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the capital of Shensi, 205 miles; from Sian viâ P'ingliang to Lanchow, the capital of Kansu, 470 miles; from Lanchow via Titao and down the Wei River valley to Ch'inchow, 240 miles; from Chinchow viâ Li Hsien and Minchow to Taochow in the Tibetan border country, 225 miles; from T'aochow via Labrang and Hochow to Lanchow, 220 miles; from Lanchow via P'ingfan to Liangchow and Chenfan on the edge of the Alashan desert in north-western Kansu, 250 miles; from Chenfan to Yungchang and thence through the Nanshan mountains and along the Kokonor Lorder to Yungan, Tatung and Sining, 328 miles; from Sining to Lanchow, 148 miles. From Lanchow we travelled by raft and boat on the Yellow River to Ninghsia and Paot'ou; and from Paot'ou by road again to Kueihuach'eng and Fengchen (the railhead of the Peking-Kalgan Extension line in northern Shansi). The journey was made on horseback with a small caravan of pack mules. We entered Kansu from Shensi on the 23rd May, and left the province again for Mongolia on the 11th September.
A sketch map showing the route followed is attached.*
I have, &c.
ERIC TEICHMAN,
At an interview with the Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs this afternoon, I recapitulated the course of events in connection with opium suppression, and asked what was the present attitude of the Chinese Government. Dr. Chen said that the matter had been recently discussed by the Cabinet, and that it had been decided to adopt a policy of vigorous suppression. As regards the closing of the provinces, he promised to examine the questions and communicate with me on the subject later.
I confidently anticipate that application will be made in due course for the joint inspection of Kiangsu and Kiangsi next spring, and for the closing without examination of the few remaining unclosed provinces, into which Indian opium does not as a rule find its way. If this application is complied with, and if as a result of inspection the two provinces named are placed upon the list, the Shanghai trade will come to an end, and the only important province still open to Indian opium will be Kwangtung. Conditions are too unsettled in that province at present to enable any forecast to be made as to the date at which it will eventually be closed.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
No. 23.
Sir,
Enclosure.2 in No. 21.
Sir J. Jordan to Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
October 6. 1915.
WITH reference to your Excellency's note of the 30th August, and my reply of the 1st September, I have the honour to inform you that I have now received a report from Mr. Eric Teichman on the tour of investigation for opium poppy cultivation recently made in Kansu province under the terms of the 1911 Opium Agreement.
Mr. Teichman reports that no cultivation was found by the investigation party, and I, therefore, have the honour to inform your Excellency that I propose to prohibit the importation of Indian opium into Kansu from the 1st November.
I avail myself of this opportunity to renew to your Excellency the assurance of my highest consideration.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
Mr. Alston to Mr. Balfour.-(Received January 22.)
Peking, January 22, 1917.
(Telegraphic.)
OPIUM. Sir J. Jordan's despatch of 13th September, 1916, last paragraph.
I have received note from Chinese Government intimating intention to apply for joint inspection of Kiangsu, Kiangsi, Kuangtung, Shensi, Yunnan and Kueichow.
Season for poppy flowering in Kuangtung begins next month.
I request instructions as soon as possible.
No. 24.
My Lord,
No. 22.
Sir J. Jordan to Viscount Grey. (Received October 16.)
Peking, September 13, 1916. THE " Yunnan opium case is a scandal that has caused considerable excite- ment in Chinese circles. A party of official delegates from the Yunnan provincia! government to a political conference at Peking, including the Minister of Justice in the new Cabinet, arrived in Shanghai on the 5th ultimo with a large quantity of baggage, which was passed without examination by the customs in accordance with official applications for special privileges made in Yunnan by the Minister of Justice himself, and in Shanghai by the highest Chinese authority, the Taoyin. It was then discovered that sixty trunks of the party's baggage contained Yunnan opium. Twenty-four of these trunks were found and confiscated, the value of their contents being variously estimated at 375,000 dollars to 1,000,000 dollars. Thirty-six trunks are still missing. Six of the delegates were arrested and tried at the Mixed Court, of whom three were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, one was fined, and two were acquitted. The Minister of Justice was declared by the prosecution to be innocent, and his appointment to the Ministry has since been confirmed by Parliament; but a large body of public opinion considers that his innocence has not been satisfactorily established. The Taoyin, of Shanghai, was of course not charged, but his complicity was fully demonstrated in court, and he has since resigned office on the plea of ill-health. The whole incident has revived interest in the anti-opium movement and in the question of the sincerity of the new Government in connection therewith, and the effect can hardly fail to be to strengthen the hands of the reformers.
* Not.raproduced.
Sir,
Mr. Alston to Mr. Balfour.—(Received January 24, 1917.)
Peking, December 18, 1916. I HAVE the honour to report the following case as exemplifying the attitude of some of the southern provinces towards the question of opium suppression, and the lack of control exercised by the Central Government over these distant regions in entorcing its oft-repeated injunctions for the abolition of the trade.
As you are aware, the province of Kuangsi was closed in February 1913 to the importation of Indian opium in accordance with article 3 of the Opium Agreement of 1911, on the understanding that the province had effectually suppressed the cultiva tion and import of native opium. In spite of this, however, a good deal of the drug continued to be smuggled in from the neighbouring province of Yunnan, some of it for local consumption and some in transit to the province of Kuangtung, which is still open to the trade, and His Majesty's consul at Wuchow recently reported that the local authorities, whilst outwardly issuing proclamations and offering rewards An office, for seizures of opium, were themselves secretly engaged in the traffic. known as the Chou Hsiang (hu, or Revenue-raising Bureau, had been established at Nanning, the provincial capital, to devise means for procuring funds for military purposes, and, among other schemes to this end, was one for legalising the transport of opium throughout the province. Permits, it was said, were issued by the bureau, for which a fee was charged at the rate of a dollar an ounce, whilst an official" ring was formed for the actual control and sale of the drug.
Particulars of the system were supplied to His Majesty's Legation by His Majesty's consul at Wuchow, and though it will be seen that the Tuchun, or Military Governor, denies that there is any truth in the story, it appears nevertheless to be a matter of common knowledge, and it is more than probable At all events, on the that the Governor is himself implicated in the scheme. 12th September His Majesty's Minister received a telegram from His Majesty's Consul stating that 1.700 catties (about 2.270 lb) of opium had been seized at Wuchow by the local authorities at his instigation, but that the Governor had ordered it to be sent to Nanning, where there was reason to believe that it would not be
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