THE OPIUM VICE IN JAVA.
[To THE EDITOR OF TEE " SPECTATOR."1
Sin,—A few facts on this subject might be of interest to your readers. The chief vice of the inhabitants of Java is opium-smoking. The whole of the opium consumed in Java is manufactured by the Dutch Government of the island at the Government opium manufactory in Batavia. The profits are enormous. I have just visited the Government office for the sale of opium in this town. The opium was sold in little sealed leaden tubes, with the Government stamp upon them I followed one of the purchasers to an opium den, and saw the smoking in full blast. The smokers, in this instance, were Chinamen, of whom there are 300,000 on the island. Mark well that the importation of opium is entirely pro- hibited, and that no opium poppies are grown in Java, the poppy-heads used in the manufacture being especially im- ported for this purpose by the Dutch Government from British India. It is therefore evident that, if the Govern- ment of Java could be induced, in the interests of humanity to renounce its profits and to close its opium manufactory the practice of the vice in Java would cease at once.—I am
Sir, &c., BERTRAND SHADWELL. Garoct, Java : Sept. 11th, 1913.
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