2
last year, and the magistrate informed me that hardly any attempt had been made to Bow this season.
Lo Yüan has never been an opium-growing district, and there is no sign of any disposition on the part of the people to cultivate it.
The missionaries Ning Te-Formerly one of the largest opium-producing districts. state that the whole plain, up to the gates of the city, used to be covered with poppy, but there is now nothing visible except wheat and rape. We visited Paitu, a large village 50 li north of Ning Te City, which used to have a great reputation for the quality and quantity of the opium produced there. It was at Hotung, in this same neighbourhood, that Bishop Price reported having seen soldiers on their way to destroy opium at the end of last year, but I could not obtain any information as to the precise locality where such destruction took place.
From Paitu we went to Sui Chi, in Fu An district, by boat, in order to effect a saving of time.
Fu An was in former days by far the worst opium-growing district in the north of Fukien, but though I spent some days in this neighbourhood and made as complete a search as possible, I could find no trace of present cultivation. The magistrate, Mr. Yü, seems a most capable and energetic man, and he has himself spent five months out of the last fourteen in the mountain districts personally superintending the uprooting of the poppy. I am told that there are 1,200 persons engaged in the anti-opium campaign in this district.
year,
Fu Ning ranks second to Fu An as an opium-producing district. It was on the road between Fu Ning and Fu An that Rev. Curtis reported having seen poppy last Dr. Mackenzie, of the but there was none visible when I passed along this road. Church Missionary Society in Fu Ning, informed me that some four weeks before my arrival a peasant was discovered to be cultivating a few square feet of poppy in his garden. The man was sentenced to be shot, but on the field of execution is punish- ment was commuted to 2,000 blows. This discovery, coming on the eve of the. commission of investigation, appears to have considerably frightened the magistrate, for he immediately sent out 150 men to scour his district, offering large rewards for information as to cultivation. No further poppy was, however, reported.
Shou Ning.-Formerly a large producing centre. The inhabitants are miserally poor, and the temptation to plant such a profitable article as opium is correspondingly great; but the state of terror to which the inhabitants have been reduced is well illustrated by the following: In Fu An and neighbouring districts are grown large quantities of a kind of artemisia, called Ai-tzu. I had remarked it especially because its leaves to some extent resemble those of the poppy, though in other respects the plant is quite different. In Shou Ning district I noticed that this plant was entirely absent, and on making enquiries I ascertained that the farmers themselves had rooted up not only this plant but every other which in leaf or flower in the remotest degree resembled the poppy, for fear lest I should mistake them for poppies and get the owners of the land into trouble. In this district, which has a mean height of about 1,000 feet above sea-level, there is only one crop of rice a year, and, this season's crop not having yet been sown, the ground was lying fallow, in striking contrast to the other districts I hal traverse, which were already green. I enquired whether proper steps were being taken to see that these lands would not be sown with poppy after my investigations were closed, and was assured that not only was it now some ten days past the latest possible date on which poppy could be planted this season, but that the vigilance of the anti-opium authorities would not be relaxed until the whole ground was sown with crops other than poppy.
Cheng Hn. One of the less notorious districts. The cultivable land between Shou Ning and Cheng Ho used, in former days, to be covered with poppy, but there does not appear to be any at present cultivated. My object in choosing this route was partly because I was not expected to take it, and partly because, the country it traverses being outside the range of the missions and very rarely visited by foreigners, we had no information respecting it.
Sung Chi has a reputation as an opium-smoking, rather than as an opium-cultivating, district. Rev. J. Bluudy informed me that he had only heard of one case of cultivation during the last twelve months, and in this case the offender was shot. The district is covered with official notices relating the circumstances and the penalty inflicted, as a warning to other would be planters.
Kienning-In Kieuning and Shaowu prefectures there are in all some 2,000 Hunanese and Anhui troops, distributed among the cities and villages specially for opium work. They are under the command of the Hunanese Resident-General at
3
Kienning, who is an ardent anti-opium enthusiast, and I am of opinion that they have done their work thoroughly. The British missionaries informed me that, as far as they knew, there had been no attempts at opium cultivation this season.
