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Enclosure 4 in No. 29.
Report of an Inspection of the Eastern Part of the Province of Yunnan, to learn the Amount of Cultivation of Opium Poppy. May, 1917.
UNDER instructions from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires at Peking, I had left Ichang on the 10th March, 1917, in order to proceed to the province of Kueichow to inspect that province for opium cultivation. I reached Chungking on the 27th March, and there I found awaiting me further instructions from His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires, ordering me to continue my journey when I had traversed the province of Kueichow, and to make a similar journey of inspection through the eastern part of Yunnan province. I completed my journey through Kueichow province on the 1st May, on which day I arrived at Chiang-ti, a small village on the Ching Ho or Ching-fei Ho, a river which forms the boundary-line between the two provinces of Kueichow and Yunnan at that point. The Chinese official delegates from the provincial capital of Yunnan were awaiting me in a village, on the Yunnan side of the river; and having crossed the river into Yunnan at 7:30 on the morning of the 2nd May, I was received by them, and after a brief conference and farewells to the Kueichow delegates, who had accompanied me across the river, we proceeded on our journey in Yunnan.
The Yunnan delegates were two: the senior was Mr. Chan Ping-chung, the head of the Bureau des Renseignements, at Yunnan-fu; a secret service department, aud the assistant delegate was a Mr. Yang, a clerk from one of the Yunnan-fu yamêns.
Many changes were noticeable on passing from Kueichow to Yunnan. The aspect of the country took on a change for the worse, characterised by comparative barrenness and bleakness; and the Yunnan native was of a poorer class and of an inferior type than his Kueichow brother. The general deterioration was visible also in the which were everywhere poor and scanty. The principal crop in Eastern Yunnan was peas, but it was not comparable with the Ssuchuan crop, or even with that of Kueichow.
crops,
Two days from Chiang-ti brought us to Loping (39 miles), over bare rough country of red and very stony earth. At Loping Mr. Chan requested me to travel direct to Yunnan-fu, suggesting that from Yunnan-fu we could take the train and do the journey to Hokow comfortably in two days. He stated that he did not like the hardships and inconvenience of travel in the interior of China. I told him that I did not propose to go to Yunnan-fu, where a British consular officer was permanently stationed; and that on no account would I travel by train on such a journey of inspection. Mr. Chan, however, never ceased for several days harping on the comforts of train-travel as compared with our rough paths and tracks.
For the next five days, from Loping to Mi-le (82 miles), the country was rough and mountainous, being at the altitude of 5,000-6,000 feet above sea-level. Yunnan is notorious for its strong winds, and it well preserved its reputation during my visit. Even in the middle of the day, wearing thick clothes and a heavy winter overcoat, I was barely comfortably warm.
The "road "led through undulating
plateaux, sometimes as much as 5 miles wide, and over mountain passes; the hill country is rocky and uncultivated. The high winds bring much dust. General conditions are thus antagonistic to agriculture in that part of Eastern Yunnan, and the attenuated crops of peas and barley testified to the farmers' difficulties. Population is very sparse; in the hill districts there are a considerable number of people of the Lolo tribe.
On leaving me at the border of, bis jurisdiction the Lo-ping magistrate enquired with much anxiety if I had observed any opium poppy within his jurisdiction; and he vowed that to the best of his knowledge and belief there was not a single opium plant in his territory. I replied that I was aware that local officials had shown much zeal this spring in destroying all vestiges of the opium crop.
The general poverty of the highland districts was reflected in even the official buildings. The Shib-tsung magistrate offered me quarters for the night in his own yamên; the room he offered me was as good as any in the building, but even so it was in a tumbledown condition, with large holes in the roof, which also did duty as ceiling to the room.
In the environs of Kuang-hsi, a town of some 5,750 feet of height above sea- pleasing change to see extensive level, and of about 2,500 inhabitants, it was a
patches of vegetable gardens. They were quite the healthiest-looking crops I bad seen in Yunnan. The soil hereabouts looked less poor, being more brown than red, the reddish soil being chiefly of a sandy consistency.
