Page:A wandering student in the Far East vol.1 - Zetland.djvu/281

Rh the "restriction of the cultivation of the poppy in order to remove the root of the evil," are not altogether reassuring. In Kan-su, we are told, "more poppy is grown than ever, and in one district an official urged the people to plant for all they were worth; ... in consequence, five times as much was sown"; and in Mongolia more land is said to have been given over to poppy cultivation, while a general summary upon this aspect of the question reads as follows: "Although in isolated instances in other provinces [i.e., apart from Ssŭch'uan] the cultivation of the poppy has been reduced, yet it may be safely said that in general no attention has been paid to this article throughout the empire, nor have the penalties for non-compliance with its provisions been imposed."

If, then, Great Britain desires to assist China in the most practical manner, she must take care that nothing she does shall in any way encourage the poppy-growers, and others pecuniarily interested in poppy cultivation in China, in the idea that the abolition of the