TROUBLE IN THE MAGWÈ DISTRICT
I have alluded several times to the Magwè district. It was in a very
bad state and was a blot on the administration, which gave me much
thought. This district was called Taungdwingyi at first, and took the
name of Magwè when the subdivision of that name lying along the left
of the river was added to it. It was not until the end of 1888 that it
began to be very troublesome. The leader of most influence at first was
Min Yaung, who was killed by a party of troops in May, 1887. Another
leader, Tokgyi, rose afterwards and gave much trouble, but he was
captured in April, 1888. It seemed that no formidable leaders remained.
Small raids and dacoities occurred here, as in most parts of the
province, at that time. The revenue collections had increased largely,
which was a good sign.
In August, 1888, however, a pretender with the title of the Shwèkinyo
Prince raised his standard, and was joined by a noted dacoit Bo Lè
and others. They hatched their plots in a place on the border of the
Magwè township, and began work in November, 1888. Unfortunately,
everything in this district was unfortunate, at the very commencement
the gang under Bo Lè encountered a party of thirty mounted men of
the Magwè battalion, under a British Inspector of Police. The police
were badly handled, and lost seven killed and two wounded, while six
rifles and three ponies were taken by the dacoits. This gave the gang
encouragement, while the police, who had not much cohesion, were for a
time somewhat shaken. [See p. 96.]
After this event the gangs separated, probably because the country
could not feed them, and took up points at a distance from each other.
In January, 1889, some of the leaders joining hands again, surprised a
party of the Myingyan police, and inflicted some loss on them, but were
soon afterwards punished by Mounted Infantry from Magwè.
Throughout March and April, the pursuit was kept up with varying
success. At last in May, the Mounted Infantry got on to their tracks,
killed Bo Lè, and dispersed the gang.
Hitherto the brigands had confined themselves to the west and
north-west of the district, open dry country with a good deal of waste
land offering a good field for the action of mounted troops.
After a time the Taungdwingyi subdivision also became disturbed, and
dacoities became frequent. The conditions on the eastern side of the
district were different. The hills known as the Pegu Yomas run along
the eastern boundary dividing Magwè from Pyinmana for about sixty
or seventy miles; from the Thayetmyo boundary on the south, to some
distance beyond Natmauk on the north. From Natmauk the hills gradually
diminish and slope away to the plains. The slopes of the Yomas are
densely wooded, and between the Magwè boundary and the low country to
the east there was much teak forest worked by the Bombay Burma Company.
At that time there was also a good growth of the Acacia Catechu, and
many of the Burmans employed in extracting cutch lived in the forests,
and cultivated small cleared plots here and there. The richest villages
and best rice-producing land in the district lay along the low lands at
the foot of the Yomas, within raiding distance. No dacoit could have
wished for better conditions, especially when an inefficient district
officer and a poorly commanded police battalion were added.
At this period of the campaign I had lost by sickness and death some
of the best and most experienced men. The strength of the Commission
all told was not enough for the necessities of the province in its then
state. I was compelled to place districts in charge of men who were
unfit owing to inexperience and want of training.
It is a fact of which we may all be proud that the average young
English gentleman when thrown into conditions which demand from him
courage, energy, and judgment, and the power of governing, answers to
the call. Whether he comes from a good school or university, or from
his regiment, from the sea or the ranch, whether he has come through
the competitive system or has obtained his appointment by other means,
he will in the majority of cases be found capable, and sometimes
conspicuously able. It is necessary, however, that he should be taught
and trained in his work. The Magwè district was in itself not specially
hard to manage, not nearly so difficult as many others in Upper Burma.
It was in charge of a junior man of the Indian Civil Service, clever
but not very wise.
As it was necessary to take special measures against the Yoma gangs, an
officer, who had been ten years in the police in Lower Burma and had
done excellently in the adjacent district of Thayetmyo, was appointed
to work on similar lines in Taungdwingyi.
He was in this matter independent of the Deputy Commissioner, who,
although senior to him in the Commission, was much his junior in years
and experience. One of the chief duties assigned to him was the removal
of villages from which dacoits received their supplies. He removed
those lying nearest the hills which harboured the brigands. No doubt
the gangs were inconvenienced and exasperated by this measure. In
April, 1889, the village of Myothit was attacked and the police post
burnt. In May a large body of dacoits under the standard of Buddha
Yaza, a pretended prince, who in preceding years had a large following
in the Eastern Division, gathered in the Pin township in the north of
the district east of Yénangyaung. A party of military police led by
two Indian officers attacked them successfully, but they collected
again in a stronger position and a second attack by one hundred rifles
(military police), led by the Assistant Commissioner and the Assistant
Superintendent of Police, neither of them trained soldiers, failed; but
soon afterwards the gangs were again met and dispersed.
