Assoc.
To the Editor of the "Nortu-Crtiwa Datty News."
Sir—The printed report of the First Opium Conference has reach. ed me, and I find that a large part, Geneva should: have quoted Abra: of two Sessions was occupied with!
heated: discussion over the Into national Anti-Opium Association Bulletin. on opium conditions in China and that China during 1923-' 1924 produced approximately 15,000 tons of opium. The more prominent disputant was the Chinese Chief Delegate and one or two of his statements must be answered.
First he refers to the missionary source of our information and sugggeats that "the Conference should Know how missionaries obtain their information". The answer is simply they live on the spot. As General Secretary of the International Anti-Opium Association my yearly duty is to make investigation of opium; cultivation and use in China. This, Gs done by writing 20 to 25 personal letters to missionaries in each province. These missionaries send re-) ports of what they have seen in the) course of their itinerations, the reports of their Chinese assistants in the villages and reports received in their provincial and district conferences, Added to these are the reports of our Branch Associations, and the frequent corroboration by, both Chinese and foreign press. Tt is over 20 years since I came to China, and I have yet to discover better means of securing reliable opium infers snd T cannot but, compare this source with the om from which the Chinese delegate quoted when he said "The cultivation opium in China chiefly took place in two provinces, Yunnan and, Szechuan", Now it is incontrovertible by every source of information available in China, Missionary, Consular, and Customs, that every province in China including the three Extra Administrative Aveas—except Shan-fu, Chihli and Chékiang—produced opium in 1923. Kueichow, Fukien, ngai, Shensi and Kansu equalled the two provinees of Yunnan and Szechuan, whilst Honan, Hupeh, Hunan, 'Kuangsi, Toho, Suiyuan and Manchuria were only' somewhat logs. The Chinese delegate remarked that our Association did not send in an official report of our investigations to the Chinese! Government. As an_ official report this is true, but half-a-dozen copies of every bulletin we issue are sent te the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and the Presidential Office, just as every striking report, protest and seizure also reported to the same authorities; therefore the Chinese Government had at their disposal the same, information as our Bulletins sup. plied to the other delegations of the Conferences.
For a detailed sectional report of cultivation in every' province China our bulletin is the only available: publication.in China, and lit is accepted as the official chapter
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.