The Pacification of Burma

by C. H. T. Crosthwaite

In January, when at Hsipaw, Lieutenant Daly had met a Shan who had been with Saw Yan Naing in July and August of the year preceding (1888); this man undertook to take letters to the pretender. He arrived at Möng Mit soon after the defeat of the band which had gathered near that place, and heard that the Prince had left Manpun after that encounter, in which one of his chief followers, besides many others, had fallen. The messenger, therefore, was unable to deliver the letters. However, in March Lieutenant Daly, being at Hsipaw, again met this man, and sent him off with fresh letters to the Prince. Again fortune was adverse. Major Garfit delivered his attack just before Lieutenant Daly's man reached Manpun, and the Prince had gone. However, he had not gone far, and was found by the messenger in Möng Mit territory, in a Palaung village. He had a following of one hundred men, more or less, of whom twenty were Burmans, the rest Shans and Kachins; none of them men of note. As Saw Yan Naing had been attacked only two or three days before by the column from Möng Mit, he was not disposed to trust the promises made to induce his surrender. Nevertheless, he behaved as a Prince should. The messengers were allowed to stay four days in his camp, and were hospitably treated.

They were then dismissed with a polite letter, to the effect that "he had not plotted against the Government, but that on account of his past offences he feared to come in, that he had no wish for Government alms" (an allowance had been offered to him); "and that he would take to flight if Lieutenant Daly came near his camp." He had married the daughter of a Kachin chief. It may be that beyond allowing himself to be made the centre of disturbance he had taken no active part in the movements made in his name. None the less his presence in British territory was the cause of trouble.

While these events were passing in Möng Mit a watchful eye had to be kept on other parts of the district. Towards the end of December, 1888, the Deputy Commissioner of Bhamo received news of the appearance of a Mintha, or prince of some kind, on the Molè River, north-east of Bhamo. This Prince gave out that he was in concert with Saw Yan Naing, and his plans may have been conceived with the design of acting with Saw Yan Naing and Hkam Leng. The rising appeared to be somewhat formidable. It was promptly met. Mr. Segrave, the Superintendent of Police, was sent out at once with a strong detachment of military police. He encountered the band, which was made up mainly of Chinese brigands and deserters from the Chinese army, on the 9th of January, 1889, and punished it severely, killing more than fifty men. The rest dispersed and escaped, probably over the Chinese border. The peace of the district north of Bhamo was not disturbed again during the year. The connection of this band with Saw Yan Naing was not established. In their camp were found papers showing that they were in communication with the leaders of the Mogaung malcontents, namely, the Sawbwa of Thama and Po Saw.

Hitherto it had been found impossible to post military police in the Upper Sinkan township. The difficulty of communication, especially in the rains, was great, and the climate very hurtful. The best possible arrangement was made by appointing a Kachin of much influence to act as magistrate and executive officer, and this man had been able to keep order, at least on the surface. His headquarters were at Sikaw. In December, 1888, Mr. Shaw, the Deputy Commissioner, visited Sikaw and also Si-u, an important village near the head of the Sinkan stream. He learnt that Hkam Leng, who was allied by marriage to the Kachin chiefs of the Lweseng and Tonhon range in the east of the township, was harboured by them, and from time to time came down to Si-u and levied contributions from the peasants. The Kachin magistrate had followed the Burman plan of shutting his eyes to that which it was inconvenient to see, and, lest he should incur his superior's displeasure, he said nothing about it. He was warned against permitting Hkam Leng to enter his township, and ordered to send speedy information to Bhamo if he should reappear. This warning had a good effect. Early in January, 1889, he reported that Hkam Leng had returned to Si-u, and was corresponding with a pretended Prince at Hpon Kan, a hill range thirty miles from Bhamo, a very nest of hornets. At the same time information was received from other sources that a large gathering of Chinese and Burmese, said to number five hundred men, were at Hpon Kan.

The Chief Commissioner was at Bhamo at the end of January. He arranged that a patrol of troops should visit Sikaw and Si-u at least once a month. Unfortunately something prevented the despatch of the military patrol, and on the 3rd of February the duty was entrusted to a party of fifty military police. On the 4th of February, at Malin, a village on the Sinkan River, about twenty miles from Si-u, the police came on a large body of rebels strongly stockaded. They attacked the stockade, but were repulsed, losing two men killed and ten wounded and all their baggage.

A strong column, consisting of 60 rifles of the Hampshire Regiment, 150 of the 17th Bengal Infantry, and two guns, left Bhamo as soon as news of this disaster came in. On the 7th of February, after driving in their outposts, this force engaged the enemy at Malin, where they were holding a strong position. They stood their ground with more than usual courage, and were not dislodged without some severe fighting, which cost us the loss of one officer and four men killed and eighteen wounded. The pursuit was carried for some distance, but they did not rally, and dispersed over the country. It was ascertained that this rising had been organized by Hkam Leng and Saw Yan Naing. In fact, the nucleus of the gang was a body of eighty or ninety men from the Prince's headquarters at Manpun joined by large numbers of villagers, some of their own free will, some under compulsion. The villages that furnished contingents were fined, the police force increased at the cost of the township, and the population as far as possible disarmed. No attempt was made to punish the individuals who had taken part in the business. Hkam Leng retired to his Kachin wife and allies in the hills.

Late in May an attempt was made to capture him, but it was frustrated by his Kachin supporters, who afterwards came down in force and occupied Si-u. On the 2nd of June they were attacked by troops and police and driven out, losing twenty-one killed. The police force in the Upper Sinkan was reinforced again. The rains being now at hand, further action had to be postponed.

Everything united to obstruct the work of bringing this part of the country into order. The hills and forests, the neighbourhood of the Chinese frontier, the character of the people, Kachins and Palaungs, who had to be dealt with piecemeal hill by hill, and had never submitted to any central control, all combined to make it a very hard task. The Burmese officials may have had some control over the tribes. But probably so long as they did not make too much disturbance the hill-men were left to do as they liked. When there is no government things arrange themselves, and a limit is automatically fixed which the raiding tribes cannot exceed without exhausting their preserves. The advent of the British cut the weak bonds by which the hill people had been held, and the appearance of Saw Yan Naing and Hkam Leng as active opponents of the foreign invaders gave them a rallying-point.

The first step towards peace was the capture or expulsion of these two leaders, both of whom, it may be noted, following the example of more enlightened princes, had cemented their alliances by marriage with Kachin ladies of rank. It was decided, therefore, so far as the northern part of the province was concerned, to devote the open season of 1889-90 to the complete subjugation of this tract of country. If possible, the two leaders were to be got rid of. In any case the recalcitrant Kachins and others were to be reduced to obedience and the authority of the Möng Mit State over its outlying parts affirmed. In the district north of Bhamo nothing called for immediate action. A strong body of seasoned Gurkhas from the Mogaung Levy under Captain O'Donnell could be detached to strengthen the column of troops provided from the Bhamo garrison.

It was arranged accordingly that one column should go to Si-u and move early in December against the Lwèseng and Ton Hon Kachins and then move on to Manpun; and that a second, starting from Möng Mit, should join the first at Manpun, while at the same time the Superintendent of the Northern Shan States (Lieutenant Hugh Daly) should move with some of the Shan Levy (Indian military police) through Hsenwi and act with the first two columns; and a fourth column, also of military police under Mr. H. F. Hertz, Assistant Superintendent of Police, should work up from the south-east through Möng Löng and along the Tawnpeng Möng Mit boundary.