Rather w pathetic letter comes from Reuter's Peking correspondent to the effect that Mr. Chu Chow-hsin, China's delegate to the Gene" Opium Convention, recently telegraphed to the Government asking for a detailed official statement regarding the opium situation China, and that the Government has sent a circular telegram to the provinces asking for reports. But, adds the writer "The information derived in this way will be of little value, for the Tuchuns of Yunnan, Szechuan, Kueichow, Shensi, Kansu, Kirin, Heilungkiang and Fukien, where poppy was extensively cultivated last year, will either fail to report, or follow their former practice of concealing the truth, "The question is of such vital portance.to China that it is hoped no reports which can be disproved by delegates of countries interested in opium and drug traffic will be furnished to the Delegate. The Chinese Delegate is not ith present conditions in China and would in all good faith use an inaccurate report, which would do China much more harm than a frank avowal of the truth that many military commandants and provincial officials are resorting to opium cultivation taxes in order to provide funds for the payment of troops."* "Frank avowals'" of that kind, however, are not at all to the taste of China's representatives abroad who appear to be chosen largely for their power of persuading the guileless foreigner that all is for the best in the best of all possible China's. The Geneva Convention puts Peking in a dilemma. Either it must tell tarradiddles about opium and be found out by men who will not be so readily gulled as the delegates at Washington. Or, it must lose face by a confession such as Reuter suggests. It will be interesting to see how Chinese official ingenuity gets out of the hole.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.