Men working in the fields said that they heard that inspectors were coming through and that an order had come to pull it all up. They said that near Jehol it had been pulled up already and our observation confirmed it, They also declared that they had ordered to plant and. thi had to pay §7 per mow time of planting. Since then they had paid several assessments that went to subordinates. They understand that the first tax went to the Tartar General. Up to that time they had paid' about $40 per mow and were liable to have to pay at least once again in harvest time, Still they expected to make 'a small profit if they were only allowed to harvest the entire crop. They accepted the order and its enforcement as a fate against which it was useless to resist but which they considered most unjust.
And Now to Pull up. conversation with my friend the Tartar General, he made no: disguise of the fact that he had encouraged the planting. His fxeuse was that after China had Stopped the planting in 1917 India Sent in millions of the stuff and the country might better raise it herself. He thought the British effort to get China to stop planting was purely in the interest of her own opium trade. However, he said that the orders to pull it up would have to be obeyed and he had sent them out, but it was, very hard on the poor people who had paid their tax on planting the crop. It-looked ito me' the orders would not be pressed seriously until the, crop was practically all harvested.
Many of the farmers declared that they did not smoke, that they sold it all, but in the city it was evident that it was smoked everywhere and many said that everyone smoked."—Reuter's Pacific Service.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.