12
He thinks there has been real progress in suppressing the use of the drug. There have been many seizures of opium, morphia, pipes, &c., and fines have been imposed. One offender was sentenced to two and a half years' imprisonment and a fine of 300 dollars.
These remarks apparently do not apply to the Ta Tien district which Dr. Maxwell states has been in a state bordering on anarchy since the revolution.
Changpu. There was practically no official interference with the gathering of the crop.
There was more land under poppy cultivation last season than ever before. The regulations against smoking are strict, but evasion is easy and common: Chuan Chow, Anhai, and Coast Districts. The crop was gathered without interference on the understanding that no poppy should be planted next season.
The sale and smoking of opium are forbidden, and some offenders are punished. Many cases of seizure of opium and punishment of smokers continue to be reported in the native papers, but there are also frequent references to corrupt practices in the enforcement of the regulations.
I have, &c.
H. A. LITTLE.
Sir,
Enclosure 3 in No. 6.
Consul Werner to Mr. Alston.
Foochow, July 29, 1913. WITH reference to your despatch of the 11th ultimo regarding the suppression of the cultivation and import of native opium, I have the bonour to report that I have made enquiries from missionaries in the interior as to whether any poppy is being cultivated in their districts, and whether the harvested opium was destroyed or sold. Unfortunately, nearly all the inland missionaries are now at Kuliang or some other health resort, so that the reports I have received so far are not many and the information is incomplete. As far as it goes it is as follows:-
Kien Ning-In one or two instances limited areas of poppy were planted in this district last season.
The crops were destroyed by official orders. It is alleged that no poppy is now to be found, but there never has been any large quantity in this district.
There is considerable opium smoking in various parts. Some is obtained from Kiangsi, some from Chekiang, and some from Foochow
year.
Kutien County, East District-Said to have been no poppy cultivation this
Kutien and Ping Nan-Mr. Carpenter writes:-
"As far as I know no opium was grown in Kutien or Ping Nan except a rather large lot in the east road. This was all pulled up by soldiers sent out by this magistrate before it came into flower."
Hsing Hua. Mr. Nightingale writes:-
"No poppy growing now. Some was harvested, not a great deal, and as far as I am able to learn it was sold locally."'
Fu An and Ning Teh.—Mr. Stanley writes :-
1. Opium was planted in parts of Fu An County and also of Ning Teh County. I did not hear whether there was any in any of the other counties of the prefecture, but I have seen large tracts of poppy in blossom in parts of Fu An, and I hear there was a great deal more in other parts of the county through which I did not happen to be travelling at the season.
2. The crop in the district where I saw it was supposed to have been rooted up by the authorities, but I saw it after the visit of the county magistrate and the destruction seems to have consisted in lepping off a few heads here and there, leaving 90 per cent. still standing. I have every reason to believe that this remainder was duly harvested.
CL Curtis saw quantities of it in Fu An one time he paid me a flying visit at Fu An County town-that is, in the parts from Fuhning to Fu An.”
13
The director of the Anti-Opium Bureau has recently interviewed me several times on this matter and has left me some albums of photographs and a large number of reports from all the districts in the province. The photographs show, as a rule, a posse of soldiers either cutting down a few stalks of the poppy plant or holding some poppy flowers in their hands in the presence of a magistrate or other official, though in some the cutting down has actually taken place, and sheaves of poppy stalks appear in the forefront of the picture. valueless as evidence.
These photographs are of course Accepting their bona fides, one does not learn from them more than that a few square yards of poppy plant have been cut down in each poppy-growing district. There is nothing to show that the whole crop was cut down; that. if cut down it was destroyed or harvested; and if harvested, whether it was sold locally or exported to other provinces. Judging from verbal reports and from the usual action of natives away from direct control, it seems not improbable that the account given by Mr. Stanley concerning Fu An would be applicable to most of the poppy-growing districts.
I do not question the sincerity of Mr. Chiên Nêng-kuang (known locally as Ding). the head of the Anti-Opium Office in Fukien, but I cannot but think that enthusiasm blinds him to the possibility that all the reports he receives may not be absolutely correct, and their general similarity and unanimity would point to the unlikelihood of them all being strictly true. Speaking generally, and in the absence of complete and satisfactory evidence, it can hardly be said that it has been proved beyond question that all the poppy grown in Fukien province has been uprooted and destroyed, though it may be admitted as certain that large areas formerly used for poppy growing are now no longer under cultivation. The real test would be to see if any poppy plants appear next season, but the difficulty lies in the agreement having made no provision by which the absence of cultivation can be proved both now and in future years after the import from India has ceased.
I have, &c.
E. T. C. WERNER.
Sir,
No. 7.
Mr. Alston to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received September 6.)
IN my despatch of the 4th ultimo I had the honour to forward copy of my
Peking, August 23, 1913. memorandup to the Wai-chiao Pu of the 16th July, informing them that, on receipt of consular reports from Hankow and Ichang, I would communicate with them on the subject of their request that Hupeh might be placed on the list of provinces into which Indian opium shall not be conveyed,
I have now the honour to enclose copies of the consular reports referred to, together with copy of my memorandum to the Wai-chiao Pa, in which I have informed them that I am not disposed to accept the statement contained in their memorandum of the 3rd July that poppy cultivation had been prohibited and extinguished, and that the import of the native drug had also been forbidden from other provinces.
While regretting my inability to consent to place Hupeh on the prohibition list forthwith, I have expressed my readiness to arrange for investigations next spring on the lines of the joint inspections carried out in Shantung, "Anhui and Hunan this year.
I have, &c.
Sir.
Enclosure 1 in No. 7.
Consul-General Wilkinson to Mr. Alston.
B. ALSTON.
I HAVE the honour to acknowledge receipt of your despatch of the 24th ultimo,
Hankow, August 5, 1913. instructing me to forward to the Legation with as little delay as possible a report embodying such information as I may be able to collect from missionaries and others on the subject of the effective suppression of the cultivation and import of native
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