C.O
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]7291
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
268
[July 20.F
SECTION 1,
14 AUG C
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[27369]
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received July 20.)
(No. 231.) Sir,
Peking, June 30, 1909. REPORTS having reached me from various sources of the great reduction which had taken place in the area under poppy cultivation in Shansi, I decided to send Mr. Brenan of this legation to make an extensive tour in the province and furnish me with a first-hand account of what had actually been done.
Mr. Brenan's report, of which a copy is enclosed herewith, contains a concise statement of what he saw and heard on a journey of 400 miles through a section of the province which was practically all devoted to poppy cultivation a year ago, and it will, I think, be read with considerable interest as furnishing a notable illustration of the complete success with which at least one Chinese administrator has handled the question.
Not a stalk of poppy is now to be seen over large areas which in former years were covered with the plant, the price of the drug has gone up enormously, and were Shansi a self-contained State, instead of being a unit in a large Empire, opium smoking and opium cultivation would soon be things of the past. But as long as opium is allowed to be grown in abundance just over the borders in the provinces of Shensi and Honan, his Excellency Ting's success in stamping out the cultivation in Shansi is likely to stimulate the production in the neighbouring provinces, and it seems a pity that greater uniformity of procedure is not enforced by the Central Government.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Report by Mr. Brenan respecting the Cultivation and Consumption of Opium in Shansi.
AS recently as a year ago the province of Shansi was noted for its output of opium. The absence of any trustworthy statistics on the subject renders even an approximate computation of the quantity produced extremely difficult, but as the Board of Revenue's return states the amount for 1900 to be 9,666 piculs, it is safe to suppose that the annual production was considerably in excess of that figure, whilst a moderate estimate gives the area formerly devoted to the cultivation of the poppy as at least two-thirds of all the watered land in the province. In some parts, notably the Chiaocheng and Wenshui districts to the south-west of Taiyuanfu, and the Fenho Valley to the south, the proportion was much higher, and practically all the fields in these regions were sown with poppy for the winter crop. The plant was also to he found in large quantities anywhere where rivers, mountain streams, or wells permitted of proper irrigation, and wheat was only grown in the higher and dryer land where the more valuable crop would not thrive.
Until the autumn of 1908 there had been no serious attempt on the part of the provincial authorities to deal with the opium question. Proclamations had, it is true, been issued in obedience to the edict of 1906, ordering a decrease in the amount of land under cultivation, and had resulted to a certain extent in the substitution of wheat for opium in 1907, but it was seen that the officials did not intend to enforce the prohibitions, and in 1908 the crop, if not as large as before, was still considerable; in fact, in some districts it is reported that the area under cultivation had even increased. In the same year, however, the authorities at Taiyuanfu, either on their own initiative or in consequence of pressure exercised from Peking, came to the conclusion that an attempt must be made to deal with the question in an energetic manner, and decided as a first step to prohibit the cultivation of opium forthwith throughout the province. The sale of the drug and the smoking of it were to be considered later, but it was felt that these questions would be easier of solution once
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