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    {
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-174 - Sir Kennedy - 1876 [4-8]",
        "page_number": 434,
        "title": "CO129-174 - Sir Kennedy - 1876 [4-8]",
        "content_text": "24\n\nfrom a foreign port in the four lower \"prefectures of the province for a foreign port is subject to the levy of the \"Reitisbee at the port of\n\n\"reilishni\"\n\nthe picent, and before being taken to its destination must be brought to Kiantau where besides paying a local tax called the 'Sino ho\n\nit has to pay Export duty according to the Foreign Tariff.\n\n19. To avoid the argument which the duties payable at Macao suggest against the general applicability of the regulation — that old Portuguese city is represented as being Chinese territory and if it is so why was it necessary\n\nwhen the understanding was arrived at with the Macao merchants to pay the \"neiti shui\" on export? — Goods landed at Macao, where was the necessity to direct them to petition the Hop Kewan to\n\ndischarge \"that duty which would otherwise be levied on them\"? That affect who would memorialize Despatch of 18 May 1876. The P. & O. Mail steamer\n\nfor the Imperial sanction thereto? Is it not obvious that this is the merest subterfuge? The Hongkong Chinese Merchant was equal to it. \"Oh very well\", said the Hopkwan, \"Hongkong is English territory, then the ingrowns territory\n\nGraham Commissioner suggested plan of levying both together\n\nat",
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        "id": 299395,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-176 - Public Offices & Others - 1876",
        "page_number": 234,
        "title": "CO129-176 - Public Offices & Others - 1876",
        "content_text": "6\n\nbarracks, there are but few houses, and in the centre is a very peculiar tower on a raised base some 20 feet high, and on the top of the tower the national flag is hoisted.\n\nThe town of Hanoi is situated between the citadel and the river, and extending beyond the former in a westerly direction. The streets are wide and the houses good, and well built of brick in some of the principal streets, but there are numerous ones where the shops are merely mat erections in the usual Tonkinese style; with one exception—the main street from the river where the Chinese live—the streets are unpaved, and in wet weather almost impassable from the depth of the mud; but as shoes are an exception with the Annamites, this drawback to European comfort does not affect them. The sedan-chair of China, so convenient for locomotion, is unknown, the high authorities and those who can afford it being carried in a hammock of silk or hemp network suspended on a pole supported on the shoulders of two or four bearers, and enclosed in silk or cotton curtains. There is a great deal of stir and movement in the streets; the shops are well stocked with articles of native workmanship, especially bamboo work in all its varieties, silk and cotton piece goods, paper, pewter, and glass ware, boxes, drums of all sizes richly painted, lacquered and gilt, and coarse crockery and china ware. Fowls, ducks, geese, oxen, and pigs, are both plentiful and cheap, with abundance of fruit, bananas and vegetables, and fish. Rice is the staple food of the people, who look well-fed and healthy, and have a fair amount of muscular development. The women, however, appear to be the dominant class, for they work like the men as coolies and labourers, and preside in the shops. They are generally good-looking, carry themselves gracefully, and but for the practice of blacking their teeth, many might be called handsome.\n\nThe Tonquinese are evidently of the type of race which may be called \"transitional,\" beginning in India, of which Burmah and Siam are offshoots; changing in the Malay peninsula and Annam, and again in the southern borders of China, and so with China proper, where it ends in the Mongol feature. The gradations are strongly marked and can be easily traced.\n\nIn manner the Tonquinese and Annamites are quiet and, owing probably to the arbitrary Government they are under, subdued and indolent. The population of Hanoi, the capital, is estimated at from 150,000 to 200,000 Tonquinese, and about 3,000 Chinese. The French speak of the rule of the Annamite Government as oppressive and arbitrary in the extreme, and that the Tonquinese would gladly throw it off if possible. It may be and probably is so, being the case generally with all independent Asiatic Governments, but as a strong feeling against the Government exists among the French officials in Tonquin, such an assertion must be accepted with reserve. Undoubtedly a feeling of great disappointment exists at the sudden and complete reversal of the policy of Lieutenant Français Garnier, which I will refer to more fully hereafter, and the surrender to the Annamite Government of what may be termed his territorial conquests in Tonquin. Indeed, the present obstructive attitude of the Court of Hué is attributed to this cause, but not justly so,\n\nit is not to be expected that an independent but weak Government can look with equanimity upon the capture of their territory by a surprise, or accept the dictum of the captors that it is for their good and that of their people to preserve an armed neutrality and open the country to foreign trade under French supervision. However this may be viewed from a Western stand-point, certainly it finds no favour in the East, where the acts of the so-called civilized Powers are stripped of their garnish and reduced to the simple proportions of right or wrong, and if the latter, never forgotten or forgiven. Time and the passing away of generations may somewhat render the past into oblivion, but until that, to think what is gained by the sword can be held by the hand, is a mistake which the French are now seeing, and are chafing under the discovery.\n\nI have, I fear, dwelt too long on this subject, but it is one which so nearly affects the position of the French in Tonquin, that I may be pardoned in having been a little diffuse; but I will now proceed to give a brief resume of the political history of the Annamite and Tonquin Kingdoms, and the events which led to the occupation of the former by the French.\n\nTonquin is divided into thirteen prefectures or tsan; Thauh-noi, Thanh-ngoai, Hung-hoa, Nam thoung, Nam ha, Haidong, Kinh bae, Sontai, Caobang, Lang bac or Lang-von, Thai nguyen, Tuyen quang, Quang-yen.\n\nBoth Tonquin and Annam have, from almost time immemorial, been the scene of rebellions, civil wars, and bloodshed. Passing over the rather obscure history of these events, it will be sufficient to date from the year 1740–1786.\n\nAt that date Canhung was King of Tonquin, or Ngan-nan as it was called,\n\n1\n\n7\n\nand Hien Vuong was King of Cochin China, or Annam, but was so disliked by his subjects, that the influential family of Tayson revolted and killed him. He left a nephew, Nguyên Auh, who fled to Saigon on the death of his uncle. The heads of the family of Tayson consisted of three brothers: the eldest, Yin-yae, was a wealthy merchant; the second, Long-niang, was a General Officer of high rank; and the third was a priest.\n\nCochin was then divided into three parts: the north had been conquered by the Tonquinese; Hué was occupied by the second brother, Long-niang; and lower Cochin was governed by Yin-yae; whilst the third brother was religious chief of the whole Empire.\n\nNguyên-Auh, the nephew of Hien Vuong, who had fled to Saigon, determined to recover his kingdom from the three brothers of the Tayson family. At the time when Hien Vuong was killed there was a Catholic Bishop named Pigneaux de Béhaine, called Adran after his see, and he it was who saved the nephew Nguyên-Auh, and took him to Saigon, and henceforth devoted himself to replacing him on the Tonquinese throne.\n\nLong-niang, the second brother, then attacked the Tonquinese, and after expelling them from North Cochin, entered Tonquin in 1786, obliging Chin-long, the then King, to fly into China, where he ended his life at Peking, in exile.\n\nBishop Adran then took the eldest son of Nguyên-Auh with him to Paris, to obtain assistance from Louis XVI of France, and a Treaty of Alliance was signed on the 28th November, 1787, and Bishop Adran returned.\n\nIn 1791 Long-niang died, leaving a son twelve years old; and Nguyên-Auh, with the help of some French officers, brought from Europe by Bishop Adran, captured Yin-yae's fleet in 1793. In the same year Yin-yae died, and was succeeded by his son. Nguyên-Auh attacked and defeated the latter in 1796, and conquered what territory remained under the government of the son of Long-niang, and thus Cochin (Annam) was once more in possession of its lawful sovereign.\n\nThe conquest of Cochin being finished in 1811, Nguyên-Auh then turned his attention to Tonquin, the then King of which, Cauh-thiuh, the son of Quan-hung, he defeated in 1802, and being then sole sovereign of Annam, he assumed the title of Hwang-te, and the surname of Gia-long, by which he is best known, and since then Tonquin has been a province of the Annamite kingdom.\n\nIt may be observed that as far back as 1541 the Li family, the founder of the second dynasty, of which was Li-ki-mao or Li-by, were the recognized heirs to the throne of Tonquin, and although they were displaced by usurpers, they are still considered so, and some of its representatives are said to exist.\n\nSince the death of Gialong three monarchs have reigned in Cochin (Annam)—Minh Mang, 1820-1841; Thieu-tri, 1841-1847; and Tu-Duc, the present King; but although they owe their kingdom to the exertions of Bishop Adran, they have unremittingly persecuted Christians, For instance, Father Fernandez was beheaded on the 24th July, Bishop Henaris on the 25th June, and Bishop Delgado died in prison on 12th July, 1838. Finally, in consequence of the execution of Bishop José Maria Diaz, on the 20th July, 1857, and for other outrages, war broke out between Annam, Spain, and France, and this was followed by the victories of Admirals Rigault de Genouilly at Turon, on the 1st September, 1858; and Saigon, on the 17th February, 1859; Chasner at Kihoa, on the 25th February, 1861; Page at Mytho, on the 12th April, 1861; and Bonard at Bien-hoa, on the 9th December, 1861; ending with the Treaty of Saigon, of the 5th of June, 1862, by which the Provinces of Gia-dinh (Saigon), Dinh-tuong (Mytho), and Bien-hoa and the Island of Poulo Condor, in Lower Cochin, were ceded to France, and to these, on the grounds of intrigues and bad faith on the part of the Annamite Government, Vice-Admiral de la Grandière in June 1867 annexed the three western Provinces of Vinh-long, Chaudoc,\n\nand Hatien.\n\nI have thus as briefly as possible endeavoured to show how Tonquin became annexed to Annam, and Saigon came into possession of the French, and I will now proceed to give a résumé of the events which led to French occupation of Lower Tonquin.\n\nThe principal river in Tonquin, called the Ho-ti-kiang, but better known now as the Hung Keang in Chinese, and the Song Koi, or Red River, in Annamese, has its rise in Thibet, and is navigable from Manhao, the last city in the Chinese Province of Yunnan, and so down to the sea, a distance of 414 miles. Manhao is the entrepôt where goods are shipped to and from Tonquin and Annam, the mart being a more northern city, called Mongtsze, situated also on the banks of Song Koi, or Red\n\n229",
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        "id": 299959,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-177 - Sir Kennedy Acting Governor Austin Lieut Governor Hennessy - 1877 [1-5]",
        "page_number": 289,
        "title": "CO129-177 - Sir Kennedy Acting Governor Austin Lieut Governor Hennessy - 1877 [1-5]",
        "content_text": "( 36 ) \n\nREGISTRAR GENERAL'S OFFICE, \n\nHONGKONG, 23rd February, 1876. \n\nSIR,-I have the honour to forward a document, which has been brought to me by certain Chinese merchants, doing a large business in Hongkong with the West Coast. It purports to be a copy of a petition presented to the Government of Macao in reference to the question of duties to be paid on goods coming from and going to the West Coast. The merchants here, previous to waiting on His Excellency the Governor on the subject, wish to submit the recommendations made by the merchants of Macao for his consideration.\n\n( 37 ) \n\nPETITION,\n\nThe Petition of Tung Chai Tong, Merchants of Macao, praying the Government of their goodness to sanction the establishment of a Custom-house at Macao for the convenience of the merchants.\n\nHUMBLY SHEWETH\n\nThat your petitioners are merchants by trade dealing in the refuse of ground nuts, oil, and other merchandise bought in the four lower prefectures for sale at Macao. That they never defraud the Government revenue. That according to the proclamation lately issued by His Excellency (the Hoppo of Canton) all merchandise on which duty has been paid in the four lower prefectures will have to be sent to the Custom's Station in Kong Mun, or to the Central Custom's Station at Canton, for cancellation, and cannot be allowed to be sent in a circuitous route to Hongkong and Macao, or secretly landed on the way, etc.\n\nThat your petitioners consider that when buying commodities from the four lower prefectures, they have been hitherto allowed to sell them at various ports to which they were bound, after payment of duty according to the regulations at the ports of exportation. That if, as is now proclaimed, their goods are required to be sent to the Customs Station at Kong Mun, or to the Central Custom-house at Canton, for cancellation before they can be sent to Macao, numerous difficulties will stand in the way, as much as the journey is generally a long one.\n\nThat under these circumstances your petitioners are compelled to pray Your Excellency to sanction, in compliance with the public wishes, the establishment of a Custom-house here in order that much time may be saved by paying the duties here. That being Chinese Merchants themselves, your petitioners also pray that duty on all merchandise conveyed in Chinese junks for sale in the interior may be allowed to be paid here according to the inland tariff. That your petitioners think that this will be a great convenience to them. That your petitioners beg to suggest the following rules to be observed by junks, trading between this and the various ports, in paying duty according to the tariff.\n\nI may explain that the old tariff is the one which this Government has been trying for a long time to obtain a copy of from the Canton Authorities.\n\nThe new Tariff is the one settled by Treaty and having reference to foreign goods.\n\n(Signed,)\n\nThe Honourable The Colonial Secretary,\n\n&c.\n\n&c.\n\n&c.\n\nI have, &c.,\n\nM. S. TONNOCHY,\n\nActing Registrar General,\n\n1. After payment of duty in the lower prefectures, and on production of a Red Chop in proof thereof, a duty is to be collected, according to the old tariff, sanctioned by the Board, on all merchandise imported into this port.\n\n2. On all merchandise imported into this port from Cochin China and Singapore, where no duty has been paid, a duty is to be collected here according to the old tariff.\n\n286",
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        "id": 299960,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-177 - Sir Kennedy Acting Governor Austin Lieut Governor Hennessy - 1877 [1-5]",
        "page_number": 290,
        "title": "CO129-177 - Sir Kennedy Acting Governor Austin Lieut Governor Hennessy - 1877 [1-5]",
        "content_text": "(38)\n\n3. Merchandise sent to Macao for sale from the various ports in the Kwong Chad prefectures on which duty has been paid is to be allowed to pass after examination at the stations.\n\n4. If merchandise, on which duty has been paid at various ports in Kwong Chat prefecture is to be re-exported to the lower prefectures, a Red Chop must be produced for examination at the Custom-house at this port. No alteration can be made in the number or quantity of the goods, and the name of the Junk in which the goods are sent must be reported at the Custom-house.\n\n5. With regard to goods imported from Junk from Hongkong, if they are foreign, duty must be paid on them according to the new tariff, but, if native, according to the old tariff sanctioned by the Board. If they are re-exported to the lower prefectures, a certificate is to be issued to them so that duty may be paid on them on arrival, in accordance with the tariff which is now observed in the various ports.\n\n6. For goods exported from Macao to the lower prefectures, where there is a Custom Station the \"Tung tsai Tang\" will issue a certificate, so that duty may be paid at the port of destination, but if there be no Customs Station, then the duty must be paid at the Custom-house at this port.\n\n(39)\n\nport into Macao. As there are no silk piece goods, fine chinaware, tea, or lead produced in the lower prefectures, but only sugar, which is imported into Macao from the lower prefectures, your petitioners suggest that a uniform duty of three candareens be levied on it.\n\n9. Junks carrying goods between this port and the lower prefectures are to pay a fee (tonnage due) according to the scale paid by those trading between ports in the Kwong Chat prefecture.\n\n10. The above regulations, which your petitioners have suggested, contain only the main points of the matter, whenever they find them incomplete, your petitioners will suggest new ones for consideration, and, if approved, for the observance of the people. Ko Chat, Lü Chast, Lun Chat, and King Chat are the four lower prefectures.\n\nHONGKONG GENERAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE,\n\nHONGKONG, March, 1876.\n\nSIR-I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your despatch No.168 of the 28th February ultimo, enclosing, by direction of His Excellency the Governor, a letter from the Acting Registrar General covering copy of a petition purporting to have been presented by the merchants at Macao to the Governor of that settlement.\n\n7. For goods imported into Macao for sale, on which duty has been paid at the lower prefectures, a duty must be paid here according to the old tariff on production of the Red Chop. If after payment of the duty here, they are to be re-exported to ports in the Kwong Chat prefecture they are to be reported at the port of destination for cancellation. If no duty has been paid on them at this port, should they be re-exported to ports in the Kwong Chat prefecture, the duty customary at the port to which they are exported must be paid at that port. If they are sent to Canton, duty must be paid according to the Canton Custom's tariff.\n\n8. According to the old regulation, five candareens were paid for each picul of silk piece goods, fine chinaware, tea, sugar and lead, which were imported from Canton. Now duty has been paid at the Central Custom-house at Canton on all the goods imported from that port into Macao.\n\n2. The despatch has been duly submitted, with its enclosures, to the consideration of the Committee of this Chamber, and I am directed to convey to you their opinion that under present circumstances it would be very inadvisable for the Government of this Colony to take any steps in the matter referred to.\n\nI have the honour to be,\n\nSir,\n\nYour most obedient Servant,\n\nTo the Honourable J. GARDINER AUSTIN,\n\nColonial Secretary.\n\n(Signed,) P. KYRIE,\n\nChairman.\n\n287",
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    {
        "id": 368749,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-286 - Acting Governor Major Gen Black Governor Sir Blake & Public Offices - 1898 [11-12]",
        "page_number": 570,
        "title": "CO129-286 - Acting Governor Major Gen Black Governor Sir Blake & Public Offices - 1898 [11-12]",
        "content_text": "# Breeding of animals.\n## Silk culture, &c.\n### Mining.\n#### Copper.\n\nThe total opium production of Yunnan has been estimated at 40,900 piculs, or nearly 5,500,000 lbs.; but a large quantity escapes taxation. Government have recently raised the tax on native-grown opium in Yunnan and Ssuchuan. The local likin was increased to 6 taels per 1,000 taels weight early in 1896, and to 12 taels in November 1897, but an excess of 20 per cent. in the weight is allowed. Sir Robert Hart has proposed a single tax of 60 taels per picul on opium, to be levied at the places where it is grown.\n\nOn the whole it may be said that while the lower slopes of the mountains are cultivable and the plains are rich in varied vegetation capable of supporting a much larger population, the intricate and mountainous character of the country must place an effectual limit to very extensive agricultural operations, while lack of labour and capital and bad communications must impede improvements in cultivation.\n\nYunnan is a very suitable country for breeding purposes, having a good climate and a great deal of porous, well-watered soil and luxuriant grass. The mountain slopes provide excellent grazing for sheep, though the sheep are not numerous and are bred only for their wool. The Yunnanese do not know how to weave wool, but they fabricate a kind of blanket or rug by felting. Oxen and buffaloes are found a little everywhere, but the cattle are poor. Small sturdy ponies and good mules are bred and much utilized for transport. Goats are very common. The north-west mountains are the habitat of the musk deer, and a large quantity of musk comes from Tibet.\n\nThe silkworm is reared in several parts of Yunnan, but not to any great extent. The largest production is at Talien, eight days north of Tali-Fu, near the border of Ssuchuan. It is also produced in the Yungchang district and in the Yangpi valley. Some is spun into sewing thread at Yungchang. Most of the raw silk at present goes to Burma to be woven at Mandalay, but weaving is now being encouraged in Yunnan. The white-wax insect is an important product of Yunnan. It is found chiefly in the north and north-east districts.\n\nRocher speaks of Yunnan as a mining country par excellence, while another writer calls Yunnan a veritable mosaic of minerals. The mining wealth of Yunnan is said by others to be more varied than that of any other province in China, and some add that it is one of the richest mining regions in the world. There can be little doubt that the exaggerated importance that has been attached to Yunnan is mainly attributable to these statements about the vast potentialities of the province from a mining standpoint. The prime authority for these assertions appears to be M. Rocher, who is freely quoted by other writers. His map is covered with notes of places where minerals are alleged to occur, but after some detailed study of the question one is not surprised at a remark of Lieutenant Roux that Rocher is completely wrong in indicating a region near Muongle in south Yunnan as \"rich in minerals and precious stones.\" The mineral resources of Yunnan have been little explored and are now little exploited.\n\nNo statistics are available. M. Brenier speaks of argentiferous galena, zinc, iron, tin, and copper as the chief mineral riches.\n\nCopper in many forms appears to occur widely and to be of excellent quality. From the Yunnan mines have come the vast quantities of copper used in the manufacture of cash currency, the chief coinage of China. The great efforts and sacrifices made by the Government to suppress the rebellion are ascribed to this circumstance. The richest deposits appear to be in the vicinity of Huilichou, Chaotung, and Tungchuan, and in north Yunnan generally. Mr. Bourne, in his recent report, speaks of four considerable copper mines within 50 miles of Tungchuan, whence 80,000 to 90,000 lbs. are sent annually to the Government at Pekin. Copper is also worked north of Tali, in the Chienchang valley, and in the Yungchang district. There are said to be productive mines at Chuhsiung, Linan, Chengchiang, and Yunnan-Fu. Copper-bearing lodes are farmed out by the Government, but all the copper produced must be sold to the authorities at a fixed price. Coppersmiths, who use smuggled copper, pay twice the Government price. The metal is largely used for making pans and other utensils, which have a large sale in Yunnan. The principal copper smugglers are the aboriginal tribes, and the Chinese Commissioner of Mines is reported to have a tacit understanding with them.