: The Truth about Opium Being a Refutation of the Fallacies of the Anti-Opium Society and a Defence of the Indo-China Opium Trade by Brereton William H - Opium trade China History 19th century; Opium trade India History 19th century; Opium trade Great Brita

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Pages 1-49

Hearsay testimony upon which charges of the Anti-Opium Society founded explained.--Chinese a polite people and treat Missionaries courteously, but despise Christianity, and will not tell Missionaries the truth about Opium.--Respectable Chinese would become an object of scorn and disgrace to their fellow-countrymen if they embraced Christianity.--Professing Chinese Christians in most cases impostors.--Heathen Chinese as a rule more trustworthy than so-called Christian converts.--Missionary clergymen in China have not the confidence of the Chinese people, and draw their information as to Opium smoking from polluted sources.--Difference between Missionary clergymen in China and the clergymen of all denominations in England as regards knowledge of the people they live amongst.--Missionaries in China wholly responsible for the imposture prevailing in England as to Opium smoking in China.--Although the Chinese are a spirit-drinking people, they never drink to excess.--Drunkenness unknown amongst Chinese.--Chinese-American treaty a sham as regards Opium.--Sir J. H. Pease, M.P., duped by the "bogus" clause as to Opium.--His speech on the Opium question in 1881.--Chinese smoke Opium wherever they go.--As much Opium imported into China now as before the sham treaty.--Opium a luxury which only the well-to-do can freely indulge in.--Explanation of the means by which unfounded statements respecting Opium are propagated.--Apologue by way of example.--Proof of the state of things explained by the apologue furnished by the Rev. Storrs Turner and Dr. Ayres.--First fallacy, that the poppy is not indigenous to China, but has been recently introduced there, presumably by British agency, and the second fallacy, that Opium smoking in China is now and always has been confined to a small per-centage of the population, but which, owing to the importation into the country of Indian Opium, is rapidly increasing, refuted and the truth fully stated.--Testimony of Mr. W. Donald Spence and Mr. E. Colborne Baber, and Sir Rutherford Alcock.

Pages 50-100

Third and fifth fallacies upon which the members of the Anti-Opium Society and its supporters are misled.--Opium eating and Opium smoking contrasted with spirit drinking.--Valuable curative properties of Opium.--Spirit drinking produces organic and incurable diseases, is a fruitful cause of insanity, and leads to ruin and destruction.--The like effects admittedly not due to Opium.--Opium eating and Opium smoking totally distinct.-- Whatever the effects of Opium eating, Opium smoking perfectly innocuous.-- Anti-Opium advocates cunningly try to mix the two together.--Disingenuous conduct in this respect of the Rev. Storrs Turner--Mr. Turner so great an enthusiast as not to be able to see the difference.--Testimony of Dr. Eatwell as to the use of Opium.--Difference between Opium eating and Opium smoking explained in the case of tobacco smoking.--Tobacco taken internally a deadly poison, harmless when smoked.--Medical testimony as to the poisonous quality of tobacco and its alkaloid, nicotine.--Opium a valuable medicine, without any known substitute.--Anti-Tobacco Smoking Society, once formed the same as the Anti-Opium Society, put down by the common sense of the community, the like fate awaits the Anti-Opium Society.--Testimony of Dr. Sir George Birdwood, Surgeon-General Moore, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Dr. Ayres, and W. Brend, M.R.C.S., as to Opium.--Small quantity of Indian Opium imported into China.--Enormous amount of spirits consumed in the United Kingdom.--Anti-Opium Society blind to the latter, energetic as to the former a purely sentimental grievance.--Fallacy of Anti-Opium Society that supply creates demand refuted and exposed.-- Remaining fallacies refuted.--Effects of suppression of Indo-China Opium trade.--Missionaries detested in China.--Indian Opium welcomed.--Saying of Prince Kung.--Treaty of Tientsin explained and defended.--Erroneous notions of the Protestant Missionaries as to that treaty.--Abused by Missionaries, yet the treaty the Missionaries only charter.--Testimony of H. N. Lay and Lawrence Olyphant.--Spurious copy of De Quincey's "Confessions of an Opium Eater," published by Anti-Opium people.-- Testimony of Don Sinibaldo de Mas, formerly Spanish Minister in China, a powerful defence of the Indo-China Opium trade.--Policy of the Indian Government as regards Opium wisest and best.--Alleged proposal of Lord Lawrence to alter that policy.--Fallacy involved in such proposal exposed.--Abrogation of Indo-Opium trade injurious if not destructive to the spread of the Gospel in China.--False charge of smuggling by British merchants in China exposed and refuted.--Un-English policy of the Anti-Opium Society exposed.--Recapitulation.--Benevolence of the British public.--Necessity for seeing that it is not diverted into worthless channels.--Anti-Opium Society, mischievous, presenting a melancholy record of energies wasted, talents misapplied, wealth uselessly squandered, charity perverted, and philanthropy run mad.--Society should be dissolved and its funds transferred to Missionaries.--Missionaries should not mix up Christianity and Opium.--Missionaries defended and encouraged.

