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advanced; but the weather was by no means hot, and I was everywhere assured that
the season was a late one.
At Nan-lung, Mr. Jamieson, of the China Inland Mission, gave me the same story that I had heard on other points of my journey; a considerable amount of poppy-seed had been sown in the autumn, but in January, following the instructions from Peking, proclamations were posted ordering the total eradication of the crop. According to Mr. Jamieson, the proclamation stated that the eradication was insisted on by Great Britain, and it conveyed the impression that the British inspecting officer would himself punish any person found with opium plants in his field. I tried to obtain a copy of this proclamation, but was informed that all had been destroyed, even the magistrate's own copy! The eradication had been carried out with official energy as great as that reported to me at other places. Punishments were freely inflicted on the recalcitrant Fines, confiscations, imprisonment (in one case a sentence of ten years), and in some districts death by shooting.
Although the streets of Nan-Jung were beflagged and decorated in honour of the visit of inspection, the symbols of joy scarcely reflected popular opinion. Opium- growes had lost a considerable amount of capital by the destruction of the crop, and their indignation was greater in that the local officials had permitted them to sow in the autumn, without any suggestion of possible interference. In fact, in order to test the magisterial view, a small plot near the magistrate's yamén was tentatively sown, and, no objection being raised by the authorities, it was taken for granted that opium cultivation was to be permitted in that locality. It was owing to this, no doubt, that the magistrate decided to throw the onus of responsillity for the destruction of the crop on Great Britain, in his proclamation. Destruction of poppy- crop had been carried on from January right into March, the last fields to go being at Mutsu, a village some 5 miles west of Nan-lung-Haingy main road, near the Kuangbisi border. There was very little opium grown in the Nan-lung district in the 1915–6 season; and the bulk of the seed for the 1916 autumn sowing was brought from Kuanghsi province Kuanghsi opium was being sold in Nan-lung at 3 dollars per oz. ; it was all being smuggled over the provincial Lorder.
Many opium-smokers had fled from Nan-lung a day or two before my arrival, fearing that might detect them by their visages and inflict summary punishment.
I received proof of the unpopularity of my visit the day after my departure (rom Nan-lung, when a letter which had been left for me at the China Inland Mission compound was sent after me. It was an abusive and threatening letter, accusing me of coming thither in order to spy out the wealth of the country, and stating that if I had really been in search of opium I should have stayed some days in San-lung and thoroughly searched the China Inland Mission premises and the magistrate's yamên; it ended with an impolite request to me to pet cut of China. I handed the letter to the Nan-Jung magistrate, who was travelling with us through bis jurisdiction and requested him to return at once to discover the writers of the letter and to punish them adequately. I heard later from Mr. Jamieson that the magistrate did so most if not too-adequately.
Between Nan-lung (former name Ising-yi) and Hong-yi (former name Huang- taao-pa) -5 miles- I had some altercation with the Chinese delegates regarding tlie route. They were very anxious to keep to the main road, while I wished to take a less frequented route of which I had learut through overhearing a conversation among some of our escort. I had my way, but only after considerable objection and opposition, of which I soon discovered the cause. The military official at Hsing-yi was General Liu, the elder brother of the Governor of the province, and the Chinese were expectant that he would come out to meet us. Their fear of the Governor made them anxious to do nothing at which the military brother might take umbrage; and the possibility of missing the General on the road, if my proposed route were followed, made the d-legates very nervous. However, all went happily; the General, a rough and bluff person of the old Chinese school, had not come very far out of his town to meet us, and we converged to his temporary encampment without difficulty. The obsequiousness of the Chinese delegates to the Governor's brother was ludicrous, the more so us the General himself was most hearty an informal.
Pere Julien, of the Roman Catholic Mission at Hsing-yi, told me that in the Hsing-yi district, as I had heard in other parts of the province, pium crops had been sown, and liad been stringently uprooted and destroyed in the early part of the year, in obedience to instructions tron Peking through the provincial capital instructions issued in consequence of the pending visit of inspection. Some opposition to the destruction of the crop had been raised in Hsing-yi, the chief offender being the
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Governor's own mother, an old lady 96 years old, who had vigorously urged the owners of opium crops to resist the instructions for the eradication of their property, This was corroborated to me by the Chinese delegates, who seemed to appreciate the humour of the situation caused by the aged dame setting herself up in opposition to the official orders issued through her son.
