Refuge for Asia’s Poverty-
pp. 27-28 · Read in the full issue
The Why Of Opium
Refuge for Asia’s Poverty- Stricken Masses
CONDITIONS in the densely crowded countries of South-eastern Asia have affected, and always will affect, living conditions in the Pacific Islands —and more especially the East Indies and the Western Pacific territories. The greatest vice of South-eastern Asia is opium
smoking; and this pernicious habit Is well-known, in many of the Islands.
Therefore, persons interested in the future of Islands people will And valuable information in a report just issued by the International Labour Office of the League of Nations on “Opium and Labour —Being the Report of a Documentary Investiga tion into the Extent and Effect of Opium Smoking Among Workers”. The report is distributed (price 2/-) by P. S. King and!
Sons Ltd., 14 Great Smith Street, West minster, London.
The report suggests four chief causes of opium smoking. The great mass of
the working class in the Far East live under social and hygienic conditions of so low a standard that they try to find some thing that will permit them to forget for a little time the hardships of life. Many also believe that opium is a remedy against certain common diseases (not ably, dysentery, typhoid, malaria, and pulmonary diseases), but actually while opium does dull pain it has no curative value. Many workmen, especially lab ourers in jungles and mines, smoke opium because they believe it stimulates their working capacity in an unhealthy and hot climate. Many people smoke opium out of curiosity or because it brings them into pleasant social contact with other people.
The use of opium is common among immigrant Indians in the Malayan States and among the natives of Burma, Malay, Indo-China, Java, and to some extent in Siam and the Philippines, but the people who are most addicted are the Southern Chinese, the percentage of opium smokers there being not less than 10 per cent. The percentage of opium smokers among the prosperous Chinese in Sarawak and Malaya is comparatively small—very much less than among the poverty strick en masses of China.
It goes without saying that over whelming evidence showed that opium smoking greatly reduces the efficiency of workers, and definitely shortens their lives.