CO129-416 - Public Offices - 1914 — Page 536

[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]

OPIUM,

CONFIDENTIAL.

529

[April 14.]

SECTION 2.

[16217]

2

▲ (No. 132.)

Sir,

No. 1.

Sir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.—(Received April 14.)

Peking, March 25, 1914. IN my despatch No. 126 of the 23rd instant I referred to the province of Kwang- tung as being one in which there is little or no cultivation of opium poppy. This opinion was based upon reports from Canton and Swatow. A Canton consular report, dated the 28th January last, states that "I think I can assure you that the cultivation of poppy in Kwangtung has ceased." From a letter recently addressed to His Majesty's consul at Swatow by Dr. Gibson, the head of the English Presbyterian Mission at that port-copy of which letter I have the honour to enclose herewith-it appears that a recrudescence of poppy cultivation has broken out in the southern portion of Chieh Yang district on a more extensive scale than Dr. Gibson has ever seen in his thirty-nine years' experience.

Chieh Yang, locally called Kityang, is a district known as the "Hakka" country, some 30 miles to the north-west of Swatow, and while, from its particular tribal characteristics, it cannot be taken as a sample of the entire province, it is clear, from Dr. Gibson's letter, that Chinese official suppression of poppy cultivation in Kwangtung province is far from effective.

I am obliged therefore to modify considerably my opinion so recently expressed regarding Kwangtung province, and I am calling upon His Majesty's consul-general at Canton for a further report on the province, in view of Dr. Gibson's information regarding the Kityang district.

This recrudescence of poppy cultivation in a province which was reputedly clear is an indication of the extreme difficulty which the Chinese Government will have in maintaining the country clear of opium after all the provinces are officially declared closed.

I have, &c.

J. N. JORDAN.

Enclosure in No. 1.

Dear Sir,

Dr. Gibson to Consul Pitzipios.

English Presbyterian Mission, Swatow, March 12, 1914.

I FEEL constrained to bring to your notice a condition of things as to the cultivation of poppy in this district which is quite new in my experience, and, in present circumstances, peculiarly regrettable. I need hardly say that I have the atrongest possible desire that the Chinese Government should be successful in the efforts which they have made in many places to put an end to the opium vice and the cultivation of the poppy, and to procure concurrently the termination of the import of opium from India. Some of their action has no doubt been open to criticism, but I read every one who wished well to China must sympathise with the end in view. lately in the newspapers that the Chinese Government is calling for the recognition by the British Government of certain provinces, Kuangtung among the number, as now free from opium cultivation.

It is therefore with great regret that I have seen during the past few days, while travelling in part of the province, that, as regards this part of it, this claim is entirely false. I have seen in a large section of the southern portion of the Chieh Yang district the open growth of poppy on a large scale. As most of the plants are in full bloom, both white and red, and are conspicuous to the eye for a great distance, there is evidently no attempt at concealment, and as the capsules are now forming, and the cultivators are to be seen in the act of perforating them for the collection of the juice, there can be no doubt that this violation of the law has been open and flagrant for a length of time. I can testify that, in my thirty-nine years' knowledge of this region,

[2103 0-2]

:

1