On October 1919, an American sociologist named Sidney worked and lived in Beijing, China, during which he took a set of real old photos of the Beiyang government's destruction of opium opium. According to the biography of photographer Sidney in his old photo, in October of that time, people from all walks of life in Beijing city gathered in Tongzhou to witness the public burning of opium opium. Its total weight exceeds 198 kilograms and its value is more than 50,000 silver dollars . During the Republic of China period, the old photos of brothel prostitutes who accompanied the guests to suck opium were blurred, and the Beiyang government staff arrested him on the spot. In addition to destroying the captured opium, a large number of drug-consuming tools were also destroyed.
Beiyang government staff threw opium into the stove and burned it. On February 23, 1919, a newspaper " Weekly Commentary " reported: "The government explicitly bans smoking many times, but some people are still not afraid of laws and regulations, and even commit crimes publicly. At that time, if someone wanted to buy opium soil, they could give 450 yuan Ocean to a military agency in a hutong Dongcheng , and then they could get receipt , and then 100 taels of opium were delivered on time!"
Beiyang government showed the people in the city the captured opium smoke guns. On March 17, 1919, the Weekly Review newspaper, which was not afraid of power, continued to expose: "Although the President's orders to ban opium in the three or five orders, it can even be said to be decisive. However, only those poor people who really cannot afford opium will have no choice but to put down the opium gun. However, many political people and powerful households are still a bed of smoke and smoke and mist."
Beijing government destroyed all the tools to suck opium. In fact, the Beiyang government made a lot of practical efforts and efforts to ban smoking at that time, and even promulgated many relevant ban smoking regulations several times. Unfortunately, the implementation effect was not satisfactory. The fundamental reasons for the failure of the smoking ban are roughly two points: first, many officials who implemented the smoking ban were corrupt and dereliction of duty at that time, and embezzled and accepted bribes to show mercy to those who smoke opium; second, because the Beiyang government relied on the help of powerful households in various funds, so they did not dare to question and arrest those high-ranking officials who smoke opium.
Old photos of the Beiyang government’s work when inspecting the destruction of opium opium. Photographer Sidney recorded the real situation of smoking ban at that time in his book "Social Survey in Beijing". During the rule of the Beiyang government at that time, the commander of the capital infantry army set up checkpoints in various parts of Beijing, and even every city gate and defense area outside the city was investigated. When encountering people who privately hid or sell opium and other drugs, if they were not high-ranking officials or powerful people, all others would be seized and destroyed in a timely manner.
During the Republic of China, tens of thousands of people watched the scene of smoking at the village entrance. Although the Beiyang government issued a smoking ban order at that time was implemented and implemented with great fanfare, the corruption of many of the smoking ban officials was also infuriating and heartbreaking. On January 17, 1919, President Xu Shichang and his wife issued another decree, sending people to destroy the seized 1,206 boxes of opium Yattu. But unexpectedly, some people later revealed that there was another mystery. Some people said that officials in the Beiyang government had stolen the days and embezzled and accepted bribes, and separated and sold a large amount of opium opium, and the destroyed opium was fake.