\n\nIron is abundant and its extraction is easy, but the mode of working is primitive and defective. Only mines that are very productive and near centres of population are worked owing to difficulties of transport, which affect all common metals. Iron is worked from magnetite in the Chintong district, and fair steel is made from it. Iron is stated to be abundant near Yuanchiang and Linan.\n\nSilver is said to be plentiful (mixed with lead or other metals) in the districts of Yunnan-Fu, Yungpei, Linan, Kuochiu, &c. Good silver appears to be rarely found at the mines or in the markets, and its varying values hamper commerce. Silver ornaments and inferior silver ingots are used to pay likin duties. Mr. Turner states that all the silver mines are now worked by the Government, who are said to be largely dependent on Yunnan for their supplies of silver. Galena or lead is found in many parts, especially in the departments of Weining, Chaotung, and Tungchuan, and the mines are stated to be now working well, while, as the Customs reports show, the export of lead is increasing.\n\nThe most flourishing mines, however, at the present time are the tin mines of Kuochiu, about 20 miles from Mengtsz, and not far from the Tonkin border. These mines are said to have been worked for three centuries. They are now in the hands of a branch of the China Merchants' Company, and about 20,000 men are employed. The tin derived from these rich and well-worked mines is one of the chief exports of Yunnan, and it is stated that 1,000,000l. worth could be annually exported. The opening of the Red River route has stimulated the tin industry, and the price has risen at the mines. The demand is sure to increase, as this is practically the only article merchants can export in exchange for the imports from Tonkin. Owing to this fact, much of the tin is paid for months in advance. Zinc is freely worked and is used in the making of cash at the Sui-Fu mint.\n\nOf other minerals, gold is found in small quantities in quartz at Huilichou, Talang, and elsewhere, and in the watercourses. Schemes for developing gold mines in the Chienchang valley are in progress, and it is said that the mines are beginning to pay. Mercury occurs near Ssumao and near Tali-Fu. Peculiarly coloured marbles are found near Tali-Fu and used for a variety of purposes. Coal of diverse qualities is worked at certain points, but it is a mineral little used. Orpiment and gypsum are common, and alum, sulphur, and various precious stones are said to exist.\n\nSalt is extracted from the extensive mines of Mohei and Paiyenching, and in the Chuhsiung-Fu prefecture. The annual yield of salt, though considerable (350,400 piculs or over 20,000 tons being produced in 1890), is by no means sufficient for local consumption. Government levy a special duty on all salt raised.\n\nApparently, the majority of mines in Yunnan have not been worked since the rebellion, and owing to flooding and bad repair, great expense would have to be incurred to re-open them. The Mohammedan rebellion broke out at a mining centre, and the Government, fearing a recrudescence of anarchy, discourage mining enterprise except when directly organised and controlled by officials. But outbreaks have been in great measure due to the misconduct of officials. It has been remarked by Baber that the prejudices and peculations of Chinese life are found in an exaggerated form in connection with the mines, the most lucrative Chinese posts being in mining districts. The ease of extraction and the productivity of the mines draw a large number of miners together, and disorders are almost inevitable. It seems clear that the mines should be worked by the Imperial Government through a mixed authority like the Imperial Customs, as Baber suggested, or that freer scope should be given to private enterprise. But there are many other obstacles to the efficient development of the mining resources of Yunnan. Before mines can be properly worked, the province must be peopled, and communications improved; capital must be introduced and adequate mining appliances adopted, for only surface workings take place at present, perhaps partly owing to superstition on the part of the Chinese. It is said that the copper mines near Tungchuan are grossly mismanaged, and, though coal is abundant and cheap, charcoal is used for smelting the ore.\n\nPage 570\nPage 571",
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        "title": "CO129-287 - Public Offices & Others - 1898",
        "content_text": "## 3 \n\nWuchow, the principle town of the Prefecture of Wuchow, is, at the same time, the seat of the District Magistracy of Ts'ang Wu, a name which appears at a very early date and occupies a prominent place in ancient Chinese history.\n\nThe mythical Emperor Shun (B.C. 2200) while on a tour of inspection of his southern domains died \"in the wilds of Tsang Wu,\" and one tradition at least relates that his grave is to be found in the Great Cloud Mountains, 3 miles to the east of Wuchow.\n\nOf the nine divisions into which the Great Yu (B.C. 2150) divided the Empire, Chingchou was the region lying between the Tungting Lake and the southern Kingdom of Yüeh—the present Annam—and of Chingchou Ts'ang Wu was an important sub-division. It is impossible to state with accuracy at what period Yüeh became tributary to China, but both the first Emperor Ch'in Shih-huang and the Emperors of the Han dynasty appear to have appointed officers to govern that territory on their behalf. Ch'in Shih-huang divided the hundred Yüeh into the three Provinces of Nanhai, Kuei-lin, and Hsiang, and when the rule of his house came to an end, a certain official known as Chao To took possession thereof, and, calling himself Emperor of Southern Yüeh, appointed Chao Kuang Prince of Tsang Wu, to reside at Kuang-hsin, an old town, 1 mile to the east of the present Wuchow.\n\nIn the year 135 B.C. Han Wu-ti dispatched one of his Generals, Fu Po, to conquer the Southern Yüeh, and he divided it up into seven districts known as Nanhai, Tsang Wu, Yü-lin, Ho-p'u, Chiao-chi, Chiu-chen, and Jih-nan, placing them under the control of an officer known as the Governor of Annam to reside at Kuang-hsin.\n\nIn 592 A.D. the present city of Tsang Wu was built and thenceforward became the seat of Government. The Province of Kuanghsi was first defined in 1364 by the last of the Sungs, and in 1465 the office of Governor-General of the Liang Kuang was instituted by the Ming Emperor Ch'êng Hua. This officer resided for some sixty years at Ts'ang Wu, and then occasionally went to reside at Shao-ching, returning as necessity arose to Wuchow. At the commencement of the present dynasty, this state of things still obtained, but in 1665 the seat of Provincial Government was transferred to Kuei-lin, and Wuchow reverted to the status of an ordinary prefectual city.\n\nIn the autumn of 1857, it fell after a siege of 100 days into the hands of the Boat rebels, who, availing themselves of the anarchy caused by the Taiping rebellion, appear to have harried this and the neighbouring province for many years; the city was retaken two years later.\n\nAs above stated, the old city and district were known as Kuang-hsin, and the site thereof was on the ground lately purchased by Jardine, Matheson, and Co.\n\nThe present city, which is about 1,300 years old, stands at the junction of the Fu or Kuei River and the waterway known to foreigners as the West River. Its position has ever been considered by the Chinese one of great strategic importance, in as much as it controls the passage to and from the provinces of Kuangtung and Kuanghsi. In the middle of the main river, 2 miles below the town, is an islet known as Hsi Lung Chou, which in native opinion forms the key to the water system of the whole province. The point of confluence is known as San Chiang Ho, or the junction of the three rivers, and it may not be without interest if I endeavour to give a rough sketch of the streams which here unite and form the West River proper. Not, however, having a single reliable map at hand and having no guide but the notorious inaccuracy of Chinese geographers, the attempt is not likely to prove of much value. (Extracted from the Prefectural Topography.)\n\nThe three rivers are, I, the Li River, II, the Yu or right River, and III, the Tso or left River.\n\n### The Three Rivers\n\n| River | Description |\n| --- | --- |\n| I. The Li-chiang | rises in the north-east corner of the province on the Haiyang range, and, flowing past Lingch'uan, Kueilin, and Pinglo, enters the West River at Wuchow. |\n| II. The Yu-chiang | is formed by (1) the Lung River and (2) the Fung River, which, after uniting at Lin-ch'êng, are joined lower down by (3) the Hung-shui River, and meet III at Hsun-chou. |\n| III. The Tso-chiang | is formed by (1) the Tsang-ko River and (2) the Chiao-chih River, together with several smaller streams. |\n\n1. The Lung-chiang rises in Kuei-chou, and flows past Ch'ing-yüan.\n2. The Fung-chiang rises in Kuei-chou, and flows past Huai-yüan.\n3. The Hung-shui-chiang rises in Yunnan, and flows past Hsi-lung, joins (1) and (2), united at Lai-pin.\n\n1. The Tsang-ko-chiang rises in Yunnan, flows past Tien-chou, and joins (2) at Ho-chiang-chên.\n2. The Chiao-chih-chiang rises in Tongking.\n\n(1) and (2), after their junction, flow past Nanning, and are known as the Yu River, until they reach Hsin-chou. The name West River is not given to the main stream until it crosses the border of Kuangtung 10 miles below Wuchow. Here it is known as the Wu-chiang.\n\nThe city of Wuchow contains some 40,000 inhabitants, and the districts controlled by the Prefecture are Tsang Wu, Huai-chi, Ts'en-chi, Teng, and Tung. The aboriginal inhabitants were known as Yao and Tung, and during the Ming dynasty appear to have given the officials much trouble. Since then, however, they have gradually assimilated with the Chinese, and I do not believe there are any distinctive aboriginal villages in the Prefecture.\n\nOf the town, little is to be said; it is essentially one of mean streets, low-lying, and constantly liable during the summer to inundation. The business quarter extends along the banks of both rivers to the south and west of the city wall, and it is surprising that the Cantonese, who form 99 per cent. of the mercantile community, should put up year after year with the loss of business and other inconveniences which are the result of the annual submersion of their premises.\n\nA disastrous fire which took place some two years ago has led to the introduction of a steam pumping-engine, and the laying of fire mains in the suburbs, but the system is not yet in working order.\n\nI have not been here for a sufficient length of time to see what effect freshets on the Fu River have; the period during which it is stated to be most violent is when the West River is low and unable to dam up the accumulated mountain torrents which rush down its sloping bed. To judge, however, by the fact that for centuries it was spanned by a bridge of boats a few hundred yards above its mouth, there would seem to be no reason why communication between Wuchow and the west bank of this river should be cut off for days at a time. In 1472, Hanfeng, a famous Governor-General then resident here, threw a bridge of fifty-six boats across the river, and supported it by chains fastened to two iron posts on either bank. This bridge continued in existence till well on into the present century, and was first broken off, I believe, when the rebels made their appearance before the town. The four iron posts still remain in a state of almost perfect preservation. In 1596, a similar bridge of 142 boats was thrown across the main river, but it does not seem to have been kept up for any considerable number of years. The engineering difficulties to be contended with are of course much greater on the main river than on the Fu Ho, owing to the very great difference between the West River's summer and winter levels. This summer, the river commenced to rise shortly after my arrival, and reached its highest point on the 1st July, 35 feet above the water-mark of the 15th June. It fell, however, very rapidly, and again rose some 15 to 20 feet about the beginning of August. The bank of the West River is a mud flat sloping at an angle of about 45 degrees, whereas the banks of the Fu River are rocky and steep. The colour of the water in the latter is the clear green of a mountain stream, in marked contrast to the yellow muddiness of the main river.\n\nA small hill opposite the city, known as the Fire Hill, would appear to have been at one time in a state of active volcanic eruption, as up to the middle of the fourteenth century, it was constantly emitting fire. Local notes, too, have innumerable notes of earthquakes having occurred in the Prefecture.\n\n### Local Revenue\n\nAs regards local revenue, this Prefecture is considered the wealthiest in the province, owing to the fact that the greater proportion of imports into, and exports from, Kuanghsi must pass the four custom-houses—which are now increased to five by the addition of the Maritime Customs—which line the river bank. The Prefectural custom-house, at which all produce must pay duty, has an annual revenue of 130,000 to 140,000 taels, of which sum only some 70,000 taels has to be remitted to the Provincial Treasury. The chief source of revenue is duty on rafts, of which great numbers pass down the river. The land tax is fixed at 53,314 taels per annum, and the salt duties at 46,828 taels.\n\nThe Wuchow Li-kin Office controls four stations, three at Wuchow itself, and one...",
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        "id": 395033,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-326 - Foreign Office - 1904",
        "page_number": 370,
        "title": "CO129-326 - Foreign Office - 1904",
        "content_text": "4\n\nmountainous country. In easy country Lisaw transport is far inferior to mules. If the Lisaw smokes opium at all, he generally smokes it badly. He will sleep out anywhere, and will snore all night with nothing but a piece of goat skin between himself and deep snow, at a height of 9,000 feet.\n\nI had no sort of trouble with any of the Lisaw with whom I had to deal, and I should say that they are easier to get on with than Kachins.\n\nThe Lisaws are scattered and disunited, and are not I think capable of serious resistance to any one. The Lisaw \"rebellion\" which occurred two years ago in this part of the country was purposely much exaggerated by the Chinese mandarins in search of buttons and promotions.\n\nOn the 7th March, we marched east from Lan Ma, following up the stream and over a wild mountain range by a pass known as Kan Tsai Ling (8,700 feet). From one point in the ascent there is a fine view of the Kan Liang Pass and of the range which forms the British frontier. We then passed back into the Shweli Basin and descended through forest, with the monastery of Ying Feng Ssu, a well-known place of local pilgrimage, perched on a conspicuous wooded spur 3,000 feet above us on our right; descending further we struck the valley of Tien Tang, or the west branch of the Shweli River, near the small market of La Hsing. Like all the upper waters of the Shweli, the river is 30-40 yards broad, very clear and cold, and nearly everywhere fordable in dry weather, and only 1-3 feet deep, flowing swiftly over a bottom of slippery stones. The valley of the Tien Tang is about 14 miles broad, and is well peopled and cultivated.\n\nFollowing up this valley we passed into the territory of the Tien Tang Headman Tsai, about 14 miles before reaching Ying Pan Market, which consists of forty wattle bamboo huts. The Headman's house is near this, and he came out to see me.\n\nHe represents the eighth generation of Chiefs of Tien Tang, his ancestors, who were of Chinese origin, having established themselves at Tien Tang in the reign of Hung Wu of the Ming dynasty. Like all other Chinese Chiefs in this country, his ancestor was a military adventurer. The little territory of Tien Tang is divided into six \"pai's,\" or parishes, each containing four or five hamlets of five to twenty families. There are not more than 300 families in the whole of Tsai's jurisdiction. Tsai himself is a dirty, opium-smoking Chinese, of about 45 years of age, in no way to be distinguished from the ordinary villager. I gave him some whisky, which he appreciated, and he then supplied me with a number of details concerning the country round about. Finally, after having commissioned his nephew, a squat youth in straw sandals, to look after me, the Lord of the Valley shambled back to his opium couch with a bottle of his new Scotch acquaintance under his arm.\n\nWe continued up the valley by a good road, and camped at the hamlet (ten families) of Ta Ping Ti, on a terrace 300 feet above the Tien Tang stream. This is near the north end of the valley, and there is a good view of the hills forming the crest of the N'maikha watershed.\n\nThe next day, passing the village of Ma Li Pa (thirty families), 14 miles from and 250 feet below Ta Ping Ti, we ascended an upland valley in a northerly direction. On both sides of Ma Li Pa the tops of the hills were covered with snow. The track which we followed was good, even for mules, right up to the crest of the water-divide at the pass of Pan Wa, 8 miles from Ta Ping Ti. After Ma Li Pa we only passed one village about 6 miles from the pass, but there were extensive patches of cultivation, and the valley, until close to its head, was open, and covered with bracken and pine trees. This road is often followed by Lisaws and petty Chinese traders. The first village on the N'maikha side is said to be Chang Yin Kot, which is about as far from the Pan Wa divide as Pan Wa is from Ta Ping Ti; 7 miles farther on is Lu Pi. Both these are Lisaw villages.\n\nFrom Pan Wa Pass there is a view of the head of the valley of the Chipway tributary of the N'maikha, and of a range of snow-clad peaks known as the Chung Shan, which must be at least 12,000 feet, jutting out from the water-parting towards the N'maikha. The most conspicuous peak bears due north from the Pan Wa Pass, which on the Tien Tang or Chinese side is overshadowed by a high peak of about 10,000 feet, which hangs over Ma Li Pa. The Chipway is known to the Chinese as the Chih Fei River. The N'maikha seems to be generally unknown to them under that name, and they refer to it as the Ta or Chin Chiang (\"great or gold river\"). The Lisaws from the head-waters of the Chipway are said not to number more than 100 families. They come to Tien Tang to get supplies, as one would expect, seeing that the Pan Wa Pass is easy travelling in comparison with the Kachin country below them. Mules can get as far as Lu Pi by this route, but not beyond, into the Kachin country near the N'maikha, without previous road repairs. Walking could, it is said, get from Tien Tang to the banks of the N'maikha in four days, but few or none of the Tien Tang people seem ever to have been so far. Parties of Kachins, however, come to Ying Pan market two or three times a year to purchase iron, which is mined in small quantities in the valley near the Ta Ping Ti.\n\n5\n\nThe Tien Tang branch of the Shweli has three head-streams:\n\n1. The stream which comes from the Pan Wa Pass.\n\n2. The Mo Shih Ho, a brook a little to the west which springs from the same mountain from which flows the chief sources of the Chipway River.\n\n3. The main source flows from the hills north of Ta Ping Ti, at a point on the watershed just opposite the Chung Shan, and, passing the hamlet of Hei Tzu Wan, joins 1 and 2 at Ma Li Pa. There is said to be a difficult track, impassable for mules, over the watershed at the back of the Hei Tzu Wan to the Chung Shan.\n\nOn the 10th March we climbed up the steep hills east of Ta Ping Ti, through patches of cultivation, to 8,800 feet in 2-1/2 hours' march, and so descended by a broad, cultivated, lateral valley, with several villages, into the Ming Kwang Plain. Heavy rain caused us at 12:30 to take refuge in a temple at Shang Ho Si, the last village before debouching on the plain. This pass is easily practicable for laden mules. The next day we crossed the Ming Kwang branch of the Shweli, and ascended the Ming Kwang Plain for 6 miles, passing the dirty little market of Ying Pan Kai, to Tu Chai (\"main village\"), the residence of the Tso family. The plain is from 1 to 2 miles broad; the river was 45 yards wide where we forded, and 1 to 3 feet deep. It is fordable nearly everywhere in the Ming Kwang Plain. Along its banks, as along the banks of the Tien Tang stream, there is abundance of good camping ground, grass, fuel, and water, and of such ordinary supplies as rice, maize, fowls, ducks, mutton, cattle, in sufficient quantities for a small party.\n\nThe Ming Kwang Valley is now divided between two \"fu yi,\" or hereditary Chiefs. Lower Ming Kwang is the patrimony of the Yang family, who have their headquarters at I Ya Tang, a village on the opposite side of the valley to Shang Ho Si, and about 1 mile below it. Their portion of the valley is divided into three \"fan,\" or parishes—upper, middle, and lower—and consists of about seventy hamlets, with 6,000-7,000 inhabitants. There is much padi and other cultivation and a considerable head of cattle in the valley. Many of the people are engaged in the cutting and transport of wood from the surrounding hills to Teng Yueh. The ancestor of the Yangs is said to have been a military official who came from Teng Yueh in the Ming dynasty. The Yangs have now little more than an empty title, and the people of this part of the valley pay the ordinary land tax to the Teng Yueh Sub-Prefect.\n\nThe Upper Ming Kwang Valley belongs to the Tso family, but they have only about fifteen villages, with a population of 300 odd families. The present \"fu yi,\" or Chief, is a youth of 18, and is the son of Tso Erh Kuan (Tso the Second), who was killed at Hpare in Mr. Hertz's affair, in February 1899. The affairs of the family are now managed by the brother of the late (uncle of the present) head of the family. I was well received, and lodged in the Tso clan ancestral temple, where the various members of the family came to visit me. Their temple is at the back of their yamên, which is a filthy and rambling structure resembling a succession of pigsties; the village, of some seventy families, consists of hovels made of bamboo wattle, but there seems to be abundance of cultivation and supplies. It is, however, clear that the political and economical affairs of the family are in a very decadent condition. The \"regent\" is a man of some intelligence but of little energy, except in pulling at his opium-pipe; and I doubt if Burma will ever have any further trouble from the military aspirations of the Tso clan.\n\nMost of the Tso clan's peasantry are \"nu shou,\" or crossbowmen, who do not pay ordinary land tax. It would appear that they were originally a sort of limitrophe colonist, whose lands and status were recognized by the Chinese Government on condition that they defended the frontier. The Tso family is a branch of the Teng clan, originally seated near Chengtu, in Ssuchuan, but which early moved to Tsao Chiang, in the Mekong Valley, and in the Yun Lung Sub-prefecture of Yunnan. The name was then changed to Tso. At the end of the Ming dynasty Tso Wan Hsiang came from Tsao Chiang, and carved out as his patrimony the upper Ming Kwang Valley, from which he expelled Lisaws and others. It is also to be noted that there are vague traditions of Burmese (not Shans) having formerly inhabited parts of this country. Tso Wan Hsiang gained the honorary and hereditary title of \"Suan Fu Su,\" generally conferred only on Chiefs of the first class, and his descendants bear the title to this day. The present youth is twelfth in descent from the Wan Hsiang.\n\nPage 367",
