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Many wild
in the last three months to destroy every trace of the poppy crops. Many punish- ments had been inflicted, and any owner who was considered dilatory in uprooting and destroying his crop was punished by confiscation of his land. I visited one large temple, with grounds extending over several acres, which had been so confiscated: the land was marked off into lots, which had been sold or rented by the authorities to various schools and institutions for use as vegetable gardens. Rewards had been offered by the Chinese authorities for any poppy plant discovered in the district; and this bad led to many cases of blackmail, chiefly by the soldiery. rumours had been rife in Tsun-yi as to the scope of the official inspection. One Fumour bad it that I should make a house-to-house visitation, and should severely punish any person suspected of being an opium smoker. As a result of this rumour many opium smokers had fed the town a day or two before my arrival. Another, still more ridiculous, rumour stated that Great Britain was arranging a peaceful acquisition of the three provinces of Szechuen, Kueichow and Yunnan, and I was the pioneer to make the preliminary arrangements for taking over the provinces.
Mr. Olesen was on the point of making an extended journey in the north-east of Kueichow province; and I asked him to be good enough to let me know what conditions he found on his travels. He informs me that from Sze-nan to Chen-yuan conditions were much the same as in the Tsun-yi district-drastic official measures for suppression of the poppy crop and severe punishment of those disobeying the official instructions, the death penalty being inflicted in a few cases.
The road from Sungkan to Tsun-yi had been one continuous triumphal procession. Every village and town was decorated with flags, and triumphal arches of bamboo and evergreen were erected in the streets of the larger towns.
I was clearly on the expected route. I had, however, satisfied myself that no flowering poppy had been seen as stated in Chungking, and I decided to turn my road towards the west. It was fairly clear that the Chinese expected me to visit the capital of the province, and that the country on the way thereto would be thoroughly cleared of any poppy in anticipation of my visit. On the evening before our departure from Tsun-yi, therefore, I signified to the Chinese delegates my intention of proceeding westwards. The delegates at once came to see me, objecting to my proposal, and saying that the westerly roads were bad and dangerous, and that part of the country was infested with brigands, and that there were no villages large enough to accommodate our party at night. I brushed aside these objections. Where there was a path we could go; where there were brigands we had our brave escort; where there was even a small village we would make the best of whatever accommodation there was. Mr. Shen then fell back on his "face"; how would he have any "face" if it became known to the Governor that he had permitted the British delegate to suffer such hardships and inconveniences in the province of Kueichow! I told him that face "
need not be considered where duty, however irksome, is concerned. Finally, seeing I was not to be persuaded, he mentioned that the Governor of Kueichow Lad made lavish preparations for my reception at Kneiyang, and was expecting me to arrive there in a few days, and that the Governor would hold him responsible for conducting me thither. I told him that in that case I would myself write to the Governor and explain matters, which I eventually did, when I arrived at Anshun.
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Mr. Shen now presented me with a map, requesting that I would mark off my route through Kueichow, so as to enable him to warn the various local officials to make suitable preparations to receive me. I told him that I regretted being unable to do so, as I myself did not yet know my route beyond two or three days' journey. I assured Mr. Shen that I was quite prepared to take the roads or paths and the accommodation just as I found them, and that he need not disturb his mind on those scores.
From Tsun-yi to Chien-hsi (98 miles) the country becomes rough and mountainous, the general elevation at Ch'ien-hsi being over 4,000 feet above sea-level, Hills are very rugged and steep, and the area is generally less cultivable than in the Tsun-vi district. As a natural result, population is scantier and more dispersed; quite a large proportion of the inhabitants in the Ch'ien-hsi district are aborigines of the Miao tribes.
I found very much the same conditions with regard to crops as I had found between Sungkan and Tsun-yi: beans rape and peas, with several suspiciously cropless fields, The best Kueichow opium was that from the Ch'ien-hsi district, and Sir Alexander Hosie, in his journey across Kueichow province some years ago. observed a considerable number of fields of opium poppy in flower in the Ch'ien-hsi neighbourhood. But all had been swept clean this year.
