ially encouraged, and
medicines distributed to cure the opium-smoking habit; (5) all
officials were requested to set an example to the people, and all
officials under sixty were required to abandon opium smoking within
six months or to withdraw from the service of the state.

It was estimated that the suppression of opium smoking would entail a
yearly loss of revenue of over L1,600,000, a loss about equally divided
between the central and provincial governments. The first step taken to
enforce the edict was the closing of the opium dens in Peking on the
last day of 1906.

During 1907 the opium dens in Shanghai, Canton, Fu-chow and many other
large cities were closed, and restrictions on the issue of licences
were introduced in the foreign settlements; even the eunuchs of the
palace were prohibited from smoking opium under severe penalties. The
central government continued during 1908 and 1909 to display
considerable energy in the suppression of the use of opium, but the
provincial authorities were not all equally energetic. It was noted in
1908 that while in some provinces--even in Yun-nan, where its
importance tc trade and commerce and its use as currency seemed to
render it very difficult to do anything effective--the governor and
officials were whole-hearted in carrying out the imperial regulations,
in other provinces--notably in Kwei-chow and in the provinces of the
lower Yangtsze valley--great supineness was exhibited in dealing with
the subject. Lord William Cecil, however, stated that travelling in
1909 between Peking and Hankow, through country which in 1907 he had
seen covered with the poppy, he could not then see a single poppy
flower, and that going up the Yangtsze he found only one small patch
of poppy cultivation.[68] The Peking correspondent of _The Times_, in
a journey to Turkestan in the early part of 1910, found that in
Shen-si province the people's desire to suppress the opium trade was
in advance of the views of the government. Every day trains of opium
carts were passed travelling under official protection. But in the
adjoining province of Shan-si there had been complete suppression of
poppy cultivation and in Kan-suh the officials were conducting a very
vigorous campaign against the growth of the poppy.[69]

In their endeavours to suppress opium smoking the Chinese government
appealed to the Indian government for help, and in 1907 recei