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A convention was signed in London on Tuesday on behalf of the American government by William Phillips, Charge d'Affaires, who, appropriately enough, while a member of the Pekin legation, pioneered the movement which brought about the conference. The secretary of the American delegation, Wallace Young, told your correspondent that the convention would be made public simultaneously by the governments concerned.
[The Literary Digest, November 18, 1911.]
THE OPIUM FIGHT IN CHINA
China's awakening may not be due to its discontinuance of the use of the pipe whose fumes of drowsy poppy-juice bring false contentment, but the two events, perhaps, are part of the same forward movement toward a new time in the old land. Since the bonfire of the books of magic by the Ephesian sorcerers, never has such a resolute holocaust of pestiferous property been made than was recently witnessed at Tien-Tsin, when the spoils of many opium-dens—pipes, lamps, saucers, etc.—were consumed by the flames. This was done under the auspices of the Anti-Opium League, which is waging a stubborn war against the use of this fatal drug.
These, of course, are the lines on which the Anti-Opium League is working. By destroying publicly the pipes and other utensils employed by the smokers they practically remove, in some degree, the temptation and opportunity from the young, and at the same time set a stigma on the vice. This is the sentiment expressed over and over again by the Rev. Edward Waite Thwing, the indefatigable Secretary of the League. Of the recent "solemn incineration of utensils employed in the consumption of opium," at his suggestion, the "Illustration" (Paris) says:
"The best people in China, realizing the perils of the opium habit, appear to be obstinately determined to oppose, by every possible means, the spread of an evil which, in spite of official edicts, extends its ravages day by day. A veritable battle has been going on for a long time. Public addresses, postal cards, and imposing public demonstrations have been resorted to for the purpose of impresing the popular mind. The Viceroy of Yunnan recently caused to be burnt up in public, to the sound of gongs and fifes, thousands of opium-pipes."
