OPIUM AREAS REDUCED.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1008, 24 December 1910, Page 5

OPIUM AREAS REDUCED.

The correspondent at Shanghai of the London 'Standard" wrote a lew months ago:— ■ , head in China of Messrs. Bruniier, ll'ond.and Co., returned to bUanghai from nn extended tour in western China, a few months ago, and n S f rCS -» of . tlle special inquiries lie made with referenco to tho cultivation and use of opium, ho declared to me, iliw ° ou !' s - 0 of au 'nkn'iew, that, genoi:axJy speaking, on© of tho most wonderful transformations that any country can t™ ln haS tal ? n plac ,° in tho t*o opiumgroiving provinces of Szechuan and Yunnan, where the word of tho Government obeyed ' aWt universally, absolutely There is now no question that all over tne province of Szechuan opium has almost entirely ceased to be grown. Mr. Little travelled 1200 miles through'country. whero tho farmers aforetime devoted tneir whole attention to the growing of tho poppy, and ho did not see a single plant anywhere.. Aided by long experience in China, and a knowledge of tho language that enabled liim to understand even a good deal of what the wild JLolo tribesmen of the Far West said, Mr. Little made rigid inquiries of officials, merchants, travellers, coolies, innkeepers, farmers, and all sorts and conditions of men, and tho reply given was always to th© samo effoct, namely, that the injunction was so severe that it was impossible for anybody to grow opium. Proclamations were posted in various places, and they -were always couched in the, most curt and emphatic language; for instance: "You are absolutely prohibited from growing opium. If you do so you will bo punished." Proclamations had also been issued notifying the people that the carrying of o"pium over tho roads either into or out of the country would be prohibited after tho first day of the sixth moon this year.. "While it was possible for natives to obtain opium, tho business is being carried' on so secretly that a stranger is not able to obtain the drug. • In only one place was opium . seen growing, and that was at Hueilichau, on tho far border of Yunnan and Szeclnmn, where Mr. Little saw quantities being grown.- There arc, of course, sorao districts in which, for a consideration,, the local officials have not been able to see opium growing.