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        "id": 397939,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905",
        "page_number": 429,
        "title": "CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905",
        "content_text": "## Shan States under Chinese Rule\n\nThe many Chinese settlers in his territory. This State, with the exception of the outlying town of Manwyne, which came into the family by marriage, is poor. The main valley is only 9 miles by 2-3 miles, but the side valley of Man Tung, situated beyond the hills to the east, is larger and richer.\n\nThe Nan Tien Sawbwa is thought to be at the bottom of the intrigues which the Chinese have started against his neighbour of Kangai.\n\nKangai, which includes the richest part of the Taping Valley, is situated between Nan Tien and the frontier. The clan name is also Tao. The old Sawbwa, who is about 55 years of age, is supposed to have abdicated according to Shan custom in favour of his son, a man of about 30, who represents the twenty-eighth generation in a direct line from the first Sawbwa. Both father and son are men of intelligent and benevolent disposition, who, considering the circumstances, govern their State well. They are both, but especially the father, devout Buddhists. The State is rich, but is sometimes subject to destructive inundations.\n\nThe main Tengyueh-Bhamo trade route passes straight through Kangai and Nan Tien. There are not many Kachins in this State, and those few give but little trouble. The main Kangai Valley is about 35 miles long by 4-5 miles broad.\n\n### 3. Chanta, or Santa\n\nThis includes a small portion of the Taping Valley on the right bank and a section of hill country behind it to the north. The Sawbwa is a child. His father was robbed and then executed some years ago by the Tengyueh official on a false charge of treason with the British. The government of the State has since been in disorder. The Kachins in the Santa Hills are under no sort of control.\n\n### 1. Laksa and Hosa\n\nThese are two small States in an upland valley at an altitude of 4,000-5,000 feet, along and above the east side of the Taping Valley; the beautiful Lahsa-Hosa Valley is watered by the Nau Sa, a small tributary of the Taping. The inhabitants are not Shan; they have a language of their own, and are known as Ashang. They are probably of Maru Kachin origin, with an admixture of Chinese and possibly of Burmese blood. They have attained a considerable standard of civilization, and are both industrious and peaceable; they have a great reputation as blacksmiths, and go down to Burmah to seek work. The Hosa Sawbwa is a minor; the Lahsa is an old man who has four sons, the eldest of whom manages his affairs; the administration is not bad, but the Sawbwa has little authority, and both ends of the valley are subject to Kachin raids. There is a fair path down the valley and through to Burmah, but it is only used by local traffic. The valley is some 30 miles long by 2-3 miles broad.\n\n## (B) Shan States in the Shweli or Lung Chiang Valley, on the right bank\n\nThe Shweli is an important affluent of the Irrawaddy; it rises to the north of Tengyueh, and joins the main river from the left side, near Ratha, in Burmah.\n\n### 5. Meng Wan\n\nThis is the basin of the Nam Wan, a small tributary of the Shweli. The valley is over 30 miles long and 5-6 miles broad at the broadest part; it is very fertile, but malarious; the administration was for years in the hands of the mother of the present Sawbwa, a young man of 23, who took over the Government four years ago. Since then the condition of the State has been going from bad to worse. The young Sawbwa is drunken, licentious, violent, and superstitious. He harbours quacks, gamblers, and criminals from Burmah and other places, while the numerous Kachins on both sides of his valley are under no sort of control. They are constantly thieving and cattle-lifting on the British side. Several large Kachin villages above the north-east of the valley have openly revolted and expelled the lawful Shan owners from the rice fields, which they are now cultivating themselves, without paying any taxes. In 1903 the Chinese Commandant of the frontier regiment, Ma Wu Hsiang, a Panthay, was stationed at the Sawbwa's residence for some time, and composed matters; but this season I find that the young Sawbwa has again begun his reckless courses, he has been taking medicines which are supposed to render him bullet-proof, he has shot several persons in a drunken fit, and he has taken to seizing Kachin maidens and confining them in his harem for some time, a proceeding which demonstrates both his imprudence and his bad taste. Further disorders may be expected, and the Tengyueh officials do nothing to restore order. This State is consequently poor. A secondary trade route from Burmah to Tengyueh runs the length of the valley. The Meng Wan Sawbwa's principal wife is a daughter of Nan Tien.\n\n### 6. Meng Mao\n\nThis State is situated along the right bank of the Shweli above the confluence of the Nara Wan. It consists of some hill-land and a rich valley, some 27 miles by 5 miles, a large part of which is uncultivated. The hills at the back of the town between the State and Meng Wan are thickly populated by Kachins, who are under no sort of control, and levy blackmail or pillage in the valley. The Sawbwa, a man of about 30, is weak but not vicious; he cannot make much headway against his Kachins, and he has scanty resources in the way of money, but he has recently shown some activity in his administration. This State is off the main route; the town of Meng Mao (about 250 houses) has an old wall, and in the Burmah wars of the middle ages is said to have been the headquarters of a Taotai.\n\n## (C) Shan States in the Shweli Valley, on the left bank\n\n### 7. Chefang or Sefang\n\nThis State is limitrophe with the British Northern Shan States; it consists of the lower part of the basin of the Meng Kwan River, a tributary of the Shweli and of the surrounding hills, which are inhabited by very unruly Kachins. Even the main valley (20 miles by 4) is poor and thinly populated as it is subject to had inundations, and, even in the dry season, consists mainly of a reed-covered swamp. The Sawbwa is a man about 30, of the same original stock as the princely families of Meng Mao and Meng Wan; the administration of the State is fairly good; none of the Chinese Sawbwas has worse Kachins or makes such serious efforts to control them. The late father of the present Sawbwa was a believer in drastic measures, and it is said that he used to boil his Kachins in oil, or roast them over slow fires, in order to persuade them to better courses. An important trade route from Burmah, the Ruby Mines, and the Shan States to West Yünnan leads straight through the Chefang Valley. The road is well maintained, and, in spite of the Kachins, serious robberies hardly ever take place along it.\n\n### 8. Meng Kwan\n\nMeng Kwan, or, in Chinese, Mang Shih, situated north of Chefang, comprises the valley of the Upper Nam Kwan River and the hills surrounding it. The main valley of this State, which on the east is limitrophe with the Chinese sub-Prefecture of Lung Ling, is some 16 miles by & in extent, and is both fertile and densely populated. With the possible exception of Kangai, the State is considered to be the richest near the border. Near the Sawbwa's residence there is a considerable bazaar resorted to by numerous Chinese caravans in the cold weather. The main Burmah Chefang-Lung Ling road goes through the State. The town, like all Shan towns (which are merely large villages), has a dilapidated appearance; lean pigs, ruined pagodas, heaps of cow-dung, majestic pipul trees, mean mud or bamboo wattle huts, lofty bamboo groves, and slatternly women exuding betel chew from their dirty mouths. This valley is very feverish; the hills round it, however, have been settled by Chinese from West Yunnan, and there are but few Kachins. The Sawbwa (clan name Fang) is a young man, weak and superstitious Buddhist, but his rule is not oppressive. The Sawbwa and the State have recently been brought to the brink of ruin by the \"squeezing\" operations of the Chinese Mandarins, of which I shall speak later at length.\n\n### 9. Meng Ting\n\nMeng Ting is another State further to the south, to which I may refer, though it does not otherwise come within the purview of this report. Meng Ting comprises the low-lying valley of the Nam Ting River which joins the Salwen from the east at Kunlong ferry. The State is a small one and is in a condition of disorder owing to the neglect of the Chinese, the incompetence of the Sawbwa, and the influence of the bad counsellors by whom he is surrounded. Notorious dacoits are constantly harboured in this State, and the Sawbwa is always quarrelling with his neighbours. Representations concerning Meng Ting have been made at Yunnan-fu, and a Chinese Deputy has been sent, who will meet the British Superintendent of the Northern Shan States, and endeavour to settle outstanding cases, and to suggest some means for the better government of the State in the future. If the Kunlong Railway ever materializes, it will run along this valley which is marshy, tropical, and malarious.\n\nThe population of the Shan States under China can only be given in the form of a rough approximation to the number of families who pay taxes and are supposed to ...\n\nPage 422",
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    {
        "id": 411295,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907",
        "page_number": 472,
        "title": "CO129-343 - Public Offices & Foreign Office - 1907",
        "content_text": "## Government's Loss of Control Since 1900\n\nGovernment has lost upon the provinces since 1900 is the notable feature of the present situation in Peking.\n\nI have, &c. (Signed)  \nJ. N. JORDAN.\n\nP.S.---Since writing the above I have received an Intelligence Report from the Acting British Consul at Hangchow, of which I have the honour to inclose an extract. In view of what Sir Robert Hart told me, and of the universal vigilance of the Customs' inspection, information of which reaches me from several quarters, there can be no doubt that the Viceroy of Chilli, and probably also the Central Government, are apprehensive of an anti-dynastic movement, and that foreigners are in some way suspected of being connected with it. For this suspicion there is not, so far as I know, a particle of evidence.\n\n(No. 186.) Sir,\n\n### Inclosure I in No. 1\n\nConsul-General Sir P. Warren to Sir J. Jordan.  \nJ. N. J.  \nShanghae, December 24, 1906.\n\nI HAVE the honour to inclose herewith, for your information, copy and translation of an extract from the \"Nan Fang Pao\" of the 15th instant, being instructions from his Excellency Chang Chih Tung on the subject of rebellious Societies, giving particulars as to their methods and organization.\n\nI have, &c. (Signed)  \nPELHAM WARREN,\n\n### Inclosure 2 in No. 1\n\n(Translation.)  \nExtract from the \"Non Fang Pao\" of December 15, 1906.  \n**Confidential Instructions from the Hukuong Viceroy.**\n\nTHE foreign adviser reports as follows:-\n\nOf the large rebellious Associations one is the Kolao Hui, which exists in a secret manner in the Yang-tsze region, and of which the head is one Wang Sheng; another is the Triad Society, which exists in the Two Kuang, Kueichou and Fukien, of which Sun Wen is head, and these two Associations have in the course of time united, and now form the Tung Meng Hui (Alliance Society), and Sun Wen is the head, Wang Sheng the second. Their cry is \"Down with the Manchus!\" and \"Revolution!\" They establish branches everywhere, and men of all provinces join them, 60 per cent. of the Hunan men being members. The Kolao Hui in Hunan is in three divisions--the red division, consisting chiefly of rowdies; the blue and black divisions being mostly men of rank and merchants. The Ch'ang Sha leader is Tsung Huang, a wealthy leader, who is also known as Hsia Ming, 40 years of age; 500 of the Chang Sha garrison are members, and 500 of the police force of Yochou, as well as 3,000 men of the provincial army. The head in Hupei Province is one Lin Chia Yun, and at Wuchang and Hankow a younger brother of Ho Taotai, Commander of the Kueilin new model forces. At Shahshih, a rich merchant named Tsao Yu Ying, 39 years old. A third of the officials, troops, and men in the arsenal at Wuch'ang are members.\n\nA meeting was held in July, at which twenty-five military officers and many soldiers were present. Before the union of the two Societies, the leaders asked for help from Great Britain, France, and Japan, and sought their recognition. Certain foreigners concerted with the heads of the Societies at Wuch'ang, Chang Sha, Kiukiang, Nan Chang, Nanking, Foochow, Canton, Kueilin, Kueiyang, and Sun Wen collected 3,000,000 taels from the Chinese merchants at `Singapore`, `Kalumpor`, `Hong Kong`, &c., and this was deposited chiefly with the ... Bank, and large quantities of munitions were purchased. The original idea was to take the opportunity of the autumn manœuvres for a rising; but Wang Sheng altered the time to the end of the year, as the Yang-tsze leaders were not ready. I cannot say if this be a fact or not.\n\nA Chinese officer reported to the same effect. He says:-\n\nThe Ko Ming Society in Hunan was broken up the year before last, and was converted into a \"Secret Society,\" the objects of which have been anarchical, and its beginnings were in Tokio. It gradually spread into the inland parts of China. The officers of this Society belong to the waterway districts, and they busy themselves with cementing the relationships of the branches; but the Settlements at Shanghae and the Kiangnan Arsenal (`Kao Chang Miao`) neighbourhood are their biding-places; their head-quarters are Hunan and Hupei, these being in reach of Kiangsi on the east and Canton Province on the south. The idea was to command Szechuan, and so move north, while a force was to go by Shensi, thus rendering complete defence impossible. The capital of Hunan was to be their head city, and a central house was to be established there, and there were in addition four lodges, each with its own organization, east, west, south, and north.\n\nThe seat of the south branch was at Linchou, in Hunan, in direct communication with Loch'ang and Ping Shih, in Kuangtung, Shao Kuan, and Canton Province, and also in control of the Pao Ching and Yung Chou Prefecture organizations.\n\nThe east lodge has its seat at Hsiang Tung, in Liling district, to be in direct communication with Yuan Chou and Lin An Prefectures, the chief points being Kiukiang and Huk'ou (this part of the scheme involves extreme danger). The seat of the north was at Ch'ing Chiang, south of Yochou, in Hunan, in close communication with Wuch'ang and Hankow. Drilling went on as of village militia, and under this guise desperate enterprises were prepared. At a moment's warning they were to rise and make a determined effort to seize the Tungting Lake.\n\nAnother branch came into existence in Hupei, of which the objective was Tion Chia Chen, in Wu Hsueh, with the purpose of holding the key to the northern approach. There was to be no immediate attack upon the Lower Yang-tsze for fear of opposition on the part of Great Britain, and although there were many confederates at Tungehou, Ta Tung, Hsiang Yang, and Chinkiang, these were only to serve as hindrances to any forces sent out against the movement; those places were not the important ones.\n\nThe seat of the west lodge was to be at Hang Chou, in Hunan, in connection with Kuanghai, and the disbanded soldiers and the bad characters there, and with the Miao and Yao tribes in Kueichou, in Hunan, and Chang Chou and Li Ling Prefectures, in Kuanghsi, were under them.\n\nThis fire has been smouldering many a day. All the officials of the Association are divided into two sections, the Wai Pu and the Nei Pu. All of these Wai Pu made their arrangements in the Straits, &c., and of these Sun Wen is the head, men like Huang Ta Wu and Liu Lin Sheng being his lieutenants, and they are the chief plotters. These are the people by whom the Chinese merchants in foreign countries, enraged at the failure of their Governments to protect them against oppression, are influenced and subscribe to their schemes, in the hope that when the plot has succeeded they may be granted some better kind of protection. [This is a note of the official making the Report.] They (the Wai Pu) purchase and ship munitions. I hear that the munitions and dynamite are purchased from a certain country and stored in `Singapore` with the idea of shipping them to the Indian Railways, then to Chen Nan Kuan in Yunnan, and so conveying them into the interior. Great Britain has not allowed this, and it has not been possible to convey them by this route. I shall report further when I have found out actually about this.\n\nThe Wai Pu also makes Agreements with foreign Powers. Three Powers have already consented to recognize the Independent State, and have made Agreements with them, by which when the success is assured twenty and more new mercantile ports are to be opened, and a guarantee has been given for the protection of the property of foreign merchants and the churches, and for recompense in case of any damage or destruction. These matters are under the Wai Pu's direction. members do not come into China.\n\nThe Nei Pu members are all distributed along the Yang-tsze, and there make their secret dispositions. Such as these are Cheng Hsien Sheng, Li Hsieh Ho, ...  \nPage 3",
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        "id": 416044,
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        "document_key": "CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908",
        "page_number": 209,
        "title": "CO129-351 - Public Offices - 1908",
        "content_text": "while in five other hsien there were only some 10 mou planted with poppy. The three remaining hsien, the soil of which is of a sandy nature and unsuited to its cultivation, produce no opium. At Fu Shan Hsien some farmers who had planted a crop, alarmed by the energetic conduct of the Deputy in his investigations, uprooted it, but this is the only instance of the growing crops being destroyed. The officials have taken no step to prohibit the cultivation so far.\n\nOn the 12th June another Proclamation was issued by the Taotai, in which he stated that he had been notified by the District Officials that they had issued Proclamations in the sense of the \"ten Articles\" which had been communicated to them by the Governor, and had also established Societies to exhort the people to break off the opium habit. He further stated that it had been found that there were several hundred shops open for the sale of the drug, and that as regarded the opium dens, which were kept and frequented by disreputable characters, the Regulations would be stringently enforced; but as regards the shops for the sale of raw opium, as no closing time had been previously fixed, the immediate closing of them would be a hardship, and therefore no steps would at present be taken.\n\nOn the 27th June appeared a further Proclamation, under the seal of the Taotai, to the effect that as the 6th moon would see the closing of the opium dens; the holders of stalls in the streets would be allowed to move into the houses thus left vacant, which would remove all obstructions to public traffic, at the same time he warned the stall-holders that if they did not take advantage of this arrangement by the 22nd September they would have their mat-sheds and stalls destroyed and forcibly removed. On the same day the Proclamation of the 12th June was again published, and the people were warned that they must close the opium dens at the end of the 6th moon under pain of punishment; the sale of opium-smoking pipes and appliances was also to cease by that date, and these measures were to be carried out with the utmost strictness.\n\nBesides the one above referred to, another Proclamation was issued on the 12th June, the terms of which were briefly:\n\n1. That official centres would be opened for the sale of opium where those addicted to the habit who were in possession of licences to be obtained from the official Opium Bureau could be supplied, and that without the production of such licences no opium could be bought or sold;\n\n2. That purchase for private consumption would be limited to 10 taels in weight at one time, i.e., about 13 oz. avoirdupois, and opium ashes to 20 taels (26 oz.);\n\n3. That the carrying of opium by the staff or followers of officials in their private effects (a common practice all over China) was forbidden, and that all officials would be held responsible in the event of this Regulation being infringed; and\n\n4. Fixing duty on native opium at 115 taels per picul.\n\nThe Regulations of the Opium Bureau, although it appears they have been decided upon, have not yet been published. The office has not yet been opened in Chefoo, though the appointments to it have been made and the Deputies are now there.\n\nThe general carry-out of the Opium Regulations now in force has been intrusted to the various local officials, who (and not the Taotai) are responsible for their due enforcement.\n\nThe Proclamations have been effective enough to induce the owners of opium dens to close their doors, and they appear to have done this of their own accord in most cases, without waiting for the official compulsion threatened in the Proclamations. It is reported that there were some 300 of these dens in Chefoo alone; what the number may have been in the other districts of the Prefecture it has not been possible to ascertain. Only one case has come to the notice of His Majesty's Consul of official compulsion being used to close an establishment; the keeper of this opium den was paraded through the streets in chains, bearing in one hand his opium pipe and in the other his lamp.\n\nThe local officials are generally credited with a sincere desire to eradicate the evil, and the people themselves are also genuinely anxious to see the trade abolished. Smoking is so universal, however, that the success of the movement will depend upon the bona fides of the Government, or, more correctly speaking, of the local officials, in whose hands the matter now rests.\n\nApart from the appointment of Deputies, the publication of Proclamations, and the other measures mentioned, no definite active steps have been taken so far, but missionaries who have good opportunities of obtaining information, give it as their opinion that the officials are making strenuous efforts to carry into effect the orders for the suppression of the traffic in opium, and that they are faithfully and seriously striving to see that the Proclamations are obeyed. It is said that certain of the officials and leading gentry and merchants have given up the use of the drug, and in this way have set an example to the people, but at the same time His Majesty's Consul only hears of one establishment for the cure of the habit in Chefoo.\n\nAs regards steps taken to restrict the poppy cultivation, nothing has been done. No new ground, however, is being allowed to be broken. The consular district of Chefoo has never produced much opium, the principal field lying some distance to the west in the jurisdiction of His Majesty's Consul at Chinan, and therefore when the officials do begin to impose restrictions there should be no great difficulty in enforcing them.