CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 576

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opium marked and labelled as provided in paragraph 1, and such opium shall pay the new rate of import duty, and shall not be re-exported in bond to other treaty ports.

In addition to the annual reduction of 5,100 chests already agreed upon, the British Government agree further to reduce the import of Indian opium during each of the years 1911, 1912, 1913, and 1914 by an amount equal to one-fourth of the total ascertained amount of the uncertificated opium in bond in Chinese treaty ports and in stock in Hong Kong on the date of signature plus one-fourth of the amount of uncertificated Indian opiumi landed during the ensuing two months at Shanghai and Canton,

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

[B]

C.O.

6:

OPIUM.

10008

[May 15.]

CONFIDENTIAL.

RECE

& Reo 16 JUN 11

SECTION 2.

No. 1.

[18425]

(No. 2.) Sir,

Consul-General Sir A. Hosie to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received May 15.)

Yunnan-fu, April 15, 1911. I HAVE the honour to transmit to you herewith, in duplicate, my report on the cultivation of the poppy and the production of opium in the province of Vinnan.

I have, &c.

ALEX. HOSIE.

Enclosure in No. 1.

Report by Consul-General Sir A. Hosie on the Cultivation of the Poppy and the Production of Opium in the Province of Yunnan.

YUNNAN has always ranked next to Szechuan as the second greatest opium- producing province of China, and the quality of its opium has always held the first place in the estimation of consumers of the native drug throughout the Empire. The total annual production of the province prior to the introduction of the measures for the suppression of cultivation and consumption taken in obedience to the Imperial decree of the 20th September, 1906, has been variously estimated at from 30,000 to 78,000 piculs; but, while the former estimate is unquestionably too low, the probability is that the latter errs in the other direction, and that 60,000 piculs would be a nearer approxi- mation to the actual production--a production shared in about equal proportious by Eastern and Western Yünnan. The superior quality of the Yunnan drug, with its higher marketable value, has always led to adulteration with Szechuan opium, so that much of the so-called Yunnan opium exported eastwards by the Yang-tsze route has, especially in recent years, been the product of Szechuan, while the export of Yunnan opium to Tongking through the port of Mengtza has occasionally been supplemented by the product of Szechuan and Kueichow.

I left Chêngtu, the capital of the province of Szechuan, on the 8th March, and, travelling down the Min River to Hsü-chou Fu (Sui Fu), where it joins the Yang-tsze, I proceeded west, and following up the valley of the Hêng River, which enters the Yang-tsze on its right bank to the west of that city, entered the independent sub-prefecture of Ta-kuan Ting in the north of the province of Yunnan on the 18th March. In this sub-prefecture I found no trace of the poppy, and continued my journey southwards to the city of Chao-tung Fu, which is situated in an immense plain measuring 40 by 15 miles, in former years the greatest opium-producing centre in Eastern Yünnan. Writing of this plain, which I visited in June 1882, I said that, judging from the number of withered poppy stems to be seen among the summer crops of maize and beans, it must have been one field of poppy, and such it continued to be annually until the measures of suppression were introduced. From the time that I entered Yunnan I heard that the poppy had not been cultivated for three years, and, as regards the Chao-t'ung plain, this was fully confirmed by members of the English Methodist Mission, one of whom has been resident in this and the neighbouring prefecture of Tung-ch'uan Fu for over twenty years. Not only had no opium been cultivated on the plain for three seasons, but, so far as they could ascertain, there was no cultivation of the poppy within the whole of the prefecture.

From Chao-t'ung Fu I travelled south to the prefectural city of Tung-ch'uan Fu, situated in a plain measuring 5 miles in length and 2 miles broad at its widest part. A great part of this plain, which has an excellent water supply, was formerly devoted to opium production; but, as in the case of the Chao-t'ung plain, the poppy had entirely disappeared for three seasons. Here, however, a report reached me that poppy was still being grown to the west, and I accordingly made a detour through parts of the district of Hui-tse Hsien, the senior district of Tung-ch'uan Fu, the independent

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