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At Ch'ien-hsi, where I arrived on the 15th April, I met the priest Père Fortunat. He was able definitely to explode the Chungking story regarding poppy flowers in Kueichow, for he himself had accompanied Père Grimard to Chungking on the journey which had given rise to the Chungking statement. Père Fortunat told me that in January they had seen very many fields of young opium poppy plants, but none were in flower. Similar stern measures to those in other parts of the province with regard to suppression of opium poppy had been taken in the Chien-hsi district; but had there been no suppression the 1917 spring crop of opium poppy in the Ch'ien-hsi district would have been a record one, according to Père Fortunat. The steps taken to eradicate the poppy crops were very thorough. After the crops had been uprooted and destroyed the fields were ploughed and ploughed and ploughed again, so that no trace should remain which the official inspection might reveal understand that the Chinese Government had promised the death penalty to any magistrate in whose jurisdiction the official inspection should discover a single poppy plant.
I
As a result of the destruction of the Kueichow crop, Kuangshi opium was finding its
way into Kueichow, and was selling at the high price of 3 taels (ounces) of silver per oz.
Père Fortunat told me that many of the Ch'ien-hsi officials are regular opium smokers.
Père Fortunat has been nine years in the province of Kueichow.
He told me that in his experience the end of April or the beginning of May is the usual time for the flowering of opium poppy in the greater part of the province, &e., in the highland plateau; and the middle of April for the few districts which are lower and therefore warmer; such districts are in the north-west and south-west corners of the province. The Chinese delegates evidently expected that I should proceed from Chien-hsi still westwards to Pi-chieh and Ta-ting and I was informed that deputies had arrived from the Taoyin of Pi-chieh and the magistrate of Ta-ting to welcome me, and to inform me that the Taovin and the magistrate would meet me on the road on the following day. I had decided to change the route southwards, so I expressed my regrets to the deputies accordingly. My declaration as to route brought Mr. Shen to my quarters in a hurry. There was no proper road in the direction I proposed to go: there was an enormous lake to be crossed, and there were no boats; brigands were numerous, the Ch'ien-hsi magistrate had himself had a serious encounter with a body of them on the previous day; and, finally, Mr. Shen himself was not feeling well, and the hardships of such a route would be too much for him. I expressed suitable regrets for all these little difficulties, but announced my intention of at least starting on the route I had prescribed.
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Mr. Shen's forebodings were partly correct; there was nothing that could be reasonably called a road over most of the 30 miles which separated us from my objective-a town called Ch'a-tien. The enormous lake turned out to be a tributary of the river Wa; we scrambled over it with the aid of two or three small cockle-shells of boats. But it was one of the hardest day's marches of the whole trip. Heavy rain did not improve matters much. Our last 7 miles were taken over very rough hilly country in pitch darkness and pouring rain, and I was glad to squeeze into the shelter of a very inferior temple at Ch'a-tien.
From Chien-hai to Anshun (107 miles) the country was very rough and hilly, The interior of Kueichow is a highland of an average of 4,000 feet in altitude, with myriads of conical hills 1,000 to 2,000 feet in height, covering the highland plateau. It is through, round and over these hills that the roads and the path tracks go.
On the road between Ch'ien-hsi and Anshun I saw many fields bearing signs of the recent removal of crops in some fields of mixed crops, rape and barley inter- mingled; there were occasional signs that a third plant had originally been sown with rape and barley, but that it had recently been uprooted and removed. In the neighbourhood of Hsiung-chia-chang such signs were frequent, and in one or two places in the hills I observed still smouldering fires which had been used to destroy vegetable matter, and I could not but suspect that the vegetable matter had been young poppy plants, in its vegetable existence.
At Anshun I met Dr. Fish, of the China Inland Mission, who is in charge of a special hospital for the aboriginal tribe which are particularly numerous in the neighbourhood of Anshun. Dr. Fish was of opinion that in the immediate vicinity of Anshun city there were no opium-poppy fields in plant, if indeed any at all had been sown, and this was borne out by my own observation. The crops round Anshun were legitimate enough, and there was an absence of the suspicious gaps in the fields which I had observed further back on the road. This may have been due to the
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