§ MR. LYNCH (Yorkshire, W. R., Ripon)To ask the Secretary of State for India whether he can state, and, if not, whether he will ascertain, the approximate amount of opium at present grown in China; and
† F. O. Licht's estimates.‡ Messrs. Willet and Gray's estimate.1008 what proportion such native-grown opium bears to that imported into China from foreign countries.
§ (Answered by Mr. Runciman.) The latest information at the disposal of the Foreign Office will be found at page 23 and pages 80 to 82 of the Report for the years 1904–5 of the Foreign Trade of China, Annual Series, No. 3725. The acting commercial attaché states in that Report that it is impossible to obtain accurate statistics of the annual output of native opium in China, but he estimates the production of the province of Souchuan alone, which is the greatest centre of poppy cultivation, to be about four times the present total amount of foreign opium imported into China.