WESTERN "REFORM" IN CHINA.
By G.
SOME of the American journals are complimenting China on her effort at reform on the lines adopted in this country; namely, that of making crime legal and legitimate by licensing it. The particular reference is to a movement in Peking for "regulating" the opium dens. Opium, as is generally known, was forced upon China by Great Britain in order to make a market for English opium cultivated in India. The drug is now such a curse to the country as the liquor traffic is to the so-called "Christian" nations. And now Chinese prohibitionists have to fight the poppy and its consequences under more difficult conditions than they originally fought its introduction. But the government has imbibed the Western "reform" idea of "regulation" by license. The board of health has issued the following order: "Opium-smoking is extremely harmful to the health and the shops where opium is smoked are the retreats of loafers. Such places should really be altogether prohibited, so that people might enjoy prosperity,15and dens of thieves would thus be done away with. But as opium-smoking has become such a habit, it can not be got rid of entirely and at once. The evil can only be removed gradually. There are in the outer city of Peking many opium shops, and it is evident that the smokers are increasing every day, which is very bad. This department has taken into consideration the matter, and arrangements have been made for those who will abandon the habit. In addition, the opium shops in the outer city have been divided into four classes and are to be taxed after certain regulations. They are to register themselves according to their classes and the number of lamps, for the payment of taxes, so that inspection can easily be effected. If any one dares to make a false declaration, or opens shop without a license, or refuses tax, the building will be confiscated and the owners strictly fined. All must respect this order and not disobey." But as the licensing of the liquor traffic has given it such a political hold in this country that its domination is felt in every grade of public affairs, a like result can hardly fail to follow the licensing of the opium traffic in China. It is the placing such business on a level with respectable, legitimate enterprise that gives it prestige and opportunity to magnify its prerogative as a recognized business. And China will find such a result arising from its license scheme. As prohibition is the only measure that in any degree lessens the quantity of alcoholic beverages used in "civilized" or "Christian" communities, or reduces the degree of evil consequence of its use, so it must be with the opium curse. But poor China can not abolish opium while she is unable to cope with the army and navy of Great Britain, unless a spirit of sacrifice comes over the mind of the great opium promoter and monopolist. And if the evil is to be licensed and legitimized by the Chinese state and municipal authorities, its political power will soon become so potent that it will be a strong ally of British commercialism. Prohibition will find an opposition in cultivated appetite and home politics far more difficult to overcome than even the commercial and military forces of any foreign power. It would be far better for China to stand for the principle of prohibition, altho success be for a time apparently out of sight, than to handicap her opposition to the opium evil by making it a legal traffic. G.