Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade

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The Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade
Formation1874
Dissolved1917

The Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade, generally known by the somewhat shorter name of Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade (SSOT), was a British lobbying group in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, opposed to the opium trade.

History

In 1874 a group of Quaker businessmen offered a £200 prize for the best essay on the British opium trade. The winner,

Jardine, Matheson & Co. due to the company's involvement in the opium trade.[4]

The society quickly became a focal point for the anti-opium movement. Initially, it campaigned on two fronts: lobbying for the British Government to cease its military and diplomatic pressures on China to allow opium imports[5] and removing direct government involvement in the trade in India.[3] After the Chefoo Convention of 1876, when the British Government ceased to pressurise China into allowing opium imports, the Society turned its attention to the Indian production of opium, advocating total prohibition in India except for medical use.[3][6]

The Society commanded considerable support in China, partly as a result of its connections to Quaker missions and partly due to the diplomatic efforts of the Society's secretary, Joseph Gundry Alexander (1848-1918),

John Morley, this religious sentiment was seized upon by the pro-opium movement, who dismissed the Society's message as histrionic "hellfire and brimstone" preaching.[5]

In his capacity as the Society's president, Sir Joseph Pease attempted to pass a motion in the

Arthur Pease) was on the Commission, its findings were firmly in favour of the trade.[4] As a result, the aims of the anti-opium movement were set back considerably; it was fifteen years before the issue was again debated in Parliament.[10]

In 1906, the motion proposed by Pease in 1891 was once again put before Parliament. This time it was successful, and in response the Chinese passed laws prohibiting the manufacture of opium. The Society disbanded in 1917, having achieved its goals when the British finally ended the opium trade between India and China in 1913.[11]

Publications

The society published a regular newspaper, The Friend of China, which appeared, on average, eight times each year and was circulated both in the United Kingdom and among missionary communities in China. Rev. Storrs-Turner was the editor. It also published books condemning the opium trade, such as Joshua Rowntree's The Imperial Drug Trade [12] and Benjamin Broomhall The Truth About Opium Smoking.[5][13]

Notable members

Works

  • Muir, William (1875). The opium revenue . Westminster: The Anglo-Oriental Society for the Suppression of the Opium Trade.

References

  1. ISBN 978-0-415-06025-7
    . Retrieved 28 May 2012.
  2. ISBN 978-0-7864-0715-6
    . Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  3. ^
    ISBN 978-0-415-13135-3
    . Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-90-04-11430-2
    . Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  5. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8131-1924-3
    . Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  6. ISBN 978-0-674-05134-8
    . Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  7. ^ J.G. Alexander's writings are listed in the catalogue of the Religious Society of Friends, London
  8. ISBN 978-90-04-11640-5
    . Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  9. ISBN 978-1-56000-082-2
    . Retrieved 23 May 2012.
  10. ISBN 978-0-7914-6953-8
    . Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  11. TheFreeLibrary
    .
  12. ^ The imperial drug trade.(1906 edition), available online
  13. ^ Benjamin Broomhall The Truth About Opium Smoking available online.
  14. ^ Katherine Mullin, ‘Dyer, Alfred Stace (1849–1926)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Oct 2008 accessed 7 Aug 2012
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