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From the Lachokou district, the only large opium-growing country of Hupei, a ) discouraging report says that the local officials have done nothing to diminish the growth of the poppy nor the number of smokers, and that in one district more poppy had been planted than in the previous year. Opium dens were as numerous as ever aud did a thriving trade. From other parts come similar tales of orders issued, and either openly or secretly disregarded; but where the magistrates are determined the story is very different.
At Hsiaokan Hsien, for instance, a missionary reported that the dens were closed, and the small crop of poppy formerly raised had disappeared; that no officials dared to smoke, as those caught were promptly dismissed, and that the magistrates had a load or two of opium pipes and lamps smashed in public every few days. At Tsao Sbih again an energetic magistrate is reported to have personally inspected and shut down all opium dens, confiscated smoking implements, and arrested and beaten the den-keepers.
As a
Of the numerous regulations issued by the Opium Bureau, the most important have been those imposing a tax on licences to smokers renewable every month, and prohibiting the sowing of poppy after the autumn crop of the present year. matter of fact very little opium has ever been grown in Hupei, though the province has always been a veritable hotbed of the vice. According to the reports of the Customs commissioners, at least 20 per cent, of the total population smoke, amongst many young women. To satisfy the demand large quantities of opium are imported, especially from Szechuan and Yunnan, though it is impossible to give any accurate estimate of the total importation into the province. Hupei is therefore one of the provinces where the prohibition of cultivation, even if carried out, will not perceptibly affect the consumption of opium, unless accompanied by simultaneous prohibition of importation.
HUNAN
The soil of this province is not suitable for the cultivation of the poppy, though in some districts a small amount used to be grown, the amount being estimated in the Customs reports as not exceeding 1,000 piculs in 1906. The vice of smoking, though common in these few small poppy-growing districts, has never, I understand, been prevalent throughout the province. The estimates given vary considerably, but according to reports received from Changsha the proportion of confirmed smokers in Hunan did not exceed 14 per cent. of the total population, though probably about one in every two grown-up men occasionally indulged in a pipe. From the very beginning of the anti-opium campaign the officials in Hunan have shown much earnestness in their efforts to stamp out the vice, and there seems to have been no falling off in this respect during the past year. In Changsha the registration of the licensed shops was completed last October. There were forty-seven such shops, of which thirty-three were to close within five years and the remaining fourteen within the following three years. Where shops were opened secretly the owners were arrested and punished, and persons who smoked in inns and restaurants have been bambooed and the owners of the inns cangued. Two companies of provincial soldiers were sent to assist in preventing the smuggling which has sprung up on the borders of Kweichou and Szechuan. In Siangtan the measures adopted were so drastic that it was reported that merchants were compelled to go to Changsha to buy opium. At Yochou a woman opened a den for junkmen, and the magistrate, on being informed of this, went in person, arrested the smokers, gave the woman 200 blows, destroyed the pipes and closed the den.
A meeting of Wesleyan missionaries from six cities in the province held last spring was able to report a marked improvement; the drug was much more difficult to obtain, and the smoking had not only diminished, but was not indulged in so publicly.
His Majesty's consul at Changsha, however, wrote in January that in spite of the precautions taken to prevent smuggling into the west of the province, smoking in those districts showed but little diminution, and the drug was easily obtainable in those parts. The Governor of Hunan has recently addressed a memorial to the Throne, in which he reports that some 150 officials and 20,000 people have been cured of the habit; that all dens have been closed, and the system of licences strictly enforced. He had issued orders last year for the total suppression of cultivation, and had in the spring sent out inspectors to make sure that his orders were being obeyed, and to root up any poppy they might find. He intended to send out inspectors again in the winter to see whether any fresh poppy had been sown and, if so, to root it up.
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He suggested that in order to replace the steadily decreasing revenue from opium, all business establishments should be required to take out a licence, on which a small fee would be charged.
KWANGTUNG.
This province has never produced much opium, though the vice of smoking has always been very common. The question of suppression of cultivation has therefore been of secondary importance as compared with the eradication of the habit of smoking, and we can accept the statement made by the Viceroy in a memorial to the Throue last April that his orders for the total suppression of cultivation throughout the province had been faithfully observed, though it is possible that a small amount of poppy in the Ch'ao-chu-fu prefecture, in the neighbourhood of Swatow, may have escaped the vigilance of the Viceroy's inspectors.
In the beginning of the year His Majesty's consul-general at Canton reported that the authorities continued to exempt the raw opium trade from the application of the licensing regulations, an omission to which Sir A. Hosie had already drawn attention, but which was probably due to the request of this legation that the new rules should not be held to apply to the wholesale trade in foreign opium. As a matter of fact no restrictions were imposed on the free import and sale of raw opium, either foreign or native. The opium boiling shops were still licensed by the Opium Guild, but owing to the decrease in the quantity of opium prepared consequent on the closing of the dens, the lump sum paid by the guild to the Government in commutation of licence fees was reduced in 1908 from 100,000 to 48,000 dollars. There was a slight decrease in the volume of business in Indian opium in 1908, but high prices had been the rule and all the dealers did well. There was a marked falling-off in 1908 in the quantity of native opium coming down from Yunnan, Szechuan, and Kweichow caused by the partial suppression of cultivation in those provinces and the rise in the price of native opium owing to the heavy taxatiou.
In the month of May new regulations were issued extending the system of licensing and control to shops dealing in raw opium, and the enforcement of these regulations has given rise to Irequent protests from British importers on the ground that they tended to create a monopoly in favour of certain licensed dealers and therefore affected the treaty rights of the British merchants engaged in the raw opium trade. Here, as elsewhere, His Majesty's consul-general was instructed to request the Viceroy to issue a proclamation excluding foreign opium from the operation of any clauses in the regulations which were intended to apply to the wholesale trade. In spite of this protest, the local Opium Probibition Bureau proceeded to enforce the regulations in such a manner that there was a practical cessation of imports of opium from Hong Kong to Canton, and His Majesty's Minister had to draw the attention of the Chinese Government to this serious interference with a legitimate trade, and request that orders be sent to the Viceroy of Canton that the preventive regulations should be carried out in such a manner as not to affect injuriously the wholesale trade in foreign opium. There seems, however, to be no doubt that the enforcement of the regulations has effected a great improvement among all classes of the population in regard to smoking. Public smoking has practically ceased in Canton, The licensing regulations are strictly enforced by the police in the case of poor smokers, and smoking is becoming a luxury confined to the rich, who, apparently owing to the venality of the police, find no difficulty in evading the regulations, and can therefore continue to indulge in the habit in their own houses with impunity. In order to assist in the enforcement of the regulations, orders were issued for the preparation of statistics as to the number of smokers, the number of shops selling prepared opium, and the quantity of opium sold. These statistics are probably not reliable, but those received from various magistrates give a total sale of opium throughout the province of 9,272,725 oz., or 5,115 piculs; the number of smokers was given at about 470,000, and of cases effected at 30,000.
Morphia, in various forms, continues to be smuggled into Canton, in spite of the prohibition and of the utmost vigilance on the part of the Customs officials. The declared total import for 1908 was only 1 oz., yet morphía in powder, pills, and tabloids is openly displayed in every medicine shop in Canton. Having learned from His Majesty's consul-general that six different samples of anti-opium pills which he had submitted for analysis to the Government analyst at Hong Kong all contained morphia in larger or smaller quantities, His Majesty's Minister addressed the Chinese Government on the subject, with the result that the Viceroy at Canton issued orders
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