[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]C.
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[29341]
No. 1.
568
[July 10.]
EG AUG 12 SECTION 2.
Sir,
Colonial Office to Foreign Office.--(Received July 10.)
Downing Street, July 9, 1912. I AM directed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to transmit to you, in original, to be returned, certain papers on the resumption of poppy cultivation in Yünnan.
I am,
&c.
JOHN ANDERSON.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
The Officer Administering the Government of Hong Kong to Mr. Harcourt,
(Confidential.) Sir,
Hong Kong, June 7, 1912. I HAVE the honour to transmit, for your information, the enclosed copy of a letter from Mr. A. C. Franklin, assistant Government analyst in this colony, on the subject of the resumption of poppy cultivation in Yünnan.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Mr. Franklin to Mr. Clementi.
CLAUD SEVERN.
Dear Mr. Clementi,
Hong Kong, June 6, 1912. MR. BULLOCK tells me you would like to have an account of the cultivation of the opium poppy in Yunnan. The following details are from personal observation and reports of credible witnesses.
I travelled by rail from Haiphong to Yünnan-fu, where I remained about four weeks. The first poppies seen were at the margin of the plain of Mengtsz, a few kilometres beyond the station of Pi-Che-Tchai (Kilometre 178). Thence onward to Yunnan-fu numerous patches were seen near the railway line, but no opportunity of making observations occurred, except from the train. On the plain of Yunnan-fu and the surrounding hills there was, in the aggregate, a considerable area under poppy, made up of small fields scattered among other crops. I was informed that around Yünnan-fu itself this area was only 40 per cent of that formerly so cultivated, but that in other districts as much ground was being devoted to opium as in any previous year. A missionary, who was stationed for nine years on the Kweichow border, and had recently returned from a trip there, told me that, as compared with the years before the prohibition of poppy growing, there appeared to be no diminution in its cultivation. It appears that cultivators took advantage of the revolutionary outbreak to revert to the poppy crop, The new Government issued orders that these poppy crops should be destroyed "unless the people objected strongly." It is understood now that the present crop is to be the last.
The fields of poppies exhibited different stages of maturity, those remote from the main roads being more advanced, as a rule, pointing to the conclusion that some farmers had hesitated longer than others before venturing to sow the forbidden poppy. Before my departure a large portion of the crop had been harvested and the process of incising the capsules was seen in operation. Photographs of this were taken, but it is not yet certain whether any were successful; I am now awaiting news on this point. Attached is an enlarged copy of a photograph of a field in flower.*
* Not reproduced.
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