Part 3
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:
1911-12 1,270 chests of opium 1912-13 1,775 1913-14 1,186 1914-15 2,000 Imported from India and Singapore. 1915-16 2,000 1916-17 1,100 1917-18 1,850
Also, from the same source, we find the number of retail opium shops:
1912-13 2,985 1913-14 3,025 1914-15 3,132 1915-16 3,104 1916-17 3,111
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 exactly _how_ this 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:
1903-4 3,576,431 pounds sterling 1904-5 4,036,436 1905-6 3,775,826 1906-7 3,771,409 1907-8 3,145,403 1908-9 2,230,755 1909-10 3,377,222 1910-11 3,963,264 1911-12 3,019,858 1912-13 2,406,084 1913-14 1,084,093 1914-15 110,712
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:
Imports 7 chests Export 224 chests
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:
1908 $483,019 1909 460,416 1910 385,070 1911 420,151 1912 426,867 1913 492,455"
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:
Revenue--1910 221,284 pounds sterling 1911 159,456 1912 175,967 1913 210,342 1914 208,823
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 the _insincerity_ and _unreliability_ of the Chinese authorities in what they were professing, and in what _they_ were 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 then _intended_ to 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 its _own_ attitude 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 were _eighty-seven_ licensed opium shops in the International Settlement. In May, 1914, there were _six hundred and sixty-three_. In 1907 the _average_ monthly revenue from opium licenses, dens and shops _combined_, was Taels 5,450. In May, 1914, the revenue from licenses and _opium shops alone_ was 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:
_Year_ _Month_ _Dens_ _Shops_ _Monthly revenue,_ _shops only_
1908 Jan. 1436 87 Taels, 338 Oct. 1005 131 623 1909 Jan. 599 166 1,887 Oct. 297 231 2,276 1910 Oct. Closed 306 5,071 1911 Oct. 348 5,415 1912 Nov. 402 5,881 1913 Dec. 560 8,953 1914 March 628 10,188 April 654 10,772
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.
1913. Wheelbarrows Taels, 38,670 Carts 22,944 Motor cars 12,376 Cargo boats 5,471 Chinese boats 4,798 Steam launches 2,221 Total, 86,480 Opium shops 86,386 Opium, 86,386
Another table shows the licensed institutions in Shanghai representing normal social life (chiefly of the Chinese) as compared with revenue from opium shops:
1913. Tavern Taels, 16,573 Foreign liquor seller 19,483 Chinese wine shop 28,583 " tea shop 9,484 " theater 8,714 " club 3,146 ------ Total 85,983 Opium shops 86,386
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.
1903-4 1,610,296 pounds sterling 1904-5 1,504,604 1905-6 1,130,372 1906-7 1,031,065 1907-8 1,215,142 1908-9 2,703,871 1909-10 1,234,432 1910-11 2,203,670 1911-12 3,614,887 1912-13 3,242,902
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]
[2] This description of the Opium Department is to be found in Statistics of British India, Financial Statistics, Vol. II, 8th Issue, page 159: