CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911 — Page 577

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sub-prefecture of Chiao-chia Ting, and the department of Hsüntien Chou, in each of which I found the poppy under cultivation, mostly in flower. In the Hui-tsê district I found thirty-eight plots, in the Chiao-chia Ting sub-prefecture twenty-seven plots, and in the Isün-tien Chao department seven plots--a total of seventy-two plots. The largest of these measured 300 by 100 yards. Many were half that size, aud the smallest plot was only. 20 by 5 yards. Of the seven plot seen in the department of Hsün-tien Chou two were by the roadside, and within 40 miles of the provincial capital.

I should mention that the bearers and porters whom I had engaged at Sui Fu to convey me

to Yunnan-fu refused to accompany me on this detour owing to the mountainous and inaccessible nature of the country, and that I had to employ local meu for this part of my journey.

As regards Eastern Yunnan, I am of opinion, from personal investigation and from information received during my travels, that in the former chief centres of production the cultivation of the poppy has either practically ceased or been very largely diminished, and that, although the poppy is still grown in remote and unfrequented districts, its cultivation therein has not been materially extended, and is being carried on with considerable trepidation and is chiefly for local consumption. It is true that raw opium could be purchased secretly at most places along the road I travelled, but that supply is derived from old stocks held by private individuals, who employ friends and agents to dispose of it retail.

While carrying out my investigation in the province of Szechuan I telegraphed to llis Majesty's acting consul at Tengyueh asking him to be good enough to furnish me with a few notes ou opium cultivation in Western Yunnan during the present season, and the following is the summary of the information with which Mr. Rose has kindly furnished me. He had recently returned from a frontier tour, during which he had passed through many of the tribal districts, and he states that in the plains surrounding the cities there was no trace of the poppy nor was there any extensive cultivation in the hills of the purely Chinese zone, but the tribal area showed a considerable increase. He estimates that the area under poppy in the whole of the frontier districts has increased from 27,000 in 1910 to 43,000 English acres in 1911, and the production of opium from 5,000 to 8,000 piculs. He adds that the measures taken by the Chinese authorities to diminish this production are by no means effective.

Taking, therefore, the province of Yuunan as a whole and making due allowance for the disappearance of the poppy from the great opium-producing centres of Eastern Yunnan and from the plains within the Chinese zone in the west without

any marked increase of cultivation in other parts of the province (except in the frontier tribal districts), it may, I think, be fairly assumed that the estimated production of 60,000 piculs of Yunnan opium prior to the introduction of the measures of suppression has been very materially reduced, and I venture to hazard the opinion that the output of 1910-11 will not excoed 15,000 piculs; in other words, that there has been a reduction of about 75 per cent. In the absence of reliable statistics of any kind it is, of course, impossible to furnish exact or authoritative figures; but the above estimate is the result of personal investigation in a part of Yunnan which formerly included several large opium- producing centres and of a careful examination of information derived from other

sources.

To his Excellency Hsi Liang, who held the post of Viceroy of the provinces of Yünnau and Kueichow from the 10th May, 1907, to the 25th February, 1909, belongs the chief credit for the present great reduction in the cultivation of opium in Yünnan. During his tenure of office his Excellency was untiring in his efforts to eradicate the poppy from the province; he proclaimed that all cultivation of the poppy must cease in Yunnan by the 21st January, 1909, and that no opium was to be allowed to pass any customs station or li-kin barrier after the 21st September, 1908. To allay discontent among holders of stocks the latter time limit was extended by the Acting Viceroy Shên Ping-kun, now Governor of Kwangsi, who held office from the 26th February to the 16th November, 1909, and proved himself no less energetic than his predecessor.

In 1910 overtures were made to the present Viceroy, his Excellency Li Ching-hsi, by the delegate of the Government of Indo-China in Yunnan-fu with a view to the removal of the embargo on the export of Yunnan opium to Tonquin. This permission was refused at the time; but on the 11th instant a proclamation was issued by the Viceroy permitting holders of old stocks to export for a period of four months from the 30th March to the 25th July, 1911, the conditions being that opium so exported shall pay double the former native customs duty and li-kin or 63 taels per 1,000 Chinese ounces (equal to 100 taels a picul), and that such opium must be sent direct to the port

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of Mengtzu and there sold to an official opium department, which will arrange for its disposal, export, and payment of export duty.

I have said that opium could be purchased secretly at most of the places through which I passed on my way to Yunnan-fu, and I may add that the price varied from 1 dollar to 1 tael per Chinese ounce (14 oz. English) for the raw drug. In Yunnan-fu the price is now I tael, so that raw opium here is at present worth its weight in silver, or about six times the price prior to 1907.

Yunnan-fu, April 15, 1911.

ALEX. HOSIE.

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