Burma Under British Rule Joseph Dautremer Lanna at 14

ENTR ANCE TO A SHRIN E

B U RMA U N D E R

B R IT I S H R U L E

j O SE PH D A UT R EM E R

La nna at 14: School cf Onmtal Languagu ,Par i:

AUTHOR 0?

THE JAPAXESE EMPIRE AND ITS ECONOSQC CONDITIONS

TRA N SLA TED , AN D W ITH A N INTRODUCT IONB y SIR GEORGE SCOTT ,

W ITH 24, ILLUSTRA T IONS

N EW YORK : CHA RLES SCR IBNER ’S SON SLONDON : T . FISHER UNW IN

CONTENTS

Introduction

CHAPTER %

EA RLY H ISTORY OF BURMAI. The beginnings ofBurma. II. The Burmese kings .

III. A laungpaya. IV . F irst friction with the

Brit ish . V . The first Burma war . VI. N ew sub

jects of complaint by the EnglIsh . VII. The

CHAPTER II

LA ST YEA RS OF NATIVE RULEI. Reign ofMindonMin. II. Death ofKing Mindon.

III. The affair ofthe Bombay BurmaCorporat ion.

IV. England meditates annexat ion. V . Frenchaction—final annexation and pacification. VI.

The French and the Portuguese in Burma

CHAPT ER III

THE RACES OF BURMAI. The d ifferent races ofBurma—The Bu rmese. II. The

A rakanese . III. The Talaings . IV . The li fe ofthepeople—B irth

, marriage, death , houses, theatres,5

Contents

games , fami ly l ife . V. The Kayin or Karena.

VI. The Shans or Tai. VII. The Kach ins,Chins,

and other races—The population as awhole

CHA PTER IV

PHYS ICA L GEOG RA PHY

I. Lower and Upper Burma—The physical geographyOf Lower Burma. l l . Topography . III. Valleys.

IV . Mountains . V . Streams and rivers . VI. Lakes .

V ll . Topograph y and orography ofUpper Burma.

VII] . The Shan Burman plateau . 1X. Phys icald ivisions . X. The il lnesses ofthe country

CHA PT ER V

EXECUTIVE D IVIS IONS A N D TOWN SI. The province—A dministrative d ivis ions. II. The

ch ief towns—Rangoon. III. Pegu . IV . Prome .

V. Bassein. V I. Taungoo . VII. A kyab . VIII .Maulmein. IX. Tavoy and Mergui . X . Mandalay .

XI. Sagaing. XII. Shwebo and o ther towns .

XII I . Shan towns . XIV . Sanatoria

CHA PTER V]THE A DM IN ISTRA TION

I. A dministration—The Lieutenant-Governor and his

Counci l . II. The d ifferent departments . III.

D ivisions and commissioners . IV . Forests .

The jud icial services—The magistracy . VI. Police.VII. Pub l ic instruction, etc . VIII . The armyRegiments and garrisons . IX. Sanitation. X.

Burma and India6

Contents

CHA PTER VII

WHA T TO SEE IN THE PROVINCEPAGE

I The way to reach Rangoon. II. Routes . III. Railways. IV . River navigation. V . Appearance Ofth e country . VI. European life in Burma.VII. Excur s ions, ru ins

,and remains—Prome,

Pagan, Ava, Amarapura, the defilos the GOkteik

gorge, the Ruby-mines

CHA PTER VIIIPRODUCTS

I. Teak . II. Cutch or catechu. III. Rubber. IV . S ilk .

V. Shan coal-measures . VI. Tobacco . V II.

Cotton. VIII . Mineral wealth—Earth -oil. IX.

The Mergui fisheries . X. The Burma bean

CHA P TER IX

TRADEMoney . II. Weigh ts and measures . III. The port

of Rangoon. IV. Trade—Imports and expo rts.

V . Ships ’ entries and departures . VI. The estab'

lished steamer services ofRangoon

CHAPTER X

THE TR IBUTA RY STATES1. Note on th e Shan States dependent on Burma—Their

trade with Ch ina. II. The Northern Shan States .

III. The Southern Shan States . IV . Trade withS iam

Contents

CHAPTER XI

FR ENCH TRADE W ITH BURMAPAGE

1. French trade in Burma. II. Tinned provisions .

III. Tinned fish . IV . Tinned fruit. V . Saucesand spices . V I. Wine and champagne . VII.

Brandy

CHAPTER XII

INDUSTR IES1. N ative industries—Cotton and s i lk weaving. II.

Dyeing. III. Salt boiling. IV. Manufacture of

ngapi, or salted fish . V . Pottery . VI. Lacquer.VII. Gilt ware . VIII . Bronze

,iron and wood

carving. IX. European industries and manu

factures in Burma

CHAPTER XIII

M ISCELLA NEOUS1. Posts and telegraph . II. Pub lic works and irr igat ion.

III. Finance. IV . Medical stat ist ics . V. Government and private schools . VI. Press and l iterature

,sciences , archaeology

CHA PTER XIV

THE A NDA MA N ISLA NDS

ILLUSTRA TIONS

ENTRA NCE TO A SHRINEA PAGODA AT PAGAN

THE PALACE SPIRE,MANDA LAY

THE SUMMER - HOUSE WHERE KING TH IBAW SUR °

RENDERED

TATTOOING

A PONGYI W ITH FAN TO PLACE BEFORE HIS EYESWHEN A WOMAN PA SSES

A PAGODA

AN IRRAWADDY RIVER VILLAGE

CIGAR G IRLSTHE KUTHODAW, OR ROYAL MERIT PAGODA

MONASTIC SCHOOLINGWARM WEATHER

THE STERN A ND STEERSMA N OF A BURME SE BOA TA SHAN SAWBWA AND FOLLOWINGA B URMESE FAMILY

I l lustrations

TII B M INGON PAGODA AND B B LL

KING THIBAW’S MONA S

ERY, MANDALA Y

A GRB BN CHERUT

A“BOXING ” MATCH

BURMESE VILLAGB ON THE IRRAWA DDY

TB B WATER TOWB R, MANDALAY“ MOUNT MERU

,AT THE TAwA DB INTIIA FEST IVA L

A MONA S‘

A WELL.

Where no photographer's name appears beneath the

Il lustrations they are taken from the album Bmutiful

B urma,%

so ld by W hitaway , Laid law Co .

, Rangoon.

INTRODU CT ION

IT is always intere s t ing to see ourselves as Otherssee us . M . Dautremer was long enough Consulfor Erance in Rangoon to get a good knowledge of the count ry , and he has wr i tten a mostinforming book about Burma for the benefi t O fh is fel low -countrymen . He i s a fearle s s crit ic ,and does no t hes itate t o point out that Burmaoffers much that bo th the French Governmentand the se t t lers in Cochin -China and Tongkingmight copy wi th advantage . His book i s muchmore like a consular report of the ideal k indthan a mere desc ript ion Of the count ry . Therehave been very many boo ks about Burma

of them mere picture -books with let te rp ressthrown in

,l ike the flour that i s required to keep

a plum -pudding togethe r ; o thers per i lously l ikepopu lar ized encyc lopaedias ; quite a good manythe hapha zard reflect ions Of more o r le s s Oh

servant and indust r ious fine -weather tour i st s,

whose impress ions are somet imes as divert ingas the diary. of Li Hung-Chang in Europe

but mostly without hi s wit and shrewdnes s .I I

Introduction

M . Dautremer is not to be clas sed wi th any of

these . He knows what he i s writ ing about,he

omit s nothing,and he looks upon everything

from a thoroughly pract i ca l point of V iew .

H is conclus ion i s that B reueh IndO -China hasa great deal to learn from Burma

,but at the

same t ime that Burma i s not progress ing so fastas i t might and should . There is no doubt thathe is r ight . Burma is in much the same po sit ion as Malaya was when the Strait s Sett l ement swere under the authority O f the Honourable EastIndia Company and the Indian Government .

Allowances are kept down to the smal lest po ss ib le amount

,and all amb it ions are consistent ly

f’rowned on. We should never have been established in the Strait s of Malacca if i t had notbeen fo r the fo res ight Of Franci s Light andS tamford Raffles . The Court ofDirectors wouldhave been perfect ly sat isfied wi th the squal idport ofBencoo len on the west coast ofSumatra .

They were so in fatuated about it that they clungto the dismal sett lement fo r about a century anda half

,built Fort York and Fort Marlborough

and actual ly t ransferred S tamford Raffles thereafter he had founded S ingapore . The patr iot ismof Light and Raffles forced on the occupat ion

firs t OfPenang and then of S ingapo re,with the

result that at the present t ime the impo rt s andexports Of Malaya are about one hundred

Introduction

mill ions s ter l ing annual ly . That i s to say thatthey are worth considerab ly more than the ent irecommerce ofGreat B ritain a hundred years ago .

The process by which we came to take po ssess ion of Burma was no less unpremeditated

here it was the Burmese who fo rced act ion uponus . I t began with the threat ofKing B odawpayato invade India if he did not have h is own way ,

and it ended wi th the proclamat ion in whichKing Thibaw called upon h is peopl e to drivethe unhal lowed foreigners into the sea . Theend was inevitable

,and it was no doubt acceler

ated by the relat ions which King Thibaw t riedto enter into w ith the French Government .

These M . Dautremer has quite candidly andfu l l y set forth in h is second chapter , and thereis no thing more to be said on the subj ect . Butfrom the first the Indian Government lookedupon the acquis it ion of Burma with disfavour .

Only a few years after the fi rst Burma war therewas actually an idea of [giving up Tenasserim

because i t had too small a populat ion . Arakanwas al l very wel l because i t touched Chittagong ,lay

, on the Bay ofBengal , and had a populat ionwhich acknowledged a considerab le t incture ofI ndian b lood in it . B ut Tenasserim was lookedupon as an encumbrance and an expense . Therewas no one who foresaw that i t wil l probably

,r ival

the Federated Malay States in wealth,which it

Introduction

wil l derive from its rubber plantat ion s and thet in and wo lfram mines that are only now be ingopened out But even now it may be saidwi thout exaggerat ion that it i s ab so lutely without roads . I t i s in the same state that Perakand Selangor and N egri S embilan we re thi rtyyears ago . In these thirty years the FederatedMalay S tates have made two thousand miles of

metalled roads and Tenasserim has none afterthree t imes that num ber of years . More thanthat

,they have la id down many miles Of railway

which inspi red the non -federated S tate Of Johorewith emulat ion , so tha t in the space of l it t l emore than twenty yea rs nearly seven hundredand fi fty miles Of a t runk system exist

,runn ing

from S ingapo re up to Kedah .

What is t rue of Tenasserim i s no t much lesstrue of the whole province . In all Burma

apart from the towns,there are bare ly two

hundred miles ofmetall ed and prope rly bridgedroads

,and these would not carry the moto r

Omnibuses which p ly regu larly in the MalayS tates O therwise there are no t above athousand mi les Of road in Burma , and they arewhat are ca lled country roads

” some of thembridged and dra ined

,some of them only part ly

b r idged and dra ined , and the rest mere ly spaceswhere the jungl e has been cut down Theseare convenient enough for mere loca l purpo ses ,

Introduction

but they are pract ical ly useless from the po intof view Of deve lopment . I n the dry weathera Burmese cart can , and Often does , go s traightacros s country

,but in the ra ins the so -called

country roads are j ust as impas sable a s ricefields would be ,

and that means that Burma isroadles s fo r s ix months in the year .

I t is hardly any better O ff in the mat ter ofrai lways . Arakan and Tenasser im were annexedin 1 8 2 6, and they neither Of them have a mi leof rai lway to the present day . The I rrawaddydelta was added in 1 8 5 2 ,

and it wa s twent yfive years befo re it got a rai lway l ine , and thenit was only a met re -gauge . I t probab ly wouldnot have been built even then if i t had not beenthat the Government of I ndia found it had theplant of a l ight rai lway on its hands and didnot know what to do with it . Up ti l l that t imethe argument had steadily been that i t was nouse building a ra ilway to compete with a greatnavigab le r iver l ike the I rrawaddy

,because al l

the freight wou l d go by the river,and the line

cou ld never pay . The ra ilway,however

laid down,and it immediately proved itself quite

a profi tab le speculat ion and now pays a steadyten pe r cent . on the capita l expenditure . I t wasanother eight years before anything was done

and then a rai lway was constructed up to

T aungoo . This was very grudgingly given , andI S

Introduction

probab ly would not have been sanct ioned if ithad not been that the journey up the S ittangRiver was very dangerous for troops on accountof the bore . There were no hopes that any,th ing would be made out of i t

,and yet i t b egan

to pay from the moment it was opened . Theextens ion to Mandalay, and later the l ine fromSagaing to Myit Kyina, were bu i lt more withthe idea that i t was the cheapest way of pacifying the country and estab li shing Brit i shautho rity than with any real antic ipat ion ofpro fi t . Yet they also have proved quite goodspeculat ions . There have been other l ines buil ts ince . They are a l l recorded by M . Dautremer

and are all in the nature Of feeder l ines . Thereis no thing. of the courage and far -s ightedness ofthe Federated Malay States scheme about them

no idea of a real trunk l ine . The builders ofthe S traits a im at having through communicat ionwith India

,i f they. can shame India into

i t,with Calai s . There i s no broad -minded V iew

l ike this to be detected in the Indian pol icy .

They, are infected with the babu spir it , and canno t see beyond their immediate horizon . Theyare l ike a man who wou ld go on sel l ing matchesin the street

,because he can make a l iving out

of i t,and would never dare to dream ofthe poss i

bility ofowning a match -factory fo r himself andsending consignments to the ends of the earth .

Introduction

Nushki , o r Myit Kyina, o r Lashio . I t i s nouse saying that the Indian rai lway system is noles s land - locked than that of Burma Indianeeds communicat ion with Europe j ust as muchas Burma needs direct communicat ion withIndia . I t wi l l be to the great advantage of

Afghanis tan and Persia and Asia Minor andc ivi l izat ion when a trans -Persian l ine comesabout

,as it inevitab ly must . But that i s no

reason why India and Burma should remainseparated in the meanwhi le

,no r why there

should be no attempt to pu sh southwards towhere the Federated Malay States are makinghistory—and incidental ly making a very gr eatdeal Of money . The Obvious l ine for the railway to I ndia is a prolongat ion Ofthe Mu Valleyrai lway northwards up the Hukawng Vall ey andover the Patko i range . The Ob j ect ion of thecautious

,nothing -venture

,mole -horizon people i s

that there is pract ically no populat ion on theroute . But there is fair evidence that theHukawng Val ley was at one t ime quite wel lpeopled . Some of the races in northern Assam

who are connected with the Kacharis (or Kossarisas they are lo cally cal led ) , have a tradit ion thatin former t imes they l ived in the HukawngValley . I t is more of what the Scott i sh cal l as trath than a valley . There is abundance of

flat land,and it i s covered wi th luxur iant vege

Introduction

tation. The india -rubb er -b earing ficus growsvery. well there, and quite a cons iderable amountOf rubber is even now exported

,though the

Kachins have done thei r best to dest roy theindus try by tapping the root s wi th the obj ectOf gett ing as much rubber as quickly as pos

s ib le . I t i s a historical fact that the Shaninvaders ofAssam went over the Patko i range .

I t is true that they did no t come back again ,but that is no proof that thi s was becaus e thepass was a difficul t one . As a matter of factwe know

,from the survey of Mr . Way

,that it

offers no particular difficult ies to the rai lwayengineer . The fact that there is now no popu

lat ion to speak Of means nothing. at al l . Theland is certainly. fert i le , but i t is surrounded byKachins

,who are very far from being des irab le

neighbours,and

,in fact

,prefer l iving on black

mai l to any other means of l ivel ihood . Thereis nothing that set t les a country more thoroughlythan a rai lway

,and there is nothing l ike i t for

bringing populat ion,and what Burma wants is

populat ion . I t is far more thin ly,peopled than

S iam o r Tongking .

Burma ought never to have been j oined on

to the Indian Empire . The character of thecountry is different . The races that inhabi t i tare entirely, different, and it is shut Off fromIndia by moun tain ranges which prevent free

Introduction

intercourse . But the cry for separat ion has

come much too late Burma cannot beseparated from India now without a series Ofcomplications which would not be worth theeffort . There would have to be a separateadministrat ive serv ice

,and separate measures fo r

defence . The province is too b ig to be cut Offfrom India as the St rait s Set t lements were cutOff. A country which has front iers marchingwith China

,with S iam

,and with the territo ries

O f the French Republ ic,cannot be without a

considerable mil i tary force,and the ent ire Burma

garrison i s deta i led from India and wou l dinevitab ly cont inue to be so for a cons iderab lenumber Of years i f Burma became se lf -governing . I t s eems quite probab le that the Shan sand Kachins

,and probab ly the Wa and Chins

would make quite good troops . The expe r iment swhich have been made with the Shans andthe Kachins certain ly seem to prove this

the small numbers so far enl ist ed and dri lledare no t by any means conclus ive

,and the re

sults achieved with a half -company here anda company there are not definite enough to

warrant cutt ing the painte r . I t would be worthlthe while spending. a l it t l e mo re money to makea more extended tr ia l ofthe hi ll t ribesmen . The

Kachins and the Wa may prove as excellentscouts and as valuab le l ight infantry, and prob

Introduction

ably far mo re act ive than the somewhat slowmoving Gurkha , and the Shans may Show themselves to be as st eady and stol id under fire as

the Rus sian o r the Chinese infantry .

But the main argument for rai lway connect ionwi th India is the consol idat ion of our I ndian’

Empire . At present Burma i s more like an

i s land than a piece of a cont inent , and i t ispractically as i solated as the Strait s Sett lement sare . I t is not too much to say that S ingaporeis the pivo t of the t rade Of a l l the East . Witha tonnage Ofsomething l ike twenty -five mill ions

i t i s the seventh port in the whole world and

the fourth in the Brit ish Empire,and it s recent l y,

completed graving dock is one of the largestin existence . From the point Of view Ofstrategical impo rtance there i s no place in theEmpire that i s above it .Whenever worldprob lems are being discussed

,S ingapore

inevi tab ly takes a foremost place . Yet t roopsfo r i ts defence could only be got there by sea

and that certainly not under a week . I f Burmawere connected with India by rai lway

,the con

nection with the Malay States rai lway systemwou ld come as a matter of course

,and Brit i sh

interest s in China,Austral ia

,and India wo uld

breathe al l the freer . I t wo uld be worth whilebuilding the rai lway merely as a pol icy Ofinsurance

,but i t wo uld be much more than

I ntroduction

that—it would be a most profi tab le investment .

The line would pay almos t from the momentof i ts complet ion .

But it i s not merel y north and south thatBurma wants rai lways to make it the real modelpossess ion that M . Dautremer i s court eousenough to cal l i t ; i t al so want s ra i lways to theea st . N O matter where the Burmese came from—and that i s a suffi cient ly debated point—it i snot to be disputed that they have more connect ion with the races ofChina than with the I nd ianEmpire . They resemble them more

,they inter

marry with them more sat i sfactori ly,and they

certainly l ike and respect them more .

From the time when we were fi rst e stab l i shedin Burma

,after the fi rst Burmese war

,there has

always been a desire to open up communicat ionwith South -Western China . Nine years after theend Of the war Mr . Blunde ll

,the Commissioner

of the Tenasserim Provinces,wrote through the

Government of India to the Honourable theCourt Of D irectors Of the East I ndia Companyadvocating the opening up Of a t rade route withYiin-nan . He prevailed on them to send CaptainMcLeod

,who natural ly went up through S iamese

terr itory by way of Chiengmai,but he got no

farther than Chieng -hung,where both the Bur

mese and Chinese Offic ials united to prevent himfrom going out of the Shan S tates acros s the

Introduction

border . There were other expedition s at longinterval s . S laden went a s fa r as T ’

(Momien,as i t was then cal led ) at the t ime of

the long fight between the Chinese Mohammedans and the Imperial i s ts . He was fo l lowedby Colonel Horace B rowne

,but the murder of

Raymond Margary prevented anything beingdone . There have been a number ofother enthus iasts , notably Mr . A . R . Colquhoun

,but nothing

ha s come ofany ofthei r endeavours .

The fi rst propo sa l s were no doubt impracticab le . Cart - roads are never Of any value exceptfor lo ca l traffi c . A S soon as they extend tohundreds ofmiles they become valueless , becausethe co st of ca rriage swallows up a l l the profi ton the produce . This appl ie s natural ly , with st i l lgreater force

,to bridl e - t racks

,which were the

new route s at fi rst contemplat ed unt i l Mr .

Colquhoun and the late Holt Hal lett develope dtheir idea of a railway up from Eastern Burmafrom some po int on the Salween . The ob ject ionto thi s was that the grea te r part Of the rai lwaywould have been in terri to ry which was notB rit i sh at al l . Moreover

,there was the t imidity

and total want of desi re to inform themselves ofprincipal Secretarie s of S tate of both the greatpol iti ca l part ie s . They imagined that the susceptibilities and suspic ions of France would bearoused

,both as regards po ss ible designs on

Introduction

Siam and with reference to their own l ine fromTongking to Yun -nan -fu . I t i s a very easy thingto talk about large maps and neglect to look atthem yoursel f . Therefore the proposal s wereconsi stentl y carped at

,di sparaged

,and doused

with cold water . Nothing more has been heardof them S ince the annexat ion Of Upper Burmagave us a frontier with China many hundredmiles long . The people with views be yond theOffice fi le s which lay on their desks then againbegan to agitate for rai lway communicat ion withChina . Government may have been shamed

i t may have been inspi red to emulat ion,by the

enterpri se of the French,who were then begin

ning their Tongk ing -Yiin-nan rai lway ; or i t mayhave been wearied Ofthe protest s Of B ri t i sh ady ocates

,with an underl ying consciousness that the

delimitat ion of the frontier between Burma andChina was not very fa r Off . At any rate

,there

was a sudden deci s ion to begin a l ine towardsChina . There had been some perfunctory studyof the ground beforehand

,but there was not

enough money availab le for proper surveys,and

the l ine chosen,for very short -s ighted reasons

was from Mandalay,the terminus Of the trunk

l ine,ea stwards to

,as was fi rst intended

,the Kun

lOng ferry, on the Sa lween River . There wasa hazy sort of impl i cat ion tha t the river might becro ssed and the l ine continued the further shor t

Introduction

does not exal t the superio r courage and enterpri se Of hi s fel low -countrymen . He s implyrelate s the fact s

,and he even suggests that we

may retain some of the Yung -ch ‘ang trade , butthat seems rather l ike a poli te figure Of speech .