On the 1st of June, 1889, a small body of dacoits was encountered by
Mr. Dyson, Assistant Commissioner, who had with him a party of police.
A fight ensued, in which Mr. Dyson was killed. The man who led this
gang was killed afterwards and his followers surrendered. But this was
no compensation for the loss of a promising young officer who could be
ill spared.[30]
There was a force of police in the district quite able to hold it, if
they had been properly handled, and they were supported by Mounted
Infantry. There was evidently a want of some controlling authority
which was not to be found in any of the local officers. Just at this
time Colonel W. Penn Symons, who had been working in Sagaing, succeeded
to the command of the Myingyan district, and at my earnest invitation
he went to Magwè and assumed control over the operations for reducing
the district to order. All civil and police officers were placed under
General Symons absolutely so far as the operations were concerned.
A proclamation was then issued offering a pardon to all who were
out, excepting only those who had committed murder and certain named
leaders, on condition that they submitted and returned to a peaceful
life. This proclamation had some effect, and more than 150 dacoits
surrendered with their arms. Most of the men who came in belonged to
the Pin and Yénangyaung townships.
In July (1889) I was able to devote a fortnight to this troublesome
district and to meet General Symons at Magwè. With him and some of
the local officials I marched round the district, going from Magwè to
Taungdwingyi, and then up the east to the north, ending at Yénangyaung
on the north-west.
I found the country in a better condition than the reports of crime had
led me to expect. Going north from Taungdwingyi a good deal of land
was lying untilled. But elsewhere every possible field was ploughed
and sown, and cattle were plentiful and in good case. This part of the
district was a fine open country divided into big fields with thorn
hedges. There were, however, here and there tracts of very difficult
scrub jungle broken by ravines from which it would be difficult to
drive dacoit gangs.
I had the principal men collected to meet me at all the halting-places
and had much consultation with them. The people came readily with their
petitions and spoke with perfect frankness of their grievances.
As a problem in administration the conditions differed much from those
hitherto dealt with. In Sagaing, Minbu, and elsewhere, the lawlessness
was universal and chronic. In Magwè the gangs were small and consisted
mainly of professional criminals, not of peasants who had joined
well-known leaders either to save their own lives and property or to
resist the establishment of a foreign Government. Some of the leaders
even were well-known outlaws from Lower Burma, and it was asserted that
there were natives of India with the gangs. But only in one case was
this substantiated. A native of India, a man of the sweeper caste, had
been captured and he was in the Magwè jail. A note written a few days
after I had left Magwè will give the impressions I brought away from my
tour.
"The two main difficulties are the bad state of the Police Battalion
and the nature of the country on the north and on the east of the
district. These were aggravated by the injudicious action on the part
of the subdivisional officer, for which I must take my share of the
blame as I selected him and trusted him fully in consequence of his
great success elsewhere. In his desire to force the dacoits to leave
the slopes of the mountains, he moved villages too far from their
fields and did not show a proper care and judgment in selecting the
temporary sites for them to occupy. It was said that men joined the
dacoit gangs in consequence. It may have been so in a few instances.
The people spoke to me frankly and freely, and they did not allege
this. Still, it may be true. I debated much with myself whether I
should say, 'Go back at once to your old sites.' This would have
pleased all.... All the headmen I saw admitted that the villages
moved were those which added and fed the dacoits, and they admitted
unreservedly that if they returned they must continue to aid and feed
them. General Symons was of opinion that the removal of these villages
would prove of the greatest assistance in capturing the gangs. The
mischief for that season had been caused and some of the more distant
lands must lie empty. To let the people return now (July) was useless,
while it would prolong our work.
"Their argument was, 'There are fewer dacoits now than there used to
be even in the King's time. We prefer dacoits to inconvenience and
hardship.'"
That was their attitude everywhere, and if peace was to be established
we could not accept it. I removed the incompetent officers and sent the
best officer I had at my disposal (the late Mr. Todd Naylor) to take
charge of the district. At the same time a competent Commandant was
posted to the military police battalion.
General Symons undertook to remain in the district for another month.
