they might mean what they said seemed wholly out of the question. But what
deep motive might underlie the proposal was a puzzle. At first the gossips
of Peking and the ports ran to the effect that the real scheme was to
arouse the anti-opium public opinion in England, and force the British
Indian government to give up its opium business. Very good, so far. But
why? In order that China, by successfully shutting out the Indian opium,
might set up a government monopoly of its own, for revenue, of the
home-grown drug? This was the first notion at Peking and the ports. I
heard it voiced frequently everywhere. But it proved a hard theory to
maintain.

In the first place, the Chinese government could set up a pretty effective
government opium business, if it wanted to, without bothering about the
Indian-grown drug. Opium is produced everywhere in China. The demand has
grown to a point where the Indian article alone could not begin to supply
it. But, on the other hand, the stopping of the importation is necessarily
the first step in combating the evil; for, if the Chinese should begin by
successfully decreasing their own production of opium, the importation
would automatically increase, and consumption remain the same.

In the second place, if it is wholly a "revenue" matter to the Chinese
government, why give up the large annual revenue from customs duties on
the imported opium? In asking the British to stop their opium traffic the
Chinese are proposing deliberately to sacrifice $5,000,000 annually in
customs and _liking_ duties on the imported drug, or between a fifth and a
sixth of the entire revenue of the imperial customs.

One very convincing indication of the sincerity of the Chinese government
in this matter, which I will take up in detail a little later, is the way
in which the opium prohibition is being enforced by the Chinese
authorities. But before going into that, I should like to call attention
to two other evidences of Chinese sincerity in its war on opium. The
first is the patent fact that public opinion all over China, among rich
and poor, mandarins and peasants, has turned strongly against the use of
opium. I have had this information from too many sources to doubt it.
Travellers from the remotest provinces are reporting to this effect. The
anti-opium sentiment is found in the highest official circles, in the
army, in the navy, in the schools. Within the past year or so it has been
growing steadily stronger