4
thrown into prison, the doors of which were sealed. they were told that they were to stay until they had that a fine of 2,000 dollars was inflicted on each. their ultimate fate.
On the 24th May Mr. Bucknall wrote :----
No beds were allowed them, and overcome their craving. It is said
I have no further information as to
"I have found some opium in flower on the hills of Taiping, and picked about forty plants, which I showed to the official, but did not mention what I intended to do with it. He asked me where I picked it, and I told him.”
Haimen. The Haimen magistrate has been active in the suppression of cultivation, making personal excursions and causing all growing plants to be destroyed wherever found. Two hundred soldiers were sent into the mountains round T'aichow to shoot all proprietors of land bearing poppy.
There is said to be no opium planted in the immediate neighbourhood of Haimen. Taiping. The Taiping magistrate made a raid among the T'aichow Islands searching for opium, and, armed with a revolver, went through the streets locating the opium shops. Fines were imposed on all, and some shops were torn down. "One cultivator was arrested and beaten until he disclosed the names of other growers, who were forced to destroy their crops. At the same place during March this resolute magistrate actually nailed down in coffins two living opium smokers, with the remark that by doing so he had done them the good turn of providing them with coffins free and of curing them of the habit!
Mr. Bucknall writes
"Wongan.-The Wongan official has deepened a canal 30 li in length on the proceeds of opium fines,
"I have not seen any poppy this year, and there is, as far as I can hear, practically none grown in the districts of Taichow, Wongan, and Taiping. There is probably some in very out-of-the-way places where the officials have not been able to find it, or where the people not expecting the officials to return have planted the roots that have been pulled up, but I have only heard of this being done on the T'aichow Islands, even there one would have to be taken to the place to be able to find it.
"There are, I hear, some thirty mo of poppy coming into flower in the Linghai district, but the officials know about it and have ordered the soldiers, who are making a tour of the Taichow districts, to go and destroy it, which will be done within the next fortnight.
"As far as I can ascertain there is none imported. The opium used by the smokers is said to be the remains of last year's crop, and its price having fallen from 8 'tsfien' to 2 'lang' per Mexican dollar would seem to prove this, as opium, I believe, is dearer in other places.
"There are opium hospitals everywhere in the T'aichow districts, and if they are not cured in their own hospitals, where their friends will sometimes smuggle opium to them, they are taken to Taichow-fu, where their friends cannot hinder, and if after a certain time they are not cured, lots are cast, and one in every four are taken out and shot, and then another trial is made, and so on until there is an end of them. Two hundred have been cured at the Taichow Islands since the official's visit some two months ago, and taking this as an average, tens, if not hundreds, of thousands must have been cured in the T'aichow districts alone.
"Officials are catching all the opium smokers they can find. It is impossible to give any statement as to how many are left. I hear that when an opium smoker wants to have a smoke he goes to some out-of-the-way place, such as an old deserted temple, and smokes his opium through a bamboo stick with a hole bored in it, and then throws away the stick.
"As to smuggling it in there is not enough to be made to warrant the risk taken, for if they were caught they would probably be shot. The steamers would not take the
risk either.
"There is plenty of opium being grown in the Wenchow districts, and if you desired photographs or roots (plants) I will get them for you.”
In conclusion I have the honour to express the opinion that had there been any other considerable growth of opium, or any marked consumption, I should have been
5
informed by the missionaries in the district concerned, and I would judge that Messrs. Esras' complaint, as detailed in the letter enclosed in the despatch under acknowledge- ment, is groundless as far as this district is concerned.
Enclosure 5 in No. 1.
Consul Savage to Mr. Alston.
I have, &c.
G. W. PEARSON.
(No. 9.) Sir,
Hangchow, July 18, 1913. REFERRING to your despatch of the 29th May calling for information as to the truth of the assertion of the authorities of this province that they have effectively suppressed the cultivation of the opium poppy and the smoking of opium, I have the honour to report that, on receipt of this despatch, I sent a circular letter to missionary stations in nine districts of this province, asking for reports on the subject.
I have received replies from Yen Chow Fu, Shao Hsing Fu, Taichow Fu, Ch'a Chow Fu, Yung K'ang, Lung Ch'uan and one other place. Most of these replies were emphatic as to the severity of the measures taken to suppress both the cultivation and the smoking of opium, and their effectiveness. One or two were a little guarded as to the actual suppression of cultivation, owing to lack of personal observation or want of definite information; but they all agreed that not very much could have escaped the extreme vigilance of the authorities and their informers.
The Reverend Mr. Thompson, of T'aichow, reports that even in that district cultivation has been rigorously suppressed, though he admits the probability of a few poppy fields in isolated places among the hills having escaped observation. But he states, on the other hand, that: "nobody denies but that there is very little diminution of opium smoking," there being probably secret hoards buried in various places," and I am told little pots are left at certain rendezvous at night, the price having been paid beforehand, for it is too dangerous to pass it from hand to hand." He also relates having detected the landlord of some premises rented by himself, smoking with a number of his friends in a room reserved for his own use. Mr. Thompson reported the facts to the local magistrate, after eliciting his promise that he would not execute the landlord. The magistrate told him that he had great difficulty in getting information about the opium, as the guards were "open to blackmail for suppression and bribes for "doubtless but one instance among a overlooking." He says this experience was thousand, although in some places the reputation is greater than in others.'
I
may mention that, although I addressed my letters in all cases to British missions, the replies I received in two cases were from non-British members of the mission, either because the British resident missionary was absent or because the resident missionary was a foreigner. In both cases, judging from the names, the senders of the replies appear to have been Germans,
I purposely selected one of the most remote places in the hilly country in the south
of the province, namely Lung Ch'uan. The report from there was excellent.
I have not as yet addressed any questions to the opium importers at Shangai. Their information would be obtained from native dealers, and would be likely to be tainted by strong bias. On the other hand, the neighbourhood of all missionary establishments may have been more carefully purged of opium than other places.
I have, &c.
0
V. L. SAVAGE.
249
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.