UNDER SIR CHARLES CROSTHWAITE, 1887-1890
Mr. C. H. T. Crosthwaite, soon afterwards Sir Charles Crosthwaite,
K.C.S.I., succeeded Sir Charles Bernard. He came enjoying the
confidence of the Viceroy, and in just expectation of the support
of the Government of India. Taking in hand at once the settlement
of the country, in the next four years he devoted his remarkable
administrative genius to the completion of the task. I cannot
becomingly express in full my humble appreciation and admiration of Sir
Charles Crosthwaite and the great work which he accomplished in Burma.
I hope it is not presumptuous of me to say that as an administrator
he ranks in the very highest class of Indian Statesmen, and is at
this moment by far the most distinguished member of our Service.
Never sparing himself, in those eventful years he initiated, guided,
directed, controlled. In his officers he inspired enthusiasm; we would
have fallen in harness to serve him or win his approval. We were always
sure of strong and efficient support, and had no fear, if things went
wrong, of being thrown to the dogs. Sir Charles Crosthwaite came to
a land still torn by internal strife; he left it a peaceful and
prosperous Province. I speak of what I know, for from first to last it
was my privilege to work immediately under him, to see the pulse of the
machine. Let those who wish to understand turn to the book[192] wherein
the story of the pacification is modestly told by the chief actor in
the drama.
Early in March, 1887, the Chief Commissioner came to Mandalay,
retaining for a short time the separate Secretariat for Upper Burma.
Wisely distrusting the sanitary conditions of the palace, he took up
his quarters in a small house built on the city wall, intended as the
residence of a military police officer. It consisted of two or three
rooms under one of the pyathats.[193] On the first evening after the
Chief Commissioner’s arrival we waited some time for dinner, as the
roof of the cook-room was blown off by a sudden gale. Since those days
the building has expanded, and has become a respectable Government
House. Thanks to the good taste of the Chief Engineer, Mr. H. J.
Richard, Burmese style has been preserved. The pyathat is the centre
of a range of buildings which might be a monastery or a section of the
Palace. Thus the house is a picturesque feature in the landscape, not
an outrage. With the moat and a stretch of green lawn on one side, and
pretty gardens on the other, commanding a fine view of Mandalay Hill
and the rugged western hillocks, it has every æsthetic quality. It
may be whispered that it is more beautiful to see than comfortable to
inhabit.
Sir Charles Crosthwaite’s first tour was undertaken for the purpose of
visiting the Ruby Mines district, then recently occupied. A military
station had been established on a lofty, somewhat bleak plateau, and
honoured with the name of Bernardmy̆o. The civil headquarters were at
Mogôk, the centre of the ruby mines. Reaching Ky̆an-hny̆at by steamer,
we rode to Sagadaung, at the foot of the hills, breakfasting midway
with Mr. R. C. Stevenson,[194] the subdivisional officer. The Chief
Commissioner’s party consisted of the Personal Assistant[195] and
myself. At Sagadaung it was found that all the servants, panic-stricken
at the thought of plunging into savage wilds, had refused to leave the
steamer. The kit and stores had come on, but the only servants with us
were my Madrasi boy and a few chapràsis.[196] The Personal Assistant
was equal to the occasion. He invited all the officers of the Station
to dine with the Chief Commissioner, from whom the state of affairs
was concealed. “And,” said he, “as our men are rather tired, will you
let your cooks help to get dinner ready?” These assistants he supplied
with stores and necessaries, and dinner was successfully achieved.
Next morning we rode up the hill to Bernardmy̆o, where we were kindly
made honorary members of the mess and lodged as handsomely as Service
conditions allowed. I slept in a commissariat godown,[197] with the
wind, cold even in April, whistling through the openings in the boarded
floor. After a day or two we rode on to Mogôk, through lovely evergreen
forest which still shades the bridle-path. There we were guests of the
Deputy Commissioner, the late Mr. G. M. S. Carter, who cherished us
till we reached the river and our steamer once more. Never, I ween, not
even in the Spartan days of Sir Arthur Phayre, did a Chief Commissioner
make an official tour in his Province with only a third of a boy and a
stray chapràsi or two as bearer,[198] khitmagar,[199] and cook.
