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[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
OPIUM.
CONFIDENTIAL.
F 3442/330/10]
No. 1.
416
[September 14.]
SECTION 1.
Sir B. Alston to the Marquess Curzon of Kedleston.-(Received September 16.)
Peking, July 29, 1921.
(No. 429.) My Lord,
1 HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copies of a report upon opium cultiva- tion and traffic in Northern Manchuria, which the Inspector-General of Customs has been good enough to communicate to me. Mr. Myers's report, which appears to be based upon reliable and accurate information, indicates a state of affairs in Manchuria which is comparable to that in the worst of the opium-growing provinces.
Mr. Myers himself has, it will be observed, been brought to the conclusion-which is held by an increasingly large number of responsible observers in this country, and is shared, as I have reason to know, by Sir Francis Aglea bimself that the substitution of legalisation and Government control for the present ineffective prohibition offers the only immediate remedy for the condition into which China has lapsed in regard to the opium question.
I have, &c.
B. ALSTON.
Enclosure 1 in No. 1.
The Cultivation of Opium in North Manchuria.
I BEG to submit the following report on opium cultivation in North Manchuria, The particulars which I am able to supply: are very reliable, having been obtained through the medium of a keen Russian botanist who has made scientific visits to the various places, and whose information has been obtained at first hand. The report is drawn up with a special view to show the deleterious effect the cultivation and traffic have on the Customs Administration, and at the conclusion certain suggestions are made which may be worthy of some consideration.
General Remarks-The cultivation of the poppy plant in North Manchuria dates back to the eighteenth century, long before the Chinese immigration from the south and the advent of the Russians, Japanese and Koreans from the west and east. Twenty years ago 10 per cent. of the total arable land--and the richest soil at that was under poppy. The cultivation was free and was very profitable, bringing in to the farmer a revenue two or three times greater than that which he would realise if he had the same area under wheat or any other cereal. After the edict of 1908 the cultivation of the poppy ceased in many of the North Manchuria districts, and prices went up to between twenty and thirty times their original figures; the fields which still existed were scattered about in the billy districts. The next natural step was that the cultivation of the poppy was transferred from Chinese to Russian territory by local Chinese and Koreans, the fields being cultivated right up to the frontier. Smuggling into Manchuria was a comparatively easy matter, but the favourite means of conveyance was by the railway. These conditions prevailed up to 1915, after which the cultivation of the poppy in North Manchuria again came into prominence. From 1918 up to the present the cultivation of poppy has been carried on to au unprecedented extent.
L'entres of Poppy Cultivation. The principal poppy districts in North Manchuria are along the eastern section of the railway from Suifenho to Maoerbahan station. Round about Harbin the soil is unfavourable for the growth of poppy. Round about Ashibo cultivation is only carried on in the hill districts, and the same conditious occur at Macerhshan, where the poppy-fields are at a considerable distance from the station of that name. From Macerhshan to Imienpo and from Imienpo to the valley of the Matanchiang the poppy is cultivated on a considerable scale on the hill-sides. Poppy cultivation extends all down the Mutanchiang on the slopes of the flanking hills. The largest and richest poppy-fields are to be found round the Mutanchiong, Kho, Hsisosuifen and Silinho, which extends to Suifenho and over the frontier to the Ussuri
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