UPROOTING THE POPPY.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 125, 19 July 1911, Page 7

UPROOTING THE POPPY.

' I China Ci'.me to an agreement | •vich Indio Jr. which ,si.ie undyi look t• > ; uproot iU" - poppy phii.tr l .tii)}; :F India 1 would reduce iicr ex'pm'ts so that by j 10H' the opium traclo should officially . cease to exiat, douot, was expressed as to whether China would iipki to tier bargain. Judging by an article from the special correspondent of the Sydney “Daily Telegraph,” she seems to have done so. “Human heads in baskets, and cars skewered on sticks,” he says, “‘testify in silent, ' eloquent voice that the Chinese Government is bent on extirpating-.opium.” When the edict went forth into the distantprovinces , that all poppy plantations must be destroyed and no new crops planted, mahy’ farmers complied with the commands' of .the Throne. The correspondent ■ passed through \ unnan province, and in the accessible places found not a stalk of poppy, where but a few years previously the laud was a bloom with flowers. But in the mountainous parts, the farmers did not understand, they planted and . reaped as they had done in the past. Officials gently remonstrated with them, hut it was assumed that a larger‘bribe than usual was required, and this was tendered accordingly. The farmers’ surprise was therefore great when this brought upon them a force of soldiers. The fields were destroyed. The military left, and in a short time the poppies bloomed again. One day, however, the military returned. No questions were asked. The poppy farmer was seized, taken amidst tno flowers, and his heacl_lopped off. Wherever the news travelled, the poppy patches disappeared. But there were only a few executions to serve' as a warning, and the warning was soon forgotten, and the cultivation re-com-menced. Then cultivation was declared a capital offence, and bands of soldiers marched about the country, cutting off the heads or ears of offenders and destroying crops. It was not before many executions had been made and several pitched battles fought that the cultivators found the poppies must go. In the great open areas where the plant used to grow, wheat is now being cultivated.