Minbu had been cleared of the gangs which had harassed it so long, and
I was able to transfer Mr. G. G. Collins to Magwè to help Mr. Todd
Naylor.
Having put matters in train, my duties took me to Mandalay and then up
the Chindwin to arrange matters connected with the coming expedition
against the Chins. General Symons was appointed to command the
Chin-Lushai expedition, and Magwè had to be left to the local officers.
Progress was slow. The dacoits lay up in the forests of the Yomas, and
until they were driven out and destroyed there would be no peace.
For the last three months of the year my health compelled me to take
leave to the Nilgiri Hills. There was no hill station in Burma at that
time. The climate varying between a stokehole and a fern-house was not
invigorating, and labour, physical and mental, such as we were all
sustaining was somewhat exhausting.
During my absence Mr. A. P. MacDonnell,[31] Home Secretary to the
Government of India, was appointed to act for me. He took up the
Magwè business vigorously, and under his direction several columns
were organized to operate simultaneously in the unsettled tract from
Yamèthin, Pyinmana, Magwè, and Thayetmyo. They commenced work in
December, 1889. The party from Magwè encountered one of the gangs in
the Yomas, but inflicted no punishment on them. One leader was driven
out and captured or killed in the Yamèthin district. But there was
no marked success. The dacoits were able to get food anywhere in the
forests from the cutch boilers, and it was suspected ammunition from
the Burman foresters in the Bombay Burma Company's service.
On my return, from leave in December 1889, I had the great honour
of receiving His Royal Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales,
accompanying him to Mandalay by rail and returning by river. This duty
necessarily delayed the ordinary work of administration.
On examining the situation in Magwè, I came to the conclusion that the
operations in the Yomas must be placed under the control of one man.
I selected Mr. Porter, Deputy Commissioner of Pyinmana, and made the
whole business over to him with definite instructions as to the powers
he was to exercise and the course of action he was to follow. Tracks
had already been cleared through the Yomas. The different parties
engaged in the work were well combined and held together by Mr. Porter.
The gangs were dispersed and either captured or forced to surrender,
and by the end of May the work was complete.
Meanwhile in the north of the district Mr. Todd Naylor and Mr. Collins
had succeeded in breaking up the small gang that still held out under
two noted leaders, and the district was finally cleared. All the
leaders had been killed, captured, or driven out of the district. Some
sought refuge in Lower Burma. One Lugalégyi, a well-known Bo, was
arrested in Prome before the end of the year. To quote once more from
the _Gazetteer_ (1908): "Since then Magwè has been undisturbed" (vol
ii., p. 56, article "Magwè").
I will give one more instance of dacoit methods reported to me by the
late Mr. Donald Smeaton, then Commissioner of the Central Division,
dated August 13, 1889, from the Pagyi country. Reading it over after
the lapse of more than twenty years, I am glad that I was able to
help in ending the anarchy which begat such crimes. Mr. Smeaton
wrote: "Early in the forenoon of the 18th July I was riding back with
Lieutenant Macnabb from Kyaw to Zeittaung. We were passing the village
of Jut about four miles from Zeittaung, when we were hailed by a
villager and a military policeman, who informed us that the village
had just been dacoited by Saga and a gang of fourteen or fifteen men.
We at once went into the village and were conducted by the Thugyi to
the house which had been Saga's principal object of attack. We were
there informed that this house had been singled out by Saga because
its owner, Po Hkine, one of his late followers, had surrendered with
his arms to the special officer, that Saga's object had been to kill
Po Hkine. Fortunately Po Hkine and his wife were at Zeittaung when the
attack was made. Not finding Po Hkine or his wife, Saga had dragged
down from the house two old women, Po Hkine's mother and aunt, and
tortured them by burning parts of their bodies with lighted torches.
The elder of the two women was severely burnt and was lying on the
ground: the other was sitting. Both were in great pain. We questioned
the two women. They said the gang had come straight to their house
shouting out 'Saga! Saga!' and on finding that Po Hkine was not there
had gone up the bamboo steps and dragged them to the ground. They then
reproached them with allowing Po Hkine to surrender and demanded all
the money and jewelry in the house. The old women gave up all their
money and their ornaments, but nevertheless they were tied up, a bamboo
mat with a hole cut to allow the head to pass through was put over
them, and two or three of the gang held lighted torches to their backs
and between their legs. The villagers were too afraid to yield any
assistance. The women fainted, and the dacoits left them lying on the
ground. The villagers were doing their best to soothe the two women and
alleviate the pain when we came to the house.
