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season of 1915 a large amount of opium was produced in Shensi, while the neighbour- ing provinces of Szechuan, Hupei, Honan, and Shansi have been practically clean for some years. The history of opium suppression in the province is briefly as follows:- Previous to the revolution of 1911 the Manchu Viceroy had been taking half- hearted measures against cultivation in deference to the policy of the Central Govern- ment, but at that time already Shensi and Kansu were producing most of the native opium consumed in North China. After the revolution the new Republican Govern- ment at Sian-fu took the matter vigorously in hand, so that by 1913 the province was practically clear of the poppy. Early in 1914, however, Shensi was thrown into a State of turmoil by the raid of the "White Wolf" rebels, as a result of which the machinery of government broke down all over the province, and there was an immediate recrudescence of poppy cultivation. Shortly afterwards, Yuan Shih-kai, who was then engaged in consolidating his power throughout the country by replacing the post- revolution Governors by his own nominees, took advantage of the opportunity afforded by White Wolf's" raid to send one of his military henchmen, General Lu Chien- chang, as Governor of Sian-fu at the head of a Northern army on the pretext of dealing with the brigands. General Lu, a corrupt old reactionary with no merits save loyalty to his master and influence over his Northern troops, and a heavy opium smoker himself, not only took no serious measures to suppress cultivation, but secretly encouraged it for his own profit, engaging in the illicit opium trade, aud amassing large stocks of the drug and hundreds of thousands of taels of silver thereby. This was the state of affairs in Shensi when I passed through that province on my way to inspect Kansu in 1915. The Peking Government were well aware of what was going on, and it is believed all over Sheusi that Yuan Shih-kai's reason for permitting the abuse to continue was that he was participating in the spoil to raise money for his monarchical schemes General Lu's plan was doubtless to secure as rich a harvest as possible before the approaching expiration of the decennial period should compel him to suppress cultivation. In the spring of the following year (1916) under pressure from Peking, he announced the province to be clean and applied for a joint inspection. Before this could take place, however, Shensi joined the anti-monarchical rebellion, expelled General Lu and his army, and declared its independence from the Central Government, and the joint inspection which was about to commence had to be cancelled. By a curious coincidence independence was again declared during the inspection the following year. At the time General Lu applied for a joint inspection the poppy was being cultivated secretly, but on a considerable scale, in the southern mountains, notably in Foping, Meihsian, Chouchih, and Lungehow districts, and also quite openly in the brigand-infested districts in the north. After the restoration of order, the new revolutionary Government set to work with the usual zeal and ruthlessness of the young republicans to suppress poppy cultivation, with the result that the province was ready for inspection by the following spring.
It has repeatedly been shown that the suppression of poppy cultivation in a Chinese province is a comparatively easy matter, provided the political situation is fairly quiet and there are no aboriginal tribesmen in a state of semi-independence to be dealt with. Though Shensi at the present time is in a state of great unrest, and teems with brigands, revolted soldiery, and secret society men. the cultivators of the soil are mostly peaceful peasants, easily governed, and only asking to be left alone. After a few hundred of these unfortunates had been shot, and once it become known thereby that this time the authorities were in earnest about opiam suppression, cultivation automatically ceased in all the well-settled parts under the control of the Provincial Government where their inspecting officials were able to penetrate without difficulty. Any infraction of the prohibition is punished by death, the land under poppy being confiscated by the Government or given to the informer, and in some cases the offender's neighbours are executed as well for not informing against him. Further, the Provincial Government decreed that the magistrate of any district in which the poppy might be found during the joint inspection would be shot, which practically guaranteed the success of the inspection from the Chinese point of view, and probably ensured the suppression of cultivation in every district we visited or approuched. Nor do the earnest young republicans, local revolutionaries, and ex-brigand chiefs now in charge of the government of the province hesitate to carry such drastic punishments into effect. Hard as it is on the people, there is probably no other way of suppressing cultivation in view of the enormous profits nowadays attaching to opium production : the more so as in a backward province like Shensi there is a notable absence amongst the country gentry and populace of any public opinion against opium, such as exists on the coust. Nor is the loss of so valuable a crop felt so much in Sheusi as, for
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instance, in Kansu, where the people are much poorer. Shensi has many other agricultural exports, especially from the Han Valley, and valuable crops like cotton, hemp, and indigo, to which the soil and climate of many parts are well adapted, can suitably replace the poppy.
