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was being grown in a secluded spot 20 miles north of Lung Shan; but Mr. Vosknil was confident that, if such were indeed the case, it was not being grown with the connivance of the opium inspector, of whom he spoke very highly. I was unable to ascertain the exact locality of the field, native converts being often unwilling to afford information likely in any way to bring upon themselves the hostility of the villagers.
From native sources at Lam Ching I learned that young poppy had been freely uprooted in December, the owner of one field being fined 800 dollars. On the whole, A reward of 100 dollars was however, the autumn sowing had not been excessive. being offered for information of any poppy still growing instead of the usual percentage of the fine imposed. Here as elsewhere all sorts of rumours with regard to the inspection of the province were current, the country people firmly believing that if any opium were discovered both the grower and the district magistrate would be shot and a fine of several hundred thousand dollars demanded by the British Government.
Towards Changchow the soil is extremely rich; the rice grown in the Changchow prefecture is said to be the finest in China, whilst this district also supplies a large proportion of the fruit produce of South Fukien. On reaching the city I called on Mr. Hutchinson, of the English Presbyterian Mission, who said he believed there was poppy in only one spot in the whole of his missionary district, extending north as far as Lung Nia and east almost to Tong An. Ilis knowledge came from a friend of a Christian native doctor, but the information was given to him under promise not to disclose the locality, the informer being unwilling for some reason to involve the Lung Ch'i magistrate in trouble. According to Mr. Hutchinson the latter was well aware of the existence of the field, which contained about 1,000 heads of poppy-
The anti-opium campaign in the Lung Ch'i district appears to have been accompanied by many abuses, of which Mr. Hutchinson gave me several instances. On one occasion, a gambler having been observed by underlings of the opium inspector to have wou 80 dollars at play, three or four pellets of opium were furtively placed in his pocket and he was subsequently taxed with being a smoker. On denying the charge be was searched and forced to hand over his 80 dollars as hush-money. In another case a heavy bribe had been exacted by the inspector from a wealthy shopkeeper on whose premises two pipes were found, these having been placed in a back room by the inspector's men whilst the proprietor's attention was engaged by confederates. There seems good ground for crediting these stories, since Mr. Chan Pai Kong himself informed me that the inspector had been discovered placing poppy plants in the fields of innocent persons with a view to extorting squeezes, and that he had offered his office for sale for 2,000 dollars. These reports also I had previously heard from other sources. Mr. Chan's secretary told me that the inspector, and also the former Chao An inspector, who had been guilty of similar malpractices, would be sent to Foochow and probably executed. The Opium Administration has been further discredited by these abuses from the fact that in some districts private persons posing as official inspectors have been imitating their illegalities.
Mr. Hutchinson was of opinion that the Lung Ch'i magistrate was also a party to these frauds, and stated that the extortions of the opium officials were infinitely worse than the exactions of the Manchu régime, and that native prepared opium was plentiful at Changchow, the authorities having perfect cognisance of its whereabouts, and exacting a heavy duty on all sold or kept for sale. As the spring crop was gathered without interference, there are probably considerable accumulated stocks in hand, whilst there is no doubt that poppy seed, which is said to retain its efficacy for four years, is being carefully hoarded up against any future slackening of suppressive measures.
The poppy has, however, by fair means or otherwise, been completely eradicated from the district; I myself passed through Thih Tng, where the plant was being freely sown in the autumn, and saw none, whilst Mr. Hutchinson had recently visited Lim Tun Hi, where a powerful clan, taking advantage of a strong strategical position, had resiated the soldiers for some time with success, and found all the opium uprooted. This clan, which had been strong enough to refuse payment of land tax for 150 years, capitulated in December. In other parts the villagers had mostly submitted to the inevitable on the first approach of the troops.
At Changt'ai, from all accounts, the magistrate, Mr. Sou Gee Chen, a brother of the metropolitan delegate, appears to have cleared his district thoroughly. I passed through the chief former opium-growing region, and found it now almost entirely under barley.
