BURMA BECOMES A FRONTIER PROVINCE
In another direction there was a still greater change than
the substitution of police for troops. From being an isolated
administration hardly able to look up from our own affairs, and obliged
to work in detail, district by district, to establish a beginning of
order, Burma was rapidly becoming a frontier province, with daily
extending boundaries. I was occupied in this year with framing the
administration of the Shan States, which had been visited by Mr.
Hildebrand and Mr. Hugh Daly,[26] with our relations to Eastern
Karenni, with the Trans-Salween States and the Siamese claims on that
border. The distant region to the north of Bhamo had been occupied for
the first time, and it was becoming evident that we should have to
reckon with the Kachins in the north and north-east; while the eastern
frontier of Upper Burma resting up against the great mass of mountains
which stretch down from Manipur to the Bay of Bengal, was beginning to
demand attention.
There had been hitherto no leisure and no need to give much thought
to the tribes of Chins and others inhabiting these hills. It had been
suggested at an early period that Burma should send a party through the
Chin country to meet another from the Bengal side, with the design of
opening up communication from east to west and making a through road.
I was opposed to this project, and besought the Viceroy to disallow
it. I looked upon it as a certain way of rousing the Chins before we
were ready to deal with them. A few days before the end of 1887 Lord
Dufferin telegraphed his agreement with my view. In a letter which
followed, he wrote: "When the idea was originally proposed, I allowed
the matter to be taken in hand with some hesitation, as I felt that it
would probably prove a premature endeavour, and I saw no special reason
for embarking on luxurious enterprises of the kind while the main work
on which we are engaged is still incomplete. For God's sake let us
get Burma proper quiet before we stir up fresh chances of trouble and
collision in outlying districts."
Of the wisdom of this doctrine there was no doubt. And no one could
have been more anxious to avoid new difficulties than I was. The Chins,
however, forced our hands, and before the rains of 1888 it was clear
that it would be impossible to ignore them. It was foreseen from the
first that the occupation of Upper Burma must bring us into conflict
with half-savage or altogether savage tribes who occupied the mountains
on three sides of the province; and no doubt when it was decided to
annex the kingdom the responsible authorities had this matter in their
minds.
From the first occupation of Mogaung the isolation of that post and the
difficulty of reinforcing it, especially in the rains, was a source of
disquiet. I had lost no time in asking that some mountain guns should
be attached to the Mogaung battalion of military police, and that a
survey for an extension of the railway to the north of the province
should be undertaken. The guns were readily granted. To give life to
the railway project several departments in India had to be persuaded,
notably Finance and Public Works. When their consent had been obtained
the Government of India had to move the Secretary of State to sanction
the work and to grant the money for it. The survey was started in 1890,
and some progress, which may be characterized without injustice as
deliberate, had been made before I surrendered Burma to my successor
in December of that year. The line to Myitkyina, three hundred and
thirty-one miles, was opened in 1895.
These frontier matters have been dealt with in separate chapters of
this book. They are referred to here to show the change which had
come over the province. The area of administration was extending
rapidly--more rapidly than our resources in men.
Before the end of 1888 the interior of the province ceased to give
much cause for anxiety, although it cannot be described as altogether
restful. Daylight had appeared in the districts of the Northern and
Central Divisions, where the outlook had been darkest. And in some of
the southern districts, Minbu and Myingyan (in which was now included
Pagan), and in Pakokku, as well as in the whole of the Eastern
Division, the disturbances had ceased or were confined to difficult
forest tracks in which the remaining gangs had taken refuge.
The Magwè district, as it was now called (the township on the left bank
of the river, which had before belonged to Minbu, had been transferred
to the Taungdwingyi district, and the headquarters moved to the river
town of Magwè), was a source of trouble and sorrow. Nothing seemed to
succeed there. Sir Robert Low's warning that this would be the last
stronghold of dacoity or organized resistance was justified by events.
The British public were becoming very weary of Burma and even of the
abuse heaped upon the local government of the province. Tormented by
the questions in Parliament, the Secretary of State would order us
every now and then to report how we were getting on, like a child that
has planted a flower and pulls it up occasionally to make sure that it
is alive. Nevertheless those on the spot were not disheartened. The
work had to be done, and all were determined to do it. Personally I had
encouragement from every one in the province, civilian or soldier, for
whose opinion I cared. Lord Dufferin's kindness and support were never
wanting. He understood well the nature of the task. He was satisfied
with the work done, and his confidence in our success was firm.
Writing to me on April 2, 1888, he expressed his satisfaction with our
work and with what had been done, in terms which are too flattering to
be repeated by me.
The constant recurrence of small encounters, small successes, and
occasionally small disasters, was very wearisome at the time to all
of us, and would be as fatiguing to the reader as to me to relate. I
will give the history of some cases, which will be enough to explain
how the province settled down. It will be remembered that the Village
Regulation became law in October, 1887. It took some time to get the
district officers, magistrates as well as police, to make themselves
acquainted with it, and still longer to induce some of them to make use
of its provisions.
In the summer of 1888 the country generally had improved much. Few of
the big Bos, or leaders of gangs, were left. But in some districts
there was not merely a system of brigandage; it was a system, a
long-established system, of government by brigands. The attacks on
villages, the murder and torture of headmen and their families, were
not so much the symptoms of rebellion against our Government as of the
efforts made by the brigands to crush the growing revolt against their
tyranny.
Hence it came about that in districts where there was little activity
on the part of British officers, and where the chief civil officer
failed to get information, very little was heard of the dacoits, simply
because the people were paying their tribute to the leaders, who did
not need to use coercion.
