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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM,
14357
[April 10.]
193
CONFIDENTIAL.
[13304]
REC
DROP & SECTION 3.
No. 1.
(No. 2.
Sir,
Acting Consul Rose to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 10.) Confidential.)
Tengyuch via Bhama, Upper Burmah, March 9, 1911.
I HAVE the honour to enclose a report on the opium crops of Western Yunnan for the season 1910 to 1911.
I have, &c.
ARCHIBALD ROSE.
Enclosure in No. 1.
Report by Acting Consul Rose on the Opium Crops in Western Yünnan for the Season 1910 to 1911.
(Confidential.)
General Condition of Crops.-In uy reports of the 9th June, 1999, and the 9th June, 1910, I have endeavoured to outline the general opium situation in Western Yüuman, and the information which has been available during the present season shows little change in the main conditions, though I am unable to report such satisfactory results from the measures of opium prohibition as have marked the course of the two former years. There appears to have been a decline in the vigour and sincerity of official action resulting in an increase of production, and, whilst last year's figures probably indicate the low-water mark in the supply available on the markets, the extent of cultivation shown during the present season appears to mark a more normal situation, and may thus serve as a clue to the probable future of the poppy crops in the frontier districts. In submitting the present notes I propose to adhere to the general lines of my report of the 9th June, 1910, indicating the changes which have come under my observation in the course of the present season.
Limit of Prohibitive Measure.I have recently returned from an annual frontier tour, which took me through many of the tribal districts, and the frequency of the poppy crops along the route evidenced a falling off in the severity of the preventive measures. The district officials have made tours throughout their districts, but have confined their observations to the main roads; bodies of troops have patrolled the country and established temporary camps in the hills bordering the Shan States, whilst the deputies from the provincial capital have followed the lines of local action as in the two former years. All, however, are reported to have benefited financially from their efforts, and the flourishing crops awaiting harvest in many of the districts through which they have passed are abundant proof that their vigilance has been devoted to personal rather than to public ends. In the plains surrounding the cities there is no trace of the poppy, nor is there any extensive cultivation in the hills of the purely Chinese zone, but the tribal area shows a considerable increase of crops, and the plains of Mengting and Kengma are largely devoted to the poppy, whilst the hill districts of Kangai, Nantien, Changta, Lungchuan, Mengmao, Ta-Meng-Tung, Hsiao-Meng-Tung, and Lu-Chiang Pa (the Salween valley plains) will produce considerably increased supplies.
Tribal Belt.--A feature of the cultivation in the tribal belt during the present season is the number of Chinese cultivators who have migrated to the Kachin hills surrounding the Shan States, thus introducing more thorough and more organised methods than were known to the tribesmen, whilst presenting a stronger opposition to official action. These emigrant Chinese band themselves into groups, many of whom are well armed and who understand the financial weaknesses of the preventive agents. 1 travelled through one district, where a colonel and about 150 men were engaged in enforcing the prohibition measures, and was surprised to find an extensive belt of cultivation still awaiting the harvest in their immediate neighbourhood. commandant is a good soldier, much respected in the district, and neither he nor any considerable number of his then use the drug. He told me that he estimated his
(1973 k-3]
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