[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(41852]
No. 1.
[November 15.]
244
39216
SECTION 3. Z 2 DECOSI
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received November 15.)
(No. 388.) Sir,
Peking, October 25, 1909. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copy of a report by Mr. Sly, His Majesty's acting consul at Chungking, on the progress of the movement for the suppression of opium in Szechuan-or, rather, in the eastern portion of that province. This report contains so much interesting information and is so clearly written that I have thought it advisable to send it home separately, instead of waiting to incorporate it in the next general report on the opium question. I regret to see that Mr. Sly's information fully bears out what Mr. Max Müller wrote in his general report enclosed in my despatch No. 387 of the 21st October, viz., that there had been no progress on the eastern side of the province, that in most districts no steps had been taken towards suppressing the cultivation of opium, while in some there had been an actual increase in the amount grown last year."
The cultivation of opium is now absolutely forbidden throughout the province, and, as Mr. Max Müller has pointed out in his report, there is some reason to hope that the prohibition may be enforced with a considerable measure of success, though it is, I fear, too much to expect that it will be carried out as effectively as was the case last season in Shansi and Yunnan.
I have, &c.
Inclosure in No. 1.
J. N. JORDAN.
Report on Opium Eradication by Acting Consul Sly.
Introduction.
IT is intended in the following pages to report upon the aspect and progress of opium reform in Szechuan, more particularly as regards the Chuan Tung, or eastern, portion of the province, which is under the jurisdiction of the Chungking taotai.
With a view to obtaining as full information as possible I addressed on the 18th June last a Confidential circular to various missionaries, and also made other enquiries on the same lines. The circular contained ten questions, and in order to avoid the dangers of excessive condensation I propose, as a preface to this report, to state the questions soriatim, following them in each case with the replies received. The latter, though not always in extenso, bave not been curtailed more than necessary to confine them to the particular points raised. I do not disguise from myself that this plan will not make for brevity, but whatever the length to which the report may rencli it will be no more than a sketch, and will at best be but an imperfect and inadequate statement of all the facts.
It will be understood that, when reference is made to any particular year, the poppy was planted in the autumn of the previous year, and the crop garnered in the spring of the year named.
Question 1-Did the area under cultivation last season show a reduction or increase as compared with the years 1908 and 1907, and with the average of the years previous to those dates ? It will be within your recollection that it was in the latter half of 1906 that the Chinese Government proposed effective measures for securing the eradication of opium.
Replies.
Liangshan.The area under cultivation has not been reduced, though I do not think the increase was considerable, as all available laud was devoted to this crop from the first.
[2494 p-8]
B