ys of India. A later viceroy, Lord Curzon,
has spoken with infinite scorn of the "opium faddists." Lord Lansdowne
approached the business in the same spirit. He began by sending a telegram
from his government to the British Secretary of State for India, which
contained the following passage: "We shall be prepared to suggest
non-official witnesses, who will give independent evidence, but we cannot
undertake to specially search for witnesses who will give evidence against
opium. We presume this will be done by the Anti-Opium Society." This
message had been sent in August, 1893, but it was not made public until
the 18th of the following November. On November 20th Lord Lansdowne sent a
letter to Lord Brassey, "which," says Mr. Henry J. Wilson, M. P., in his
minority report, "was passed around among the members [of the commission]
for perusal. It contained a statement in favour of the existing opium
system, and against interference with that system as likely to lead to
serious trouble. This appeared to me a departure from the judicial
attitude which might have been expected from Her Majesty's
representatives."

From this Mr. Wilson goes on, in his report, to lay bare the methods of
the Indian government in preparing evidence for the commission. To say
that these methods show a departure from the expected "judicial attitude"
is to speak with great moderation. It is not necessary, I think, to weary
the reader with the details of these extended operations. That is not the
purpose of this writing. It should be enough to say that Lord Lansdowne
and his Indian government ordered that all evidence should be submitted to
the commission through their offices; that only pro-opium evidence was
submitted; that a government official travelled with the commission and
openly worked up the evidence in advance; that the minority members were
hindered and hampered in their attempts at real investigation, and were
shadowed by detectives when they travelled independently in the
opium-producing regions; and, finally, that Lord Brassey abruptly closed
the report of the commission without giving the minority members an
opportunity to discuss it in detail. The result of these methods was
precisely what might have been expected. Opium was declared a mild and
harmless stimulant for all ages. No home, in short, was complete without
it.

There is an answer to the report of the Royal Commission on opium more
telling than can be found in speeches or in