Minister Rockhill
to the Secretary of State.
[Extract.]
American Legation,
Peking,
China, September 21,
1906.
No. 400.]Sir: In continuation of my dispatch No. 393 of
the 8th instant, I have the honor to transmit herewith a translation of
an imperial edict which appeared yesterday, decreeing the abolishment
within ten years of opium smoking and ordering the council of state to
draw up regulations for carrying the same into effect.
I have, etc.,
[Page 360]
[Inclosure.]
Imperial edict prohibiting opium
smoking.
[Translated from the
Peking Gazette of September 20,
1906.]
Ever since the relaxation of the prohibition of opium smoking the
vice has spread nearly everywhere in China. The smokers waste their
time, neglect their business, become sick in body, and ruin their
families. For several decades there has been a daily increase of
poverty and weakness which may be traced to this cause. In a word,
it deserves the strongest condemnation. The Imperial Government is
now earnestly seeking to make the State strong, and finds it
necessary to urgently warn its subjects that all may bestir
themselves and put away this long-standing evil and walk in the
paths of health and peace.
It is hereby decreed that within a period of ten years the injurious
practice of using opium, whether foreign or native, must be entirely
abolished. As to the measures needed for a strict enforcement of
prohibitions of opium smoking and the cultivation of the poppy, let
the council of state carefully consider the question and draw up
satisfactory regulations to be submitted for our approval. Respect
this.