From Changt'ai I took a by-road through Be Iun and Pho Tan to Koan Khan, where no traces of a former large poppy-field were now visible. The aspect of the
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country here changes, the hills of the west giving way to a broad plain, across which a clear view of several miles is obtained on all sides. Between Koan Khau and Ch'uan Chow lies the largest poppy-producing district of Fukien, the yield of former in
years the Tong An district, according to semi-official Chinese estimates, being 50 per cent. of that of the whole province.
The zone of greatest activity lies immediately south of Tong An itself, particu- larly in the neighbourhood of Mahang. For this reason Tong An has been allotted six and Mahang three opium inspectors instead of the usual one, whilst the latter's officer in charge, a gentleman of picturesque proportions in keeping with his strong attitude as a local administrator, has further been raised to the dignity of a "chih shih," or magistrate.
Missionaries at Tong An reported that in the immediate vicinity of the city little or no poppy had been sown in the previous autumn, but farther afield, especially to the south, the soldiers had had a busy time clearing the country in January. They believed the whole district to be at present quite free. A lady who had made the opium move- ment a keen study informed me that, according to rough observations made by her, 50 per cent. of the cultivable land within a few miles' radius of the city was under poppy in 1912, but during frequent journeys this year, mostly off the main routes, she had not seen a single plant. Another lady, who had just returned from a visit to the Ankhoe district, had also seen no poppy growing. The country north of that city is moun- tainous, and produces very little poppy, the plant when fully grown being only 8 or 10 inches high, and yielding little juice.
As the main road from Tong An to Ch'uan Chow was reported to be then free from poppy by a foreigner who made the journey in December last, I decided to strike across country from Ma Hang, dipping down south to Khoe Tang, on the sea border opposite to the large island of Kim Mng, and thence making Ch'uan Chow via An Hai and Chioh Sai. Between Tong An and Ma Hang the country was literally a blaze of poppy last spring, but not a vestige was now to be seen. The magistrate at Ma Hang, which has long been notorious for its connection with the opium industry, informed me that little poppy had been sown in the autumn, attributing the fact to the people's intelligence in appreciating the arguments of his proclamations, but it is probable that his treatment of offenders, which consists, in the first place, in burning their houses, confiscating their lands, and fining them heavily, and, in the second place, in beheading them if they receive these correctives with ill grace, and the presence of several companies of northern troops in the district, have been more potent deterrents to growers. It is, however, remarkable that the abandonment of an industry which, according to the magistrate's estimate, was worth 2,000,000 dollars per annum to the people of Ma Hang alone should have provoked so little resistance, and it is probable that this district will require careful watching in the future.
The inspection in this part of the country has been carried out with great thoroughness. Large barley fields, whose extent of area might have concealed a few stalks, and patches of sugar cane have been carefully examined by the inspectors, whilst suspicious houses have been entered, even a few heads of poppy growing in earthenware pots in courtyards or on the house roofs being a sufficient source of profit to induce villagers to run the risks of detection. Here, as in most parts of South Fukien, barley appears to have largely taken the place of the poppy.
Between An Hai and Ch'uan Chow an agreement was entered into last spring between the officials and the people, by which the latter were permitted to harvest the crop on giving an undertaking that no sowing should be made in the following season. This contract seems to have been faithfully carried out by both parties, for I heard of none having been planted in the autumn, whilst Ch'uan Chow missionaries informed me that in the course of up-country journeys at the new year they had seen no sign of poppy. In the adjoining district of Lam An, however, where no such compromise was made, resistance to the authorities necessitated military measures, the plant being forcibly uprooted in December. From Chuan Chow made a day's excursion to Lam An and the neighbourhood without finding any trace of opium.
On arriving at Hui An I found that the Anti-Opium Commissioner of Amoy, Mr. Ding Neng Guang, was then in the district scouring the country for poppy. In common with magistrates of other districts in the province, Mr. Shih Wei Ch'ung, the Hui An magistrate, when called upon for his report, had notified the Foochow head office that his district was free from the plant.
This appears
to have been a deliberate misrepresentation of fact, since the district opium inspector had sent in to him at the end of last year a list of places (all in the Tau Pak region, north of Hui An, where he had found poppy still growing. The
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