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assistance in obtaining information, grow weary of reporting that no real progress has been made in their districts. These two reports tend to show that in Kansu things are very much as they are in Shenshi, and do not bear out the optimistic estimate of the Customs reports. On the contrary, they record no progress in any direction and no restriction in the area under cultivation, but only the issue of numerous proclamations, one of which merely contradicts the other, and none of which have led to any practical result. One missionary writes that the arrival of a deputy from the Central Government was the occasion of much "feasting," but that any good he did he took away with him" and "there is no more in any direction."
Here again, however, it is said that this is the last year in which the cultivation of the poppy is to be permitted, so we must wait and see what is done in the way of restricting the area under cultivation after this year.
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SHANTUNG.
Sir A. Hosie was able last year to report a considerable diminution in the land devoted to the growth of the poppy throughout this province, and both from the Customs reports and those received from His Majesty's consul at Chinan-fu it is clear that this diminution has not only been maintained but has been considerably improved upon. Yuan-shu-hsün, the governor, who has been transferred as Viceroy to Canton, showed great energy in his anti-opium campaign during the year he was in Shantung, and if the task of suppression had rested solely with him opium smoking in Shantung would be a thing of the past; but the apathy of many of the local authorities rendered ineffective several of the measures which he promulgated. In a memorial to the Throne Yuan-shu-hsün recognised the paucity of the results as yet achieved throughout China, and advocated as the only possible and effective measures the total prohibition of cultivation and the purchase by the Government of all imported opium for resale under official control.
On arriving in Shantung he first turned his attention to the question of suppressing the vice of smoking, and with a view to compelling officials to break themselves of the habit he opened an opium refuge, through which all officials, civil and military, had to pass, while all officials who alleged that they had never smoked or that they had ceased to do so were to give a bond to that effect and to find securities among their brother officials. Deputies were also sent to other towns in the province to examine the local officials. The measures for eradicating the use of the drug unfortunately yielded results by no means commensurate with the undoubted zeal of the governor. A certain number of officials were cured and several refractory officials were cashiered, including two of the deputies employed at the opium refuge, who had systematically connived at the evasion of the prescribed regulations; but the examinations were conducted in a notoriously perfunctory mauner, the regulations could easily be evaded, and were at any rate never carried out in a manner likely to produce any genuine results, and opium-smoking officials still remain in office in the provincial capital itself. The measures adopted for restricting the use of opium among the people also achieved but little success; they included the usual regulations for the licensing and inspection of opium shops; the licensing and registering of smokers; the closing of opium divans; the prohibition of the sale of opium-smoking utensils; the distribution of anti-opium medicines; the prevention of smuggling of opium.
No fault would be found with the tenor of the regulations, and in many instances infractions met with severe punishment, but reports both from the capital and from other towns showed that on the whole they were more honoured in the breach, that dens flourished and unlicensed shops continued to sell the drug to all comers in spite of fines and confiscations. His Majesty's consul, in summarising the result of the work achieved by the above measures, was led to the conclusion that, in spite of the governor's efforts, the habit could never be stamped out until the cultivation of the poppy and the importation of opium had completely ceased, thus rendering it impossible for smokers to obtain supplies of the drug.
It is consequently satisfactory to be able to record that it is in this direction that the most substantial progress has been made. It had originally been intended to enforce total prohibition of cultivation last season, but when the governor promulgated the measure last November the local authorities in the prefectures of Tsao-chou and Yen-chou represented to him that the poppy had already been sown, and that the turbulent character of the people rendered disturbances "probable if the crop were uprooted. The allegation that the crop had already been sown is understood to have
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been a mere excuse, but the governor relaxed the rule to the extent that poppy was allowed to be grown in a few specified districts on the distinct understanding that no more poppy was grown after the crop was once gathered. At the same time His Excellency directed the magistrates to furnish detailed particulars of the poppy grown in their respective districts, giving the exact location, the names of the farmers, and the area under cultivation, and in February he sent out fifty-three official inspectors to make independent inquiries and compare their conclusions with the magistrates' reports. These deputies on their return reported that, except in four districts exempted by the governor, the cultivation of the poppy had ceased throughout the province. The governor memorialised the Throne that, whereas in 1908 poppy had been grown in seventy-six departments of Shantung, with a total area of 14,500 acres, in the spring of the present year it was found only in four departments with an area of about 3,300 acres a reduction of more than 75 per cent. in one year. His Majesty's consul at Chinan states that from the information which he has collected inde- pendently, he considers these figures approximately correct.
Any further sowing of poppy seed in Shantung is now prohibited, and it is to be hoped that the new governor will show as much energy and firmness as his predecessor in continuing the work so well begun.
HONAN.
The reports which have reached His Majesty's Legation from this province are somewhat meagre, but they would appear to show that the high provincial authorities are in earnest, and the effects of the anti-opium campaign are more evident at the provincial capital, Kai-Feng-fu, and in the districts immediately adjoining. It is generally agreed that the use of the drug amongst the officials, in the army, and the student class has largely decreased. In the capital the number of smokers has been reduced by one-half, and the officials have all abandoned the habit. There are still a few licensed opium shops, but no smoking is allowed on the premises and the amount sold is steadily diminishing. Total prohibition of cultivation of the poppy was enacted last autumn, and in the districts near Kai-Feng-fu orders were issued to destroy all opium crops, and runners were sent out to see that this was done. Away from the high roads small patches of ground were still sown with poppy, but the area was, it is said, not more than three-tenths of what was sown previously. The reports from the outlying districts are not so encouraging, and the local officials out of reach of the capital appear to have been very slack, and did little, if anything, to enforce the prohibition of cultivation. The farmers, therefore, took no notice of it and proceeded to sow their crops as usual, though, perhaps, not over quite so large an area as formerly. Officially, as I have already said, poppy cultivation is to be entirely suppressed by the end of this year, and here also we must wait a few months to see if the high provincial authorities have energy enough to perform their difficult, but not impossible, task.
KIANGSU.
I am
A proclamation was issued last year by the Viceroy at Nanking that no opium was to be planted in the three provinces of the viceroyalty of Kiangnan, i.e., Kiangsu, Anhui, and Kiangsi, after 1908, and that any land on which poppy was found would be confiscated. There can be no doubt that this order has resulted in a considerable diminution in the area of land under poppy cultivation in Kiangsu, though a report received last December through His Majesty's consul at Chinkiang, to the effect that the cultivation of the poppy was already practically abolished in Kiangsu, was, afraid, rather premature. In the Hsü-chou prefecture, in the north of the province, a considerable amount of poppy was planted last autumn, but in the spring the Viceroy heard of this, and sent orders to have the crops rooted up. It is difficult to ascertain how far these orders were carried out. The Governor of Kiangsu, in a memorial to the Throne dated the 9th May, claimed that poppy had only been grown in one district of the prefecture of Hsu-chou. Poppy had also been sown in the neighbourhood of Chinkiang, but here again orders were issued to uproot the crops, and His Majesty's consul there reported in the spring that there was no poppy to be found within a considerable radius of the town. In regard to the country round Nanking, His Majesty's consul in that town reported that the area of cultivation in that part of the province had been considerably decreased, and that land sown with poppy was confiscated by the authorities. The Governor of Kiangsu reported to the Viceroy that the magistrates of all the districts under his jurisdiction, except one, had
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