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To review briefly the reports so far received from the various provinces, in Yunnan, regulations have been issued nominally prohibiting cultivation and impos- ing fines on poppy growers, but representing in fact a regular system of taxing the producer, who is encouraged, if not compelled, to sow the crop, In Hunan, cultiva- tion has enormously increased and appears to be more or less general under the ægis of the military authorities in the provinces. Hupeh, the south-west part of the province, is said to be planted to a greater extent than ever before. Fukien, though also nominally at least administered by the Central Government, has a lamentable record. The Governor, it is true, makes a show of energy in the suppression of opium growing, but his protestations are not borne out by facts, and his chief aide- de-camp has recently been shown to be largely responsible for the cultivation of opium in parts of the province. From Amoy, His Majesty's consul reports that there is no diminution of opium growing in the southern part of the province, where official recognition of poppy cultivation is general. Reports from Anhui state that the area of cultivation in the Pochow district is much greater than before. Civil Governor of Kansu, according to information which has reached Peking, recently convened a conference of officials, leading gentry and merchants, at which he publicly announced that, in view of the state of the provincial exchequer, he had determined, following the example of the authorities in Hsinchiang, Shensi and Szechuan, to encourage the planting of poppy all over the province. He is reported to have said, in explanation of this policy, "I am at a loss to find any other means to stop the financial panic, and it is difficult to prevent mutinies of troops."
An incident mentioned in a letter from a foreigner living in the same province is worth quoting as a common instance of the behaviour of the military officers in connection with opium cultivation. "The Hsing-p'ing magistrate's experience," the report says, is very suggestive. Last year the people planted, but the Tuchun sent out proclamations prohibiting the poppy cultivation. The magistrate had the crop completely destroyed, was arrested, and brought before the Tuchun. When questioned as to why he destroyed the crop. he replied that it was in obedience to the Tuchun's orders. The Tuchun cursed him, and said Ni pu hwei shih (you are incapable of managing affairs) and locked him up. He was not released for two months, the mail was robbed in his district and he was set free to suppress the robbers. This year the people have planted large crops, and the official has learnt how to carry out the Tuchun's prohibition of poppy growing.
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The blatant hypocrisy of the proclamation and the forcible method of promoting opium growing are typical of conditions under the tuchunate régime as it exists in most of the provinces of Chine.
In Western Shensi, according to a report received by His Majesty's consul- general at Hankow from a missionary source, a heavy opium tax is being levied which non-growers are compelled to share in paying, the result being that practically everyone grows some poppy to enable him to pay the tax.
It is, of course, almost impossible to estimate how far China as a whole has receded from the position in 1917, when the country was officially recognised to have been purged of opium growing. It is calculated, however, by the Anti-Opium Association that the amount of opium cultivated at the present time lies somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent. of that grown before the days of prohibition,
The inland transport of opium likewise is, as I have had the honour to report on more than one occasion lately, immensely on the increase. I am at present enquiring into a persistent report that a Chinese steamship on the Yang-tsze, controlled by Chinese military authorities, which lately made two trips down river from Ichang, carried large cargoes of smuggled opium. It is admitted that the customs officers failed to search the vessel because of opposition by the persons in charge. The commissioner at Hankow stated, in reply to an enquiry regarding this case, that he does not attempt to have Government-owned vessels hoarded or searched, as there is a danger of his officers being ill-treated by the soldiers. The British Chamber of Commerce at Shanghai have alluded to the incident in a letter addressed to His Majesty's consul-general, and have pertinently enquired what influence foreign owners of vessels on the Upper Yang-tsze can be expected to bring to bear strong enough to prevent smugglers from following the example set by a Government- controlled ship carrying opium with impunity. The Chamber has suggested that, if the facts can be proved, the customs might reasonably be asked to abandon the practice of searching foreign vessels for opium. On the West river also smuggling of opium by river-craft had reached enormous proportions, when the sudden seizure of nearly 4.000.000 trels by the provincial Government at Poseh temporarily at least inflicted a check on the traffic.
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The principal cause of the revival of the evil is to be found in the fact that taxes levied on opium erops provide the tuchuns with the easiest if not the only means of paying their troops. Many of the civil authorities, if left to themselves, would probably make an honest endeavour to enforce prohibition (though it is significant that more than half of the district magistrates of Kiangsu are believed to be opium smokers), but their authority is entirely overridden by the military chiefs, who are usually utterly unscrupulous in the matter. In some cases opium is said to be actually distributed to the men in substitution for pay. Inasmuch as the tuchuns depend for their position entirely on their troops and that the latter inevitably mutiny when their pay falls into arrears beyond certain limits, it is obvious that no considerations can compare in their commanders' view with the vital necessity of exploiting this source of profit.
The reluctant conclusion to which one is led by the facts of the situation is that it is useless to look for the re-enforcement of the opium prohibition in China until the provincial armies are disbanded, which again can only occur after the unifica- tion of the country.
Little can be expected in the way of practical effect from continual protests to the Central Government. The work of educational propaganda and arousing the popular conscience by means of publicity, which is carried on by the International Anti-Opium Association and many of the missionary organisations in China, will no doubt tend to some good results in the long run: but of all the available means of restraining the evil at the present time, the most effective lies, I am disposed to think, in the hands of the League of Nations.
I learn that the Secretariat of the League is charged with the duty of collecting information as to the arrangements made in the various countries for carrying out the Opium Convention, the production, distribution and consumption of the drugs and other necessary duties, and that an advisory committee is being formed which will include a Chinese representative and have attached to it a small number of experts with special knowledge of the question. This committee, when conversant with the situation in China, would have no difficulty in exposing the fallacy of such a statement as that reported to have been made by the Chinese representative at the twenty-fourth plenary meeting of the Assembly that in his opinion the opium habit had vanished from China and would never return," and in demonstrating that China presents the most glaring example of failure by a signatory of the Opium Convention to carry out its obligations. The desire to stand well in the eyes of the League should act as a potent inducement to the Government of China to check the recrudescence of the opium traffic and the fear of obloquy in those quarters would be likely to be more effectual than any diplomatic protests by a single Power.
I understand that one of the members of the advisory committee is closely connected with the International Anti-Opium Association and forms a valuable link between the two bodies. The association, through its correspondents in the various provinces of China, is furnished with regular reports on opium cultivation, and it may be hoped that close co-operation will be set up between the association and the League of Nations Committee.
No. 52.
I have, &c.
(For the Minister},
R. H. CLIVE.
Sir B. Alston to Earl Curzon.(Received August 9.)
My Lord,
Peking. June 30, 1921. IN accordance with your Lordship's instructions, I have addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs the note of which I have the honour to enclose a copy herein relative to the traffic in and cultivation of opium in China.
In this note I have, as your Lordship will observe, introduced the formal protest by a comprehensive survey of the situation as revealed by information from His Majesty's consular officers, the correspondents of the Anti-Opium Association and other trustworthy sources during the last few months. With the help of the most recent reports it has been possible to amplify in several respects the information
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