would about cover an oyster cracker. However, it is doubtless protected "benevolently" for what protectorate is anything but benevolent? The more rigorous the protectorate, the more benevolent its character. The Peace Conference seems to have given us a new word in "mandatory." We do not know as yet what adjective will be found to qualify mandatory, but it will doubtless be fitting and indicative of idealism—of sorts. Therefore, all will be well. Our suspicions will be lulled. It is high time that a substitute was found for "benevolent protectorate."
The particular form of benevolence noted in Siam was the total inability of the Siamese to exclude British opium. They are allowed, by the benevolent powers, to impose an import duty on all commodities imported—except opium. That is free. The treaty between Siam and Great Britain in 1856 says so. We rather fancy that Great Britain had more to say about this in 1856 than Siam, but maybe not. Anyway, poor old Siam, an independent kingdom, is bound to receive as much opium as may be imported, and is quite powerless, by the terms of this treaty, to enact laws to exclude it. In the last year or two, the Government of Siam has been obliged to put the opium traffic under government control, in order to minimize the worst evils in connection with it, although to restrict and regulate an evil is a poor substitute for the ability to abolish it.
All this, you will see, is rather tough on the Siamese, but good business for the British Empire.
However, opium is not bad for one. There are plenty of people to testify to that. We Americans have a curious notion to the contrary, but then, we Americans are so hysterical and gullible. An Englishman whom we met in Bangkok told me that opium was not only harmless, but actually beneficial. He said once that he was traveling through the jungle, into the interior somewhere. He had quite a train of coolies with him, carrying himself and his baggage through the dense forests. By nightfall, he found his coolies terribly exhausted with the long march. But he was in a hurry to press on, so, as he expressed it, he gave each of them a "shot" of morphia, whereupon all traces of fatigue vanished. They forgot the pain of their weary arms and legs and were thus enabled to walk all night. He said that morphia certainly knocked a lot of work out of men—you might say, doubled their capacity for endurance.
The night we left Bangkok, we got aboard the boat at about nine in the evening. The hatch was open, and we looked into the hold upon a crowd of coolies who had been loading sacks of rice aboard the ship. There they lay upon the rice sacks, two or three dozen of them, all smoking opium. Two coolies to a lamp. I rather wondered that a lamp did not upset and set the boat on fire, but they are made of heavy glass, with wide bottoms, so that the chances of overturning them are slight. So we leaned over the open hatch, looking down at these little fellows, resting and recuperating themselves after their work, refreshing themselves for the labor of the morrow.
Opium is wonderful, come to think of it. But why, since it is so beneficial and so profitable, confine it to the downtrodden races of the world? Why limit it to the despised races, who have not sense enough to govern themselves anyway?
The following figures are taken from the Statistical Year Books for the Kingdom of Siam:
Foreign trade and navigation of the port of Bangkok, imports of opium:
Also, from the same source, we find the number of retail opium shops:
VII
HONGKONG
"The Crown Colony of Hongkong was ceded by China to Great Britain in January, 1841; the cession was confirmed by the treaty of Nanking in August, 1842; and the charter bears date April 5, 1843. Hongkong is the great center for British commerce with China and Japan, and a military and naval station of first-class importance."
Thus the Statesman's Year Book. This authority, however, omits to mention just exactlyhowthis important piece of Chinese territory came to be ceded to Great Britain. It was the reward that Great Britain took unto herself as an "indemnity" following the successful prosecution of what is sometimes spoken of as the first opium war—a war of protest on the part of China against Great Britain's insistence on her right to deluge China with opium. China's resistance was in vain—her efforts to stem the tide of opium were fruitless—the might, majesty, dominion and power of the British Empire triumphed, and China was beaten. The island on which Hongkong is situated was at that time a blank piece of land; but strategically well placed—ninety miles south of the great Chinese city of Canton, the market for British opium.
The opposite peninsula of Kowloon, on the mainland, was ceded to Great Britain by treaty in 1861, and now forms part of Hongkong. By a convention signed at Peking in June, 1898, there was also leased to Great Britain for 99 years a portion of Chinese territory mainly agricultural, together with the waters of Mirs Bay and Deep Bay, and the island of Lan-tao. Its area is 356 square miles, with about 91,000 inhabitants, exclusively Chinese. Area of Old Kowloon is 3 square miles. Total area of colony, 391 square miles.
The population of Hongkong, excluding the Military and Naval establishments, and that portion of the new territory outside New Kowloon, was according to the 1911 census, 366,145 inhabitants. Of this number the Chinese numbered 354,187.
