The Pacification of Burma

by C. H. T. Crosthwaite

Some sort of council of war, in which both civil and military officers joined, now took place, and it was held that if a determined attack were made on Gangaw or Kan it must succeed. The garrison of Kan, therefore, was ordered into Gangaw, and they obeyed the order, to say the least, without reluctance. They met with no opposition on the way, but they brought with them reports of the loss suffered by the detachment which went to Sihaung, which helped further to depress the dispirited garrison.

In Gangaw itself, although it was assaulted daily until the 6th of January, when a relieving force arrived, there were no casualties. The enemy was contemptible, and even his numbers were, it is believed, exaggerated. The danger was created by the inaction of the defence rather than by the number or the enterprise of the assailants.

The Chief Commissioner was in Rangoon during the early days of December. The first news of the trouble came to him in a telegram from Major Raikes, who was on special duty on the Chin frontier; it was dated the 14th of December, from Gaungu on the Myittha, and was received in Rangoon on the 17th. It reported the attack made on the dacoit camp by Captain Eyre on the 9th of December, and recommended that troops should be sent against this gang. In reply, Major Raikes was reminded that all the troops and military police on the frontier were under the General's orders and were close to the scene of action, while it would take a fortnight or more to send troops up from Pakokku. On the 20th of December a second telegram came from Major Raikes, reporting the affair at Chaungzon on the 13th of December. He explained that General Faunce had ordered the officer commanding at Gangaw to deal effectively with these gatherings; that two attempts, both unsuccessful, had been made to disperse the band near Chaungzon; that a third attack was about to be made, but the force ordered to make it could only be spared for a few days, as the General wanted all his men for frontier patrols and for the expedition into the hills. He therefore pressed for reinforcements as necessary for the destruction of these gangs.

Orders were then given for a small column of military police and troops to march up at once from Pakokku. The Deputy Commissioner of the Lower Chindwin was told to send all the police he could spare across from Alôn to the disturbed area. The state of things was communicated by telegram to Sir George White, who was on the Chindwin on his way to Kalewa, and the despatch of reinforcements from Pakokku was suggested.

On Christmas Day the first reports from Captain Eyre himself came in. He described the insurgents as increasing in numbers rapidly, and begged for more troops. This was the first intimation received by the Chief Commissioner that the local officers were unable to cope with the rising and that it was of a serious character. The Commissioner was thereupon ordered to Pakokku to hasten the dispatch of the small column previously mentioned; and lest there should be difficulty in finding Sir George White, the officer commanding at Myingan was asked to get a force ready for immediate despatch. On the 26th a message came from Sir George White, dated from Mingin on the Chindwin, that he had ordered the despatch of a force 200 strong from Pakokku via Pauk, and Major Kingston with 250 rifles, troops and military police, from Alôn, to hasten to Gangaw. At the same time Colonel Macgregor, with 150 rifles of the 44th Gurkhas, who were with General Faunce, was ordered down from Sihaung to Gangaw. Meanwhile the Chief Commissioner had sent up 125 rifles of the Pakokku military police, under Lieutenant Phillips, by forced marches by the Kyaw Valley route. Major Kingston and Lieutenant Phillips joined hands at Kyaw on the 2nd of January. On the 6th they attacked the insurgents in Shonshé, south of Gangaw, and drove them out with considerable loss. At the same moment Colonel Macgregor with his Gurkhas fell upon the bands who were occupying a village north of Gangaw, and handled them roughly. No stand was made by these people, who had kept nearly 350 Madras Infantry shut up in Gangaw.

The duty of restoring order in the Yaw country was entrusted to Colonel W. P. Symons, who had displayed great ability in dealing with dacoit gangs in Sagaing. He was assisted by Mr. D. Ross, as civil officer in charge of the district. The country was cleared of dacoits, partially disarmed, and reduced to order. The rank and file of the insurgents were allowed to return to their homes, the guilty villages being punished collectively by fines. The Yaw country has been peaceful ever since.

The Gangaw episode was, in the language of the Boer War, "a regrettable incident." The garrison at the outset may have been unable to face the insurgents in the field, but, after the Kan detachment had been called in, it numbered 340 rifles—a sufficient number of disciplined troops to deal with a much larger number of dacoits, a mere rabble, armed, when they were armed at all, with old muzzle-loading rifles, or still more ancient muskets. The incident was not, however, barren of good results. It sufficed to convince even the most devoted admirer of "the old coast army" that a portion of the Madras troops was unfit for active service—a fact which had more than once been brought to notice by the Chief Commissioner. The disbanding of the regiment responsible for the failure was the beginning of a large measure of army reform that had been too long delayed. Hence these events, trivial in themselves, may be worth recording.

The narrative may now return to the central business, namely, the expedition against the Chins.

General Faunce arrived at Kambalè and assumed command of the operations on the 3rd of December. On the 7th the fighting began. A working-party sent to establish a post between Kambalè and the foot of the hills was fired on, and Lieutenant Palmer, R.E., who commanded the Madras Sappers, was killed. On the 10th of December a strong body of Chins of the Tashon tribe suddenly issued from the hills, and attacked the camp of the 42nd Gurkhas at Sihaung, and a simultaneous attack was made on the village. They paid dearly for their audacity. The Gurkhas drove them off, followed them up, and inflicted heavy loss on them. On the same date Indin, the capital of the Kalè Sawbwa, was fired into, and the military police post of Kangyi, twenty miles north of Kalemyo, was attacked.

It had been intended to limit the operations of the season 1888-9 to the Siyin and Sagyilaing tribes. In dealing with savage people it is not possible to lay down a line beyond which you will not step. In view, therefore, of the probable necessity of taking action against the Tashons, 200 rifles of the Norfolk Regiment, 50 Madras sappers, and the remaining companies of the 42nd Gurkhas from their quarters at Bernardmyo, were ordered to the front. Sir George White himself arrived at Kalewa on the 29th of December, but left to General Faunce the immediate command of the force in the field. Matters were further complicated by the appearance of another section of the Chins. In October, a village in the Kubo Valley had suffered from a raid by Kanhows. A large body of this tribe came down in December and attacked Kangyi, north of Kalemyo. It was held by military police, who repulsed them. Further investigations made it clear that these Kanhows were so closely related by position and ties of kindred to the Siyins and Sagyilains as to make them indistinguishable. A proposal, therefore, to include them in the operations against the latter was sanctioned. It was proposed also to send at the same time a column to Minlèdaung, on the borders of the Tashon country, but this was not found convenient and was dropped.