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Enclosure 3 in No. 15.
Report on a Journey of Investigation into the Cultivation of the Opium Poppy in South Fukien, jointly with Officials appointed by the Chinese Government, by Mr. Turner.
THE delegates selected by the Central and Provincial Governments respectively were Mr. Sou Gee Chuang, an official of the Board of the Interior, and Mr. Chan l'ai Kong, Taotai of Foochow and President of the Anti-Opium Bureau of Fukien. Mr E. Cheers, of the Straits Settlement Police Service, acted as interpreter in the Amoy dialect, which is current in all the districts visited except Hing Hua, Sien Yu, and Hok Ching, south of Foochow
A rough map is attached showing the route taken, which embraced all the former principal poppy-growing centres of South Fukien. The distance covered was approximately 1,600 li, or 530 English miles, the journey occupying twenty-five days -from the 23rd February to the 19th March. In all, seventeen districts were examined out of a total of thirty-two comprised in the lower portion of the province.
In the first district visited, that of Hai Teng, the vigorous measures taken in the autumn by the local authorities checked extensive sowing, though a certain amount was discovered by the opium inspector in January and uprooted. In the spring of 1913 Captain Connelly, of the Hong Kong garrison, whilst on a shooting expedition, found large areas under poppy cultivation in the vicinity of Chhe Nia and the authorities taking no apparent action, but a local convert of Kang Boe, a neighbour ing village, informed me that this region is now quite free. From reports of native pastors I also learned that no poppy now existed in the broad belt of coast land south of Amoy and Hai Teng. (I have since heard from a missionary that he travelled through the whole of this country at the beginning of March without finding a trace of poppy.)
Foreigners who had recently made the journey from Changpu to Amoy having reported that the main route via O Sai had been cleared of poppy, I chose the northern road from Hai Teng, which branches off due west at T'eh Chui Ying, turning south again at Koan Jim through the Tng Kio and Kio Lai. As far as could be judged, this part of the country was now almost entirely given up to rice cultivation, the Nan Ch'i River and its tributaries affording an abundant water supply. Between Tng Kio, where we were met by a military officer in charge of 700 soldiers sent to uproot the poppy, and Changpu several fields where opium had been pulled up were passed, these being readily distinguished from the fact that, having been confiscated, they were now overgrown with weeds. Last spring this As far as I could region was one of the chief poppy-growing centres of the district. gather, the soldiers arrived in December, meeting with no little resistance before the plant was eventually all destroyed.
The Changpu authorities appear to have counterbalanced their indifference of last spring, when there was extended cultivation throughout the district, by extreme severity in the autumn. Mr. Watson, of the English Presbyterian Mission at Changpu, told me that he was prepared to state positively that not a plant remained in the whole country between Changpu and Hai Teng, with the possible exception of a small patch hidden in a secluded valley near Toa Pu, of which he had heard many vague ruinours. Mr. Watson's opinions were based partly on the declarations of the native pastors of his district at a recent conference at O Sai. and partly on personal observation during his periodical visits to native mission stations.
From Changpu to Yunsiao the road lies for some 8 or 9 miles over a broad, sandy, barren plain up to a range of hills some 1,200 feet high, crossed by a low pass. with a fertile valley producing rice, sugar-cane, barley and beans on the other side. From Pan To Hsu to Tunsiao the country is too billy to suit the poppy, which requires the rich soil of the plains and a sheltered situation to thrive to perfection, and the task of the local authorities has accordingly been comparatively light. I learned that the district opium inspector had conducted a very strict examination in October and November last, whilst the magistrate himself informed me that of the thirty days he had been in office twenty had been spent in scouring the country for any heads that might have eluded the observation of the inspector and his staff. Native reports confirmed the magistrate's assurance that no poppy was now left in the district.
At Chao An I called on Father David de Miguel of the Roman Catholic Mission,
• Nut reproduced.
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who informed me that it was possible that a small quantity of poppy might still remain in the second " tu or division of the magistracy, though the magistrate had a few weeks previously, on hearing of the tour of inspection, made a journey in person through this region and had a thorough uprooting. He was unable to say for certain if all had been removed, but assured me that the rest of the district was free, the people having been thoroughly scared by the arrival of the northern soldiers. The present magistrate, Mr. Chang Tseng Pa, has held office for six months. His predecessor took no steps to put a stop to the cultivation of the poppy, for which and for general maladministration he was eventually arrested and sent to Foochow for trial Mr. Chang, on the other hand, has the reputation of being a very keen sup- pressionist and an able official; at the beginning of his campaign he was placed in a difficulty by the opposition of the gentry, of whom a few leading members were financially interested in the cultivation of the drug, and were supporting the farmers in resisting the authorities. Mr. Chang promptly arrested two of the most influ- ential, and has since had the support of the remainder. He told me that barley and tobacco were largely replacing the former opium crops. This applies in fact to the whole of the country west of Changchow, the large areas under tobacco, the leaf of which is, however, of an inferior quality, being particularly noticeable.
The country between Chao An and Ping Ho, on the borders of Kuangtung pro- vince, is little frequented by foreigners, and no reports had been received regarding the opium measures in force there. Consequently, although this part of the province has never had the reputation of being a large opium-producing centre, I was anxious to discover whether as clean a sweep had been made as in those districts nearer to the control of the high provincial authorities. Practically the whole of the 60 miles between Chao An and Ping Ho is mountainous, but the hill slopes are mostly under terrace cultivation and the valleys rich with a vast variety of native crops, rice, harley, sugar-cane and sweet potatoes being the staple products.
After leaving Chao An we passed through the second tu of the district, where I had been informed there was a possibility of finding poppy, but I discovered neither traces of it nor signs of recently disturbed fields. This is probably explained by the fact that in practice confiscated land is frequently sold back to the village or clan to which it belonged, the penalty for growing the forbidden plant being thus a double fine.
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As regards the Ping Ho district, little pressure was required to induce the farmers to abandon cultivation, and it had not been found necessary to call for troops. At Sio Khe a local missionary informed me that suppression measures had been most severe, and that, so far as the strict enquiries he had made went, the district was quite free from poppy. A native pastor had, however, informed him that a small patch 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.
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, however, the autumn sowing had not been excessive. A reward of 100 dollars was being offered for information of any poppy still growing instead of the usual per- rentage 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.
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 Khau, where no traces of a former large poppy-field were now visible. The aspect of the 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 noppy-producing district of Fukien, the yield of former years in 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 Teng An itself, particularly in the neighbourhood of Mahang. For this reason Teng An has been
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