The Jasper Weekly Courier

ROBBED OF MILLIONS.

Between Daring Smugglers and Venal Customs Officers the Government is Being Robbed of Millions of Dollars Actually by the Illicit Traffic in Opium and Chinese Slaves From British Columbia.

Chicago, Feb. 6.-A special to the Tribune from Victoria, B. C., says that the government is being cheated out of millions of dollars of revenue every year, and that the laws against Chinese immigration are flagrantly violated right under the noses of the government officials. The Tribune's correspondent says there are in Victoria nineteen factories, or "cook-houses," where opium is manufactured and prepared for the market. The combined product is about 500,000 pounds a year, nearly all of which is sold in the United States and only a very small part passes through the custom-house. There are in Victoria and its immediate vicinity more than a score of persons who are openly engaged in the business of smuggling opium into the States. The correspondent says: "They tell tough stories here about some of the American customs officials, and in the light of recent developments it is believed that there has been some extensive thieving, and few of the rascals have been caught. Some of the smugglers in Victoria openly boast that they have been able to bribe almost every custom-house official they have come in contact with. But opium forms only a part of the stock in trade of the big smugglers, for the most nefarious of their operations is the traffic that is being carried on in Chinese slaves. Chinese men and women are bought and sold with as much impunity as people of the Southern States trafficked in African slaves before the war. The business is rapidly increasing, and is now among the most lucrative industries of Vancouver Island. Men are getting immensely rich out of it, and talk about the traffic as freely and unblushingly as merchants discuss profits in sugar and dry goods. Little risk is incurred, for the smugglers of Chinamen or opium can not be convicted unless caught in the act of smuggling, and smuggled "goods" found in their possession. So, in order to convict, the customs officers must capture the smuggler's vessel in American waters with the contraband slaves on board. Once they are landed and the boat puts back into British waters, she or her crew can not, under existing treaties, be molested, and nothing can be done with the Chinese cargo but to send it back to Victoria at the expense of the American Government. And the chances are, if sent back, they will be landed in the United States again within forty-eight hours."