[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
366
C. 0.
19041
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[21417]
No. 1.
[May 20.]
SECTION 1.
20 UNIC
(No. 200.) Sir,
Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.---(Received May 20.)
Peking, April 30, 1912. WITH_reference to my despatch No. 110 of the 6th ultimo, I have the honour to report that missionary and other refugees from Kansu and Shepsi bring the information that the poppy is being widely cultivated in these two provinces. À British missionary, writing on the 29th March from the city of Fo-chiang Hsien, in Kansu, which was a great centre of production in 1910, says that, in order to keep people quiet during the unrest caused by the revolutionary movement, official intima- tion was made during the autumn that the suppressive measures would not be enforced, with the result that during the present spring the poppy abounds on hillsides and in valleys to the exclusion of every other crop except wheat. Ile further states that a proclamation in the name of the high provincial authorities was posted at Fo-chiang on the 28th March imposing taxes on all land under poppy and warning the people that no cultivation would be permitted next year.
British missionaries who have returned to their stations in Shansi report that opium is now being largely cultivated in the central and southern parts of that province, which was declared free from cultivation in 1910, and is one of the five provinces from which Indian opium was excluded from the 11th September, 1911.
His Majesty's consular officers at Chengta and Chungking continue to report the resumption of opium production in Szechuan, especially in the prefecture of Ya-chou Fu and in the Ning-yuan Fu or Chien-chang Valley, bordering on Yünnan, whence it las spread to the hill tribes, and they state that proclamations commanding eradication issued by the Chengtu authorities are not being enforced by the local officials. In some districts in the east of the province, still independent of Chengtu rule, opium is being cultivated, and troops have been sent to the districts of Tien-chiang and Liang- shan and to the department of Fu Chou to bring them under control and at the same time eradicate the poppy.
His Majesty's consul-general at Yünnan Fu reports that as much opium is now being grown in the east and west of Yunnan as in tunes of unrestricted cultivation, and that the area under crop in the immediate neighbourhood of the provincial capital is estimated at 40 per cent. of the area previous to the introduction of repression. He states that there is absolutely no attempt at concealment, that many fields lie along frequented high roads, and that he has been given to understand that no endeavour to curtail cultivation will be made during the present year.
As regards the province of Fukien, His Majesty's consul at Amoy reports that in the districts of An-ch'i and Tung-an, the latter a district from which the poppy had disappeared, cultivation recommenced as soon as the Imperial executive collapsed, and on the island of Amoy, behind the city of Amoy, poppy fields stretched in all directions on the 31st March, some still in flower, but the great majority ripe unto harvest with a good proportion of the capsules in process of being tapped, and he adds that the cultivation was being carried on by the local farmers without let or hindrance on the part of the authorities.
In the province of Chekiang, where the most vigorous efforts are being made by the authorities to exclude Indian opium, the poppy is reported to be under cultivation in at least two prefectures-Wenchou Fu and T'ai-chou Fu.
I bave, &c.
[2502 u-)
J. N. JORDAN.
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