CO129-362 - Public Offices - 1909 — Page 271

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the production had been stopped. This was in itself, of course, no light task, as it meant depriving the agricultural classes of almost half their income at one blow. It is estimated that a field under opium, after deducting the various extra taxes levied on account of the drug, still brings in more than twice as much to the cultivator as it would if sown with wheat, barley, or other crops.

Proclamations were issued in the autumn of last year forbidding the people to sow the plant, and threatening them with severe penalties for disobedience. These seem to have been taken more seriously than the official pronouncements of former years, though many of the natives continued in the hope that the prohibition would be no more strictly enforced than before, and there were not wanting foreigners of experience in the province who expressed their disbelief in the desire or ability of the authoritics to force such an unpalatable measure on the people, apart from the difficulties connected with the inevitable loss of revenue accruing from the trade. The Government has, however, been undoubtedly successful in suppressing the cultivation of opium in Shansi this year, as I venture to think will be shown by this report, although it does not necessarily follow that the poppy has been banished from the province for ever. Any slackening of the firm attitude at present maintained by the officials would mean its immediate reintroduction, and many of the natives hope that this will be the case. At all events, the first and most difficult step has been taken successfully, and now that the people have become reconciled to the prohibition, it should be easier to guard against any attempt to grow the plant again.

Opinion in Shansi is divided as to whether the action that has been taken is, as some people aver, the result of a general scheme on the part of the Central Govern- ment to deal with the question of cultivation in one or two provinces at a time, and that Shansi happens to be one of the first, or whether the sudden activity shown in this part of the Empire has for its sole author the energetic provincial treasurer, Ting Pao-chuan. The former theory would seem to be supported by the fact that in the adjoining province of Shensi, where the poppy is still grown, proclamations are said to have been issued stating that in 1910 the cultivation of opium will be stopped there in the same way as has been done in Shansi; but in either case it appears to be entirely owing to the energy and zeal of Ting Ta-jên that the prohibitory measures have been rendered as effectual as they have.

When at Taiyuanfu was accorded an interview by his Excellency, and informed him of the object of my visit to the province. He spoke at considerable length on the subject of opium, and appeared to be very much in earnest. He complained of the difficulty of stopping the cultivation in Shansi when across the border in Shensi and Honan there were no such restrictions. The import of opium from other provinces was strictly prohibited, but though he did what he could to prevent smuggling, it was to be feared that a considerable quantity of the drug was brought over in that way. According to him, Indian opium had never been imported into Shansi, and the fact that they only had the native article to deal with greatly facilitated its early suppression. This statement with regard to Indian opium is, I think, correct, and agrees with information I received from opium dealers in other places. He then turned to the question of revenue, and stated that the amount formerly derived from the Tangshui tax was 300,000 tacls, whilst the extra tax on poppy land brought in another 200,000 taels, but that, by increasing the duty on matches, oil, wine, tobacco, furs, and other articles, they had almost made this

up deficit of 500,000 taels.

I give these figures for what they are worth, but they can hardly represent the truc facts of the case. If the Tungshui tax were 115 taels per picul, this would mean that only some 2,600 piculs had been accounted for. It is probable, however, as Ting himself admitted, that a large proportion of the duties actually levied never reached the provincial treasury at all, and that office in turn would not acknowledge all that was received. At all events, he distinctly stated that, as regards the financial side of the question, they were not experiencing any great difficulties.

The Government, he said, were about to establish in the big centres throughout the province ten official stations for the sale of anti-opium medicines and the treat- ment of patients, and it was proposed to spend 3,000 faels on each. He himself had sent spics all over the country to watch for any attempt at opium cultivation, and rewards were being offered of 10 cash each for every poppy-stalk brought in to the officials. It is certainly true that "weiyuans " from the capital are being sent on tours of inspection to the remotest districts, and I was frequently told at various places I visited that an official had just been there to examine the fields.