\n\nNo steps have so far been taken to give effect to Articles 2 and 3 of the \"ten Articles\" regarding the registration and licensing of opium smokers, but this duty will devolve upon the \"official Opium Bureau\" when it begins to function. The inspection of opium shops has not as yet been carried further than a report of their approximate number; the actual amount of opium in the possession of the dealers has not been reported. No licences have as yet been issued.\n\nThe obligation imposed on officials by Article 9, with regard to registering their names as smokers or non-smokers, has been carried out in so far that the officials, from the Taotai downwards, have already had their names registered in the office of a Deputy named Chu, a Sub-Prefect, appointed by the Governor.\n\nTo sum up, but little effective action has hitherto been taken in this district with the exception of the publication of Proclamations; the people have themselves voluntarily broken with the habit in many instances, have closed their dens, and to a certain extent have given up planting, but as to the officials, their action has as yet been very limited, but great hopes are entertained that once the official Opium Bureau has published its Rules and Regulations they will begin to pursue a vigorous and energetic policy. Until such time, however, there is nothing further to report.\n\n2. Chungking.\n\nProclamations respecting the closing of opium dens and registration of all opium smokers have been issued in the Fu Shun district, but there have been no signs that people are paying any attention to them, nor has any further official action been taken, except that it is said that when opium dens have been closed, in order to meet the requirements and cravings of the people, six other dens with much larger accommodation and appliances shall be opened instead. One of these dens will be opened in the city near the north, south, east, and west gates respectively, besides one in the eastern and another in the western suburbs. Though a large reduction in dens may be reported officially, yet these six are said to be large enough to meet the demands of the people and the consumption will be the same.\n\nOn the 28th August His Majesty's Consul reported that it was originally declared in Chungking this was taken to mean \"by the end of the 6th moon\" (the 8th August), and many of the smaller and less remunerative establishments closed their doors in consequence. But the officials gave no signs of their intention to act on the instructions given in the Edict, and many of the lower classes considered that the undertaking to suppress opium had fallen through. In reply to inquiries His Majesty's Consul learnt that the sudden closing of all the opium dens at once might lead to trouble, and that it was intended to close them gradually, beginning with the more prominent and working down to the lower. The question of the control of the opium supply was said to be occupying the attention of the authorities to the exclusion of other matters.\n\nIt is said that the Viceroy was asked to allow four of the leading gentry at Chungking to manage the prepared opium depôts from which all opium was to be bought by smokers and opium dens. The Viceroy replied that the control of the sale of opium was to be kept in official hands, but the local authorities do not consider that this need prevent the proposed arrangement. The depôts have not yet been started.\n\nA Prepared Opium Office has taken up temporary premises in the city. Its duties are to register opium smokers, license premises for the consumption of the drug, and to supply the Government depots with prepared opium. Some trouble has been experienced in passing official opium through the li-kin station, which insists on the usual tax being paid.\n\nThe Director of this office has been dealing personally with the various proprietors of opium dens, who were all summoned to the Yamên and informed of the plans regarding them. The idea is that forty-six premises are to be licensed-two in each district.\n\n206",
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        "id": 417987,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-353 - Public Offices - 1908",
        "page_number": 699,
        "title": "CO129-353 - Public Offices - 1908",
        "content_text": "## Chihli, Shansi, Shensi, Kansu, and Shantung Provinces Opium Suppression Reports\n\n694\n\nOpium suppression efforts will be concluded in Heilungkiang by the end of the current year and in Kirin and Fengtien in the following year.\n\n### Chihli\n\nIn Chihli, the metropolitan province, measures of suppression are now being carried out with earnestness and vigour. In many places, Proclamations have been issued prohibiting the cultivation, use, and trade in opium, and the prohibition is being enforced by officials through village Headmen. Opium shops have been reduced in numbers, sometimes only one being allowed in a city; smokers and shops have been licensed, official refuges have been established in cities, and medicines are being supplied gratuitously. Here and there, a few opium-smoking houses are still open under licence, while in some cities, such as Huai-lu Hsien in the Shun-te Prefecture, effective steps are being taken; opium-smoking and retail shops have all been shut, and their proprietors punished.\n\nThe Chihli Anti-Opium Bureau is exceedingly active. Copies of sixty-four Chinese documents emanating from that office deal with the suppression of opium in all its phases - cultivation, consumption, and trade. They include circulars addressed to provincial authorities, high and low, calling for returns of all kinds. Blank forms have been sent to provincial authorities requesting them to fill in the names and situations of opium refuges, to state whether they are official or private institutions, to give the names of donors, the prescriptions used, and the results. Another form requires the names of opium-smoking officials, of officials who have ceased to smoke, and of suspects. District Magistrates are called upon to report the quantity of foreign opium imported into their respective districts and to give statistics showing the consumption and export of native opium. Similar instructions are issued to custom-houses and li-kin barriers. Officials of high rank are required to guarantee lower officials. Opium shops and smokers are ordered to be licensed, and the numbers and names of shops and smokers, their situations and residences, are demanded.\n\nOfficials of one Prefecture are directed to abstain from charging fees in excess of those laid down in the Regulations; officials of higher rank are requested to fill in and return a table giving the names of their subordinates and stating whether they are smokers or non-smokers and the names of their guarantors; and petty officials are required to give the names of their guarantors within three days of receipt. District Magistrates are directed to report the annual reduction in cultivation of the poppy, the areas under cultivation, the names of the growers, &c., within a fortnight after receipt of instructions; in another circular, they are directed to order growers to reduce the area under poppy by one-eighth annually, to issue licences to growers for the land to be placed under poppy; and in another, to take strict measures regarding area reduction. Prescriptions for Chinese and foreign anti-opium medicines are sent for use in various refuges. Reprints of the Imperial Anti-Opium Decree are transmitted to officials of all ranks; opium-smoking officials are directed to proceed to the Government opium refuge and quit the habit within three months, and Bureau officials are instructed to examine various officers in the province.\n\n### Shansi\n\nThe Governor of Shansi has memorialized the Throne, proposing that entire prohibition of opium within his province should be carried out during the present Chinese year. However, his Excellency will need to show more energy than has been displayed since the Anti-Opium Decree if his proposal is to be carried into effect, as reports from the province are somewhat pessimistic. The balance of evidence indicates that a slight reduction in a few districts is outweighed by increased cultivation in others, and that the marked diminution reported from Chi-shan Hsien in the Department of Chang Chou, in Southern Shansi, would have been more marked had farmers not bribed yamên underlings with payments of 2 taels a mou.\n\nA correspondent from Ho-chieng Hsien in the same Department states that opium prohibition can be carried into effect if done systematically, honestly, and reasonably. The difficulty lies not with the people but with Government finance and official corruption. In his district, there was no poppy cultivation last year and only a little this year; excessive taxation and persistent rumours stopped cultivation, but opium-smoking houses and opium shops have increased. There have been no restrictions on smokers, and opium shops have not been inspected. Anti-opium medicines are advertised and sold extensively.\n\nAt Fen-hsi Hsien in the Prefecture of Ping-yang, a Proclamation was issued by the Prefect on the 1st June, ordering the registration of land under poppy with a view to reducing the area. The reason given was that, as this year marked the beginning of the reduction in the importation of Indian opium, complications might arise if nothing were done to effect a reduction of opium cultivation in the interior of China. This Proclamation gave a three years' limit for the cessation of cultivation, while a tax collector's Proclamation in the same Prefecture gave the limit as ten years.\n\n### Shensi\n\nReports from Shensi are scanty and fragmentary. Opium shops were ordered by Proclamation to close at Han-chung Fu, and the signboards were accordingly removed. At Wu-kung Hsien, Yang Hsien, and Chou-chih Hsien, last year's Proclamations on the ten Opium Regulations were reiterated, but no practical steps have been taken; officials and gentry confined themselves to talking instead of reforming themselves or furthering the reform movement. The District Magistrate of Chou-chih has started a society that includes opium reform and anti-foot-binding among its objects. It is authoritatively stated that \"in the province, as elsewhere, the area under cultivation by the poppy is everywhere somewhat less.\"\n\n### Kansu\n\nThe reports from Kansu are few. In the immediate neighbourhood of Lan-chow, the capital, the area under poppy cultivation is stated to have been less, but elsewhere more. In Ching Chou, although the area was originally greater, many fields were ploughed up due to a Proclamation issued by the District Magistrate in March, assessing all land under poppy at 70 cents a mou. The gentry held a meeting and unanimously decided to plough up all opium land, but the Magistrate, to protect his revenue, immediately issued a second Proclamation ordering them not to do so and directing them to diminish the area under cultivation slightly to accord with the Imperial Decree.\n\nAt Lan-chow, two Proclamations were posted in March and May; the former raised the tax on land under poppy by 50 to 100 per cent., and the latter exhorted officials to break off the habit within three months under severe penalties. Neither was enforced. Local opinion views the reform movement as desirable but unattainable, and practically little or nothing has been done.\n\n### Shantung\n\nOn the 11th June, new Anti-Opium Regulations were published at Chi-nan Fu, the provincial capital, directing all persons who had given up the opium habit to file bonds and those who still indulged to give an undertaking to renounce the drug within two months. Numerous deputies were named to ensure these instructions were carried out, and four offices for the sale of anti-opium medicines were established in the suburbs.\n\nTaken as a whole, there was a considerable diminution of land under poppy throughout the province, one reason being that many places suffered from severe and continuous drought, preventing the sowing of the seed.\n\nPage 694\nPage 9\n[2050 i-1]",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-371 - Public Offices - 1910",
        "page_number": 155,
        "title": "CO129-371 - Public Offices - 1910",
        "content_text": "20\n\n\"The council approved of the survey scheme, and also of the proposal of the intendant of commerce that unowned and public woods should be first surveyed. The method of survey was left to be discussed on the second and third readings.\n\n\"The president sounded his bell, and there was an interval of twenty minutes. \"After reassembling the council discussed its temporary rules :——\n\n\"The president read out the rules as amended by the Viceroy, and enquired whether the Council had any objections to raise. He also read out the rules as he proposed to amend them and discussed them with the council.\n\n\"Prefect Yany explained why the Viceroy had made changes in the rules, and said that there was no need for the council to become suspicious. He then entered into a long and earnest discussion with the president.\n\nIt being now 5:40 the president sounded his bell and the council dispersed.\" \n\nFUKIEN.\n\nThe account below of the opening of the Fukien assembly is taken from an English newspaper published at Foochow The specimen debate and plan of the Chamber* have been furnished by Mr. Playfair, His Majesty's consul.\n\n\"The Opening of the Fukien Provincial Parliament.\n\nOpening Ceremony.\" Thursday, the 14th October, was the day set for the opening of the Parliaments in the various provinces of China.\n\n\"In Foochow the Parliament is sitting in a building which was part of the old examination hall in the north part of the city. This building has been fitted up to accommodate the Parliament until the more permanent structure is erected. The room in which the business is transacted is about 60 feet wide by 120 feet long. At the farther end as one enters are the seats for the Viceroy in the middle, for the treasurer, judge, and commissioner of education at the Viceroy's left, as he sits, and for the Tartar general and the salt commissioner on the Viceroy's right. Lower are seats for other officials.\n\n\"In front of these seats and in the centre of the room is the table, about which sit or stand the six secretaries or clerks.\n\n\"Before this table, arranged in circular form, are seated the members of the Parliament. By this arrangement the Fukien provincial officials and the members of Parliament sit facing each other, with the six secretaries between them.\n\n\"By the courtesy of the Parliament the writer received an announcement of It was 4 P.M. when he arrived. Two the opening with two tickets of admission. ushers met, as at the door and invited us to come into the visitors' gallery, which is at the opposite end from the seats for the provincial officials and facing them. The Viceroy and other officials mentioned above looked rather lonely, but as our eyes followed down the room past the secretaries table the aspect changed, for here were seated in a compact body seventy-three members out of seventy-five of Parliament. They wore the regulation official hat with the red tassel and the long official robe. Their backs were of course toward us, and it was with difficulty that we recognised those whom we knew as they rose or turned in their seats.\n\n\"The room is well lighted with glass in the roof, and is tastefully arranged. As we look up on the right wall we see the Chinese characters for 'China,' and opposite Until very recently the them on the other wall are the characters for 'Long Live.' \n\n'Emperor' was put in place of 'China.' But the people are now saying, 'Long Live China' instead of Long Live the Emperor.'\n\n\"The business of the day was organisation. The president or speaker is a Mr. Kau, from the Yeng Bing prefecture from the city Sung Chiong. He is 44 years old. There are two vice-presidents, one a Mr. Lau, from Foochow, and a Mr. Chen, from Chiang Chiu, near Amoy. Fifteen men were elected as the executive of the Parliament, who are to be in the building daily.\n\n\"The voting was done by ballot. The secretaries distributed envelopes to the members into which each member could put his vote, these were afterwards collected, counted, and the results read by one of the secretaries and also written on a small blackboard and hung up.\n\n\"Several members on being elected to the executive forthwith resigned. Otherwise all was conducted with dignity and grace. Great possibilities for usefulness\n\n*Not reproduced.\n\n21\n\nlie within the powers of this body of men. Ten years ago we had not even thought of the possibility of a constitutional Government for China. To-day the machinery is at work.\n\n\"This marks an epochal day in the history of China.' Specimen of Debate.\" Sample of debate on the establishment of schools.\n\n\"Mr. Lin Lu-ts'un: May I ask why Hsing-Hua-Fu and Chuan-chou Fu have not been included in the list of groups of towns?\n\n\"The Treasurer: These two names have been accidentally omitted and shall be added in future lists.\n\n“Mr. Lien Hsien-chi: I approve of the method of arranging town in groups; but should like to be informed whether the allocation of funds will be arranged on the same system as that applied in the case of the Government High School at Foochow.\n\n\"The Treasurer: After the regulations have been deliberated and fixed, the necessary expenditure will be estimated.\n\n\"Mr. Lien Hsien-cha: I think the estimate of expenditure should be made first. \"The Treasurer: The funds available do not exceed 50,000 dollars, which is insufficient; therefore, a new estimate must be drawn up. But the regulations must precede it.\n\n\"Mr. Lin Lu-ts'un: I propose that towns be grouped on the basis of dialects. A centre should be established at Amoy to comprise the islands in the south of the province. Thence the grouping may be extended to the various prefectures.\n\n\"The President; This proposal must be first examined and reported on by the inspectors appointed for the purpose. To this all the members gave their approval.\n\nViceroy's Message.\" This is in accordance with the regulations for the high schools promulgated in the first year of the present reign. It was provided that high schools should be established at Peking and in the various provinces. Primary schools should be started in prefectures, departments, towns, and villages. The establishment of high schools in such prefectures as do not yet possess them will be effected by the end of the year. The high school is a step above the primary school which acts as a feeder. A high school has recently been established at Foochow. At Yen-ping Fu the question of establishing a high school is under consideration by the people. High schools have been established at Chich-uing Fu, at Shao-wa Fu, at Ting-chou Fu, at Hsing-hua Fu, at Ch'uan-chou Fu, and at Yung-ch'un Chou but without much success. The high school established at Lung-yen Chou has already come to an untimely end, while that at Fu-ning Fu is not yet in working order. Such is the present state of affairs as regards the high schools. Primary schools have to be provided in two departments and in fifty-eight districts; so many in large districts; so many in small.\n\n\"In the matter of the proposed local Government Boards, the arrangements are not yet completed; the areas of the different sections have not been defined; the number of inhabitants to each section has not been reckoned; nor have the villages and towns been properly grouped. The establishment of primary schools and the allocation of funds for their up-keep is the problem before us and it is difficult. High schools are the issue of primary schools. Both together are the basis of our education scheme and with care and wisdom must the foundation be laid.\" \n\nKWANGTUNG.\n\nThe following extract is quoted from a memorandum by Mr. Lancelot Giles, of His Majesty's consulate-general at Canton :--\n\nElections.\" On the 17th July, 1909, the first ballot was held in the Yamens of the various district and department magistrates and sub-prefects. The method adopted was that any person who fell into one or other of the categories of those eligible for election circulated among the voters pamphlets expressing his desire for election. Only persons securing a vote were qualified to be voted for on the second ballot, held on the 24th August, 1909.\n\n\"The names of those who received votes at the first ballot were placarded at the Yamens of the prefects, sub-prefects, and magistrates, where the second ballot was held. Before a given date those who wished to accept their nomination had to signify their assent, otherwise they were disqualified.\n\nSecond Elections and Distribution of Seats.-\"At the second ballot ninety-four\n\nQ [2605 7--2]\n\n153",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-371 - Public Offices - 1910.txt",
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    {
        "id": 429033,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910",
        "page_number": 374,
        "title": "CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910",
        "content_text": "[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]\n\nOPIUM.\n\nCONFIDENTIAL,\n\n[23051]\n\nNo. 1.\n\n371\n\nCO Dupe 271-165 RESECTION 2. Rest 15 JUL 10\n\nConsul-General O'Brien-Butler to Sir Edward Grey.--(Received June 27.)\n\n(No. 8. Confidential.) Sir,\n\nYunnan-fu, May 20, 1910.\n\nI HAVE the honour to forward to you herewith copy of an opium report for the four months ended the 30th April, 1910, which I am sending to His Majesty's chargé d'affaires at Peking.\n\nI have, &c.\n\nP. E. O'BRIEN-BUTLER,\n\nEnclosure in No. 1.\n\n(No. 17. Sir,\n\nConsul-General O'Brien-Butler to Mr. Max Müller.\n\nConfidential.)\n\nYunnan-fu, May 20, 1910.\n\nIN my opium report for December quarter, despatch No. 9 of the 8th February, I mentioned that the magistrate of P'ing-i had been deprived of his office and his button on account of his habitual disregard of the anti-opium regulations, and his connivance at the smuggling of opium across the border from Kweichow. From this town of P'ing-i the Rev. H. A. C. Allen writes under date of the 1st April\n\n\"It goes without saying that no opium is planted within 10 or 20 li of the city.* But it is well known that in the south of this magistracy quite a lot is grown. In the district of Huang-ni-ho, four days south of this, the ground is exceptionally good for growing opium, and possibly the district is warmer than here. Some three months ago our magistrate† made a tour of seventy days in his district, but chiefly in the aforementioned direction. I was told confidentially that a few days before he returned he sent on ahead four horse-loads of silver, and the head clerk who was with him one horse-load. This, spelt out in dollars, was given as 7,000 dollars and 1,000 dollars respectively. That this was altogether an exaggeration is more than probable; at the same time, I dare say his purse was heavier on returning than on his starting. He left a few days since in another direction. I was surprised to hear from a man whom I know, and at whose house I recently stayed 35 li from here, that there is some opium planted a couple of li from his place... This being a district bordering on Kweichow with good soil, it naturally affords a good opportunity for illicit growth. Opium smoking does not seem to have decreased much. It is everywhere in evidence, though the amount consumed is much less necessarily since the price is so high. An immense number of people swallow it who used to smoke it. It is a pity the Viceroy smokes, and that it is common knowledge on the street.'\n\nOn the 2nd March the Rev. S. Pollard, who had just arrived from a journey in the northern part of Yunnan, informed me that he had come across opium growing in some parts of T'ung-ch'uan prefecture. Runners had been sent to enquire into the matter, but they were well bribed to be silent, and the poppy was in flower when Mr. Pollard and some companion missionaries passed. Mr. Pollard added that in no other place did he see any trace of the poppy;\n\nSeveral travellers have informed me that they have seen opium growing in the portion of Yunnan north of the Yang-tsze.\n\nFrom Kweichow province I have received two letters. The Rev. C. Freeman\n\n* 3 li equal about 1 mile.\n\n†The successor of the official who was deprived of his office and his button.\n\n[2793 dd-2]",