The Ruby Mines Company was still in embryo, but the syndicate out of
which it was evolved had established a footing, and Mr. F. Atlay, who
still manages its affairs, was already installed. The quest for rubies
was prosecuted by the hereditary miners, who worked by primitive native
methods. In the King’s time rubies were, naturally, a royal monopoly,
and any stone of exceptional value was a royal perquisite. The most
illustrious stone on record was called, after its finder, Chin Nga
Mauk. The lucky man himself took it to the Palace, and was privileged
to lay it at the King’s feet. As a reward he was allowed to take
away a cart-load of whatever he liked from the Palace. The legend of
the discovery of the mines may be told. Passing through a desolate,
unpeopled land, a wayfarer saw a vulture swoop from a solitary rock
and pick up a piece of, as it seemed to wayfarer and apparently to
vulture, raw red flesh. Surprised at such a phenomenon in a waste
place, the traveller investigated, and found the earth strewn with
lovely glittering red stones, thenceforth known as the rubies of
commerce. The truth of the story is proved by the existence to this
day of the rock on which the vulture perched. Times have changed, and
rubies are no longer picked up on the surface. Nor are they found
embedded in the stone walls of Aladdin’s caves. They are extracted by
washing from ruby-bearing earth (by̆ôn), which is borne in trucks to
the Company’s washing sheds. Each truck contains, I suppose, about
twelve cubic feet of earth; the average value is about one shilling.
But any load may produce a stone worth a King’s ransom. Besides the
scientific operations of the company, mining by native methods is
still practised. The rights of hereditary miners are preserved. They
pursue the quest after the manner of their fathers, on payment of a
moderate licence-fee. The very poor, mostly women, may glean in the
beds of streams without any restriction. Ruby-mining was a profitable
business, with a pleasing element of chance. Some lucky miners amassed
large fortunes. Even the common people were affluent. The smallest coin
current in the bazaar was a silver two-anna (2d.) piece. Coppers were
unknown. In later days the Chief Commissioner or Lieutenant-Governor’s
receptions at Mogôk were ceremonies of much splendour. Followed by
scores of mounted men who came to meet him, he rode through the town
under triumphal arches gleaming with silken banners, past lines of
cheering spectators, groups of dancers, and cymbal-clashing musickers,
while pretty, shy Shan girls peeped from the casements. An incident
of one of these visits, though it has nothing to do with rubies or
ceremonious receptions, may be recorded by way of comic relief. The
scene was the parade-ground; the occasion, an inspection of the
Military Police Battalion; the time, the end of summer. The ground was
wet and slippery from an early unexpected shower. After the accustomed
evolutions, the Commandant, an exceptionally smart, well-turned-out
officer, came galloping up to the Lieutenant-Governor, and as he
essayed to pull up within a yard of that august personage his pony
slipped and deposited him in the mud at his feet. Nowise abashed, he
rose, gravely saluted: “Would you like to see anything else, sir?” “No,
thank you,” was the equally grave reply. And the incident closed, to
their credit, be it told, not one of the staff moving a muscle. As the
story goes, they waited to laugh till they got home.
On our return from the first visit, our baggage borne on mules, we
rode to Thabeik-kyin along a mule-track following approximately the
line of the present road. The narrow path wound through and about the
hills, often with a yawning precipice on one hand, a wall of rock on
the other. But that the road is broad and smooth, in many respects it
resembles the old path. Ponies have still a horrid habit of hugging
the cliff’s edge, and one rides with a leg suspended over the abyss.
