All this is strangely reminiscent of the opium suppression measures instituted after the formation of Manchoukuo and under which the' official acreage of poppy gradually increased.
The price of the drug of course has risen, Befóre the opening of hostili ties last year Kansu opium, much favoured by smokers, used to arrive by camel caravan in Kueihua where the price was about $2 an ounce while transportation, squeeze and, other things added another dollar by the time it reached Peiping, where the price was $3 an ounce.
This price. however, now nearly is doubled. Not so much Kansu opium arrives and this part of the country appears to depend largely on supplies from Jehol, always a great opium producing province. In addition a fair amount grows in Suiyuan particularly in the hill country north of Kueihua and even on the Mongolian tableland where Chinese agriculture ists have encroached on Mongol grazing land.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.