Manuscripts and newspaper clippings about opium

~D CHINA TELEGRAPH. 633
(s.); LI HUNG-CHANG ON THE OPIUM TRADE.
urn- The Secretary of the Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppresen, sion of the Opium Trade, acting on a suggestion of Colonel
Gordon, wrote to the Grand Secretary, Li Hung-Chang, on the
to subject of the opium trade. The following is the reply, together
the with the letter of the Secretary of the Chinese Legation in
th a London, who was requested to forward it by the Minister:iher Chinese Legation, July 25.
>aid Dear Sir,-I am directed by the Marquis Tseng to forward you a
tee, letter which he has been requested to transmit to you from his Excellency the Grand Secretary Li.-Yours very truly,
'to F. Storrs Turner, Esq. HALLIDAY MACARTNEY.
at Viceroy's Yamen, Tientsin, China, May 24, 1881.
the Sir,-It gave me great pleasure to receive your letter dated Feb. 25,
is with its several enclosures, sent on behalf of the Anglo-Oriental
Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade.
es- Your society has long been known to me and many of my countryng men, and I am sure that all-save victims to the opium habit and those
1t. who have not a spark of right feeling-would unite with me in expressing a sense of gratitude for the philanthropic motives and efforts of the
society in behalf of China.
To know that so many of your countrymen have united to continually protest against the evils of the opium traffic, and thus second
in the efforts China has long been making to free herself from this curse,
at is a source of great satisfaction to my Government, to whom I have
communicated a copy of your letter. The sense of injury which China
ari- has so long borne with reference to opium finds some relief in the
ell sympathy which a society like yours existing in England bespeaks.
st Opium is a subject in the discussion of which England and China
can never meet on common ground. China views the whole question
from a moral standpoint; England from a fiscal. England would susana tain a source of revenue in India, while China contends for the lives
he and prosperity of her people. The ruling motive with China is to reles press opium by heavy taxation everywhere, whereas with England the
manifest object is to make opium cheaper, and thus increase and stimuries late the demand in China.
for With motives and principles so radically opposite, it is not surprising
that the discussion commenced at Cheefoo in 1876 has up to the present time been fruitless of good results. The whole record of this dishas cussion shows that inducement and persuasion have been used in
behalf of England to prevent any additional taxation of opium in
O China, and objections made to China exercising her undoubted right to
regulate her own taxes-at least, with regard to opium.
th' I may take the opportunity to assert here, once for all, that the
single aim of my Government in taxing opium will be in the future,
as it has always been in the past, to repress the traffic-never the
desire to gain revenue from such a source. Having failed to kill a
serpent, who would be so rash as to nurse it in his bosom? If it be
ific thought that China countenances the import for the revenue it brings,
on it should be known that my Government will gladly cut off all such
ill revenue in order to stop the import of opium. My Sovereign has
ral never desired his empire to thrive upon the lives or infirmities of his
er- subjects.
aer In discussing opium taxation a strange concern, approaching to
to alarm, has been shown in behalf of China, lest she should sacrifice her
d revenue; and yet objection and protest are made against rates which
could be fixed for collection at the ports and in the interior. The
Indian Government is in the background at every officio discussion of
the opium traffic, and every proposed arrangement must be forced into
a shape acceptable to that Government and harmless to its revenues.
ack This is not as it should be. Each Government should be left free to
the deal with opium according to its own lights. If China, out of compashas sion for her people, wishes to impose heavy taxes to discountenance;ion and repress the use of opium, the Indian Government should be equally
ges free, if it see fit to preserve its revenue by increasing the price of its
ges opium as the demand for it diminishes in China.
rve, The poppy is certainly surreptitiously grown in some parts of China,
to notwithstanding the laws and frequent Imperial edicts prohibiting its
at cultivation. Yet this unlawful cultivation no more shows that the
Government approves of it than other crimes committed in the Empire
by lawless subjects indicate approval by the Government of such
in- crimes. In like manner the present import duty on opium was estab1 in lished, not from choice, but because China submitted to the adverse
m] decision of arms. The war must be considered as China's standing
i a protest against legalising such a revenue.
reda My Government is impressed with the necessity of making strenuous
r. efforts to control this flood of opium before it overwhelms the whole

sed country. The new treaty with the United States containing the pro-. hibitory clause against opium encourages the belief that the broad
n principles of justice and feelings of humanity will prevail in future re81, lations betwen China and Western nations. My Government will take
79, effective measures to enforce the laws against the cultivation of the
poppy in China, and otherwise check the use of opium; and I earnestly
hope that your society and all right-minded men of your country will
ndt support the efforts China is now making to escape from the thraldom
will of opium.-I am, Sir, your obedient servant, Li HUNG CHANG.
eya To F. Storrs Turner, Esq., Secretary to the Anglo-Oriental Society
the for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, London.