THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1844, 2 September 1913, Page 8

THE OPIUM TRAFFIC.

CHINA IN EARNEST. China is seriously suppressing opium cultivation. This is tlio essenco of two reports from Sir J. SJ. Jordan, the Bntish. Minister in Poking, to Sir Edward Grey, Foreign Minister, issued in the form of a White Paper. The reports are based in a few cases 011 the persona) observations of .Consular officers, more frequently on information derived from n-issionari&s and other travellers, and occasionally on statements mado by the heads of the Opium Suppression Bureaux or by other Chinese officials. While tliero is diversity of information and divergence of view, the reports for the most part speak of a very marked lessening of poppy cultivation throughout the Empire. This has not been accomplished without - bloodshed, and in many cases resisting farmers have been shot. , . Sir John Jordan last year dispatched five Consular officers to investigate affairs in Aiiliui, Hunan, and Shantung, as tliero was reason to doubt the Chinese Government's reports that theso provinces wcro ontirely free of opium cultiva-

tion "The results of the examination, Sir J. Jordan states, "would appear to leave no room l for question that poppv was boing grown tins season in each of the provinces under consideration. Suppressive campaigns, liowcvor, ot great vigour and severity, were inaugurated in February and March, w'lien the poppy plants were showing well above ground, and at a ,time when it had become known that the'threo provinces would bo'subject to investigation. The appointment of British Consular officers to undertake tours of examination undoubtedly stimulated the zeal of the provincial authorities, and, assisted by military officers and largo numbers of soldiers, the magistrates mid opium inspectors redoubled then' previous exer- ■ tions." . . i Followed by Pirates. ■ Mr. E. C. AVilton, who headed the [ Arihui party, had a mild adventure"with pirates while proceeding up the Huai River. His .boat was followed the wholo ' of one night by a junk containing seven ' of these undesirables. They were at- ' tacked next morning by a small wooden gunboat with a crew of at least double their number. The pirates bolted across country unharmed, though it would have been an easy matter to havo shot tliom down. A week before Mr. Wilton's arrival at Anhui one of tlio guards of an opium inspector had been seriously wounded f in an adjacent village. Tho Governor f ordered the troops to destroy tho > lage, and 300 men, with two mountain * guns, were ordered to carry out the t work. Fortunately, owing to tlio media--0 tion of a magistrate ana somo of the 0 local gentry, the villago was spared. 0 On another occasion two shots wero d fired at tho investigating party, but no 0 one was hit. •' Happily, forco was not necessary in every district; and Mr. Hose, who journeyed through Hunan, states that the executions in the eastern area were ills' significant, partly owing to an opium 0 delegate of unusual capability and tact 'j being appointed to carry out the supprossion. In tho western border, howo o ver, the poppy growers were much more defiant, and the authorities claimd c d that 200 farmers had lost their lives h in the Chien-Chou prefecture alone in ' e defending their crips from destruction. Many of the younger Republican ofiit- c ; a ] Si ,v],o have been educated in .Japan, ll do not indulge in opium smoking. >0 I ■111 —*