Natural ly the mercant i le community OfRangoon has been by no means pl eased at theprospect

,and in response to several memoria ls

the Government of India has had a survey madeOf a l ine to T ‘

yiieh ,and has even carried out

a flying survey beyond . But thi s i s mere t rifl ing .

A line to T ‘

yiieh would no doubt pay, but totalk of carrying the line ea stwards from thereinto Yiin-nan i s ei ther due to pit iable ignoranceo r is consummate audacity from a Governmentwhich ha s declared tha t the extension of therailway from Lashio to Kun -lOng i s much too

grea t to be undertaken by any but those affli ctedwith midsummer madness . I n any case

,the Offer

i s very much l ike a rich uncle who i s asked toget a favourite niece a bonbonnz

ére,s i lk and

hand -painted,o r preferably S i lver

,and puts her

Off with a couple Of bananas o r a water - i ceinstead . There i s

,no doubt

,only a l imited

amount ofmoney availab le for rai lway extension ,but i t is poor pol icy to spend thi s on a rai lwaywhich would end against something like a b lankwal l

,and at the best would reta in for us only a

half or a third of the Yung -ch ‘ang trade and none26

Introduction

whatever ofthe count ry to the east ofit . T eng

yiieh ,as a railway terminus in Yiin-nan

,would

be no better than Bencoolen was as regardsMalaya .

The Opening up of the Shan country farthersouth by the Southe rn Shan States ra ilway offersmuch better prospects . Those who ordered theconstruct ion of the Mandalay -Kun -lOng rai lwaywould have been much better advi sed if theyhad spent a l itt le more time and money on theprel iminary examinat ion of the country . I tseems beyond di spute that there woul d then havebeen no reversing stat ions east ofMandalay andno GOkteik bridge

,but the Southern Shan States

l ine would have been begun thi rteen or fourteenyears earl ier

,and i t would have been paying

long before now,besides probab ly having many

miles open to traffic far beyond the terminus atpresent contemplated .

There i s,no doubt

,the spectre of the Brob

dingnagian furrows that run southwards fromthe eastern end ofthe H imalaya s

,but there seems

no val id reason why we Should not ut i l i ze thewater power which i s at our di sposal

,as other

much less pretent ious count ries have done . Fract i ca l ly in the middle of the great plain whi chruns south from a l itt le way below Lashio tonot far off the Karen -mi border are the TéngFal ls . The Téng i s a r iver b igger than the

Introduction

Thames,and at a po int in the Keng -tawng State

i t fa l l s bodi ly over c l iffs considerably more thanthree hundred feet high . The volume Of wateri s much greater than that which serves to drivethe turbines at the N iaga ra Fal l s power - stat ion .

Electric power makes l ight Of gradient s . Theinit ial cost Of the rai lway would probably begreater

,though even that i s by no means certain

because the mileage would be very considerab lyle ss . The bridging of the Salween would not bean easy matter

,on the other hand

Mehkawng would be crossed at a point where it sbanks are as ea sy as those of the R ed Rive rbridge at Hanoi

,and there i s no reason to sup

pose that the foundat ion s would be any moredifficul t a t Chieng Hung than they were at theTongking capi tal .The advantage of entering Yun -nan from the

S sumao neighbourhood would be that we shouldhave before us probab l y severa l alte rnativeroute s northward to al l parts of Yiin-nan. Therehave been no surveys by railway expe rt s in thi sdirect ion

,but it certainly seems to b e worth whi le

making them . The trade with South -West Chinais not very great , but i t i s very promising . Ourshare of i t is dwindl ing , and is certa in to fa l laway sti l l further unles s we make some sort ofan effort . Moreover

,in doing so we should

develop our own Shan States . The trade wi th28

Introduction

them has grown from practi ca l l y nothing to aquite credi table sum in the las t quart er -century,but i t is nothing l ike what i t might be and whati t should be i f there were anything better thanmediaeval means of t ranspo rt . The Shan Statescannot sel l the greater part of their product sbecause it cost s too much to take them downto the rai lway . The inte rmediate t raffi c wouldvery soon j ust i fy the capital expenditure , andby the t ime the t runk l ine got to China thereformed Government there wil l no doubt haveconstructed the Yangtze railway with extensionsbeyond into Yun -nan . There would thereforebe a trans -Asiatic ra i lway to look forward to as

a competi to r with the t rans -S iberian .

That,however

,i s a very long way to look

ahead,but in the meant ime not only the Shan

States,but al so Burma and India i t self

,would

greatly benefi t . What India cannot be b roughtto understand i s that any large expenditure inBurma woul d be amply repaid

,in fact

would be a most excellent investment . M .

Dautremer i s kind enough to cal l the provincea model po ssession

,and he has a great deal of

prai se for its management . But,as a matter of

‘bitter fact,the administ rat ive V iew is that of the

parish beadle and the enterpri se that of thecountry carr ier with a l ight cart in stead of amotor -van .

Introduction

I f we want to see what commercial in st inctcan do

,we have only to look at the Fe derated

Malay States . I f we want to see what reasonedintel ligence would dictat e

,we Should cons ider

the progress of Kiaochao . Germany has madethat colony— it real ly i s a colony—as fai r a placeto look at as Saigon

,o r Hanoi

,o r Dairen (alias

Dalny ) , but al so a centre ofbusines s which hasnothing to learn from Rangoon . I t has donemore than that . I t has placed it in communica

t ion with the interior,so that in no great t ime

Kiaochao may look forward to securing thegreater part ofthe trade Of North -Easte rn China .

Germany has done for a H interland what in twic ethe space of t ime we have not done for our ownterritory

,to say nothing of Yiin-nan and S su

ch ‘uan . We are accustomed to laugh at the dr i l lsergeant

,parade -ground methods Of German

colonia l admini strators,but

,to te l l the truth

we are not much better . In stead of the rul e o fthe garri son town

,we h ave adopted the procedure

of the babu,co loured o r white .

nM . Dautremer has cal led attent ion to theGovernment competit ion which he thinks hasgreatly in j ured the Burma teak trade

,but thi s i s

a trifle compared with the way in which we

thwart the effort s to develop the mineral s of thecountry . Burma i s probably at least as rich inmineral s as the Eederated Malay States, but the

Introduction

pol icy adopted in the two areas i s va st ly different .Tin-mining ha s been known in Malaya s ince thet ime of the Phoenicians

,but it never was of any

great importance unti l the contro l of the countrywas taken over by B rit i sh administrators . NowMalaya is the great source of t in supply for theworld . Thi s i s pract ical ly entirely due to theenterpri se of the Federated Government . Whenthe country was Opened out i t was consideredquite as important to make roads fo r the use

ofthe t in -miners as for the purposes of administration. Everything was done to encourage theintroduction of capital into the count ry, and theworking of the mines with the aid of scient ificmachinery

,in place

,Ofthe o ld ho les in the grounddug. by Chinamen

,soon led to result s which

can only be characterized as extraordinary .

There i s great hope of reducing the cost of

hydraul ic plant and underground working byut il izing water -power to produce elect ri c it y . Theold burdensome tin export duty of the Malaysul tans has been altered in incidence thoughadopted in principle

,and the result i s the pheno

mena l prosperity. which has enabled these chiefsto present a super -D readnought to the Empire .

I n Burma it has been very different . Themining rules

,which are those applying to the

whol e Indian Empire,seem expres s ly designed

to keep away capital . Prospect ing al lowances3 1

Introduction

are not to be had withou t i rritat ing formalit ie sand weari some delays . The Eederated MalayStates Government appointed a man of established reputat ion to conduct a scient ific survey.

of the country . The Geological Survey of Indiaha s detailed a man now and then to invest igat e

for a month or two at a t ime,discoveries made

by independent invest igators,but the work done

has been perfunctory and cannot be cal led byany other nam e than “ scrappy . Eo r the extract ion of mineral s the one thing required i sthe existence ofreasonably good roads

,and prae

t ical ly nothing has been done in this direct ion .

Even the results of the irrigat ion systems havebeen deprived of half thei r value for the wantof roads which could be used by laden cart s forsomething more than three or four months inthe year . The Burma Ruby Mines Companyhas been crippled

,firs t by the usurious demands

made from it by Government and then by the

want of a road to bring up scient ific miningplant . The Burma Mines Company had to bui ldi tself a private l ine before it could ge t out theore which is now promising to convert the sorryMandalay -Lashio Rai lway into something l ikea l ine wh i ch pays i ts way . The Mawchi Tin andWolfram Company has had to s truggle with thedifficulti es ofa desperately inaccessib le country,and has been left to find out for i tself the best

Introduction

Burma may be a model po ssession from'the

way in which i t is admin istered,as if it were

a smal l a l lotment,but i t i s sadly defic ient in the

enterpri se which knows how to make the be stuse ofits resources . Any money Spent on Burmawould be a profi tab le investment

,but Burma is

not al lowed that money .

Burma under B ritish Rule

CHAPTER I

EA RLY HISTORY OF BURMA

I. The beginnings of Burma. II. The Burmese k ings .

III. Alaungpaya. IV . First frict ion w ith the Engl ish .

V. The first war . VI. N ew grounds of complaint forthe English . VII. Conclusion.

I . EVERYTH IN G seems to po int to the fact thatthe Burmese came southwards from Tibet to

the basin of the I rrawaddy and sett led there,

at the same t ime amalgamating with otherimmigrants who came direct from India .

Thus the Burman is a cross between the

Mongol and the Aryan,and the first

kings of Burma given in the l is ts of theMaha Yazawin

,the Book Of National Annal s

all have H indu nam es . These kings are,how

ever,all l egendary

,and de tai l s about them are

lost in the night of t ime . The firs t reasonabl yaccurate history i s not earl ier than about48 3 B .C .

,and it treat s of the Burmese kings

Who reigned at Tharekettara, the Prome of

Burma under British Ru le

modern days,and at Pagan , which

now onlyexists in its ruins .

I I . Tharekettara does not quite correspondwith the modern Prome . The ancient c it y. sitei s reall y some miles east of the modern port ofcall on the I rrawaddy . I t ceased to be a capitalin 1 0 8 A .D .

,and Pagan became the residence

of the princes ofBurma from this date and continued to b e SO unt i l 1 2 79 . I n that year beganthe invasions of the Tai

,commonly cal led Shans

in Burma,who came from the high tab lelands

of Yiin-nan,whence they were driven by the

Chinese . They conquered Burma and established a Tai dynasty in Pagan

,from which they

moved first to Myinsaing and Panya and aft erwards to Sagaing ( 1 2 9 8 In the lat teryear King Thadominbya, whose father was aBurman

,while hi s mother was a Shan

,founded

the famous ci ty ofAva . I t was s ituated in thegreat Myohaung plain

,to the south ofthe present

Mandalay,and ofal l i t s glories there now only

remain here and there a few ruins,whose

crumbl ing bricks barely Show through the rankvegetation of, the tropics , and of all its mult itudes only a few communities ofmonks with nocomp-anions but the cobras and the pythons .

This capital of A va did not long remain in theoccupat ion of the same dynasty . Burmese an'dShan usurpers took po s sess ion of i t at different

A PAGODA A T PA GIIN .

Ear ly H istory ofBurma

pe riods , and the capital of the kingdom wasmoved back to Pagan in 1 6 1 3 . I n 1 6 2 9 again ,however, Ava became the capital , and eight kingsin succession reigned there unti l 1 7 5 1 , when themonarch who reigned under the t it le ofMahadhamma Rajadipati was seized by a rebell iousarmy and carried Off to Regu

,where he was

beheaded .

This was the t ime when there arose an Officer,

full ofenergy and Of remarkable mental vigour,

who determ ined to put an end to the anarchywhich had so long prevailed and left i t a preyto continual st ruggles for the posses s ion of thethrone

,torn and ravaged by the adherents of

the various pretenders . This man was Alaungpaya . He conquered al l the rebel s

,re -estab

lished order in the Empire,and founded a

dynasty which lasted unt il the country wasannexed by Great B ritain . A laungpaya is thenational hero of Burma

,and his l i fe - s tory is

wrapped up in legends such as O riental s del ightin to enhance the prestige and renown of theirgreat men .

A laungpaya was succeeded by N aungdawgyi,who made Sagaing his capital

,in 1 760 . There

succeeded him Sinbyushin,1 7 63 , who removed

the seat of government back to Ava ; S inguMin

,1 7 7 5 ; Maung Maung , 1 7 8 1 , a boy of

eighteen,who reigned only eleven days ; BadOn

Min , 1 7 8 1 , better known as B odawpaya, who

again removed the capital across the DOktawadiRiver to Amarapura

,Opposi te Sagaing

,where

h e built an entirel y new city ; Sagaing Min ,1 8 1 9 , more commonly known as B agy idaw,

whomoved the capital back to Ava Tharawadi Min

1 8 3 7 , who returned to Am arapura ; Pagan Min ,1 8 46, who retained Amarapura as his capital ;and Mindon Min

,who in 1 8 5 3 built the ent irel y

new capital ofMandalay .

I I I . I t took A laungpaya seven years to re

estab l ish the kingdom,conquering the revolted

and struggl ing agains t the efforts of the Portuguese, the Dutch , and afterwards of the Frenchand the Engl ish

,one after another

to estab li sh themselves in different ports . Att imes they supported A laungpaya against hi senemies

,at other t imes they st irred these up

against the King and excited insurrect ions whichadded to the disorder . Neve rtheless

,the great

King and his successors tr iumphed over all difficulties and

,after having engaged in new

struggles with the S iamese and the Chinese,Spread the Burman Empire over the countrybetween the Bay of Bengal as far as S iam andChina from west to east

,and between the Mergui

Archipelago up to Assam from south to north .

The present capital of Burma,Rangoon ( in

Burmese Yangén, the war ended ) , was founded38

Government . H e s imply sent orders that anarmy should march into Chittagong and shouldbring back the pirate chiefs as prisoners . TheEnglish Governor was taken by surprise by thi sact ofaggress ion

,but he sent a detachment

po rted by arti ll ery,to drive back the Burmese .

The Burmese General,N andakyawzaw,

enteredinto negotiat ions with Major -General Erskine

who commanded the Briti sh troops,and an

arrangement was arrived at without theshedding of b lood . Three of the pirate chiefswere handed over to the Burmese

,who prompt ly.

beheaded two of them . As a result of thi sincident S ir john Shore, who was then GovernorGeneral of India

,thought it was des irable to

get into communicat ion with so energet ic aneighbour

,and in 1 79 5 he sent Captain

Symes to the Burmese Court,with the t it l e of

Plenipotentiary . Captain Symes met with amore o r less courteous reception

,but he did no t

succeed in concluding any sor t ofa treaty whichdefinitely es tabl ished right s of trade and commerce . I n sp it e of th is

,and since they wanted

to maintain fr iend ly relat ions, the Governmen tof Ind ia sent Captain H iram Cox to Rangoonwith orders to stay there . After a good manyineffectual efforts t o get some trading concess ions from King B odawpaya, he came to the

conclus ion that his dignity and that ofhis country40

call ed upon him to retire . He met with no sortof goodwill

,or even so much as at tent ion

eventually l eft without even gett ing a reply tothe Governor -General ’ s le tt er .

All this t ime the front iers of Arakan and

Chittagong were the scene of events l ike thoseof 1 79 3 and 1 79 4 . Once more in 1 7 9 7

thousands of Arakanese migrated over to Chittagong

,and once again Burmese tro ops marched

into Chittagong terr itory,where they had a brush

with a police battal ion of the d i str i ct . But KingB odawpaya had designs on Assam and did notwant to go too far, so he recalled the troopsand sent an agent to Calcutta to enter intonegot iations . He required that all Arakaneseshould b e expelled from Brit ish territory . TheMarquis ofWell ington was Governor -General ofIndia at this t ime

,and‘ he repl ied that any

Arakanese who returned to their former provincein order to plunder there would be severelypunished . This assurance was not nearly so

much as B odawpaya wanted, and he threatenedto invade India if his demands were not conceded and all plunderers forthwith surrendered .

The challenge was not accepted on account ofinternal troubles in India at the t ime

,but Colone l

Symes was again sent on a miss ion to the Kingwith ins tructions to procure the withd rawal ofthe menace and to draw up a treaty in due form .

When he reached MingOn,where the King was

in residence,Colonel S ymes was contumel iously

t reated,and the only thing he effected was t o

Obtain a verbal di savowal,through the Governor

of Pegu,

of the offens ive le tter threaten inginvasion .

S ti ll the Indian Government retained it spat ience and perseverance and was not d iscou raged . I n the following year CaptainCanning was sent to Rangoon

,but was so

extremely il l rece ived by the authorit ies therethat it was not long before he left . A few year slater he came back again with a letter andpresents from the Governor -General . This t imehe was fairly wel l t reated by B odawpaya,

buthe got no royal reply to the l etter he brought .

There certainly was a reply,but i t came from

the King ’ s M inisters . Nevertheless,the relat ions ,

though they were dist inct ly chil l y,did not

degenerate into host i l i ty,unt il once more the

Arakanese raised troub le on the front ier . Therewas a daco it leader cal led Hkyin Byan , whoplundered a number of Burmese vil lages andthen made Off

,as usual

,in to Chittagong terr i

tory . There he gathered round him a considerab le band of fol lowers and set out for the definitepurpose of dacoit ing on the Arakan s ide I tmust be admitted that the Burmese Governmenthad reasonab le cause of complaint

,for the

Early History ofBurma

Brit ish authorit ies were both weak and lethargic .

Captain Canning was again sent to Burma todisavow any idea of sympathy o r complic ity inthi s fresh raid

,which

,i t was represented, was

entered upo n quite suddenly and secretly . TheVi ceroy of Pegu accepted h is explanations andprofessed himself sat isfied . All thi s while

ever,Hkyin Byan was st i l l in B ri t ish territory,

and the Governor of Arakan marched with aBurmese force to the border t o demand his

surrender . The Brit ish Commissioner of Chittagong entered into negotiat ions with him and

succeeded in effect ing the withdrawal of theBurmese troops from the front ier .

When he heard this B odawpaya was furious,

and,s ince he was convinced that the Brit ish

Government was both impotent and faithless , hemade an attempt to seiz e Captain Canning withthe Ob j ect of keeping him as a hostage to besurrendered in exchange for the Arakan rebels .

Cann ing,however

,was apparent ly suspicious

that something of the kind was intended andwent to l ive on board h is ship, whence he couldnot be tempt ed to accept invitat ions to proceedto the Burmese Court . After a t ime , when hewas convin ced that there was no chance of anyset t lement

,he left Rangoon altogether .

The year after Burmese ambassadors weresent to Calcut ta to demand the surrender of the

Arakan revolters . At the same t ime B odawpayasent a number of monks to India

,ost ensib ly

to collect Buddhist ic texts,but real ly for the

purpose of st i rring up the Indian ra jahs to riseagainst the Brit ish . I n this way Patna

now,Delhi

,and Benares were vis ited by the

Amarapura monks,and it was long before the

Indian Government had any idea of their pol it i caldesigns .

In spite of the Burmese miss ion to Calcutta,

Arakan was again the cause of t roub le . Thedacoit H kyin Byan again crossed the frontier,either through Brit ish carelessness or B rit i shcomplicity . However

,not long aft erwards he

died,j ust at the t ime when the Burmese were

about to conclude an al liance with some of theIndianchiefs against the Company ’ s Government .

An abrupt end was put to Burmese hope s by thereceipt ofdirect orders to Lord Hast ings to dealenerget ically with al l those who Opposed B rit i shrule .

Upon th is the Burmese diverted their ambit ionsin the direct ion of Assam

,Manipur

,and the

terr itories which lay on the borders of Burmaand Brit ish India . B odawpaya was dead, buth is successor

,Sagaing Min

,or B agyidaw as he

i s more commonly known,carried on an inter

mittent war in this neighbourhood,which led

in 1 8 2 2 to a quarrel which b rought on Brit ish44

Early H istory ofBurma

interven tion . I t came about in this way : Greatnumbers of Assamese took refuge in Briti shterri tory in order to escape from the miseriesof their own country . They were immediatelyfollowed up by a considerable Burmese mil itaryforce with orders to bring them back again . TheEnglish authorit ies

,however

,gave assurance s

that the stri ctest measures would be take-n toensure that the fugitives shou ld unde rtake nohostil e measures

,and this appeared to sat is fy

the Burmese Gene ral,Maha B

andula At anyrate

,he set out to march back to the capital

which was then Ava,with the greater part of

the troops . His associate in the command, MahaThelawa, was l eft beh ind in Assam w i th twothousand men and the t it l e of Governor . It

was fortunate for the British that at this t ime

the whole of the Burmese King ’ s attent ion wasdirected towards a pro j ected expedit ion againstSiam

,a favourite ob j ect ofthe ambit ion of many

Ofhis predecessors . I f it had no t been for this,

as i s clear enough from‘ the admiss ions ofBritishOfficials at the t ime

,i t i s c ertain that Burmese

troops,under the celebrated Bandula

,would

have advanced,and in1 the numbers which they

then had,would have gone far beyond the frontier

into the interio r of the country,for the Honour

able East Ind ia Company was qui te unable atthe time to muster enough troops to resis t an

invasion . I t does no t appear that the S iamcampaign had the results ' which the Kingexpected of i t . The King ofCochin -China wasto have co -operated with his b rother of Ava ’ sforces

,but noth ing result ed

,for the frontie rs of

the two kingdoms remained the same as beforewhen

,in 1 8 2 5 , the rup ture came about be tween

Burma and Brit i sh India .

A s we have seen,the Burmese had shown

thei r j ealousy and irri tat ion by several act s ofprovocation

,indi rect in the case ofArakan and

frankly host il e in the case ofAssam . The nextstep came in September

,1 8 2 3 , when a body

of thei r troops,about a thousand strong

forcib le possess ion of the i sland of Shapuri, at

the mouth of the NafRiver,the most southerly

po int of the Brit i sh province of Chittagong .

Some sepo ys were ki lled and wounded in thisaffair . The Burmese maintained that they hadent ire sovereignty over the mo uth of the NafRiver and therefore Of the i s land, and probablybel ieved that they had right on their s ide . Theywere sat isfied

,at any rat e

,with the expuls ion

of the sepoy guard and pro ceeded to hoist theirflag and then left the i sland . Brit ish t roops proceeded to reoccupy the i sland in the month ofNovember following ; explanations were demanded and negot iat ions pro posed for the definitedelimitat ion of the front ier . In January, 1 8 24,

by as sault,and Rangoon fe l l immediately in to

the hands ofthe Engl ish .

