Despatches from Sir A. Hosie forwarding reports respecting the opium question in China.

  • Alexander Hosie
Date:
[1911]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Despatches from Sir A. Hosie forwarding reports respecting the opium question in China. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    through Western and Northern Yunnan, was much struck by the extraordinary reduction that had been made since his visit last year to Western Yunnan, and con¬ firmed the opinion that the poppy was nowhere to be found growing along the main roads, though he had seen a good deal growing in out of the Avay parts, notably to the south and west of Tali-fu. Mr. Wilton reported that in Eastern Yunnan the authorities adopted very strong measures, and soldiers were employed to uproot the plantations of poppy wherever they were found, the farmers in most cases receiving a small compensation. The authorities appear to have paid much less attention to the enforcement of the regulations for the suppression of smoking though the closing of the opium dens was apparently made effective, at all events in all the big towns. His Majesty’s consul- general at Yunnan-fu was told by a trustworthy Chinese official in touch with the anti-opium bureau that about 10 per cent, of the well-to-do classes, 20 per cent, of the middle classes, and 50 per cent, of the working classes in Yiinnan-fu had given up opium smoking. In view of the importance of the province of Yunnan as a source of supply of native opium, and of the difficulty of obtaining independent and reliable information as to the degree of success attained in the anti-opium campaign, His Majesty’s Minister decided to authorise Mr. Hose, the acting British consul in Tengyueh, to undertake a journey of inquiry in his consular district. The country traversed by Mr. Bose was formerly estimated to produce about 30,000 piculs, or nearly one-half of the opium grown in the whole province of Yunnan, and he considers that this year’s production will not exceed 18,000 piculs. In the districts which are under the direct rule of the Chinese authorities not a field of poppy was to be found, but amongst the semi-independent Shan tribes the diminution in cultivation was naturally much less. This result had not been attained without resort to drastic measures on the part of the Chinese authorities, of which Mr. Bose cites several examples. Biots had been suppressed by military force, and in one instance the decapitation of fourteen persons had been necessary to convince the farmers that the authorities were in earnest. Mr. Bose’s report is of such interest as showing at first hand the remarkable progress that has been made towards the total suppression of opium cultivation in the greatest poppy-growing districts of Yrunnan, that I hare printed it as an annexe to the present report.* We may, I think, take it for granted that the progress in other parts of the province is at least on the same scale. The great problem which still awaits solution in Yunnan is the discovery of some crop to fake the place of the poppy, and I understand that the present Viceroy is studying the possibilities of introducing rubber cultivation. Yunnan, like Shansi, affords a splendid example of what can be achieved in the space of a few months by the energy and determination of a single administrator bent on the eradication of the opium habit. There are two points which I think must strike any one who, after a perusal of what has been written above about the individual provinces, wishes to form a more or less definite judgment as to the degree of progress made throughout the Empire towards the suppression of the cultivation of opium, namely, (1) that there has hitherto been no uniformity of practice except in regard to the prevailing absence of any accurate survey or record of the area of land devoted to poppy growing; and (2) that there is only one method of making effective progress in a manner that will make it possible to give a definite answer as to the decrease in the production of opium in China at the end of the three years, and that is by issuing orders totally prohibiting the cultivation of opium after a certain date and taking the necessary measures, however harsh, to see that those orders are properly carried out. As to the absence of reliable statistics, to which I have already referred, nobody can regret it more than the various members of this legation who have been responsible for the compilation of the general reports on the opium question. Their labour and their responsibility would have been much lightened if they could have confined themselves to reproducing reliable statistics which could speak for them¬ selves, instead of trying to draw some more or less definite conclusions from the mass of vague and contradictory reports placed before them. I think that it is better to admit honestly that in the circumstances now prevailing throughout China and with * Inclosure 3, p. 35.
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