At Taiyuanfu itself the dens have all been closed, and the opium shops, of which

there are about forty, are under strict police supervision. A system for the registra- tion of smokers has been instituted, and the procedure is as follows: The purchaser when buying the drug is asked his name, age, address, and amount of daily consump- tion, and these details are entered in a book of forms and counterfoils. The form, when filled in, is handed to him, while the counterfoil is retained by the shop for the inspection of the police. Each succeeding time that the purchaser goes to buy opium he must produce this form, and the amount of his purchase is marked on it, but the The form lasts for three months, amount must never exceed that of the time before.

at the end of which period a new one must be taken out and the amount of daily consumption decreased, the idea being that in due course the smoker will be obliged to abandon the habit entirely. Whether this procedure is strictly insisted upon for everybody I was unable to find out, but I imagine the richer classes, buying a large quantity at a time, would have no great difficulty in evading it. I examined two or three books of counterfoils, and found that it was generally small amounts that were bought.

The capital is the only place in the province at present where any attempt is made to regulate the sale of opium. There are no restrictions whatever in other towns, and even in places only a few miles distant from Taiyuanfu the registration system is unknown.

One result of the suppression movement is a thriving trade in anti-opium remedies of all sorts. Advertisements for the sale of pills are to be seen in every street of the capital, and in one shop that I visited there were no less than twelve different kinds of medicines, some of local manufacture, but a great many seemed to be imported from Japan. They contain, as a rule, a large proportion of morphia or inferior opium mixed with boiled cowhide or other deleterious substances, and the people who take them to cure their cravings merely exchange one form of the vice for another. The medicine trade is proving so profitable that the Chinese are manufacturing pills from all sorts of things quite regardless of their curative properties, a favourite native recipe being millet (hsiao mii") boiled in opium and mixed with cayenne pepper ("la") and other Chinese condiments, and it is said that these concoctions are far more ruinous to the health than the vice they are taken to cure.

With regard to the cultivation of the poppy in the neighbourhood of Taiyuanfu, I learned on good authority that the plant was nowhere to be seen in the districts of Shaoyang to the east, Yütze to the south-east, and Hsukou, Taiku, Chihsien, and Pingyao to the south. It had never been grown in any quantity round Shaoyang, as the soil is unsuitable, but the other places to the south lie in the Fenho Plain and are therefore favourably situated for the production of opium. Some of the farmers had sown with poppy in the hopes that the prohibition need not be taken seriously, but had been severely punished for their disobedience, and it may be safely said that none of the drug was harvested in the district in question. I could see for myself that none was grown in the immediate neighbourhood of the capital, though in former years poppy fields stretching along the banks of the Fen were visible from the city walls.

On leaving Taiyuanfu I proceeded westwards to Fenchoufu, passing through the districts of Chiaocheng and Wenshui. As has been mentioned above, this region was once famous for its opium. In the spring the entire countryside as far as the eye could see was covered with poppy fields, and the crop grown in the valleys to the north of Chiaocheng produced the strongest opium in the province. This year, however, no trace of it was to be seen; wheat and barley were grown everywhere, and though I spent some time inspecting the valleys of the main road, and looked carefully for the plant in out-of-the-way and hidden spots, it was without success. In the neighbourhood of Wenshui there had been one or two attempts to disregard the regulations, but they were speedily discovered and punished; in one instance, I was informed, the offender had been beaten 100 blows, and wore the cangne for a month. Deputies from the capital, it was said, were continually visiting the district and inspecting the fields. They avoided the local yamêns and stayed at the inns like ordinary travellers, and it was only if he had offended that the unfortunate farmer discovered that he was dealing with an official.

At Fenchoufu and at Hsiaoyi, a day's journey further south, I met two missionaries who, independently of each other, had recently made a tour of the region to the west of those cities, and they remarked on the complete eradication of the poppy. One of these gentlemen had travelled through Wucheng to Yungningehou, and then northwards for about 60 miles to a place called Huma along the Peichuan River, and had then returned to Hsiaoyi vià Ninghsiang, the whole journey covering

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