Four years in Upper Burma

by W. R. Winston

The Sawbwa of Thibaw is reported to be the only chief among them who exercises any real and active control throughout his state, and he endeavours to enforce the rule that the power of awarding capital punishment shall be restricted to the chiefs. In all the other states the people are fleeced by the minor officials, and criminal justice is administered in a cruel and haphazard fashion. An English traveller recently found the fresh head of a so-called thief posted up in the Mangko bazaar; and in another place through which he travelled a boy of sixteen was summarily killed and barbarously mutilated, on the ground that he had been seen entering a buffalo shed, and was therefore supposed to be attempting cattle-stealing.

As a beginning in the way of much-needed reform, our paternal Government has framed for their guidance a few simple rules for the administration of criminal justice, and supplied them to each chieftain, as a sort of alphabet of government for them to learn. I wonder what they think of our notions of justice. They must appear to them unaccountably and unnecessarily lenient towards the prisoner. How it must puzzle them, for instance, to be told that an accused person must be presumed to be innocent until he is proved to be guilty!

As a lesson in revenue and finance, each chief is now required to frame a simple form of budget for his state, subject to the approval of the Superintendent, fixing the amount to be devoted to the private expenditure of the ruling family, and making reasonable provision for the administration of civil and criminal justice, police, and public works. It puts one in mind of a class of boys coming up with their lessons written out for the teacher to see; but it is evidently needed work, and it will not do to despise the day of small things. It will of course be a new idea to them that anybody else but the sawbwa himself has anything to do with the expenditure of the revenue of the state, which they have always been accustomed to consider as his private property. But Orientals take kindly to this tutelage, and will scarcely think of resenting it, though they might be tempted to neglect it if they could. And it must not be supposed that this case of the Shan States is any rarity, for this kind of inspection, instruction and guidance is only what we are called upon to do in a greater or less degree in all the protected states which are feudatory to our Indian Empire, and in other parts of the world.

The Chief Commissioner of Burma, to whom all the chiefs are amenable, commenting on the above rules, endorses the opinion expressed by one of the Superintendents, that it will probably be found impossible to effect any real reforms until a trained Dewan (Prime Minister) is appointed for each state to teach the rulers how to rule. As England is very resolute in all she takes in hand in this way, perhaps in course of time some faint sense of the responsibility of ruling may find its way into the minds of these benighted Shan sawbwas. But if it be not so, and if in the end England should find herself compelled, in the interests of humanity, to take a still larger share of the responsibility of ruling in that country, of which however there is at present no sign or mention, the foregoing information clearly shows that it will not be for want of an honest effort to get them to do it themselves.

All this explains incidentally how it is that Empire with its responsibilities grows on our hands. In human affairs, when a man does his work well, you promote him by giving him more work to do. When the sudden emergency arises men naturally saddle the willing horse. It is so throughout the divine economy also. “Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might.” “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not, even that which he hath shall be taken away.”

Of one thing there is no doubt, the states now enjoy tranquillity and the beginnings of prosperity such as they have not enjoyed for many years. Not long ago, meeting a Shan who had just come to Mandalay several days’ journey on foot through the Shan States, I asked him what was the present condition of the country. His reply was, “So quiet, that even an unprotected female could walk through it.”

The chieftain mentioned above with approval as an exceptional prince, and more enlightened than his fellows, is the Sawbwa of Thibaw. He once had a curious experience, that appears to have considerably opened his mind and enlarged his ideas. Some years ago, before the annexation of Upper Burma was even thought of, he paid a visit to the great city of Rangoon. Like the Queen of Sheba, who had heard of the wisdom and glory of Solomon, he had received tidings of the great transformation that had taken place in that city, and wished to see the British power for himself. Possibly, as the Shans are Buddhists, he might be inclined also to pay a visit to the world-renowned Buddhist shrine at Rangoon, the Shwê Dagohn pagoda. To venture so far away from his remote inland state among the mountains shows him to be a man of some natural force of character, for most sawbwas would have been afraid to leave their states for so long. Whilst in Rangoon one of his retainers displeased him, and in a burst of anger he killed him on the spot. But, unfortunately for him, this had happened in British territory, where they call such actions, no matter who does them, by the name of murder; and he was accordingly arrested and put in jail to stand his trial for that crime. His plea was of course that he was a king, and that he had the power of life and death; and seeing that such was the case in his own territories, and that he had no idea he was exceeding his prerogative in doing as he did, he was released, and some good advice was given him for future use. It is gratifying to find that this experience has borne fruit, and that years after, when in course of things the Shan States have become tributary to Britain, and an attempt is being made to bring them somewhat into line with more enlightened nations, he is officially named as the most progressive and reliable of the Shan rulers.

Other operations for the pacification of our Burmese frontiers may be mentioned here. Amongst the barbarous and unlettered tribes on the mountains in the north there has been a continuance of the kind of lawlessness prevalent in the days before our rule in Upper Burma. The tribes of wild Kachins there have given considerable trouble from time to time. They are warlike and predatory, and in their mountains and jungles able to offer considerable resistance.

Occasionally, too, in the north, large numbers of disbanded Chinese soldiers have turned dacoits, and crossed the frontier into the Bhamo district to plunder. They have, however, suffered severely whenever they have tried conclusions with the British columns sent out against them. Attention is being given to the delimitation of the Chinese frontier, which will lead the way to a better protection of it on both sides. In the east the Red Karens gave trouble, while on the west the wild Chins of the Arakan Yoma mountains continued their former practice of raiding into Burma and carrying off loot and captives.