Whatever may be said as to any decline (temporary) in opium traffic great deal is even now on its way out of the province and I am told there is much more to follow before long On the 20th of this month, I met over one thousand hundred coolie loads travelling east. from Anshun and I learned that together over four thousand coolie Touds from that centre will have been sent out this season, At $800 load, this represents no less than $3,200,000. The city of Anshun. Prospers on opium and were the drug really suppressed it would mean something serious for a large number. But of course, things would right themselves in time and more legitimate business would "come to its own." During the few years towards the end. of the Manchu regime and in the first years of the Republic we saw the real benefit occuring from opium suppression, The military were mainly responsible for its revival and to a large extent the military are sharing in the opium business today, Ts it any wonder that while an "Opium Suppression Bureau" is supposed to function in Kweiyang, its real work is to gather in the opium taxes (called opium fines!) for the sup-Port of the military,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.