Sagaing was one of the worst districts in this respect. It had been
under the domination of brigands for years before Thebaw was dethroned.
It was held by a score of dacoit leaders, who had a thousand men armed
with guns at their call. Each had his own division, in and on which he
and his men lived, leaving the villagers alone so long as they paid
their dues, and punishing default or defection with a ruthless and
savage cruelty that might have made a North American Indian in his
worst time weep for human nature. It was brought home to us by hard
facts that the question was whether the British Government, or what
may be called the Bo Government, were to be masters. The people were,
everything considered, wonderfully well off. They found our officers
ready to accept their excuses and to remit taxation, or, at the worst,
to enforce a mild process of distraint or detention against defaulters.
On the other side were the Bos, with fire and sword, and worse if their
demands were refused or if aid in any form was given to the foreigners.
If the people would have given us information, the dacoit system could
have been broken up in a very short time. As they would not, the only
course open was to make them fear us more than the dacoits.
In Sagaing no measures hitherto taken had made any visible improvement.
Persuasion had been tried. The display of a strong military force
occupying the country in numerous posts had no effect. The soldiers
seldom saw or heard of a dacoit. The experiment was made of allowing
influential local Burman officials to raise a force of armed Burman
police on whom they could depend. This succeeded in some cases. But on
the whole it failed. The Burmans gave up their guns to the first gang
that came for them, or allowed them to be stolen. We could not afford
to arm the enemy. I came to the conclusion that the Deputy Commissioner
would never get his district into order.
Colonel Symons, working with Mr. Carter, had done very good service in
reducing the troublesome country of Pagyi in the Lower Chindwin into
order (see p. 85). I asked Sir George White to let me have Colonel
Symons's help again. He readily agreed. I sent him, with Mr. Carter, to
put Sagaing in order, giving Mr. Carter full powers under the Village
Regulation and ample magisterial powers, but reserving the ordinary
administrative work to the Deputy Commissioner. At the same time,
Mr. Herbert Browning, Assistant Commissioner, was posted to the Ava
subdivision to work with Captain Knox, of the 4th Hyderabad Cavalry.
The Sagaing military police battalion was placed under Colonel Symons's
orders, and thus unity of command was assured.
Captain Raikes was at this time acting as Commissioner of the Central
Division, in the absence of Mr. Fryer, who had taken leave. Captain
Raikes was a man who knew Burma well, and was keen and energetic in his
work. He came to the conclusion, and Colonel Symons agreed with him,
that the severest pressure must be put on the villagers.
A great obstacle in our way was, as has been said, the refusal of
the villagers to assist us. But an equal obstacle was their zeal in
giving assistance and information to the brigands. The powers of the
Village Regulation had been used elsewhere, under my instructions, to
remove persons who gave assistance in any way to the dacoits, and with
excellent effect. The proposals now made to me by Colonel Symons and
Captain Raikes went beyond anything hitherto done. They represented
that so long as the relatives and sympathisers of the brigands remained
in their villages, no progress was possible. The gangs would be fed and
furnished with immediate news of the movements of police or troops,
while no assistance would be given to us. The people themselves told
our officers that they could not help us. If they did, the dacoits'
relatives informed against them and their lives were taken. Hardly a
day passed without some murder of this kind.
It was proposed, therefore, to issue a proclamation to all villages
believed to be in league with the dacoits, informing them that unless
the men belonging to the village who were out dacoiting surrendered
within a fixed time, all their relations and sympathisers would be
ordered to leave the village and would be removed to some distant place
out of reach of communication. At first the people thought this was a
mere threat, and little notice was taken of it. When they found that it
was to be enforced, and that the relations and friends were actually
being deported, the effect was magical. Concurrently with this action
the dacoit gangs were hunted incessantly from jungle to jungle and
village to village, and severe fines were imposed on villages which
harboured the outlaws or withheld information regarding their movements.
The results were better than I had dared to hope. Many dacoits
surrendered in order to save their people from being removed. The
villagers came forward with information, and put police and soldiers
on to the tracks of the gangs. Small parties of dacoits could no
longer move about without danger of being attacked and captured by the
people they had preyed upon so long. Whole bodies of men came in and
surrendered with their arms. At the end of 1888 few members of the
Sagaing gangs were at large, and the district was reduced to order. In
Ava the success was similar; and the districts of Yeu Shwèbo and the
Lower Chindwin had likewise benefited from Colonel Symons's labours.
The credit of devising this system is due to Colonel Raikes. I
hesitated at first to go as far as he advised. There were obvious
reasons against moving people in this manner; but, if it was easy
to see objections to it, it was very difficult to devise a milder
measure that would be successful. It proved the most effective weapon
in our battery for the restoration of peace and order. The people, of
course, felt the pressure of these coercive measures. It was intended
that they should feel it. One of the most notorious leaders in the
Sagaing Division, Min O, after his capture, declared the fining under
the Village Regulation had ruined him, because the villagers, finding
themselves unable to meet both the Government demands and his, and
finding that the Government could enforce payment while he no longer
could, turned upon him and refused to give him asylum. The moving and
grouping of villages made it difficult for the gangs to get food, and
compelled them to disband or surrender.
The _Gazetteer of Burma_, in the article on Sagaing (vol. ii., p. 188),
published in 1908, records that "the strict observance of the Village
Regulation ... gradually led to the pacification of the country. By the
end of 1888 no less than twenty-six dacoit leaders, including Shwè Yan,
had been killed and twenty-six captured, and most of their followers
had come in and were disarmed. Since that time the district has given
no trouble."
FOOTNOTE:
[26] Lieut.-Colonel Sir Hugh Daly, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., Resident in Mysore.