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will be suppressed in Hei-lung-chiang at the end of the present, and in Kirin and Fengt'ien in the following, year.
Chihli-In this, the metropolitan province, measures of suppression are now being carried out with earnestness and vigour. In many places Proclamations bave been issued prohibiting the cultivation, use, and trade in opium, and the prohibition is being enforced by the officials through the village Headmen. Opium shops have been reduced in numbers, sometimes only one being allowed in a city; smokers and shops have been licensed, official refuges have been established in cities, and medicines are being supplied gratuitously. Here and there a few opium-smoking houses are still open under licence, while in some cities, such as Huai-lu Hsien, in the Shun-te Prefecture, wherein effective steps are being taken, opium-smoking and retail shops have all been shut and their proprietors punished.
I may add that the Chihli Anti-Opium Bureau is exceedingly active. I have before me copies of sixty-four Chinese documents which have emanated from that office up to date dealing with the suppression of opium in all its phases-cultivation, consumption, and trade. They include torrents of circulars addressed to the provincial authorities, high and low, calling for returns of all kinds. A few of these may be mentioned to show the direction in which the Bureau is working. Blank forms have been sent to the provincial authorities requesting them to fill in the names and situations of opium refuges, to state whether they are official or private institutions, to give the names of donors, the prescriptions used, and the results. Another form issued requires the names of opium-smoking officials, of officials who have ceased to smoke, and of suspects. The District Magistrates are called upon to report the quantity of foreign opium imported into their respective districts, and to give statisties showing the consumption and export of native opium. Similar instructions are issued to custom-houses and li-kin barriers. Officials of high rank are required to guarantee lower officials. Opium shops and smokers are ordered to be licensed, and the numbers and names of shops and smokers, their situations and residences, are demanded. The officials of one Prefecture are directed to abstain from charging fees in excess of those laid down in the Regulations; officials of higher rank are requested to fill in and return a table giving the names of their subordinates, and stating whether they are smokers or non-smokers, and the names of their guarantors; and petty officials are required in another circular to give the names of their guarantors within three days of its receipt. District Magistrates are directed to report the annual reduction in cultivation of the poppy, the areas under cultivation, the names of the growers, &c., within a fortnight after receipt of instructions; in another circular they are directed to order the growers to reduce the area under poppy by one-eighth annually, to issue licences to growers for the land to be placed under poppy; and in another to take strict measures in the matter of area reduction. The higher officials are requested to see that their subordinates carry out the instructions regarding reduction of cultivation. Prescriptions for Chinese and foreign anti-opíum medicines are sent for use in various refuges. Reprints of the Imperial Anti-Opium Decree are transmitted to officials of all ranks, opium-smoking officials are directed to proceed to the Government opium refuge, and quit the habit within three months, and Bureau officials are instructed to examine various officers in the province. It would appear from the documents that the instructions of the Bureau are not always carried out with alacrity, for there are many instances of orders being repeated. Many of the papers deal with the licensing of shops, smokers' certificates, the sale of opium, regulations for examining opium-smoking officials, the issue of blank certificates to inns for the convenience of guests, prohibition of the sale of smokers' requisites, and the like, and it will, I think, be admitted that that the Chihli Anti-Opium Bureau is leading an active life.
