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Opium Association is not on the same footing as the British Government, and the terms of the agreement are not applicable to it. If the poppy plant is again being cultivated in Fu An and other districts you should petition the Tuchun to send officers at once to make an inspection on the spot and immediately uproot the crop in order to obviate charges of insincerity.
Sir.
Enclosure 4 in No. 44.
Mr. Alston to Wai-chiuo Pu.
Peking, May 12, 1920. WITH reference to Mr. Lampson's letter of the 10th April last regarding the cultivation of the poppy in Fukien province, I have the honour to transmit herewith for your Excellency's inspection three photographs of poppy-fields in full bloom in Fukien, two in a part under northern and one under southern jurisdiction. These photographs were taken on the 30th March and the 1st April of this year. Yet on the 6th March last your Excellency addressed a letter to this Legation covering a report from the Governor of Fukien to the effect that," Circular instructions are now heing issued for strict suppression, and if as much as an inch of poppy plant appears above ground the local officials as well as the illicit cultivators are most severely punished. Moreover, it is common knowledge that the Governor himself has been collecting a tax on this poppy cultivation through the agency of Colonel Wang Hsien- chen, the commander of his bodyguard.
Your Excellency will, I feel sure, not fail to realise the deplorable effect which must be created by this further instance of proved insincerity on the part of certain of the high provincial authorities, who have been encouraging the cultivation of the poppy with a view to raising revenue, in flagrant violation of the Opium Agreement. The enclosed photographs provide indisputable proof of the untruth of one, at any rate, of the provincial reports on opium suppression which your Excellency has from time to time sent to this Legation. I trust that your Government will make an example of those officers, from the highest to the lowest, under their control who have been guilty of these deliberate violations of their country's treaty obligations for purposes of private gain.
I have, &c.
:
My Lord,
No. 45.
Mr. Clive to Earl Curzon.-(Received October 14.)
Peking, July 4, 1920. I HAVE the honour to transmit herewith a report, compiled in this Legation, on the cultivation of the opium poppy in China during the 1920 season, ie, the spring and early summer of this year. The situation remains much the same as it was in 1919. Vigorous protests have constantly been addressed to the Wai-chiao Pu on each occasion of reports of cultivation being brought to the notice of this Legation. I have no doubt but that the Central Government are on the whole sincere in their desire to carry out their treaty obligations and attain complete suppression of cultivation. But they will only be able to do so when they are in a position to make their orders obeyed throughout the country; and it is impossible to foretell when, if ever, they will be able to do so. At present, no matter whether he be nominally under the North or under the South, the military leader in the distant interior cares little or nothing about the orders of his Government or the treaty obligations of his country, and is only concerned with the raising of the necessary revenues to enable him to support his troops and enrich himself.
* Not reproduced.
I have, &c.
R. H. CLIVE.
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Enclosure in No. 45.
Report of the Cultivation of the Opium Poppy during the 1920 Season (Spring and
Early Summer).
Northern Coastal Provinces (Chih-ti, Shantung, Kiangsu).
NO information has reached His Majesty's Legation of any cultivation in these provinces.
Northern Interior Provinces (Shansi, Shensi, Honan, Kansu).
No cases of cultivation have been reported in the first-named province. As regards Shensi, which was last year one of the worst offenders, missionary reports from Hanchung (Upper Han valley, in the south of the province) indicate extensive and open cultivation carried on under the encouragement of the local military authorities. In early May in this neighbourhood one could walk for miles through the flowering crops, nearly the whole of the Hanchung plain being under poppy. The region in question being nominally under the control of the Northern Govern- ment, the matter was brought to the notice of the Wai-chiao Pu by His Majesty's Legation, but it may be taken for certain that the crop was duly gathered before any action was taken by the Central Government.
As regards Honan, His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow reports that the poppy is being extensively grown in the west of the province; Neisiang and the Lo river basin are the chief producing districts, but it is also grown as far east as Juchow and Kiahsien,
No first-hand information is available on the subject of Kansu, formerly a bad offender; the province is, however, said to be comparatively free from for the Tsinchow neighbourhood, the Governor having cashiered several officials for poppy, except allowing small quantities to be planted.
Central (Yang-tsze) Provinces (Anhui, Kiangsi, Hupei, Hunan).
No reports of cultivation in these provinces have been received, excepting for certain districts in South-West Hupei and South-West Hunan, which are under nominal control of the South, but actually under control of no one beyond the local military officials. The poppy is being grown on an extensive scale in the whole of the Shihnan prefecture in South-West Hupei, where opium is becoming more abundant even than last year, with the result that a very large number of people have resumed smoking the drug. In Western Hunan the poppy is reported to be growing in every district, one-third of the fields being under poppy in the neighbourhood of Chienchow and Chenchi.
Southern Coastal Provinces (Chekiang, Kuangtung, Fukien).
No cultivation is reported in the two first-named provinces. As regards Fukien, which is in the hands partly of the North and partly of the South, extensive cultiva- tion has been carried on in districts under control of both sides. The usual protests were made to the Wai-chiao Pu, to whom photographs of poppy fields in full bloom were forwarded. The International Anti-Opium Association (a society honoured by the patronage of the President of the Republic of China) requested permission to send delegates to witness the destruction of the crops, and their proposals in this respect were warmly supported by His Majesty's Legation with the Wai-chiao Pu. The Chinese Government, however, on the specious pretext that the Anglo-Chinese Agreement, with its provision for joint inspections, had expired, refused to accede to the association's request, and took no action to destroy the poppy fields until the crops had been successfully harvested and the taxes thereon collected by the local military officials.
South-Western Provinces (Kuangsi, Szechuan, Yunnan, Kueichou). With the exception of the first named, these provinces tinue to be the worst offenders, though some improvement is noted in the case of Szechuan. This latter
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