OPIUM
Tula is a good book. It is a relief to read an American account of the opium question which is fair and impartial, and does not ignore the practical difficulties which confront other nations.
Not that! agree with everything Mr. Gavit says ; he indulges, however, only once or twice in special pleading, as when he accepts the official figures of the revenue received from opium in British Crown Colonies because they are large, and doubts the figures furnished by the Government of 'India because they are small. But on the whole he doles out his blame quite indifferently to Europe, the British Empire and the United States of America. He is tender to China and the East generally ; all anti-opium partisans have a predeliction in favour of China ; for she did suppress the cultivation of the poppy at one time, even if she cut off her subjects' heads in the process, and that is more than anyone else has succeeded in doing. The sins of the tempted are more lightly treated than the sins of the tempters, and with this attitude 'I have great sympathy. After the flood of ignorant abuse and windy asseveration of high ideals as an excuse for contempt with which we have been regaled from America, it is grateful to read a dispassionate effort that is really informed.
Blame is easier to accept when it is deserved : to writhe patiently under every form of misrepresentation is more diffi- cult. Mr. Gavit, whatever he may think about the past and the "black years "—roughly those between 1840 and 1890—does admit that some of the Far Eastern Powers, and perhaps specially Great Britain, are sincere in their desire to suppress completely the smoking of opium, and are not actuated solely by sordid financial motives.
Mr. Gavit has faced the possibility that the American remedy of entire suppression of poppy cultivation except for medicinal and scientific purposes may not be practicable in the present condition of affairs. He is even ready to concede that there may be some weight in the contention, continually put forward by British officials in the Far East, , that an attempt to prohibit all import of opium would result in such extended smuggling that the second state of these Colonies would be worse than the first. The complete pro- hibition of any vicious habit by legislation is no easy matter, as the United States of America know well, and in the Far East the Powers are dealing with a deep rooted custom which in one of its forms, namely, that of eating, and in moderation, is not much more harmful than other undesirable tastes of mankind. This is not to say that no effort should be made to suppress and eradicate it. As far as India is concerned the control is already very stringent, and if it be true that a strong feeling against the abuse of opium is growing up among the people themselves the power lies in , their own hands. May I say in passing that Mr. Gavit makes a strong appeal when he talks of the vulnerability of opium takers by cholera and other epidemics, and the bearing of this fact, if it be a fact, on the Western nations in their fight against epidemics of all kinds ?
When Mr. Gavit deals with the question of the export of opium he has some hard things to say, though not in my MI -opinion too hard. The Indian Government has strictly
kept to its undertaking not to permit export to any country beyond the amount asked for as necessary. It is obviously difficult to question that amount if the request is made by the Government of another country. But the case should be different between members of the British Empire. It is an undeniable fact that some of our Crown Colonies derive • a great part of their revenue from the trade in opium—in one case as much as 45 per cent. Whatever truth there may be in the statement—and I concede there is a great deal— that the limit beyond which restriction would do more harm • than good may have been reached, it is yet a very uncom- fortable and disturbing fact that some of our Crown Colonies derive a great part of their revenue from the degradation of their Chinese population. If it be true that further restric- tion is impossible, then at least the Colonial Governments should free themselves from any slur by using the revenue so obtained in fighting the habit, by the various methods which are costly and need individual work. As things 'are now, the British Empire is continually under suspicion of having a sinister maive of gain behind all its protests against drastic action. It is easy to say "ignore suspicion, pay no attention to slander," but even if there were no such thing in the world as misrepresentation, the actual facts are not worthy of a great Imperial Administration. Is it not asking too much of human nature and of officials to expect them, for altruistic motives only, to suppress vigilantly and gradually extinguish a trade which brings in a great revenue ?
There is not space here to go into details—I only allude to this question because it is the weakest place in our defence of policy. Mr. Gavit gibes delicately at the Far East Powers, of whose Home Governments he says, "none would tax themselves by so much as a farthing, an escudo, or a rei, to make up a loss in Colonial revenue." It is difficult to do everything at once ; England at any rate must at present pay her debts and is risking her future to do so.
The fight against the derivatives of opium and the coca leaf, that is against habit-forming drugs, is the most formidable part of the struggle. Here at any rate *eat Britain has
been largely successful in suppressing the illicit manufacture and traffic in these minute but demoniacal engines of destruc- tion. But all the nations are involved and all must unite to combat the danger. If the East gave the West the poppy, the West has given the East the deadly hypodermic needle, and this form of the opium vice has spread like wild-fire all over the East and in the United States. Mr. Gavit has something to say about the attitude of the American delegation at the Second Geneva Conference, but I do not intend to go into the embittered controversy about the First and Second Conferences.* • The logical position of the Americans who urge suppression of the raw material is unassailable ; the whole question is— can it be done ? The policy of the other group of fighters is to attack the manufacture of and traffic in derivatives and suppress them. Mr. Gavit holds the balance between these two views impartially. He may advocate the attack on derivatives as the least good of two courses, but he dislikes the idea of the American Achilles sulking in his tent and accusing the whole world of criminal intention because they will not adopt his own plan of campaign.
It is, however, disappointing to many in Great Britain that no definite undertaking was given by their Government to begin the gradual suppression of opium smoking in a certain
* The reason Sir Michael Delavigne, and I with him, stood out for two conferences, the first to be composed of those Powers in whose dominions the poppy is cultivated, was the very simple one that minute regulations and restrictions are difficult to frame, and certainly could hardly be planned by Powers who have no experience of the problem. To impose regulations framed by those who have no practical experience upon others who have, does not tend to good administration. The Second Conference at the instance of the American Delegation was thrown open to the whole world because the manufacture of drugs is both easy and very lucrative, and it was recognized that successful suppression of manufacture in one country would almost inevitably lead to fresh manufacture in other countries. Further the whole world population and not a section of it—as in the case of opium habits— suffers from the danger of drug-addiction. The struggle over the Far Eastern problem would not have been scotched even if the two parts of the subject had been, as the Americans wished, treated as one. It is not possible in International questions to impose rules and regulations which are not agreed to, to say nothing of the annoyance of a number of States with no experience legis- lating for other States which alone have to grapple with the problem.
number of years, although I personally do not hold that no advance in this direction was made.
The appointment of a Central Board is also a great step forward when and if it functions properly. All the nations should work for its establishment and efficiency. To anyone genuinely interested in this intricate subject I can heartily recommend Mr. Gavit's book for a clear, just, and yet im- passioned statement of the dangers ahead, and the difficulties and controversies involved.
EDITH LYTTELTON.
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