The report of the Royal Commission on opium compared with the evidence from China that was submitted to the Commission. : An examination and an appeal. / by Arnold Foster... with preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and others.
- Great Britain. Royal Commission on Opium
- Date:
- 1898
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The report of the Royal Commission on opium compared with the evidence from China that was submitted to the Commission. : An examination and an appeal. / by Arnold Foster... with preface by the Archbishop of Canterbury, and others. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.
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![t 5 use and abuse of opium in China are fairly comparabie with those of intoxicating liquors in England. Such effects do not, in our opinion, constitute an objection to the Malwa export trade which makes it morally incumbent upon the rulers of the Protected States to put a stop to what is a private industry. The attitude of the Government of India towards the trade is purely restrictive. It imposes as high a transit duty as the trade can bear. It must be remembered, that in the similar case of the export of alcoholic liquors from England by manufacturers and merchants, no check is exercised, and no duty is imposed. B.—Prohibition in the Case op British Provinces. 167. We now come to the question of prohibition in British Provinces, ^^j*^.^™^^^^ Wethink it can be most conveniently treated by dealing first with the export the export trade in Bengal opium, and afterwards with the consumption of opium tra'Je iu Bengal in India. The moral objections to the present system, so far as the ex])ort trade in Bengal opium is in (question, are, first, the effects in Ghina, tvhich loe have considered in the preceding paragraph, and, secondly, the fact that the i- 5. loo- Bengal opium exported to Ghina. and elsewhere, is mamfactured and sold to the exporting mercliants hij officers of the Government of Ind'ia. It is not ii. 277i,246i. considered right that the Grovernment should have any connexion with the export of a drug which is believed to have evil results, or that India should derive revenue from what is said to be injurious to China. 168. It is evident that the position of the Government of India in .Examination relation to the trade in Bengal opium is to some extent invidious. But objmiont.. so long as the importation of IndAan opium is allowed by the Chinese Govern- raent, and, is not imposed iipon it by intimidation or pressure of any Jcindj. we are not of opinion that the objection based tijwn the effects of the opium habit in Ghina, or upon the peculiar relations of the Government of India ivith the trade, are, from a moral standpoint, sufficiently strong to call for interference on the part of the British Government. If the Government of India maintains a restrictive attitude to the export of Indian opium by taxing the Malwa di-ug, and by limiting the amount of Bengal opium put on the market, and so keeping the price high, we think its position is defensible, and that with reference to its duties to the people of India it cannot be justly required to go further and to extinguish the trade. Marquis In regard to the admission of Indian opium, China is now, at all events, xo.^fg! of a perfectly free agent. The Convention of 1885, by which the trade is 12th March now regulated, is based on principles specifically proposed by the Do.ido. Mem. Chinese Minister who conducted the negotiations, as being those most of ^oth Sept.' favoured by the Court of Peking. It contains all the provisions which cbina, 5, of the Chinese Government had pressed upon that of Great Britain, and, 188.5(0.44^8). in the words of the Marquis Tseng, those provisions find their strongest guarantee in the moral obligation imposed upon his Government by the consideration that the arrangement was of that Government's own proposing. Lord Kimberley, then Secretary of State for India, in announcing to the Government of India his acquiescence in the terms ^'ii -1'- 215. proposed by the Chinese, gave one of his reasons for so doing in the following words:— 6. Finally, the Anti-Opium agitation iu this country, already serious, and likely to be yet more formidable in a new House of Commons, is a factor in the present question to be taken into grave consideration. For some time past the leaders of that movement iu Pairliament have been chiefly insisting upon the injustice of preventing China from doing what she desires as regards the taxation of Indian opium. If the present Chinese proposals are accepted, the answer to this argument will be obvious and conclusive. You will observe that the Chinese Minister's Memoranda of March 12th, 1883, and of September 27th last, admit unreservedly that the Agreement now under negotiation is of the Chinese Govern- ment's own proposing and includes all that they desire.—Desjo. No. 7 of 22nd January 1885. It may be added that there is no evidence from Ghina of any popular desire that the import of Indian opium should be stopped. (Vol. YL, p. 61.) J End of Extract.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2439810x_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
