[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.
[B
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL
15372
[May 1.]
SECTION 1.
1 MAY IT
No. 1.
[16037]
(No. 147.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey -(Received May 1.)
Peking, April 7, 1911.
I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith copy of a despatch from His Majesty's consul-general at Tien-tsin embodying a set of regulations issued, with the sanction of the Viceroy, for the complete stoppage of opium smoking within two in this province.
years
What is being done in Chilli is, so far as my information goes, a fair illustration of the activity with which the anti-opium campaign is being conducted in other parts of the Empire, and two years are generally assigned as the limit of time for the completion of the work. It is considered impossible to keep up the popular enthusiasm for a longer period, and, rather than admit failure, the Chinese Government and the Chinese people are evidently determined to incur any sacrifice, however great. During the next two years, therefore, we may expect to see the most drastic methods applied to opium suppression, and neither treaties nor other considerations will, I fear, receive much attention if they are found to stand in the way of the great reform on which this country is now fairly embarked.
Sir Alexander Hosie's report will have shown that cultivation has practically ceased in Szechuen, which provided over 200,000 piculs of opium a year and was the main source of supply for the rest of China, and the newspapers are full of reports (of one of which, viz., a memorial by the governor of Kueichow, I have the honour to enclose a translation) of the measures which are now being taken to deal with the few remaining provinces in which poppy cultivation still lingers. Armed encounters between the farmers and the Government troops bave recently taken place in Kansa and Kueichow, two of the provinces in which the least progress has been made, but travellers in all parts of the Empire testify to the rapid disappearance of the smoking still goes on everywhere to a considerable extent, and will doubtless continue so On the other hand, poppy. long as the hoarded supplies of opium last. But the Chinese still adhere firmly to their original policy of stopping the cultivation and the foreign import--the two sources of supply-as affording the best solution of the problem.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN,
(No. 24.) Sir,
Consul-General H. E. Fulford to Sir John N. Jordan.
Tien-tsin, March 30, 1911.
I HAVE the honour to inform you that the Chihli central bureau for the prevention of opium has recently issued, with the sanction of the Viceroy, the most drastic regulations for the complete stoppage of opium smoking in the province within the next two years, and also new regulations for the issue of permits to all dealers in opium.
The first mentioned regulations divide the two years, third and fourth of Hsuan Tung, into eight periods of three months each. taken as follows:----
In each period specific steps are to be
1. Opium prevention committees are to be formed in each district.
2. Every opium smoker in each district is to be discovered and put upon lists.
3. Thorough preparations are to be made in each district for breaking opium
smokers of the habit.
4. All shops for the sale of the drug are to be closed.
5. All opium smokers are to be broken of the habit.
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