CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 244

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understood that the Chinese will have considerable difficulty in enforcing their regulations in such circumstances. The outlying Shan valleys and the Kachin hills can only be brought into line by a show of force, which the Chinese are neither willing nor able to present, and it is unlikely that any great decrease will be shown in these districts in the near future.

Estimate of Production.-In a careful report on Yunnanese opium, written at Ssumao in 1901, Mr. Commissioner Carey estimated the total production of the district under the jurisdiction of the Tengyuch Taotai (the western circuit) at 36,000 piculs. From the figures which I have been able to gather from the markets I am of opinion that the production this year is not likely to exceed half that amount, namely, 18,000 pieuls, nor does there appear great prospect of reducing the harvests below their present standard. Force is unlikely to be employed and only an economic factor, such as the fluctuation of demand, is likely in the near future to seriously affect the cultivation of the poppy in the semi-independent and inaccessible regions of the frontier.

Substitutes for the Opium Crop-If the higher provincial authorities continue their crusade against the poppy harvest, it becomes an urgent necessity to find some substi- tute, which will profitably replace the winter crops of south-west Yunnan. Numerous plantations of mulberry trees have been made, and silkworms' eggs have been sent from Yunnan-fu to the district cities in the hope of stimulating a local silk industry. Wheat, beans, peas, potatoes, hemp, and maize, have been sown in various parts, but the season has proved unusually dry and the wheat in most parts has given a poor return. There is at present a cheap and abundant food supply in the district, and the real need of the fariners is some crop which can be exported to provide them with the silver with which to pay for their imports. The sudden attempt at the total prohibition of opium has produced an economic crisis in the frontier country, the full effect of which it is impossible as yet to realise. In 1902 it was estimated that 220,000 taels worth of opium was sold at Hsia-kuan. This visited the exchange,

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a fine old inn in the centre of the town, on the day before the annual fair at Talifu- the time at which the local opium would ordinarily pass into the hands of the Cantonese and Hunanese buyers. The exchange was deserted, and festoons of cobwebs hung over the doors of the inn which had been the most famous and prosperous throughout the district.

Consumers. It is difficult to obtain such figures as to the number of opium smokers as would enable one to form a reliable comparison with previous years. The prohibition measures, the proclamations, and the official anti-opium bureaux, have all tended to conceal the smoker from the ordinary observer and to drive him to quiet retreats. Every big city along the road appeared to have large stocks of the drug in hand and quiet sales were everywhere effected, with little opposition from the opium- sodden yamên runners. In the little inns by the road side veiled offers of opium were everywhere noticeable, and there can be no doubt that both the sale and consumption of the drug goes on, though it has lost its fashionable publicity, and now lurks in the background--a recognised vice. The officials in some of the out-lying cities are levying a heavy blackmail on the wealthier citizens who are known to be smokers, and in one yamên there were reported to be 200 opium victims.

The lower classes will be forced in time to abandon the habit, as the drug has risen in price from twice to four times last year's value, and in Talifu-where the quotations were highest--it is becoming impossible for the poorer people to obtain their accustomed allowance. This factor must ultimately have a healthy effect in eliminating the drug, but in the meantime the people are finding that it is both more effective and less conspicuous to swallow opium pills than to use the pipe, and this habit shows signs of replacing the older and less dangerous one,

Fifteen hundred men of the new provincial army are stationed at Talifu, where they are subjected to severe discipline and smoking is impossible. In the opinion of a competent authority, however, at least 25 per cent. of the men take opium pills, and there can be therefore little difficulty in obtaining supplies.