"I have known of several cases in which women have been regularly
trussed and suspended over a fire by dacoits till they gave up their
money and ornaments.
"I can recall one case in which dacoits pushed wood shavings up between
a woman's legs and set them on fire.
"In several cases of this kind that have occurred within my own
knowledge the unfortunate women have died."
But I must have surfeited the reader with robberies and murders
and savage cruelties. My purpose has been to draw a true picture
of the conditions with which we had to deal. There may be some who
think that stern measures of repression are wrong and that under all
conditions kindness and forbearance should be the only weapons of a
civilized Government. It is to be wished that such persons could have
an opportunity of testing their theories without danger to any but
themselves.
It is well, however, to record as a matter of history that, so far as
was practicable, the rank and file of those who joined insurgent or
brigand gangs were treated leniently. They were freely pardoned, if
they had not committed murder, on condition that they surrendered with
their arms and engaged to live quietly in their villages. Where it was
necessary and possible, work was provided for them. When I left Burma
there were thousands who had so surrendered and were living honest
lives. Very few, I believe, went back to the wild life.
There were a very large number of men, especially in the early years,
who were run down and captured and sentenced by the magistrates to long
terms of imprisonment. It would have done infinite mischief if these
men had been released after a short time and allowed to join their old
companions.
I opposed the idea of a general jail delivery. When it became possible,
the cases were examined under my orders by an experienced officer
and the sentences were revised. It was not a task that could be done
without labour, care, and knowledge. It was necessary to consider the
condition of the district to which each man belonged. If that district
was still disturbed, and especially if the gang of which he had been a
member was still holding together, it would have been foolish weakness
to send him back again. As a dog returns to his vomit, so does a dacoit
to his gang, if he can find it. The magistrate is bound to think of the
people who may suffer, rather than of the criminal who had preyed upon
them. In Burma at least we had not outgrown this primitive morality. No
one who had had my experience of the difficulty of catching these very
interesting gentlemen would have cared to let them loose again.
THE FIRST DURBAR IN THE SHAN STATES.
About this time I was able to carry out an intention I had formed of
visiting Fort Stedman and meeting all the Shan chiefs and notables.
The distance from the nearest point in the plains to Fort Stedman was
seventy miles, of which fifty-six were through the hills. The road was
under construction, but in that state which made it worse travelling
than the bullock-path it was meant to supersede.
The journey would take altogether about fourteen days, and it was not
easy for me to get away from other business for so long a time. Nor was
it possible always to summon the chiefs away from their headquarters.
The ride up through the hills was very beautiful, and the view from the
range commanding the great lake of Inle was one of the finest I had
seen in Burma.
Fort Stedman lies on the further or eastern shore of the lake, and
after a long and hot ride we had to wait for a considerable time for
the State boat of the Yawnghwè Sawbwa who was bringing Mr. Hildebrand
across.
At the landing-place I found a guard of honour of the Shan levy under
Captain Tonnochy, the Commandant, and at the village bazaar higher up
all the chiefs had assembled to meet me. On the next day I held an
informal reception of all the Sawbwas and other potentates.
A large hall, mostly of bamboo, had been constructed on the
parade-ground, and in this, on the 19th of March, I received the
chiefs. All the chiefs, with the exception of a few, were present.
Many of them met me for the first time, and I learnt that to most
of them also it was the first occasion of their meeting with their
fellow-chiefs. They were presented to me in turn, and the Sawbwas of
Möngnai and Yawnghwè, who it was considered had rendered services of
some value to the British Government, received the medal and gold chain
of honour given by the Viceroy for local services in Burma.
It was a notable assemblage. It was the first occasion on which all
these potentates of various degrees, who had for years previously been
fighting amongst themselves or rebelling against Burmese tyranny, had
been brought together in peace and harmony under a strong rule. Each
of them had made his formal submission to the Queen-Empress. Each had
received a patent confirming him in his rights and position as head of
his State. Each of them knew that the reign of peace had begun and that
he was henceforth secure.
I reminded them that this was the work of the British power, and that
it had been carried out without their assistance by the soldiers of the
Queen-Empress and at the cost of her Government of India.
I pointed out to them that they, the Shan chiefs, had duties and
obligations on their side: primarily the good government of their
peoples, the impartial administration of justice, the development of
their territories by roads, and the improvement of agriculture and
trade. "I do not want you," I said, "to imitate or adopt the forms or
methods of British government; but I think you can do much by a careful
choice of your subordinates, by the judicious curtailment of the right
to carry arms, by suppressing the extravagant and public gambling
which, experience shows, invariably leads first to ruin and then to
crime."
