War by Opium The Japanese are not content to bring
on China the misery of war and its consequences—flood, fire and pestilence ; they are intent also in encouraging the drug traffic, on a scale which is a menace not only to China but to the rest of the world. The League of Nations committee on the traffic in dangerous drugs listened this week to a devastating exposure of Japan's methods by the delegates of America and China ; the American delegate's assertions were supported by Russell Pasha, for Egypt, and the representatives of Canada, India and Great Britain. In the provinces now occupied by Japan the production and consumption of opium are actively encouraged by the Japanese army. In Manchukuo, in Jehol, in Nanking, opium can be openly bought and sold. The trade flourishes especially in North China, and along the Yellow River ; in 1937 the dead bodies of z,800 unidenti- fied drug addicts were found in the streets of Harbin and Mukden. Manchukuo and Korea are centres of production ; in 15 months 65o kilograms of heroin, a year's supply for ro,000 addicts, were exported to the U.S.A. from the Japanese concession in Tientsin by one gang alone. There is no doubt that Japan is deliberately encouraging the traffic, the profits of which go to pay the cost of her invasion of China; her methods of financing the war are as despicable and barbaric as her methods of waging it.
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