This colony is, of course, governed by Great Britain, and is not subject to Chinese control. Here is situated a Government opium factory, and the imports of Indian opium into Hongkong for the past several years are as follows:
These figures are taken from "Statistical Abstract Relating to British India, 1905-6 to 1911-15," and "Statistical Abstract Relating to British India, 1903-4 to 1912-13." The falling off in imports of opium noticed in 1914-15 may be due to the war, lack of shipping, etc., or to the fact that the China market was due to close on April 1, 1917. The closing of the China market—400,000,000 of people destined no longer to have opium supplied to them (except illegally, by smuggling, etc.) is naturally a big blow to the British opium interests. That is where the menace to the rest of the world comes in. Opium has been proved such a profitable commodity, that if one market is shut off, others must be found as substitutes. The idea of closing the trade altogether naturally does not appeal to those who profit by it. Therefore, what we should hail at first sight as a welcome indication of a changed moral sentiment, is in reality but the pause which proceeds the casting about for new markets, for finding new peoples to drug.
The Colonial Report No. 972, Hongkong Report for 1917, gives the imports and exports of opium: Page 7—
"The imports and exports of certified opium during the year as follows:
Of these, however, the imports all come from Shanghai, and of the total export of 224 chests, 186 went to Shanghai."
Opium received from other sources than Shanghai makes a better showing. "Seven hundred and forty chests of Persian opium imported during the year, and seven hundred and forty-five exported to Formosa. Nine hundred and ten chests of uncertified Indian opium were imported: Four hundred and ten chests by the Government Monopoly, and the remaining five hundred for the Macao opium farmer."
Macao is a small island off the coast of China, near Canton—a Portuguese settlement, owned by Portugal for several centuries, where the opium trade is in full blast. But somehow, one does not expect so much of Portugal. The most significant feature of the above paragraph, however, lies in the reference to the importation of Persian opium. "Seven hundred and forty chests of Persian opium imported." Query, who owns Persia?
Nevertheless, in spite of this poor showing, in spite of the decrease in opium importation as compared with the palmy days, all is not lost. The Crown Colony of Hongkong still continues to do an active trade. In the Colonial Office List for 1917, on page 218, we read:
"Hongkong. Revenue: About one-third of the revenue is derived from the Opium Monopoly."
VIII
SARAWAK
Near British North Borneo. Area, 42,000 square miles, many rivers navigable. The government of part of the present territory was obtained in 1842 by Sir James Brooke from the Sultan of Brunei. Various accessions were made between 1861, 1885, and 1890. The Rajah, H.H. Sir Charles Johnson Brooke, G.C.M.G., nephew to the late Rajah, born June 3, 1829, succeeded in 1868. Population estimated at 500,000, Malays, Dyaks, Kayans, Kenyahs, and Muruts, with Chinese and other settlers.
Thus the Statesman's Year Book, to which we would add a paragraph from an article in the National Geographic Magazine for February, 1919. Under the title: "Sarawak: The Land of the White Rajahs" we read: "With the recent death of Sir Charles Brooke, G.C.M.G., the second of the white rajahs of Sarawak, there came to an end one of the most useful and unusual careers among the many that have done credit to British rule in the Far East. For nearly 49 years he governed, as absolute sovereign, a mixed population of Chinese, Malays, and numerous pagan tribes scattered through the villages and dense jungles of an extensive territory on the northwest coast of Borneo.
"Constant solicitude for the welfare of his people won the sympathy and devotion which enabled this white man, supported by an insignificant army and police, to establish the peaceful occupations of civilization in place of barbarous tyranny and oppression." How thoroughly this "civilizing" process was accomplished may be judged somewhat by turning to the Colonial Office List for 1917, where on page 436 we read: "Sarawak: The principal sources of revenue are the opium, gambling, pawn shops, and arrack, producing:
In the Statesman's Year Book for 1916 we find the total revenue for this well-governed little colony as follows, given however in pounds sterling, instead of dollars, as in the above table. Thus:
It would seem as if forty-nine years of constant solicitude for the welfare of a people, establishing the peaceful occupations of civilization, might have resulted in something better than a revenue derived from opium, gambling, pawn shops and arrack.
IX
SHANGHAI
In the New York Library there is an interesting little book, about a quarter of an inch thick, and easy reading. It is entitled: "Municipal Ethics: Some Facts and Figures from the Municipal Gazette, 1907-1914. An Examination of the Opium License policy of the Shanghai Municipality. In an Open Letter to the Chairman of the Council, by Arnold Foster, Wuchang. For 42 years Missionary to the Chinese."
Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, is of two parts. The native or Shanghai city, under the control and administration of the Chinese. And the foreign concessions, that part of the city under the control and administration of foreigners. This is generally known as the International Settlement (also called the model settlement), and the Shanghai Municipal Council is the administrative body. Over this part the Chinese have no control. In 1907, when China began her latest fight against the opium evil, she enacted and enforced drastic laws prohibiting opium smoking and opium selling on Chinese soil, but was powerless to enforce these laws on "foreign" soil. In the foreign concessions, the Chinese were able to buy as much opium as they pleased, merely by stepping over an imaginary line, into a portion of the town where the rigid anti-opium laws of China did not apply.
Says Mr. Arnold, in his Open Letter: "It will be seen that the title of the pamphlet, Municipal Ethics, describes a situation which is a complex one. It concerns first the actual attitude of the Shanghai Municipal Council towards the Chinese national movement for the suppression of the use of opium. This, we are assured by successive Chairmen of the Council, has been one of "sincere sympathy," "the greatest sympathy," and more to the same effect. Certainly no one would have guessed this from the facts and figures reproduced in this pamphlet from the columns of the "Municipal Gazette."
"The second element in the ethical situation is the actual attitude of the Council not only towards the Chinese national movement, but also towards its own official assurances, protestations and promises.
"It is on this second branch of the subject before us that I specially desire to focus attention, and for the facts here stated that I would bespeak the most searching examination. The protestations of the Council as to its own virtuous attitude in regard to opium reform in China are made the more emphatic, and also the more open to criticism, by being coupled with some very severe insinuations made at the time, as to theinsincerityandunreliabilityof the Chinese authorities in what they were professing, and in whattheywere planning to do in the same matter of opium reform. It so happens, as the event proves, that these sneers and insinuations were not only quite uncalled for, but were absolutely and utterly unjust. When a comparison is instituted between (a) 'official pronouncements' made two years ago by the Chinese authorities as to what they thenintendedto do for the suppression of the opium habit, and (b) the 'actual administrative results' that in the meanwhile have been accomplished, the Chinese have no cause to be ashamed of the verdict of impartial judges. What they have done may not always have been wise, it may sometimes have been very stern, but the outcome has been to awaken the astonishment and admiration of the whole civilized world! When, on the other hand, a comparison is instituted between (a) the fine professions and assurances of the Shanghai Municipal Council made six or seven years ago as to itsownattitude towards the 'eradication of the opium evil' and (b) the 'actual administrative results' of the Council's own proceedings, the feelings awakened are of very different order. Here, not to mention any other consideration, two hard facts stare one in the face: First, in October, 1907, there wereeighty-sevenlicensed opium shops in the International Settlement. In May, 1914, there weresix hundred and sixty-three. In 1907 theaveragemonthly revenue from opium licenses, dens and shopscombined, was Taels 5,450. In May, 1914, the revenue from licenses andopium shops alonewas Taels 10,995. The Council will not dispute these figures."
At the beginning of the anti-opium campaign in 1907, there were 700 dens (for smoking) in the Native City, and 1600 in the International Settlement. The Chinese closed their dens and shops at once. In the Settlement, the dens were not all closed until two years later, and the number of shops in the Settlement increased by leaps and bounds. Table I shows an outline of the Municipal opium-shop profits concurrent with the closing of the opium houses—and subsequently:
Mr. Arnold quotes part of a speech made by the Chairman of the Municipal Council, in March, 1908. The Chairman says in part: "The advice which we have received from the British Government is, in brief, that we should do more than keep pace with the native authorities, we should be in advance of them, and where possible, encourage them to follow us." It must have been most disheartening to the native authorities, suppressing the opium traffic with the utmost rigor, to see their efforts defied and nullified by the increased opportunities for obtaining opium in that part of Shanghai over which the Chinese have no control. A letter from a Chinese to a London paper, gives the Chinese point of view: "China ... is obliged to submit to the ruthless and heartless manner in which British merchants, under the protection of the Shanghai 'Model Settlement' are exploiting her to the fullest extent of their ability."
There is lots of money in opium, however. The following tables compiled by Mr. Arnold show the comparison between the amount derived from opium licenses as compared with the amount derived from other sorts of licenses.
Another table shows the licensed institutions in Shanghai representing normal social life (chiefly of the Chinese) as compared with revenue from opium shops:
Treaty Ports are those cities in China, in which the foreign powers have extra-territorial holdings, not subject to Chinese jurisdiction. Shanghai is one of them, the largest and most important. The Statistical Abstract Relating to British India for 1903-4 to 1912-13 shows the exports of British opium into these Treaty Ports.
It was in 1907 that China began her great fight against the opium evil, and enacted stringent laws for its prohibition on Chinese soil. On page 15 of his little book, Mr. Arnold quotes from Commissioner Carl, of Canton: "The 1912 figure (for the importation of foreign opium) is the largest on record since 1895. The great influx of Chinese into the foreign concessions, where the anti-opium smoking regulations cannot be enforced by the Chinese authorities, and where smoking can be indulged in without fear of punishment, no doubt accounts for the unusual increase under foreign opium."
