Name of District.
Hsing-he Ting Wa-yuan Ting Wu-ch'uan Ting
Tao-ling Ting..
Ting-sheng Ting
Chiang Chou
Chieh Chou
Number of Acres (Chinese) under Opium during 30th year of Kuang Hsu (1904).
8
Number of Ounces of Opium produced in 30th year of Kuang Hsü, calculated at
40 oz. per acre.
Number of Acres (Chinese) under Opium in 34th year of Kuang Hsü (1908)
1,550-380
4.839·870
4.415-950 221-424
11,806-352
193,594 800
176,638-000 8,856.960
472,294 -080
15,005.600 2,348.790 115 540
2,857 185
Total number of acres under opium in Shansi during 30th year
of Kuang Isu
Total number of ounces of opium produced in Shansi during
30th year of Kuang Hsi
·
Total number of acres uuder opium in Shansi daring 34th year
of Kuang Hsu
·
Total number of ounces of opium produced in Shausi during
34th year of Kuang Isii
In the first year of Hsuan Tung no opium grown at all.”
Number
of Ounces of Opium produced in 84th year
of Kuang Hsu.
62,015-20 600.224.00 98,951-60 4,621 69
114,287.40
994,420-454 acres (Chinese).
39,776,818 166 ounces "
351,008 579 acres
14,052,143-160 ounces +1
It would appear, however, that the Chinese Government are not satisfied that suppression in Shansi is complete, for the following Imperial edict was issued on the 27th September -
"In the work of opium suppression it is more important to prevent the consumption of the drug than to prevent its cultivation. But the various Viceroys and governors of provinces, scheming to perform services for which rewards might be granted, have been quick to prevent the cultivation and importation of the poppy but slow to suppress the consumption of the drug. In this they have done wrong.
"Some time ago we commanded the Board of Finance to send officers to make secret enquiries. The result of their enquiries has now been memorialised to us, and they show that even in the suppression of the cultivation of opium every province has in its report been guilty of varnishing the truth. For instance, from Kirin, Heilungchiang, Honan, Shansi, Fukien, Kuangsi, Yunnan, and the New Dominion reports were sent us that the cultivation of the poppy in those provinces had entirely ceased, whereas, as a matter of fact, in no instance was this the case. It is impossible to pass over the offence of the Viceroys and governors concerned, in that they omitted to make enquiries and made mistaken reports to the Throne. We comunand that they one and all be handed over to the board concerned for punishment.
"As regards the recommendations for rewards already made on behalf of the provinces of Shansi, Kirin, and Yunnan, we command that they be hereby cancelled, as a warning to others. Hereafter in every province, mindful of our wishes, let discrimination be shown as to the order in which reforms are instituted, while at the same time let the strictest measures of suppression be carefully carried out. By clearing the root and making clean the source, it may be hoped that with a daily decrease in the consumption of opium, the whole chronic disease will be destroyed.
"As regards the measures to be taken to secure the fulfilment of these designs within the time prescribed, we hereby command the Board of Finance, in conjunction with the Board of the Interior and the High Commissioner of Opium Taxation, to consider and draw up a satisfactory method of procedure, and to submit it to us for our approval."
SHENSI
I crossed the Yellow River and entered Shensi on the 19th May, and five days later I came across the first path of poppy in that province. It lay by the roadside at the hamlet of Yao-tien within the district of Ching chien Hsien. The plants were some 4 inches high; but the whole plot had been practically uprooted the day before by a deputy and his men sent by the magistrate of the district. This was on the 24th May: and on the 25th, 26th, 27tli, and 28th, I found the poppy in ever-increasing quantity
9
within the districts of Yen-ch'uan Hsien, Fu-shih Hsien, Kan-ch'uan Hsien, and the department of Fu Chou. I spent a day at Ch'a-fang within the department, and in au hour's walk up a well-watered glen observed twelve fields of poppy, many of them of On the 3rd June the poppy was flowering within sight of the walls large size. of the city of Chung-pu Hsien, and on the 6th of the same month it was in full bloom outside the south gate of the department city of Yao Chou. South of Yao Chou, in the districts of San-yiian and Ching-yang, and especially on both banks of the Ching and Wei Rivers and on the plain between these rivers, poppy fields were by no means rare, and, although some steps had been taken in places to interfere with cultivation by cutting off capsules, these measures were ineffective, as there still remained on the ground sufficient to yield two-thirds of the usual harvest, and opium was actually being collected. In the Hsi-an plain, from a point some 2 miles south of the Wei River, I saw no poppy, and it was generally admitted that what used to be one of the poppy-gardens of the province was now devoted to other crops.
At Hsi-an Fu I had an interview with his Excellency En Shou, Governor of Shensi, and he assured me that poppy cultivation, which might still secretly be carried on in out-of-the-way corners of the province, might be considered as practically stopped, that, at any rate, there was a reduction of from 60 to 80 per cent. as compared with previous years, and that not a single poppy-stem would be seen in the province next year. There can be no doubt that some reduction has taken place in cultivation as compared with previous years; but, after an examination of the west of the province, and looking to the fact that cultivation was strictly prohibited during the year, I incline to the opinion that the governor's estimate of reduction so far as my observation extended (and I have no reason to think that in other parts of the province the measures taken have on the whole been much more effective) is far to high, and that one-half of his estimate would be nearer the actual facts, while the assurance given that no poppy would be grown in Shensi in 1911 can only be taken as a pious wish.
My general report of the journey, to which I have already referred, contains a daily record of the poppy seen by me from the point at which I entered the province of Shensi from Shansi as far as Hsi-an Fu, as it does for the whole of the journey, so that I need not burden this report with too minute details. It will, I think, be sufficient to name the districts traversed and the number of poppy patches, plots, and fields observed in each.
From Hsi-an Fu I travelled westwards, following as far as possible the valley of the Wei River to the province of Kansu, and the following table gives the names of the districts and departments traversed as far as the frontier of the two provinces and the number of poppy fields (including patches and plots which nearly all blossomed into fields as Kansu was approached) observed from the road in each :--
Name of district or department-
Hsien-yang Hsieo
Hsing-ping
Wu-kung Fu-feng Chi-shan
Feng-heiang Chien-yang Lung Übou
11
"
73
+1
1
Total
Number of Foppy Fields.
1
12
52
85
46
31
53
703
988
It should be clearly understood that these fields refer only to such as were well within sight of the road and, therefore, of any passer-by. In no case was there any attempt at concealment, or, if there was, it was quite ineffective. I am desirous of giving the Governor of Shensi the benefit of the doubt; but I cannot conscientiously say that there was any secret cultivation or that this cultivation was being carried on in out-of-the-way corners of the province.
When I re-entered Shensi after visiting Kansu the opium harvest was practically over, and I did not expect to find the poppy as a growing crop; but that I may not be accused of any bias in the matter I think it advisable to give the names of the districts and number of poppy fields observed in Shensi on the great high-road between the Kansu
border and Hsi-an Fu
[2980 e-8]
D
378
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