Nevertheles s,the state of the Brit i sh troops

was p it iab le Neither meat nor vegetable swere to b e had in Rangoon

,and eve ryth ing

had to be brought from Bengal o r Madras .

Moreover , the rains had set in,and s icknes s

broke out among the soldiery to such an extentthat the camp hosp ita l s were crowded with s ick

who could not be at tended to,because bo th the

medical staffand the medicine s were inadequateWhile S ir Archibald Campbell occupied Ran

goon , Colone l Godwin took pos sess ion of

Martaban,Tavoy

,and Mergui

,and Lieutenant

Colonel Mallett entered Pegu .

At the beginning of 1 8 2 5 the Burmese t roopswere driven from Assam

,Manipur

,Cachar

and Arakan ; and Pegu , Martaban , Tavoy, andMergui were in the hands of the Engl ish .

Nevertheles s the Court of A va would not g iveway

,and S ir Archibald Campbel l marched upon

Toungoo,Prome

,and Pagan

,and it was not

t i l l he reached Yandahu,four days ’ march from

Ava,that the King decided to accept the pro

po sals of the Br it i sh Envoys . On the 2 4th

February,

1 8 2 6,a treaty was s igned and an

immediate payment of twenty -five thousand goldrupees was made A detachment was left inRangoon to hold it unt i l the payment of the war

Early H istory of Burma

indemnity , which mounted up to a mi l lion rupees .

Arakan , Assam ,Cachar

,Manipur fel l to the

Brit ish , as wel l as Tavoy , Tenasser im ,Mergui

and Maulmein. The Brit ish los ses in men andmoney were cons iderab le . The expedition costfive mil l ions sterl ing

,and sickness proved far

more deadly than the bullet s ofthe enemy . Thetotal number oft roops who landed after the fi rstact ion in Rangoon was men

,without count

ing the Offi cers . The reinforcement s that weresent came to about the same total . Out ofthese

died,and of these only 1 5 0 were ki l led

in act ion . Out of 1 5 0 Officers , 1 6 fel l in act ionand 4 5 died of disease . The losses in Arakanwere espec ial ly severe . The 44th and 5 4th

Regiments lo st 5 9 5 men out of a st rength ofin the Space of eight months .

The Brit ish Government did not send a Res ident to A va t i l l four years after the Treaty ofYandahu . I n 1 8 3 0 Major Burney was deputedto be permanent Envoy at the Burmese cap ital .H is dutie s were to open out postal communicationwith the newly acquired provinces ofArakan andTenas serim to hasten the payment of the indemnity due from the Burmese ; to encourageBrit ish t rade ; to watch the Burmese Government

,and col lect a ll manner ofinformat ion about

the Court . He was al so instructed to ask theBurmese wha t sum they were prepared to g ive

for the retroces s ion ofTenas serim . The Councilof D irectors of the East I ndia Company lookedupon this territory as ofno value to them .

Major Burney arrived in Ava on the 2 3 rd

April,and was so i l l - rece ived that on the 1 7th

Of May he demanded to be suppl ied with boat sto enab le him to leave the capital . However

there was an improvement in the relat ion s,and

on the 1 7th June , 1 8 3 0 ,he was received in

audience by the King,and gradual ly amicable

relat ions grew up between him and the Court .

The Burmese certa inly st rove to Obtain a post

ponement ofthe payment ofthe indemnity ; theyraised quest ion after quest ion in the matter ofthedel imitat ion ofMartaban and Maulmein they didthe ir best to get r id of the permanent res idence ofa Brit i sh officer

,and maintained that an embassy

every ten years would be enough to meet therequ irements of the s ituat ion . They even wentto the length of sending a specia l miss ion toCalcutta to set forth their v iews

,but they met

with no success .

On the 2 2nd April , 1 8 3 2 , Major Burney fel li l l and had to leave Ava . He l eft Mr . Blunde llin charge un t i l O ctober , when that gent leman wasreplaced by Captain MacFarquhar , who in histurn fel l i l l and had to leave in September, 1 8 3 3 .

H e was succeeded in November by MajorBurney, who had recovered his health and took

Ear ly H isto ry ofBurma

up his old post . During thi s period there weredisturbances at the Court of Amarapura

,whither

the Burmese capital had been moved,and the

Tharawadi prince deposed his brother B agy idaw ,

who had become mental ly affected,and assumed

the throne himself .

I n 1 8 3 8 the Government of India sentColonel Benson to be Res ident . He broughtvery valuab le present s for the King with him .

King Tharawadi had,however

,b lunt ly to ld Major

Burney tha t he was perfect ly determined toreceive no representat ive of the GovernorGeneral

,and that he did not consider himself

as in any way bound by the Treaty concludedwith his brother

,the deposed B agy idaw .

Thus it happened that though Colonel Bensonreached Rangoon in July

,i t was not t il l the end

ofAugust that he was ab le to get boats to takehim up the river along with Captain MacLeod

his assi stant . I n addition to thi s,the two officers

were treated with no considerat ion during thejourney to Amarapura . At Prome

,Colonel

Benson even rece ived an int imation that i t wasuseless for h im to come any farther . I n spit eof this

,and in sp ite of al l the advice that was

given him,he went on to Amarapura

,and was

there ass igned,as a res idence , a half- inundated

house standing on a sandbank , and was forb idden to have any communi cat ions with the

town . More than this,the populat ion were

direct ly ordered to have no re lat ions whateverwith the Envoy and his fol lowers . The Kingannounced that he would not receive h im,

because he refused to recognize the Treaty of

Yandahu,s igned by his brother

,but said he

did not mind tolerat ing his presence at Amarapura as a s imple private individua l . After vainefforts to carry out h i s miss ion

,Colonel Benson

had to leave the capital,but he left behind

Captain MacL'

eOd to occupy the Res idency .

I n 1 8 4 1 Tharawadi went to Rangoon with alarge ret inue and a cons iderab le body of t roops .

The Brit ish Government had been kept ful lyinformed as to the views and ideas of theusurper and of his dec lared intent ion not to con

s ider himself as bound by the Treaty ofYandabu .

The troops on the Arakan and Tenasser imfrontiers were therefore re inforced . But in spiteof his rhodomontade Tharawadi had a vividrecol lect ion of the vain s t ruggle s of the Burmese against the troop s ofS ir Archibald Campbel l

,and he was too c lear - S ighted to attempt

again to measure arms with the Brit i sh troops .

S o after stay ing some t ime in Rangoon , wherehe repaired and embel l ished the Shwe DagonPagoda

,bes ides hav ing a big bel l cas t for i t

tranquil ly went back to his cap ita l . The lastyear s of his l i fe were c louded by madness and

insane cruelty .IHis savagery was so gr eat that

his son,the Pr ince of Prome

,had him confined

but Tharawadi escaped and the Prince had tofly to the Shan States . However

,the King soon

became absolutely demented,and another 5 011

the Pr ince of Tarokmaw,again had Tharawadi

put under restraint,and thi s t ime he remained

pract ical ly a prisoner unt i l h is death,in 1 8 46 .

His brother B agy idaw,whom he had dethroned

went to his grave only one year earl ie r .

tH is e ldest son,the Pagan Prince

,procla imed

himself hi s successor,and to r id himself of al l

r ivals he caused his two b rothers and al l theirhouseholds to be put to death . There wereseveral hundreds of them .

The new King had not the mental capacity of

his father . He was even want ing in the mostordinary intel l igence

,and cared for nothing but

mains of cocks,games

,and infant i le amuse

ments,and he left the re ins of state to two

Mussulmans . These two managed affairs in sucha way that they soon raised the whole countryagainst them

,and Pagan Min was forced to have

them beheaded .

V I .IWhile al l these incident s were happening

in Amarapura,the various governors of provinces

faithful ly followed the example of their masters .

As long as he l ived King Tharawadi had steadi lymaintained that treat ies concluded with hi s pre

Burma under B ritish Ru le

deces so rs had no b inding force on him . Consequently the Governors of Pegu

,one after the

other,from 1 8 3 7 onwards , levied cont inual exac

t ions on Brit i sh t raders . Year after year com

plain t after complaint went to the Governmentof I ndia

,which appeared to take no not ice of

them whatever . As a matter of fact,there was

no Res ident at Amarapura,and no Agent in

Rangoon to suppo rt these pet it ion s . However,

in 1 8 5 1 , two part icularly grave'

cases werereported . They were laid before Lord Dalhousiehimself , and he did not hes itate to take vigorousact ion .

The Governor at Rangoon at this t ime wasa man named Maung Ok . He had beenappo inted in 1 8 46, and he was notorious forhis exactions and his cruelty

,not merely towards

Europeans but towards Burmans also .

I n july , 1 8 5 1 , Sheppard , a Brit ish sub j ectand master of the Brit i sh ship Monarch , wasarrested by the Burmese pol ice and taken beforeMaung Ok

,who threw him into prison for a

cr ime which he had not commit ted— the murderof his pilot . Sheppard was not released unt i lheavy bail had been furnished by his friends .

Einally he was ordered to pay a fine of

R s . 4 1 0 . Sheppard was then arrested asecond t ime on a false accusat ion by theorder of the Governor . H e was acqu it ted

Rs . 2 00 . Lewis set Off to Calcutta to lodgehis complaint agains t the Burmese Government .

sWhen Lord Dalhousie heard the detail s hegave immediate instruct ions to CommodoreLambert

,then in Cal cu t ta

,t o proceed to

Rangoon in H .M . S . Fox,along with the

S erpent and the Hermes,fo llowed imme

diately by the two steamers Tenasserim andP roserpine ,

to which was added the Phlegethon.

The inst ructions g iven t o the Commodore wereto address a note to the Gove rnor ofRangoon

giving a brief summary of the two complaint s,

point ing ou t that they const ituted a grave infract ion of the t reaty exi st ing between Burmaand Great B ritain

,that the lat ter Power coul d

not disregard such defiance oft reat ie s,and finall y

demanding a money indemnity fo r the two shipmasters

,Sheppard and Lewis .

In the event of the Governor of Rangoonrefus ing to comply

,the Commodore was t o

dispat ch to the Amarapura Court a lette r fromthe Governor -Genera l of I ndia ; but he wasinst ructed on no account to begin host i l it iesbefore he received definite orders from Cal cu tta .

The let ter of the Gove rnor -General to theKing of Burma was dated the 1 7th November,1 8 5 1 , and insisted on the recall of Maung Ok

the Governor of Rangoon , unless he compl ied

wi th the Brit i sh demands . NVhen the l itt l e56

squadron arr ived in Rangoon , Maung Ok sentMr . Spears , a res ident in Rangoon , to ask themeaning of th is vis i t . He was told that theCommodo re was instru cted to hand Maung Oka letter , is sued by the Governor -General of

India , and tha t he requested that a date shouldbe fixed for the del ivery of this letter . WhenMaung Ok heard this he i ssued an order thatno Europeans were to have communicat ionswith the Brit ish ships under pain of death

be fixed a day for the reception of the Commodo re . This was to be at the offi ce of the

Customs House,and not at hi s re sidence

,which

was too far away,two miles from the river

he would come himsel f to rece ive the lette rBefore the day fixed the Brit ish residents of

Rangoon addressed a pet it ion to the Commodore,

sett ing forth their various grievances,and the

night before the date fixed Maung Ok announcedthat the meet ing was after all t o be at his own

house . He had resolved to se ize the personsof the offi cers who brought the Calcutta let terand to hold them as hostages for the depart ureof the squadron from Burma waters . Commodore Lambert go t wind of this scheme andbroke off al l re lat ions with Maung Ok . He

sent off the Governor -General ’ s l etter to Amarapura and int imated that a reply must be re ce ivedin thirty-five days .

The reply duly came within the spe cified t ime,

and the Court announced that the Governor ofRangoon was to be removed

,and promised

favourable cons iderat ion of the cases ofMessrs .

Sheppard and Lewis . Everything thereforeseemed to be going on well

,and both the

Commodore and the Gove rnor -General lookedfor a sat i sfacto ry end to the case .

But the Court ofAmarapura,in spite of the

lesson it had al ready had,was resolved to t ry

again the arb itrament ofarms with the English .

The new Governor of Rangoon,Maung MOn

arrived there with thi rty thousand men at hisback

,and at the same t ime Maung Nyo

twenty thousand men,occupied Bassein

,while

twenty thousand more,under Maung Pwa

marched on Martaban . Meanwhile Lord Dalhous ie

,in order to be ready fo r any eventual it y ,

gave orders to the Commodore to blockadeRangoon if the demands made were no t com

pl ied with . The new Governor,Maung MOn

had announced that he would carry out thepol icy of his predecesso r in everything . He didnot inform the Commodore of his assumpt ionofoffice , and he menaced with the death penaltyany European who had communicat ion with theB rit ish squadron . This could no t be left nunoticed

,and the B r i t i sh took advantage of the

absurdly hostile att itude of the Burmese . Com

modo re Lambert began by sending a deputat ionto the Governor

,under the orders of Com

mandant Fishbourne and Captain Latter . Thedeputat ion numbered fi fty men

,and was on all

po ints in accordance w i th Art icl e V I I . of theTrea ty ofYandabu . Not onl y did no one receivethe party

,but after i t had been made to wait

in the blazing heat of the sun,before the

Governor ’ s palace,a message was sent asking

it to go away because the Go vernor was asleep .

Upon thi s the Commodore declared theb lockade of the port of Rangoon , se ized aRoyal warboat which was l ying in the river , andcleared h is ships for act ion . All the river fort swere destroved

,the Brit ish t raders left Rangoon

and went on board the warships , and CommodoreLambert went to Calcutta to give an exactaccount of what had been done and to receivenew inst ru ct ions . Lord Dalhous ie st il l hopedfor an amicab le set tl ement

,and while he rein

forced the garrisons of Martaban and Tenasserim

,at the same t ime sent another let ter to

the Burmese Government . The Court , on i t spart

,wanted to gain t ime

,and whil e Commo

dore Lambert was actually in Calcutta sent alet ter of complaint to the Governor -General ,alleging that the Brit ish offi cers were alonerespons ibl e for al l the regrettab le things thathad happened .

ord Dalhousie reso lved t o send troops to

Rangoon , but at the same t ime he gave theKing an Opportunity

,i f he had been will ing to

take i t,

of avoiding the war . On the1 8 1h February

,1 8 5 2 ,

he sent h is las tmemorandum in somewhat these terms

I t st il l depends on your Ma j esty to avert theevil s ofwar ; but to do thi s i t i s neces sary com

pletely to disavow the act ions ofyour servant s inRangoon , and to sati s fy the fo ll owing claims of

my GovernmentYour Ma j esty wi ll b e pleased to disavow

the proceedings of the Governor of Rangoon,

and will expres s,through your Ministers

regret to Captain Fishboume and the officerswho accompanied him when they were insu l tedin Rangoon on the 61h January last .

I n sat i sfact ion of the claims of MessrsSheppard and Lewis

,a s compen sat ion for the

losses susta ined by the B rit i sh re s ident s of

Rangoon,in cons iderat ion of the expenditure

of the Government of I ndia unde r the possibility of the outbreak ofwar

,your Maj es ty wil l

pay the sum ofone mill ion rupees to the Govemment of I ndia .

Your Ma j esty wi ll g ive to the Governor

of Rangoon the neces sary orders to enab l e aB r it i sh Agent t o b e rece ived and treated withrespect by the Burmese authorit ies in Rangoon ,

Early H istory ofBurma

conformab ly to Ar t i cle V I I . of the Treaty ofYandahu .

The pr esent Governor of Rangoon must bereplaced . All relat ions wi th him have be comeimpo s s ib le .

I f your Ma j esty accepts these condit ion s andif they are complied with before the I st April

al l hos t i le demonstrat ion s will cea se ,peace wil l

be restored,and your Royal boat wil l b e returned .

I f, on the o ther hand , these condit ions arenot accepted and if your Maj es ty cont inues totrifle with the repre sentat ions ofmy Gove rnment

I sha ll have no al ternative before me but war .

N o Burmese K ing had ever before receiveds o pla in -spoken a letter . The amazement andthe fury of the Court were exceedingly great .

In spite of this,they were no t yet convinced

tha t Great B ritain meant war . The Cou rt hada llowed i t s el f to be pe rsuaded by the Americanmiss ionaries and by the Arm en ian S arkies thatthe Government of India was ruined by the fi rs twar in 1 8 2 5 , and that it would not venture againto send an expedit ion to Rangoon . Fo r th isreason the preparat ions for res i stance werest eadily hurr ied on in order to be ready fo r a

poss ib le attack . There were,however , grave

doubts whether this attack would be carried out .

They thought tha t the Engl ish talked veryb ravely

,but would not back up their words with

cannon -balls .

Lord Dalhous ie,on his S ide

,had not wa i ted

for the King ’ s reply to prepare fo r the st ruggle,

and everything was seen to so that ho st i l it iesmight commence on the l st April When hefound that the Court sent no reply to his l etter

and instead of replying was making ready toresi st

,he gave orders that host i l it ie s were to

begin on the 5 th Apri l . General Godwin,who

had already seen service in Bu rma as an officerin the las t war

,was put in command . He was

given plenary powers,and was inst ructed before

commencing host i l i t ies to sat i sfy himself tha tthere was no let ter for Lord Dalhousie fromthe King

,and that his Maj esty had not accepted

the condit ions la id before him .

No reply came within the pres cribed t ime,and

host i l i t ies were begun by the capture ofMartaban

,which was taken very eas ily by a

force of fo urteen hundred bayonets,protected

and assisted by the fi re of the ships of war .

General Godwin left a garrison in pos ses s ionand went with the ships to Rangoo n

,where al l

the po s i t ions hel d by the Burmese were bombarded and destroyed one after the o ther .

The troops landed on the 1 2th April,and

after three days ’ fight ing captured al l theBurmese defence s . They suffered ser iously fromthe heat . Major Oakes died of sunstroke . MajorGriffith met with the same fate and fel l dead

of Prome and Pe gu the Go ve rnor -General cons idered that the t ime had arrived to announce.

the annexation of the province to the B rit ishEmpire . On the 3 rd December he appointedCaptain Phayre (afterwards General S ir ArthurPhayre ) Civil Commiss ioner , and gave himpowers , in con j unction with General Godwin andCommodore Lambert

,to enter into negot iat ions

with the King of Burma . At the same t imehe gave him a l ette r to be dispatched to the

King,as wel l as a proclamat ion to be i ssued to

the peopl e at whatever t ime seemed to be mostopportune .

The proc lamat ion was quite short Thegrievances of the Brit i sh Gove rnment were setforth

,and then i t was announced that the

Province of Pegu,with Rangoon

,Prome

Martaban,had become Briti sh t erritory

,and that

any Burmese t roops which might st il l be ins idethese l imits were to withdraw forthwith . Th e

draft Treaty with Burma contained four.Art iclesI . There is to b e perpetual peace [ the common

formula ] between the two nat ionsI I . The Province of Peg-u to be ceded to Great

B ritainIII . Trade and commerce to be free ;IV . Rat ificat ion to take place immediately . ( I f

this were not agr ee d to ,and ifthe Court remained64

Early H istory of Burma

host il e,the war was to be cont inued unt il the

compl ete overthrow of the kingdom . )The proclamation was issued on the

2 0th December,

1 8 5 2 .

Meanwhil e a Palace revolut ion took place inAmarapura

,and the Mindon Prince was pro

claimed King . He neve r s igned the Treatywhich ceded the Province of Pegu to theEnglish

,but he took care not to disturb

them in the occupat ion of i t , and on the1 1th February Brigadier -General S teel tookpossess ion of Toungoo

,the northernmost po int

of the new Briti sh province on the border of

what remained of Independent Burma .

Thus,l it tle by litt l e

,Brit i sh I ndia expanded

towards the East . In the space of thirty yearsit had added Assam

,Manipur

,Tenasserim

Maulmein,Martaban

,and Rangoon . I t domi

mated al l the sea coast from Cal cutta to S ingapo re . I t was absolute mist res s Of the sea from thePers ian Gul f as far as Sumatra . What did itmat ter that there was left in the interior ofBurma

,on the upper waters Of the I rrawaddy

a pious -minded King,who was wrapped up

in his white el ephants and his Buddhist i c books,

and who wanted nothing more than to b e leftat pe ace in the new capital which he had buil thimsel f and cal led Mandalay ?

CHAPTER I I

LA ST YEA R S OF N AT IVE RULE

I. Reign of MindOn. II. Death of MindOn. III. The

Bombay-Burma Corporation inc ident . IV . Englandcontemp lates annexation. V . French interludes—Finalannexat ion and pacification. V I. The French and thePortuguese in Burma.

I . THROUGHOUT the re ign ofKing MindOn relat ions between B ritain and Burma were quitecordial ( 1 8 5 2 The King was an eminently peace - loving person , and was thoroughlydevoted to Buddhis tic good works . H e did hisbest to keep peace with his neighbours

throughout h is reign Brit i sh Envoys andmerchants were welcomed at the Court and whatremained of Independent Burma . Although hisreign was not free from Court intrigues and theassass inat ions which were so frequent in thet imes ofhis predecessors

,the pe ople loved King

MindOn on account of the rel igious fest ivalswhich he celeb rated with quite unusual pomp .

Moreover,he gave abundan t alms to the monks

Last Years ofN ative Ru le

with great regu lar i ty, and was quit e a no tab l eBuddhis t .The twenty -s ix years of hi s reign were a

period of t ranqui l l i ty such as Upper Burma hadnot known for long years . I t was al so a periodof Brit ish commerc ial development , carried on

with the most complete confidence .

I I . This state of affairs was not dest ined tooutlast the reign of King MindOn. When hedied

,in 1 8 7 8 ,

no successor had been named ,and there were severa l princes who might becons idered to have the right t o succeed . Asthe result of a plot organized by one of thequeens

,Prince Thibaw was cho sen by the

Great Counci l,and he ascended the throne a

few days after his e lect ion,which had been

decided on when King MindOn’

s stat e becamehopeles s . Prince Thibaw was a pe rson of nogreat power of will

,but the Queen who had

thrust him on the throne had plenty of idea sand abundant energy . She had married herdaughter

,the S upaya- lat

,t o Thibaw . The gi rl

was a s shrewd and as unscrupulous as hermother

,and the dowager -Queen was convinced

that she would be the rea l ruler of the country .