X
INDIA
India is the source and fount of the British opium trade, and it is from Indian opium that the drug is chiefly supplied to the world. As we have said before, it is a government monopoly. Cultivators, who wish to plant poppies, may borrow money from the Government free of interest, the sole condition being that the crop be sold back to the Government again. It is manufactured into opium at the Government factory at Ghazipur, and once a month, the Government holds auctions at Calcutta, by means of which the drug finds its way into the trade channels of the world—illicit and otherwise.2
The following facts are taken from "Statistics of British India. Financial Statistics, Volume II, Eighth Issue," to be found at the New York Public Library:
Area under Poppy Cultivation
In the hey-day of the China trade, 613,996 acres were under cultivation in the years 1905-6, consequently this is a drop in the extent of acreage. But, as we have said before, the closing of the China market simply means that other outlets must be found, and apparently they are being found, since from 1914 onwards, the acreage devoted to poppy planting is slowly increasing again.
The opium manufactured in the Government factory is of three kinds—provision opium for export; excise opium, for consumption in India, and medical opium, for export to London. It is this latter form of opium which, according to Mr. MacDonald, in his "Trade Politics and Christianity in Africa and the East" is being manufactured into morphia by three British firms, two in Edinburgh and one in London, which morphia the Japanese are buying and smuggling into North China.
The "Statistics of British India" shows the countries into which Indian opium has been exported: we will take the figures for the last five years, which show the number of chests sent out.
In some countries we see a falling off, as in China. Cochin-China, the French colony, shows a considerable increase—the little Annamites, Tonquinese, Cambodgians and other inhabitants of this colony of the French Republic being shown what's what. Mauretius, a British Colony five hundred miles off the coast of Madagascar, in the Indian ocean, seems to be coming on. The falling off in shipments to the United Kingdom may possibly have been due to the war and the scarcity of ships. "Other countries" seem to be holding their own. With the end of the war, the increase in ships, and general trade revival, we may yet see compensation for the loss of China. With the increase of drug addicts in the United States, it may be that in time America will no longer be classed under "other countries" but will have a column all to itself.
In another table we find a comparison as to the number of chests of provision or export opium and of excise opium, or that intended for consumption in India. Thus:
Each chest contains roughly about one hundred and forty pounds.
Revenue
The revenue of India is derived from various sources, and is classified under eight heads. Thus: for 1916-17.
Out of these eight classifications, opium comes fourth on the list.
But in addition to the direct opium revenue, we must add another item, Excise, which is found under the third heading, taxation. In the "India Office List for 1918" we find "Excise" explained as follows: Page 383: "Excise and Customs: Excise duties in India are levied with the two fold object of raising revenue and restricting the use of intoxicants and narcotics." In the same book, on page 385, we also read: "Excise and Customs Revenues: The total of the excise and customs revenues on liquors and drugs in 1915-16 was in round figures ten million pounds. This total gives an average of rather more than ninepence a head on the whole population of British India as the revenue charge on drink and drugs during the year."
These excise duties are collected on spirits, beer, opium and intoxicating drugs, such as ganja, charas, and bhang, all forms or preparations of Indian hemp (Cannabis Indica), known in some countries as hashish. In 1917-18 there were 17,369 drug shops throughout India. The excise duties collected from these sources was pretty evenly distributed. Excise revenue for a period of years is as follows:
The "Statistics of British India for 1918" has this to say on the subject of Excise (page 218): "Revenue: During the ten years ending with 1916-17 the net receipts from Excise duties increased ... at the rate of 47 per cent. The receipts from opium (consumed in India, not exported) being at the rate of 44 per cent. The net receipts from liquors and from drugs other than opium ... the increase at the rate of 48 per cent. This large increase is due not merely to the expansion of consumption, but also to the imposition of progressively higher rates of duty and the increasingly extensive control of the excise administration. The revenue from drugs, (excluding opium) has risen in ten years ... the increase being at the rate of 67 per cent."
A national psychology that can review these figures with complacency, satisfaction and pride is not akin to American psychology. A nation that can subjugate 300,000,000 helpless people, and then turn them into drug addicts—for the sake of revenue—is a nation which commits a cold-blooded atrocity unparalleled by any atrocities committed in the rage and heat of war. The Blue Book shows no horror at these figures. Complacent approval greets the increase of 44 per cent of opium consumption, and the increase of 67 per cent in the use of other habit-forming drugs. Approval, and a shrewd appreciation of the possibilities for more revenue from "progressively higher rates of duty," knowing well that drug addicts will sell soul and body in order to procure their daily supply.