Lastly, I explained to them that they could not be excused from paying
tribute, the amount of which would be adjusted to their ability. The
British Government was maintaining garrisons for their benefit, and had
undertaken costly expeditions for their defence. It was necessary to
ask them to remember their obligations.
The first assessment of the Shan States to tribute was made in 1887-8,
on the basis of the sums paid to the King of Burma, so far as they
could be ascertained. The country had, however, suffered very greatly
from the prevailing anarchy, and many of the States were depopulated
and the land was lying waste. Much of the nominal demand had to be
remitted. Even now (in 1911) the tribute received by the Government
(which may be taken to be at most not more than one-third of the
revenue collected from the people by their chiefs) hardly covers the
expense of administration, including the garrison of fifteen hundred
military police who maintain internal order and guard the frontiers.
The vast sums expended on the Mandalay-Lashio railway in the Northern
States and on the road connecting the Southern States with the
Toungoo-Mandalay railway have not been repaid, except by the increased
prosperity of the country.
The Shan population may be taken at about one million two hundred
thousand persons. It would be a high estimate of the incidence of the
tribute received by the Government if it were reckoned at sixpence per
head. As a source of revenue, therefore, the Shan States are not of
much account. The country, however, has improved--slowly, it is true,
but without interruption. The railway from Mandalay to Lashio has done
much for the Northern States. That now under construction from the
Toungoo-Mandalay line to the headquarters of the Southern States will
have greater and more rapid effect on that fertile country. I fully
anticipate rapid progress in the near future. It is something to be
able to say that since my visit to Fort Stedman in March, 1890, the
peace of the Shan States has not been broken, except by a few small
local risings of the wilder tribes (not Shans) in the mountains on the
north and on the east.
To the student of the science of politics the Shan States will prove,
perhaps, the most interesting field of observation in the province
under the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma. There is nothing quite of the
same character in India. When we occupied the country, the condition of
the Shan chiefs had more resemblance to that of the petty chiefs and
Rajas in the central provinces of India before Sir Richard Temple dealt
with them, than to any other Indian example. But Temple gave to the
larger States the character of feudatory rulers of foreign territory
outside of British India, whereas, as I have mentioned below, in the
chapter on the Shan Expedition of 1887-8, the Shan States one and all
were made part of British India by the proclamation annexing Burma.
There is nothing in India similar to this case; where a great territory
of sixty thousand square miles, being by law an integral part of
British India, is administered not through the regular officials and
courts, but directly by many quasi-independent chiefs, each supreme in
his own territory, but guided and controlled by British officers, whose
advice they are bound by their engagements to follow.
It results from these conflicting conditions that everything has to be
done by or under some legal enactment. If the ordinary laws of British
India (for example, the codes of criminal law and procedure) do not
apply, it is because under the Shan States Act or some other enactment
the local Government has suspended their operation and has substituted
other rules to which the force of law has been given.
In the Feudatory States of India, on the other hand, any interference
which becomes necessary is exercised not by virtue of an enactment of
the legislature, but by the use of the sovereign executive power.
That this difference is vital there can be little doubt. At present it
is the policy, and no doubt the wise policy, of the Government of India
to avoid interfering with the native States, as much as may be, even by
way of advice.
An Indian ruler can do as he likes, and it is only in gross cases of
misrule which are clearly injurious to the people, and the consequences
of which extend, or are likely to extend, beyond the boundaries of the
State, that the sovereign Government feels compelled to intervene.
In the Shan case the local Government has the power by law of
interfering and controlling the chief, and it will feel bound to use it.
It will be interesting to watch to which side the tendency will be.
As the people advance in condition and education, and as the chiefs
become more intelligent and trained to affairs, will the control of
the executive increase or diminish? Will the tendency be, as in India,
for the executive Government to withdraw into the background and leave
the chief to govern, or will the chief tend to become an official of
the State, exercising his powers under the restrictions and forms, and
subject to the appellate and revisional powers of the regular courts?
Up to the present time the control has tended to become more close.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] Mr. Dyson had come to us from the Public Works Department. He had
been employed in the Ava subdivision of Sagaing and had shown himself
keen and energetic, but he was still very inexperienced in this sort of
work.
[31] Now Lord MacDonnell, P.C., G.C.S.I.