Formerly opium was produced pretty generally all over Shensi, including the dry and barren north, and more especially in the highly fertile valleys of the Wei and Han Rivers and their tributaries. The province is largely covered by mountains, intersected, especially in the south, by innumerable little fertile valleys, most of which used to produce their share of opium. A really thorough and satisfactory inspection of so large an area, with the means of communication limited to mountain tracks, over which it is often impossible to make twenty miles a day, would have entailed about thirty parties working simultaneously, and such an inspection would probably have revealed a certain amount of poppy in remote valleys in the mountains in the south and in the outlying districts more or less under the control of brigands in the north All one party could do was to tour the provinces at a rapid pace, keeping as far as possible to the small roads, and balting for a day or two in suspect localities to examine the countryside in detail At times the unsettled political conditions compeiled us to keep to the main roads, particularly towards the end of the tour, after the province had declared its independence. But a detailed examination of every district being impossible, the more the inspecting party visited, the less likelihood was there of any considerable amount of opium being secretly produced in the province, since when a district was actually entered, whether by a main road or not, the magistrate was unlikely to risk his life by conniving at secret cultivation. A tour round practically the whole of the province within the limit of time imposed by the interval between the flowering and harvesting of the poppy was rendered possible by the variations in this season in the south and the north and at different elevations, namely, April in the Han Valley and the south, May in the Wei Valley and the centre. June in the loess mountains in the north, and July in the higher ranges of the Ch'inlingshan, and our journey was so timed that we travelled from three to four months, with the exception of a week or two, through districts where the wheat was green and in ear, a scason which every
where corresponds in my experience with the flowering of the opium poppy when grown, as it usually is, as a spring crop. But nowhere on this long tour was any poppy cultivation observed, and though the inspection was thus in a way but a cursory Que, I think that it was sufficient to show that practically no opium was produced in Shensi in 1917.
As regards trade and consumption, there is no question of the import of native or any other kind of opium into Shensi, except for that smuggled in from Kansu and transiting the province on its way to the coust. The trade in native opium, which probably continues on a considerable scale below the surface, in spite of all prohibitory measures, is entirely concerned with the sale for local consumption of the local stocks, and with the smuggling of these stocks and of those from Kansu, iuto the Central and Eastern provinces. Shensi and Kansu are now, and have been for years past, the great repository for the stocks of native opium consumed in North China, and in view of the enormous profits to be realised by their sale in other provinces, these stocks are bound to find their way out somehow. It was not generally realised at the time that the terrible White Wolf" raid of 1914, when hands of so-called brigands, many thousands strong, swept across China practically unopposed from Anhui and Houan through Shensi into southern Kansu, was not an aimless perambulation of the North- Western provinces, but was deliberately planned, in all probability with the counivance of many high officials, for the express purpose of raiding these stocks, and especially those in Kansu; the absurdly inadequate and unsuccessful military measures against the raiders being undertaken merely to throw, dust in the eyes of foreigners and the country generally. Undoubtedly large stocks of native opium were brought back into Honan in this way. Until these stocks in Sheusi and Kansu aro exhausted the snuggling of native opium down the Han River to Haukow, and across the mountain passes into Szechuan, Hupei, Houan, and Shansi will continue somehow or other. The secret societies (the Kolaohui and Chianghuhui), which are now again very powerful in many parts of Sheasi, where they include brigands, soldiers, popalace, and gently, and even officials amongst their members, make use of their organisation to indulge in the trade; and the prevalence of brigandage in the mountains and lack of control by the rivil authorities in many districts make it at present impossible to pui a stop to this smuggling. Nor are the measures taken against the trade in any way as genuine as those enforced against the cultivation, which is not to be wondered at when some of the officials entrusted with the suppression of the traffic ure themselves
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