he trade can slip back to normal!

There are not even assurances that the agreement will be carried out.
While this very agitation has been going on, since these chapters began to
appear in _Success Magazine_, the annual export of Bengal opium has
increased (1906-1908) from 96,688 chests to 101,588 chests. And it is well
to remember that after Mr. Gladstone, as prime minister, had given
assurances of a "great reduction" in the traffic, the officials of India
admitted that they had not heard of any such reduction.

A few months ago, the Government issued a "White Paper" containing the
correspondence with China on the opium question, so that there is no
dependence on hearsay in this arraignment of the British attitude. Let us
glance at an excerpt or two from these official British letters. This, for
example:

"The Chinese proposal, on the other hand, which involves extinction of the
import in nine years, would commit India irrevocably, and in advance of
experience, to the complete suppression of an important trade, and goes
beyond the underlying condition of the scheme, that restriction of import
from abroad, and reduction of production in China, shall be brought _pari
passu_ into play."

Not content with this rather sordid expression, His Majesty's Government
goes on to point out that, under existing treaties, China cannot refuse to
admit Indian opium; that China cannot even increase the import duty on
Indian opium without the permission of Great Britain; that before Great
Britain will consider the question of permanently reducing her production
China must prove that the number of her smokers has diminished; that the
opium traffic is to be continued at least for another ten years; and then
indulges in this superb deliverance:

The proposed limitation of the export to 60,000 chests from 1908 is
thought to be a very substantial reduction on this figure, and the view of
the Government of India is that such a standard ought to satisfy the
Chinese Government for the present.

Even by their own estimate, after taking out the proposed total decrease
of 15,300 chests in the Chinese trade, the Indian Government will, during
the next three years, unload more than 170,000 chests of opium on a race
which it has brought to degradation, which is to-day struggling to
overcome demoralization, and which is appealing to England and to the
whole civilized world for aid in the unequal contest.

We must try to be fair to the gentlemen