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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![iSummary of Consular evidence. Analysis of Consular evidence. Value of Consular evidence and its limits. One may ask why it is to be specially deplored that the people in the Wenchow District are so much addicted to opium. Are they poorer than the people in other districts of China? Every one in China knows that the -poor form, the great majority in every district, and hence it is everywhere to be deplored that these populations are addicted to this habit. iv. H. Cockburn, Esq., Acting Assistant Chinese .Secretary, Her Britannic Majesty's Legation, Peking, says :— (5.) But I also believe that the number of those who smoke much more opium than is good for them is much larger in proportion than that of the corresponding class amongst consumers of alcohol at home. (6.) Though I am convinced that there is such a thing as moderation in the use of opium. / think there is a itrong tendency to its use in more than moderation, to which many consumers yield. They do not become opium sots but they smoke much more than can possibly be good for them. {See above p. 13.) (9.) [The Chinese] have (speaking generally) no disapproval for the use of alcohol in moderation, whereas very many of them do disapprove the habit of opium smoking, even in moderation. Vol. V., p. 233. The classification of Consular evidence given above is likely to be at least as favour- able to the Commissioners as any that could be made. From this it appears that out of all the Consular witnesses appealed to by the Indian Government, only a minority commit themselves to the opinion that moderation among Chinese opium-smokers is the rule, . . . and that the moderate opium-smokers sufier no apparent injury from indulgence in the habit. [The difference between no injury and no apparent injury has already been pointed out, see above, p. 13.] What, then, becomes of the Commissioners' statement as to the prevailing opinion in the British Consular service in China ? We are brought, then, to this nett result in regard to the opinions of the 27 British Consuls in China : Five of them, i.e., 18 per cent., express no opinion; ten of them, or 37 per cent., either regard opium-smoking as a serious evil, or give evidence which is generally condemnatory of the habit, while the remaining twelve, i.e., 45 per cent., may, perhaps, be taken as holding the opinion described by the Commissioners as the prevailing opinion, though with serious reservations as regards four out of the twelve. I do not press these particular figures. I fully admit the difficulty of accurately and unanswerably defining the prevailing opinion in the Consular service on this subject. I doubt if any opinion can be fairly described as the prevailing opinion. But one thing is perfectly certain, taking the Consular evidence as a whole, there is nothing in it on which to build up an argument favourable to opium-smohing in China. I wish to speak with the greatest respect of the Consular body in China, a respect which I sincerely feel, but since so much has been made of the importance of Consular opinion, it is only right to point out, 1st, that the Consular witnesses were after all only a small proportion of the witnesses who were well qualified to give trustworthy information to the Commission; 2ndly, that a not inconsiderable number of them speak with great diffidence as to their ability to give first-hand evidence. Even the British Minister, who had been for many years in China, says :— As to my own personal views, I do not profess to have more than a very superficial acquaintance witli the effects o£ opium consumption in China. (Vol. V., p. 229.) Several of the consuls make similar admissions, and two at least of them, on these very grounds, excuse themselves from answering the Commissioners' questions. (Consul Scott, Swatow, Vol. v., pp. 212, 213. Acting Consul Allen, Wuhu, Vol. Y., p. 332.) Srdly., that in as far as Consular opinion in China is really favourable to opium-smoking it is in direct conflict both with the bulk of the Medical and also with the Chinese evidence that the Commission has collected. Effects of excess, when obvious and when not* The Commissioners add-—speaking of Consular opinion— the evil effects of excess do not thrust themselves prominently on the notice. That remark requires to be explained. Opium being a narcotic, and not a stimulant, never makes people noisy, boisterous, or violent, hence the evil efiects of it naturally do not thrust themselves on the notice of any Europeans, either consuls or others, as they walk about, the streets, or as they are living entirely outside of Chinese society. They do thrust themselves on the notice of every one who is living in close touch with the lower classes of China. Take these two specimens of Consular evidence frorro the same witness, the first speaking of the ordinary life and experience of an](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b2439810x_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
