t calendar
year, and the quantities so notified are not altered without
three months notice. Sales are conducted month by month by the
Bengal Government; 7,000 chests were notified for sale in 1917
for shipment to non-China markets. The number of chests actually
sold was 4,615. In addition to this, 4,500 chests were sold to
the Government of the Straits Settlements, 2,200 to the
Government of Netherland Indies, and 410 to the Government of
Hongkong. The duty levied by Government on each chest may be
taken to be the difference between the average price realized and
the average cost.

The following facts are taken from "Statistics of British India.
Financial Statistics, Volume II, Eighth Issue," to be found at the New
York Public Library:

AREA UNDER POPPY CULTIVATION

Acreage: 1910-11 362,868
1911-12 200,672
1912-13 178,263
1913-14 144,561
1914-15 164,911
1915-16 167,155
1916-17 204,186

In the hey-day of the China trade, 613,996 acres were under cultivation
in the years 1905-6, consequently this is a drop in the extent of
acreage. But, as we have said before, the closing of the China market
simply means that other outlets must be found, and apparently they are
being found, since from 1914 onwards, the acreage devoted to poppy
planting is slowly increasing again.

The opium manufactured in the Government factory is of three
kinds--provision opium for export; excise opium, for consumption in
India, and medical opium, for export to London. It is this latter form
of opium which, according to Mr. MacDonald, in his "Trade Politics and
Christianity in Africa and the East" is being manufactured into morphia
by three British firms, two in Edinburgh and one in London, which
morphia the Japanese are buying and smuggling into North China.

The "Statistics of British India" shows the countries into which Indian
opium has been exported: we will take the figures for the last five
years, which show the number of chests sent out.

_1912-13_ _1913-14_ _1914-15_ _1915-16_ _1916-17_

China 19,575 4,061 1,000 734 500

Straits
Settlements 5,098 1,537 755 605 239

United Kingdom 11 115 498 199 0

Mauretius 10 19 23