ium....
Sold by the Government of India, this opium is exported under permits
applied for by the Japanese Government_, is shipped to Kobe, and from
Kobe is transshipped to Tsingtao. Large profits are made in this trade,
in which are interested some of the leading firms of Japan."

This article appears to be largely anti-Japanese. In fact, more
anti-Japanese than anti-opium. Anti-Japanese sentiment in America is
played upon by showing up the Japanese as smugglers of opium. The part
the British Government plays in this traffic is not emphasized. "In the
Calcutta opium sales, Japan has become one of the considerable
purchasers of Indian opium ... sold by the Government of India." We are
asked to condemn the Japanese, who purchase their stocks of opium as
individuals, and who distribute it in the capacity of smugglers. We are
not asked to censure the British Government which produces,
manufactures and sells this opium as a State monopoly. We are asked to
denounce the Japanese and their nefarious smuggling and shameful
traffic, but the source of supply, which depends upon these smugglers
as customers at the monthly auctions, is above reproach. A delicate
ethical distinction.

However, there is no doubt that the Japanese are ardent smugglers. In
an article in the March, 1919, number of "Asia" by Putnam Weale, we
find the following bit:[1] "At all ports where Japanese commissioners
of Maritime Customs (in China) hold office, it is undeniable that
centres of contraband trade have been established, opium and its
derivatives being so openly smuggled that the annual net import of
Japanese morphia (although this trade is forbidden by International
Convention) is now said to be something like 20 tons a year--sufficient
to poison a whole nation."

[1] "A Fair Chance for Asia," by Putnam Weale, page 227.

Mr. Weale is an Englishman, therefore more anti-Japanese than
anti-opium. We do not recall any of his writings in which he protests
against the opium trade as conducted by his Government, nor the part
his Government plays in fostering and encouraging it.

However, there are other Englishmen who see the situation in a more
impartial light, and who are equally critical of both Great Britain and
Japan. In his book, "Trade Politics and Christianity in Africa and the
East," by A. J. Macdonald, M.A., formerly of Trinity College,
Cambridge, we find the facts presented with more balance. Thus, on page
229: "... In the north of Ch