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        "document_key": "CO129-373 - Public Offices - 1910",
        "page_number": 382,
        "title": "CO129-373 - Public Offices - 1910",
        "content_text": "14\n\nis 2 per cent. of last year's area. His campaign having taken place in the spring, the farmers were unable to put anything into the ground except potatoes and beans, of which there will this year no doubt be a record harvest. The old poppy fields are easily distinguished by the stray poppies showing here and there.\n\nThe Tao Chou district is too elevated for the opium poppy and is mainly inhabited by Thibetans, so that little opium has ever been grown there. I only saw one field which had not yet come into flower.\n\n\"In the Ti-tao and Ho Chou districts, the American missionary at the former town told me, the enforcement of the prohibition had been as strict as at Min Chou, very little opium being overlooked in either district. In former years these three were among the chief opium-producing districts of Kansu. In the two days crossing the Ti-tao district I saw not more than a dozen fields, though in many fields of beans and tobacco stray plants were carefully preserved.\n\n\"In Min Chou and Tao Chou the price of raw opium was from 900 to 1,000 cash an ounce. The sale was not officially licensed, but dens were supposed to have been closed. T'ai Chou being inhabited mainly by Mahommedans, the drug is not much smoked there; but in Min Chon and in the Chinese villages I was told the habit is universal, and the poorer members of the community are suffering severely from being unable to satisfy their craving.\n\n\"The remainder of my route has been traversed by Sir A. Hosie and reported on by him. He will no doubt have noticed the large quantity of poppy growing in the Kao-lan Hsien district. I saw many times as much there as all I had seen previously put together.\n\n\"In the western part of Kao-lan Hsien district which I traversed the first day, I did not see any opium poppy, and I think it had all been cut down, the harvest being completed. Crossing the Yellow River at Hsin-ch'eng I followed the Si-ning River for the next two days as far as its junction with the Ta-tung River, up which I then went as far as Yao-kai. The whole of this journey was through the P'ing-fan district, which belongs to Liang-chou prefecture. In the lower parts the opium harvest was over, and the poppies had been cut down and removed, but the large stacks of poppy stalks in almost every courtyard were evidence that the plant had been extensively cultivated. Round Yao-kai I saw many fields—quite one-sixth of the irrigated land—covered with poppy in full bloom. The poppy, requiring a rich soil, is only cultivated here in the irrigated district, and therefore the total amount grown here cannot be very great. An intelligent Chinese I talked with on the subject told me that the proportion of poppy ground to other crops was in former years four-tenths of the irrigated land. The usual proclamation had been issued in Ping-fan but not enforced, and the bolder farmers had sown poppy and allowed it to remain when ordered to pull it up. He estimated the crop in Ping-fan district at one-tenth the normal, but I think this is an exceedingly low figure, and I should say a third of the normal amount would not be too large. The opium dealers were offering this year 300 to 400 cash per tael for the new season's crops. This is about the same as last year's price, for the opium edicts had then already caused a great increase in the price of the drug. As the year advances the raw opium becomes dryer and more concentrated, so that for last season's opium the price is now 700 cash an ounce. The price of this year's opium is likely to rise to the same figure as it matures. The suppression of poppy cultivation appears to have been carried out very perfunctorily in the Ping-fan district and, I am told, throughout the Liang-chou prefecture. It is unfortunate I was not able to visit the latter city, but my previous arrangements did not allow it.\n\nThe campaign against the drug has been energetically proceeded with in the Si-ning prefecture, and cultivation almost entirely suppressed. Owing to the generally elevated and mountainous character of the country, the lowest parts being about 6,000 feet above sea level, the cultivation of the poppy is possible only in restricted districts along the river valleys, and even there was not as prevalent as in other parts of the province. The opium edicts already caused a reduction of the area under poppy in 1909, and this year the cultivation of the plant was completely stopped in the Si-ning district. In the Nien-pei and Ta-t'ung districts the prohibition was enforced with equal severity, although I saw an occasional field of poppy in the former, and I think the authorities throughout the Si-ning prefecture may be credited with carrying out the Imperial commands with exceptional thoroughness. The Kuei-te and Hsun-hua districts on the Yellow River, mainly inhabited by Thibetans, have never produced opium in considerable quantities. Dan-gar Ting is too elevated for its cultivation.\n\n\"In Si-ning the price of raw opium is now about 900 cash the ounce, that of prepared opium, 1,150 cash. Similar prices prevail at Ta-tung Hsien. An official bureau for the sale of opium and opium antidotes was opened at Si-ning some two years ago, but has since been closed, and there is now no restriction on trade in the drug, nor are there any facilities for curing the opium habit. Opium dens have never existed in the city.\n\n\"The proportion of opium smokers among the Chinese population of the prefecture is estimated at over 50 per cent. The Mahommedans, Thibetans, and Mongols are not addicted to the habit, and not more than 1 per cent. of the former are thought to be opium smokers.'\n\nAs in the case of Shensi, the annual production of opium in Kansu previous to 1908 and since that year is an unknown quantity. There have been many estimates, the latest, and probably the most unreliable, based on Customs reports, being that presented to the Shanghai International Opium Commission, and given as 23,000 piculs for 1908. It was on this estimate that the production of Kansu in 1906 was arbitrarily increased to 34,000 piculs, although it is now well known that no measures of repression were introduced until 1909, and, indeed, no effective measures up to the present time.\n\nIn his telegraphic reply to the Wai-wu Pu, quoted in the \"Peking Daily News\" of the 7th September, the Viceroy of Shensi and Kansu states \"that poppy was cultivated on a large scale in Kansu, and that there were numerous persons addicted to the opium-smoking habit. As the result of the crusade against opium last year, out of 168,500 mou of land in 1908, 77,300 were free from the poppy plant. At the beginning of this year only about 20,000 mou still remained under cultivation of the poppy. Commissioners were sent out to take concerted action with the local officials in persuading opium cultivators to turn their lands into grain fields, with the result that only about 2,000 mou of poppy fields have not as yet been totally converted. In the provincial capital there used to be six opium shops, but they have now been closed. In the 139 refuges, out of 234,600 opium smokers, 130,000 have been cured of the habit. This can have only one meaning, namely, that there were only 2,000 mou of land in Kansu under poppy in 1910, and all I can say is that in districts like Fo-chiang, Chin Hsien, or Ping-liang Hsien I passed in one day along the high-road hundreds of poppy fields, amounting in the aggregate to many thousands of mou. That the mou, fixed by treaty at 7334 square yards, varies in extent with the provinces, but no variation, however great, can justify the statement that the land under poppy cultivation in Kansu in 1910 amounted to only 2,000 mou, which, taking the Governor of Shansi's estimate of 40 Chinese ounces as the yield of opium per mou, would give the production of opium in Kansu for 1910 as 50 piculs!\n\nIt is true\n\nAlong the roads which I followed I observed few if any signs of interference with the poppy fields; in the Fochiang district there was an immense increase as compared with 1909, the Chin Hsien district was full of it, and the poppy was actually in full bloom within the walls of the city of Ping-liang Fu.\n\nI am very much inclined to doubt any statements regarding poppy cultivation in China unless they are based on personal observation and investigation; but it is only fair that I should quote some notes on the subject which have been kindly furnished at my request by three missionaries in Kansu.\n\nMr. E. J. Mann, of the China Inland Mission, writing to me from Fo-chiang Hsien on the 5th July, says\n\nOn the afternoon you left this city (the 28th June) we had a terrible hailstorm, I hope you were not caught in it. I think it was more or less local. It seemed heaviest on the south hills where I told you so much opium was being grown. Quite a lot was badly injured. One plot of 40 shang (100 mou) was sold for 600 taels and was almost entirely destroyed. What was not destroyed is still a huge crop.\n\nI don't know if\n\nyou were able to get a view of the poppy being grown on the north of the river. My man reported that from the hill it looked one white flower-garden. And by all accounts there is a large crop being grown there. To the east of the city—15 li away—the ploughing craze did not affect the crop, and in one village there is reported to be only four plots of grain.\n\n\"There are still no merchants here and the price of raw opium is falling. At present it is 220 to 330 for different qualities. Small buyers are losing money fast, for all expected a quick rise in prices and many small merchants have invested their money in standing opium. I met the Roman Catholic priest recently and enquired of him as to opium in south of the province. He informed me that Huei Hsien and Cheng Hsien have very heavy crops, much more than other years. At Li Hsien, a city next south of us, the opium is more or less cleared from the plain around the city, but he says there is much being grown in the hills.\n\n15\n\n[2980 c-8]\n\nF\n\n381",
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    {
        "id": 435163,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911",
        "page_number": 577,
        "title": "CO129-383 - Public Offices - 1911",
        "content_text": "## \n\nIn the Hui-tsê district, the sub-prefecture of Chiao-chia Ting, and the department of Hsün-tien Chou, I found the poppy under cultivation, mostly in flower. In the Hui-tsê district, I found thirty-eight plots; in the Chiao-chia Ting sub-prefecture, twenty-seven plots; and in the Hsün-tien Chou department, seven plots—a total of seventy-two plots. The largest of these measured 300 by 100 yards. Many were half that size, and the smallest plot was only 20 by 5 yards. Of the seven plots seen in the department of Hsün-tien Chou, two were by the roadside, and within 40 miles of the provincial capital.\n\nI should mention that the bearers and porters whom I had engaged at Sui Fu to convey me to Yunnan-fu refused to accompany me on this detour owing to the mountainous and inaccessible nature of the country, and that I had to employ local men for this part of my journey.\n\nAs regards Eastern Yunnan, I am of the opinion, from personal investigation and from information received during my travels, that in the former chief centres of production, the cultivation of the poppy has either practically ceased or been very largely diminished, and that, although the poppy is still grown in remote and unfrequented districts, its cultivation therein has not been materially extended, and is being carried on with considerable trepidation and is chiefly for local consumption. It is true that raw opium could be purchased secretly at most places along the road I travelled, but that supply is derived from old stocks held by private individuals, who employ friends and agents to dispose of it retail.\n\nWhile carrying out my investigation in the province of Szechuan, I telegraphed to His Majesty's acting consul at Tengyueh asking him to be good enough to furnish me with a few notes on opium cultivation in Western Yunnan during the present season, and the following is the summary of the information with which Mr. Rose has kindly furnished me. He had recently returned from a frontier tour, during which he had passed through many of the tribal districts, and he states that in the plains surrounding the cities, there was no trace of the poppy, nor was there any extensive cultivation in the hills of the purely Chinese zone, but the tribal area showed a considerable increase. He estimates that the area under poppy in the whole of the frontier districts has increased from 27,000 in 1910 to 43,000 English acres in 1911, and the production of opium from 5,000 to 8,000 piculs. He adds that the measures taken by the Chinese authorities to diminish this production are by no means effective.\n\nTaking, therefore, the province of Yunnan as a whole and making due allowance for the disappearance of the poppy from the great opium-producing centres of Eastern Yunnan and from the plains within the Chinese zone in the west without any marked increase of cultivation in other parts of the province (except in the frontier tribal districts), it may, I think, be fairly assumed that the estimated production of 60,000 piculs of Yunnan opium prior to the introduction of the measures of suppression has been very materially reduced, and I venture to hazard the opinion that the output of 1910-11 will not exceed 15,000 piculs; in other words, that there has been a reduction of about 75 per cent. In the absence of reliable statistics of any kind, it is, of course, impossible to furnish exact or authoritative figures; but the above estimate is the result of personal investigation in a part of Yunnan which formerly included several large opium-producing centres and of a careful examination of information derived from other sources.\n\nTo his Excellency Hsi Liang, who held the post of Viceroy of the provinces of Yünnan and Kueichow from the 10th May, 1907, to the 25th February, 1909, belongs the chief credit for the present great reduction in the cultivation of opium in Yünnan. During his tenure of office, his Excellency was untiring in his efforts to eradicate the poppy from the province; he proclaimed that all cultivation of the poppy must cease in Yunnan by the 21st January, 1909, and that no opium was to be allowed to pass any customs station or li-kin barrier after the 21st September, 1908. To allay discontent among holders of stocks, the latter time limit was extended by the Acting Viceroy Shên Ping-kun, now Governor of Kwangsi, who held office from the 26th February to the 16th November, 1909, and proved himself no less energetic than his predecessor.\n\nIn 1910, overtures were made to the present Viceroy, his Excellency Li Ching-hsi, by the delegate of the Government of Indo-China in Yunnan-fu with a view to the removal of the embargo on the export of Yunnan opium to Tonquin. This permission was refused at the time; but on the 11th instant, a proclamation was issued by the Viceroy permitting holders of old stocks to export for a period of four months from the 30th March to the 25th July, 1911, the conditions being that opium so exported shall pay double the former native customs duty and li-kin or 63 taels per 1,000 Chinese ounces (equal to 100 taels a picul), and that such opium must be sent direct to the port of Mengtzu and there sold to an official opium department, which will arrange for its disposal, export, and payment of export duty.\n\nI have said that opium could be purchased secretly at most of the places through which I passed on my way to Yunnan-fu, and I may add that the price varied from 1 dollar to 1 tael per Chinese ounce (14 oz. English) for the raw drug. In Yunnan-fu, the price is now 1 tael, so that raw opium here is at present worth its weight in silver, or about six times the price prior to 1907.\n\nYunnan-fu, April 15, 1911.\n\nALEX. HOSIE.\n\nPage 571",
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        "document_key": "CO129-393 - Governor Sir May - 1912 [11]",
        "page_number": 247,
        "title": "CO129-393 - Governor Sir May - 1912 [11]",
        "content_text": "234\n\n.BIOLdor\n\n•Na401243 100kg) Dovunu kedirilų sen di pai ori\n\n(det vist 101 Angul))\n\n.1808 LING ,03%\n\nbead of\n\n•\n\nod 15.3\n\n(A)\n\n•\n\nLower Four Prefectures.\n\nRiver traffic at Hoiping suspended owing to prevalence of piracy.\n\n(Chung Kuo Pao, September 3rd.)\n\nRobbers completely routed at Hoi Ping: 74 captured.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, September 10th.)\n\nRobbers active in Kaochow district: 3 battalions (ying) despatched under Li Fu-lin\n\n(Kuo Lin Pao July 22nd.) Number of armed robberies reported from Hoihow.\n\n(Yang Cheng Pao, September 27th.)\n\nPage 234 appears to be a collection of news clippings or reports, likely from historical newspapers or documents related to piracy and robberies in certain regions.\n\nThe text contains a mix of English and nonsensical characters, suggesting OCR errors.\n\nThe coherent parts mention issues like river traffic suspension due to piracy, robberies, and military responses in places like Hoiping, Hoi Ping, Kaochow, and Hoihow.\n\nThe nonsensical parts are likely due to OCR misinterpretation of the original text, possibly from poor scan quality or non-standard fonts.\n\nTo improve readability, the text needs correction of spelling errors, removal of nonsensical characters, and proper formatting.\n\nHere is the corrected version:\n\n234\n\nLower Four Prefectures.\n\nRiver traffic at Hoiping suspended owing to prevalence of piracy.\n\n(Chung Kuo Pao, September 3rd.)\n\nRobbers completely routed at Hoi Ping: 74 captured.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, September 10th.)\n\nRobbers active in Kaochow district: 3 battalions (ying) despatched under Li Fu-lin\n\n(Kuo Lin Pao July 22nd.) Number of armed robberies reported from Hoihow.\n\n(Yang Cheng Pao, September 27th.)",
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    {
        "id": 439614,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-394 - Governor Sir May & Public Offices - 1912 [12]",
        "page_number": 106,
        "title": "CO129-394 - Governor Sir May & Public Offices - 1912 [12]",
        "content_text": "Page 104\n\n5,000 - 6,000 troops operating in Shuntak district defeat robbers and members of \"Second Republican Party\" at Ta Lien Ch'eng. Enemy fired about 20 houses before retiring.\n\n(Kuo Min Pao and Yang Cheng Pao, October 31.)\n\nEAST RIVER. Tseng Ch'eng raided by robbers.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, October 12.)\n\nNORTH RIVER. Passenger junk pirated at Tsung Fa twice in 10 days, and village burned.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, October 16.)\n\nKotong very lawless; 500 troops despatched from Canton.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, October 16.)\n\nWEST RIVER. Robbers said to be in force at Hsin I Hsien, on Kuanghsi border, under leadership of old members of Northern Expeditionary Force.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, October ...)\n\nYEUNG KONG DISTRICT.\n\n...\n\nLOWER FOUR PREFECTURES.\n\n(Kuo Min Pao, October 23.) 60 piracies reported to have taken place in space of 10 days.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, October 4.) Local Authorities telegraph for troops, fearing attack on town.\n\n(Kuo Min Pao, October 17.) One battalion (ying) of troops and two gunboats despatched from Canton.\n\n(Kuo Min Pao, October 19.) Piracies reported to have occurred daily from 9th to 13th.\n\n(Min Sheng Pao, October 21.) 20 villages in neighbourhood reported to have been burned and 100 persons killed by robbers and pirates.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, October 26.) Several hundred troops despatched from Canton on October 29th.\n\n(Yang Ch'ong Pao, October 31.)\n\n(a). Kaochou. District very lawless; 500 troops despatched.\n\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, October 5.) Troops fired on by female robbers.\n\n(Kuo Min Pao, October 23.)\n\nPage ...",
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        "id": 439618,
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        "document_key": "CO129-394 - Governor Sir May & Public Offices - 1912 [12]",
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        "title": "CO129-394 - Governor Sir May & Public Offices - 1912 [12]",
        "content_text": "Page 108\n\n5. LOWER FOUR PREFECTURES.\n\nRobbers on boundary of Fa Yun and Ch'ing Yuan districts dispersed with loss of 12 killed.\n\n(Min Sheng Pao, November 17.)\n\nTroops sent to Lienchow to repress disorders; villagers called on to raise auxiliary forces (t'uan).\n\n7",
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        "id": 442382,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-399 - Governor Sir May - 1913 [1-2]",
        "page_number": 509,
        "title": "CO129-399 - Governor Sir May - 1913 [1-2]",
        "content_text": "## 505\n\nWu Chih Pan Hsiang, near Samshui, plundered on January 13; this neighbourhood reported to be very lawless.\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, January 16)\n\nHongkong merchants telegraph that country round Yan Ping is very lawless, and request that troops be sent.\n(Chung Kuo Pao, January 17.)\n\nTroops sent to restore order in Yan Ping district.\n(Kuo Min Pao, January 18.)\n\nLi K'ang Hsiang, near Samshui, plundered on night of January 20.\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, January 25)\n\nTroops operating in Yan Ping district defeat bandits and are reported to have killed 100, but ask for reinforcements, fearing that they are not strong enough to restore order.\n\nLan kidnapped near Samshui and held to ransom for $200.\n(Min Sheng Pao, January 21.)\n\n### North River\n\n1. Village of Ch'ek Nei, Fa Yun district, plundered on January 4 and 30 buffaloes carried off.\n\n2. Lower Four Prefectures District.\n\n3. Yang Shan Magistrate killed by bandits. Tutu orders troops to be despatched.\n(Min Sheng Pao, January 14.)\n\n4. Troops hemmed in near Kotong and reinforcements sent.\n(Chung Kuo Pao, January 24.)\n\n5. Official conveying pay for troops attacked and robbed near Shiuchou.\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, January 29)\n\n6. Robberies reported to be very prevalent near Shuitung, not far from Kuangchouwan, most of the villages in this neighbourhood having been plundered.\n(Chung Kuo Pao, January 5.)\n\n7. Yeungkong Chamber of Commerce telegraph for troops, in view of the lawless condition of the district. 1,000 of General Lung's troops despatched.\n(Ch'i Shih Erh Hang Shang Pao, January 13)",
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    {
        "id": 445103,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
        "series_use_hku_proxy": false,
        "document_key": "CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913",
        "page_number": 177,
        "title": "CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913",
