1407
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[1255]
No. 1.
[January 9.]
SECTION 1.
176
(No. 506.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 9, 1913.)
Peking, December 23, 1912. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copy of a despatch in which His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow forwarded to me a number of reports on the cultivation of opium in China appearing in a local newspaper. The reports themselves, which are all by missionaries and nearly all signed, are too voluminous to trouble you with, but they are summed up, not unfairly, in the enclosed extract from a later issue of the same paper, which Mr. Wilkinson has forwarded to me in a subsequent despatch. Copies are also enclosed of letters from missionaries received by Mr. Wilkinson during the last four months in reply to repeated requests for information concerning the cultivation of the poppy.
Owing to the unsettled condition of the country generally during the spring and summer months of this year when the poppy was in flower, it was not possible to undertake special investigations into this subject, and the information in my possession regarding the extent to which opium was cultivated this year is by no means complete. I have, however, carefully compared the letters in the "Central China Post" with such reports as have reached me during the year from His Majesty's consular officers, and I have the honour to summarise briefly as follows the result of this analysis:-
Leaving out the Manchurian provinces, the reports in the "Central China Post deal with the following twelve out of eighteen provinces of China: Anhwei, Chekiang, Chibli, Honan, Hunan, Hupeh, Kansu, Kiaugsi, Kweichow, Shansi, Shensi, and Szechuan.
paper.
In regard to five of these, namely, Anhui, Chibli, Honan, Hupel, and Kiangsi, I have had no consular reports as to growth of opium this year, and I have no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the missionaries' reports as summarised in the I would call your attention to the recrudescence of opium growing last spring in the extreme north of Anhui and on the Kiangsu border of that province; and I would mention that in a letter received by the "Central China Post" after the summary was compiled, a China inland missionary, writing from Yingchowfu in North Anhui, reports that this year (November) "a tremendous sowing is being made," which he hopes will not be permitted to mature. Chibli appears to be fairly clear of the poppy. reports from Honan and Hupeh are on the whole favourable, although it will be seen from the letters received by His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow that in some parts of Honan more opium is reported to have been sown than ever before.
The reports from Kiangsu are somewhat conflicting
The
As to the provinces of Kansu, Kweichow, and Sheusi, the missionary reports, damning in regard to Kweichow and on the whole unfavourable in regard to the other two, are confirmed by earlier reports in my possession, and by the letters to His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow herewith enclosed.
The evidence as to poppy cultivation in the remaining four of the twelve provinces included in the Hankow newspaper reports, Chekiang, Hunan, Shansi, Szechuan, is somewhat conflicting.
A consular report from Chekiang last February stated that opium was grown in at least two prefectures, Taichow and Wenchow. The "Central China Post" reports from both of these prefectures admit the truth of this allegation, but state that the prohibition of cultivation throughout the province is now thoroughly effective. The letters from Hunan allege that the whole province is clear of opium except in the hill district on the southern border, where some poppy was grown last spring. Reports, however, from His Majesty's consul at Changsha, dated in July last, showed that in several places scattered over the province, opium growers had successfully, and with impunity resisted the deputies sent to suppress cultivation. The missionary letters are, therefore, probably too optimistic, but at the same time it must be admitted that the consular reports them- selves indicate the vigour with which the anti-opium campaign in the Province is being pursued.
This is the province where the burning of the seven chests occurred for which we are claiming compensation.-W...
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