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
Catalogue details

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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    worst results of slavery are felt when an enslaved nation has sunk so low in the scale of humanity as to be perfectly content to be a nation of slaves, and when it has lost the ambition, possessed by an earlier generation, to enjoy its liberty. If it be really true that the rulers of China have now fallen as low as they are accused of having done, if it be true that they have at length lost all true sense of moral responsibility for the welfare of their people, and that they would now continue to make money out of the opium habit, even if we withdrew from the trade, what then ? Alas ! for the Chinese Government. Ala.s ! for the people it governs. It was not always so. The Report of the Opium Commiseion must be overthrown. If accepted it will do much to rivet for ever on China the chains which an earlier race of Chinese ojQ&cials would have broken had they known how to do it. The Commissioners might have done something to break these chains. Their influence has been all in the other direction. I ask nobody to accept any statement I have made concerning the Report without testing it by a comparison with the Blue Books themselves. I have tried, as far as possible, in every case to give references, and have only given quotations in addition to references, because I knew that few, if any, of my readers would look up my references for themselves. Since the Commission presented its Report, since my examination of the Report was made, China has entered upon a new period in her history. It looks very much as if it were to be a period of gradual disintegration. How has Great Britain treated her in this hour of trial ? I have seen but one answer to this question. Everywhere it is acknowledged that we have, as a nation, acted in a way that brings no stain on ' our honour, no reproach on our national reputation, but on the contrary, in a way that redounds to our credit in every way. The Chinese have every reason to welcome cordially every stipulation that England has made. These stipulations have all been to the best interests of China. It is for China's interest, quite as much as for our interest, and it is to the interest of the world, that the valley of the Yang-tse should be secured against foreign aggression, that Hunan should be opened to foreign trade, that the inland waters of China should be navigated by steamers, that the foreign Customs should still be under the honourable, equitable, and impartial management that they have been under so long. I believe it is for the best interests of China that even Wei-hai-wei should be leased to Great Britain so long as Port Arthur remains in the hands of Russia and Kiao-chow remains in the hands of Germany. Whatever we have gained for British interests by the recent negociations has been gained in such a way that China gains still more for her own interest, and for maintaining her national integrity and stability. This China recognises. The people as well as their rulers regard us in the present instance as having befriended them. For this let every Englishman, every Scotchman, every Irishman, every Welshman rejoice. We sometimes boast that as a nation we have a mission in the world, a mission to civilize the uncivilized, to help the weak against the strong, to bring to many races advantages that they would never have apart from us. In the present instance we have justified this claim. But can the same be said of our dealings with China in the past ? Could anything be more pathetic than the words of Yii Keng Pak, the Chinese man of letters, whose evidence before the Opium Commission is given in the preceding pages ? {See p. 30.) How can China help being weak ? Those [i.e. of course, those Chinese] who discuss the opium trade say that it does incalculable harm to China; it is from it that China is reduced to poverty and weakness. What can be urged in excuse by the party that at once gets the profits and does the injury ? Surely England must shrink from the judgment that is passed on her behind her back. Surely she cannot bear to sit and see the people of a friendly country injured by herself without even stretching out a helping hand. It is not Chinamen alone who thus attribute the present weakness of China to the far reaching effects of the opium habit, as will be seen from the evidence quoted in the foregoing pages. Twenty-three years of residence in China have firmly convinced me that nothing can save China unless she can shake herself free from opium. The nation that can help her to do that will be the greatest benefactor she has ever known. I sometimes wonder what would be the present position of Japan if we had pursued there for the last 40 years the same opium policy that we have pursued in China. I wonder what would now be the position of China if we had pursued there from the beginning the same policy in regard to opium that we have pursued in Japan. Certainly Japan would in the former case never have risen to the position she now
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