"Chinese Customs statistics recently issued show that last year (1907) the morphia on which duty was paid to the Customs amounted to 96 oz. only, yet there is no reason to doubt that the amount imported was nearer 10 tons"; and he went on to say that orders for 1000 lb. weight have been given in a single transaction, the morphia being packed in 7 lb., 14 lb., 21 lb., and 28 lb. tins, four in a case. Again, in a telegram dated Peking, August 21st, 1908, the same informant declares that "a formidable difficulty is the immense importation of morphia and hypodermic appliances," and summarises an Imperial Edict, dated July 16th, decreeing that Chinese who manufacture morphia or hypodermic appliances, or shopkeepers who sell morphia without a Customs permit, shall be banished to "a pestilential frontier of the Empire." These things should at least give pause to the enthusiastic sentimentalist, and should warn him that sentiment without sense is a dangerous weapon, which may not unlikely inflict serious injury upon those on whose behalf it is ostensibly wielded.