From Hsing-yi to Chiang-ti, the small village on the river forming the frontier line between the provinces of Kueichow and Yunnan, was 23 miles of very rough country, with little cultivation. We reached Chiang-ti in the evening of the 1st May, and the Kueichow portion of my journey was ended. During the evening I received a message from Mr. Jamieson at San Lung (75 miles distant) warning me that he had reliable information that certain influential opium dealers of Nan-lung had arranged for my assassination: I was to be stabbed in the back with a long dagger. I carried this cheerful information with me across the province of Yunnan, and at Hakow received a further letter of explanation that my demise had been included in the programme by the authors in order to score off certain of their enemies, whom they hoped to implicate as the real plotters against me, and thereby to obtain their severe punishment.
I append a map and an itinerary of my journey across Kueichow province. My caravan mileage through the province was 517 miles, but I myself covered much more ground than this. My methods of progression were three walking, where the road was very rough or dangerous; riding, where the road was convenient; and sitting in a chair, carried by four coolies, in bad or very hot weather, On arriving at our destination for the night there was usually an hour or two of daylight left. if not more, during which I travelled on foot or on pony in the surrounding country, selecting high points from which I could cover a large expanse with my field-glass
I did not see a single opium poppy plant in my journey through the province of Kueichow. The letter of the opium agreement of 1911 has therefore been observed by the province. [But I am satisfied, from the information I have gathered, and from my observation of empty fields bearing out the destruction of the opium crops which the Chinese delegates in conversation did not attempt to deny that had the visit of inspection not taken place, the Kueichow opium crop of 1917 would have been a large one, and would have shown uo signs of diminution in accordance with the terms of the 1911 Agreement. Thus it would appear that any real desire to keep the spirit of the agreement or to abolish Chinese opium is entirely absent. The local officials, practically without exception, did nothing to suppress the cultivation until they were expressly ordered to do so by the higher authorities, under promise of severe penalties to themselves if the instructions were not rigidly carried out. And the local magistrates are the appointees of the provincial authorities. Any the least sincere desire to suppress opium would have curbed the crop at its inception, without waiting for the incentive of an official visit of inspection]
In conversation with the Chinese delegates I did not detect any real desire for suppression of opium cultivation in China. They were rather hazy as to the 1911 Agreement, and seemed to be under the impression that the arrangement of the Shanghai opium combine with the Chinese authorities. 6xing March 1917 as the last date for the sale of stocks into China, bad superseded all treaties and agreements on the subject. Mr. Shen, the senior delegate, naively asked me whether-if the term set by the 1911 Agreement expired at the end of 1917 Great Britain was pre-luded from sending an inspecting officer to the provinces after that date.
I enquired of Mr. Shen why no practical steps had been taken to encourage farmers to reduce their opium cultivation and be informed me that the Governor of Kweichow had this spring distributed 10,000 packets of flax-seex among the magistrates in the province, with a view to encourage a cotton industry in place of opium. Those magistrates to whom I mentioned this, however, appeared to know nothing of the distribution of the flax-seed.
Que point is worth noting here, with regard to any inspection carried out in Kueichow province. The northern parts of the province are much lower than the centre and south, the country sloping up southwards from the Yang-tze Valley. A traveller might reasonably expect more especially in late spring that the climate would become much warmer as he progresses southwards; but owing to the altitude of the highland plateau in the centre and south of Kueichow--an altitude ever increasing into Yunnan province-this is not the case in Kueichow. The season is later in the south than in the worth; the crops I saw in northern Kneichow in the first days of April were more advanced than similar crops which I saw in the south a month later. It is advisable therefore that a journey of inspection in Kueichow should be taken from north to south in order to obtain the least variation of season through the province.