Shansi.I have already stated that the Governor of Shansi has recently memorialized the Throne, proposing that entire prohibition of opium within his province should be carried out during the present Chinese year; but his Excellency will require to show more energy than has been displayed since the Anti-Opium Decree if his proposal is to be carried into effect, for the reports from the province are somewhat pessimistic. The balance of evidence appears to indicate that a slight reduction in a few districts is outweighed by increased cultivation in others, aud that the marked diminution reported from Chi-shan IIsien in the Department of Chang Chou, in Southern Shansi, would have been still more marked had not farmers found it possible to bribe the yamên underlings by payments of 2 taels a mou. A correspondent writing from Ho-chieng Hsien in the same Department says that he has no doubt whatever that opium prohibition can be carried into effect if done in a
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systematic, honest, and reasonable manner. To his mind the difficulty does not lie with the people, but rather with Government finance and official corruption. In his district there was no cultivation of the poppy last year, and only a little this year; excessive taxation and persistent rumours have stopped cultivation; but opium- smoking houses and opium shops have increased. There have been no restrictions on smokers, and opium shops have not been inspected. Anti-opium medicines of all kinds are advertised and sold extensively. From Lu-cheng Hsien in Lu-an Fu it is reported that cultivation has increased by over 50 per cent., and that no taxes are levied. At Fen-lisi sien, in the Prefecture of Ping-yang, a Proclamation was issued by the Prefect on the 1st June ordering the registration of land under poppy with a view to reduction of the area, the reason given being that, as this year was to mark the beginning of the reduction in the importation of Indian opium, complications might arise if nothing were done to effect a reduction of opium cultivation in the interior of China, This Proclamation gave a three years' limit for the cessation of cultivation, while a tax collector's Proclamation in the same Prefecture gave the limit as ten years. Officials are reported to be trying to break off the habit, and smoking is considered less respectable than formerly. In this part of Southern Shansi the area under poppy is about the same as last year, but less than two years ago. Several shops in Chao-cheng In central in the Department of Ho Chou were closed, and the opium confiscated. Southern Shansi a heavy additional tax was imposed last summer with a view to restrict cultivation, but people objected, and were allowed to report a less acreage ranging from 25 to 70 per cent.
As regards Western and South-Western Shansi, a Proclamation was issued in May ordering increased taxation and decrease in area, while at Chi Chou the tax was fixed at 2-31 taels per mou. In South-Eastern and Central Shansi, either the cultiva- tion is described as more extensive or that nothing has been done. Medicines concocted of opium and cowhide are largely used, but opium dens and shops are said to have increased. A correspondent at Chieh Chou, near the Honan frontier, speaks plaintively of the old attitude of indifference. Such is the condition of Shansi, and it is evident that that province needs an Anti-Opium Bureau like that of Chibli, which acts with energy and success.
Shensi.Reports from Shensi are scanty and fragmentary, Opium shops were ordered by Proclamation to close at Han-chung Fu and the signboards were accordingly removed. At Wu-kung Hsien, Yang Isien, and Chou-chih Hsien last year's Proclamations on the ten Opium Regulations were reiterated, but no practical steps have been taken, the officials and gentry confining themselves to talking instead The District Magistrate of reforming themselves or furthering the reform movement. of Chou-chih has started a society which includes in its objects opium reform and anti-foot-binding. It is authoritatively stated, however, that "in the province, as elsewhere, the arca under cultivation by the poppy is everywhere somewhat less."
Kansu. The reports from Kansu are few in number. In the immediate neigh- bourhood of Lan-chow, the capital, the area under poppy cultivation is stated to have been less, but elsewhere more. In Ching Chou, although the area was originally greater, many of the fields were ploughed up in consequence of a Proclamation issued by the District Magistrate in March assessing all land under poppy at 70 cents a mou. The gentry thereupon held a meeting and unanimously decided to plough up all the opium land; but the Magistrate, to protect his revenue, immediately issued a second · Proclamation ordering them not to do so, and directing them to diminish the area under cultivation a little, so as to accord with the Imperial Decree.
At Lan-chow two Proclamations were posted in March and May, the former raising the tax on land under poppy by from 50 to 100 per cent., the latter exhorting officials to break off the habit in three months under the severest penalties, Neither was enforced. Local opinion looks upon the reform movement as desirable but unattainable, and as yet practically little or nothing has been done.
Shantung.--On the 11th June new Anti-Opium Regulations were published at Chi-nan Fu, the provincial capital, directing all persons who had given up the opium habit to file bonds, and those who still, indulged to give an undertaking to renounce the drug within two months. Numerous deputies were named to see that these instructions were carried out, and four offices for the sale of anti-opium medicines were established in the suburbs.
Taken as a whole there was a considerable diminution of land under poppy throughout the province, one of the reasons being that many places suffered from drought which was so severe and continuous as to prevent the sowing of the seed.
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