She had left her daughter out of her calculat ions . The S upaya-lat—which is a t it le

,not a

name , and means the middle princes s —wasc lever, cruel , and arb itrar y . She began the

scheme of ge tt ing rid of the other princes and

the ir famil ies,so as to have no more possible

obstacles in her way . In February,1 8 7 9 , there

fore,she had a ll the princes who were brothers

of the King put to death,and with them forty

other persons . I t was 1 8 8 4 ,however

,before

she was able to carry out all her intendedexecut ions . She took advantage of the presenceat Pondicherry of the My ingOn Prince , who ,according to Western ideas of right s of success ion

,was the legit imate hei r

,as e ldest son of

King Mindon,to accuse a great number of

persons about the Court,as wel l as actual

offic ials,of carrying on negotiat ions with h im

with a view of putt ing him on the throne ofBurma . The unfortunates were cast into jail .There was a pretence of sett ing half of themfree

,but the soldiery were wait ing at the pri son

or the palace gates,to murder them . The rest

were burnt al ive in the prison itself . Besidesthese v ict ims

,al l ofwhom were members of the

Royal Family o r of the rul ing clas ses,great

numbers of others were put to death . Therewas such a massacre at Mandalay that even theBurmese themselve s were fi l l ed with horror .

Erom that t ime on there were throughout a l lthe kingdom s igns of disaffect ion against theKing

,and the Brit ish bega n to consider whether

i t was poss ib le to endure a neighbour who was

so cruel and so unpopular .

sat i sfactory,and was

,in fac t

,a flat defiance

the ext inct ion of the kingdom of Burma wasdecided on by the Governor -General in Council .

IV . The disappearance of what rema ined Of

I ndependent Burma had been contemplated forsome years by the Brit i sh authorit ie s

,and the

quarre l over the quest ion of the Bombay -BurmaCorporat ion cont ract was merely a pretext . Thereal reason why Great Britain wanted to annexUppe r Burma was this : I n March

,1 8 8 2

offic ia l mis s ion le ft Mandalay for Pari s,with the

Obj ec t of enter ing into a t reaty with the FrenchRepublic . S ix H igh Court officials compo sedthe mis s ion

,and went to France furni shed with

plenary powers and with a large supply Of

present s fo r the Pre s ident of the Repub lic . Thismiss ion was not regarded with any favour bythe Brit ish

,al l the more because there were

already a number of Frenchmen sett led in theBurmese capita l

,holding posts as engineers

financial advisers,s i lk -workers

,heads of the

police,mili tary inst ructors

,and so forth . From

the t ime of this miss ion on i t i s evident thatthe Anglo - I ndian Government made up its mindto annex Burma in order to get r id of al lforeign influences . All i t did was to b ide it st ime and to choose it s own moment

,and thi s

was furn ished when the Bombay -Burma TradingCorporat ion quest ion arose . I n addition to other

Last Years ofNative Ru le

reasons , moreover , a French consular agent hadarr ived in Mandalay in June

,1 8 8 5 . He was

animated by quite exce llent intentions,but had

too b lundering an act iv ity . He proposed toKing Thibaw the estab l i shment of a FrancoBurmese Bank

,the construct ion of rai lways

even suggested a French Protectorate . Thesepro jec ts

,and a good many others l ike them ,

gotto the ears of Lord Dufferin

,who was then

Viceroy of India,and notwithstanding the serious

difficult ies there then were on the Afghanfrontie r

,he did not hes itate to send the ult imatum

summarized above The expedit ion proved amere promenade

,and the Brit ish troops arrived

in Mandalay on the 2 8th November,

1 8 8 5 .

Genera l Prendergast and Colonel S laden enteredthe palace by the east gat e and secured theperson of King Thibaw without any resi s tance .

The King,with his two wives and h is l itt l e

daughter,were sent to Rangoon

,whence they

were shipped to India,and st i l l remain there at

Ratnagiri .V . The idea of the French agent in Mandalay

to make Upper Burma an annexe of FrenchIndo -China was c learly the idea of a patriot

and for this he deserves praise . At the samet ime

,t o carry out such an enterpri se called for

great discret ion and for a st i l l greater ab i l i t y .

But, grant ing that he had been succe ssful , of

what use would this Protectorate have been toFrance , except to c reate very cons iderableanxiet ies and no reasonable result s ? What couldFrance have done with a count ry into which shecould only penetrat e through the Shan -Lao

States,while the Engli sh held the whole coast

l ine ? I t would have been absolute folly toenter on an adventure of this kind and to makea short story of i t

,the French agent

,with the

most laudable poss ible intent ions,did no more

than hurry up matters for the Brit i sh and hastenthe annexat ion ofwhat was left of the Kingdomof Burma .

The Treaty which he had signed with the Kingwas immediate ly made known to the Engli shthrough the zeal of the Consular Agent of

another Power,t o whom the French agent l ight

heartedly communicated his views . I t inc ludedthe fol lowing po intsA ra i lway was to be const ructed from

Mandalay to Toungoo,on the B rit ish frontie r

at the expense of the Government ofthe Repub licand of a company which would be fo rmed fo rthe purpose . The capita l was to be two anda half mill ion pounds sterl ing . The l ine wasto be complet ed in seven years and the con

cess ion was to be made out fo r seventy years,

after which it was to be handed over t o the

Burmese Government . I nteres t was to be under72

Last Years ofNative Ru le

the guarantee of the River Customs and theroyalty on earth -oil .The second scheme was the estab l ishment of

a Franco -Burmese Bank .

The loan was to be i ssued to the King ofBurma at the rate of 1 2 per cent . a year .

O ther subscribers would pay 1 8 per cent .

The Bank was to make a paper is sue and tohave the contro l of the ruby -mines and the teamonopoly . I t was to be under the managementof a Franco -Burmese syndicate .

The Thangyet Wundank,an Offic ia l who spoke

French fluent ly,was t o carry the draft to Paris .

As soon as the Brit i sh Government was assuredof the real existence ofthi s scheme

,Lord Lyons

was instructed to ask jules Ferry for informat ion .

jules Ferry repl ied in substance that the BurmeseGovernment wanted to throw itself into the armsof France

,but that the Government of the

Repub l i c had turned a deaf ear to a ll its proposals . I t was on th is announcement

,and in

order to avoid further s imilar attempts on thepart ofKing Thibaw

,that the V iceroy made up

his mind definite ly to annex Upper Burma . TheBombay -Burma affa ir was a convenient pretext

and it was on thi s ground that the move was made .

But though the annexat ion was rapidlyeffected

,the disarmament of the soldiery raised

to defend their King. and the pacification of the73

country were very long drawn out, and it canhardly be said that the count ry was t ranquill izedeven in 1 8 8 9 . Former princes , o r high offi cials ,put themse lves at the head of armed bands ,which disputed the ground foot by foot with theEngl ish

,and for three years a merc i le ss war of

ambuscades cont inued to go on. ( In 1 8 8 5 the

number of t roops sent to Upper Burma wasfourteen thousand men . I n December

,1 8 8 6

i t had risen t o twent y -five thousand . Thecharacter ofthe j ungle through which the troo pshad to force a way ; the want Of roads andofmeans of communicat ion ; the c l imate , mostof al l

,which was somet imes deadly and always

unfavourab le and exhaust ing,made it nece ssary

to have a cons iderab le force in the field . TheBurm ese had a great advantage on their s ide inthe j ungle -fighting ,

and it was there that theB rit ish soldier suffered

,but the climate claimed

more men than the enemy ’ s bul let s . ) To re inforce the t roops it was necessary to create abody of Military Po l ice

,who rendered great

service . But pacification was not achieved without great efforts and the lo ss of many l ives .

The march on Mandalay was a mere mil ita rypromenade

,a sort of improved war manoeuvres

compared with the arduous struggles that fo llowed . I t was marching day and night throughdense jung le where paths had constant ly t o be

CHAPTER I I I

THE RA CE S OF B URMA

I. The d i fferent races wh ich inhabit Burma—The Burmese

II. T he A rakanese . III. The Talaings . IV . The hfe of

the people : birth,marriage ,

death,houses

,theatres

and games—Fami ly l ife . V . T he Kayin” o r KarensVI. The Shans

,or Tai. VII. The Kach ins

,the Ch ins

and other races—Total ofthe popu lation.

I . AT the present day,therefore

,the Burmese

Kingdom is a Brit i sh possess ion,and nothing

remains of the o ld state of affai rs,except the

exi led King Thibaw,who is a prisoner far from

his home . Before beginning the study of

Burma as it i s under the Brit i sh administ ration,

i t wi l l be useful to cons ider the different raceswho

,along with the Burmese

,inhab it this part

of the Empire of I ndia .

There can be no doub t that the Burmese havea Tibeto -Tartar o rigin . I f the old annals of

the kingdom are to be bel ieved,bands of immi

grants,who had come down from the H imalayas

and had estab l i shed themselves in the countrybetween the foot of these mountains and the

Ganges , were driven out, somewhere about the

The Races ofBurma

fi fth cen tury before Chr ist,by an Indian pr ince

and came to sett le in the val ley ofthe I rrawaddy,

where they founded the c ity of Tagaung,whose

ruins are st i l l to be seen on the eastern bank of

the r iver,about fi fty ki lometres ( thirty -one miles )

north ofMandalay . These immigrants who camedown from the H imalayas and were driven overto Burma would seem certa inly to be theTibetans

,and as soon as they sett led down they

founded Burma (B A MA ) . The features of thepresent -day Burmans are very like those of theTibetans . There are very great l inguist icdifferences now

,nevertheless

,a consider

ab le number Of the wo rds have retained thesame sound and the same meaning as thosewhich correspond with them in Tibetan

,and the

formation of sentences i s the same . TheBurmese as a race are quite attract ive - looking .

They have sturdy and well -knit figures . Theirl imbs are shapely

,but are perhaps a l i tt le too

sho rt . Both sexes have an abundance of b lackhair

,of which they are very proud . The men

bind i t up in a knot on the top of the headand cover i t with a piece of si lk which theycal l a gaang -baang . The women make i t upinto a chignon and do no t cover the head

st ick a flower in their t resses . The men regularlytattoo themse lves from the waist to the kneesin blue -b lack tracery wi th representat ions of

wild animals and repti le s of all kinds and withogres and monsters . The final result i s Oftena tangle of figures which it i s not easy to fo l lowou t . The same kind of tattoo ing i s foundamong a ll the Lao t ribes .

The Burman neither flatters nor cr inges . He

i s usual ly very l ively and overflowing wi th highSpiri ts

,ful l of banter and quizzical ity He i s

never cast down by bad luck and never overcome by abundant r iches ; somet imes he heapstogether a fortune

,but it is not a common occur

rence,for he l ives from day to day and takes

very l i tt le care for the future . He has no ideaeither of disc ip line o r of pe rseverance , but heis very whimsical and very independent . H is

character does not fi t him for r egular and permanent work

,and he wi ll even give up the

wages which are due to him if he get s t i red of

his p lace and thinks he would l ike to take upsomething e lse . He goes off without giving anynotice because it suit s him to do so . Thus

with no inc l ination fo r work o r for regular employment

,with a love of nothing but danc ing

and play -going,and above all fo r Buddhis t

meditat ive languor,he is graduall y be ing sup

planted by the Indian worker,whether he is

H indu or Mussulman,and Lower B urma has

b ecome practically a colony of Madras is andPunj ab is

,as far as labour i s concerned .

The Races ofBurma

I I . Outs ide of Burma proper there are manyother races . They were formerly dist inctfrom and host i le to one another

,but under

A laungpaya and his successors they intermingled and ass imilated and became Burmese intheir customs and their manners . The Arakanesewho inhabi t the part of the country watered bythe Koladaing ,

which enters the sea at Akyab,

the chief port on the Bay of Bengal,are the

relations of the Burmese . They have developeddifferences from them because they are separatedby a range of mountains

,which

,except at the

extreme south end of the chain,has no passes

which are easy to cross . The Arakanese wholive in the northern part of the ir country

,c los e

to Bengal,have a dist inguishing dress and even

a difference in the i r physiognomy . I t i s c learthat they have intermarried wi th the nat ives ofIndia

,and the Mongol type is very cons iderably

modified . The nose is more prominent and theeyes are less t i lted than those of the i r fel lowcountrymen of the south and in Burma proper .

Among some of them even the skin i s darker .

Nevertheles s they are clearly and indisputab lyBurmese

,though it cannot be denied that they

have been great ly influenced by their neighbourson the north . St i l l

,the Nai f River

,which is the

boundary line between Chittagong and Arakan,

is even nowadays the dividing l ine which79

separate s the Caucasian or Indian type from the

Turanian o r Burman I t may be that theNorthern Arakanese are rougher in thei r waysand more violent

,proud

,boast ful

,and vindict ive .

Their language diffe rs from Burmese only inpronunciat ion ; the words used are the same ,and there is no difference in gramm ati ca lconstruct ion .

The Chaungtha,the Khami

,and the M10 l ive

in the mountain s of Arakan . Some of theEngl ish Officers who have had cha rge of thesedi strict s have ventured the opin ion that thesetribe s

,now greatl y reduced in numbers

,are the

representat ives of the race which peopled thecountry before the Burmese occupat ion . Thismay be so

,but in any case their language and

their customs are so very l ike tho se of the Burmese that it is more l ikely that they are offshoot sfrom the main family - c lan s who have takenrefuge in the mountains

,where they became

isolated and by slow degrees developed thedifferences now obvious . Mr . St . john , an offi cerwho made a careful study of these t ribes

,thinks

that the Chaungtha have affinit ie s with theTalaings

,who held Lower Burma and

,unt il their

conquest by A laungpaya,had a very prospe rous

kingdom there .

I I I . I t i s now almost impossib le to di st ingui sh the Talaing from the Burman . According

The Races ofBurma

to many B rit i sh offi cers who have lived longamong them and have studied them

,they are

emigrants from Dravidian India,who came to

settle in Lower Burma long before the Christ ianera and founded there a kingdom with Peguas their capital . Thei r own name for themselvesi s MOn

,and though otherwise they are very l ike

the Burmese,thei r skin i s usual ly whiter . This

however,i s a character i st i c which i s not pecul iar

to them . There are many tribes,who are not

far off being savages,in the ranges of the

Mehkawng and the Salween , whose Skin i s nearly.white . Nowadays the Talaings are most ly foundin the district s of Martaban and Amherst

extend to the S iamese front ier . They soughtrefuge there after the overthrow of the kingdomof Pegu by A laungpaya in 1 7 5 7 - 8 . Even theirlanguage

,which differs complete ly from Bur

mese,was proscribed ; and though the English

authorit ie s cause Talaing to be taught in theschool s where the children are Talaings , i t mayalmost be said that the MOn language has al lbut disappeared

,al l the more because one never

finds any one among them who is not able tospeak Burmese . They may Speak Talaing

they certainly speak Burmese . Nevertheless,

there are stil l B uddhist monasteries in Amhers twhere instruct ion is given in the MOn languageand not in Burmese .

IV . I n the course of t ime,through con stant

intermingl ing,and espec ial ly perhaps because of

the identit y of thei r rel igion,the Burmese and

the Talaings,a lthough they are ofdifferent origin

and of different races,and although they long

l ived as bitter enemies,are now so complete ly

mixed that the manners and customs ofboth are

the same . The same state of things i s foundamong the Arakanese

,who are certainly

Burmese ; but s ince they were separated fromthem by the Yoma range ( ca l led Roma in Arakamese ) have taken to themselve s a litt le of thelanguage of the Ind ians and Mohammedans of

Chit tagong . I n spite of thi s,they have retained

thei r Burmese customs . I t may therefo re con

fidently be sa id that the ways ofa l l three peoplesare the same .

When a child i s born the mother i s rubbedal l over with turmeric

,and she i s kept as hot as

poss ible with fi res round about her and with hotbricks and blanket s heaped upon her per son .

Thi s i s a custom which,in any case

,i s not pecu

liarly Burmese . I t i s found equal ly in CochinChina and in the Lao provinces

,as wel l as in

S iam . When the seventh day ha s pa ssed she hasa bath and goes about her o rdinary dut i es .The child i s named about the fi fteenth day

after its b irth . Th i s i s made a regular re l igiousceremony . A monk i s cal led in

,who inscr ibes

Fo r girl s the next most important event afterthe name -giving i s the pierc ing of thei r ears .

This takes place when they are twelve or th irteen .

An astrologer calculates the lucky day and hour .

The occasion i s made a regular festival,and al l

the family friends are invited .

The rich perform the operat ion with two goldneedles e laborately encrusted with preciousstones . The poor

,even the poorest

,never use

anything but si lver needles . No other metalcan be used . When the favourable minute ha sarrived

,the profess ional ear -piercer

,o r po ssibly

only one of the family,steps forward and rapidly

passes the needles through the lobes of the ears .

The girl u sual ly s truggles and cries,but the

grown -up women of the family hold her fastby arms and legs

,and the screams are drowned

by a formidabl e orchestra of tomtoms and windinstruments . Every day afterwards the needlesare moved backwards and forwards

,and when

the wound has healed up thicker and thickerneedles are run through

,one after the other

,unti l

the real ear -cylinders can be worn . Thecharacter of their ornamentat ion depends

course,on the mean s ofthe family .

Formerly boys also had their ears pierced,but

thi s has gone out of fashion in Burma,though

it is kept up by the Shans,among whom both

sexes have huge holes through their ear -lobe s .84

The Races ofBu rma

I t has already been ment ioned that the menare tattooed . This i s usual ly done after theboy has left the monastery . I t may be notedthat thi s custom oftat tooing i s found nowhere inIndo -China except among the Burmese

people of the Lao States,and the Tai . Neither

the Tongkingese nor the Cochin -Chinese,any

more than the Chinese,are tattooed . The custom

is found again among the Malays,the pe ople of

Formosa,and the japanese . Among these there

are often to be seen cases where a man is t attooedfrom head to foot

,but thi s never occurs in Burma

or among the Tai and the Lao people . Thetattooing begins from the wai st above the hipjoint s and goes down to the knees . I n formerdays

,however

,Shan princes had some of their

bodyguard tattooed al l over,except on the palms

of the hands and the soles ofthe feet,and in any

case the Shans are often tattooed hal f -way upthe chest .Marriage is a very simple matter nowadays ,

and it i s enough for the parent s of the two

partie s to give thei r consent . The marriagefol lows immediately as a matter ofcourse . Thi swas not the way in old days

,and it often hap

pened that the young swain had to go on court ingfor three years before the marriage wasapproved . When the quest ion was sett l ed themembers of the family came to the house of the

bridegroom ’ s parents . When the favourablehour arrived the two young people were set s ideby side in front of the company . They joinedhands

,right palm to right palm . They ate and

drank together,and then the fest ive proceedings

began and la sted ti l l evening . The newlymarried couple were then conducted to the bridalchamber

,and they were showered with handful s

of rice t inted saffron -colour . Thi s custom of

throwing rice on the newly married has beenadopted by the Engl ish in Burma

,a s I have seen

on several occasion s . Rice and confett i throwing

,however

,probably began with the H indus

among whom it was customary for the bride andbridegroom to throw rice on one anotherPolygamy is al lowed

,but there are not many

Burmans who have more than one wife . A s faras divorce i s concerned

,i t presents as few diffi

culties as i t does in most of the other count rie sof the extreme East

,and i s almost without

restrict ions of any kind . Nevertheless,divorces

are not common . The Burmese woman has verygreat l iberty given to her

,and in pract ice i s

by no means cons idered an inferior being . In

the majority of cases she i s pluckier and muchharder -working than the men

,and i t i s she who

carrie s on al l the household affairs , whi le thegood man is asleep

,o r gambling, o r off to see

a play .

The Races ofBurma

When a Burman dies hi s family wash himcareful ly from head to foot

,and the body i s

wrapped up in white shrouds . I t depends uponthe custom of the family whether he i s buriedin a coffin

,as in Europe

,o r burnt on a pyre , as

is the way in India . A s far a s Buddhi sm is concerned , either way i s proper . I t i s only in Chinathat the dead are always buried and never burnt .In Japan

,a country a s Buddhist ic as China i s

there are some who bury and some who burn .

The temperament of the Burman i s most conspicuous in his amusements . I f he could he wouldspend al l his t ime at thea trica l performances

at mains of cocks o r buffalo -fights , boxingmatches

,or Burmese footbal l . The best

known ofthese divers ions i s the stage play, whichis cal led a pwe.

There are two kinds of pwe‘

. I n one the.characters are presented by real human beings

men and women . I n the other they are marionettes

,worked by s trings . The pwe is carried

on in the open air at the expense of some ri chman

,who on some domest ic occasion has hired

a wandering troupe,or has even brought one

down from Mandalay,which has the name of

producing the best players . O ften very largesums are expended to get a celebrated troupe .

Nobody pays for his seat on these occas ions,and

the whole audience is present there as the guest s87

of the giver of the fea st . All they have to do

i s to bring a bamboo mat to s i t on and cigarsto smoke .

There i s no nat ion on the face of the ea rthso crazed about the thea t re a s the Burmese .

I n Burma the ent ire populat ion i s a s l ikely to beactors as spectators

,and there i s hardly a s ing le

Burman who,some t ime o r other in hi s l i fe

not taken a pa rt in a play .

Every event in l ife,happy or unhappy

,i s cele

brated by a pwe. When the Burman i s bornhis family give a pwe, when he dies they giveanother when his name i s cho sen for him

the l it t le g i rl ’ s ea rs are pierced,when her brother

enters the monastery,when he comes out aga in ,

when he get s married,o r when he divorces hi s

wife— no matter what happen s,there i s a pwe.

Not unseldom people in anything but easy ci rcumstances load themselve s with debt in o rderto give an open -air pwe. The stage i s a veryprimitive one : a p iece of flat ground i s coveredwith matt ing and the thing i s done . Theorchest ra—fo r there i s always an orchest rasett le s down at one s ide . The guest s

,relat ions

o r friends of the giver take po ssess ion of thefront rows

,and everybody el se can squa t down

where he l ike s o r where he can find room . Fromthe t ime darkness begins to fal l young men andyoung women beg in to s tream to the appointed

the Chinese inst rument . Burmese ai rs are sometime s quite tuneful

,but European ears are rather

apt to be tortured by them because ofthe unduequantity of piercing high note s . The Burmese

l ike most of the peoples of the Far East,l ike

nothing so much as alto note s . All Europeanswho have heard thi s k ind ofmusic know howtrying i t is to us .