        "content_text": "# OPIUM.\n## CONFIDENTIAL.\n\nNo. 1.\n\nJanuary 9.\n\n### SECTION 1.\n\n176\n\n(No. 506.) Sir,\n\nSir J. Jordan to Sir Edward Grey.-(Received January 9, 1913.)\n\nPeking, December 23, 1912.\n\nI HAVE the honour to transmit herewith copy of a despatch in which His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow forwarded to me a number of reports on the cultivation of opium in China appearing in a local newspaper. The reports themselves, which are all by missionaries and nearly all signed, are too voluminous to trouble you with, but they are summed up, not fairly, in the enclosed extract from a later issue of the same paper, which Mr. Wilkinson has forwarded to me in a subsequent despatch. Copies are also enclosed of letters from missionaries received by Mr. Wilkinson during the last four months in reply to repeated requests for information concerning the cultivation of the poppy.\n\nOwing to the unsettled condition of the country generally during the spring and summer months of this year when the poppy was in flower, it was not possible to undertake special investigations into this subject, and the information in my possession regarding the extent to which opium was cultivated this year is by no means complete. I have, however, carefully compared the letters in the \"Central China Post\" with such reports as have reached me during the year from His Majesty's consular officers, and I have the honour to summarise briefly as follows the result of this analysis:\n\nLeaving out the Manchurian provinces, the reports in the \"Central China Post\" deal with the following twelve out of eighteen provinces of China: Anhwei, Chekiang, Chibli, Honan, Hunan, Hupeh, Kansu, Kiangsi, Kweichow, Shansi, Shensi, and Szechuan.\n\nIn regard to five of these, namely, Anhui, Chibli, Honan, Hupeh, and Kiangsi, I have had no consular reports as to growth of opium this year, and I have no reason to doubt the general accuracy of the missionaries' reports as summarised in the paper. I would call your attention to the recrudescence of opium growing last spring in the extreme north of Anhui and on the Kiangsu border of that province; and I would mention that in a letter received by the \"Central China Post\" after the summary was compiled, a China inland missionary, writing from Yingchowfu in North Anhui, reports that this year (November) \"a tremendous sowing is being made,\" which he hopes will not be permitted to mature. Chibli appears to be fairly clear of the poppy. Reports from Honan and Hupeh are on the whole favourable, although it will be seen from the letters received by His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow that in some parts of Honan more opium is reported to have been sown than ever before. The reports from Kiangsu are somewhat conflicting.\n\nAs to the provinces of Kansu, Kweichow, and Shensi, the missionary reports, damning in regard to Kweichow and on the whole unfavourable in regard to the other two, are confirmed by earlier reports in my possession, and by the letters to His Majesty's consul-general at Hankow herewith enclosed.\n\nThe evidence as to poppy cultivation in the remaining four of the twelve provinces included in the Hankow newspaper reports, Chekiang, Hunan, Shansi, Szechuan, is somewhat conflicting.\n\nA consular report from Chekiang last February stated that opium was grown in at least two prefectures, Taichow and Wenchow. The \"Central China Post\" reports from both of these prefectures admit the truth of this allegation, but state that the prohibition of cultivation throughout the province is now thoroughly effective. The letters from Hunan allege that the whole province is clear of opium except in the hill district on the southern border, where some poppy was grown last spring. Reports, however, from His Majesty's consul at Changsha, dated in July last, showed that in several places scattered over the province, opium growers had successfully, and with impunity resisted the deputies sent to suppress cultivation. The missionary letters are, therefore, probably too optimistic, but at the same time it must be admitted that the consular reports themselves indicate the vigour with which the anti-opium campaign in the Province is being pursued.\n\nThis is the province where the burning of the seven chests occurred for which we are claiming compensation.\n\nPage 176\nPage [1255]\n[2766 -1]",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/2diw2n4r2/CO129-405 - Public Offices - 1913.txt",
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    {
        "id": 445547,
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        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-406 - Public Offices - 1913",
        "page_number": 18,
        "title": "CO129-406 - Public Offices - 1913",
        "content_text": "# seems little doubt that milder measures would have failed to accomplish the desired end. The sudden and sweeping character of the repressive campaign must be accepted as proof of the determination of the Hunan authorities to justify their claim to a place on the free list.\n\nFrom Changsha to Paoching, which is roughly in the centre of the province, the whole party travelled together. With the permanent escort provided by the Provincial Government, the local escorts from the various prefectures, and the porters necessary for so large a party, we often numbered as many as 200 men. It was evident that it would be impossible to accommodate and feed so large a party on the small roads, and, when we separated at Paoching, I felt bound to insist on a substantial reduction in the retinue. The murder of two opium deputies at Hsu-pu last year, and the constant skirmishes between the soldiers and the farmers had made the authorities genuinely anxious for our safety. We had no trouble from the people, however, throughout the journey, and our only anxiety was the feeding, even of a small party, in many of the remoter districts.\n\nThe Miaos gave no sign of the unfriendliness against which we had been so gravely warned by the officials. They are an unusually fine race of men and women, of good physique and with pleasant open faces. They retain their own language and customs, and their tribal ornaments, but their dress differs little from that of the Chinese. They are the most prosperous and the most civilised of the tribesmen whom I have met in China, and although they give constant trouble to the Chinese, and resent their interference and their attempts at administration, it was evident that they were well disposed towards us as foreigners. Their villages are built in commanding positions on the very crests of the hills, and they are picturesque, well built, and defiant, in striking contrast to the hidden villages of the tribesmen further west. A line of forts and blockhouses has been built by the Chinese to command the roads and to keep open communications, and they are now endeavouring to secure moral hold over the tribesmen by founding a regiment of them, in which the men have insisted on the appointment of Miao officers.\n\nThere is a tendency for the Chinese to intermarry with Miao women, and, as is generally the case in union between the Chinese and a cognate race, the children are particularly fine specimens both physically and mentally. I imagine that Hunan owes much of its prosperity and individuality to the Miao blood, which is evidently the aboriginal stock of the country.\n\nThe greater part of Southern and Western Hunan consists of a plateau of about 1,500 feet, broken by mountain peaks of great grandeur and beauty. Forests of pine and fir cover the mountain sides, the passes are from 3,000 to 5,000 feet in height, and at this season of the year the country is intersected by countless torrents, bordered by a wealth of flowers, with rhododendrons, azaleas, and many flowering shrubs. For only two days were we free of rain, which fell almost incessantly, making the steep tracks difficult and dangerous. In spite of constant fever, arising no doubt from the continual damp and the exhausting marches, the porters and soldiers were willing and good tempered, and the Hunanese are a fine sturdy race with whom it is a pleasure to travel. The mountain roads link up a line of scattered villages surrounded by fields of rice, wheat, rape, buckwheat, and hemp. The villages have an architectural beauty which never ceases to astonish one in these remote and thinly-peopled regions. The timbered farm-houses, the graceful bridges, and fine ancestral halls in their setting of golden rape flowers against dark rocks and pines, show a skill in construction and an artistic perception amongst these farmers of Hunan which marks them with an individuality all their own. Farmers by tradition and inheritance, they have given to China a line of scholars, engineers, administrators, and Empire builders of whom they are justly proud. Their fierce resistance to any foreign encroachment on their province and their rights has created an impression of an anti-foreign sentiment among the people. In the course of our tour, however, we were welcomed every evening by the representative men of the villages, and they seemed to me friendly, interested, and intelligent, with a directness of mind and expression which is unusual among the Chinese.\n\nThe evidence of independent travellers tends to show that opium has not been produced near the towns or along the main roads of Hunan for several years past, but official proclamations and the provincial press have admitted the failure of the authorities to clear these outlying mountain villages, where transport is difficult, and a light easily-carried commodity such as opium is produced. The Hunanese farmer, moreover, is an independent and vigorous personality, and it was evident to us that he would make a definite struggle against official interference unless it was backed by overwhelming force. The campaign against the poppy has been well organised and effective; a line of garrisons has been stretched along the whole of the southern and western borders; groups of five families have been bound together for preventive purposes with a bond of mutual responsibility under heavy penalties; the teachers in the Government schools now existing in every rural community have been charged with opium-intelligence work as part of their official duties; and numbers of deputies have scoured the country offering rewards for every poppy plant produced by informers. In the Paoching district 5 dollars a root was offered last season, and the fact that the reward was never claimed appeared to prove the prefecture free of poppy. In Kwei-yang Hsien the reward had to be reduced to 1 cash a plant owing to the numbers brought in, but even here a careful examination by Mr. King failed to reveal any crops at harvest time this year.\n\nThroughout the southern and western districts also the military operations have been successful in clearing the country, though the campaign has been accompanied by cruelty and corruption. The evidence all pointed to the fact that the poppy had been sown in small patches over an extensive area, but that the total amount under cultivation was inconsiderable. The fact that few fields were lying fallow appeared to me to prove that the uprooted opium crops could not have covered very much ground, and that the harvest would have had very little effect on the general market even in the province itself. Even the steep hillsides were planted with wood-oil trees of from two to four years' growth, showing that the main campaign against the poppy had taken place several seasons ago. In some places, where the campaign of destruction had been so hurried that there had not been time to uproot all the crops, the water had been let into the fields, and the poppy plants were serving as a somewhat extravagant fertiliser for the ensuing rice crops.\n\nAs to the use of opium, it was difficult to obtain precise information, for we were accompanied by large escorts, which were inclined to hamper our free intercourse with the people. Many of the local soldiers, however, had taken part in the preventive campaigns, and their personal experiences proved an interesting commentary on the accounts of the officials. A number of smokers, both men and women, have undoubtedly been executed in different parts of the province, but I could obtain no exact information as to the numbers of victims in the western area, and I think that the campaign in that part of the province has been conducted on broad lines rather than against individuals, and that it has been mainly concerned with the destruction of the crops.\n\nThe Republican officials are generally young men who have been educated in Japan, and few, if any, of them indulge in opium smoking. The soldiers also appear to be quite free from the habit, and in their case the beneficial results of freedom from the drug are beyond all question. In some of the larger centres, notably in Hung-chiang and Shen-chou-fu, large numbers of the people have the opium complexion, but we were unable to obtain any direct evidence of smoking or of the use of opium pills, and the penetrating smell of the drug, once so common in the inns and on the boats, was entirely absent. Opium pills could not be bought by our party in any of the towns or villages through which we passed, nor could they obtain opium. There is little doubt that considerable numbers of the population still use the drug in one form or another, but the sale is always attended with difficulty and danger, and it is only supplied to those who are well known. The price is so high too, ranging from three dollars an ounce in Hung-chiang and Shen-chou to nine dollars in Changsha, that it is far beyond the means of the masses.\n\nI learned from men who were coming in from the neighbouring provinces that opium can still be freely grown and used immediately across the Kueichow border, and that numbers of Hunan coolies prefer to remain in that province, where the scale of wage is lower than in Hunan, rather than abandon the use of the drug, which is of very real service to those engaged in hard manual labour under trying climatic conditions. The abolition of opium would doubtless benefit China in many ways, but an experience of travelling in many provinces in the interior convinces me that it will be a very real loss to the over-burdened carrying coolie and the worker in the wet paddy fields. This last journey was certainly one of unusual hardship for our caravan, owing to the bad weather and the difficult roads, but I have never seen so much suffering among the porters, who arrived day after day at the end of their long marches wet and cold and too exhausted to sleep or eat without some simple stimulant. They used the country liquor as an alternative to opium, but there can be little question that it is more expensive, more deleterious, and less effective as a remedy than the pipe of opium to which they have been accustomed, and which has not prevented the coolie of the interior from pursuing an active life to a ripe and healthy old age.",
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    {
        "id": 450964,
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-416 - Public Offices - 1914",
        "page_number": 546,
        "title": "CO129-416 - Public Offices - 1914",
        "content_text": "## \nlast year, and the magistrate informed me that hardly any attempt had been made to sow this season.\n\nLo Yüan has never been an opium-growing district, and there is no sign of any disposition on the part of the people to cultivate it.\n\nThe missionaries state that Ning Te—formerly one of the largest opium-producing districts—the whole plain, up to the gates of the city, used to be covered with poppy, but there is now nothing visible except wheat and rape. We visited Paitu, a large village 50 li north of Ning Te City, which used to have a great reputation for the quality and quantity of the opium produced there. It was at Hotung, in this same neighbourhood, that Bishop Price reported having seen soldiers on their way to destroy opium at the end of last year, but I could not obtain any information as to the precise locality where such destruction took place.\n\nFrom Paitu we went to Sui Chi, in Fu An district, by boat, in order to effect a saving of time.\n\nFu An was in former days by far the worst opium-growing district in the north of Fukien, but though I spent some days in this neighbourhood and made as complete a search as possible, I could find no trace of present cultivation. The magistrate, Mr. Yü, seems a most capable and energetic man, and he has himself spent five months out of the last fourteen in the mountain districts personally superintending the uprooting of the poppy. I am told that there are 1,200 persons engaged in the anti-opium campaign in this district.\n\nFu Ning ranks second to Fu An as an opium-producing district. It was on the road between Fu Ning and Fu An that Rev. Curtis reported having seen poppy last year. Dr. Mackenzie, of the Church Missionary Society in Fu Ning, informed me that some four weeks before my arrival a peasant was discovered to be cultivating a few square feet of poppy in his garden. The man was sentenced to be shot, but on the field of execution, punishment was commuted to 2,000 blows. This discovery, coming on the eve of the commission of investigation, appears to have considerably frightened the magistrate, for he immediately sent out 150 men to scour his district, offering large rewards for information as to cultivation. No further poppy was, however, reported.\n\n## Shou Ning\nFormerly a large producing centre. The inhabitants are miserably poor, and the temptation to plant such a profitable article as opium is correspondingly great; but the state of terror to which the inhabitants have been reduced is well illustrated by the following: In Fu An and neighbouring districts are grown large quantities of a kind of artemisia, called Ai-tzu. I had remarked it especially because its leaves to some extent resemble those of the poppy, though in other respects the plant is quite different. In Shou Ning district I noticed that this plant was entirely absent, and on making enquiries I ascertained that the farmers themselves had rooted up not only this plant but every other which in leaf or flower in the remotest degree resembled the poppy, for fear lest I should mistake them for poppies and get the owners of the land into trouble. In this district, which has a mean height of about 1,000 feet above sea-level, there is only one crop of rice a year, and this season's crop not having yet been sown, the ground was lying fallow, in striking contrast to the other districts I had traversed, which were already green. I enquired whether proper steps were being taken to see that these lands would not be sown with poppy after my investigations were closed, and was assured that not only was it now some ten days past the latest possible date on which poppy could be planted this season, but that the vigilance of the anti-opium authorities would not be relaxed until the whole ground was sown with crops other than poppy.\n\n## Cheng Ho\nOne of the less notorious districts. The cultivable land between Shou Ning and Cheng Ho used, in former days, to be covered with poppy, but there does not appear to be any at present cultivated. My object in choosing this route was partly because I was not expected to take it, and partly because the country it traverses being outside the range of the missions and very rarely visited by foreigners, we had no information respecting it.\n\nSung Chi has a reputation as an opium-smoking, rather than as an opium-cultivating, district. Rev. J. Bloody informed me that he had only heard of one case of cultivation during the last twelve months, and in this case the offender was shot. The district is covered with official notices relating the circumstances and the penalty inflicted, as a warning to other would-be planters.\n\n## Kienning\nIn Kieuning and Shaowu prefectures there are in all some 2,000 Hunanese and Anhui troops, distributed among the cities and villages specially for opium work. They are under the command of the Hunanese Resident-General at Kienning, who is an ardent anti-opium enthusiast, and I am of opinion that they have done their work thoroughly. The British missionaries informed me that, as far as they knew, there had been no attempts at opium cultivation this season.\n\nYen Ping was never a large opium-growing district, the soil not being very suitable. I am informed that a few months ago a certain amount was seen along the river, but I neither saw nor heard of any while in the district.\n\n## \nI have been deeply impressed by the thoroughness and efficiency with which the campaign against the cultivation of opium is being carried on and the spirit which animates the workers. The Government institution (`Chin Yen Chu`) and the voluntary organisation (`Ch'ü Tu She`) work side by side, though the brunt of the field work is borne by the latter. In every town and village there is an anti-opium office or sub-office, to which as a rule the majority of the gentry belong. In each hsien there is an inspector, and a number of hsien are grouped under an inspector-general, of whom there are four in North Fukien. Most of the inspectors are gentlemen and well educated, who are devoting their time entirely and without remuneration to the eradication of opium. They claim to have personally examined, not once but frequently, every portion of their respective districts, and, from their intimate knowledge of even the minutest features of the landscape, I am of opinion that their claim is well founded. I was given every possible facility for visiting any place I expressed a wish to see, but though I made as efficient a search as my time permitted, I found not so much as a single poppy during the month I was absent from Foochow. Everywhere are posted notices offering rewards of from $20 to $40 for information as to poppy cultivation, and warnings that any person found cultivating poppy will be shot. In some districts every household is bound to supply one person to assist in the general search when called upon to do so, failing which a fine of 30 cents is imposed.\n\nOf the opium districts which I had not time to visit the most important are Fu Ch'ing and Fu Ting, the former south of Foochow, and the latter in the north-east corner of the province. However, I have no reason to suppose they have not been as thoroughly dealt with as the other districts, especially as it was considered absolutely certain that I would visit them. So much was this the case that the most elaborate preparations had been made for our reception. As soon as we reached the gate of Fu Ning City a runner was despatched to Fu Ting to announce our approaching arrival, without even waiting to ascertain my intentions in the matter. Later when we reached Shou Ning I received a letter from the Fu Ting magistrate asking if I could not possibly make it convenient to visit his district, as it would be a disappointment for those who had laboured so hard to eradicate the poppy if their work was not so much as looked at. I received similar messages from Pu Cheng, Ch'ung An, Ping Nan, and many other districts. Apart, however, from this merely sentimental consideration, there is no doubt that the magistrates and anti-opium authorities were delighted when I visited their district, as my visit—and incidentally that of the escort of forty soldiers—would render the task of suppression easier by bringing strongly to the minds of the people the seriousness of the anti-opium campaign. It was presumably with this same end in view, to impress the people, that wherever I went I was paid the most exaggerated honours, and dignified by titles as exalted as that of \"British Minister.\"\n\nOne feature worthy of notice is that the gentry seem to be taking an active part in the suppression of opium, resistance being now confined almost entirely to the lower classes. It is explained that the reason for this somewhat astonishing fact is that opium-smoking is now no longer considered a respectable thing to do, and, as a gentleman loses caste by being a smoker, most of the better classes are breaking themselves of the habit.\n\nThis does not apply to the labouring classes and members of the Anti-Opium Association have remarked to me that they had to give up hope of redeeming confirmed smokers as a class, and continue their attentions more especially to preventing those who are not already confirmed smokers from acquiring the vice.\n\nAt most of the larger places I visited I received deputations of the leading gentry and chambers of commerce, who wished to express their hearty thanks to His Majesty's Government for its co-operation and for the present investigation. In replying, I impressed on them, as also on the magistrates, that if the province was closed to the import of Indian opium this must not be the signal for the relaxation of their efforts, and that any cultivation of opium in the future would be a grave breach of faith towards His Majesty's Government. I was given to understand that the present severe measures would be continued for another year, at the end of which period the seed which the farmers might now be hiding would be dead and useless, and that it was expected that three more years of close surveillance would suffice to put a stop to any extensive poppy cultivation for many years to come.\n\nPage 539",
