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discovered, whilst only on one or two occasions was there any evidence to warrant the belief that a few heads might still remain.
It must, I think, be admitted that the southern half of the province is now free from the plant to all intents and purposes. Doubtless in remote and inaccessible regions a few small patches are still being grown, but it would be difficult to suggest measures which would eliminate this qualification.
As regards the future, students of the opium question are all agreed that unless strong precautions are taken the work that has so far been accomplished will be undone so soon as the next sowing season comes round. The incentive to grow a crop that pays ten times as well as any other local product is strong, and it is common knowledge that the seed of last year's crop is being carefully put by for future use. There is good reason to suppose that the Provincial Government has these dangers well in mind, for Mr. Chan informs me that regulations are at present being drafted to provide against them, whilst the Civil Governor's recent speech at a meeting of the People's Anti-Opium Society at Foochow, in which he announced amidst great applause that there would be plenty of executions in the future for breaches of the anti-opium laws, suggests that the Government is determined upon a strong attitude.
With respect to opium-smoking, there is a tendency at present to deal with offences more leniently; the present scarcity of the drug has so inflated the price that it is now almost beyond the reach of all save the wealthy classes, and the authorities have doubtless realised that the cessation of smoking follows automatically the cessation of cultivation, and are devoting all their attention to the latter object.
In the larger towns and other places where there are reform or other societies interesting themselves in the anti-opium movement it is very difficult to obtain the drug, but in out-of-the-way places it is said to be still easy to procure.
In no district visited did I hear of opium being imported from other provinces.
was much indebted throughout the whole journey to the Chinese local officials and to the official delegates. Messrs. Chan Pai Kong and Sou Gee Chuang, for their uniform courtesy and hospitality.
W. P. W. TURNER.
Enclosure 4 in No. 15.
Sir J. Jordan to Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs.
Sir,
Peking, April 18, 1914. I HAVE the honour to refer to your Excellency's note of the 25th March requesting me to consent to the prohibition of import of Indian opium into Fukien province, and to my reply of the 27th, stating that until I received the reports of the British delegates I was unable to discuss the closing of the province.
I have now received reports giving the results of the tours of investigation in Fukien of Messrs. Turner and Blackburn. accompanied by Chinese representatives of the metropolitan and provincial Governments. As a result, I am willing to agree that Indian opium shall not be conveyed into the province of Fukien, in accordance with the terms of article 3 of the agreement of 1911, and would propose that this arrangement should take effect from the 1st May, 1914.
Sir,
No. 16.
I avail, &c.
J. N. JORDAN.
Sir J. Jordan i str E. Grey,—(Received June 2.)
Peking, May 15, 1914. WITH reference to my despatch of the 17th January last, I have the honour to report that the investigation of the province of Hupei for opium poppy cultivation, in accordance with the provisions of the Opium Agreement of May 1911, has been completed, and that the investigation has failed to discover any trace of poppy cultivation.
I have the honour to enclose herewith copy of a report by Mr. Acting Consul Handley-Derry on the trip of investigation.
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The inspection having thus proved satisfactory, I am notifying the Chinese Government in a letter, copy of which is enclosed herewith, that the importation of Indian opium into the province of Hupei will be prohibited as from the 1st June, 1914.
I have, &c.
Enclosure 1 in No. 16.
J. N. JORDAN.
Acting Consul Handley-Derry to Sir J. Jordan.
Sir,
Ichang, May 4, 1914. IN accordance with instructions contained in your despatch of the 19th March last, I have the honour to inform you that I proceeded on a journey of investi- gation into the cultivation of the opium poppy in the province of Hupeh, and to enclose herewith a report upon the journey I made in conformity with those instructions.
I have, &c
Enclosure 2 in No. 16.
H. F. HANDLEY-DERRY.
Report on the Investigation of the Cultivation of Poppy in Hupeh,
IN investigating the cultivation of poppy in Hupeh, I was only able, in the time allotted (three weeks), to visit one part of Hupeh.
It has been recognised that the cultivation of poppy in the low lands of the east and centre of Hupeh had been practically stopped for the last two years. I accord- ingly decided not to visit that larger part of Hupeh at all, but to confine my attention to the hilly region which extends from Ichang, north and south, to the borders of the province. In these districts it would only be with difficulty that the officials could make their investigations, and from reports which had reached me these tracts had been done far from thoroughly.
My choice lay, therefore, between the country to the south of the Yang-taze, including Changyang, Changlo, Hofeng and Shihnan, and the country to the north of the Yang-tsze, including the regions between Hsingshan and Yünyang, on the Han River.
It was impossible to do both in the time, and so, after careful enquiry, I decided that I should try the southern part.
It was very difficult to obtain information as to the country, the roads, and the possible places to stay. I made searching enquiries at all the chair hongs to try and find men who might have travelled on any of the routes which I wanted to follow, but with no results. The chair coolies had all kept to the beaten tracks and knew nothing of the side roads.
On the 10th April I first met the metropolitan and provincial delegates, and we arranged to start for Hung Hua-tao on the following morning at 8 o'clock.
Hung Hua-tao is some 20 miles down the river from Ichang, and makes a good point from which to go across country to Changyang.
On the 11th April, at 8-30, I left and, in spite of wind and rain, arrived at Hung Hua-tao at 12-30.
This road passes through a fruitful country and, so far as I could see, the whole was under cultivation, but nowhere did I see any poppy; The road is but a mere mountain track, from which one gets, as it rises higher and higher, a splendid view of the country. I left the road several times, but nowhere did I see any signs of poppy. From Changyang to Changlo the road still ran through or over the mountains. every side the fields were filled with wheat, barley, peas, beans, potatoes, rape, all well forward in their growth, so that there was no place for poppy on an extensive scale.
On
From Changlo to Hofeng the road climbed up on to a plateau, whence one obtained a wonderful view of the cultivated valleys below, but it was all the same story, either large bare fields tilled ready for planting the spring maize or crops well forward filled all the available space and left no room for poppy.
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