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Yunnan-fu. The missionaries are unanimous in the assurance that they have not seen a single poppy-field in the course of their travels in the province, but information derived from Chinese sources goes to show that a few small patches of opium are still grown in secluded spots in the mountains far from the highways, and more than ten or twelve days' journey from the provincial capital. Much cannot be expected in the way
of suppressing the use of the drug when it is an open secret that the Governor-General, formerly a smoker of over a Chinese ounce a day, has not been able to conquer the craving for the drug, and still smokes 1/5 oz. every night in secret.
Accounts from Hupei are not so satisfactory. His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow reports that the information he has been able to collect from various sources is conflicting. Most of the small localities appear little affected by the Imperial Edict against the use and cultivation of opium, while in the larger cities the opening of divans and smoking in general require to be sheltered in greater secrecy than before. In many places constant changes among the officials seem to have contributed to slackness in the observance of the regulations, but the enhanced price of the drug has not failed to affect the poorer smokers. Considerable progress has been made in the three cities of Hankow, Wuchang, and Hanyang, the effect of the Edict being apparent from the doubled number of in-patients who have entered mission hospitals during the past year in the hope of being cured of the opium habit. A Wuchang missionary states that there are no opium dens open, and that this year the sale of opium in shops is to be prohibited. He declares that half the shopkeepers have broken off the habit. In Hanyang the police have become much stricter than formerly in the closing of dens and the punishment of owners. The local press, however, reports that over ten new raw and prepared opiuta stores have been opened in Hankow and Hanyang, and His Majesty's consul-general says that while the press is unsparing in censure of apathetic officials, a warning note is struck by the insidious publication of the rumour that foreigners are likely to make up for their losses owing to reduced consumption of opium by importing the drug in the form of pills or under some other guise. In the notoriously turbulent district of Tsao Yang a society has been deliberately formed to resist all interference with opium growing, and the Imperial Edict can only be enforced by the use of vigorous measures, From An-lu Fu come reports of change for the better on the appointment of a new district magistrate.
His Majesty's consul at Ichang writes that at the end of December some 7,000 taels' worth of anti-opium pills, containing 50 per cent, of the drug, said to have been made in Szechuan, were scized and destroyed by the Customs; but otherwise he has little change to report since my General Report beyond the increased shipments of the drug, which formed the subject of my despatch No. 61 of the 1st March last. The total arrivals by li-kin boats and chartered junks amounted to 51.817 piculs, as against 51,827 piculs last year, and 52,506 piculs were exported.
A much more satisfactory account comes from His Majesty's consul at Wuhu respecting the
of the movement in Anhui. In this province the cultivation of progress opium would now seem to be entirely suppressed, and though smoking still continues in private houses, tea-shops, and roadside inns, the dens have been closed; and the increasing difficulty in obtaining opium and the steady rise in its price are forcing the common people to give up the habit. Dr. E. H. Hart, of the Wuhu General Hospital, says that the habit is distinctly on the decrease in and round Wuhu.
It is no louger considered fashionable to smoke, and young men no longer acquire the habit. On the other hand, be says there is no doubt that many smokers have taken to pills and powders containing opium or morphia, which are openly sold in every chemist's shop in the town. The import of Indian opium shows a further decrease of 51,333 lbs., and the import of the native drug a decrease of 43,467 lbs., the latter, for the second year in succession, exceeding the import of the Indian article by over 60,000 lbs. The actual figures for opium which passed through the Maritime Customs in 1909 are: foreign, 1,657 piculs; native, 2,187 piculs; as against 2,042 and 2,512 piculs respectively in the previous year.
But in the absence of reliable statistics as to the quantity of opium produced last year in the province or imported through native channels, Mr. Fox is careful to abstain from drawing any conclusions from these figures.
Favourable reports have also been received with regard to the movement in Kiangsu. In his report for the last quarter of the year His Majesty's consul-general at Shanghae states that the Viceroy has caused bonds to be taken from persons in official employ that they do not smoke or have given up the habit. At the end of the quarter the final closing of opium divans was enforced in the international settlement, thus converting smoking within that area from a public to a secret vice. In the French concession took place the first closing of opium divans, and over 100 of the smaller
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establishments shut their doors. In the native district of Shanghae shop licences to sell boiled opium have been revoked by the Kiangsu General Bureau for the Suppression of Opium, and these shops are to be closed. Further issues of 5,000 certificates have been made admitting smokers into cure homes. The number of shops selling raw and boiled opium in Kiangsu Province in the middle of August last is given as 2,366, as against 12,790 given as his estimate for 1906-7, by the governor in his memorial to the Throne of the 9th May last, and of these 591 are in the three head districts and two sub-prefectures of Soochow, in which area there are said to have been 2,400 in 1906: 167 in Shanghae, 175 in Kiangyin, 20 in Paoshang, and 62 in Tsungning. On the other hand, the customs figures for the quarter show an increase in the import of Indian opium, and a still larger increase in the importation of native opium, into Shanghae, as will be seen from the following figures -
1907.
1908.
1909,
Picals.
Indian opium..
6,914
Piculs. 5,221
Picnls.
8,149
Native opium. .
3,651
5,107
8,399
Of this quantity the figures for re-export are :---
1907.
1208.
1909.
Indian opium Native opium..
Picals. 2,991
Picals, 2,019
Piculs.
3,699
1,741
1,749
4,086
The largest shipments being to Chinkiang, Kiukiang, Wuhu, Chafoo, Kashing, and Ningpo. My information from Chinkiang at the end of the year shows that the number of smokers is growing less, and that the cessation of poppy cultivation in the province has caused a marked rise in the price of the drug. The official investigations into smoking, if less strict than elsewhere as regards the people, are rigorous with regard to officials. The period of tests has been increased in Nanking and Soochow from three to five days, and the examinees are made to strip and are carefully searched for morphia or opium pills.
His Majesty's consul at Nanking reports that the regulations regarding licences for smokers, the inspection of shops and the closing of dens appear to be rigorously enforced. There has been as compared with previous months a reduction of 645 licences issued to smokers, of 375 ounces in daily consumption and of eighty in the uumber of licences issued to dealers. The price of foreigu opium has increased by nearly 60 per cent, and that of native opium by some 300 per cent. There has, however, been an increase in the import of foreign and native opium as compared with 1908. His Majesty's consul points out that the import of foreign opium into Nanking during 1909 amounting as it does to 1,446 piculs, is the largest on record, the nearest approach being in 1904 and 1907, when it was just under 1,000 piculs. Mr. Goffe mentions, in this connection, that the authorities are either unable or unwilling to furnish, at least to foreigners, reliable statistics of the opium trade in the port of Nanking. Missionary reports from Huai-an-Fu (Kiangsu) district show decided progress, cultivation of opium being almost entirely eradicated in the surrounding prefectures, and even in that of Hsu Chou Fu, where large quantities were formerly grown. Decided progress has also been made in Ilaui Yuan.
In Shantung the magistrates have been directed to co-operate with the deputies in touring country districts to ascertain if there has been any secret sowing since the prohibition last year, and His Majesty's consul at Chinan thinks it unlikely that inuch secret sowing has occurred, but his report is less satisfactory with regard to the suppression of smoking. He says that the measures for the eradication of the use of opium have met with little success among the officials, and since July there has been a perceptible slackening in the activity of the police in restricting smoking among the people. Licensed opium establishments took advantage of the opportunity offered by a change of governors to retail the drug in large quantities to applicants
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