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trade. It was, perhaps, significant that the T'an Chiêng magistrate told me that he could get no replies either to telegrams or despatches inviting the co-operation of the Kiaugsu authorities in matters relating to brigands or opium.
Smoking.
Opium smoking is, according to all accounts, not noticeably less prevalent than it was a year ago. There are opium shops in every market town of any importance, and natives have no difficulty in buying opium. The price of the drug was high in every part of the province that I visited; but the figures that I tried to collect varied so much as to be useless. There was no evidence of opium smoking at any of the inns at which I stayed; but this is not surprising as, with Chinese deputies in the party, the nature of the mission could not be kept secret. From what I heard it would seem that opium smoking was least prevalent in Mengyin, where I heard that the regulations requiring smokers to report at the yamên and reduce the amount smoked were enforced and most prevalent in Chuchow, where there were said to be over twenty opium shops, nearly all of which were known to the officials. Four or five were closed just before my arrival and the proprietors punished; but this was regarded on all sides as a precautionary display of zeal on the part of the magistrats.
Heavy punishments had been awarded to offenders, but there were so many wild rumours afloat that information on the subject could only be accepted with caution. The headınan of a village in the Chang Ch'ing district was beaten on the 23rd April for having permitted the cultivation of the poppy in his village. There was a case of confiscation of land at Yi Hsien. While at Chuchow a man was said to have been executed for persisting in growing the poppy after one warning. In an access of zeal immediately preceding our arrival, the magistrate at I Chow had arrested several wealthy and prominent residents for opium smoking, and had sentenced them to terms of imprisonment ranging from five to sixteen years; some had been marched through the streets handcuffed. A missionary in Ishui had heard of opium smokers being shot, but did not know of such a case personally. And there were stories of similar punishments at almost every place visited.
The official repressive measures have been directed mainly against the cultivation of opium, and, judging by the state of those parts of the province which I visited, seem to have been most successful in this respect for the current year. There is now probably no poppy, or next to none, growing in Shantung, although it was sown very extensively last autumn, and reports as to the zeal of the officials in the suppression of poppy culti- vation are confirmed on all sides. The measures taken by the officials against opium smoking vary according to the inclinations of each, and there was no general and orga- nized campaign.
In Chuchow it was said that opium shops escaped interference by payment of a sufficiently large contribution to the magistrate, and this was doubtless the case at other places, where the officials could not have remained in ignorance of their existence.
N. FITZMAURICE.
Tien-tsin, May 29, 1913.
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Sir John Jordan would propose that this arrangement should take effect from the 15th June, 1913.
Peking, May 27, 1913.
Enclosure 7 in No. 1.
Memorandum communicated to Sir J. Jordan by Wai-chiao Pu.
(Translation.)
WITH reference to the joint investigation of opium cultivation in Anhui, Hunan, and Shantung provinces, the Ministry has received successively the reports of its own deputy and of the deputy of the Ministry of the Interior, to the effect that cultivation has entirely ceased in those provinces. Further telegraphic requests have been received from the tutus of the three provinces to fix a date for the prohibition of the import of Indian opium. The Ministry was in the act of considering these docu- ments when his Excllency's memorandum to the following effect was received :-
"The British and Chinese delegates have now completed extensive tours in the provinces in question. As a result of their investigations Sir John Jordan now agrees that Indian opium shall not be conveyed into the three provinces of Anhui, Hunan, and Shantung, in accordance with the terms of article 3 of the Agreement of 1911. Sir John Jordan would propose that this arrangement should take effect from the 15th June, 1913."
On reading this memorandum the gratitude of the Ministry is profound. Telegrams are being sent to the tutus of the three provinces to take action in the sense indicated, and a letter is being written to the Revenue Council asking that it may direct the Inspector-General to inform the Commissioners of Customs in the provinces concerned. The Ministry now has the honour to send the above reply to his Excellency.
(Seal of the Minister for Foreign Affairs).
Peking, May 30, 1913
Enclosure & in No. 1.
Memorandum communicated to Wai-chiao Pu by Sir J. Jordan.
HIS Majesty's Minister has the honour to invite the attention of the Wai-chiao Pu to his memorandum of the 1st February, in which he expressed his willingness to consent to the examination of the provinces of Anhui, Hunan, and Shantung on the lines laid down in article 4 of the Opium Agreement of 1911, with a view to the verifi- eation of the claims put forward by the Governors of those provinces that the cultivation of the poppy had now been effectively suppressed in the districts under their control.
In a memorandum dated the 13th February the Wai-chiao Pu promised their co-operation to this end, and British consular officers, accompanied by Chinese represen- tatives of the Metropolitan and Provincial Governments, have now completed extensive tours of the provinces in question.
As a result of their investigations, Sir John Jordan now agrees that Indian opium shall not be conveyed into the three provinces of Anhui, Hunan, and Shantung, in accordance with the terms of article 3 of the Agreement of 1911.
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