To meet a train of pack-bullocks charging down the pass is a trying
experience. So, too, is the ascent in a motor-car with a driver
learning his work. Green forest covers the hillsides and luxuriates in
the valleys, brilliant with many-coloured blooms. The cicala fills the
open spaces with sound, so great a noise by so small a body. It was
then all new and full of interest. The beauty of the landscape charmed
every step of the march. Our guide was a handsome ruffian, Bo Aw, as
picturesque as the scene, who rode ahead in Shan dress, his flapping
straw hat decked with gay streamers. Afterwards he returned to the life
of a dacoit, and, I fear, came to a bad end.
Soon after this, the Mandalay Secretariat ceased to exist as a separate
branch, one Secretariat, with a Chief Secretary, Secretary, Junior
Secretary, and Assistant Secretary, being constituted in Rangoon for
the whole Province. Mr. Symes became Chief Secretary, but, worn out
by many labours, went on leave, Mr. Donald Smeaton[200] coming from
India to act for him. I became Secretary, and Mr. C. G. Bayne, Junior
Secretary. The anomalous post of Special Commissioner was abolished,
Mr. Hodgkinson going to Moulmein as Commissioner. Mr. Smeaton was not
new to the Province. Some years before he had come to Burma to fill the
newly created office of Revenue Secretary and Director of Agriculture.
In that capacity he had devised and organized the Supplementary Survey
system, afterwards called the Land Records Department. This was, I
believe, an entirely original scheme, of which the design was to keep
land records and maps up to date, year by year, so as to obviate the
labour of re-survey whenever a Settlement had to be revised. In theory
the plan was admirable; its practical success has not been perfect,
partly, I think, because the establishment was inadequate. Mr. Smeaton
also organized and set to work the first regular Settlement Parties in
Burma. From 1887 onwards he served as Chief Secretary, Commissioner,
and Financial Commissioner, failing, however, in the end to attain the
high office for which his rare abilities seemed to designate him. The
Chief Secretary took over the political department, and for a time my
association with the most interesting part of the administration was
severed. I had plenty to do in my own branches.
The Secretary was in charge of State prisoners, a few of whom,
members of the late reigning family of Delhi, still survived. The
ex-King, Bahadur Shah, who had been tried and sentenced to death for
his share in the massacre of English men and women, had been spared
the extreme penalty and sent to Rangoon, where he died in exile.
His widow, the Begam Zinath Mahal, was in Rangoon in my charge. She
and her daughter-in-law were of such exalted rank that they were
not parda-nashín[201] to English officers. More than once I saw
the old Begam who, thirty years before, had played so lurid a part
in the Mutiny. Though now of advanced age, she retained traces of
great beauty and was specially proud of her finely shaped, delicate
hands. Her beauty was of the Pit, aquiline, dark, menacing. Her son,
Prince Jăwán Băkht (P. J. Băkht, as he used quaintly to style himself
on his visiting cards), the direct representative of the Moguls,
lived in Rangoon with his wife, Shah Zamani Begam, of the race of
Nadir Shah, the Persian Conqueror. Jăwán Băkht was not of specially
marked character, amiable and harmless. His wife was a lady of charm
and dignity, worthy of her lofty lineage. In her youth beautiful
exceedingly, time had but little marred that lovely face. Poor lady,
she was totally blind, but the disease which had darkened her sight
left no disfigurement and hardly dimmed the lustre of her radiant eyes.
She spoke the purest Urdu, in liquid tones sweeter than any I have ever
heard in that graceful tongue. Beyond words pathetic it was to see and
converse with this lady of a great family, keeping to the last the
pride of her race and station, with every mark of a gentle and gracious
disposition, reduced to comparative poverty, and sharing without a
murmur the hard lot of the last scion of a fallen dynasty. Jăwán Băkht
and Shah Zamani Begam have long been gathered to their fathers. Their
son and daughter, Mirza Jamshíd Băkht and Ronak Begam, last of the line
of Babar and Akbar and Aurangzíb, still live in Rangoon in receipt
of miserable stipends. It is true that the decadent Moguls did not
deserve well at our hands. Bahadur Shah and Zinath Mahal were treated
even more leniently than they merited. But their surviving descendants
are innocent of complicity in their crimes. Politically, they have
never given the slightest trouble; Mohammedans seem hardly aware of
their existence. Somewhat more generous treatment might be accorded
them. Their pensions might be made sufficient to enable them to live in
reasonable comfort.