Boat -races,another great Burmese amuse

ment , are held in the seventh month ,Thadingyut,

at the t ime of the ful l moon,which corresponds

to ou r month of O ctober . The boat s are low inthe freeboard and very l ight . They are fromthirty to forty feet long

,and have a crew of

S ixteen to twenty . The paddlers have thei r hai rt ightly knotted on the top of thei r head

,and wear

nothing but a scanty wai st -cloth . The boat sare always paddled

,never rowed

,and they fly

along to the sound of the exc ited shout s of thepaddlers and of the enthusia st i c crowd of gai lyclad spectators . The boat s belong to the vi l lage ,or sometimes to a group of vil lages , who c lubtogether to get a boat and find a crew .

Boxing -matches,buffalo and cock -fights , the

wi ckerwork -footbal l game,kite -flying ,

chess,

and dominoe s are al l common forms of amusement . There are con j urer s to be found inBurma

,but they are far infer ior to those of India .

There are al so snake -charmers , who have cobras90

The Races ofBu rma

and hamadryads with them . The hamadryad i san extremely deadly snake of the same genusas the cobra

,but very cons iderably larger and

longer . I t i s a quest ion how it i s that the menare never bit ten

,for these creatures are very

dangerous . .Yet the snake -charmer hunt s themout

,takes them up in his hands

,and exhibit s

them forthwith,without any attempt at training .

The snakes are general ly kept for about a monthand then set free

,to be caught again lat er .

This i s done because the repti l es are very difficult to feed and look after .I t wil l thus be seen that the games and pas

t imes OfBurma do not greatl y differ from thoseof India and of I ndo -China . Even the dances

cal led nan-

pure, a sort of bal let , are exact ly thesame as in Cambodia

,and more part i cularly in

S iam , where they are cal led khon.

The Burmese,and st il l more the Talaings

very superst it ious,and never fail to consult an

astrologer when anything important i s on hand .

I f they are building a monastery,o r a house ,

or are going on a journey,an astrologer is

always called in to give his opinion . When therice harvest i s about to begin they make offeringsto the N at

,or spiri t of the fields .

Sorcerers and sorceresses are held in greatesteem and are immediately cal led in in ca sesof s ickness . The idea is that the malady comes

from some N at, who has probably been t reated

with some want of considerat ion on some occasion

,and his wrath has to be appeased .

When the S ick man i s supposed to be possessedby some evi l Spirit it i s a veritable calamity forhim

,for the sorcerer wil l take the most desperate

measures to expel the demon . H e will infl ictab solute agony on the vict im ; he beat s him,

put s pepper -water in his eyes and ears,and

tortures h im in any fashion that occurs to hismind .

Burmese doctors as a class are a l l more or

les s sorcerers and humbugs . I t i s t rue thatnowadays

,thanks to hOSpitals and medic ines

made availab le al l over Burma,the people are

beginning to get accustomed to be doctored inEuropean fashion and approve of the system .

Nevertheles s superst it ion i s so ingrained in themthat

,if they put themselve s in the hands of a

European doctor,they also cal l in one of their

impostor fel low -countrymen . I have seen manycases of the kind . The medicines in use amongBurmese doctors are usual ly various kinds of

bark,leaves

,flowers

,seeds ofplants

,and roots .

They use Op ium and hemp as sedat ives . Butthey also use some mineral specifics . Amongthese are calomel

,chloride of ammonia

,borax

nitrat e of potash , sulphur, and arsenic .

Their dres s i s very s imple . The men wear a92

mixed with pieces of the wood of the tobaccoplant , or of one ofthe eupho rbiaceze (E uphorbiaspeciosa ) ; the mixture is wrapped round with athanat l eaf (Lacordia specz

osa ) . Melted sugari s Often mixed with it . These cigars run fromtwelve to fi fteen inches long

,and the ir thick

nes s i s quite enough to fi l l the mouth of the

smoker .

The Burman also chews betel,but not to the

same extent as the Cambodians and the S iamese .

There are quite a number of young people of

both sexes who have refused to take up thehab it because i t spoil s the teeth and makes themouth hideous . I n thi s sunny cl ime man i s farfrom having to earn his daily bread by the sweatof his brow . The Burman has no des ire to heapup wealth

,and does not care to own wide lands

so that,when the rice has been sown and planted

out, there i s only one thing to be done , and thatis

,to pass the t ime as pleasant ly as may be

smoking his c igar and chewing hi s betel . He

goes to see his neighbour and has a goss ip withhim

,or he squats himself down in the house of

the vil lage wood -carver who is employed on somework for the roof of the monast ery . The localpainter may be occupied on a fr ieze represent ingsome phase in the life ofthe Buddh a, and if so heis surrounded by a band of smokers who discus sthe merit s of the product ion .

The Races ofBurma

Wandering abou t aimles s ly in thi s way, visi ting his fr iends

, o r sometimes going to themonastery to have some Buddhist thesis explained to him , and so benefi t ing his spiri tuals ide, the Burman passes his t ime without troub leand without exhaust ing himself . H is wife keepsa l itt le Shop in a corner of the house . In avil lage there i s probably not a s ingle house thathas nothing whatever to offer to a poss ib le purchaser . It may be dried fi sh

,areca -nuts

,betel

leaves,a dozen o r so coco -nuts ; o r i t may

be things imported from Europe , such as twopenny -ha ’penny knives

,smal l mirrors

,co loured

glas s,and such - l ike . But all this is a mere

excuse for meet ing somebody . There i s a greatdeal more talking than sell ing . When a womanis in earnest about sel l ing things she has a stallin the market and shows hersel f a much morecapab le business person than her husbandwould be .

The Burman has two meal s in the day breakfast at about e ight o ’ clock in the morning, anddinner at about five in the even ing . The bi l lof fare i s pract ical ly always the same . The

bas is of the meal i s r ice boi led in water withoutany seasoning . I t i s eaten mixed up with curry .

Neither forks nor spoons are used ; there are

not even the wooden chops t icks which theChinese manage so c lever ly . There are not

many Burmese who eat meat or fi sh curry,and

there are none who would venture to kil l a l ivingcreature for the sake of eat ing it : that wouldbe against the Buddhist code . The curry

,there

fore,is usual ly a kind of vegetab le soup with

a terr ib le lot of pepper and onions in i t,young

bamboo shoots,garl ic

,wild asparagus

,and a

great variety of aquatic p lant s . The poor eattamarind and mango leaves . Condiment s such aspepper and salt and oi l are always used ; butthe great spec ial i ty i s ngapi, a preparation of

ancient fi sh,which smel ls very st rong and ex

ceedingly unpleasant to European noses . NoBurman

,however

,would cons ider a meal com

plete without it .

Those who are wel l enough Off to get themselves del icacies eat a specia l kind of red antcal led Ka-

gy in,fried in oi l

,roas t to rtoi ses ,

iguana ’ s eggs,dried fi sh

,and fr ied ginger .

Only water is drunk,and that not unt i l the

meal i s finished . The latt er -day Burman, however

,has developed a taste for a lcohol

,and often

turns into some Shanty where a S ingapore Chinaman sel ls h im a glas s of detestab l e rum fromJava . Engl ish b eer i s becoming very popular .

The houses ar e most ly built of wood . Theflooring is about six feet above the ground on

so l id house posts . There is a veranda in front,

and the rooms are behind thi s . In poor people ’ s96

[7 0ka ru zes Co zlla rzda la r

A PON GYI W ITH FA N TO PLACE B EFORE HIS EYES WHEN A W'OMAN PASSES .

To face p . 97.

The Races of Burma

houses the party wal ls are made ofbamboo mats .

The rich have planks of py inkado (Xy lia dola

briformis a very hard and durable wood . Theroof is that ; but nowadays very many housesare roofed with galvanized iron .

By way of furniture they have some bamboomats on the plank floOr

,and mat s a lso often

serve for beds . For some year s now chairs andtables have come into u se

,as wel l a s lamps

and clocks . But most often and almost universally in the country the furn iture consi sts most lyof cooking -pots

,and these of the s implest pos

s ib le kind . There is a pot to cook the rice,two

or three bowls,and a few cups and tumblers .

They sleep on the plank floor,with pi l lows made

of wood o r hard cane .

All the hol idays have a rel igious origin . Themost notab le i s the end of the Lent fest ival

held on the ful l moon of October,and after it

the Fe ast of the New Year , about the middleof April . Every pagoda has its own specia lfest ival

,and the most famous are those of the

Shwe DagOn in Rangoon , the Shwe Maw -dawat Pegu

,and the Shwe San -daw at Prome

These fest ival s are al l very much al ike . Greatcrowds gather

,some people coming long dis

tances,and the assemblage is much more like

a fair than a congregat ion ofthe faithful . Thereare rows of market -stal ls , games , pure and

dancing t roupes,and the t ime is passed

,half in

sheer amusement,half in rel igious e xerci ses .

V . There is another race which has nothingin common either with the Burmese or theTalaings

,which inhabit s the hi lly country to the

east of Burma, as wel l as some of the p la in

district s,especial ly Henzada . These are the

Kayin o r Hk’

y in,whom the English cal l the

Karens . They are st i l l a very dist inct racefrom the Burmans

,who conquered them in

the t ime of A laungpaya,and who are cor

respond ingly detested by the Karens . Forthe most part they are scattered c lans

,i so lated

in the midst of the conquering race,and it

is only in the ranges east of Toungoo thatthey are found in a natural state . I t maybe assumed that the Kayin o r Karens formerlyl ived under better condit ions than they do now .

Their language i s ab so lutely different from that ofthe Burmans and the Talaings

,and has quite

a cop ious vocabulary,which enables them to

expres s nob le thought s and seems to indicate apeople of some culture . They assert that theyformerly had a written character

,and it i s

not unl ikely that they formerly had a government of their own. I t i s not so very longs ince one branch , the Kayin -ni, or RedKarens

,who l ive in the mountains

independent . According to the ir tradit ions they98

were cal led Pyu ,and the Karens down to the

present da y st il l call the Burm ese Piya.

The Karens are divided into numerous c lansof which i t i s quit e unneces sary to give a l isthere . There i s one branch only which deservesspec ia l att ent ion , that of the Kayin-mi o r RedKarens , and to them only spec ial att ention needbe drawn .

The Karen is special ly notab le fo r hi s di rt iness .

There is none among the savage mountaineersprobably who is so di sagreeable in thi s wayas the Karen . The men wear a short pa ir of

t rousers which come below the knees . Theyare red when they are new

,but in the course of

years they become a dirty black . They are heldup by a red girdle . Some of them wear ak ind of waistcoat Of a dingy hue . O thers

it might wel l b e said the vast majori ty of them ,

wear a mot ley -co loured b lanket thrown over theshoulders I n the hot weather they wearnothing The hair i s knotted on the top of thehead in Burmese fashion

as i s the case withthe Burmese , is covered by an exiguous turban .

The women wear a short pett icoat,not go ing

lower than the knees ; i t i s of a sombre co lour,but somet imes red . A piece ofblack cloth coversthe bust

,and their necks , waist s , l egs , ankles ,

and arms are loaded with cinctures and circ let sof every kind

,usual ly made of brass . S ilver

The Races ofBurma

earrings hang from the ears,which are often

dragged down by the weight of them . The ringsthat they wear j ust under the knees are often so

large that they cannot sit down without s tretchingtheir legs st raight in front of them .

Like the Shans and Tai,l ike a l l mountaineers

l ike,in fact

,al l the more o r le ss savage popula

t ions of the hil l s a long the I rrawaddy,the

Salween,and the Mehkawng ,

the Red Karenscarry spears and swords

,and formerl y never

went abroad unarmed,though now under Brit i sh

protection they have almost ent ire ly given upthe practice . They are almost without exceptionspiri t -worshippers . Even those who havebecome Buddhi st s

,through mixing with the

Burmese,keep up their o ld bel ief in the nats

and they go on making propitiatory sacrifices tothem to gain their goodw i l l

,in spit e of thei r

conversion . I t i s t rue that a s long as thei r healthremains good they do not t rouble the spiri t svery much

,but whenever there is s icknes s in

the family chickens are ki l led,and pigs

cattle,and even buffa loes a re sacrificed to

appease the anger of the nat.

Chicken -bones are precious tal i smans . TheRed Karen consul t s them to find out where heis to build hi s vi l lage or hi s house . He consult sthem before he goes on a journe y

,to ascertain

the da y and hour when he should start . He

consul ts them as to the girl he ought to marry .

He consul t s them as to the exact spot where heshould set fi re to the b ru shwood to prepare hishil l cult ivation

,and again as to when he should

sow the field . He wil l do nothing at all,in fact

before he has consulted his chicken -bones .

Nothing part icular happens in the way of ceremon ial when a chi ld is born

,beyond the fact that

relations and friends hold high revelry and drinka prodigious lot Of ri ce - spirit . As soon as themother is able to get up she goes out of thehouse

,which

,l ike those of the Burmans and

Shans,s tands on piles

,takes a mattock

,and hoes

together a l it t le mound of earth . I t does notmatter whether the child i s a boy or a gi rl

the meaning of the performance is to teach theinfant that it i s born to work for its l iv ing . I fthi s ceremony were omitted the child would becertain to grow up a wastrel .The Karens

,l ike the Chinese

,affiance their

children very early,but they have thi s advantage

over the Celest ia l s,that when the engaged

persons have reached marriageable age,they can

choose another partner,on condit ion that they

pay a certa in sum to compensat e the personchosen for them by their parent s . Divorce i sno more difficul t with them than it is with theirneighbours . It is easy enough

,but i t i s not

pract i sed as much as it i s in Erance, s t ill les s102

Bu rma under Br itish Ru le

The different t ribes and sub-t ribes of theKarens have been studied by B riti sh Offi cers insome detail . All the customs of these part ia l lysavage clans are suffi cient ly al ike to be cons idered the same

,al though among some of them

polygamy and divorce are no t al lowed,which i s

singular enough among peoples Of thi s sca le of

humanity to be worth not ing .

Nevertheless,the Red Karens are to some

extent c ivil ized and reclaimed from barbari sm .

The working of the teak forest s in thei r Stateshas brought them into communicat ion with theouts ide world

,which up ti l l then they had known

nothing about . I n addit ion to thi s,the opening

of t in -mines has given them work and added tothei r resources ; and final ly

,since the t eak trade

ha s decl ined they have taken to cult ivat ing thesoil

,with result s

,in 1 9 1 1 , which may be cal led

sat i sfactory,i f they are not excel lent . I t i s c l ea r

that the harvest might have been bet ter than itactual ly was if the ra ins had been heavier

at any rate i t was enough for loca l needs,and

the Karens,who had to borrow money in order

to start the cult ivat ion,were ab le to repay the

advances made to them . Consequentl y,their

country,which had been looked upon by Govern

ment as incapabl e of producing anything,i s in

process of amendment,and the prospect s are al l

the bett er because other mines than those actual ly104

The Races ofBurma

being worked wil l be discovered . The youngergenerat ion ofKarens have a perspect ive of pros

perity before them which must gradual ly rai setheir moral level and their materia l well -being .

V I . Lower Burma,and the pla in s of Upper

Burma as far as Mandalay and Katha , are , wehave seen

,inhabited by the Burmese

,mixed up

in Pegu,Maulmein

,and Martaban with the con

quered Talaings,and in H enzada and the hilly

country to the east wit h the Karens , al so a conquered race . But thi s does not cover al l theraces of the country . The front ier territory ofUpper Burma

,the administrat ive di st ri ct s which

march with China,Tibet

,and Assam

,are in

habited by divers races very di st inct from theBurmese . The fi rs t and the most important arethe Shans

,or Tai

,who occupy al l the Salween

heights and the hil l country up to Bhamo . Thebas in of the Salween would be the b road descript ion of the Shan country

,and the Shans are no

longer predominant in the Bhamo distr ic t . TheseTai are of exactly the same race as the Chinese Taiof Chieng Hung and el sewhere to the north , andas the Erench Tai of the Upper Lao country andof MOng H s ing

,of whom an account i s to be

found in my book La G rande A rtera de la Chine ,le Yangfseu ,

and also in Captain de R einach’

book Le Laos . Those who concern u s here,

the Shans who have been long under Burmese105

rule, have nevertheless preserved their customsand their language . They have clung to thei rhil ls , and have not intermarried to any greatextent with the Burmese . They have neverthel ess adopted the Burmese alphabet

,with some

sl ight modifications, as their written character .

These Tai or Shans formed,in the time of the

Burmese kings,a sort of colony . Representa

tives of the central power were sent to ensurethe authority of the King

,but the people were

governed by their own laws and retained theirown customs

,and they had their own chiefs

were cal led Sawbwas . This system has beenretained

,and the B rit i sh confine their authority

over the Shan States to the dispat ch of Resident s,

with power to guide and control the native chiefs .

Burma proper i s a regularly administeredprovince

,but the Shari Stat es are referred to as

the Protectorate of the Shan States,and they

are Official ly designated Tributary States .

The Shans were not always sub j ect to theBurmese

,and in the firs t century of the Christ ian

era,about the year 8 0

,thi s was so far from

being the case that they had extended their t erritories to the banks of the I rrawaddy . This Shandomination lasted for several centuries in thenorth

,and was not broken t il l the t ime of King

A nawrat‘

a in 1 0 5 2 . In spite of thi s,as a result

of the constant wars between the Burmese, the106

pretty as their Mandalay si sters . The men ’ sdress consists of baggy trousers and an exiguouscoat , often of very ornate design . There aremany of them

,however

,who wear Chinese dress

pure and simple,though only on the extreme

border of the Brit i sh Shan States . The womenwear a skirt of the sack -without -a-bottompattern

,of motley colours

,and a small jacket .

The men wear wide hat s of straw,or bamboo

spathes,and the women wind a turban round

their tresses .

When a child i s born there i s no ceremony ofany kind

,and the mother is not roasted wi th a

fire as the Burmese woman is,but she is for

b idden to eat certain things for a month afterconfinement . She is looked upon as unclean forseven days

,and before she can take up her

domest ic duties again she has to take a bath andput on new clothes .

The marriage custom s have nothing verydistinguishing about them . All the two young.

people have to do is to arrange the matter themselves and let their parents know . They agree

and then on the day arranged for the purpose thewhole family meet together in the bride ’ s house .

The bridegroom brings packets of pickled teaand sal t

,as wel l as the amount of money to be

paid to the family ofhi s future wife a s compensat ion for her loss . He lays down all of them

The Races ofBurma

before the girl ’ s father and mother and makesa formal demand fo r her hand . The parent stake the money

,and one of the elders of the

Vi l lage carries the tea and salt out into the street .There he holds them on his head and cal ls aloudto the earth

,the sky , and the sun to bear witnes s

to the marriage of the young people . He thengoes into the house again and t ies a string ofseven strand s to the right wri st of the bridegroom and to the left wrist of the bride

,and the

marriage service i s over . The bridegroom thendistributes some money among those present

the whole party sit down to eat together .

Divorce and polygamy are permissib le,but are

not common .

Shans eat everything—meat,fi sh

,rept i le .

The Shans l iving east of the Mehkawng areparti cularly part ial to snakes . They seasontheir food with al l manner of herbs

,l ike the

B urmese .

Among them the steal ing of catt le is considered the most serious of al l crimes

,and in

former times was punished with death . Themurder of a human being could always be com

pounded for by payment of R s . 3 0 0 .

Shan houses are l ike those of the Siamese andthe Lao people . They stand on pi les high abovethe ground

,and one cl imbs a ladder to get into

them . In thi s way the human beings l ive above,

Bu rma under British Ru le

and below them are their domest ic animal sbuffaloes and bullocks

,goats and pigs .

Their chief crop i s rice,but they also grow

sweet potatoes and yams,beans

,art ichokes

egg -plants . Those who live near sett lement s ofEuropeans have begun the cul t ivat ion of

European vegetables,which grow very well in

the hil l s .V I I . Among the races which inhabi t Burma

there must be enumerated al so the Kachin andChin hil lmen

,who live to the north of Mandalay

beyond Bhamo and west of PakOkku . So farthey are very partial ly c ivi l ized

,but they have

learnt some moderat ion from contact with theirneighbours

,more part icularly owing to the good

administration which has been introduced amongthem since the B rit i sh occupat ion .

I f al l the races are taken together,the popula

t ion may be taken to be ten mil lions,of whom

eight mil lions are Burmese or tribes cognate tothe Burmese .

CHAPTER IV

PHYS ICA L GEOGRA PHY

I. Lower and Upper Burma—Phys ical geography of LowerBurma. II. Topography . III. Val leys . IV . Mountains .

V . R ivers and streams . VI. Lakes . VII. Topographyand orography of Upper Burma. VIII . The ShanPlateau . IX. Phys ical d ivisions . X . Th e common

maladies of the country .

I . BURMA,s ince 1 8 8 5 , when it b ecame as a

whole a Brit ish possess io n annexed to the IndianEmpire

,from“ the point ofview of phys ical

geography,be divided into two parts

,first as

it is so divided from the pol it i cal po int of view .

These two parts are : Lower Burma,with

Rangoon as the capital,and Upper Burma

Mandalay . I wil l therefore des cribe the twoparts separate ly

,and wil l first take thei r physical

geography .

Lower Burma extends from the mo uth ofthe NafRiver

,in twenty degrees north lat itude

to the mouth of the Pak -chan,in the Malay.

Peninsula,in the tenth degree of north lat itude .

To the north l ies the Chittagong di strict,which

forms a part of the Province of Bengal . TheNaf River is onl y the boundar y - l ine near thesea . In the interior the frontier i s formed bythe Yoma range

,which the Arakanese cal l Roma .

I n about the lat itude of the town of Prome thefrontier bends to the east

,and after an elbow

to the north towards Minbin,passes through

Gyob in to the north ofToungoo and ascends theKaren hil l s . I t fo llows the crest of these hil l s

descends to the Salween,and then takes the l ine

of the Thoungy in River as far as Myawaddy .

