(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
242
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[March 18.]
10-34
ALCO
SECTION
Rear 3 MAY 12
[10701]
(No. 92.) Sir,
No. 1.
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received March 12.).
Peking, February 22, 1912. WITH reference to your despatch No. 15 of the 17th January, forwarding a copy of a telegram from the Government of India enquiring as to the reported resumption of opium cultivation in China, and requesting that a report may be furnished upon the subject, I have the honour to state that, with the exception of the despatch from His Majesty's consul-general at Yunnan-fu, No. 46 of the 25th November, 1911, copy of which was forwarded by Mr. O'Brien-Butler direct to the Foreign Office, no further information has been received in regard to the province of Yunnan, but His Majesty's consul-general at Chengtu reports that farmers are once more planting the poppy in Szechuan, while His Majesty's acting-consul at Chungking telegraphs that sowing has taken place, not, however, to any large extent, in the districts of Nan-ch'uan, Ta-tsu, Mien-chu, and An Hsien, and in the department of Fu Chon, and adds that the Govern ment is endeavouring to suppress cultivation, but has failed at Fu Chou on account of local resistance, and that fresh efforts at suppression will be made when conditions permit.
The department of Fu Chou was the chief opium producing centre of the province of Szechuan, and up to the season of 1909-10, when the area under poppy was largely extended, offered the most strenuous resistance to the measures of suppression, a resistance, however, which was overcome in 1910-11 when Sir Alexander Hosie failed to see a single poppy plant during his journey through the department. That it should be one of the first districts to take advantage of the present disturbed and uncontrolled condition of the province is scarcely a matter for surprise.
As regards the province of Hunau, which the poppy was cultivated during the season of 1910-11, His Majesty's consul at Changsha reports that the districts in which the most poppy has been sown for the 1911-12 crop are Tz'u-li Hsien in the north and In the latter the authorities have found it impossible to Kuei-yang Chou in the south. interfere successfully with the growers, as, with the present high level of prices, the profits of one crop were said to exceed the normal valne of the land itself. Other districts in which poppy has recently been sown are Pao-ching Hsien and Lung-shan Hsien in the Yung-shan prefecture and Ling Hsien in the prefecture of Heng-chou-fu. He further states that orders have been issued for all the poppy sown to be dug The up, and for the growers to enter into a bond that they will sow no more. Provincial Parliament proposed that, if any refused to comply, the land should be confiscated and the offenders rendered liable to imprisonment for not more than three and a fine not exceeding three hundred dollars, and that those who were still recalcitrant should be summarily executed; but these proposals did not commend themselves to the Governor.
years,
There can be little doubt that at the present juncture the leaders of the revolution have been unwilling to alienate the people by enforcing drastic measures of suppression. They have as a rule maintained a passive attitude; but the proclamation issued on the 25th November last by the authorities of Ning-hsia-fu in the north-east of the province of Kansu, enclosed in my despatch No. 54 of the 31st ultimo, is an exception to that rule.
During a visit which President Yuan Shih-kai paid to me on the 20th instant I took the opportunity of remarking on the recrudescence of opium cultivation, and his Excellency gave me to understand that as soon as peace and order were restored this, like many other matters, would not be lost sight of.
I have, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
[2412 m-1]
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