Another interesting State pensioner, not a prisoner, was Prince Hassan,
adopted son of Sultan Suleiman, leader of the Panthay[202] rebellion
in Yunnan. When, finally overthrown, Suleiman died by his own hand
to avoid capture, Hassan luckily was in Rangoon. There he stayed for
the rest of his life, in receipt of an allowance from the Indian
Government. Precisely on what grounds the grant to Hassan of a pension
from Indian revenues was justified, I have never clearly understood.
But all who knew him must be glad that any technical difficulties
were overcome. Most charming and courteous of men, Hassan was in some
respects the most attractive of the native notables of my acquaintance.
He spent his time quietly in study, occasionally paying the Secretary
a friendly visit. Ronak Begam became his wife. Some years later, after
many wanderings and much tribulation, the Panthay wife of his youth,
whom he had believed to be dead, appeared and resumed her natural
position in his house. Ronak Begam, who could hardly be expected to
take the second place, returned to her family. Hassan died some years
ago. There are a good many Panthays in Upper Burma, principally in
Mandalay, Bhamo, Mogôk, and the Shan States, sturdy men of stalwart
stature and agreeable manners, assiduous traders, and good citizens.
With several I was on friendly terms. My best friend among them one
day brought his very aged and wrinkled mother to see me and bade her
shake hands. The old dame obeyed, but pudically covered her hand with a
kerchief before clasping mine.
For a few months in 1888 I acted as Commissioner of the Northern
Division, the second officer to hold that appointment. Including the
royal city, the Katha district on the borders of Wuntho, the Ruby
Mines, the Kachin Hills, the China frontier, the division has always
seemed the most interesting in the Province. To me who had been
associated with Mandalay from the beginning, the position was specially
attractive. The place was full of my Burmese friends by whom I was
cordially welcomed. The appointment was temporary, though at first this
was not the Chief Commissioner’s intention. As a somewhat maladroit
acquaintance, meeting me at the club on my arrival, frankly said: “Of
course, you will be here only till a senior man can be sent.” It was
true, but he need not have rubbed it in.
Unlike most other officers, Commissioners draw a fixed monthly
travelling allowance. It is therefore a point of honour with them to
spend a good deal of time away from headquarters. In the Northern
Division the cost of travelling was high, and the monthly allowance
was never a source of profit. An early tour brought me to Bhamo, after
being nearly swamped by a sudden squall. Signs of violence were still
common. The Captain of the steamer assured me that quite lately he
had seen corpses floating down the river “dreadfully emancipated.” At
Bhamo I was shocked to find that the day before my arrival Bo Ti, one
of the rebel leaders of Mogaung, had escaped from the primitive wooden
jail. He was never recaptured. With him went a young Indian who was
under trial for attempting to murder the Colonel of a native regiment.
The Colonel I found convalescent. He was a hard man, and sepoys had
often threatened to shoot him. As he was shaving one morning he felt
a shock, and knew that he was wounded. Thinking that the threat had
been carried out, the stout old man said to himself, “They shan’t know
they have hit me,” and went on shaving. It was really his own servant,
who from behind had slashed him with a sword. Owing to the Colonel’s
grim determination not to let the sepoy know that he had scored, his
assailant got in another blow. This is the story as I heard it. The
Colonel, a bulky, muscular man, recovered from wounds which would
probably have killed one of slighter build. It was doubtless by the
agency of this young Indian that the guard of the jail was corrupted
and the prisoner’s escape facilitated. He, too, made his way to the
Kachin country, and was never caught. Vague rumours of his presence in
the frontier fights of the next few years were current. I hope he did
not have a very good time in the hills.
