47,543
---------- ----------
Total L2,280,031 1,175,639

III

JAPAN AS AN OPIUM DISTRIBUTOR

In an article which appeared in the _New York Times_, under date of
February 14, 1919, we read: "A charge that the Japanese Government
secretly fosters the morphia traffic in China and other countries in
the Far East is made by a correspondent in the _North China Herald_ in
its issue of December 21st last. The correspondent asserts that the
traffic has the financial support of the Bank of Japan, and that the
Japanese postal service in China aids, although 'Japan is a signatory
to the agreement which forbids the import into China of morphia or of
any appliances used in its manufacture or application.'

"Morphia no longer can be purchased in Europe, the correspondent
writes. The seat of industry has been transferred to Japan, and morphia
is now manufactured by the Japanese themselves. Literally, tens of
millions of yen are transferred annually from China to Japan for the
payment of Japanese morphia....

"In South China, morphia is sold by Chinese peddlers, each of whom
carries a passport certifying that he is a native of Formosa, and
therefore entitled to Japanese protection. Japanese drug stores
throughout China carry large stocks of morphia. Japanese medicine
vendors look to morphia for their largest profits. Wherever Japanese
are predominant, there the trade flourishes. Through Dairen, morphia
circulates throughout Manchuria and the province adjoining; through
Tsingtao, morphia is distributed over Shantung province, Anhui, and
Kiangsu, while from Formosa morphia is carried with opium and other
contraband by motor-driven fishing boats to some point on the mainland,
from which it is distributed throughout the province of Fukien and the
north of Kuangtung. Everywhere it is sold by Japanese under
extra-territorial protection."

The article is rather long, and proves beyond doubt the existence of a
well-organized and tremendous smuggling business, by means of which
China is being deluged with morphia. In the body of the article we find
this paragraph:

"While the morphia traffic is large, there is every reason to believe
that the opium traffic upon which Japan is embarking with enthusiasm,
is likely to prove even more lucrative. _In the Calcutta opium sales,
Japan has become one of the considerable purchasers of Indian op