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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.j
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
754
7.0.
Gent.] I [March 6.] 14308
SECTION 2.
RECR
REGR I APR OC!
[8762]
(No. 2.)
No. 1.
Acting Consul-General Wilton to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received March 6.)
Sir,
Yunnan-fu, January 15, 1909. I HAVE the honour to forward herewith a copy of my despatch, with inclosure, No. 4 of the 12th instant, addressed to His Majesty's Minister at Peking.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
E. C. WILTON.
Inclosure 1 in No. 1.
Acting Consul-General Wilton to Sir J. Jordan.
(No. 4.) Sir,
Yünnan-fu, January 12, 1909. REFERRING to your Circular of the 5th November last, I have the honour to submit some remarks on the districts in which, to my knowledge, opium has been sown this autumn, in spite of the commands of the Governor-General to the contrary.
1. Chu-ching-fu (Eastern Yunnan).—The people declared that they would sow opium. The Taotai became alarmed, and asked for troops. The Governor-General refused, and has apparently successfully trusted to his prestige to overawe the malcontents. A missionary resident in Chü-ching-fu tells me that the people have now come to the conclusion that the poppy is banned, and have resigned themselves to the inevitable. The land already sown has been ploughed up again, and no trouble is anticipated.
2. Lo-ping-chou (Eastern Yünnan)-The inhabitants are mixed Lolo and Chinese. They are poor and miserable, except at Lo-ping-chou itself, where there is a considerable rowdy element. I passed through the district in February-March 1907, and found the poppy everywhere. Nevertheless, the villagers were wretchedly poor, and their condition bore out a remark made to me by the Governor-General, that it was the comparatively few middlemen who reaped the profits of opium cultivation and not the peasant, who would be better off, he said, with beans and wheat crops rather than opium. From well- informed Chinese sources, I learn that more than 2,000 mou (300 acres) of land in the vicinity of Lo-ping-chou is planted with opium. The cultivators declare that they will resist with force any attempt to pluck up the plants. The Magistrate is powerless, and is threatened with dismissal by the Governor-General.
3. Tsu-hsiung-fu (Western Yünnan).-An extensive area is under cultivation. The length of the area is given as 360 li (90 miles). The Magistrate, learning that opium had been planted after the rice harvest this autumn, proceeded to an offending village attended by his runners and police. He was compelled to return without having accomplished his duty, as he and his attendants, in their endeavours to destroy the opium, were mobbed by a crowd of excited women. The male villagers had business elsewhere that day. I had the honour to report, in my telegrams Nos. 1 and 2 of the 4th and 9th January, that trouble, in connection with the suppression of opium had arisen at Chen-nan-chou in the Tsu-hsiung Prefecture. I have dealt separately with this incident in my despatch No. 3 of the 11th January.
4. Yuan-chiang-chou (Eastern Yünnan). More than 20,000 mou (3,000 acres) are officially admitted to be under cultivation.
5. Hong-hua-ting (Western Yunnan).—Opium is still being cultivated in this region,
the largest opium-producing centre in Yünuan.
6. Ching-lung-ting (Western Yünnun).-Opium is still under cultivation.
7. Lung-ling-ting (Western Yunnan)-More than 1,000 mou (150 acres) are
officially admitted to have been under cultivation on the 31st December.
8. Chen-pien-ting (South-Western Yünnan).-Opium has been extensively sown, and
the Magistrate has received peremptory orders to root up the plants at once.
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