CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 57

This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

CO

55

OPIUM.

CONFIDENTIAL.

[14133]

No. 1.

[April 25.]

15574

RECO SECTION 3.0

Rete 23 MAY 10

Mr. Max Müller to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received April 25,)

(No. 99.) Sir,

Peking, April 7, 1910. WITH reference to my despatch No. 92 of the 31st ultimo, I have the honour to transmit herewith copy of a report which has just reached me from His Majesty's consul-general at Chengtu on the progress of the movement for the suppression of opium in the western districts of Szechuan province during the half-year ended the 28th February last. As Mr. Wilkinson observes, this report completes that of His Majesty's consul at Chungking, which formed the enclosure of my above-mentioned despatch, and it confirms my observations and those of Rishop Bashford on the success which has attended the determined efforts of the Governor-General to eradicate opium cultivation and consumption in Szechuan.

I have, &c.

Enclosure 1 in No. 1.

W. G. MAX MÜLLER.

(No. 20.) Sir,

Consul-General Wilkinson to Sir J. Jordan.

Chengtu, March 8, 1910. IN continuation of Mr. Langford Smith's despatch No. 24 of the 11th August last, I have the honour to enclose my report on the progress of the movement for the suppression of opium production and opium smoking in the province of Szechuan during the past six months.

This was compiled before I had the advantage of reading Mr. Smith's report on the measures taken during the same period in the eastern circuit. In forwarding to the Government of India a copy of my present despatch, I am adding a transcription of Mr. Smith's, since the two taken together, I venture to think, afford convincing proof of the sincerity of Governor-General Chao's efforts to merit, as far as his province is concerned, a renewal of the agreement for the progressive restriction of the export from

I have, &c.

India.

W. H. WILKINSON.

Enclosure 2 in No. 1.

Report by Consul-General Wilkinson respecting the Suppression of Opium in Szechuan for the period September 1909-March 1910.

WHAT will, it is now permissible to believe, prove to have been the death-blow to the production, if not to the consumption, of opium in the province of Szechuan, was the proclamation issued on the 25th July, 1909, by Governor-General Chao Erh-hsun, forbidding absolutely the sowing of the poppy throughout his jurisdiction. This document is in doggerel hexameters, rhyming to the word yen ("opium"), but as its effects promise to be so far-reaching, a copy and translation are appended. Unlike his colleague of the Yun-Kuei, who launched his interdict exactly a year earlier, Chao Chih-t'ai is not insisting that all smoking mest cease, but with that very notable exception the measures taken of late in Szechuan resemble largely the Yunnan scheme as outlined by Sir A. Hosie in his General Report on Opium for 1908 (Blue Book: "China No. 1, 1909," p. 14).

The two most important documents directing these measures that have been issued are, always excepting his Excellency's metrical notification-

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