UNCONQUERED OPIUM
By WILBUR BURTON
THE League of Nations has been little more successful in its crusade against opium than it has in its efforts to preserve the territorial integrity of China and Ethiopia. Instead, there has been retrogression in recent years, with opium now legalised where it was formerly outlawed—in China proper and Manchuria—while there is no evidence of any decline in addiction anywhere, although there is a tendency for opium derivatives, such as morphine and heroin, to supplant opium smoking. (I refer, of course, only to Asiatic areas, for while there may be slight increases in narcotic addiction in Western countries, they do not con- stitute any major social problem.) I would not attempt to assess responsibility for the situation in Asia except negatively : there is no large and powerful group either in East or West that is really prepared to sponsor or pursue a policy of genuine opium-suppression. Every member of the League of Nations with an Asiatic colony or colonies—Great Britain, the Netherlands, France and Portugal—has traditionally maintained an opium monopoly there. In the- case of the British Straits Settlements, the monopoly has yielded as high as 55 per cent. of the total government revenue, and today provides about 25 per cent. Japan, until recently a member of the League, has quite effectively suppressed opium in her own country, but has established monopolies in Korea, Formosa and Manchuria which are highly profitable. Siam, a League member with an opium monopoly that provides probably about 20 per cent. of her budgeted revenue (the exact sum is kept secret), has no desire whatsoever to abolish it. And in China, where opium was outlawed until 1934, the policy of total suppression has not only not caused any decline in opium addiction, but even provided a lucrative source of revenue for provincial warlords in their almost constant opposition to the Central Government.
Nearly three years have passed since a Government opium monopoly was established without any evidence whatsoever of a decline in narcotic addiction in China. The monopoly supplies Nanking with revenue of about Ioo,000,000 Chinese dollars annually—or approximately one-tenth of the budgeted income. Opium, however, is not mentioned in the published budget ; this sum is listed as " income from miscellaneous sources." But while Nanking is thus profiting from opium, the official Press agents are seeking to convince the world that a real campaign to stamp out addiction is under way. Opium production has, indeed, been curbed or entirely eliminated in many areas, and not a week passes without the execution of at least a few alleged narcotic addicts. Nor can there be any doubt that General Chiang Kai-shek is himself opposed to the use of narcotics ; he is a representative of the educated group of the modern generation to whom opium is a bite noir of deepest hue and users thereof are not tolerated in his entourage.
Where opium production has been curbed or eliminated, provincial warlords have thereby been deprived of revenue to finance opposition to Nanking. Executed " opium addicts " are usually smugglers outside the Government monopoly, or users of smuggled opium or opium derivatives which the monopoly does not handle, or even political undesirables, or—incredible as it may seem to Western minds—merely the victims of Press agentry to convince the world of General Chiang's sincerity ; human life is so chap in China that it is the only thing that is ever wasted. And whatever may be General Chiang's personal desires with regard to opium, no Government—least of all his— could easily afford to sacrifice one tenth of its revenue.
Nor is opium suppression possible in China under present conditions. On one hand, the opium monopoly itself is honeycombed by veteran narcotic racketeers who frequently use its machinery for their private profit. For example, bales of legal opium coming down the Yangtze River from Szechuen to Shanghai are often filled inside with privately manufactured heroin. Use of heroin has increased enormously in recent years in the more advanced areas, for it is quicker to use than opium and gives a greater " kick "—and hence is in keeping with the modern tempo—while it is cheaper than pure opium. Enough acetic anhydride, about 32,000 kilos, is now imported into China each year through the customs for fifty times the world's legitimate requirements of heroin ; also, a plant to manufacture the chemical was recently erected in Shanghai with a potential output of 250,000 kilos a year. Chinese gangs, better organised and with more political influence than American bootleggers ever had, are in, control of the illegal narcotic industry.
At the same time, Japanese smugglers, chiefly of heroin, are everywhere, and through extraterritoriality they can operate with complete immunity, for Japanese official policy seems to be to encourage narcotic addiction among the Chinese. Manchukuo has been made into a veritable Paradise of the Poppy, and opium, in one form or another, is one of its chief exports to China proper.
Whether any anti-opium measures, short of sweeping sociological changes that would give life new meaning and value, could be effective is most dubious. That opium is easy to obtain and even cheap does not necessarily mean that it is used extensively. Despite a monopoly, opium addiction is negligible in India. The Burmese rarely use opium, nor do the pure Siamese. Nor did opium ever become an important problem in Japan in the days before it was banned there. Opium addiction is almost unknown among all the Malays, although there are monopolies in both Dutch and British Malaysia. In a word, opium is primarily a Chinese weakness, and chiefly among two classes : the old- fashioned official intelligentsia who find themselves increasingly out of step with the times, and the coolies who work longest and hardest at inhuman tasks. Thus, it seems to be a Chinese way of escape from too bitter reality.
How many Chinese narcotic addicts there are is a moot question. In the Straits Settlements, where there is no pretence of restriction, nor encouragement to addiction, nor interference with the work of anti-opium propagandists, but where there is virtually no heroin, Dr. Chen Su-lan, president of the Anti-Opium Society, estimates that one- fourth of the Chinese adult population are addicts. In the mines and plantations, addiction runs as high as 90 per cent. Dr. Chen has also found that the average addict consumes thereon every penny earned save the amount necessary for living on the lowest possible standard. Although such illuminating statistics are lacking, first-hand observations indicate a similar state of affairs in China—multiplied many times and with the addition of heroin, which is psychologically and economically as bad as opium and physiologically much worse. This means that there are upwards of so,000,000 narcotic addicts in China.
Whether a Government control system of opium, as best exemplified in the Straits Settlements, tends toward curbing consumption is debatable. The decline in opium revenue there during recent years would seem to be affirmative evidence, but according to Dr. Chen the depression is primarily responsible for the decrease ; addicts now eat dross or opium and thereby satisfy their habit more economically than by smoking. The registration system is open to question, for under present regulations every registered purchaser can obtain enough opium for six persons. However, Government control has at least prevented any appreciable use of smuggled heroin, and that is certainly a point in its favour—but if it were made strict enough to diminish the use of pure opium, heroin smuggling would most likely increase proportionately.
In conclusion, it is necessary to point out that not only is opium addiction fundamentally Chinese, but that today virtually all the narcotics consumed in China are either produced there or come from Japanese areas. No longer, as in decades bygone, can Western countries be accused of supplying narcotics to the Orient ; indeed, the Western monopolies in Asiatic colonial areas now find it a serious task to prevent smuggling from China and the Japanese colonies. Whatever historic blame the West must bear, the crux of the problem is now in the Orient itself. Japan, who never hesitated to defy the League of Nations anyway, is no longer a member of that body, and China cut herself off from any possible Western anti-opium assistance when she established a monopoly.
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