A War on Opium | AdventAI

Pacific Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Oakland, California · Nov 7, 1878

A War on Opium.

The repressive measures adopted by the Chinese government in opposing the use of the opium drug is commented on by W. H. Hallock, in Christian Statesman, as follows:—

Is there to be another opium war in China? Exactly forty years have passed since the government at Peking, to stay the progress of moral corruption in the empire, made the use of opium a capital crime. In the enforcement of its decree $20,000,000 worth of the drug in the hands of British merchants was seized in Canton and destroyed. As will be remembered, hostilities followed, in which numerous Chinese fortifications were destroyed. Again word comes that the imperial government has resolved to check the use of opium by every means in its power. Sales will be kept within the narrowest possible limits. Persons hopelessly addicted to the habit will be kept under close supervision, and places to which they habitually resort will be licensed and regulated under severe restrictions. . . . The moral aspect of the opium question, as related to the millions of China, far transcends in importance all others, though it is possible that political complications may arise. The prohibitory laws of 1828, by interfering with traffic, exasperated the English beyond measure. It remains to be seen whether the Chinese government is able to contend successfully with an evil of such magnitude, and so deeply rooted in the social fabric. There is at least hope for the young, under the severe restraint imposed, but as for the incorrigible it will not be strange if millions perish simply from the physical shock of sudden privation. As a social problem, this new departure in the realms of Confucius will be watched with no common interest by the "outside barbarians" of other climes.