Research On The Opium-banning In Fujian Province In The 1940s

Since modern times, The opium problem becomes one of the Social morbid in China. Previous governments more or less tried their best for the opium-banning. After the campaign of "drug-banning in two years, opium-banning in six years", the opium still exist. Nanjing National Government announced the opium-banning work entered the aftermath period and looked forward to trying to eliminate the opium in three years. However, Opium cases were not optimistic in everywhere, so the aftermath period continuously delayed and lasted nine years. The academic circles inclined to research the six-year opium campaign and ignored to study opium-banning in the nine-year aftermath period.The opium eliminating work in the nine-year aftermath period is in the 1940s, which current situation is volatile, Anti-Japanese War and The civil War broke out successively. Even so, Nanjing National Government insist on launching the opium-banning work and the attitude was more firm, changing the gradually-opium-banning-policy to the resolutely-opium-banning-policy. In other words, everything about the opium,such as plant opium poppy, transport the opium, sale the opium, opium smoking, make and collect the opium, is illegal and banned. Researching on the opium-banning in Fujian province can enrich the study of the regional History in opium and have a comprehensive understanding of the history of opium-banning of Nanjing National Government and Fujian Province.The paper divides into four parts, besides the introduction and epilogue. The first part combs the opium situation in Fujian Province before the 1940s. Since The Qing Dynasty, the opium problem gradually formed and had bad influences and Every session government tried their best to prohibit the opium and the efforts were mixed in Fujian Province. Nanjing national government carried out the campaign of "drug-banning in two years, opium-banning in six years" between 1935 and 1940 in the country. The campaign had unprecedented scale but its effect was limited, so everywhere continued to eliminate the opium and start the aftermath period.The second part researches the eliminating opium work in Fujian Province during the Anti-Japanese War. In order to adapt to the changing situation, Nanjing National Government and Fujian government timely adjust the opium-banning agencies and enacted and revised the opium-banning legislations, and send people to supervise the counties’opium-banning work, and dealt with the remaining opium and the opium prisoners timely. Yet Japan invaded China and execute opium policy, the problem of opium become even worse in Fujian Province. So the eliminating opium work still not completed.The third part tells after the Anti-Japanese War, Fujian government carried out to ban opium comprehensively and its effectiveness. After the war, the situation become stable, Fujian Provincial Government hold firm opium-banning attitude and launched social forces widely to take part in the opium-banning work, such as expand the opium-banning co-agencies, organize opium-banning associations, request people to guarantee no opium problem happen in their areas, so the opium-banning achieved some results. However with the civil war intensified, the opium-banning work was difficult to carry out and many opium-banning measures were mere formality and the officials at all levels were unable to deal with the opium-banning work.The forth part comprehensively analysis the opium-banning work in Fujian Province in the 1940s. In this period, the opium-banning work had its features, such as the firm opium-banning attitude, the social mobilization widely, and therefore achieved some results. But it was hard to cover itself limitations, such as the opium-banning plan couldn’t meet the reality, administrative organs and judicial authorities failed to contact closely, the opium-banning fund made ends meet, hindering the opium-banning work launching develop healthy. Even worse, some objective factors lead to the opium-banning work difficult to sustain.Through researching the process of the opium-banning work in Fujian Province in 1940s,we can see the national government and the Fujian Province government insist on to ban the opium severely in the civil unrest and gain something. But also because of the unrest current situation, the limited social control and the social mobilization were digested, and social become out of control, the opium-banning work was difficult to sustain and the opium still exists.