Conclusions-In conclusion, it impressed me in travelling through the country that the governor-general undertook a difficult and dangerous task when he resolved to rid Yunnan of opium in two years, instead of effecting a gradual reduction, which would have given opportunities to the farmers to gradually replace their crops, and possibly to meet some new demand. One can sympathise with him in the contention that ten years is a long period, involving many changes, and that half measures effect nothing in China, but, whilst he has achieved a great success in ridding large areas of the poppy, he has roused a bitter opposition to the anti-opium measures,

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and has reduced the west of the province to a state of poverty which must have a marked effect on the trade of the next few years. Opium is the only product of the country for which there is at present any considerable outside market, and without opium there is no influx of silver with which to purchase the raw cotton and yarn which is our principal import and on which the people depend for their clothes. shall deal later with the immediate economic effect as illustrated by the Talifu fair, but thousands of farmers have been suddenly deprived of their main winter's crop, and the fact that we have escaped serious trouble bears the highest tribute to the law- abiding qualities of the people of Yunnan.

One other point strikes me as worthy of comment in reviewing the progress that has been made in dealing with the opium crops--I refer to the wonderful power which can be wielded by a sincere and effective Imperial decree, even in the most inaccessible circuit of this remote province of Empire.

The Annual Fair at Tulifu.

The city of Talifu is situated on one of the finest plains of Western Yünnau, and is surrounded by prosperous towns and fertile valleys. On one side rises the Tsang Shan range at an altitude of 14,000 feet, and on the other the plateau slopes to a lake 30 miles in length, at the southern end of which lies Hsia-kuan, the great market and trading centre of the Yunnan highway. On the 15th of the 3rd moon (4th May, 1909) the annual fair commenced at Talifu, and for days beforehand streams of merchants, pedlars, and sightseers were seen winding over the narrow hill tracks on their way to the festival. The fair takes place on a broad, grassy stretch outside the west gate of the city, shaded by the mountains and looking over the blue waters of the lake. On the first day the city magistrate goes out, with flags flying and bugles blowing, and with great ceremony declares the fair open, whilst volleys of artillery proclaim to the dragon of an old Buddhist legend that the fair prospers, the merchants have assembled, and he is doomed to another year's imprisonment in a cave by the lakeside. Over a large tract of ground a little city of tents and sheds suddenly springs up, with regular streets devoted to different branches of trade, and patrolled by a guard from the "new levy" of the provincial army. In the centre are the li-kin office and the banks, then the Cantonese road, the medicine road, the stores of clothes and cotton cloth, an arcade for curios, and the cattle market are laid out in an orderly plan, whilst the whole is flanked by the camps of the Thibetans with their lines of brown tents and fierce watch-dogs that keep at a respectful distance the enquiring Chinese.

The Thibetans are reported to have arrived in unusually large numbers this year, partly on account of a great festival at the neighbouring temples of the "Chicken Foot Mountain, to which they were making a pilgrimage, and partly in consequence of the lama rebellion, which has made them nervous of travelling for the last few years. They were to be seen everywhere on the fair grounds, many of them accompanied by their wives and daughters, and they made a distinct feature in the crowd with their great ornaments of turquoise and silver and their unscasonable furs. They treated me with marked friendliness, inviting me into their camps, from which the Chinese were rigourously excluded. The resident missionaries state that they have been very shy of foreigners in former years, and have never before allowed themselves to be photographed; it is possible, however, that my English clothes classed me among the strangers in a strange land and roused in them a passing sympathy. There were besides representatives of many of the surrounding tribes, the most conspicuous being the Min-chia women, who are straight-featured, fair-skinned people, wearing caps heavily embroidered with silver and pointed over their foreheads, giving them the appearance of ladies of the Stuart court.

The fair lasts for five days, the most important of which is the 18th of the moon, and the city is thronged with people for many days after the tents have disappeared. The really important business appears to be done either in the exchanges of Ilsia-kuan or in the big inns of Tali, and the stocks of imported piece-goods and of copper did not appear on the fair ground. Nearly one-third of the tents were devoted to small foreign articles such as watches, clocks, cotton blankets, enamelled basins, Burmese rice-bowls, mirrors, ribbons, laces, soap, scent, medicines (notably quinine and anti- opium pills), brushes, knives, scissors, needles, umbrellas, cigarettes, beads, and trinkets, the last of which appeared to be in high favour with the tribesmen.

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