From this po int down to the estuary of thePakchan a high range of mountains

,which

separates the Gulf of S iam from the Gulf of

Martaban and cuts the Malay Peninsula into twolong strips

,fo rms the boundary between Lower

Burma and S iamese terri tory . Everywhere tothe west and the south the waves of the Bay ofBengal form the boundary . The coas tl ine nearthe Sandoway River is cut up into numerouslow islands

,which make up a sort of network

ofestuaries and creeks communicat ing with eachother and with the sea .

From the mouth of the Sandoway River as far

as Cape Negrai s the character of the coastl inechanges

.I t takes the form of a rocky barrier ,

standing firm against the waves of the sea andaffording no safe place of retreat for vessel sin distress . From there on along the south the

mangrove swamps are a mass of soft,fetid mud

and they are cu t through by a mult itude ofcreeks , sometimes brimming over with water ,sometimes empty

,according as it is high or low

t ide . During neap tides the whole land isflooded .

South of the estuary of the Tavoy River thewhole coastl ine i s covered by almost numberlessislands

,which make up the Mergui Archipelago .

The coastl ine itsel f barely ri se s above mean sealevel , and in addit ion to thi s i s cut up by many

hil l s treams,which connec t with one another and

make it into a succes s ion of flat i slands .

I I . Four well -marked divis ions may be notedin Lower Burma .

I n the west there i s a triangle with it s apexto the south . The northern part

,or base of

the triangle,i s covered by the mass of spurs

from the Yoma range,and is watered by many

torrents,which unite and enter the sea in the

form of one or two great r ivers . To the wes tand the south there are r ich alluvial plains cut.up by many channel s . They are shut in on theeast by the Arakan mountain range

,which enters

the sea at Pagoda Point and covers both landand sea with cl iffs and rocks and makes thi scoast extremely dangerous for Ships . Thegreates t l ength of this divis ion is about fivehundred mil es and its greatest width

,on the

Physical Geography

north , i s abou t a hundred miles The lowerl evel s are considered to be among the most fert i lein the province

,and it i s from them that is

brought the rice which so many ships come toAkyab to load their holds with .

East of the Yoma are found the Val leys ofthe I rrawaddy and the S it tang

,both of them

narrow and hil l y to the north . They widen outgraduall y

,and a l it tle north ofRangoon

,at the

end of the Pegu range,which separates them ,

they unite and form one huge plain of al luvialsoil

,which extends sou thwards to the sea and

has for its boundary on the west the Arakanrange and on the eas t the Martaban hil l s .

To the nor th of the plain of Kyaikto the eastcentral portion of this d iv is ion is in many respectsvery l ike that of the northern part ofthe Arakandivision . I t is made up of the Paunglaung rangeand of o ther ridges parall e l to it

,along with

their spurs,amongst which the depre ss ions are

ravines rather than val leys,watered by hil l

torrents,which make their way to the sea by

joining the B il in and Yonzaleen Rivers . Allthis part of the country is covered by denseforests

,and is inhab ited by only a few Karens

who cult ivate only to a very small extent .

To the extreme east there is a ribbon of terr itory

,bordered by the Salween and the Dawna

Mountains . I t is mostly flat land to the north,

but the southern hal f is covered with denseforests . I n the lat itude of Maulme in it s widthi s about fifty - four mile s . To this may be addedthe Mergui Archipelago

,a mul titude of i s lands

extending from the mouth of the Tavoy Riverto the southernmost part of the province . Theseislands are almost al l hil ly and are covered fromtop to bottom with evergreen trees . The sceneryi s at once charming and magnificent .

I I I . The part of the I rrawaddy Val ley inLower Burma extends from Prome down to thesea . I n the north and for a distance of something l ike 1 3 0 miles to the southward Spursfrom the Arakan Yomas run down to thebanks of the I rrawaddy . Away from the streamthey are usual ly s teep

,but on the I rrawaddy

they often loo k mere hil locks,from three to s ix

hundred feet high,as , for example , at Gyob in

taung and Tun -gyi -taung As a consequenceof th is there is very l it t l e cu lt ivated land . EastOf the I rrawaddy the country i s mountainousand covered with j ungle . But s ixt y miles o r

S O to the south the hil l s draw back from theriver

,and below Prome there is a magnifi cen t

wide cul tivated plain running sou thwards betweenthe Pegu hil l s on the east and another rangeof low hil l s parallel to the I rrawaddy

,ins ide

which there is al so a cul tivab le pla in .

Below Akauktaung b egins the Delta,which

Burma under Br itish Ru le

the Bay of B engal,there i s a spacious plain

cal led the Ye Val le y .

In the Tavoy D istrict the al luvial plainsurrounds Tavoy town itsel f

,and extends sou th

ward to the paral lel of Cape Tavoy o r TavoyPoint .

IV . There are fou r main chains ofmountainsin Lower Burma

,ofwhich the chief is the Arakan

Yoma -taung . The chief heights in this rangereach an al t i tude of over feet

,and are.

mostly found on the north on the Manipurborder . Southwards the height decreases

when the range ente rs Arakan it ri ses again,and

the blue peaks which are found along the ninetythird paral lel in the twenty -first degree of northlat i tude ris e to over feet above mean sea

l evel . From here they send out s purs inal l direct ions

,are heavi ly wooded

,and cover

the whol e country . They are al l but inaccess ib le,and are frequented only by the nat ives of thecountry

,who alone know the few paths that l ead

to them . The farther south the range goes themore it lo ses height

,and final ly ends in pictur

esque,l ow hil l s

,covered with mango and

wood -O il - t rees,hard by the Bay of B engal .

East of the I rrawaddy is found the Pegurange of Yoma

,which forms the water part ing

between this r iver and the S ittang . They ri segradual ly from theYamethin plain and trend to

Physical Geography

the south,throwing out a few spurs westward as

far as the I rrawaddy . H ere they have a heightof between one and

“ two thousand feet,but st il l

farther south they exceed three thousand,and

their various spurs shut in the val l eys of thePegu River

,the Pazundaung River

,and others

of minor impo rtance . They run on in the shapeof mere rol ling ground and rise sl ight ly atRangoon

,where the summit of a l it t l e hi l l has

been level led for the S i te of the famous ShweDagOn Pagoda . Beyo nd this

,on the farther

s ide of the Pegu River,the Pegu H i l l s reappear

in the shape of low wooded hil l s,on which stands

the noteworthy Kyaik -kauk,or Syriam pagoda

and finally they van ish in the rocky reefs belowKyauktan

,which make the navigat ion of the

Hmaw -wun dangerous fo r reckles s boatmen .

These hil l s are not eas i ly go t at , and especiallyin the central part s they are covered with savagejungle

,al l but impenetrable , whe re the t iger and

the el ephant roam at large . They have muchvaluable t imber— teak

,cutch (A cacia caiecha) ,

and iron -wood . There are several passes , whichoffer a way across these hil l s from the I rrawaddyto the S it tang Val leys .

Fifty miles east of the S ittang the mountainsrise abruptly in steep slope s

,clad with pines

to a height of metres,and even in the

Kaung neighbourhood as high as s ix or seven1 19

thousand feet . Farther south they fal l away andthrow o u t spurs

,which in some places to the

west , as, fo r example , at Kaywe, reach the

S it tang ,and end between thi s river and the B il in

in a range of hil l s,which have a general l ine

from east to west,from Kyaiktiyo ,

above thetown of S ittang

,by way of the peak of Kelata

to the hi l l s behind the town of Bilin . Fartherto the east th is chain i s cont inued by the hil l sof Shwe N yaungb in

,which end at the creek

of Kyun -

yok ,only to reappear to the south in

the Martaban H i l l s . St i l l farther east they endin a long spur , which st retches between theP inlaing and the Salween and ends in rol l ingground at the j unct ion of the two rivers . Thechief peak in this chain , not far from Toungoo ,i s the Nat -taung

,which has a height of abo ut

feet .

The Martaban H i l l s,or

,as they are somet imes

cal led,the Zin -

gyaik H i l l s,after the name of

their chief feature,are covered with fo rest and

other j ungl e . They extend southwards fromKamataing to Zin -

gyaik,some eighteen miles

south ofTa - tun , whose pagoda -crowned summitreaches feet above mean sea -l evel . Alitt le farther south is the Kulamataung peak , of

about the same alt itude . Beyond this the heightfal l s away and ends at Martaban in the S lope sover the Salween . From Zin -

gyaik a spur runs120

ofspurs , running paral le l to the sea ,from Maul

Incin southwards,and the Taung -nyo ridge in

part icular forms the Attara h watershed .

The most celebrated hi ll s a re those ofTenasserim

,charming to look at

,covered with verdure

and pierced by natura l caves . which have beenconverted into chapel s to the Buddha andadorned with hi s images . I gneous rocks

covered with luxuriant vegetat ion and stretch ingfar , al l in one direct ion

,one after the other

,ri se

up,some of them below the others in uninter

rupted l ines , so that the t ravel ler who stands onthe summit of one of the higher of them has anunbroken view of over S Ixty mile s , with ,

in theextreme distance

,a seven thousand feet range

as a background .

V . The Naf,in the ext reme north

,i s more

an estuary than a river . The mouth i s threemiles wide and it has a course of a lit t le overthirty mi les . About thirty - seven mi les to thesouth

,and separated from it by the Mayu H i l ls

is the Mayu River , another arm of the sea,very

wide,very rocky

,quite Shal low , and very difficult

to cros s .

The Kuladan is separated from the Mayu bythe is land of Akyab

,but it i s connected with it

by channels which are always navigab le at hight ide

.The Kuladan rises in the hi l ls to the north,

and runs with a general souther ly direct ion as122

be navigated up to the confluence only at thet ime when the water is high

,in the rainy season

and steam - launches go up there from Bhamo,

though they often have difficult ies owing to theMans i and Tangpe rapids, and also on accountof the narrowness of the defi le which has to bepassed above Bh‘amo . Steam - launches canascend to Myit Ky ina only during the cold andhot weather . During the rains the rush ofwaterthrough the Third D efile i s so great that vesselscannot force the ir way through . There is noregular service to the confluence from MyitKy ina,

but light -draught steamers can go thereexcept at the t ime of lowest water . From Rangoon to Bhamo steamers carry on a regularservice al l the year round

,in two stages— from

Rangoon to Mandalay,and from“ Mandalay to

Bhamo .

The Kachins cal l the Mali the Mal i -kha (khabeing the Kachin word for r iver ) and the meaning of this i s the Great River

” which is repre

sented by the Burmese name My it gyi . Theeastern branch

,the N ’mai -kha

,means in Kachin

the Bad River,while the Burmese cal l i t the

My it nge‘

,or Litt le River .

I n Sp ite of thi s there are those who think thatthe N ’mai is the real main stream, but accordingto nat ive opinion a great river i s one which i snavigab le al l the year through , and this the

Physical Geography

N ’mai is not,on account of it s numerous rap ids .

The Mali River,on the other hand

,i s always

navigab le,and is completely known throughout

i t s course,as are also it s affluents and the

vil lages along it s banks,and it i s on thi s ground

that it i s u sual ly cons idered to be the chiefbranch of the I rrawaddy .

South of the confluence of these two r ivers ,the I rrawaddy receives the Nam Kawng. orMogaung River

,the Mole

,and the Taping . The

firs t of these,on the right bank

,is navigable for

smal l vessels dur ing the rainy season . The twoothers

,the first on the right and the second on

the left,are not navigab le at any t ime of the

year . The Taping is,however

,navigab le for

some dozen miles of its length for nat ive boat s .

Farther to the south the Shwel i , or Nam‘

comes from the Shan States and China , as doesthe Meza

,both on the left bank . At Amara

pura, the Myit N ige

,o r Nam Tu

,enters the

I rrawaddy,coming down from the Shan States ,

but it i s not navigable for any great di stance .

At Myin -man the Man river is a r ight -bankaffluent . North ofBakOkku comes in the Chindwin

,with its three affluents , the Uyu, t

'he Yu,

and the Myittha . I t i s navigated by riversteamers as far as Homal in, near the mouth of

the Uyu,all the year through . The MOn enters

the I rrawaddy twelve miles north of Minbu . The1 2 5

Upper I rrawaddy from Mandalay to Bhamo isnot very wide

,and therefore its banks are very

varied in the ir at tract ions . Vi rgin forest salternate with cult ivated fie lds . There are smal lBurmese vil lages hidden away among mangoesand banana -groves . Sometimes the scenery iswild and striking ; somet imes i t suggests thesoftness of a Japanese landscape . Two defilesare passed before Bhamo is reached . I n oneof these the waters

,pent in between perpen

dicular cliffs,rush down with the noise of a

torrent . At Bhamo itself the surface of the riverwidens out so that it looks l ike a great lake .

I n the winter season thi s journey from Mandalayto Bhamo has become a favourite with touri sts .

At this t ime of the year the cl imate of UpperBurma is at it s p leasantest

,when the night s and

mornings are cool and fresh , and the north -eastmonsoon tempers the sun in the middle of theday .

South of Mandalay,on its way to Rangoon , the

river widens out after pass ing Sagaing, whichfaces the ancient city ofAva

,of which nothing

now remains but some monasteries and a fewruined wal ls . I t i s here

,close by the Old Ava

c ity wall,that the Myit N ge jo ins the I rrawaddy .

The r iver nar rows j ust b elow this in front ofSagaing . Oppos ite the town, on the other bank ,there rises a sol itary height crowned by a pagoda,

Prome , and runs south‘

,separated from the I rra

waddy by s l ight ri s ing ground . Then , as i snoted above

,i t unites with the Panlang creek a

l itt le above Rangoon,and at that town itself

receives the j oint waters of the Pegu and Pazundaung Rivers , and enters the sea under the nam’eof the Rangoon River . I t i s navigab le al l theyear round for vessels of the deepest draughtas far as some miles north of Rangoon , andduring spring t ides they can go thirty milesbeyond, but owing to the bar

,known as the

Hast ings shoal,formed at the junct ion of the

Rangoon,Pegu

,and Pazundaung. Rivers

cannot pas s at low t ide .

Along with these three,the I rrawaddy, the

Pegu,and the Pazundaung Rivers , there are

many more or l es s important st reams which flowinto the Gulf of Martaban . Two of these areworthy of special mention : the S ittang and theSalween . The S ittang

,which the Burmese cal l

S it taung,r ises in the latitude ofYamethin in the

Karen H i l ls,passes by Shwemyo

,P ly inmana,

Toungoo,and Shwegyin

,and then a lit t le after

pass ing the town of S it tang,enters the gulf in

a very wide estuary . At the t ime of the highestwater, dur ing the rainy season , thi s estuary , l ikethat ofthe Rangoon River , forms a wide expanseof water . The Salween is believed to take it sr ise in the mountain s of Tibet . This river is

Physical Geography

remarkab le for its magnificent and wild defi les,which make it unnavigab le on account of the

mu lt itude of cl iffs along its banks and of therocks in mid -stream . So far it i s only navigatedby a few steam -launches on it s lowermostreaches . The bed is very narrow,

shut in by.

banks which often rise to a height of three tofour thousand feet and give the river the appearance of a mighty torrent , notwithstanding thatit var ies from one to three hundred yards wide .

I t is much longer than the I rrawaddy,but cannot

be compared with it from the point of view of

ut il ity . The Salween is a picture sque river,and

one eminent ly fi t ted for art ist s . I t i s s trikingand attractive, but the I rrawaddy is a real tradewaterway . I t enters the sea between Martabanand Maulmein

,and it i s divided at it s mouth

by the is land of B ilugyun.

Besides these there may be ment ioned theA ttaran,

the Tavoy, and Tenasser im Rivers , andfinal ly the Pakchan , all of them enter ing theGulf ofMartaban south of Maulmein.

V I . There are several lakes . The largest inUpper Burma is the Indaw -gyi Lake , in Myit.Ky ina distr ict . I t measures nineteen miles bysix

,and is bounded to the south -east and wes t

by two ranges of low hil ls . To the north -eas tit breaks a passage for i ts elf and lets out the

Indaw River,which enters the Nam Kawng,

theI 29

Mogaung River . The Indaw Lake in the Kathadistric t has an area of about s ixty square miles .

The Meikt i la and A ungpinle Lakes , the latternear Mandalay

,are art ific ial reservoirs . The

I ndein Lake,near Yawnghwe

,in the Southern

Shan States,is nearly as large as the I ndawgyi .

The N awnghkeo Lake , on the top of a rangenorth of Mong Ka

,i s celebrated for the mystery

which surrounds it . I t is in the heart of the Wa

country,surrounded by dense forest s

,which make

it a lmost unapproachab le . I t is said to be verydeep , and no fish ,

they say , l ive in it . There aremany legends about it

,among both Shans and

Wa,who never speak about it without awe .

The Inma Lake is in the Prome distri ct,the

Du and the Duya in that of Henzada,and in

Bassein there are the S hahkegy i and the Inyegyi .

The S hahkegy i i s a fine sheet Of water aboutthree and a half mi les long and one and a quarterwide . The Inyegyi was formerly probab ly apart of the Daga River

,and is st i l l connect ed

with it by a small channel which has a woodedisland in the middle of i t .

The Rangoon Lakes,which are known as the

V i ctoria Lakes,are the place of assemb ly for

soc iety at sunset -t ime . They are surroundedby large and well -la id out gardens

,and they

form one of the pleasantest p laces in Rangoon .

V I I . The outskirt s of Upper Burma, the Chinr30

plateau which separates the bas ins of the I rrawaddy and the Salween . The Kumon rangeextends from the State of Hkamti -LOng (eastof Assam ) to a point a l itt le to the north of

Mogaung . The Kauk -Kwe H i l ls start fromMogaung and run southwards to the plains on

the western side of the I rrawaddy . The JadeMines range

,west of the Upper Mogaung River

extends beyond the drainage of the Uyu Riveras far as the Hukawng Valley .

The Chin H i l ls fo rm the western boundaryofUppe r Burma

,j ust a s the Kachin

Karen H i l l s from the eastern . The Chin H il l sare a continuat ion of the Naga H i l ls

,which

form the eastern boundary of Assam . Farthersouth they take to themselves the name of theArakan Yoma . The Pegu H i l l s take their r isein the Kyaukse and Meikt i la D istrict s , and runn ing paral lel to the Shan H i l l s

,separate the I rra

waddy and S ittang bas ins The PaunglaungH i l ls r i se from the leve l of the Shan plateauwhich separates the S it tang from the Salweenand rise in very high peaks

,one of which ex

ceeds eight thousand feet . The most easterlyrange is that which separates the Salween fromthe Mehkawng drainage

,and to the south

divides Brit i sh t erritory from that of S iam . Sti l lfarther south it runs on in the backbone ridgeof the Malay peninsula .

Physical Geography

In the extreme north of Burma al l thesechains take their r ise or lose themselves in theplateau of Tibet .

The Chin H i l ls form a paral lelogram abouttwo hundred and fi fty miles long by from one

hundred to a hundred and fifty miles broad .

H ere there are no plains,no table land

,nothing

but a series ofabrupt r idges,separated by deep

valleys . On the Myittha Val ley side there r iseup steep s lopes covered with dense forest andseamed with deep ravines . These hi l ls ides arevery thinly inhabited

,and this remains the same

unti l the crest i s reached which runs parallel tothe Myittha River and perhaps s ixty miles distant from it . Beyond one sees a serie s of bareridges

,with here and there v i llage s and cult i

vated fields . The main range s run north andsouth

,and their height ranges from four or five

thousand to nine thousand feet . The most important are the Letha or Tang range

,which

forms the water -parting between the drainageof the Chindwin and the Manipur Rivers ; theImbuklang,

which is the watershed betweenUpper Burma and Arakan ; and the RongKlang

,which separates the bas in of the Myit tha

from that of the Boinu . The highest peakseems to be that of Liklang ,

about s ixty milessouth of Hakka . I t has a height of nearly threethousand five hundred met res, j ust under t en

thousand feet O thers are L’

unglen,on the

Manipur frontier,

feet ; Katong , on thesame frontier

,feet ; N wakum,

and Kul abou t the same The last i s knownby the name of Kennedy Peak . There are otherpeaks

,such as Rum Klao and B oipa,

which areclose on nine thousand feet .

The Kachin H i l ls l ie between the twenty -thirdand twenty - S ixth degrees of north lat itude andthe eighty - s ixth and ninetieth degrees of eastlongitude . They cons i st of a series of mountainchains running steadi ly from north to south

through here and there by val leys leading downto the I rrawaddy . They are forest - clad andrise up sheer l ike the fingers of an open hand .

They are covered with eternal snow,and the

peaks r ise to between eleven and twelvethousand feet .

The country north and north -east of Bhamothat is

,between the N

’Mai on the north and

the Taping on the south—is a s imple mass of

hil ls,except for a flat stretch along the banks

of the I rrawaddy . There are peaks here thatr ise to twelve thousand feet or more . Most ofthese are north o r north -ea st of S adOn. Thechief ranges have a north -south direct ion

except for a few c learings for hi l l cult ivation ,they are covered with dense forest . They arevery steep and the soi l i s very poor .

prefix name of a ll s treams in the Shan S tates .

The Mogaung River is navigable for steamlaunches a s far as Laban . The lower reachesare very Winding

,and the river runs through a

country covered with j ungle and Shut in by lowhil ls thickly wooded .

Then comes the Nam Kwi,which flows

paral lel to the I rrawaddy to the point whereit j oins it six and a half mi les below Hechein .

Very l itt le is known of the hil l streams inthe northern Kachin country . They are al lsmall and run down deep gorges over rockybeds , with dense forest -clad banks . Bridges areunknown

,and the paths which wind about

among the mountains are hardly ever usedexcep t in the cold and dry seasons .

Amongs t the mass ofhil ls,three main ranges

can be dist inguished . The farthest west of

these separates the Chindwin and I rrawaddybasins . Under the name of Patkoi it s tretchesnorth of the Hukawng Val ley . Then under thename of Yawmongbum i t forms the easternboundary of this valley

,bending a l itt le to the

south . The range known as the Kamon is

a l itt le to the north of Mogaung,and

separates the Tanai drainage from that of theMogaung River . East of this chain there i sanother

,which separates the val leys of the Mal i

and the N ’mai This is in the heart of the136

Physical Geography

Kachin country . Very litt le of it is knownexcept the south

,in the Bhamo direct ion .

Farther to the east are the high summi t s whichseparate the I rrawaddy and Salween basins .

The ranges here have a mean alt itude of atleast seven thousand feet

,with peaks r is ing to

about nine thousand feet or more . They form afrontier between Uppe r Burma and the Chineseprovince ofYiin-nan

,which is not easi ly cro ssed .

