with or without permits, but since then steps have been taken by the new Governor Sun to get the matter in hand. Illicit traffic in Kansu opium was still carried on in Chinan, but successful police raids had been made to stop the traffic in Wei-hsien and I-tu-hsien (Ching-chou-fu), His Majesty's consul states finally that the absolute prohibition against opium smoking by teachers and students has of late been much disregarded, chiefly owing to the apathy of sundry district magistrates.
His Majesty's acting consul at Pakhoi reports a decrease of 22-17 cwts. in the import of Indian opium as compared with the December quarter of the previous year, and a nil return of native opium in the customs returns as compared with 18:47 cwt. in the same period of 1908, making a total reduction of 40.64 cwt. of opium imported in the last quarter of 1908. This is in itself satisfactory, but Mr. Pearson points out that merchants from Yunnan and Kueichow provinces, who in former years depended on their opium for buying foreign goods, have been hard hit by the new conditions, and the imports of foreign piece goods have suffered a proportionate decline. He further states that the licence system has at length become operative in Pakhoi, the licence being pusted to a large piece of board which it is hoped will act as a deterrent owing to the difficulty of concealing it when going to purchase the drug. According to the local the Ch'in Lien taotai has submitted to the Viceroy a proposal for the branding of smokers, and it has been forwarded by the Viceroy to the Opium Suppression Office, who have been instructed to draw up a report on the advisability of its adoption.
press
From His Majesty's acting consul at Kiungchow I received a report that a practical opium monopoly had been granted to a private opium farra in Hainan, and that à launch was being used to search junks, cargo boats, &c., with the apparent authorisation of the authorities. Regulations had been issued by the Taotai ordering the Customs to seize all opium not directly consigned to the company. On His Majesty's acting consul's representations these regulations were withdrawn, the status of the farm was altered to that of an official instead of a private concern, and new regulations were issued.
I have received no recent reports from other provinces, and it is perhaps unfortunate that no reliable information is to be had as to the state of opium cultivation in Kansu and Shensi, where little progress had been made last year, and where large areas have formerly been devoted to poppy cultivation. I will not fail to report any further information I may receive in regard to the progress of the movement.
In general I think it is remarkable that so much has been effected towards the suppression of opium cultivation, especially in Szechuan, and there is no doubt that the rising price places the drug out of the reach of a steadily increasing number of people, though those who have the means to lay in a stock will doubtless continue to smoke in secret, and others to consume adulterated opium in the form of "anti-opium pills."
I have, &c.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
W. G. MAX MÜLLER.
Acting Consul Smith to Sir J. Jordan,
(No. 11.) Sir,
Chungking, February 28, 1910. I HAVE the honour to transmit berewith a report on opium eradication in this district (Eastern Szechuan) for the 1909-1910 season.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
J. L. SMITH.
Report on Opium Eradication in Ch'uantung (Eastern Szechuan) for the 1909-10
Season.
eduction of Area under Cultivation.
year
AS will be remembered a Viceregal proclamation was issued in August of last prohibiting the planting of any poppy whatever throughout the entire Province of
5
Szechuan during the ensuing season. In this part of China opium is a winter crop being sown in the autumn and harvested in the spring. During January, when the plants would be high enough to be easily distinguishable, I addressed letters of enquiry to missionaries in various parts of Eastern Szechuan in order to ascertain the extent to which effect was being given to the prohibition, and to obtain general information in regard to the progress of the anti-opium movement. While no doubt is cast upon the information given, I may mention that, in the majority of cases, it has been corroborated by Roman Catholic missionaries as well. No foreigners being resident at Fuchou or Shihchuting the information in regard to those places has perforce been obtained from Chinese in charge of branch mission stations, and is not therefore so reliable.
Where it has seemed desirable, a digest of the replies received is given after the remarks made under the several headings of this report.
These give particulars from seventeen districts which include the largest opium producing centres in Eastern Szechuan, and seem to show that, with the sole exception of Fouchou, a vigorous and successful effort is being made to comply with the prohibition in every place.
In a number of cases tentative efforts were made at the commencement of the season to sow, more especially in out-of-the-way parts of the different districts, but early and strenuous steps seem to have been taken by the authorities to thwart these. The result is that in fifteen out of the seventeen districts mentioned there is practically no opium-growing now.
The only place where flagrant disobedience has been shown is Fouchou, one of the largest opium-producing centres in the province, and having a big population which may possibly approach a million. Here officials, gentry, and merchants have for years been making fortunes out of the drug, the cultivation of which has been the chief occupation of the people. The prohibition does not appear to have been taken very seriously at the outset, and cultivation was encouraged by the lenience shown by the officials to the first culprits brought to their notice. The consequence of this was that 50 per cent., and this may possibly be a low estimate, more poppy was sown than in the previous season (1908-9). (In Mr. Sly's Report of the 27th September, 1909, it is stated that the area under poppy cultivation in Fouchou during the 1908-9 season was six times as great as during the 1907--8 season),
Pusillanimity in the face of a large population with whom the measure was necessarily unpopular, coupled no doubt with a desire to profit possibly for the last time out of the people's disobedience, prevented the authorities from taking any effective steps. Finally the matter reached the ears of the Viceroy, who dispatched the Taotai of Chungking to Fouchou early in January. The latter found the reports true, and took bonds from the local gentry and landowners promising to roct up all poppy within ten days. He tells me himself that this promise has been properly
carried out.
No missionary lives at Fouchou, nor has the interior of the district been traversed by any foreigner recently, so that reliable information on the subject is somewhat difficult to obtain.
The Taotai's visit was already too late in the season to admit of other crops being planted if the poppy were rooted up, and the area under cultivation was so large that trouble was feared in the event of too drastic measures being taken. It is generally believed that a tacit arrangement was therefore made by which all poppy in the neighbourhood of the city, along the River Yang-tze and the high roads, should be pulled up, but that the rest was to be allowed to remain "for the last time."
The first part of the arrangement seems from all accounts to have been carried out and, as the Taotai's statement to me may possibly be somewhat prejudiced, no doubt the latter has also.
The only other reply which gives an unsatisfactory answer is from Fengtu, where one tenth of the previous season's crop is said to have been grown. In this place, how- ever, the 1908-9 crop was 50 per cent, less than that of 1907-8, and disobedience on this occasion was no doubt encouraged owing to the proximity of the district to Fouchou.
A prominent member of the local Roman Catholic mission, which owns a large amount of property in the country districts, and is therefore probably in closer touch with the agricultural population than others, estimates that the total area under poppy cultivation in the whole of Eastern Szechuan, taking into consideration the amount grown at Fouchou, this year is at the very most not more than 20 per cent. of what it
was last season.
[2719 66--1]
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