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and, from officials and people alike, one heard reports of crops which had been uprooted when nearing maturity. Troubles occurred in many districts, and it is rather to be wondered at that no serious outbreak has disturbed the province than that there have been local riots in isolated districts.
At Chenuan Chou, a notably rowdy city, the official was driven away, and it was necessary to send a detachment of soldiers in order to disperse the rioters.
In the district of the Lung-ling ting serious trouble was threatened, and the sub-prefect applied for an armed guard, his request being refused, however, lest friction should be created with the neighbouring Shan sawbwas. Early in April the Tengyuch ting went into the Shan districts to the west to uproot the crops, but he was shot at, his chair was wrecked, and he narrowly escaped with his life at the hands of the Kachin tribesmen from the hills. The Menghua ting was also attacked on his rounds, and a serious rebellion threatened for a time in his district, the Lolos joining forces with the Chinese farmers and refusing to return to their homes, until the decapitation of fourteen men convinced them that the authorities were in earnest. At Yu-tien the ting endeavoured to compromise with his people by destroying the crops in the "pa-tzu," or valleys, and ignoring the hill cultivation. The Viceroy's deputy, however, discovered the omission, and the ting has paid for his clemency by the loss of his post. The Profect of Shunning has endeavoured to propitiate his district by posting a proclamation to the effect that he had a tour in December last, and, finding only a half of the usual area under opium crops, had petitioned the governor-general to approve this decrease; that he had received stern commands to destroy the remaining half also, and that au independent deputy appointed from Yunnan-fu would tour the district to ensure obedience. Deputies from the provincial court have been appointed to all the producing centres; I met several of them on their rounds, and, as they have spent three months in travelling through the districts allotted to them, there seems little probability that Hsi Liang has failed in his desire to clear the region of the usual winter crop.
Proclamations were posted all along the road forbidding the cultivation of the poppy and exhorting the people to free themselves from the drug. It is a common practice in these parts for usurers to advance money to the farmers on their opiam crops as soon as the plants are above the ground. This practice is now forbidden, and the notification that no law suit will be entertained in this respect will undoubtedly weigh heavily with the people. The teachings of the sacred edict have also been enlisted in the service of the preventive officers, and the neighbours on either side of a field are held equally responsible with the owner if the forbidden crops are found.
It is needless to say that the people are angry and unsettled. Throughout the district in which I travelled the main winter crop is opium, and from a half to eight- tenths of the arable land is annually devoted to poppy cultivation. Those who listened to the carlier commands of probibition have managed to raise crops of wheat, beans, peas, or maize, but the people have not learned by past experience to put implicit faith in proclamations of far-reaching reform, and a large proportion of the farmers have seen their poppies uprooted when it was too late to plant another crop. They have paid dearly for their want of faith, and they pointed to their bare fields with fearful curses on Hsi Liang. The winter has been unusually dry, and the substituted crops have proved but a moderate success so that everything has tended to unrest in the rural districts, and were it not for the fact that the people of Yunnan are by nature lethargie and law-abiding there would certainly have been serious and far-reaching trouble for the provincial authorities.
Opium in the Shan States.-In the Shan districts, which include roughly the country to the south of Tengyueh lying between the Salwen and the Burmah frontier, conditions are entirely different. The Prefect of Yungchang and the sub-prefects of Tengyueh and Lungling have made prolonged tours, but even in the country inhabited by and directly subject to the Chinese they have not been entirely successful in destroying the opium. I estimate that about two-tenths of the usual crops have been harvested by the Chinese farmers and about seven-tenths by the Shans. Some of the sawbwas have yielded to pressure from the Chinese officials, and Mang Shih (Mong Hswan) has consented to the prevention of all crops in his valleys, though not in the hills. Other sawbwas, however, have not proved so complacent, and in Chetang, Mongpan (Mengka), Lungchuan (Mongwan), and Mongmao there has been little decrease in the area under cultivation. It is interesting to notice that even in Chen-kang, a State which has nominally reverted to Chinese control, the suzerain Power has not felt sufficiently strong to enforce these objectionable measures, and the poppy crops have been up to the usual standard. The Prefect of Shunning
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has, however, posted a proclamation, aimed at Chen-kang and the neighbouring Shan States, forbidding them to bring their opium for sale to Shunning, its usual market, and imposing severe penalties on Chinese traders who proceed to the Shan States to purchase the drug. The market for the western States is at Tengyuch, and it is estimated that Nantion will have only a half and Kangai one-third of their usual supplies for sale this year. The sawbwas depend to a great extent on the opium tithes for their incomes, Nantien's receipts being estimated at about 1,0001, during 1908. This year he will receive only half of this amount, and it can be readily understood that the Chinese will have considerable difficulty in enforcing their regulations in such circumstances. The outlying Shan valleys and the Kachin hills can only be brought into line by a show of force, which the Chinese are neither willing nor able to present, and it is unlikely that any great decrease will be shown in these districts in the near
future.
