to make
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territory to set unwelcome laws at defiance. Previous to the year 1909 opium formed the predominating influence in the agricultural and economic life of the border population, and although the native chiefs were induced to effect a considerable reduction of crops during the 1908-9 season, they have refused during the past winter substantial decrease in the number of fields which formed the limit of last year's cultivation. In the course of my frontier work during the recent open season I have had opportunities of visiting a considerable portion of the tribal belt, and my own observations, amplified by reliable reports from other sources, lead me to believe that a considerable quantity of the drug is now available for sale from these districts in addition to the amount which will be required for home consumption, but at the same time that the effect of the prohibition has been very definite, and that the Chinese have made the poppy crops a pretext for interference in outlying districts to which they had not previously penetrated. The fact that many fields remain under cultiva- tion cannot be attributed to laxity or bad faith on the part of the local authorities, who have been active in their measures of prevention, but it is a factor in the political life of the province, which can only be affected by the steady advance of Chinese administrative control to the limit of the political frontier. The only effective control which they are now able to exercise over the produce of this zone is in closing the open markets to the sale of the drug, and in refusing to recognise as recoverable debts such advances to cultivators as have regularly been made in the past by Chinese traders who have speculated on the prospects of the crops. These two factors will undoubtedly have weight in gauging the utility of the crop to the farmers, and such control may serve to effect a natural reduction in supply, provided that the demand shows an actual decline. At present the demand is so free and the price so high that the cultivators and smugglers amongst the tribesmen are induced to take considerable risks in the hopes of great reward.
Quality of Local Drug.
In spite of the proximity of the Burmah frontier, Indian opium never appears to have entered Yunnan, though there is evidence that the poppy has been cultivated in the province for several centuries. The main crop has been Papaver somniferum, with flowers of every colour from pale mauve to the deepest crimson, though fields of entirely white poppies are occasionally seen. It is possible that the latter may be the Papaver officinale, but the farmers state that the white flowers and the brilliantly shaded blossoms are produced from identical seed, and that the colour is affected only by the early or late gathering of the seed, the fresh seed grains producing the white and pale tints, whilst the deeper blooms spring from that which is more mature. years ago the fertile, well-watered plains round the great cities were covered with poppy during the winter season, but the crop has now entirely vanished from these fields, and cultivation is confined to the more inaccessible mountain tracts even in the tribal zone. The seed is sown in November, and the sap is collected from March until May, the harvest varying considerably with the altitude of the fields.
A few
The Shans, Kachins, Palaungs, Lohei, and Wa all use the drug, often saturating dried plantain leaves with the juice and smoking them in pipes in the same way as tobacco, and in this form the effects of the drug are much less potent than when smoked in Chinese fashion. The attempts to reduce cultivation in the territories of these outlying races has caused severe trouble, and the sub-prefect of Tengyueh, who is responsible for their good behaviour, narrowly escaped with his life last year after the destruction of some mountain crops. The Kachins frankly admit that they smoke the drug for pleasure, and, remembering the hard and desolate lives to which they are condemned, there is little wonder that there is a craving for such dreams as we have heard of from De Quincey, when there will be revealed "a far-off hope for human nature, now suffering from some mysterious eclipse and labouring in some dread extremity," and, with the Turk, these tribesmen label their one luxury Mash Allah (the gift of God). Beyond this, however, the opium has two real spheres in the life of these people-a medicinal and an economic need-and it is gradually realised even by the local officials that these are factors which cannot be ignored if they intend to carry through a progressive and peaceful policy on the frontier, and to steer a steady course towards the final absorption of the "barbarians" in the great family of the sons of Han.
Medicinal Needs.
On the high plateaux comprising the greater portion of Yunnan, which lies at an altitude of 6,000 feet, and which are inhabited by a hardy race of Chinese
average
3
highlanders, fever is practically unknown, but the country is scored by deep and narrow river-courses such as the Salween, the Mekong, the Red River, and the Shweli, some- times no higher than 2,000 feet above the sea, and by the damp, fertile valleys which break away towards the Burmah frontier and form the line of the Chinese Shan States. Below an altitude of 4,000 feet the Chinese will not venture, except in the season of dry sunny weather, for the gorges of the rivers and the pent-up valleys are full of a virulent malaria, which at once attacks the men from the higher altitudes, and con- stantly proves fatal even to the natives. Although the prophylactic properties of quinine are now recognised to some extent, it is impossible to obtain supplies in any quantity, and it is generally and widely realised in the malarial districts of Yünnal, as it was in our own fen country early in the nineteenth century, that opium is invaluable both for prevention and cure. This is the first and greatest need, and, as long as malaria and dysentery claim so many victims in the Shan valleys and Kachin hills, so long will they resist the destruction of their crops with all their force. During six months of the past open season the Tengyueh Road Committee has employed an average number of 300 Chinese soldiers a-day in the construction of a road through the Shan States. There has been such a terrible mortality in other low-lying portions of Yunnan that the men showed great reluctance to go down to the work, but they were regularly treated with quinine, and with the simple and primitive resources at our Our efforts disposal we endeavoured to shelter them from the dangers of malaria. were so far successful that we did not lose a man, and the gangs maintained a high standard of health during the six months that they remained in the Shan States. few weeks ago, however, the season being finished, the men dispersed to their farms, and when we endeavoured to select six men to remain on the road for purposes of inspection and maintenance it was found that every man among the 300 smoked opium, and they resolutely refused to do without the drug if they were to visit the low-lying tracts. Yet a finer body of men physically could not well be found, and there is no doubt that in spite of the brand of "opium-sodden," which has been applied so constantly to the Yunnanese--they present a splendid physical type, tall, sturdy, enduring, and well-coloured, though few of them were free from the babit until the increasing prices of the past year commenced to place it beyond their reach. There seems little doubt that in places where food is plentiful, as is generally the case throughout Western Yunnan and Szechuan, the opium victim is practically unknown, and it is only in the famine areas that the drug is inclined to eat into a system exhausted by hunger and disease,
Economic Needs.
A
The economic need for the opium crop is more wide in its extent and more evident in its application than the medicinal factor, but it would lend itself as readily to available remedies if they could be applied in time. It is estimated that before the probibition measures were inaugurated from two-thirds to four-fifths of the arable land in the western circuit was under opium crops. The Viceroy, in an impetuous effort to clear the country, disregarded the proposal of a ten years' scheme, and commanded that every poppy should be plucked out within the year--a policy which must have been dictated by a desire for auti-opium notoriety, rather than by any conviction of the needs and welfare of his people. As a result of these vigorous measures a large acreage has been fallow for the past two years and there has been widespread loss among the farmers. The Yunnanese are, however, a quiet and law-abiding race, and it can only be wondered that the troubles were limited by the few and scattered riots which marked the course of 1909. The last rice harvest was abundant throughout the district, and the minds of the people were thus distracted from their grievance, whilst the steady progress of the cities shows that no financial set-back has yet been felt. The situation, however, is not without its anxieties for the more far-seeing of the officials, and they anticipate with dread the next barren year, or even the realisation of losses which will be borne in upon the people in the natural evolution of the next three or four years.
Yunnan is a country of difficult communications, land-bound, mountainous, and difficult of access, depending on mule transport for its communication with the outside world. Opium was its ideal product, suited to the soil, the climate, the mountain slopes where no other crop will thrive, of little bulk, too, and unlikely to depreciate under the rough handling of the present transport. Every year a regular flow of silver found its way from Hunan and Canton to Yunnan in exchange for the opium supplies, and every year this silver met the local demand for cotton yarn and comes from foreign cotton cloth, which cannot be produced locally, and now
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