610
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governmen. O.
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
(
[7108]
No. 1.
8857
REGE 12 MAR 09
SECTION 1.
[February 283c
(No. 55.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received February 22.)
Peking, February 3, 1909. SINCE the third Report on the subject of opium suppression was written early in November last, information upon this question has continued to reach me from various sources, which, while hardly sufficient to justify the preparation of a further Report, may perhaps be summarized usefully within the limits of a despatch.
In the Province of Fengtien (South Manchuria) His Majesty's Vice-Consul at Antung reports that the diminution of the area under opium cultivation is being for the most part systematically carried out in his Consular district; that in some parts total prohibition was enforced by the uprooting of crops; and that, although there are a certain number of local officials who treat the question with laxity, the movement towards total suppression is generally supported by public opinion. Under these circumstances it is regrettable, as His Majesty's Vice-Consul points out, that every inducement to opium smoking should still be offered by the Japanese authorities in their settlement at Antung, where no less than 150 licensed opium dens, disguised under the name of tea-houses, produce a substantial revenue,
The reports of His Majesty's Acting Consul-General at Mukden indorse the conclusion that much has been done both in the reduction of cultivation and in diminishing smoking, and he recalls the fact that orders have been issued entirely forbidding further cultivation from the beginning of the present Chinese year. At the same time he draws attention to the use of morphia by injection, which is described by a well-known missionary doctor in Mukden to be increasing at an alarming rate. The morphia and syringes, according to a trustworthy authority, are distributed throughout the country by the agency of Japanese pedlars.
The activity of the authorities in the metropolitan Province of Chih-li was described at some length in the third Report, and little further information has reached me in the interval. From Hsuan-hua-fu, a Prefecture some 80 miles north- west of Peking, reports go to show that quarterly licences for the use of opium have been introduced with good effect, and that the number of smokers is estimated to have decreased by 20 to 25 per cent. Anti-opium pills containing morphia are, however, in common use.
The publication in the "Official Gazette" of the 21st January of a Memorial by the Viceroy of Chih-li, of which I have the honour to inclose a translation, announcing his decision to probibit totally the cultivation of opium throughout the province, will enable this Legation to test closely the effective value of this summary measure, which had already been determined on by several other provincial Governments as the only satisfactory way of grappling with the question of suppression. In Kiangsu, according to a Report from His Majesty's Consul at Chinkiang, cultivation has already practically ceased, but appears again immediately on crossing the Shantung
border.
The Reports from the latter province are, perhaps, the most instructive which have reached me. In the third Report it was noted that a time-limit of two months had been fixed in June last, within which smokers were called upon to file bonds renouncing the habit, and that a considerable reduction in cultivation had taken place, and in a despatch dated the 20th November, His Majesty's Acting Consul at Chinantu reported that, if the task of suppression rested solely with the present energetic Governor, opium smoking in Shantung would soon be a thing of the past. But the apathy of many of the local authorities has rendered ineffective the various In a Memorial to the Throne, of which measures which he had inaugurated. Mr. Giles gives a summary, the Governor recognizes the paucity of results already achieved, and advocates the total prohibition of cultivation, and the purchase by Government of all imported opium for resale under official control.
As regards total prohibition of cultivation, it appears to have been intended to bring this measure into force during this year, and it was, indeed, authorized by the Central Government, but the Governor has himself rendered it improbable that the
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