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Tien-tsin-Pukou Railway on the 24th April, and the investigation in Anhui commenced from this date. I returned to Peking from Pengpu on the 18th May.
I had originally planned to proceed westward from Pengpu, and to visit the districts of Huai-yuan, Po-chou, Ying-chou, and Shou-chou, and to make for Wuhu vià Wu-wei. These districts, according to information supplied by His Majesty's consul at Wuhu, missionaries and others, were indicated as being under opium cultivation this year.
A visit to Huai-yuan, however, convinced me that the crops in the north were backward for the time of the year. I decided to proceed by rail and steamer to Wuhu, where I arrived on the 27th April, and work northwards from that place.
The province of Anhui is divisible into three distinct regions :--
1. The country south of the River Yang-tsze;
2. The area between the Yang-tsze and the Huai Rivers ;
3. The part north of the Huai River.
1. As regards the first of these three divisions, the information received from His Majesty's consul and missionaries appeared to place beyond question the fact that opium cultivation had practically ceased. My own enquiries at Wuhu confirmed this
information.
2. In the second division, cultivation had been reported in the Wu-wei district, along the northern shores of Lake Chao, in the Liu-an and Shou-chou districts, and along the southern banks of the Huai River.
3. In the region north of the Huai River poppy had been indicated as having been planted in the districts of Po-chou and Ying-chou.
I left Wuhu on the 1st May for the district city of Ch'ao-hsien, 42 miles distant, in a motor launch kindly placed at my disposal by the Asiatic Petroleum Company. From trustworthy information it appeared that there were no signs of poppy in the district of Wu-wei. The magistrates of the Wu-wei and Ch'ao-hsien had made a joint tour of investigation accompanied by a large force of soldiers early in April, and again three days before my arrival. Some poppy fields belonging to a military official at the provincial capital were included among those ploughed up. The town of Ch'ao-haien lies at the entrance of the large lake, 125 miles in circunference, known as Chao-hu, From information supplied to the legation by His Majesty's consul at Wuhu, it appeared that the northern shores of this lake had been planted with poppy. The difficulty of approach to the northern bank owing to shallow water and the impossibility of observing the cultivation on land through screens of high reeds made the further journey by boat impracticable. I set out from Ch'ao-hsien, therefore, al ng a small road running for the first 20 miles in close proximity to the north of the lake. In this direction the lake is bordered by high hills from which a comprehensive view of the lake and shores could be obtained. I examined the countryside constantly and carefully with powerful field-glasses but could detect no signs of growing poppy. I spent the first night at the house of a Chinese merchant to whom I had received a letter of introduction. He is a native of the province and a shrewd business man well acquanted with local affairs. He told me that some but not much poppy had been growing in Wu-wei and Ch'ao-hsien, which had been cleared in the recent itineraries made by the magistrates. The unpaved road, still saturated and cut up by the rains of the preceding week, ran between low hills to Lüchow. This town is one of considerable importance in this region, being in direct water communication with the Yang-tsze, and a distributing centre for a very large part of the area between the Yang-tsze and Huai Rivers. There is a good deal of secret opium smoking still going on in the town in spite of an energetic crusade by the magistrate. Still, the smoking bas sensibly diminished, and the foreign missionary doctor estimated that it had decreased by one-half. The cases of attempted suicide by opium brought to the hospital average forty annually as against one hundred previously. This he accounted for partly by the actual decrease in the consumption, and partly by the greatly-enhanced price of the drug. Another missionary independently confirmed the doctor's estimate of opium smoking, and added that it was still the practice for many of the gentry to smoke opium at dinners with intimate friends. Opium is smuggled into Lu-chow from the Yang-tsze, and three shops were pointed out to me where purchases could be made by regular customers.
Between Lü-chow and Liu-an I came across traces of a few poppy fields ploughed up within the preceding two or three days. At the latter place I received very definite information from two missionaries stationed at Yingchow-fu, writing independently of one another, which satisfied me that the poppy in that district and the surrounding districts had been uprooted. The work of eradication appears to have commenced
at the end of February, and to have been continued with great energy and success during April by the magistrates and deputies in person. One of my informants had reported earlier "
a tremendous sowing" at the beginning of the season. In the district of Yingshan an armed conflict appears to have taken place between the growers and the soldiers; seventy of the former were reported to have been killed.
