concerned with, and what every one who is considering the good of China in the matter is concerned with, is the question, Would the immediate abolition of the importation of Indian opium into China be calculated to render easier for the Chinese Government the task of stamping out the vice? In my humble opinion it most certainly would not, and for this excellent reason, that opium, being a very profitable commodity to produce, an immediate and largely enhanced demand for the native drug created by the sudden cessation of supply from India would, despite all laws and regulations to the contrary, inevitably give an immense stimulus to production in the vast poppy-fields of China itself. This contention is based upon intercourse with officials and people in Western China, and upon personal observation. Let me invite the attention of those interested to the following facts.
China herself produces, on the admission of Tong Shao-yi, the most eager advocate of the suppression of the vice, ten times as much opium as she imports—i.e., 3000 tons against 300 tons. When at Ichang I
