It has been entirely destroyed and this has been faithfully reported to the Throne in several memorials by this commissioner and his colleagues. We take into consideration, however, the fact that the various barbarians have still known how to repent their crimes and return to their allegiance to us by taking the 20,183 chests of opium from their storeships and petitioning us, through their consular officer, Elliot, to receive it. If we trace the crime of those barbarians who through the years have been selling opium, then the deep harm they have wrought and the great profit they have usurped should fundamentally justify their execution according to law. "All those people in China who sell opium or smoke opium should receive the death penalty. He has especially sent me, his commissioner, to come to Kwangtung, and together with the governor-general and governor jointly to investigate and settle this matter. His Majesty the Emperor, upon hearing of this, is in a towering rage. Such persons who only care to profit themselves, and disregard their harm to others, are not tolerated by the laws of heaven and are unanimously hated by human beings. Consequently there are those who smuggle opium to seduce the Chinese people and so cause the spread of the poison to all provinces. "After a long period of commercial intercourse, there appear among the crowd of barbarians both good persons and bad, unevenly. He asked Queen Victoria to put a stop to the trade. Lin Tse-hsu saw that the opium trade, which gave Europe such huge profits, undermined his country. Most scholars do not believe that the letter ever reached the Queen.
This selection is from Wallbank, et al, Civilizations Past And Present, 1992. Lin Zexu (LinTse-hsu) writing to Britain's Queen Victoria
0 kommentar(er)