The range Sp l it s up in the south of the Kachincountry into two

,one separat ing the I rrawaddy

and Taping drainages and the o ther the Shwel i,

which the Shans know by the name of the Nam

V I I I . The country which I cal l the ShanBurma tab leland— that is to say , the port ion of

the Tai country which depends on Burma— i s,

properly speaking, the country between the I rrawaddy and the Salween . On the west it ismarked off by the long l ine of hil ls which con

t inne the Kachin H i l ls and run on ti l l they losethemselves in the plains of Lower Burma . On

the eas t it i s no l es s dist inct ly marked by thedeep and narrow gash which forms the courseof the Salween . There are peaks on the Shantableland which reach over seven thousand feet

though the average alt itude of the plateau isfrom two thousand five hundred to threethousand feet . The range s which Shut in the

Salween range from four thousand five hundredto s ix thousand feet . On the other s ide of theSalween to the eas t we come to the MehkawngValley

,which forms the front ier with French

Indo -China and Yiin-nan .

The chief feeders of the Salween on the rightbank are the Nam Pang , the Nam Teng , andthe Nam Pawn

,al l of which receive torrents as

l itt le navigable as they themselves are . On theleft bank the Salween receives the Nam Ting

the Nam Ka,and the Nam S ing They are

al l unnavigab le in the rainy season,but not one

of them is fordab le at any time of the year .

. From the point of view of phys icalgeography and climate Burma can be dividedinto four very dist inct part s . There i s firstLower Burma

,with Rangoon as chief town

c luding the whole country between the s ixteenthand twenty-second parallel s of north lat itude .

Then there is Upper Burma from the twentysecond to the twenty -s ixth degree

,with Mandalay

as chief town . The third divi sion i s that of theShari States . Finally from the sixteenth to thetenth degree of north lat itude there are the areasof Amherst and Tenasserim with the MerguiArchipe lago .

Lower Burma is essential ly an al luvial country,flat

,watered by numerous rivers

,and a I

lCh r icegrowing land . I t is the wealthiest and the most

Bassein,or Prome

,and yet were ful l of vigour .

Rangoon,in particular

,i s nothing like so bad

as Bangkok or Saigon There is always abreeze from the sea even on the hottest days

and one never has the Oppress ive,st i l l heat of

Saigon .

Upper Burma has a much smaller ra infal l andtherefore the summer heats are much greater .

Nevertheles s in the months of July,Augu st

September,when the rains are heaviest in the

Delta,there is always in Mandalay and the

country near it a fresh breeze which i s very muchappreciated by Europeans

,who otherwise could

not s leep at night . Somet imes in November , o rabout Christmas

,there are a few rainy days

which freshen the air and make it a lmos t coldin Mandalay .

On the Shan plateaux in the Chin and KachinH i l ls the cl imate i s equal ly different . I n theChin country it is very temperate

,and the shade

temperature rare ly r ises above 2 7° or 2 8° C .

( 8 10 - 8 3° F . ) I n winter there are often

fros ts In the morning,and there are occasional

snowstorms on the highest peaks , but this israther a rare occurrence . I t is much the samein the Kachin H i l ls

,where the country i s not

very great ly different from that of the Chins ,and is

,in fact

,much in the same latitude . But

here the rainy season i s found again very140

Physical Geography

markedly estab lished betwe en June and November . The high ranges attract the clouds and therains are heavy .

In the Shan S tates the climate varies veryconsiderably . From December t il l F ebruary o r

March it i s quite cold,and in exposed places the

temperature sometimes does not rise above 3°

or 4° C . ( 3 7° During the hot

season the shade temperature does not exceed2 9

° o r 3 0° C . ( 8 4° or 8 5

° except in

narrow,closed -in val leys where the sun ’ s rays are

nearly vert ical,as

,for example

,in the Salwe en

Valley,where the thermometer rises to 40

in the month of April . There isvery seldom any snow

,even on the highe st

peaks The rains are Very much less heavythan in the plains of Lower Burma . There i sus ually one heavy shower eve ry day

,but for

the rest of the t ime the sun shines strongly and

dries everything. ve ry fast,all the more becaus e

in such high country the water does not l ie andruns off rapidly .

I t is in thi s Shan country that the BurmeseGovernment has estab l ished its sanatoria

,and I

know few pleasanter places than the stat ions of

Maymyo to the north -east ofMandalay,and of

Taung -gyi,to the west of Thazi . There the

Europeans go to recover from the oppress ionof the plains , and it i s in the first of these two

places that the Lieutenant -Governor and theAdministrat ion go to l ive from the month of

April t i l l the month of O ctober .

X . The chief maladies of the Burmese causedby the fiery sun which pours down upon themall the year round are diarrhoea

,dysentery

cholera . Cholera every now and then takes anepidemic form

,but i t i s usual ly endemic and

regularly carries off some of the people .

Malaria] fevers are al so very prevalent duringthe rainy season

,and somet imes these take the

ser ious form of typho -malaria,a kind of enteric

fever peculiar to the tropics,which is found

everywhere in the Indo -Chinese colonies andeven in the south of China .

Smallpox causes terrib le ravages when i tbreaks out in epidemic form . Somet imes itcauses more deaths than cholera . Of skin diseases

,leprosy is fairly common

,and Europeans

are not immune from it . I know of two

miss ionaries and two miss ion S isters who havebeen attacked by it and are being t reated withno great hopes of success in the Leper Asylumat Kemmendine

,near Rangoon

,under the charge

of the R ev . Father F reynet . At Mandalaythere is also a leper asylum mainta ined by theFranc iscan miss ionar ies of Mary

,whose devo

t ion and charity are known throughout thewhole Ear East

CHAPTER V

EXECUTIVE D IV IS ION A N D TOW N S

A dministrat ive d ivisions . II. Pr incipal towns—Rangoon.

III . Pegu . IV . Prome . V . Bassein. VI. Toungoo .

VII. A kyab . VII I . Maulmein. IX. Tavoy and Mergu i .X . Mandalay. XI. Sagaing. XII. Shwebo and o thertowns . XIII . Shan towns . XIV . Sanatoria.

I . S IN CE the conquest ofUpper Burma in 1 8 8 5

the administrat ion of the whole of the anci entBurmese Kingdom as a Brit i sh pos sess ion hasbeen settled as fol lows ‘

1 . Two provinces : Lowe r Burma,Upper

Burma .

2 . Protectorate of the Shan States formerlytributary to the Mandalay Co urt .

Lower Burma itsel f i s divided into fourD ivis ions : Arakan

,I rrawaddy

Tenasser im .

Each of these D ivis ions includes an unequalnumber of D i stri cts . Thu sArakan has three D istric ts : Akyab , Kyauk

pyu,and Sandoway .

rupees . Thi rty years ago i t was a bare fifty,mill ions . The po pulat ion of Rangoo n is moreI ndian than Burman

,because of the cont inuous

immigrat ion ofIndians from Madras and Bengal,

and also of Mohammedans from the North -WestProvinces .

I t i s l es s Burmese than Mandalay,but it i s

a great bus iness town and it is buil t in Euro pe anfashion

,with great b road avenues

,fine monu

ments,and commercial houses in cons iderable

numbers .

I t s tands about twenty -one marit ime milesfrom the sea on the left bank of the RangoonRiver

,at the point where it i s j oined by the

Panlang Creek , the Pazundaung Creek , and thePegu River . The Burmese suburbs are s ituatedon the right bank of the Rangoon River and

the left bank of the Pazundaung Creek . Thesmal l vi l lage of Rangoon

,under the name of

DagOn,was founded

,according to Burmese

tradi t ion,somewhere about 5 8 5 B .C .

,by two

brothers,Pu and Tawpa,

who built the ShweDagOn Pagoda on a smal l h i l lock to enshr inesome rel ics of the Buddha which they hadreceived from the Buddha himself . The v il lagedisappears from history until 7 44 A .D .

,when it

was rebuil t by Punnareka, King of Pegu ,and

by him cal led A ramana . The Burmese too k

possess ion of it in 1 4 1 3 A .D . The town changed146

Execu tive Division and Towns

ownership very oft en and was the s cene of re

peated fights between the Burmese and theTalaings . In 1 7 63 , however, the Burmese KingAlaungpaya too k final possess ion of i t

,repaired

the Shwe DagOn Pagoda, and cal l ed i t Yan

gOn, which the Brit i sh , fo l lowing the Arakanesepronunciat ion

,have changed into Rangoon . The

town was fi rs t occupied by the Brit i sh in 1 8 2 4,

and they stayed there t il l 1 8 2 7 , when it wasrestored to the B urmese . I t was retaken in1 8 5 2 , and has been in B rit i sh hands ever s ince .

The sight s of Rangoon are the pagodas andmonasteries

,the bazaars

,the publ ic monument s

and mills,the mil i tary cantonments

,and the

lakes .

There are very many pagodas in Rangoonand in the suburbs . The two most importantare the Shwe Dagon and the S ulé Pagoda . The

great Shwe DagOn Pagoda is the finest and theoldest ofal l the pagodas in the country . Pilgrimscome to. vis i t i t from every part of both Upperand Lower Burma . I t s special sanctity is dueto the fact that it i s the only pagoda known to

Buddhist s which contains true rel ics ofGaudama

and of the three Buddhas who preceded the lastBuddha Gaudama . Accordingly, not merely the‘Burmese

,but also Cambodians , S iamese , and the

rel igious from Ceylon mak e pi lgrimages tothe shrine . I t stands a l itt l e les s than two.

miles fro-m the rivers ide . The l itt le hi ll onwhichit stand s has been l evel led and paved . I t i sa couple of hund red feet high, about 9 80 long,an’d 6 5 0 broad . The approach from the westernside was closed by for t ificat ions during theBr it i sh occupat ion , and these fortificat ions stillremain . The south approach is the easie st andthe most used . At the foot of the ascent thereare two huge leogryph s , made of brick, coveredwith plaster . The roofs are of carved teak

ported by huge pil lars,some wood

,some of

masonry . On the wal l s under the roof there.

are frescoes,painted in b right colours , repre

sent ing the different episodes in the l ife ofSakyaMuni

,as wel l as sketches of the terrors ofhell ,

which are there for the warning of the wicked .

The steps of the different fl ights of the coveredway l eading to the platform are worn by the

feet of the pilgrims . The whole length of theascent on both S ides is occupied by beggars,who show al l the horrib le ravages of lepros y .

There are great numbers of trays on both s ides ,on which pret ty Burmese girls di splay for salegold leaf

,sacred flowers

,candles , and other Offer

ings . There are even l itt le refreshment -stal l shere and there , at which for a few copperspilgr ims can r el ieve the ir wants and exert ions .

At the end of the colonnade the platform is

reached . This i s circular, and there i s a free,148

in gold and silver and precious stones . Nightand da y the pilgrims come and go . There i sno t ime of the year when there i s no t som e one

at the pagoda,and it i s especial ly on fe st ival

days that one should go to see the happy crowdpressing round the images of the Buddha . I ti s quite a fairy spectacle

,al l the more because

of the bright and rich colours of the Burmesedress .

The S ulé Pagoda,not far from the river bank

should al so b e vi si ted,al though it i s nothing

l ike the great pagoda in splendour . I t enshrinesa somewhat curious repre sentat ion of the S uléfl at

,or spiri t

,who is the guardian genius of

the hil l on which the Shwe Dagon stands .

Besides the pagodas there are some intere sting monaster ies to be seen at Kemmendine

suburb of Rangoon,but the most t ypical are

those on the road round the lakes . They areal l b ui lt of wood and rise in gracious elegan cein the midst of the luxuriant t ropical vegetat ion .

There are three great bazaars or market s . I nBurma the bazaar is everywhere the chief placefor reta il buyers and sel lers . Everybody findsthere everything ofwhich he may stand in immediate need : food

,clothes

,cloth of al l sort s

pottery,paper and art i cles in paper

,medicines

perfumery,ob j ect s for the to il ette

,even jewel lery .

Everybody goes there,some to buy and sel l

Executive Division and Towns

but many simply to gossip , fl i rt,and hear al l the

lates t scandal .

Among publ ic buildings the most notab le arethe H igh Court

,the Post Office

,the Secretariat

buildings,a huge block where al l the adminis

trative bodies have their office s and not longbuil t . O ther buildings are the Roman Cathol icCathedral

,a noble example of Gothic architec

ture,due to the genius of a s ingle man

,Father

Jansen,of the Fore ign Miss ion s in Pari s ; the

General Hospital ; the different col leges , amongwhich is noteworthy the Col lege of the Brothersof the Christ ian Seminaries ; and , final ly , onthe way to Kemmendine

,Government House

the residence of the Lieutenant -Governor,a fine

three -storied bu ilding which cost nearlyBut the chief charm of Rangoon is the lakes

whose banks are laid out in magnificent gardens,

which are kept up with great taste and muchcare .

Th e travel ler who has a day to spare andwho is not too much afraid of the heat wil ldo well to go to see the ancient town of S yr iam

formerly the s ite of the factories set up by thePortuguese

,Dutch

,French

,and Engl ish . The

Burmese assert that the town was buil t in

7 8 7 A .D .

,but nothing whatever is known of

its history t il l the sixteenth century,when i t was

given by the King of Arakan to Phil ip de B rito,1 5 1

Burma under British Rule

who with his Portuguese fol lowers had helpe d‘

his Maj esty to conquer Pegu . I n 1 6 1 3 Syriamwas besieged and taken by the King of A va,who put al l the Portuguese to death except somewho were sent as prisoners to Upper Burma,where some of their d escendants are st i l l to befound . Nothing now remains of the spaciousand flouri shing houses which made the glory.of Syriam

,except the ruins of churches

tombs,and crumbl ing wal ls . Neverthele ss

church was rebui lt by Monsignor N erini,the

B ishop of Pegu,about 1 7 2 5 , but the B ishop

was s lain in 1 7 5 6 by order ofA laungpaya,and

the Miss ion was transferred to Rangoon . Theruins of the church are now overgrown withj ungle and serve as a home for all mannerof rept il es .

I I I . Pegu is reached by train and i s a townwith a population of seventeen or e ighteenthousand I t is the headquarters of theD istri ct of the same name, and is said‘ tohave been founded in 5 7 3 A .D . by emigrantsfrom Thaton . Later i t b ecame the capital of

the Talaing Kingdom . Europeans who madetheir way there in the s ixteenth century describei t as a huge town,

very powerful and magnjificent . I t was almost entirely dest royed by,“

A laungpaya when he overthrew the TalaingKingdom ,

and has now lost al l its ancient1 5 2

V . Bassein has a populat ion of about fort ythousand and is the headquarters of the I rrawaddy D ivision . The Shwe Mokdaw Pagoda

which stands on a small eminence on the leftbank of the river

,i s the centre of a fort built

by the Briti sh,which has now been turned into

a publ ic garden . To the eas t i s the Myothitquarter

,with two main streets running east and

west and ending in a level space covered withpagodas

,rest -houses

,monasterie s

,and a great

many stone images . On the othe r s ide of theriver is the Thinbangyin suburb

,where the rice

mil l s and the chief commercial house s ares ituated .

V I . Toungoo is on the Rangoon -Mandalayrailway

,and is a town of twenty thousand in

hab itants,which formerly was the frontier -post

between Bri tish Burma and Independent Burma .

The old fort i s s ti l l in exi stence and i s occupiedby mil itary pol ice . Toungoo is pleasantly,

s ituated on the right bank of the S it tang,a l it t le

to the north of the po int where the KabaungRiver enters i t . This st ream has been bridged,and the train passes about one and three -quartermile from the town . There is nothing of anypart icular note in Toungoo . The head '

of the

I tal ian mi s s ions l ives there .

V I I . Akyab,which is now the headquarters

of the Arakan D ivis ion and the third port in1 54

Executive D ivision and Towns

Burma , was , to begin with , a mere fishing vil lage .

Its importance dates from the t ime when it waschosen to be the chief town of Arakan,

at the

end of the firs t Burmese war in 1 8 2 6 . The

populat ion exceeds forty thousand . Fifty milesaway is Myohaung , the old capital of Arakan ,where there are some very fine ruins . Thereare great numbers of rice -mill s in Akyab .

V I I I . Maulmein is the second largest town inLower Burma and has a fine port . A few year sago the only way there was by sea

,but now

there i s a railway from Rangoon,which passes

by way of Pegu,Kyaikto

,Th'aton

,and Paung to

Martaban . The railway bridge over the Salweenwhich wil l connect Martaban with Maulmein

remains to be buil t,but i t s construct ion is only

a question of t ime . Maulmein is the head

quarters of the Amhers t District and of theTenasserim D ivi s ion . I t stands on the left bankof the Salween

,at its j unct ion with the Gyaing

and the A ttaran,and oppo s ite the po int of con

fluence of these three rivers i s the large i slandof B ilugyun,

which,through the s il t ing up ofthe

channel,i s gradual ly jo ining the mainland .

-Tothe north

,on the opposite bank

,i s Martaban ,

formerly the capital of a kingdom,now a mere

vil lage . The low hil l s which form the end of

the Taungnyo chain run from north‘ to souththrough the town

,and divide Maulmein into two

parts dist inct from one another,but meet ing at

the northern base of the hil ls on the banks ofthe Gyaing River These hil l s are almostentirel y covered with pagodas

,some in ruins

with shrubs and trees springing from fi s suresin the bricks

,others al l white or covered with

gold -leaf . The neighbouring monasterie s areparti cularly r ich in carved teak .

The V iew over the town from these hil ls in thecentre i s perhap s one of the most attract ive inal l Burma . The surroundings of the town areal so very pretty

,with evergreen t rees , pagodas ,

and monaster ie s hidden in clumps of bamboo .

Maulmein stands between the mountains and thesea

,and the whole neighbourhood is picturesque

in a spacious way that is seen nowhere el se in theports of Indo -China .

The populat ion of Maulmein i s about s ixtyfive thousand . At one t ime i t rival led Rangoon

but i t has now fal len very far behind . This i s,

perhaps,due to the fact that Maulmein was more

part i cularly the teak trade port and the point ofexit ofthe t imber which came from the Karen -niforests and from the S iamese forest s of Chiengmai . These forests have been overworked . Theteak output has fal len off

,and Maulmein has

suffered accordingly There i s a great deal ofteak -carving in the town . The monasteries areloaded with it

,and the U z ina pagoda in parti cular

precipices , al l are found in pr opo rt ion . Theislands are almost uninhabi ted

,and are the last

home of a singular race,the Salon

,or Selung

who rarely leave them for the ma in land . Thetwo chief products of the i slands are theswal lows ’ nests

, ofwhich the Ch inese are so fond ,

and béche -d‘e -mer,o r sea-slugs . Besides these

there is l i tt le e ls e but serpent s and wi ld animals .

The chief town,Mergui

,stands on an island at

the mouth ofthe Tenasserim River,which enters

the Bay of Bengal a l itt le under two miles northof the town . Mergu i ha s a very mixed populat ion of about fi fteen thousand . Pearl -fi shing andmining and rubber plantations are the chiefresources of the D istrict .X . Mandalay

,which was the capltal of the

Burmese kings,i s now a simple B rit i sh D istr ict

headquarters town . I t was founded in 1 8 5 6- 7

by,Mindon Min . I t cons ists of two very distinct

parts . There i s the wal led town,the old royal

town,which the Engl i sh have retained in a sort

of a way,in so far that the bar ra ck s and the

principal admini st rat ive bui ldings are set uphere ; and there i s the town beyond the wal l s ,which i s the town ofthe Burmese and the tradingpopulat ion . The wal led town i s a s quare with‘

four enormous br ick wall s , machico lated and suppl ied at interval s wi th gates which correspondwith bridges over the wide moat which surroundsthe wal l s on al l s ides .

The great sight ofMandalay -i s the Nandaw,

the Palace,which is in the exact centre of the

wal led town . This is a col lection of t eak bui ldings

,magnificently carved, and some of them

even g i lded . The royal apartments are supportedby very lofty teak po sts , lacquered and coveredwith gold -leaf . The walls

,also of wood, are

covered with a mosaic of coloured glass andmirrors

,which has a very effective appearance .

Unfortunately,there i s nothing now to be seen

except the buildings themselves,and in a corner

a smal l museum,where a few royal rel ic s are

kept .The Palace has nine throne -rooms

,which were

used by the King according to the rank of thepersons he was receiving . There was the l ionthrone for the recept ion of princes of the blood ,Ministers of State

,and the Shan chiefs . The

throne of the duck (Hentha) was used fo r the

reception of foreigners . The others were the

elephant throne,the water -fest ival (or hum-ble

bee ) throne, the shel l throne, the de er throne,the peacock throne , and the water -l i ly throne,each carved with adornments which followed thename . In the eyes of the Burmese

,the King ’ s

palace was the centre of the universe .

I t was in the royal gardens round the palace,in a l itt le summer -house

,where the King. used

to go for comfort during the great heats, thatI 59

General Prendergast received the submiss ion of

King Thibaw . An inscript ion on the wal l atthe entrance records thi s histori cal fact .Besides the palace

,and outs ide it s stockade

things to be seen are the royal tombs,Mandalay.

H il l , and a multi tude of pagodas ofall degreesand of al l s i zes . Among the most interest ing.

are the Golden Monastery and the ArakanPagoda , which is more correctl y cal led a templerather than a pagoda . The 4 5 0 pagodas of theKuthodaw

,or Royal Meri t Pagoda

,which form

one remarkab le group,must not b e omitted . King

Mindon,who was noted fo r his piety, covered

Mandalay,and one might a lmost say the whole

of hi s country,wi th pagodas and monasteries .

I n order that the sacred Buddhist i c books mighthave an imperi shable record

,he developed the

idea of having the most correct text of the commandments ( the Book of the Law) engravedon 4 5 0 huge stones , all of one s ize Thesemarble s lab s were set up in regular rows insidean enclosure

,each with a shrine over i t to protect

i t from the ravages of t ime,and then in the centre

a pagoda ‘was buil t .The Golden Monastery of the Queen i s fair ly

wel l preserved,but I regret to have to say that

i t i s crumbl ing away in many places . The oldmonk who i s in charge ofi t al lowed me to go al lover it, and I not iced that many of the wal l s

Executive Division and Towns

and many of the pil lar ~posts stand in need of

repair . I t i s enti rel y bu i lt of teak , profuselycarved and gilded .

The Arakan Pagoda,or Temple

,is the most

sacred place in Mandalay and in al l Upper.