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        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-445 - Public Offices - 1917",
        "page_number": 303,
        "title": "CO129-445 - Public Offices - 1917",
        "content_text": "7\n\nseason, but that all had been uprooted by expeditions sent out in November and I see December, and there was no trace of any remaining when he came out.\n\nIt was no reason whatever to doubt this statement, but even if it was untrue, it was practically certain that there would not be a single plant left after his passing through; I therefore decided to take an entirely different road for our joint journey and selected the southern route via Poshang, the Tapeng ferry over the Mekong, Mengka, and Mengchu. This is a fairly well recognised, though little used, road, but I possess records of only isolated portions as having been previously traversed by British subjects.\n\nThe first two days' journey from Mienning via Poshang to Toukuo call for no special comment beyond the unusually good condition of the road-surface. Nature has so fashioned the province of Yunnan as to render it practically impossible for the road-builder to make the crooked straight; for some weeks prior to our passing through, however, human labour had done a great deal to make the rough places plain. In spite of pouring rain on the second day, we encountered no really serious obstacles.\n\nOn the 19th April, at the Taoyin's suggestion, we made a very early start in view of the formidable journey in front of us. After 6 miles of easy going, we reached the limits of the Mienning jurisdiction and bade farewell to the magistrate. No trace of opium poppy had we seen in his district, in which, as far as I could ascertain, he and his subordinates had carried out their suppression duties with exceptional thoroughness. The next 7 miles traversed a corner of what is now known as the Lants'ang (i.e., Mekong) district—formerly the sub-prefecture of Chênpien—and the going was very severe, though it must, in all fairness, be admitted that the country is extremely difficult, including a terrific descent for 3 miles through constantly subsiding red clay to the level of the River Mekong (2,750 feet). The crossing of the Mekong is effected in a single huge wooden boat with deep sides; mules and their loads are transported in this craft, the river-current being too swift to admit of the animals swimming across without danger. The ascent up the left or east bank of the Mekong is even more severe, and for 2 miles the ruling gradient is steeper than one in six. The consulate writer and I reached the halting-place about 2:20 P.M., followed about an hour later by the Taoyin and his party, who took up their quarters in a native hovel close to our selected camping site. Realising our discomfiture at the non-arrival of our mule-loads, Mr. Lu with friendly thoughtfulness sent us over a supply of tea and Australian biscuits, to which I at least did unhesitating justice. It was not till after sunset that the rest of my caravan turned up. At one of the steepest points of the descent to the Mekong the mule entrusted with my small but precious supply of glass and crockery had missed his footing and rolled headlong, load and all, for several hundred feet, and rescue had taken much time; further, heavy delay had been caused by the passage of the Mekong with but one unwieldy boat, to which the liveliest objection was displayed by most of the mules.\n\nTwo stages further, through pine-woods tenanted by peacocks and brilliant emerald-green parrots, brought us to the Chinese Shan town of Mêngka. At Tamotacho, the half-way halt, we came across a few families of Lahu race, said to be rapidly dying out in China. Given a plentiful supply of soap, water, and combs, the smaller children could, I am convinced, be made into strikingly pretty little gipsies.\n\nShortly before reaching Mêngka we were met by the Chingku district magistrate, La Kuang-shih, a Kuangsi man, who accompanied us so long as we continued in his extensive jurisdiction. Mêngka, the residence of a Shan Sawbwa, possesses also large temples and two monasteries in the Burmese Shan style; one in particular, over 200 years old, must have been very fine in bygone days.\n\nAt Liutsungt'eu'n, our halt mid-way between Mêngka and Mengchu, the Chinese Shan Sawbwa of the latter place, and Meng'an came over to pay his respects; both the excellence of his Chinese and his appearance gave the lie, I fancied, to his boasted pure Shan parentage. Mêng'an is one of the old Shan towns whence the original inhabitants have been practically ousted by the more thriving Chinese. Here, I was given fairly decent quarters in the temple of the god of war, now converted into a school, the discipline of which struck me as unusually good; the very natural curiosity at the arrival in their midst of the first white man ever beheld by any of the ninety scholars was never allowed to exceed the bounds of politeness.\n\nOn the 25th April, two days after leaving Mêngchu, we crossed the River Weiyuan (or Chingku, as it is now gradually becoming known) at Patieh. At this season of the year the stream is just fordable here: I managed, however, to find a place not much higher up where a swim proved welcomely refreshing. The next halt bore the ill-omened name of Ch'ou-Shui (\"Stinking Water\"), but I have stayed at many places in Yunnan where the water supply has been even worse. Two days later, after passing a few villages inhabited by natives of the strikingly handsome Puman race, we entered the Szemao district and were met by the local magistrate, Hsieh Shih; the following day, the 28th April, we arrived at Szemao, where spacious quarters were provided for me adjoining the Taoyin's Yamên. The Taoyin and magistrate pressed me to stay a week in Szemao; I consented to two days, but on the second day Mr. Lu urged that he still had important business to transact, and I could hardly refuse his request that we should postpone our departure for one more day. Both he and the magistrate were most hospitable during my stay, celebrated by two Chinese dinner-parties and a picnic.\n\nPrevious to my departure for Tengyuen, I had written to the commissioner of Szemao Customs, soliciting his co-operation to obtain for me, if possible, information on the subject of opium in the area under his cognisance. With that request M. R. de Nully, the commissioner (French), very courteously complied; he informed me quite definitely that, as the result of several punitive expeditions during the past winter, there was, as far as he was aware, no more cultivation of opium in the Szemao district, and that while probably at least 30 per cent. of the adult population of the town, both male and female, still continued to consume the drug, the enormous rise in price bore out his contention.\n\nFrom Szemao northwards towards Tali three routes were open to me; that via Chingku (Weiyuan) was ruled out by the fact that it had already been traversed by Lu Taoyin on his journey to Mienning to meet me; on the north-eastern route, via Talang—the main road to Yunnan-fu according to all the information I could obtain, a considerable quantity of opium had been grown, and harvested, earlier in the season, but very thorough measures of eradication had been carried out some weeks previously; I therefore decided to take the more direct but less frequented route via P'uêrh, Hsinfu (in Chênyüan district) and Chingtung.\n\nLeaving Szemao on the 2nd May, some three hours of travel, including a stiff climb, brought us to the boundary of the Puerh district, where the local magistrate, Chou Ju-chao, awaited us; the Szemao magistrate, however, continued to accompany us till the town of Puerh was reached the next day; on this day's journey our route crossed a splendid Chinese arched stone bridge, in admirable preservation. At Puerh, an old walled city with relics of fine stone carving, I was again given most comfortable quarters; Mr. Chou also entertained the Taoyin, the Szemao magistrate, and myself at a lengthy Chinese dinner.\n\nAt Mabei, the next stage, I took the opportunity to pay a visit to the large and flourishing salt mines about a mile and a half away. Dr. Kelly, the American representative of the Chinese Salt Administration, who had arrived about two months previously, was away on tour, but his English-speaking Chinese colleague very kindly demonstrated to me all the processes of Chinese salt extraction.\n\nThe next four stages, via Mop'o, Maupieh and Manlien, to Hsin-fu, call for little comment save for the extreme beauty of the scenery; on all sides rose range after range of pine-clad hills, mostly well-wooded to their summits; the valleys were, however, parched and bare, and travelling along the lower levels was excessively hot. Our route crossed the eastern section of the Chênyüan district, and midway during the third stage we were joined by the magistrate, Mo Yu-ju, a scholarly man of considerable charm of manner, with whom my relations during our five days of joint travel were exceedingly cordial, and from whom I parted with really genuine regret.\n\nThe only record in my possession of a route between Hsinfu and Chingtung dated from 1881, when the journey was made by a British traveller; our route, however, was almost entirely different from his, and we spent but five days on the distance which had taken him six. For the last three days we were accompanied by the Chingtung magistrate, Ming Fao-ch'ien, who came out to meet us. The surroundings of Chingtung breathe of ancient history; the last 5 miles of the road could hardly have been repaired for centuries, while of the city-wall nothing now remains save one single gate; peacocks strutting unmolested in the main street seemed likewise aloof from modernity. The magistrate's yamên was woefully dilapidated, and I was well housed by comparison in the newly built Szech'uan Guild premises. From Szemao we had travelled for twelve days on end, mostly in great heat, and a halt of one day was amply justified. For me it spelled the inevitable Chinese dinner-party, as the guest of the district magistrate.\n\nThis latter official was also among the number of those who have displayed special energies in the matter of opium suppression; practically every town and hamlet which\n\n299",
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        "content_text": "310\n\n28\n\nthe valleys near the river. The staple crops were paddy and tobacco. Taoyin arrived from Swatow in the afternoon.\n\nApril 15. Returned to Swatow by launch, accompanied by the Taoyin. To return by road was impossible, owing to the swollen state of the rivers and streams.\n\nEnclosure 11 in No. 1.\n\nConsul Toller to Mr. Alston.\n\n(No. 16.) Sir,\n\nNingpo, June 4, 1917. IN continuation of my despatch No. 15 of the 19th April last, I have the honour to report that on the 23rd April I met, at Nanking, Mr. Yü Shou-chang, the deputy appointed by the Governor of Kiangsu for the inspection of the province, and on the following day Messrs. Chao Hang-nien and Mou Chia-yo, the delegates of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and of the Interior respectively. The Governor of Chekiang had also appointed a deputy, Mr. Chang Chin, the headmaster of the Middle School here, who accompanied me from Ningpo. This appointment was probably made because the Governors of Kiangsu and of Chekiang are brothers, and with the idea that Mr. Chang, whom I already knew well, might serve as a mediator between the Kiangsu delegate and myself in case of any difficulty or dispute, but I am glad to say no occasion for his services in this connection ever arose.\n\nFrom Mr. Giles I learned that the former opium-producing regions were in the country north of the Yang-taze, generally known as Kiangpei, and that the only territory in which there was any likelihood of poppy being found was the Hau-Hai Circuit. Mr. Ottewill had kindly furnished me with a copy of his despatch No. 20 of the 25th March last, and this together with the information which he gave me in Chinkiang from reports made in 1915, also indicated the northern part of the province as the area to be investigated. I accordingly arranged with the Chinese deputies to start our tour from Hsüchowfu, for which place we left by train on the 26th April, arriving at midnight the same day.\n\nThe following day was spent in making preparations for the lengthy chair-journey, and on the 28th April we proceeded to Hsiao Hsien. In this district we also made a circuit through the hilly country to the south of the town towards the Anhui border, striking across the ranges of hills that radiate from the town so as to examine the sheltered valleys, which were the most likely haunts of the poppy. I also climbed the highest point in the group, in order to get a wide view over the surrounding country.\n\nFrom Hsiao Hsien we went to Tang-shan Hsien, covering the distance of 150 li in a day, keeping near the Honan border—in fact, for a short distance our road took us through Honan territory. Tang-shan was, in the past, one of the most noted opium-producing areas in Kiangsu; it lies on the borders of three provinces, so appeared to be a district where, perhaps, the repressive measures might be less effective than elsewhere. We accordingly made an excursion into the surrounding country, visiting the fortified village of Hsieh Chi, on the border of Kiangsu, Shantung, and Honan, and returning by a different route.\n\nOur journey was then continued to Feng Hsien and P'ei Hsien. Between Feng Hsien and P'ei Hsien we did not take the direct road, but made a detour to the south in order to get from Hun Shan, one of the very rare hills in this locality, an opportunity of surveying a wide area. From P'ei Hsien back to Hsüchowfu we also made a detour to the east with the object of examining the country bordering on the Wei-shan Lake.\n\nThe second stage of our journey took us from Hsüchowfu to Haichow, through Pi Hsien. From Pi Hsien to Haichow we travelled by a small road close to the Shantung border for the greater part of the way. This led us through the districts of Sutsien and Shuyang, including the country north-east of Yao-wan, where it was reported, in 1915, that a good deal of poppy had been planted. We did not visit the towns of Sutsien and Shuyang, as I was anxious to keep away from the main roads as far as possible.\n\nThe information received from the members of the American Presbyterian Mission at Haichow, who travel a great deal through the country on motor-bicycles, indicated that Kan-yü, to the north of Haichow, was not formerly an opium-producing district, and that there was little object in visiting that magistracy. As Kan-yü is, so to speak, a cul-de-sac, and a journey through the territory would have taken three or four days,\n\n29\n\nafter which we should have had to return to Haichow, I thought it better not to waste time on a visit there while there were important areas further south still to be inspected, so from Haichow we proceeded to Kuan-yün, which has been a hsien only since the revolution, and was formerly known as Pan-p'u. Here it was reported, in 1915, that \"very large quantity\" of poppy had been planted; we therefore, in addition to traversing the district from north to south, made excursions both to the east and west of the town, returning in each case by a fresh route.\n\nLien-shui (better known under its old name of Autung) and Fowning were the next places visited. These were indicated in Mr. Ottewill's despatch of the 26th March as districts to be regarded with suspicion. I made careful enquiries of the representative of the China Inland Mission at Lienshui, who travels a great deal in the country by bicycle, but he stated that he had neither seen nor heard of any opium cultivation. In Fowning we made a circuit of the country to the north-east of the town, in the direction of the old bed of the Yellow River.\n\nThe remainder of the journey was made by boat through Yen-ch'eng, Tung-t'ai, T'ai Hsien, and Yangchow to Chinkiang. I deferred any decision as to the necessity of inspecting the country south of the Yang-taze until I had had an opportunity of consulting Mr. Ottewill; he confirmed the information I had received in Nanking that this area was not an opium-producing region, and that no good purpose would be served by a journey through it, so I informed the Chinese delegates that I regarded our investigation as finished.\n\nThe total distance covered on the tour of inspection was about 800 miles, of which we travelled upwards of 500 miles by chair and over 250 miles by boat. During the chair journey I walked the greater part of the way, and seized every opportunity of ascending any elevation that might serve as a vantage ground for observation. The country which we traversed by boat was of less importance from an opium-producing point of view, though the Chinkiang archives showed that some poppy was grown in the Huai-an prefecture in 1914 and 1915. Here, too, I walked wherever practicable, but throughout the whole journey, as I had the honour to report in my telegram No. 3 of the 30th ultimo, I could not discover the slightest indication of poppy cultivation. It is, of course, impossible for one man in a limited time to make an exhaustive investigation; to do this it would probably be necessary to devote a week to each hsien—but in view of the facts that we made frequent and wide detours from the road; that for a considerable portion of the way we travelled by unfrequented tracks; and that in several magistracies we spent one or more extra days making circular excursions into the surrounding country, I feel justified in saying that if poppies were being grown we should have been bound to come across them at some point, and that, as none was seen or heard of, it is safe to deduce that none has been grown this year, unless, perhaps, on a very small scale in the most secluded spots, though I have no evidence to support even this exception.\n\nThe repressive measures adopted by the provincial authorities appear to have been very strict and to have been energetically enforced; the prohibition extended even to the cultivation of poppies for decorative purposes in flower gardens. Governor Ch'i informed me that he had sent out deputies to each hsien three times: first, at the time when the poppy seed would be sown; again, at the time when the plant would first be visible; and, finally, when it would be in flower. General Chang Hsun also told me through Hsüchow and Haichow his troops had assisted in the search for, and prohibition of, poppy growing. Mr. Yü Shou-chang, the Kiangsu delegate, said that he had himself earlier in the year made a preliminary examination of the districts which he regarded as most open to suspicion. Anti-opium proclamations were posted everywhere, and in some places (notably Pei Hsien) I noticed painted on the walls of houses the character ch'a (“examined\"), purporting to show that a house-to-house search had been effected.\n\nOne matter worthy of mention is the widespread scattering of black seeds, said to be those of \"foreign poppy.\" The practice prevailed over a wide area; reports of it first came to my notice in Sutsien and Shuyang, after which they were heard in every district we passed through, including Shanghai. An astonishing variety of rumours was in circulation; the work was ascribed to the Shanghai opium combine, to the missionaries, to Germans, and to secret societies. It was also said that the seed was sown from an aeroplane, evidence of which was found in the fact that the seeds had been discovered on the roofs of houses. Miraculous properties were claimed for this \"foreign poppy,\" which was said to produce its crop within ten days of sowing the seed. A missionary at Lienshui was able to show me a specimen of the seed, which bears not the slightest resemblance to that of poppy; it is approximately the size and shape of a ...\n\n[2729 k-1]",
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        "title": "CO129-471 - Public Offices - 1921",
