[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
109
[June 26.]
SECTION 2.
[29210]
No. 1.
Mr. Alston to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received June 26.)
(No. 246.) Sir,
Peking, June 11, 1913.
I HAVE the honour to enclose copies of correspondence with the Wai-chiao Pu relative to the prohibition of the import of Indian opium into the province of Fukien under article 3 of the Opium Agreement of 1911.
The memorandum of the Wai-chiao Pu has been the first intimation of their desire to have Fukien placed on the prohibition list. 26th May reference was made to opium cultivation in this province. A very large In my despatch No. 218 of the amount of poppy has undoubtedly been grown in the southern districts, and, although trustworthy information has indicated that the bulk of this has been destroyed, still it would appear that an appreciable quantity has been harvested.
The poppy is in flower at the end of February, and it would not have been possible at this late date to have tested the assertions of the Fukien tutu.
I have informed the Wai-chiao Pu that I am not prepared to place Fukien on the prohibition list until I have made fuller and more detailed enquiries, and that I will communicate further with them on receipt of reports from His Majesty's consuls at Amoy and Foochow, to whom instructions on the subject are being sent.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
I have, &c.
B. ALSTON.
Memorandum communicated to Sir J. Jordan by Wai-chiao Pu, June 6, 1913.
(Translation.)
OWING to disorders stirred up by local rebels the important policy of opium suppression in Fukieu met with great difficulties. During January of the present year the Wai-chiao Pu telegraphed to the Fukien tutu instructing him to give speedy orders for the discovery and suppression of the poppy. The tutu gave orders to his subordinates, who, with the aid of the military, destroyed the rebels and rooted up the crop. No efforts were spared, and during the last few months progress has been resolutely made, the sacrifice of lives and property being no obstacle. Thus the sincerity of the intentions (of the provincial authorities) in opium suppression is known to all, whether Chinese or foreigners.
On the 31st March the Wai-chiao Pu received a telegram from the tutu and chief civil administrator of Fukien to the effect that P'u-tien and Hsien-yu districts, also the Han-chiang and Mei-chou country, had been completely cleared of the poppy. On the 26th April another telegram reached the Wai-chiao Pu to the effect that the Szuming district was clear. On the 3rd May a further telegram was received, stating that Hui-an and Chin-chiang had also successfully reported themselves clear. On the 6th May another telegram was received, saying that Nan-an was clear of the poppy, and that the work of clearing the whole of that part of the country was complete. On the 1st June a further telegram was received, stating that the intendant of the southern circuit had telegraphed that all poppy in the Ch'uau-chou district had been cut down either in his presence or in that of others acting under his strict orders, and that the whole country under his jurisdiction had been reported clear. The tutu also received a telegram from the intendant of the western circuit, that he had sent out troops of soldiers to root up the poppy crop throughout Changehou, that these men had all successively returned to the capital city of the intendancy, and that the whole of his territory was clear. The tutu reported to the Wai-chiao Pu, with reference to the Min-chou, Chang-le, Lien-chiang, Min-ching, Ku-tien, Fu-an, Fu-ting, and Hsia-p'u districts of the easteru circuit, and the Shab Hsien, Shao-wu, Chien-ning, and Nan-ping
[2965 cc-2]
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