CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 504

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sources. It is clear that the fields cannot lie fallow for ever, as there is a steady increase of population by immigration from the crowded districts on the borders, and it is clear also that the people must be clothed, though all attempts to produce cotton have in the past resulted in failure. The officials and people have as yet advanced little beyond the stage of bandying the question, "What is to be done?" A few of the more vigorous leaders have been busily engaged in planting mulberry trees and breeding silk-worms, and I have been able to send to the Indian markets samples of the first year's produce, which give hope of some success. also obtaining from India some seed of the shrub cotton Bombax malabaricum L which may thrive at this altitude and would help to stimulate local industry and provide employment for the empty fields. In the Kachin hills and the tribal country generally, however, the abolition of the crop will cause a more serious loss than even in the Chinese zone, for the tribesmen are generally unable to produce on their steep mountain-sides sufficient crops of cereals or of hemp to provide them with the barest necessaries of life, and at present no remedy has been foreseen for this part of the district. During my frontier tour I crossed at one point a route which had been followed by the taotai on his anual tour of border inspection. After the misfortunes of the sub-prefect last year he had taken the precaution to travel with a large armed escort, and he had boldly attacked the opium farmers along his route. For a day's march we had followed an unusually good track, and it was therefore with some surprise that we found the way suddenly barred, the road cut away in front, and the sheer precipice barring further progress. We were obliged therefore to turn off on to another road, and by the camp fire at night the reason of the obstacle was explained by one of the angry tribesmen. It appeared that the villagers along the road had worked for ten days and had made the excellent track which we had crossed. Unmoved by this service the taotai had turned out his escort, and at the bayonet's point the farmers had been made to uproot their poppy crop, which was then a span high. The old man who told the tale burst into tears as he recounted the loss.

"It is all that we have, this opium, we eat it and drink it, it makes our clothes and builds our houses; no other crop will grow, no rice, no millet, no hemp; for our opium crop we should have had silver for our food and our clothes, and now we are left to a barren and hungry year." But the Kachin is a man of spirit: the men of the next village had continued the road through their country, but the news spreads fast, and, when the taotai arrived at the point where the two districts met, the narrow path vanished over the precipice, and there was neither explanation nor expedient, save to take another road as we had done. He retired into the valleys below, leaving one tract of poppy at least unmolested, nor was be able to punish those who had defied them, and it is unlikely that his action has increased the prestige of Chinese officialdom in that outpost of empire.

There is one other point at which the loss of the poppy crop cuts deeply at the institutions of the tribesmen. Many of the sawbwas and minor chiefs are in the habit of collecting the greater part, or even the whole, of their revenues from their people by means of opium; each house contributing a given quantity of the drug, which can be readily transported and converted by the over-lord. It can be imagined, therefore, with what consternation the chiefs have watched the vigorous measures of their intending Chinese officers, and there is no doubt that they will stand by their people in any effort to conceal the cultivation or to encourage the smuggling traffic to those centres which still contrive a flourishing though illicit trade.

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In the meanwhile, a small proportion of the more level lands have been put under winter crops

of wheat, beans, peas, or maize, and a considerable number of the farmers have sought employment, during the dry season when their rice-fields need no attention, by taking service on the road works in the Shan States and in Burmah, or in the silver and lead mines of Baudwin, and in the ruby mines or other centres of industry beyond the border. There seems, indeed a probability that the most pressing needs of the farmers will be met during the opium crisis, not by the introduction of some new crop, the development of which will need time and capital, but by an influx of

money from British territory, brought into the province by the migration of labour during the winter season from the overcrowded plains of Yunnan to the mining and industrial centres of Burmah-a consummation which is certainly to be desired for the mutual advantage of the two countries.

Producing Centres.

Speaking generally, the purely Chinese zone of Western Yunnan has produced little opium during the past season, and the poppy has been entirely absent from the level

and accessible areas; the only instances of cultivation which have been reported by reliable witnesses are in the remote regions of the Irawaddy-Salween divide and in the hills between the Chinese and tribal zones, districts which are inhabited by lawless Chinese, many of them fugitives from justice. The fact that a harvest has been reaped from a few fields actually adjoining one of the main roads between Tengyueh and Yungchang, however, is evidence that the Chinese contention that the poppy has entirely disappeared is not strictly correct. A small amount of the drug has also been gathered in the Chinese district of Lungling, though the district official has since been removed, nominally as a punishment for his laxity in this respect. In the districts of Shuuning-fu, Menghua Ting, Talifu, and Likiang-fu the prohibition measures were strictly enforced. Pu-ehr-fu and Ssumao Ting, in the south-west, were also well controlled.

In the tribal zone it is not possible to give such an encouraging account. In the hills surrounding the Shan States of Nantien, Changta, Kangai, Lungchuan, Mengmao, Ta Meng-tung, and Hsiao Mong-tung and in the territories of the Kachins, Lahu, and Wa there has been extensive cultivation, though there is no doubt of the marked decrease in the acreage since the inauguration of the measures of prohibition.

Estimates of Acreage and Amount of Opium Produced.

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It is difficult to estimate the exact acreage under poppy cultivation in Western Yunnan, as the mou or other generally recognised land measure is unknown in the district, and both rice and poppy lands are calculated on the basis of the

measure of seed" required to secure a full crop. After careful enquiry, however, I think that 50 ounces (Chinese) of opium may be expected as an average return from a mou of land in the hilly districts. From my own observation, from "information gathered from various reliable sources, and from a strict watch on the markets and prices, I estimate the yield of the past season for the entire district (including the tribal territory) at 5,000 piculs, and on the above average this would account for 27,000 acres (English) under the poppy crop, figures which appear to me to give a very fair idea of the extent of the present cultivation.

Supplies.

In some

Large supplies of opium are still available at all the big centres, notably Tengyueh, Talifu, Lungling, and Shunning-fu, and it is estimated that the stocks would hold out for from four to five years, even if they were not supplemented by illicit means. of the cities these stocks are held by men who cannot easily be reached by the district officials, and at Lungling the holders resort to the expedient of stocking part of their supplies at inaccessible villages on the frontier line, thus ensuring greater freedom and security for distribution. The smuggling operations in this direction appear to have been so successful that there has been a steady movement of stocks to the Lungling base during the past few months.

Consumption.

A few years ago it was estimated that 80 per cent, of the population of the district was addicted to opium, though, as stated above, the people are well-fed and show no physical defects as the result of the consumption. The vigorous action of the past two years has had the effect of stimulating prices, and holders of stocks now find a very favourable market, the price of the drug having risen within the last three years to three or four times its former standard. In 1908 crude opium could be brought in Tengyueh for 12 tael cents an ounce, whereas it cannot be obtained for less than 35 cents now; the prepared drug has risen from 18 cents to 50 or 60 cents; and old opium, which has matured and mellowed, commands as much as 2 taels an ounce (1 tael equals approximately 2 rupees). Whilst the wages of the coolie class stand at 12 cents a-day, and of artisans at about 20 cents a-day, it will be seen that it must be difficult for them to obtain the drug, provided that they are dependent on the ordinary channels, and there can be no doubt that larger numbers of the poorer classes are gradually reducing their daily allowance, and that many have abandoned the habit entirely. The fact that many of the Yamén runners and the ":

Old" or "Green Banner" troops continue to smoke regularly would appear to give evidence of some source of supply which is at present free from official vigilance. The soldiers of the "New" army at Talifu do not smoke, but a considerable percentage of them swallow opium pills, a practice which is becoming very general; whilst it is noticeable amongst the local Chinese who have given up the drug, that they have acquired a quite extraordinary

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