ment and its own courts. The original
property, a mountainous island lying near the mouth of the Canton River,
was taken from the Chinese in 1842, as a part of the penalty which China
had to pay for losing the Opium War. Later, a strip of the mainland
opposite was added to the colony. Hongkong is one of the most important
seaports in the world. It is the meeting place for freight and passenger
ships from North America, South America, New Zealand and Australia, India,
Europe, Africa, and the Philippines and other Pacific islands. It
commands the trade of the Canton River Valley, which, though not
geographically so imposing as the wonderful valley of the Yangtse,
supports, nevertheless, the densely populated region reached by the
innumerable canal-like branches of the river. The city of Canton alone,
eighty or ninety miles inland from Hongkong, claims 2,500,000 inhabitants.
It is safe to say that fifty million Chinamen are constantly under the
influence of the civilizing example set by Hongkong.

What is the attitude of the Colonial government towards the opium
question? Simply that the opium habit is a legitimate source of revenue.
The British gentlemen who administer the government seem never to have
been disturbed by doubts as to the morality or humanity of their attitude.
Let me quote from the report of the Philippine Commission:

"Farming is the system adopted (renting out the monopoly control of the
drug to an individual or a corporation) and a considerable part of the
income of the colony is obtained from this source. The habit seems to be
spreading. No effort--except the increased price demanded by the farmer to
compensate for the increased price he has to pay to secure the
monopoly--is made to deter persons from using opium in the colony. Most of
the opium comes from India."

The attitude of the residents and merchants of the colony seems to be
expressed plainly enough by an editorial in a leading Hongkong paper which
lies before me, dated December 1, 1906: "It will take volumes of imperial
edicts to convince us that China ever honestly intends or is ever likely
to suppress the opium trade. It is up to China to take the initiative in
such a way as to leave no doubt that her intentions are honest and that
the native opium trade will be abandoned. Until that is done, it is idle
to discuss the question."

In other words, Hongkong refuses to consider giving up its opium revenue
until the Chinese take the market aw