DRASTIC CHINESE METHODS.

Colonist, Volume LIII, Issue 13169, 27 July 1911, Page 1

DRASTIC CHINESE METHODS.

When China came to an agreement with India by which she undertook to uproot her poppy plantations if India would reduce her exports so that by l'.)]7 the opium trade would officially cease to oxist, doubt was expressed as to whether China would hold to her bargain. Judging by an article from the special correspondent of tho Sydney "Daily Telegraph," she seems to have done so. "Human heads in baskets, and ears skewered on sticks," he says, "testify in silent, eloquent voice that tho Chinese Government is bent on extirpating opium." 'When, tho edict went forth into the distant provinces that all poppy plantations must be destroyed and no new crops planted, many farmers complied with the commands of the Thonie. Tho correspondent passed through Yunnan., province, and in the accessible places found not a stalk of poppy, where but a few years previously tho land was a-bloom with flowers. But ,in tho mountainous parts, the farmers did not understand they planted and reaped as they had done in the past. Officials gently remonstrated with them, but 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 wero destroyed. The military left, and in a short time the poppies bloomed again. One day, however, tho military returned. No questions were askofl. The poppy farmer was seized, taken amidst the flowers, and his .head"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 recommenced. Then cultivation was declanjd a capital offence, and bands of soldiers marched about tho country, cutting off the heads or ears of offenders and destroying crops. It wae not -beforo many executions had been made and several pitched" battles fought that the cultivators found the poppies must go. In the great open areas where tho Dlant used to grow, wheat is now boing cultivated.