A missionary, writing from Po-chou, stated that most searching efforts had been made by the officials to find and destroy all the poppy planted in the district. He himself had been out in the countryside a good deal, and had not seen a single plant.
As the time at my disposal was limited this information decided me not to visit Yingchow and Po-chou, but to proceed at once into the districts of Shou-chou, Huai- yuan, and Ting-yuan, examining en route the country between Lin-an and Ho-ch'iu.
This sparsely populated region is extraordinarily scarce in villages and hamlets, and the homesteads are widely scattered among the fir coppices on the hills, the wheat- fields of the plains, and the belts of tall reeds extending along the shores of the lakes. Poppy was grown to some extent last season, but I doubt if any was even sown this
season.
years
told
At Ho-ch'iu a missionary who had been resident there for twenty-four me that the magistrate had been out quite recently on a tour of rigorous inspection, and had uprooted the poppy growing along the banks of the Huai River in his district. He was of opinion that the countryside was clear of poppy.
I travelled on foot for some miles along the shores of the east lake, between Ilo-ch'iu and Cheng-yang-kuan, where poppy was reported to be growing. There were no standing plants, although many fields bore the appearance of having been lately ploughed up in the midst of flourishing crops of wheat, rye, and barley. From Cheng- yang-kuan, the most important town in Northern Anhui, I proceeded by boat to Shou- chou. There were no signs of poppy fields along the river banks, although a month before the report of their existence was widely current. The Huai River is infested with pirates in many parts, and my boat was followed during the night by a junk containing seven of these undesirables. They were attacked the next morning, in broad daylight, by a small wooden gunboat, with a crew of at least double that number. The pirates bolted across country unharmed, although it would have been an easy matter to have shot them down. The low hills and swamps on the south bank are notorious as robber haunts. The most widely known is the large village of Pai-lu-ch'iao, or White Deer Bridge, at the junction of the three districts of Huai-yuan, Shou-chou, and Ting- ynau The population is about 5,000, and the villagers as villainous a gang of cut-throats as it had been my lot to see in Anhui. The countryside is full of disbanded soldiers, and opium inspection had hitherto been shunned in these parts. Had it not been for the imperative commands of the tutu, cousequent on my visit to Anhui, the magistrates would have left this Alsatia alone; but the three magistrates traversed the entire area with several hundred soldiers, and destroyed all vestiges of poppy. A week before my arrival there one of the guards of an opium inspector had been seriously wounded at a small village between Pai-lu-ch'iao and the river. The tutu ordered troops to destroy the village. Three hundred men, with two mountain guns Maxims, reached Le-ho, on the south bank, and prepared to attack at daybreak. In the meantime, the magistrates of Shou-chou and Ting-yuan were occupying Pai-lu-ch'iao with about 300 men. Owing to the mediation of the magistrate of Huai-yuan and the local gentry the village was spared. The male adults of this region possess arms in some form or other either knives, matchlocks, automatic pistols, or breech-loaders.
and two
From Pai-lu-ch'iao I had intended to visit Ping-ho-shan, on the north bank, at the junction of the three districts of Huai-yuan, Meng-chen, and Feng-tai.
Poppy fields had been seen there by a missionary two months before, but a visit the previous week showed that they had been destroyed. I did not, therefore, visit Ping-ho-shan, but returned from Huai-yuan to Pengpu, on the Tien-tsin-Pukou Railway.
During my stay of twenty-three days in the province, rain fell on eleven days and on eight of these heavily. The overland journey was at times trying on account of the moist heat, the bad roads, execrable inn accommodation and the impossibility of obtaining any supplies except rice and flour. The discomforts, however, would have been considerably greater had it not been for the efforts of the local officials and frequently the local gentry also. In spite of the unpopularity of my mission, which had been widely published, I found the people of this province, reputed to be so anti-foreign, uniforinly respectful and even friendly. Attended by a single coolie, I often separated myself from the rest of the party. I cannot recollect a single unpleasant incident, although I can recall many unexpected little attentions from
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