§ Lord NINIAN CRICHTON-STUARTasked the Home Secretary whether he will give any information as to the number of opium dens in London; and whether there has been any increase or decrease in their number since the anti-opium laws were passed in China?
§ Mr. CHURCHILLI am informed by the London County Council that there are known to the council at the present time twenty-two private houses in London in which opium smoking is practised, mostly by Chinese seamen. In 1906, the date of the issue of the Edict against opium-smoking in China, twelve such houses were known to the council, but in the interval opium-smoking has been prohibited by the London County Council by-laws in seamen's lodging-houses licensed by them, and this has no doubt led to an increase in the number of private houses in which facilities for opium-smoking are afforded. The Commissioner of Police believes that opium-smoking is on the decrease in London.