A story of Bhamo of later years may be told here. A military police
sepoy ran “amuck,” as they say. Armed with a rifle and well supplied
with ammunition, he took possession of a masonry house, and from a
casement amused himself by shooting at anyone who came in sight. The
house was duly surrounded by police, and the Deputy Commissioner and
District Superintendent came down. It did not occur to them to summon
infantry and guns from the neighbouring fort, or to fire volleys at the
brick walls. The Superintendent, Mr. H. F. Hertz,[203] obtained a rough
description of the interior of the house, and entered it from next
door. Groping in the semi-darkness characteristic of native houses,
he made his way to the room next to that held by the sepoy. Hearing a
sound, the sepoy half-opened the door and thrust out his rifle. Pushing
the rifle aside with one hand, Mr. Hertz shot the man dead with his
revolver, receiving a slight wound in the encounter. This is the way
these things are managed in Burma.
Bhamo was then the headquarters of the district which included the
country bordering on China and Tibet, all the present Myitkyina
district, Mogaung, and the Jade Mines. The column under Major C. H. E.
Adamson, which visited Mogaung and the Jade Mines, had just returned,
having secured the submission of Kansi La and Kansi Naung, the Kachin
chiefs of the Jade Mines tract.[204] Soon afterwards occurred the
assault on Mogaung, gallantly repulsed by Gurkha military police
under Captain Hugh O’Donnell[205] and Mr. Lawrence Eliott. Close to
China, from which it is separated by a range of hills, Bhamo is filled
by a strange variety of races. Chinese, stalwart traders of Yunnan;
Panthays, survivors of the great rebellion; Shans, Shan-Chinese,
Shan-Burmans, Kachins of many divers tribes, give life and colour and
speak a Babel of tongues in the bazaar. Driving along one of the roads
leading out of the town, the traveller is impressed by a sign-post
bearing the legend--
TO CHINA.
Not many miles away the peaks of the Kachin Hills rise in the eastern
sky. Across these hills come caravans[206] from T’Êngyüeh (Momien) and
Manwaing, in those days paying toll to the Kachins for leave to pass.
Through these hills marched the ill-fated Margary before he attempted
his fatal return journey. Through them in later days, with happier
omens, walked Dr. Morrison at the end of his adventurous pilgrimage. A
few miles below the town of Bhamo the Irrawaddy runs through a narrow,
rock-bound gorge known as the Second Defile. Conspicuous on the right
bank looms the tall Elephant Rock, crowned by a small golden pagoda.
I have had the rare experience of passing through the defile by the
light of the full moon. The silver light on the towering crags, the
silence and the solitude, created an effect full of mystery and charm.
Emerging from the defile, we reach the town of Shwegu, whence, gazing
on the sunset painting with gorgeous colours the western hills, one
realizes “the incomparable pomp of eve.” Above Bhamo the river pierces
a still more gloomy, precipitous, whirlpool-haunted gorge, the First
Defile. In the dry months, from November to April, this defile is
navigable by launches, and with reasonable care the passage can be made
without risk. In the rains it is closed to all traffic except that of
country boats and timber rafts. Once, long ago, two gallant officers
came through in a launch as late as May. They had no wish to repeat
the experiment. When in full flood, to traverse the defile even in a
boat is an adventure requiring nerve and skill. On the upward course
the boat is towed laboriously for many weary days. If the rope slips,
the work of days may be lost in a few minutes. Down-stream the journey
is far more rapid and even more hazardous. I do not think any British
officer has been drowned in the defile, but several of my friends
have lost their baggage. At least one launch lies in its fathomless
depths. At any time the passage through the defile is full of interest
and excitement. Nothing can surpass the wild beauty of its winding,
rock-bound course. Here, in mid-stream, a sharp boulder has to be
shunned; there careful steering is needed lest the vessel be spun round
in a whirlpool; now we seem to be driving straight against a wall of
stone. To leave Burma without traversing the First Defile is to miss
one of the sights of the world.