From Mi-le there was difficulty about route, the only recognised road going west- wards to Po-hsi on the Yunnan-Tonquin railway, and the direction in which I desired to proceed being to the south-east. Local enquiry elicited information that there were rough tracks to the south-east, but they were very rarely used, and only a very few of the natives knew their way to them. I maintained that the local officials must know, or must be able to ascertain without difficulty, the routes in any direction in their own jurisdiction, and I suggested that the local officials should provide us with responsible guides. My immediate objective was Ch'iu-pei, a fairly large town, which appeared from the map to be about five or six days' march from Mi-le. Mr. Chan offered to obtain a sketch-map of the route, and he handed me a route plan, showing five stages to Ch'iu-pei. This I agreed to follow. On the second day we reached a village, Kai-tien, when Mr. Chan coolly informed me that his plan was incorrect, and that we were now only 10 miles from Ami-chow, a town on the railway; furthermore, that the only road from Kai-tien went to Ami-chow. I was highly incensed at this impudent deception, and insisted that I would attempt to find a direct route eastwards to Chiu-pei. With some difficulty an inferior military officer was discovered who said he knew a track to the eastward. Next morning, however, all the bearers and coolies went on strike, saying that I was taking them into wild parts of the country, where they could get no food and where they would contract fever and die. With persuasion and argument, however, the majority of them yielded, the places of the few who refused to yield being filled by local men.
After travelling for half a day over rough hills, inhabited here and there by Lolo charcoal-burners, we came to an impasse a long steep descent, impossible for baggage, chairs, or animals, with a river in the valley below and a difficult, if not impossible, ascent on the far side. I clambered ahead to satisfy myself that there was no way through, and after careful examination I decided to order a retreat. Mr. Chan was obviously pleased, and said that no doubt now I would overcome my rejudice to the railway. as the road to Ami-chow was the only route left for us. But I again disappointed him by telling him that I proposed to go back one day's march and try eastwards again. So we returned the following day to Chu-yuan, and thence I was more successful and reached Chiu-pei in four days' stages, in spite of much opposition.
The road to Ch'iu-pei was the highest part of my journey in Yunnan. At Huang-li-haiso, a small village, in which we put up for the night, two stages before reaching Chiu-pei, the altitude above sea-level was 6,810 feet. Villages were not frequent along this route, and the majority were inhabited by Lolo savages. who cultivated the land in the immediate vicinity of the villages, but left the steep hill-sides and the rest of the country in a state of original wildness.
At Ch'iu-pei, Taoyin Ho, of Mengtzu, met me and travelled with me for the remaining eleven days to Hokow (198 miles). His health was far from good, and be travelled huddled up in his chair, complaining of the hardships of travel and of the weather, which was far from propitious, the heavy rains being just at the commence- ment of their season. He also pressed me to go to Mengtzu, there to take the train for the rest of the journey. He expressed himself anxious on my behalf because of the bands of brigands which infested the south-east corner of the province, and pointed out that if I did not tell him my route in detail, he could not clear the brigands away before our arrival; but I suggested that it would be far better to take the brigands quite unawares and to capture the whole band with the aid of our brave
From Chiu-pei to Kaihua (63 miles) the country was rough and mountainous. The principal cultivation in this district is an astringent root, the local name of which is Three-Seven," from the fact that the root is only useful for commercial purposes between its third and its seventh years. It is cultivated in large covered enclosures, and much care is given to its cultivation, dogs and cats being kept within the enclosures to keep down rats and other vermin which find the san-ch'i good to eat.
escort.
L
"
root
At Chiang-na, one stage before Kaihna, I was unfortunate in missing by half a day only, Mr. F. Brown, of the Carnegie Terrestrial Magnetism Mission. Mr. Brown had travelled much in Yunnan this spring. and was then on his way from Bhamo to Canton, viâ Ssumo. Mengtzu, Kaihua, Pose. Mr. Brown's route lav
from west to east. I later received a letter from Mr. Brown, informing me that e
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