The Pacification of Burma

by C. H. T. Crosthwaite

From Lashio the column moved to Panglon, a village on the eastern borders of Tawngpeng territory, to which place the chief had been summoned to meet the Superintendent and make his submission. He did not obey the summons, but sent excuses for his absence alleging age and infirmities, and saying that he wished his son to be accepted as Sawbwa in his room. Two days afterwards this son, entitled the Naw Möng, accompanied by most of the chief officials, came in, and with humble apologies for the attack made on the Northern Column, tendered his allegiance to the British Government. As it appeared that the old Sawbwa was nearly eighty years of age, it was decided to accept the Naw Möng, Hkun Kyan, as chief, and to draw out the sanad, or patent, in his name. This was done, and the amount of revenue to be paid by Tawngpeng was determined. It may be recorded here that Hkun Kyan administered the State for seven years until 1895, when he resigned on account of ill-health. A cousin succeeded him but proved incompetent, and in 1904 a Government officer was put in charge of Tawngpeng. At present, the Sawbwa is administering the State satisfactorily.

Having settled this matter, the column marched into Hsipaw. It is worth noting that Hkun Saing, the chief of Hsipaw, had obtained greater favour from the British Government than any other of the Shan chiefs. The more prominent of them bitterly resented the concessions made to Hkun Saing, namely: the remission of his revenue for ten years and the conferment on him of the three States of Möngtung, Mönglong, and Hsumhsai, to which he had no right. His services to the British Government consisted in this, that he came down to meet the Chief Commissioner at Mandalay and was the first to make his submission to the Queen-Empress. It might have been expected, therefore, that he would have made some show of providing shelter and supplies for the troops. He did nothing. The extraordinary favours which he had received led him to think that he must be necessary to the Government, and he made no effort to prove his gratitude. The gift of Möngtung to Hkun Saing was resented by the inhabitants of that State, who claimed independence and wished to be ruled by their hereditary chief, who had been dismissed by the Sawbwa of Hsipaw. Similar were the feelings of the people of Mönglong, whose hereditary ruler, Nga Maung, gave great trouble to our administration. Mr. Hildebrand worked hard to arrive at some settlement by which peace might be assured. He was unsuccessful, and Möngtung as well as Mönglong was torn by dissension for some years. At length in 1893, owing to this and other administrative failures, a British officer was appointed to advise and guide the Sawbwa Hkun Saing, and by this means peace and order were restored.

On the 9th of April, after a tour of four months and nineteen days, the Southern Shan Column, under Colonel Swetenham, accompanied by Mr. Hildebrand and Mr. Scott, marched into Mandalay. The expedition had done its work well. Every chief, big and little, in the Cis-Salween States had been met and his formal recognition of British supremacy obtained. Long-existing feuds had been set at rest, and claims the subject of prolonged fighting peaceably adjudicated. The revenue payable by each State had been ascertained, and with one or two exceptions definitely fixed. The Southern Column had marched upwards of seven hundred miles, and had passed through the territory of every important chief. The few minor States untraversed by it had been visited either by Captain Jackson, R.E., of the Government of India Survey, or by Lieutenant Stanton, D.S.O., of the Intelligence Department, accompanied in each case by small parties of troops; and by their labours a map had been constructed on which the position of every important place in the Cis-Salween States was scientifically fixed. Moreover, a mass of information regarding the Shan country, its main features and products, and the character and politics of the people, was collected, invaluable to those engaged in administering this wide country.

Pagodas at Mang Kao—Shan States.

If the Shans generally on the west of the Salween have accepted British rule and learned to trust our good faith and moderation, the credit must be given to the work done by the two columns. Although that work was in the main of a civil character, and the military force was there as an escort and a protection in case of need, yet the soldiers deserve quite as great a share of the blessing promised to the peacemaker as the civilians. In building the Indian Empire, soldiers and civilians have always worked hand in hand. In Burma and the Shan States the old tradition was not belied.

The civil officers with the columns recorded their gratitude to Colonel Swetenham and his officers for their unwearying efforts to assist the Superintendent in his communications with the chiefs and the people. But more than that: "It remains to be noted," writes Mr. Scott, "that this desire to aid the Superintendent in his duties was no less conspicuous among the native officers, and the men, alike of the 2nd Queen's, the Battery, and the 27th Punjab Infantry. The native officers in particular took a most intelligent and evidently real interest in the objects of the expedition. They not only succeeded in suppressing all crime and ill-treatment of the people by the sepoys and followers, but they were foremost in showing the example of friendly and social intercourse with the people. Nearly every one in the regiment had picked up during their two years' stay in Burma a certain amount of Burmese; to this was added a few words of Shan; and these used freely on all occasions, whether apposite or not, never failed to break down the nervousness and awe with which the population was at first disposed to regard us. Whenever we halted for any time, friendships were struck up between the troops and the people, and that the goodwill and esteem thus created was not merely superficial or assumed was more than once proved in the most satisfactory manner. Followers were lost or strayed away from the camp. In every case these animals or men were taken care of, fed, and in some cases clothed and physicked and eventually sent on to join the column." A further proof of the friendliness of the people was the immunity of the mails from detention or pillage. Although sent without guards by native runners, they were invariably delivered after passing sometimes through many States and many hands. "If, therefore," concludes Mr. Scott, "as there can be no doubt is the case, the Cis-Salween States have definitely and thankfully accepted our suzerainty, no small share of the credit of our success is due to the exertions of the officers of the Shan Column."

In dealing with semi-savage and ignorant races, the power of rumour and misrepresentation can hardly be overestimated. When the Shans saw that the Southern Column left no detachment behind it at Möngnai, and instead of returning from Hsenwi to Fort Stedman marched down to Mandalay, rumour began to be busy and the ignorant imagination of the people to seek reasons for this movement. Ready at hand to supply food for fancy was Saw Ôn, the Yawnghwè Sawbwa. An intriguer and gossip by nature, he sat down to write letters to all the greater chiefs, informing them that the garrison at Fort Stedman had been reduced to forty men. This advanced person had already begun to take in some of the Rangoon papers and to read the telegrams, which he could not understand but from which he contrived to extract the notion that there was going to be a European war and that the British were withdrawing their troops from Burma, to which the notices in the papers of troops leaving in the course of the ordinary reliefs seemed to point. These letters reached men even more ignorant than himself. The impression gained ground that the British power was passing, and the disappointed claimants, the adventurers, and the men with a grievance saw an opportunity for action.

It will be remembered that the chief of Eastern Karenni had not met Mr. Hildebrand at Möngnai. The country of the Karenni, or Red Karens, has an area of nearly five thousand square miles, much of which is hill and forest. On the east it is bounded by Siamese territory; on the north by the Shan States; on the south by Lower Burma; and on the west by a hill tract which separates it from the level country of Burma proper. It is divided into Eastern Karenni and Western Karenni. We are concerned at present with the former, which consists of one single State, Gantarawadi. The ruler of this State was Sawlapaw. He resided at the chief place, Saw Lon, and he is aptly described by Mr. Scott as a stubborn man from his youth, who had grown old in the belief that his country was impregnable and his people in their hills invincible. He was confirmed in this unfounded belief by the extraordinary timidity and cowardice of the Shans, who habitually submitted to be raided and robbed, and to see their people carried away into slavery by this overbearing savage and his men.