Another tour led me across the Shwebo district, then in the Northern
Division, where my old friend Mr. B. K. S. MacDermott was in charge.
The township officer was Maung Tun, K.S.M., afterwards Extra Assistant
Commissioner, a local officer of remarkable ability and of proved
courage and loyalty. His father, Bo Pyin, had been Wun of Shwebo, and
had retired at an advanced age. He is the man already mentioned who
shocked his pious serious-minded son by retaining his passion for the
chase.
Here is the city of Alaungpaya; here Mindôn Min raised the standard of
revolt against his brother. Shwebo was always a turbulent district,
the seed-bed of sedition; it retained that character long after the
annexation. At this time it was fairly quiet; we rode through it with
a moderate escort. As we left the town we saw approaching a long line
of Burmans, in carts and on foot, men, women, and children. “All these
people,” said the Deputy Commissioner with pride, “are coming in to
my new bazaar.” On inquiry, we ascertained that they were really all
coming in to be vaccinated. This is an example of the good sense and
lack of prejudice so often found among Burmans. Years before, the
people of Pantanaw had begged for a vaccinator. If proper facilities
were provided, the whole population of Burma could be vaccinated
without recourse to compulsion. Only the inefficiency and corruption
of an underpaid staff and the untrustworthy quality of the lymph have
retarded this desirable consummation. I am glad to say that these
defects have now been, or are in process of being, remedied.
From Shwebo we crossed the Katha district and came to Kawlin on the
verge of the Shan State of Wuntho.[207] This State, inconveniently
situated in the midst of regularly administered districts, was
left under its native chief till the year 1891. Shortly before the
annexation the Sawbwa, a capable truculent man, had been transferred
as Wun to Mogaung for the purpose of suppressing a Kachin rising. He
accomplished the task with devastating completeness. In Wuntho he
was succeeded by his son, a timid creature quite unlike the savage
swashbuckler who begot him. Vain efforts had been made to induce the
young chief to meet our officers, Mr. Burgess himself and the Kinwun
Mingyi having visited Wuntho for the purpose without success. Once the
Sawbwa did meet Mr. E. P. Cloney, Extra Assistant Commissioner. The
issue was unfortunate. At the conference, owing to a misunderstanding,
a tumult arose and the Shan retainers drew their swords. Mr. Cloney’s
life would have been sacrificed but for the presence of mind of the
Sawbwa, who clasped him in his arms and shielded him from attack. This
is the solitary occasion on which the Sawbwa showed any sign of courage
or resolution. Only once again he met a British officer, Mr. H. F. P.
Hall,[208] afterwards Assistant Commissioner. Though I went to Wuntho
with only half a dozen sowars, the Sawbwa declined the meeting and
bolted to his remote fortress at Pinlebu. When, owing to the survey of
the projected railway-line, the long-existing tension became acute,
the Sawbwa, after wantonly attacking the adjacent districts, fled with
his father to China. The old man is dead. The son survives in exile
in Yunnan, having long ceased to be an object of apprehension or of
interest to the Burma Government. The State of Wuntho is merged in the
Katha district.
From August, 1888, till the end of 1890, I acted as Chief Secretary,
Mr. C. G. Bayne being Secretary, and in succession Mr. A. S. Fleming,
Mr. F. C. Gates,[209] and Mr. D. H. R. Twomey,[210] Junior (or Under)
Secretary. These were years of abnormal stress in the office, which
was still undermanned. The appointment of Mr. Fryer to be Financial
Commissioner afforded us some relief. But though a good deal of his
work was done in direct communication with the Chief Commissioner, part
of the revenue business necessarily was transacted by the Secretariat.