        "content_text": "# Report on Opium Cultivation in Fukien Province\n\n## Investigation Findings\n\n24 \n\nPoppies and get the owners of the land into trouble. In this district, which has a mean height of about 1,000 feet above sea-level, there is only one crop of rice a year, and, this season's crop not having yet been sown, the ground was lying fallow, in striking contrast to the other districts I had traversed, which were already green. I enquired whether proper steps were being taken to see that these lands would not be sown with poppy after my investigations were closed, and was assured that not only was it now some ten days past the latest possible date on which poppy could be planted this season, but that the vigilance of the anti-opium authorities would not be relaxed until the whole ground was sown with crops other than poppy.\n\nCheng Ho-One of the less notorious districts. The cultivable land between Shou Ning and Cheng Ho used, in former days, to be covered with poppy, but there does not appear to be any at present cultivated. My object in choosing this route was partly because I was not expected to take it, and partly because, the country it traverses being outside the range of the missions and very rarely visited by foreigners, we had no information respecting it.\n\nSung Ch'i has a reputation as an opium-smoking, rather than as an opium-cultivating, district. Rev. J. Blondy informed me that he had only heard of one case of cultivation during the last twelve months, and in this case the offender was shot. The district is covered with official notices relating the circumstances and the penalty inflicted, as a warning to other would-be planters.\n\nKienning-In Kienning and Shaowu prefectures there are in all some 2,000 Hunanese and Anhui troops, distributed among the cities and villages specially for opium work. They are under the command of the Hunanese Resident-General at Kienning, who is an ardent anti-opium enthusiast, and I am of opinion that they have done their work thoroughly. The British missionaries informed me that, as far as they knew, there had been no attempts at opium cultivation this season.\n\nYen Ping was never a large opium-growing district, the soil not being very suitable. I am informed that a few months ago a certain amount was seen along the river, but I neither saw nor heard of any while in the district.\n\n## Anti-Opium Campaign\n\nI have been deeply impressed by the thoroughness and efficiency with which the campaign against the cultivation of opium is being carried on and the spirit which animates the workers. The Government institution (`Chin Yen Chu`) and the voluntary organisation (`Ch'ü Tu Shê`) work side by side, though the brunt of the field work is borne by the latter. In every town and village, there is an anti-opium office or sub-office, to which as a rule the majority of the gentry belong. In each `hsien` there is an inspector, and a number of `hsien` are grouped under an inspector-general, of whom there are four in North Fukien. Most of the inspectors are gentlemen and well educated, who are devoting their time entirely and without remuneration to the eradication of opium. They claim to have personally examined, not once but frequently, every portion of their respective districts, and, from their intimate knowledge of even the minutest features of the landscape, I am of opinion that their claim is well founded. I was given every possible facility for visiting any place I expressed a wish to see, but though I made as efficient a search as my time permitted, I found not so much as a single poppy during the month I was absent from Foochow. Everywhere are posted notices offering rewards of from 20 dollars to 40 dollars for information as to poppy cultivation, and warnings that any person found cultivating poppy will be shot. In some districts, every household is bound to supply one person to assist in the general search when called upon to do so, failing which a fine of 30 cents is imposed.\n\n## Districts Not Visited\n\nOf the opium districts which I had not time to visit, the most important are Fu Ch'ing and Fu T'ing, the former south of Foochow, and the latter in the north-east corner of the province. However, I have no reason to suppose they have not been as thoroughly dealt with as the other districts, especially as it was considered absolutely certain that I would visit them. So much was this the case that the most elaborate preparations had been made for our reception. As soon as we reached the gate of Fu Ning City, a runner was despatched to Fu T'ing to announce our approaching arrival, without even waiting to ascertain my intentions in the matter. Later, when we reached Shou Ning, I received a letter from the Fu Ting magistrate asking if I could not possibly make it convenient to visit his district, as it would be a disappointment for those who had laboured so hard to eradicate the poppy if their work was not so much as looked at. I received similar messages from P'u Cheng, Chung An, Ping Nan, and many other districts. Apart, however, from this merely sentimental consideration, there is no doubt that the magistrates and anti-opium authorities were delighted when I visited their district, as my visit—and incidentally that of the escort of forty soldiers—would render the task of suppression easier by bringing strongly to the minds of the people the seriousness of the anti-opium campaign. It was presumably with this same end in view, to impress the people, that wherever I went I was paid the most exaggerated honours, and dignified by titles as exalted as that of \"British Minister.\"\n\n## Observations and Conclusion\n\nOne feature worthy of notice is that the gentry seem to be taking an active part in the suppression of opium, resistance being now confined almost entirely to the lower classes. It is explained that the reason for this somewhat astonishing fact is that opium-smoking is now no longer considered a respectable thing to do, and, as a gentleman loses caste by being a smoker, most of the better classes are breaking themselves of the habit. This does not apply to the labouring classes, and members of the Anti-Opium Association have remarked to me that they had to give up hope of redeeming confirmed smokers as a class, and confine their attentions more especially to preventing those who are not already confirmed smokers from acquiring the vice.\n\nAt most of the larger places I visited, I received deputations of the leading gentry and chambers of commerce, who wished to express their hearty thanks to His Majesty's Government for its co-operation and for the present investigation. In replying, I impressed on them, as also on the magistrates, that if the province was closed to the import of Indian opium, this must not be the signal for the relaxation of their efforts, and that any cultivation of opium in the future would be a grave breach of faith towards His Majesty's Government. I was given to understand that the present severe measures would be continued for another year, at the end of which period the seed which the farmers might now be hiding would be dead and useless, and that it was expected that three more years of close surveillance would suffice to put a stop to any extensive poppy cultivation for many years to come.\n\nIn my opinion, there is at the present time no opium being cultivated in the north of this province, except, perhaps, in very small quantities in very well concealed places. If such is cultivated, it is probably not for consumption, but for the sake of the seed, which the farmers hope to keep alive till the present crisis is passed. At present, the death penalty which is being inflicted on opium growers does not seem to have any legal sanction, but the Civil Governor has just stated that this is to be remedied shortly, and that death will be the statutory punishment for opium cultivators.\n\n25 \n\nIn conclusion, I wish to record my appreciation of the unfailing courtesy and assistance of my two colleagues, and of the efforts of the Provincial Government, whose guest I was, and who did their utmost to make my journey as pleasant as possible. Our route not being known, every magistrate had instructions to be ready to receive and assist us, and some of them were put to a great deal of difficulty and inconvenience.\n\nSir,\n\nI append a sketch showing my route.*\n\n## Enclosures and Sign-off\n\nEnclosure 2 in No. 15.\n\nI have, &c.\n\nA. D. BLACKBURN.\n\nConsul Little to Sir J. Jordan.\n\nAmoy, April 2, 1914.\n\nI HAVE the honour to forward herewith a report by Mr. W. P. W. Turner on a journey of investigation into the cultivation of the opium poppy in South Fukien.\n\nI have, &c.\n\nH. A. LITTLE.\n\n*Not reproduced.",
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        "content_text": "## \n\nFor several days in succession I had seen nothing whatever of the Tengyueh Taoyin; at Chepi, however, much to my surprise, he rode over to call on me. The reason for the visit was only apparent when he propounded the astonishing request that as during seventeen days travel in his circuit we had only found one field of opium poppy, I would overlook it in my report to His Majesty's Chargé d'Affaires. On my replying that, had we found one hundred I should be bound to report one hundred, and that I must equally report the one, he then suggested that I should add a rider that the field found was close to the scene of military operations against the offending Kachins. To this I rejoined that I had been over the country in question and he had not, and that I knew for a fact that the two places were at least two and a half days journey apart. Soon afterwards he took his leave, considerably crestfallen.\n\nApril 14th Shortly after leaving Chêpi the road to Mienning makes a very steep ascent of some 3,000 feet, on to a lofty shoulder, the view from which on a clear day must be magnificent, embracing extensive country in the jurisdiction of Shunning and Kengma, in the Tengyueh circuit, and Mieuning in the Puerh circuit. On an open bit of grass land just beyond a pillar marking the boundary, a large booth had been erected, and we were met by the P'uêrh Taoyin and the Mienning district magistrate, each of whom furnished a guard of honour.\n\nThe following day we reached the ancient walled city of Mienning, inhabited by a mixed population of Chinese and Shans, while Lolos and natives of several other tribes inhabit the surrounding villages.\n\nFor the journey from Mienning to Szemao my first care was to ascertain the route followed by the Taoyin to the rendezvous; he had come, as I expected, by the most direct road through Chingku-hsien (the modern name of Weiyuant'ing of Manchu times). I asked the Taoyin point-blank whether he had seen any opium cultivation on his outward journey; he replied that a few isolated patches had been sown at the beginning of the season, but that all had been uprooted by expeditions sent out in November and December, and there was no trace of any remaining when he came out. I see no reason whatever to doubt this statement, but even if it was untrue, it was practically certain that there would not be a single plant left after his passing through; I therefore decided to take an entirely different road for our joint journey and selected the southern route via Poshang, the Tapêng ferry over the Mekong, Mêngka and Mengchu. This is a fairly well recognised, though little used, road, but I possess records of only isolated portions as having been previously traversed by British subjects.\n\nOn the 19th April, at the Taoyin's suggestion, we made a very early start in view of the formidable journey in front of us. We reached the limits of the Mienning jurisdiction and bade farewell to the magistrate. After 6 miles of easy going, No trace of opium poppy had we seen in his district, in which, as far as I could ascertain, he and his subordinates had carried out their suppression duties with exceptional thoroughness. The next 7 miles traversed a corner of what is now known as the Lantsang (i.e., Mekong) district-formerly the sub-prefecture of Chênpien-and the going was very severe, though it must, in all fairness, be admitted that the country is extremely difficult, including a terrific descent for 3 miles through constantly subsiding red clay to the level of the River Mekong (2,750 feet). The crossing of the Mekong is effected in a single huge wooden boat with deep sides: The mules and their loads are transported in this craft, the river-current being too swift to admit of the animals swimming across without danger. The ascent up the left or east bank of the Mekong is even more severe, and for 24 miles the ruling gradient is steeper than one in six.\n\nTwo stages further, through pine-woods tenanted by peacocks and brilliant emerald-green parrots, brought us to the Chinese Shan town of Mêngka. At Tamotsoho, the half-way halt, we came across a few families of Lahu race, said to be rapidly dying out in China.\n\nShortly before reaching Mêngka we were met by the Chingku district magistrate, a Kuangsi man, who accompanied us so long as we continued in his extensive jurisdiction. Mengka, the residence of a Shan Sawbwa, possesses also large temples and two monasteries in the Burmese Shan style; one in particular, over 200 years old, must have been very fine in bygone days.\n\nAt Lientsungts'un, our halt mid-way between Mêngka and Mêngchu, the Chinese Shan Sawbwa, of the latter place, and Mêngpan came over to pay his respects.\n\nMêngchu is one of the old Shan towns whence the original inhabitants have been practically ousted by the more thriving Chinese.\n\nOn the 25th April, two days after leaving Mêngchu, we crossed the River Weiyuan for Chingku, as it is now gradually becoming known) at Patieh. Two days later, after passing a few villages inhabited by natives of the strikingly handsome Puman race, we entered the Szémao district and were met by the local magistrate; the following day, the 28th April, we arrived at Szemao, where spacious quarters were provided for me adjoining the Taoyin's yamên. The Taoyin and magistrate pressed me to stay a week in Szemao; I consented to two days, but on the second day the Taoyin urged that he still had important business to transact, and I could hardly refuse his request that we should postpone our departure for one more day.\n\nPrevious to my departure for Tengyuch, I had written to a reliable correspondent, soliciting his co-operation to obtain for me, if possible, information on the subject of opium in the area under his cognisance. With that request he very courteously complied; he informed me quite definitely that, as the result of several punitive expeditions during the past winter, there was, as far as he was aware, no more cultivation of opium in the Szemao district, and that while probably at least 30 per cent. of the adult population of the town, both male and female, still continued to consume the drug, the enormous rise in price bore out his contention.\n\nFrom Szemao northwards towards Tali three routes were open to me; that viâ Chingku (Weiyuan) was ruled out by the fact that it had already been traversed by the Taoyin on his journey to Mienning to meet me; on the north-eastern route, via T'alang-the main road to Yunnan-fu-according to all the information I could obtain, a considerable quantity of opium had been grown, and harvested, earlier in the season, but very thorough measures of eradication had been carried out some weeks previously; I therefore decided to take the more direct but less frequented route via Puêrh, Hsinfu (in Chênyuan district) and Chingtung.\n\nLeaving Szemao on the 2nd May, some three hours of travel, including a stiff climb, brought us to the boundary of the P'uêrh district, where the local magistrate awaited us; the Szemao magistrate, however, continued to accompany us till the town of Puerh was reached the next day; on this day's journey our route crossed a splendid Chinese arched stone bridge, in admirable preservation.\n\nAt Mohei, the next stage, I took the opportunity to pay a visit to the large and flourishing salt-mines about a mile and a half away. Dr. Kelly, the American representative of the Chinese Salt Administration, who had arrived about two months previously, was away on tour, but his English-speaking Chinese colleague very kindly demonstrated to me all the processes of Chinese salt extraction.\n\nThe next four stages, viâ Mop'o, Manpieh and Manlien, to Hsin-fu, call for little comment save for the extreme beauty of the scenery; on all sides rose range after range of pine-clad hills, mostly well-wooded to their summits; the valleys were, however, parched and bare, and travelling along the lower levels was excessively hot. The only record in my possession of a route between Hsinfu and Chingtung dated from 1881, when the journey was made by a British traveller; our route, however, was almost entirely different from his, and we spent but five days on the distance which had taken him six. For the last three days we were accompanied by the Chingtung magistrate, who came out to meet us.\n\nThis latter official was also among the number of those who have displayed special energies in the matter of opium suppression; practically every town and hamlet which we traversed in his district boasted its own small bureau for the furtherance of the task, while the magistrate's extensive tours of inspection included a journey to the summit of Wu-Liang-Shan, between 11,000 and 12,000 feet high.\n\nLeaving Chingtung on the 15th May, three days' journey brought us to the boundary between the Puerh and Tengyueh circuits, at Shukai (locally pronounced Ch'ukai); Here we found that the Tengyueh Taoyin and the Mênghua district magistrate had been awaiting our arrival for three days. Before bidding farewell to the Puêrh Taoyin, I gave him a letter detailing our route through his circuit and congratulating him on the fact that we had discovered not a single opium poppy in a month's journey. In the course of an interesting conversation, he freely admitted that the task of suppression had been considerably easier in his circuit than elsewhere in the province; he was no less frank regarding the prevalence of opium smoking, and expressed the opinion that from three to five years must elapse before this would be stopped.\n\nPage [603] \n517 \n55 \n54",
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    {
        "id": 522268,
        "series_id": 27,
        "series_slug": "histsyn-co129-engine",
        "series_title": "CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案",
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        "document_key": "CO129-521-13 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 27-8-1930 - 16-10-1930",
        "page_number": 429,
        "title": "CO129-521-13 Chinese Customs- proposed agreement with Hong Kong 27-8-1930 - 16-10-1930",
        "content_text": ".34\n\n435\n\nOpposition of Hongkong to Customs blockade and to discriminatory trade taxation.\n\nHongkong.\" (8)\n\nBut Alcock's far-sighted attempt to deal with the Hongkong problem was doomed to be thwarted. The British Government decided to defer to the wishes of the merchants, and although not convinced that the step it was taking was \"calculated to promote the real interests of the commercial and industrial classes,\" yet decided to advise the Queen not to ratify the Convention.ţ\n\n§ 7. The Hoppo's blockade, therefore, was continued, and feeling on both sides ran higher than ever. Ample evidence of this exacerbation will be found (1) in the petition to Her Britannic Majesty from a group of Chinese merchants, resident in Hongkong, praying for protection from the actions of the Chinese revenue cruisers; (2) in the report submitted by the Commission appointed in December 1873 by Sir Arthur Kennedy, then Governor of Hongkong, to investigate the complaints against these cruisers and the Customs stations in the neighbourhood of Hongkong; (3) in the memorial on this topic submitted by the Hongkong Chamber of Commerce to the Home Government; and (4) in the resolutions passed at a public meeting held in the City Hall, Hongkong, on 14th September 1874. The Governor, writing to Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Colonies, put the case in a nutshell when he stated: \"Complaints of a like nature appear to be almost the inevitable result of a free British port being in such close juxtaposition with the Chinese territory, where duties are levied, and will recur so long as there are Customs laws on one side, and a large population with strong inducements to break them on the other\"; and again: \"It is beyond doubt that a not inconsiderable number of Chinese junk owners are in the habit of consulting their individual interests by violating Chinese Customs laws, and making this Colony the basis of smuggling operations, for which its geographical position affords every facility, and the profits, it is to be presumed, exceed the loss and risk, or the practice would not be continued. The Chinese Customs Officers and Revenue Collectors, with a knowledge of these facts, lose no opportunity of seizing and confiscating every Chinese junk for which they can find a pretext, and the characterless class of persons employed as subordinates in that service makes it too probable that honest and innocent traders are often grievously harassed and plundered.\"§ At the same time he repudiated the only remedial suggestion, made by the Commission he had appointed, namely that of employing \"armed steam launches at the outlets of the harbour to protect Chinese trading junks arriving and departing,\" declaring that he was \"convinced that the shortest, best, and only remedy for disputes and references which have existed for years, endangering our good relations with the Canton Government, is the recognised establishment of a branch of the Chinese Foreign Inspectorate at Hongkong itself.\" Some relief from the abuses complained of was effected when the Canton authorities early in the seventies adopted the course of action, which had been recommended by Hart, the Inspector General of Customs, in 1869 and agreed that the patrolling cruisers should be placed under the supervision of an English officer in the Chinese Maritime Customs service and that foreign officers should be employed on the cruisers themselves to see that illegalities were not committed. The essential features of the situation, however, remained unchanged.\n\nThe agitation increased especially against the practice of the Canton authorities in treating goods going to and coming from Hongkong as goods going to or coming from a foreign country, and therefore liable to the export and the import charges of the Treaty Tariff. This was bitterly resented and claimed to be unfair discrimination against the Colony, while goods going to and coming from Macao continued to be treated as goods going to or coming from Chinese territory, and therefore liable to the lighter charges of the Native Customs tariff. To make matters worse, the provincial Native Customs regulations at that time required that all native goods from the four lower prefectures of the province destined for shipment abroad should first be conveyed to the treaty port of Canton (direct export abroad from a non-treaty port being strictly forbidden); from which it followed that such goods were called on to pay (a) the Native Customs export duty at port of shipment when being despatched to Canton, (b) a special fee at Canton Native Customs, and (c) export duty at Canton according to the Treaty Tariff. The Chinese authorities were technically within their rights in making such levies, but insistence on those rights was gall and wormwood to the traders in Hongkong.\n\nTo reach a solution Sir Thomas Wade, then British Minister at Peking, seized the opportunity of the drafting of the Chefoo Convention (September 1876) to insert an article (Clause VII of Section 3) calling for the appointment of a commission to inquire into the smuggling from Hongkong into China, and to devise a \"system that shall enable the Chinese Government to protect its revenue without prejudice to the interests of the Colony.\" This was the first official recognition in a ratified Convention on the part of the British authorities that it would be a wiser policy to come to an understanding with the Chinese Government to enable it to protect its revenue without prejudice to the interests of the Colony, rather than to continue to endure the inconveniences of the Hoppo's methods of controlling trade. As many of the terms of the Convention required also the consent of all the other Powers represented at Peking, and as the securing of this consent took time, it was not until nine years later (July 1885) that the Chefoo Convention with its Additional Article, arranging for the simultaneous collection of import duty and likin on foreign opium, was ratified by the British Government, and the Commission, called for by both Convention and Additional Article, duly appointed.\n\n§8. This Commission, composed of Sir Robert Hart, Inspector General of Chinese Customs, and the Taotai Shao Yu-lien (B), representing China, and Mr. James Russell, the Puisne Judge of Hongkong, and Mr. Byron Brenan, H.B.M.'s Consul at Tientsin, representing Great Britain, met in the summer of 1886. The joint commissioners for China had come authorised to offer the closing of the Customs stations in the neighbourhood of Hongkong in return for the Colony's acceptance of a plan by which Chinese opium hulks might be anchored in Hongkong waters for the bonding of all opium imported from abroad and for the collection of China's\n\n* British Parliamentary Papers: China No. 10 (1870), p. 11.\n\n+ British Parliamentary Papers: China No. 11 (1870), p. 4.\n\n+ British Parliamentary Papers: \"Correspondence relating to the Complaints of the Mercantile Community in Hongkong against the Action of Chinese Revenue Cruizers in the Neighbourhood of the Colony\" (1875), pp. 2-4, 7-11, 12–15, 31, 32.\n\n§ Ibid., p. 5.\n\n| Ibid., p. 5.\n\n¶ Ibid., p. 6.\n\n(9)\n\n* Vide foot-note*, p. 13.\n\n+ British Parliamentary Papers: \"Further Correspondence relating to the Complaints of the Mercantile Community in Hongkong against the Action of certain Revenue Cruizers in the Neighbourhood of the Colony\" (1876), pp. 17, 18, 23-25, 33-35, 38, 39.",
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