This review cannot attempt to deal with the increasing cultivation of opium throughout China. The very first week of the '"'Herald'' for 1922 contained a leading article on the recrudescence of opium; mention of licences in Kueichow (the method now common is as follows: the military leaders compel the farmer to buy a licence to grow opium in order that they may tax him on it afterwards); an official report to Peking that poppy cultivation is rife in Fukien; and reports on growing in Szechuan. Customs seizures of smuggled opium, which ran into hundreds of thousands of pounds in 1921, would certainly not appear to have diminished in 1922. The bold proposal made by Sir Francis Aglen on January 23 of the present year that the Chinese Government should revert to control.of the opium trade by legalize ing it and licensing it shows how far China has fallen from the state of grace in which on the eve of the Republic she announced the complete extinction of opium cultivation.
The following are some items of general interest, one or two of them from outside China, the dates of which are worth placing on record. On February 28 Princess Mary of England was married to Viscount Lascelles. On March 3 the Amoy boycott,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.