2
being harvested. The people on the spot told him, he adds, that in return for payment the authorities were ready to leave the crops untouched.
With regard to the opium-growing district in the neighbourhood of Amoy, here also the farmers appear to have sown extensive areas with poppy. The representative of a Hong Kong opium firm, touring the southern corner of the province at the end of 1912, valued the crops at no less than 20,000,000 dollars,
The work of suppression was, as in the more northerly district, commenced during the month of January, when the authorities received instructions to destroy all growing poppy crops. The order was, however, qualified by the condition that no !isturbance was to be caused. In order to carry out such qualified instructions, the officials at first considered that the military forces at their disposal would be inadequate. They were of opinion that it would not be possible to interfere with the gathering of this year's harvest. Reports received during March showed that the official view was in part correct, since one-third of the crop had been already gathered. They showed, however, at the same time that vigorous measures had been undertaken by the authorities to destroy the
poppy which remained standing. That these measures were successful is proved by the personal observations of His Majesty's consul at Amoy, who has lately reported signs of extensive destruction of the poppy and the complete absence of standing crops. A recent missionary report stated that the poppy fields in the north-east of the province were being rooted up by the officials.
While the military have, by forcible methods, been achieving much towards the suppression of cultivation in the province, the Fukien Opium Suppression Bureau has been actively supporting the campaign by the issue of proclamations. Of these one is specially noteworthy as including among punishable offences not only the cultivation, smoking, and selling of opium, but the fact of being found on premises where opium is being smoked, even should the individual so found be a non smoker.
Yünnan.
His Majesty's consul-general, reporting at the beginning of January, gave a general opinion that there was a distinct decrease in the area under cultivation this winter as compared with last year. He ascribed this result as in great measure due to the steps taken by the Provincial Government to prevent sowing. A missionary travelling in the north of the province during the last three months of 1912 had seen no trace of poppy along the main roads. On his return journey southwards, however, he skirted the Yunnan-Szechuan border, and found, in the regions inhabited by non-Chinese tribes, evidence of cultivation on a considerable scale, Repressive measures were, he stated, being attempted by the Chinese authorities.
With regard to other portions of the province, some cultivation had been seen in the east, and poppy had been sown during the winter all along the Yünnan-Tonkin frontier. From the Burma frontier it was reported that farmers had engaged in exten- sive cultivation during the previous year, but that the military authorities were already engaged in a determined and effective campaign of suppression. In one border district it was stated that severe punishments were being inflicted on cultivators, while smokers were being penalised by the partial loss of one of their ears!
Reports received at the end of January were slightly less favourable than those of a month earlier. The fact may doubtless be explained by the plants which were not yet above the ground when the previous reports were written. appearance of poppy From the poppy-growing prefectures of the north and east, for instance, cultivation was now stated as being extensive, and, in some cases, on a
In one such prefecture a considerable area of poppy had been seen along the larger scale than in the previous year. main road, and there was reason to believe that it had been planted in even greater abundance in the remoter and more hilly districts. Cultivation was reported from five districts in the west and from three in the south of the province.
From native sources His Majesty's consul-general derived the impression that the Governor was doing his best in the cause of suppression. In the neighbourhood of large towns the local officials, aided by the military, were in most cases able to prevent the planting of the crop. In the more remote districts, however, and especially in those inhabited by tribes, they were completely helpless. Several were reported to have offered their resignation rather than attempt the task of suppression. Threats to emigrate, in the event of their being prevented from growing poppy, were said to have been received from the tribesmen on the Tonkin and Burma frontiers.
While the latest reports which have been received by His Majesty's Legation from the province of Yunnan point to the continuance of official efforts towards supprea-
3
sion, it is not clear in how far such efforts have been successful. On the 17th March the general commanding the 1st division of the Yunnan army stated that strong detachments of troops had been sent to the chief opium-growing districts, and that within a month not 2 per cent. of this year's crop would be left standing Information from other sources tends to show that the general's view was somewhat optimistic, since, in reports received from five different districts, occur such phrases as " growing in almost every valley,"
poppy the river banks,"
Poppy growing openly along the roadside and on poppy planted everywhere." Near Mengtsz soldiers were seen bargaining with the owners of poppy fields, and receiving sums varying from 50 to 200 dollars in return for sparing their crops, "in the case of those who paid,
र
the soldiers marched through the fields brandishing bamboos, but doing little or no dainage to the plants; the fields of those who could not, or would not, pay were trampled down and destroyed." From a further district it is reported that troops sent to destroy the puppy had to be withdrawn in face of the hostile attitude assumed by cultivators. The district of Tali-fu, in the north-west, is, on the other hand, now said to be entirely clear of poppy.
My information regarding smoking is confined to the above-mentioned district of Tali-fu and to the neighbourhood of the provincial capital. With regard to the former, efforts to suppress the use of the drug itself would appear to have been less determined than those directed towards the destruction of the poppy, writes as follows in this connection :--
A missionary correspondent
"In this city the police occasionally arrest a smoker, but, apart from the public inns, there is really no restriction on smoking if it is practised behind closed doors. I should say that the number of smokers has been slightly reduced. Many swallow the drug who formerly smoked it. Hardly anyone now admits that they use opium, but very few are giving up the habit-even officers from the camps smoke when visiting in the city."
Reports from the capital of the province state that police surveillance has been much relaxed, that opium is smoked almost openly in shops and tea houses, and that it is to be smelt in half the private houses in the city.
It may be added that the Yunnan Opium Bureau held on the 15th March last 1,200 chests of opium, and that they are trying to negotiate its sale to the Tonkin Régie.
Kueichow.
Reports regarding this province refer chiefly to its central and south-western portions. They indicate very extensive cultivation, the crops in one district being described as larger than in any of the last six seasons, while in another it is stated that poppy was sown in greater quantities than before the revolution. Information received during the month of April and having reference to the same two prefecturea was even more categorical, being to the effect that poppy had been seen
"growing everywhere" except in one district where energetic measures on the part of the officials had led farmers to plough up their poppy crops and replace them with
beans.
The reports received include special reference to four particular districta. In one the prefect is said to go out on periodical tours of inspection, in the course of which he destroys a few fields in the neighbourhood of his headquarters, but away from the main roads and in the mountains the poppy remains untouched, In another the prefect has openly stated that, since he has no troops and since the planters are mostly village beadmen over whom he has no control, the suppression of cultivation is impossible. A missionary correspondent at Taungyifu writes as follows:-
"All over this prefecture there is a great deal of poppy growing, and it seems to me that there is very little diminution in smoking, although the price of opium is now above 1 tael an ounce. There are proclamations out against poppy growing, and the destruction of crops is threatened, but I fancy that the authorities regard the process of uprooting as too risky. It would certainly lead to trouble."
In the fourth district from which reports have lately been received it is said that the authorities appear to "mean business," and a local paper is quoted as stating that, among other severe measures about to be taken, is included the summary execution of smokers under the age of 40.
The latest information bears witness to earnest efforts made to uproot the poppy in
565