These were my really strenuous years. The practice of dictation to
shorthand writers was not yet in vogue; I have never acquired the
habit. Day after day, Sundays included, I did my spell of work in
office and then wrote on far into the night at home, kept awake by
coffee and protected from mosquitoes by Burman cheroots. Six hours of
sleep sufficed. Though I wrote rapidly, I was not a quick worker. I
dare say other men would have done as much with less effort. Life in
the Secretariat presented few incidents which seem worthy of record.
The real work was being done in the districts, in the Shan States, in
the Chin Hills.
These years witnessed the completion of the pacification and settlement
of Upper Burma, and what may be called the resettlement of Lower Burma.
The details of the work in Upper Burma have been described in Sir
Charles Crosthwaite’s book.[211] The organization of the military and
civil police was perfected by the administrative ability of General
Stedman, the Inspector-General, who was a tower of strength to the
Government. Dacoit bands were dispersed, their leaders captured or
killed, the rank and file in many cases allowed to surrender and
return to their homes on suitable terms. Admirable, unobtrusive work
was done by military, civil, and police officers, who by degrees bore
down opposition and broke the forces of disorder. The most potent
instrument in the final establishment of settled administration was the
village law planned by Sir Charles Crosthwaite himself. This invaluable
enactment created the village as the unit of administration, and placed
the village headman in a position of authority and responsibility. He
became the local judge and magistrate, with limited but sufficient
power to enforce his orders. As far as possible the office was
made hereditary, but the people were consulted in the appointment.
Henceforth the post, though not one of great emolument, instead of
being avoided, was eagerly sought.[212] The village law did much
more than elevate the headman. It enforced the joint responsibility
of villagers for offences committed within their borders, for stolen
property traced to the village tract. The Deputy Commissioner
was legally empowered to require villages to be duly fenced. All
able-bodied men were bound under penalties to turn out to resist any
unlawful attack. Above all, subject to carefully devised safeguards,
power was given to the local authorities to order the temporary removal
of persons found to be in sympathy with outlaws. No measure was more
efficacious than this to secure the destruction of dacoit gangs by
depriving them of support and sustenance. These are among the most
important provisions of the village law which has done more than gun
and sword to assure permanent peace. The revenue system was formalized
as far as our limited knowledge allowed on the lines of Burmese law and
custom. Meanwhile, the border lands were not neglected. Of the Shan
States some mention will be made presently. The Chins might have lived
unmolested in their hills, but they could not give up their rooted
habit of raiding villages in the plains. The plundering of peaceful
hamlets, the carrying off of living captives and the heads of the
slain, provoked inevitable reprisals. Happily the policy of slaying,
burning, and scuttling was not adopted. After laborious operations, the
Chins were thoroughly subjugated and disarmed. Military police posts
were established in their midst. They are now peaceful and amenable to
law. The names honourably associated with the arduous task of settling
these rugged hills are those of Major F. D. Raikes, C.I.E., General
Sir W. Penn Symons, Mr. B. S. Carey, C.I.E., Mr. D. Ross, Mr. D. J. C.
Macnabb,[213] Captain F. M. Rundall,[214] Mr. E. O. Fowler, and Mr. H.
N. Tuck. Here, too, Captain Le Quesne[215] won the Victoria Cross by
gallantly tending a wounded officer under fire from a stockade. The
Kachin Hills and the State of Wuntho alone remained for settlement in
later years.