Yen Ping was never a large opium-growing district, the soil not being very suitable. I am informed that a few months ago a certain amount was seen along the river, but I neither saw nor heard of any while in the district.
I have been deeply impressed by the thoroughness and efficiency with which the campaign against the cultivation of opium is being carried on and the spirit which animates the workers. The Government institution (Chin Yen Chu) and the voluntary organisation (Ch'ü Tu She) work side by side, though the brunt of the field work is borne by the latter. In every town and village there is an anti-opium office or sub-office, to which as a rule the majority of the gentry belong. In each hsien there is an inspector, and a number of hsien are grouped under an inspector-general, of whom there are four in North Fukien. Most of the inspectors are gentlemen and well educated, who are devoting their time entirely and without remuneration to the eradication of opium. They claim to have personally examined, not once but frequently, every portion of their respective districts, and, from their intimate knowledge of even the minutest features of the landscape, I am of opinion that their claim is well founded. given every possible facility for visiting any place I expressed a wish to see, but though I made as efficient a search as my time permitted, I found not so much as a single poppy during the month I was absent from Foochow. Everywhere are posted notices offering rewards of from 20 dollars to 40 dollars for information as to poppy cultivation, and warnings that any person found cultivating poppy will be shot. In some districts every household is bound to supply one person to assist in the general search when called upon to do so, failing which a fine of 30 cents is imposed.
I was
Of the opium districts which I had not time to visit the most important are Fu Ch'ing and Fu Ting, the former south of Foochow, and the latter in the north-east corner of the province. However, I have no reason to suppose they have not been as thoroughly dealt with as the other districts, especially as it was considered absolutely certain that I would visit them. So much was this the case that the most elaborate preparations had been made for our reception. As soon as we reached the gate of Fu Ning City a runner was despatched to Fu Ting to announce our approaching arrival, without even waiting to ascertain my intentions in the matter. Later when we reached Shou Ning I received a letter from the Fu Ting magistrate asking if I could not possibly make it convenient to visit his district, as it would be a disappointment for those who had laboured so hard to eradicate the poppy if their work was not so much as looked at. I received similar messages from Pu Cheng, Ch'ung An, Ping Nan, and many other districts. Apart, however, from this merely sentimental consideration, there is no doubt that the magistrates and unti-opium authorities were delighted when I visited their district, as my visit--and incidentally that of the escort of forty soldiers- would render the task of suppression easier by bringing strongly to the minds of the people the seriousness of the anti-opium campaign. It was presumably with this same end in view, to impress the people, that wherever I went I was paid the most exaggerated honours, and dignified by titles as exalted as that of "British Minister."
One feature worthy of notice is that the gentry seem to be taking
an active part
in the suppression of opium, resistance being now confined almost entirely to the lower classes. It is explained that the reason for this somewhat astonishing fact is that opium-smoking is now no longer considered a respectable thing to do, and, as a gentleman loses caste by being a smoker, most of the better classes, are breaking themselves of the habit.
This does not apply to the labouring classes and members of
the Anti-Opium Association have remarked to me that they had to give up hope of redeeming confirmed smokers as a class, and contine their attentions more especially to preventing those who are not already confirmed smokers from acquiring the vice.
At most of the larger places I visited I received deputations of the leading gentry and chambers of commerce, who wished to express their hearty thanks to His Majesty's Government for its co-operation and for the present investigation. In replying, I impressed on them, as also on the magistrates, that if the province was closed to the import of Indian opium this must not be the signal for the relaxation of their efforts, and that any cultivation of opium in the future would be a grave breach of faith towards His Majesty's Government. I was given to understand that the present severe measures would be continued for another year, at the end of which period the seed which the farmers might now be hiding would be dead and useless, and that it was expected that three more years of close surveillance would suffice to put a stop to any extensive poppy cultivation for many years to come.
539
i
!