Слике страница
PDF
ePub

from London. It was very easy for Mr. Stuart to point out that, with a great show of virtue, the London Government had insisted on the colony marching in line with China in the suppression of opium smoking to the extent of a large sacrifice of public revenue, and all the while the export of opium from England to China in the more deadly form, morphine, was permitted to flourish and increase, and he asked the Council to pass a resolution humbly praying the Secretary of State for the Colonies to lay before the Parliament the propriety of assisting the Government of Hong-Kong in its endeavors to discourage the opium vice in its most injurious form by restricting the export from England of the means morphia of gratifying it. On a later page it will be shown that the International Opium Convention contains the means whereby the exportation of morphine in unnecessary quantities will be brought to a stop.

In British India, official opinion still leans to the view that opium eating is on the whole not injurious to those members of the Indian population who practice it. The vast majority of medical men hold the contrary view; but it will be some time before that view prevails. Meantime the Indian Government is strengthening its laws so as to confine the habit and keep it in channels which they regard as legitimate. But the considerations which have caused the Government of India to regard a certain amount of opium eating as legitimate in present circumstances do not apply to the smoking habit, which has never taken root in the country, and is strongly condemned by public opinion. The Indian Government have therefore endeavored for a good many years past to reduce it to a minimum by repressive action. Thus, while some twenty years ago there were some six hundred shops for the sale of smoking preparations, the sale of such preparations was subsequently and still remains absolutely prohibited. Vigorous measures are enforced by the police and the excise preventive service for punishing infractions of the law, such as are occasionally attempted in large and metropolitan centers like Calcutta and Rangoon.

It will be seen from what has been stated under this heading that Great Britain had not only acted on the results of the International Opium Commission up to the time the Hague Conference assembled, but was prepared to go to the fullest extent in coöperation with the other governments to make the conclusions of that commission effective.

ITALY

Italy is one of those happy countries in which the opium vice in any form does not exist, and despite the fact that the Italian Government has little material interest in the opium question, it has nevertheless continued to coöperate with the other governments in the international phases of the question.

GERMANY

The German Imperial and State laws in regard to opium and its allies are all that can be desired, and are effectively enforced. This may also be said of the German Colonies and Protectorates. In Kiaochou, on the China coast, steps have been taken which mark the sincere desire of the German Government to coöperate with the Chinese in stamping out the opium vice. But to Germany the morphine and cocaine questions are serious, not because of any abuse of these drugs in German territory, but because of the large financial investment in their manufacture. When the British proposals in regard to morphine and cocaine were made to the United States it was thought that the large German interest in the manufacture and export of these drugs would interfere to prevent German coöperation with the United States for their control. But this proved to be unwise thinking, and it will be shown later that Germany, by virtue of the International Opium Convention, stands ready with the other Powers to solve this problem, even at considerable financial sacrifice on the part of her manufacturers and exporters.

HOLLAND

The immediate concern of the Netherlands Government in opium is that a considerable revenue is derived by the Netherlands Indies Government from the importation, manufacture and distribution of opium for smoking purposes; but it has been the high endeavor of both the home government and the governments of the East Indian islands to ultimately abolish the pernicious habit amongst the natives. Since the adjournment of the International Opium Commission, many ordinances have been passed by the Batavia Government aimed to extend government control over the habit of opium smoking, and this has so far suc

ceeded that the Netherlands Government and people look forward to the obliteration of the habit in the near future. No doubt there will be many difficulties to meet, as the net revenue from the opium regié last year was in the neighborhood of eighteen million florins. But that this revenue will shortly be abandoned in favor of a more legitimate revenue is clearly evidenced by the hearty coöperation which has been extended by the Netherlands to the United States in its endeavor to secure international agreement on the opium problem.

PERSIA

Of Persia, it may be said, in addition to what was stated on page 664 of the JOURNAL for July, 1909, that early in 1911 the Persian Government enacted legislation aimed to abolish opium smoking and other misuses of opium in Persia.

PORTUGAL

Although in Portugal itself there is no abuse of opium, its colony of Macau on the China coast still continues to import large quantities of the drug, manufacture it into smoking opium, which is used locally, or exported for revenue purposes. This opium, however, has been practically outlawed by every country a party to the International Opium Convention, and by the provisions of that convention the trade should be speedily ended.

RUSSIA AND JAPAN

Russia fortunately has no opium problem, nor has Japan except in the Island of Formosa, where an opium regié exists for the avowed purpose of finally suppressing the opium vice.

SIAM

Although no opium is produced in Siam, large quantities are imported and manufactured into smoking opium under a system of government monopoly for the use of Chinese resident in that country. But it is the purpose of the Siamese Government to gradually extinguish the vice, and ordinances aimed to this end have been passed since the adjournment of the International Opium Commission. The Siamese Govern

ment also purposes legislation for the control by the Siamese Government over the amount of morphine and cocaine which may be imported, and the rendering of account by sellers showing that they have disposed of their supplies in a legitimate manner.

FRANCE

Since the adjournment of the International Opium Commission, French public opinion has been aroused on the question of the abuse of opium and morphine in the large seaports of that country, and the government is making strong efforts to root out the evil. In French IndoChina the government has control. It has taken strong measures to bring to an end the abuse of opium in the colonies, and it is earnestly believed that in a short time the abuse of opium will be reduced to a minimum. Further, the French Indo-Chinese Government has forbidden the exportation of opium prepared for smoking to those countries which prohibit its entry.

Upon the above summaries, it may be repeated that the resolutions of the International Opium Commission were more than moral in their effect. They created sufficient energy to enable the governments concerned to enact practical, effective legislation. The United States is the exception, as will be shown later. With these preliminaries we may now pass to the International Opium Conference and its results.

HAMILTON WRIGHT.

[To be concluded in the next number.]

THE LAW OF NATIONS

After the Reformation, when Europe divided itself into a number of separate states, each claiming to be an independent nation, the necessary contacts between them led to frequent wars. The question arose how to bring about a concert of action between them, which should result in peace and order. All that could be done by agreement was done. But it was clear that peace and order were constantly imperilled so long as the settlement of the questions constantly arising out of these necessary contacts was dependent upon treaties, because at any time on slight pretext these might be rescinded. It was perceived that the only assurance of peace and order among nations, as among individuals, lay in the establishment of a law governing the actions and relations of the nations. Publicists therefore set themselves to the task of formulating and establishing such a law.

In laying the foundations, they naturally looked to the great political concepts of their past and present. First, there was the original Roman Empire, which had expressed itself through the civil law. The political principle of that empire was that, though all power was theoretically vested in all the people of the empire regarded as a single political society, the whole society had delegated all its power to the Emperor, who, through organs selected theoretically by himself, imposed law, as a supreme political personality representing the whole empire, upon all the persons and bodies politic and corporate within the empire. Second, there was the Christian society of the early Church which based itself upon the teaching of Christ and the Apostles, and which was in part theocratic and in part democratic and republican. This society included all professing Christians regardless of the political jurisdiction in which each found himself; it exercised no political control over its members, but only a spiritual oversight of them. Third, there was the Holy Roman

* Printed, with permission, from the original manuscript of an article which appeared in a French translation in the May-June, 1912, number of the Revue Générale de Droit International Public, pp. 309-318.

« ПретходнаНастави »