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During July several opium dens were reported to have been closed in Swatow by the police and military. In September, however. following the advent of Ch'en Chiung Ming into the district, a head office for the curing of the opium habit was established by the Kwangtung army at Mei-hsien, where a drug, partly composed of opium, was OL
sale at 7 dollars on ounce.
Tengyueh.
Nothing more has been heard on the Tengyueh side of the Mintha and other Although rewards leaders of the plot to ferment trouble on the frontier last season. of 5,000 rupees have been offered by the Burina Government for information leading to the arrest of their leaders no clues have been forthcoming.
From information supplied to the district superintendent of police on the 20th June last, by a youth who claimed to be the younger son of the Mintha, Saw Yan Baing, His Majesty's consul learned that there were Burmans living in Nantien, although only shortly before the Sawbwa of that region had declared that no Binans
were there.
The Taoyin continued to take the stand that the Yunnau Government cannot be held responsible for the trouble on the frontier last season, because the plot was the work of bad characters from Burma.
In spite of all representations made and promises given, the Yunnan Government has done nothing to re-establish Chinese military posts on the frontier, and, as far as preventive measures on the Chinese side are concerned, things are exactly in the saine position as they were last year. Successive Taoyins and magistrates here seem to have been animated by a single motive-the desire to get rich quickly, and everything is sacrificed to their greed and rapacity.
There have been no cases of robbery, and west of Talifu, at any rate, the roads are safe for travelling and trade. East of Talifu the brigaud Yang Tien-fa continued to be the cause of much nervous apprehension to travellers until his surrender to the authorities about the end of October, since when he has been at Yunnan-fu.
Hankow.
The feeling of apprehension and excitement which existed during the summer months owing to the passage through the province of Chang Ching-yao's demoralised troops and to the activities of Wu Kuang-hsin has now subsided, and outwardly at least conditions have again become normal."
At one time the situation appeared to contain all the necessary ingredients for an upheaval on a considerable scale. The south of the province was alive with bands of armed men retreating by the road and river towards Hankow, and the adherents of the Anfu Party were leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to cause a diversion in favour of their leaders in Peking. But the utter collapse of the Anfu Party effectually damped the ardour of the Northern troops in Hupet, and the desire of the Tuchan to keep peace in the province inclined him to abstain from any drastic action against the defeated party.
Throughout the Anfu-Chilli struggle the provincial authorities displayed the greatest anxiety to ensure the safety of foreign traders. On application from His Majesty's consul-general some scores of proclamations were posted at the agencies, both in Hupel and Hunan, of the Asiatic Petroleum Company and the British-American Tobacco Company, and other frins doing business in the interior, ordering the troops of the local officials to afford special protection to the agencies, and specifically referring to the goods stored there as the property of foreign firms.
About the beginning of July the renewal of the proposal to reconstruct Hankow with the proceeds of a loan from Messrs. Samuel and Co., and the formal appointment by the Central Government of Chang Kuo-kau to take charge of the works gave rise to considerable excitement, and the local newspapers constantly published articles violently opposing the scheme, on the ground that the agreement with Messrs. Samuel and Co. had not been published. In the end Chang Kuo-kan resigned his post of director, and but little has been heard of the scheme since.
On the 29th September last Vice-Admiral Sir A. L. Duff arrived at Hankow with H.M.S. Alacrity" and "Hawkins." At the Consulate-General and at Wuchang official luncheons were given, at which the Tuchan and Commander-in-chief were present. The British Chambers of Commerce and China Association also gave a dinner in honour of Admiral Duff, and were much gratified at the interest shown by the admiral in commercial matters.
3
Canton.
With the complete overthrow of the Anfi Party in the North it appeared probable by the end of July that there would be an early reunion of the Chilli and Kuangsi parties, if not actually of the whole country, and locally it was felt that events in the North would effectively discourage any attempt at a demonstration by Ch'en Chiung Ming, and that the Yunnauese would prefer to make terms rather than challenge the armies of the rest of the provinces. These hopes were, however, nut to be realised; war has raged since August in the province of Kwangtung, where, after his sudden descent upon Swatow, Ch'en Chiung Ming advanced slowly on Canton, held by General Mo Yung Hsin, the Tuchun, and his Kwangsi troops, Chen's progress was definitely checked at Waichow, and he might have been obliged to abandon his project had not Generals Wei Pang-ping, chief of police, and Li Fu-lin, commanding Can- tonese troops at Horan, declared independence on the 27th September. At the same time they issued a notice calling on Mo Yung Hsin to resign and return to Kwangsi forthwith, giving him three days in which to leave-a futile project, in view of the strength of the Kwangsi garrison in Canton.
At the beginning of October, as a result of representations made to both sides by the Consular Body, an armistice was agreed upon. Mo Yung Hsin expressed his willingness to retire and to return to Kwangsi with his troops, and only the question of the payment of the latter requires consideration. His demands are variously stated at from 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 dollars, a portion of such payment to be made before he resigns, and the retention of their arms and ammunition by his men.
Neither party has made concessions, and there seems to be to prospect of a lasting settlement without the intervention of the Central Government.
Opium has for a long time been smuggled into Kwangtung from Yunnan, and the drug is smoked openly on passenger boats and launches. When in consequence of the split between the two Southern parties Tang Chi-vao sent a force to watch the Kwangsi Yunaan boundary near Pose, the Kwangsi authorities decided that a strict campaign against opium smuggling would be the most efficient weapon against this force, which depended on the trade for funds. The searching of motor-boats began to be carried out particularly carefully in August, when it became evident that the Yunnanese military authorities were pursuing a victorious career in Szechuan. Motor- launches were constantly stopped and suspected shops were raided.
Chunghing.
The outstanding development of the quarter was the movement towards making Chungking the seat of Government of the South-West Confederacy. In connection with this General Li Lieh-chun, Chief of Staff of the Military Government, arrived in the city on the 6th September for the purpose of setting up general headquarters; the most direct result of his visit was the production of dissension between the Kweichow and Yunnan commands. Towards the end of September the members of the old Canton Parliament arrived; their stay proved, however, a short one, and as the Parliament never entered on its functions in the city, Chungking's elevation to metropolitan rank was brief and inglorious.
The conduct of the Kweichow troops was a source of complaint throughout the quarter, and on more than one occasion newly arrived bodies made their presence felt by wholesale theft and commandeering of foreign junks. In every case, however, His Majesty's consul's representations to their commander-in-chief General Wang Wen-hua, were successful, and the stolen property was restored to the rightfil
owners.
A singular feature of the quarter was the number of preventive arrests made by the local Kweichow commandant, who laid hands on all persons suspected of sympathy with Hsiung K'o-wu's cause. The majority of these "suspects" were released ou security after one night's incarceration, which as described by one of their number, musi have rivalled the Black Hole of Calcutta.
As a result of representations made to His Majesty's consul and his colleagues by the Commissioner of Foreign Affairs in connection with the storage in foreign premises of Chinese goods, a circular was sent to all British missionaries in the district requesting them to afford protection to women and children only or to people with whom they were personally acquainted.
At no time under any sort of control in this province, brigandage has during the recent hostilities become so great a pest that junk traffic between Chungking and
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