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business.
504
3.
Mr. Lay, the Commissioner of
Customs at Ichang, reports that Native Opium arriving from
Chungking by chartered junks reached 17,132 piculs last
year,
whereas in 1907 only 9,841 piculs had arrived from
Chungking. "The increase" he adds, "is due to the excellent
crops obtained and to the high prices offered by buyers in
the Lower Yangtsze ports". Mr. Lay further states that
"the Opium dens were (nominally) closed by proclamation,
on the 10th. September, 1908; but the drug was surreptitious-
-ly obtained nevertheless".
4.
While Native-grown Opium thus
increased it is reported from Kiukiang that the total
import of foreign Opium was 380 piculs less than in 1907
and from Changsha that "the importation of foreign Opium
decreased by one-half". Similarly, in Volume III of the
publication above referred to, Hr. Hobson, the Commissioner
of Customs at Shanghai reports that the quantity of foreign
Opium imported in Shanghai in 1908 was 4,537 piculs less
than in the previous year, while the import of Native
Opium increased by 8,640 piculs during the same period.
5.
Your Lordship will no doubt
desire to obtain information from authentic sources; and
it