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This programme is now in active operation at Yünnan-fu. Over eighty opium shops have, it is said, taken out licences. It was found impossible to secure a return of opium-smoking officials by the 29th July, owing to the reluctance of smokers to admit their failing. The term has, it is understood, been extended to the 18th August. The manufacture and sale-at any rate, the open sale-of utensils have ceased, and all opium dens within this city were closed by the 10th August. Three days' grace was allowed, and the closure was effected without disturbance. Regulations are under consideration for the purchase by the Bureau, at 40 per cent. of the assessed value, of opium pipes, trays, and lamps.
The return of smokers is being vigorously carried out. Emissaries from the Anti- Opium Bureau visit each house and enter in a note-book (a) the sex and age of the inhabitants; (b) the names of the smokers among them; (c) the number of opium lamps used. If a member of the family admits that he or she smokes, then the degree of craving ("yin") is also noted. Severe craving is held to require sixty days for cure, strong craving forty days, and mild craving twenty days. Respectable persons may undergo a cure at their own homes, but in this case the remedy to be used must be registered. If, through conscious lack of will power or otherwise, the patient elects to be treated at the Bureau, the term of cure is reckoned at twenty days (see Regulation 6 above). In the case of home cure, at the expiration of the due term (twenty, forty, or sixty days) the patient is to present himself at the Bureau at 6 A.M.
He will be searched (to see that no opium is to be found in clothes or queue), and will remain under close inspection till 10 P.M. If in that interval no signs of the craving appear, he is to be discharged as cured, He will, however, be re-examined three months later before his name can be finally erased from the lists. It may be mentioned that during his sixteen hours' detention at the Bureau he may either partake of food he has brought with him (this being previously tasted by the attendants), or may purchase food from the Bureau, at the the rate of 6d. for the well-to-do, or of 2d. for the poor. There has not yet been time for the first examination to take place, but a "class" of twenty has already been installed at the Bureau.
Preparations are being made to obtain a return of the acreage under poppy last season, but even in the case of the home district (K'un-ming Hsien) this will take time. It will be remarked that, although the sale of opium is to cease by the 19th July, 1908, the cultivation of the poppy may continue till the spring of 1910. It is explained that when the opium shops shut down an official Company ("kung-ssu") will be formed to buy up and store whatever opium is still grown. The opium thus stored will be sold to persons over 60 years of age, or to opium sots whose names are registered. It may also be intended, though nothing has been said about this, to provide opium for sale to the Tonquin Régie. As regards opium sots, by the way, the Director of Agriculture has suggested that licensed smokers under 60 shall wear in public the red garb of a criminal, inscribed "So-and-so, opium convict," and this suggestion has been favourably received by the Governor-General.
Advertisements of remedies are appearing at the city gates. The favourite prescriptions are styled "chen-wu chich-yen ch'u" and "ngo-lang-ts'ao." Some thirty-seven drugs are regarded as efficacious, and each patient mixes these according to his faith and taste. The latest remedy is a concoction to be smoked in a large foreign pipe.
To sum up, in Yünnan city and its immediate neighbourhood an effort is now at last being made to carry out the anti-opium programine of T'ang Shao-yi. This effort will persist, however, only as long as Isi Chih-t'ai continues to ply the bellows. The great mass of his subordinates look on these proceedings not only without sympathy but with positive dismay. Apart from the fact that many, if not- most, of them are themselves opium smokers, they foresee grave trouble in this province if the people are deprived of the one commodity on which they rely for the purchase of everything but food-stuffs. It must not be forgotten that opium does not, in Yunnan at any rate, take up land that could be used for rice; opium is a winter, rice a summer crop. If opium ousts any cereal it ousts wheat, broad beans, or barley, but not the Chinaman's staff of life-rice. In ordinary years Yunnan produces quite enough food-stuffs for her population, in addition to something approaching 1,000,000/ worth of opium. With the latter the province pays for the raw cotton, the cotton yarn, and the cotton goods she needs but cannot herself supply. From a farmer's point of view-and nineteen-twentieths of the Yunnanese are farmers-the chief effect of the prohibition of opium cultivation will be to deprive him of the wherewithal to clothe himself, He will not really be better off because he has harvested so many more piculs of beans or wheat, for he will be unable, owing to the disgraceful state or
communications and consequent heavy cost of transport, to dispose of his surplus. Opium, combining as it does small bulk with high value, can travel profitably, where pulse, barley, potatoes, and the like can only be carried at ruinous rates.
If there were such a thing as a Chinese statesman, he would first of all improve the communications of Yunnan, by building railways and roads; then he would develop the mines, and encourage the cultivation of such cereals and fruits as would find a ready sale in the neighbouring low countries of Burmah and Tonquin; he would seek to improve the breed of cattle, and, above all, that of sheep; finally, when all was ready, he would start, if he must, on his anti-opium crusade. The present endeavour to crush out opium before any steps whatsoever have been taken to fill its place in the economy of the province may prove a very serious mistake.
Kueichow Province.
No returns have been received from the members of the China Inland Mission, with the exception of a letter from the Rev. G. Cecil-Smith, dated Kueiyang, the 13th July, 1907. This letter shows that very similar steps are being taken in that province to those of the Yunnan Government :~~~
"On the first of this 6th moon (10th July) all the opium dens in the city were closed. It was rumoured that there would be trouble, but so far all seems quiet. But I have just been told by our barber that on Thursday an old man, an opium den keeper, tried to kill the Prefect when riding in his sedan. An official in the Yang-wu Chu (Department of Foreign Affairs) told me this morning that the Prefect is sick. I wonder whether the two reports can be reconciled. Possibly ?
"On the 19th of the 4th moon (30th May) two opium-cure refuges were opened, one with the Grain Taotai as Superintendent, and another a venture of the T'u-yo Chü (Native Opium Office); accommodation for 100 and for 80 men respectively. But I hear that large numbers are supplied with medicine but live at their own homes."
Inclosure 3 in No. 1.
Synopsis of Returns by Members of the China Inland Mission, Eastern Yünnun.
I.-Proclamations.
(a.) Ch'ü-ching, May 29, 1907.
PROCLAMATION of the 10th or 11th moon of last year (January or February 1907) from Yunnan-fu, requiring officials to break off opium within six months, and the populace within ten years. Persons over 40 years of age exempt. "On careful inquiry the majority had either forgotten that such a Proclamation was issued or had never seen or heard of it."
2. Proclamation put out in the 4th moon (May) notifying five classes to get official permits :--
(a) Farmers to receive a permit to plant opium. The amount scheduled and planted is to be reduced by one-tenth each year,
(6.) Smokers over 60 years of age to take out permit (A). Amount smoked to be stated.
(c.) Smokers under 60 to take out permit (B).
(d.) Opium dens.
(e.) Opium shops.
Official Action taken in Consequence-None whatever.
(b.) P'ing-yi, May 31 and August 1, 1907.
1. Prefectural Proclamation in autumn of 1906 exhorting to preference to opium.
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