Estimate of Production. In a careful report on Yunnanese opium, written at Ssumao in 1901, Mr. Commissioner Carey estimated the total production of the district under the jurisdiction of the Tengyuch Taotai (the western circuit) at 36,000 piculs. From the figure which I have been able to gather from the markets, I am of opinion that the production this year is not likely to exceed half that amount, namely, 18,000 picûls, nor does there appear great prospect of reducing the harvest below their present standard. Force is unlikely to be employed, and only an economic factor, such as the fluctuation of demand, is likely in the near future to seriously affect the cultivation of the poppy in the semi-independent and inaccessible regions of the frontier.
Substitutes for the Opium Crop.---If the higher provincial authorities continue their crusade against the poppy harvest, it becomes an urgent necessity to find some substitute which will profitably replace the winter crops of South-West Yunnan. Numerous plantations of mulberry trees have been made, and silkworms' eggs have been sent from Yunnan-fu to the district cities in the hope of stimulating a local silk industry. Wheat, beans, peas, potatoes, hemp, and maize have been sown in various parts, but the season has proved unusually dry, and the wheat in most parts has given poor return. There is at present a cheap and abundant food supply in the districts, and the real need of the farmers is some crop which can be exported to provide them with the silver with which to pay for their imports. The sudden attempt at the total prohibition of opium has produced an economical crisis in the froutier country, the full effect of which it is impossible as yet to realise. In 1902 it was estimated that 220,000 taels' worth of opium was sold at Hsia-kuan. This year I visited the exchange, a fine old inn in the centre of the town, on the day before the annual fair at Tali-fu, the time at which the local opium would ordinarily pass into the hands of the Cantonese and Hunanese buyers; the exchange was deserted, and festoons of cobwebs hung over the doors of the inn, which had been the most famous and prosperous throughout the district.
Consumers. It is difficult to obtain such figures as to the number of opium smokers as would enable one to form a reliable comparison with previous years. The prohibition measures, the proclainations, and the official anti-opium bureaus have all tended to conceal the smoker from the ordinary observer, and to drive him to quiet retreats. Every big city along the road appeared to have large stocks of the drug in hand, and quiet sales were everywhere effected, with little opposition from the opium- sodden yamên runners. In the little inns by the road-side veiled offers of opiumi were everywhere noticeable, and there can be no doubt that both the sale and consumption of the drug goes on, though it has lost its fashionable publicity, and now lurks in the background--a recognised vice. The officials in some of the outlying eities are levying a heavy blackmail on the wealthier citizens who are known to be sinokers, and in one yamên there were reported to be 200 opium victims.
The lower classes will be forced in time to abandon the habit, as the drug bas risen in price from twice to four times last year's value, and in Tali-fu-where the quotations where highest-it is becoming impossible for the poorer people to obtain their accustomed allowance. This factor must ultimately have a healthy effect in eliminating the drug, but in the meantime the people are finding that it is both more effective and less conspicuous to swallow opium pills than to use the pipe, and this habit shows signs of replacing the older and less dangerous one. Fifteen hundred men of the new provincial army are stationed at Tali-fu, where they are subjected to severe discipline, and smoking is impossible. In the opinion of a competent authority, how- ever, at least 25 per cent. of the men take opium pills, and there can be therefore little difficulty in obtaining supplies.
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