No detailed story of the restoration of order in Lower Burma has
yet been given to the world; nor does it lie within the scheme of
these personal reminiscences to supply the omission. The outbreak of
disturbance at the end of 1885 has already been mentioned. For years
crime continued to be rampant. A few figures may be given. In 1886 the
number of dacoities was 2,183; in 1887, 1,387; in 1888, 695; in 1889,
332; in 1890, 181. Serious risings there were: one in Tavoy in 1888,
quelled by Colonel Adamson and Mr. Twomey; one in Sandaway, sternly
repressed by Mr. Bernard Houghton, who at the outset nearly fell a
victim to the insurgents. But in the period now under reference it was
not so much a question of dealing, as in Upper Burma, with organized
resistance on a large scale as of suppressing countless small, isolated
gangs. The strict enforcement of the Village Act, framed on the lines
indicated above, and vigorous disarmament carried out in the face of
ignorant and factious criticism, were among the most efficient means
of restoring peace. The plan of placing a defined area in charge
of a specially selected officer invested with large powers for the
suppression of crime was tried with excellent effect. Pyuntazá, in
Shwegyin, was reduced to order by Mr. Todd-Naylor, to whom the Chief
Commissioner gave a free hand with abundant support. Boldest, most
strenuous, most untiring of men, traversing vast distances with
incredible speed on the scantiest fare, facing every danger and
enduring every hardship, there, and soon afterwards in Tharrawaddy, Mr.
Todd-Naylor earned great and well-merited renown. For the first, and so
far the only, time in its history, Tharrawaddy was at rest. In every
district solid work was done, and by degrees normal conditions were
established.
An event which I recall with interest was the visit to Rangoon of
the celebrated traveller, Mr. Colborne Baber, of the China Consular
Service, deputed to Burma in connection with the proposed demarcation
of the Chinese boundary. Baber was one of the elect of travellers. Not
only did he make hazardous and scientifically important journeys, but
he also had the gift of letters, so that his records have a place in
literature. A man of genius, a born explorer, of various and versatile
accomplishments, he was, I believe, a sinologist of distinction,
and certainly a scholar of no mean attainment. Before proceeding to
Bhamo to study the boundary question on the spot, he was our guest
for some days in Rangoon. These are days of happy memory, made bright
by his luminous and inspiring talk, his distinguished and attractive
personality. He seemed to live principally on cigarettes, and cared
too little for a body not physically strong. Early in 1890 he died
at Bhamo, mainly from weakness caused by his own neglect of material
comfort. His premature death was a loss to the State, and a lasting
grief to his friends.
More than once in these two years I visited Mandalay in attendance on
the Chief Commissioner, sometimes occupying my old quarters in the
Palace, sometimes enjoying the hospitality of Government House. One
trivial incident illustrates the state of the country even close to
the capital of Upper Burma. Rather late one night a friend[216] called
me out of my quarters to go to see a fire. Having seen as many fires
as would satisfy the most morbid craving, I cannot think why this fire
attracted me. However, we went. As usual, the scene was much farther
off than we thought. Passing out of the city gate, we walked for some
miles across the fields till we came at last to a village where houses
were still blazing. It had been plundered and burnt by Bo To, the most
prominent leader then afoot in the district. The police were there
before us, and the dacoits had disappeared. As we were alone, armed
only with walking-sticks, perhaps it was lucky that we did not arrive
an hour or two sooner.
The last day of February, 1889, saw the formal opening of the railway
from Toungoo to Mandalay. The occasion was celebrated with some pomp,
Sir Charles Eliott,[217] K.C.S.I., Public Works Member, representing
the Government of India. Later in the year, during the absence of
Sir Charles Crosthwaite on privilege leave for three months, Mr. A.
P. MacDonnell,[218] Home Secretary to the Government of India, acted
as Chief Commissioner. Mr. MacDonnell was, of course, innocent of
any knowledge of the country or the people. I doubt whether this
brief interlude of administering a strange Province could have been
a satisfactory experience to him. I am under the impression that the
Chief Secretary’s work was materially increased.
At the end of 1889 Burma was honoured by the visit of His Royal
Highness Prince Albert Victor of Wales (the late Duke of Clarence), who
spent some days in Rangoon and Mandalay. The Royal visit was highly
appreciated by the Burmese, as well as by the European community, and
was celebrated with much demonstration of genuine spontaneous loyalty.
Chief of His Royal Highness’s staff was the late Sir Edward Bradford,
whose high qualities it were superfluous to praise.