Pages 101-174

Official Letter of Francis Bulkeley Johnson, Esq., of the firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., of Hong Kong and China, Chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce, to Charles Magniac, Esq., M.P., the President of the London Chamber of Commerce, respecting the charge of smuggling against the British merchants in China, and giving particulars of the Indo-China Opium trade.

Pages 177-183

THE TRUTH ABOUT OPIUM.

I may now at the outset assure you that I do not give expression to my views in the interests of the merchants of China, whether native or foreign, or on behalf of any party whatsoever; nor do I come before you with any personal object, because neither directly nor indirectly have I any pecuniary or personal concern in the opium question, nor, indeed, in any commercial matter in Hong Kong or China. I simply find that unfounded delusions have taken possession of the public mind upon the subject, which have had most mischievous consequences, and are still working much evil. These I wish to dispel, if I can. Furthermore, I have delivered and published these lectures at my own cost, unaided by any other person, so, I think, under these circumstances, that I have some right to be regarded as an impartial witness.

I am aware of no subject, involving only simple matters of fact, and outside the region of party politics, upon which so much discussion has been expended, and about which such widely different opinions are prevalent, as this opium question. On the one side, it is said that, for selfish purposes, we have forced and are still forcing opium upon the people of China; that the Indian Government, with the acquiescence and support of the Imperial Government, cultivates the drug for the purpose of adding seven or eight millions sterling to its revenue, and, with full knowledge of its alleged baneful consequences to the natives of China, exports it to that country. A further charge, moreover, is brought against the British merchants, that they participate in this trade for gain, or, as it is put by the Rev. Mr. Storrs Turner, formerly a missionary clergyman at Hong Kong, but now and for many years the active and energetic Secretary of the Anti-Opium Society, to enable them to make "princely fortunes." That is the favourite expression of Mr. Turner, who finds, no doubt, that it takes with certain small sections of the public, readier to believe evil of their own countrymen than of the people of other countries, under the belief, perhaps, that in doing so they best display the purity and disinterestedness of their conduct.

The Anti-Opium Society and its supporters assert as an incontestable fact that opium smoking is fatal, not only to the body but to the soul; meaning, I suppose, that the custom is destructive to the physical, and demoralising to the moral nature of its votaries, and that the opium traffic is regarded by the people of China with such horror that it prevents the natives from receiving the Gospel from those who help to supply them with this drug, viz., the British people. It is alleged that the use of opium demoralises the Chinese, that it ruins and saps the manhood of the whole nation, with a host of concomitant evils, to which I shall by and by refer more particularly, the whole involving the utmost turpitude, the greatest guilt and the worst depravity on the part of England and the English Government, and still more especially on that of the Indian Government and the British merchants in China. Here I may observe, in passing, that if the objection to opium on the part of the Chinese is so strong, it is rather remarkable that they should not only greedily purchase all the Indian opium we can send them, but cultivate the drug to an enormous extent in their own country. The Anti-Opium Society and its supporters further say that opium culture and opium smoking are of comparatively recent origin in China; and although they do not directly allege that we have introduced those practices, there is throughout all their writings and speeches "a fond desire, a pleasing hope" that the readers or hearers of their books and speeches will form that opinion for themselves. I should tell you that those who hold directly contrary views consist of all the British residents in China, with the exception of some of the Protestant missionaries , comprising the British merchants, their numerous assistants , professional men, traders of all classes, and also all the other foreign merchants and residents in the country--German, American, and others, for there are many nationalities to be met with in China, who with the British form one harmonious community.

Take all these men, differing in nationality and religious persuasions as they do, and I venture to say that you will not find one per cent. of them who will not tell you that the views put forward by these missionaries and the Anti-Opium Society are utterly preposterous, false, and unreal--who will not declare that opium smoking in China is a harmless if not an absolutely beneficial practice; that it produces no decadence in mind or body, and that the allegations as to its demoralising effects are simply untrue. Those who have taken a special interest in the subject know that the poppy is indigenous to China, as it is to the rest of Asia, that opium smoking is and has been a universal custom throughout China, probably for more than a thousand years; that this custom is not confined to a few, but is general amongst the adult male population; limited only, in fact, by the means of procuring the drug. That is my experience also; it is corroborated by others, and therefore I may assert it as a fact. I have used the adjective "Protestant" because, although there are a great number of Roman Catholic and some Greek missionaries in China, no complaint against the opium trade has ever to my knowledge been made by one of these missionaries.

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