Burma . I t stands outs ide and to. the south of‘

the town,and enshr ines a miraculous image of

the Buddha which,according to the story

car ried over the mountains from Arak an in 1 7 8 4 .

When it arrived i t was in sect ions,which no. one

was able to put together . The Buddha took thi stask upon himsel f

,and the statue i s therefore

looked upon as particularly sacred,and i s vi s i ted

by pilgrims al l the year round . In Europeaneyes the temple has nothing dist inguished aboutit,and has no special attraction beyond the lotus

tank, where huge turtl es are fed by the rel igious .

I t would take a ful l month to visit al l the pagodasand monasteries in Mandalay .

Fine broad avenues intersect the town at righ tangles to one another . Many European houseshave been buil t commercial houses have established themselves

,and Mandalay i s qui te a

pleasant place to spend some t ime in,although

there is not the bustl e and the business whichone sees in the port towns . There are school s

a club,a hospital

,and churches

,which have been

set up in various parts of the town . Frenchmissionaries have congregations in al l the

16 1 L

different quarters with Burmese , Chinese , andTamil schools . French S isters of Charity haveal so establ i shed themselves

,as wel l as the

Brothers of the Chri st ian School s .

Mandalay has a garrison of white troops aswel l as of natives of India .

X I . Among the other important towns of

Upper Burma,Sagaing may be noti ced . I t i s

twelve and a half mi les from Mandalay,on the

right bank of the I rrawaddy,at the end of a

range of hil l s which forms for a di stance of aboutten miles the river bank on that s ide . Sagaing.

is the terminus of the Mu Val ley rai lway,and

from there the river i s crossed by steam-ferryto. Amarapura on the other shore . Propo sal sfor the construct ion of a bridge have been underconsideration

,but up to the present nothing has

been done to carry them into effect .Sagaing is the headquarters of a D ivi s ion and

D istri ct,and has a po st and telegraph -offices

and a hospital . There i s a considerable s i lk.weaving industry

,and the Sagaing mangoes have

a' great name . The population is not very large .

There are something l ike ten thousand in

hab itants . Nevertheless , i t was the capital ofthecountry in 1 3 8 5 and again from 1 760 toEl 764 . A s everywhere else in Uppe r ‘Burma

,there

are great numbers of pagodas to pay a vis i t to .

X I I . Shwebo , Meiktila,Monywa , Katha

X I I I . Th ere are some of the Shan vil lagesthey can hardly be cal led towns

,because there

are no real towns—which are more importantthan the rest

,because they are the seat s of the

S awbwas or chiefs,o r of the Bri ti sh pol it ical

officers . Th us in the Southern Shan States therei s Taunggyi

,to the east ofThazi and Yamethin .

I t s tands on a plateau on the S intaung range .

Th ere is no great populat ion,not more than

two thousand,with‘ a garri son of three hundred

mil itary police .

I n 1 9 0 5 -6 a party. of engineers was sent toTaunggyi to make a trace of a ra ilway whichwas to start from Thazi eastwards . The idea wasto make Taunggyi a sanatorium

,for the cl imate

there is excel lent for Europeans . The idea of'

carrying the rai lway on to Taunggyi has beenabandoned

,but the Southern Shan States ra il

way i s in proces s of construction and shourld

reach‘ the plateau in 1 9 1 4 .

East of Taunggyi,and in the same general

l ine,is Kengtung

,the capital of the Shan State

of the same name,which is the largest of al l the

Shan States . This i s one of the most importantof the Brit i sh post s

,and they have an Assi stant

Polit ical Officer there,with a strong Gurkha

garrison . Unhappi ly,the Kengtung cl imate is

unheal thy and there i s constant malaria . Fo r

thi s reason a po st,Lo imwe

, has been establi shed164

on a hil l range not far off, at a height of threethousand feet above the val ley

,and this is con

nected with the town by an excel lent mule and

cart road .

tH sipaw,on the Mandalay -Lashio rai lway, i s

the capital of the Sawbwa of’ that S tate , in theN orthern Shan States charge

,and a Brit i sh

officer resides there .

Lash io i s the terminus of the rai lway fromMandalay, and is. the headquarters of theNorthern Shan States

,and ofthe Superintendent

in charge of them . The vil lage— for i t cannotbe called a town— has several European buildings

,the Residency

,the barracks, and the post

and telegraph offices . The populat ion i s a verymixed one

,and H indus

,Mohammedans , Bur

mans,and Shans each live in their own separate

quarters .

X IV . In a very hot c l imate l ike that of Burma ,where Europeans lose their strength rapidly, as

they do in the plains of India, it was useful andindeed nece ssary to look for some place at asuitab le alt itude

,healthy

,and not too damp,

where a sanator ium might be establ ished, on theexatnple of those which are to be found al l overIndia . I n 1 8 8 5 Colonel May was in commandof a regiment at the smal l village of Ely in

-u - lwin,

on the Shan plateau , at an alt itude of threethousand six hundred feet , to the north -east of

Mandalay and a litt le more than thirty mil esdistant from it . Colonel May was great ly struckby the beauty of the neighbourhood and theexcel lence of the cl imate

,and on his suggest ion

vis itors from the enervat ing Delta began to comein gradual ly increas ing numbers . The changeof temperature did them so much good that theyhad houses buil t numbers of I ndian shopkeepe rscame to sett le

,and the name Pyin -u - lwin was

given up in favour of Maymyo the town ofwhich was unanimously adopted to com

memorate the name ofthe founder ofthe place .

Maymyo is now the regular Burma hil l -stat ion .

The Lieutenant -Governor and the heads ofdepartment s spend the summer here . A cons iderable town has been formed and excellentroads have been cut through the j ungle . Areservoir for the drinking -water of the stat ionhas been constructed in the neighbour ing hi lls .

Shops of al l kinds have been establi shed,and

al l necessar ies are easi ly ob tainable . There areJapanese j inrickshas and t ikka -gbari s

,or hack

ney cabs,and Maymyo is reached from Mandalay

in four hours by rail,leaving the main line at

Myohaung junct ion , a short distance south of

Mandalay . The change from the p la ins to Maymyo is a very pleasant experience . There i s adel ightful freshness in the air

,and a ll around

one sees trees of great variety—teak , pine, ash,166

actual ly a subdivi s ion of the Mandalay districtand thus in Burma proper .

Maymyo may be the best *recognized hil ls tat ion

,but it i s not the only one

,for there are

many people who cannot go there . I t i s farfrom Rangoon and the stat ions of Lower Burma .

Consequent ly the people of Rangoon have chosenfor themselves a s ite in the hi l ls not far fromToungoo

,and have estab l i shed a hi l l stat ion in

a small vi llage cal led Thandaung . I t i s a convenient place for mercant i le people who can gothere on Saturday mornings and get back towork again at midday on Monday .

There are others who have chosen Taung-gyiin the Southern Shan States

,though it i s seldom

vis ited by any except offi cials . There can bel itt le doub t that with the extens ion of rai lwaysthere wil l b e other hill - stat ions in the mountainswith which Burma is so generous ly supplied .

The railway from Thazi wil l come no nearer thanfourteen miles from Taung -

gy i . I t i s alreadycompleted and opened to traffic to the s ixteenthmile

,and it i s expected to be open as far as

Kalaw and on to Aungban in 1 9 1 4 . Kalaw isalready marked out for a sanato rium . I t issaid to b e superior to Maymyo in every respect,and there are many who cons ider that Government headquarters may be moved thither . Butthis is not very l ikely

,for the bui lding of Maymyo168

must have cost a great deal , and it seems like lyto remain the final headquarters . MoreoverMaymyo and its neighbourhood are very healthy,and it is only four hours ’ rai lway journey fromMandalay

,which is a weighty considerat ion .

There are two trains dai ly from Rangoon,and

two which leave Maymyo dai ly direct for thatplace .

CHAPTER V I

THE A DMIN ISTRAT ION

I. A dministration The L ieutenant Governor and h is

Counci l . II. The different departments . III. D ivisionsand commissioners . IV . Forests . V . The jud icialBench and the magistracy . VI. Pol ice . VII. Pub licInstruction

,Publ ic Works

,&0. VIII . The army

Regiments and garrison posts. IX. Land administration.

X . Burma and India.

I . BURMA,as a province of the Anglo - Indian

Empire, takes it s orders from the V iceroy and

Governor -General,who has h is res idence in Cal

cutta, and from now on , under the orders ofKing

George V,will l ive in Delhi

,the ancient capita l

of the Great Mogul . The wish is to restore theold glories

,but the idea seems somewhat

chimerical in our modern days . A s a matterof fact

,al l I ndian life concentrates in the ports ,

and Calcutta is no less marked out to -day than itwas yesterday as the permanent capital of thecommercial and industrial Empire which is thetrue H industan .

Although Burma depends upon India from170

The Accountant -GeneralThe Inspector -General of Pri sons ;The Inspector -General of Pol ice ;The Commissioners of Rangoon ;The Port OfficerThe D irecto r of Publ ic I nstruct ion ;The B ishop of RangoonThe I nspector -General of C ivi l Hospital s ;The Chief Medical OfficerThe Chief Engineer ;The Superintendent of A rchmo logical

SurveyThe Superintendent of the C ivi l Veterinary

Department .

The heads of Post and Telegraph Departmentsand the Accountant -General are Imperial officersunder the Government of I ndia

,and so are the

officers of the Pub l ic Works and Forest Departments .

I I I . There are eight administrat ive divi sions :Arakan

,I rrawaddy

,Tenasser im

,in Lower

Burma ; Magwe , Mandalay, Sagaing , and Meik

t i la,in Upper Burma . A Commis sioner has

charge of each ofthese . The Shan and Karen -ni

States have an adminis trat ion of‘their own . Theyform a sort of Protectorate under the government oftheir chiefs

,control led by Brit i sh officers .

Each of the eight large divis ions i s subdividedinto a varying number of dist rict s ranging from

The Administration

three to five,over which preside Deputy -Commis

sioners,with‘Assistant-Commissioners to aid them .

These Commissioners and Deputy -Commissioner s for the far greater number belong to theI ndian Civil S erv ice

,but there are some un

covenanted officers who entered the serv ice atthe t ime of the annexat ion of Upper Burma in1 8 8 6

,and these form the Burma Commission ,

or Provincia l C ivi l Servi ce . Apart from thespec ial ized services

,such as Pub l ic I nstruct ion ,

the Pub l ic Works,the Forests

,the Medical Ser

vice,the Veterinary Department

,and the Post

and Telegraph officers,the c ivi l officers are men

of-al l -work . They are a lternately administ rat iveand revenue officers and judicial officers . Sometimes they are mayors or municipal officers

in Rangoon o r Mau lmein,and somet imes sub

divis ional officers in the vi l lages . They ad

minister the country and act as judges ; theysometimes pass into the Exci se or Customs Departments and col lect dues . They are the mainspringofthe administrat ion

,and must be able to under

take every b ranch of c ivi l employment . Theyhave to work hard

,but are wel l paid

,and at the

age of fifty-five are ent it led to have a pension

of a thousand a year if they belong to the IndianCivi l S ervice . All the B rit i sh administrat iveofficers in Burma are wel l -educated and capab lemen

,who know the country of which they are put

in charge,and are fluent in it s language . They

begin their work in smal l areas and chargesunder the t it le of subdiv isional officers

gradual ly,according to the ab il ity they, display,

r ise to the rank of Deputy -Commiss ioners and

Commissioners,some more rapidly than others .

In the subordinate execut ive servi ce the BurmeseGovernment employs many nat ives of the country

,under the name of Myoéks , act as

revenue and judic ial officers,and fi l l al l the minor

executive post s .

IV . The Forest Department includes a ChiefConservator ; four Conservators ; s ixty -sevenDeputy and Ass istant Conservators

,and about

a hundred and fifty officers of lower grade .

Formerly al l the forest officers studied in theForest School at Nancy

,but for some t ime they

have been sent in equal numbers to France andGermany

,where they are attached to the Forest

Service under the authority of the Governments.concerned . The Forest Service i s perhaps one

of the les s wel l organized,but in saying this we

must be understood to say that it i s not nearly,strong enough . I t i s easy to understand that thevast extent of the area covered by the forest swould ca l l for a staff three t imes that which isactual ly employed . This i s especially the caseif an end is to be put to the taungya cult ivation,as is the expressed resolve of the Government

Burma under Briti sh Ru le

X . The Judicial S ervice includes a H ighCourt in Rangoon

,compo sed of a Chief Judge

and five puisne j udges . At Mandalay there i sa Judicial Commissioner for Upper Burma . Inal l the towns ofboth parts ofthe province

,Upper

and Lower,there is a regular series ofDistri ct

Judges and D istri ct Magist rates,and i t i s not

uncommon to see Burmans,Mohammedans

Pars is on the bench as well as Englishmen .

The stations where the office of j udge i sreserved for members of the Indian Civil S erviceo r the Burma Commission are the fol lowingthe D ivisions of Hanthawaddy , Prome , Toungoo ,Maulmein

,Bassein

,Tenasserim

,Arakan

,Magwe,

Mandalay,Sagaing

,Meikt i la

,and the D istrict s

of Mandalay,Amherst

,Thaton

,Hanthawaddy ,

Prome,

Tharawaddy , Pegu,Toungoo

aungmya,Maub in

,Pyapon

,Bassein

,Henzada ,

Akyab,and as a general thing al l the othe r

distr ict s of Burma,except Rangoon and the

Arakan and Salween hil l t racts .

I have taken the fol lowing detai l s regarding thej udicial branch as it was reorganlzed i n 1 9 0 7 -8 ,

and as i t now exists , from the Report of theAdministration of Burm'a . The administrat ionof civil and criminal just ice i s under the cont rolof the H igh Court of Lower Burma

,with four

j udges,and of the Judicial Commissioner of

Upper Burma . S ix territorial D ivis ions and

The Admin istration

eight D is trict s have Sess ion Judge s ; Judges of

Divis ion are also Criminal Judges ; DistrictJudges have onl y civil powers . Everywherewhere the execut ive power is not separatedfrom the judic ial i t is the Commissioner whois at the same time administrator and magi strate . The separat ion of the execut ive and thejudicial s ides by the appointment of Distr ictJudges extends to the most impo rtant distr i ct sof Lower Burma

,as wel l as to Mandalay

it does not extend to Ky aukpyu , Sandoway ,Salween, Tavoy, Mergui , and Thayetmyo , wherethe Depu ty -Commissioner cont inues ex ofi

‘icio

to exercise the funct ions ofDistrict Judge . Nordoes it extend to Rangoon

,where the H igh Court

takes the place of the Distr ict Court ; nor tothe Arakan hi l l t racts

,which are governed by

special laws . I n the other thirteen D ist rict s ofLower Burma the Deputy -Commi s s ioner does nottake up civil cases . Sometime s four

,somet imes

three D istricts are grouped under the samejudge

,who s its in al l of them,

after the other I n addition to their civi lpowers it i s commonly the case for D ist rictJudges to be invested with the necessary criminalpowers

,so as to s it on the criminal s ide and to

help a Deputy -Commiss ioner,overburdenedl with

work . They may also hear appeals from decis ionso f the Second o r Third C lass Magis trates .

The Commissioners of Pegu,Tenasserim

,and .

I rrawaddy are freed from al l civi l and criminalwork . The Magwe and Minbu Commi s s ionerhas an assistant for the Thayetmyo D istri ct

the Commi s s ioner of Arakan continues to be bothcivil and criminal j udge .

Although the Rangoon Town D istri ct i s inthe Hanth‘

awaddy Divis ion,the assizes and

criminal appeal cases are taken by the Rangoon“H igh Court, and not by the Court of the Han.

thawaddy Divis ion . The provincial j udicialservice and the j ust ices of the peace come tothe ass istance of the subdivi sional officers and of

municipal it i es and rel ieve them of the j udicialcases which exceed their powers ofwork . TheH igh Court takes cognizance of al l cases whichconcern Brit i sh sub j ects who are whites . I t hasal so powers in Rangoon Town and D istr i ct inboth civil and cr iminal matt ers , to take casesin appeal , and even to intervene in bankruptcycases . I n Upper Burma the powers of a Courtof Appeal l ie witha the Judicial Commissioner ,except in cr iminal cases where a whi te B rit i sh'sub j ect i s involve d .

All the headmen of vi l lages have certainl imited j udicial powers , and not a few of themhave the powers of a civ il cour t, but they cannever take a criminal case . Final ly, there arethe Just i ces of‘ the Peace in the chief municipal

The Admin istration

towns , and these are generally of Blurmese

race .

V I . There are two kinds of pol ice . Thereis the C ivil

,which

,as in all other count ries , is

made up of and administered by superintendent s ,constab les , warders , and so on and there is theMilitary Poli ce . The Mil itary Pol ice were createdin 1 8 8 6 to deal with the daco its

,or rebel Burmese

who did not want t o submit to the new. Government and rose in revol t al l ove r the country .

The force was not done away with after the

pacification,and i t is st il l in exi stence . I t is

recruited from Indian soldiers and has Indianofficers

,who have special privileges given them ,

and the battal ions are under the command ofofficers from the Brit ish ‘Army . They serve fora five -years term and are attracted by the highpay . At the end of his five years the offi cerhas to return to regimental dut y for three years

and can then aga in en ter the Mil itary Pol ice fora further five years

,and al l the t ime

,while

seconded,he retains h is seniori ty in his own

regiment . Nowadays the Mil itary,Pol ice serve

most ly in the Shan States and in the front ierIDistricts .

V I I . Publ ic I nstruction is looked aft er by aD irector

,six Inspectors

,who are Engl i sh

a considerable number of sub -inspe ctors,who

are almost al l Burmese . There are ‘H igh‘

School s at Maymyo,Maulmein

,Prome

,Basse in

Rangoon,Minbu

,Tavoy

,Mergui

Sagaing . There are Normal School s in Mandalay , Rangoon , and Maulmein an Engineering.

Schoo l at I nsein,near Rangoon ; and a co llege

in Rangoon .

Publ ic Works,Posts and Telegraphs

,Publ i c

Health , the Eccles iast ical Service , Customs ,Excise—everything is organized

, officered, and

managed in the most admirable way . TheProvince governs and administers i tsel f

,under

the control of the Vi ceroy of India and of theSecretary for India

,who l ives in London . The

Home Government,however

,never interferes in

the managemen t of internal affairs . I f we compare French Indo -China with Briti sh Burma

what shal l we find ? On the s ide of Burma thereis an Administrat ion that knows what i t wants ,weal th which grows day by day, large capitalwhich does not shrink from coming to developthe resources of the count ry , which al l know tobe wel l governed and where they feel that theyare perfectly safe . On the other s ide, in I ndoChina

,there i s an admin is trat ion which i s con

stantly shift ing and never seems to know whati t wants to be at ; there are constan t abruptchanges according to the fancies ofthe Governors—and there are certainly enough of them atHanoi . The trade and the industries of the

have been conque red . They are the prope rtyof the country that administ ers them‘

,governs

them,and develops the i r r iches for it s own profit .

I t is,in fact

,thi s very d evelopment , carried out

in a reasonable way and with continuity,which

is the justificat ion fo r thei r existence . And thisvery development by the country which ownsthe colony brings comfort and c ivil izat ion withit . S ince the colony is the property of thenat ion

,i t has not the right to be put on th e

same foot ing as the govern ing country,and it

has no j ust ification or r ight to send repre sentatives to sit in the Home Parl iament . This i strue logic

,and no Engl ish brain wi ll unders tand

the posi t ion in any other way . I t needs Frenchsent im'ental ism' and fal se ideali sm to take anyother s tandpoint .

No one but the Minister and the colonialofficial s are qual ified to administer our po s sess ions

,sub j ect to the contro l of Parl iament—that

goes wi thout saying—but certainly not sub j ectto the int erference of Deputies

,and most

assuredly without Colonial Deputies to representthem .

V I I I . I f a colony is to b e defended and pro

tected,it i s indispensable that it should have

an army . Consequently in his great reorganizat ion of the for ces of the Emp ire in the year'

1 9 0 5 Lord Kitchener did no t forget Burm‘a .

P /zoto] [7 0ka7znes Co fl/anda/ay

WARM W EATHER .

To face p . 183 .

Police battal ions . The non - I ndian companies inthe Mil itary Pol ice are not even Burmese . They.are Kachins

,Shans

,and a few Taungthus .

Mandalay , Maymyo , and Rangoon each havea mil i tary staff . The ent ire body of the t roo psin Burma form a divi s ion

,commanded by a

Lieutenant -General,who lives the greater part of

the year in Maym yo .

There are,bes ides these

,battal ions ofVo lun

t eers,form ed by B ri ti sh cit izens in Bu rma

t ended to cc -operate with the mil itary fo r the

defence of the country in case of need . Theseare : the Port Defence Art il le ry in Rangoon , theRangoon Volunt ee rs

,the Maulmein Vo lunt ee rs

the Upper Burma Voluntee rs , with headquartersat Mandalay

,and the Railway Volunteers .

IX . The Cadast ral Survey of Burma is a comb ination of the plane table survey by theodol i teand the O rdnance Survey for minute detail s of

field - to -field survey . The country to be sur

veyed i s fi rst of al l divided into large polygon s,

whose geographical pos it ion i s ab solutely fixed,

and whose superficial area i s accurately workedout . Each large polygon is subdivided into anumber of smaller polygons , of smaller re lat ionto the general geography and exact ly calcu latedas to their area . Then ins ide these le s serpolygons there are others st il l smaller

,which

go by the Burmese name ofkwirzs and are rarely1 84

The Admin istration

bigger than a mile and a quar ter t o a mil e and

seven furlongs square . I n thi s way by proceeding from the greater to the l ess the poss ibility of error i s reduced to a minimum . The

area of the great polygons,cal culated with

mathemati cal exact itude,has to correspond with

that of the sum of the smaller polygons,

and unt i l th i s has been proved by repeatedcomparison neither the one figure nor theother is accepted . This i s carried ou t overthe whole extent of the country

,down to

the smalles t plot of r ice o r cereal c rops .

The B urmese field is a square or a rectangle,

where rice or other crops are sown,and i t s

boundaries are wel l marked . The supe rficial areavaries from an acre in the al luvia l plains of theDelta to a quar te r of an acre in the Prome andThayetmyo D is tri ct s . The area ofal l the fieldsin a kwin has to correspond wi th the total areaof the polygon in which the kwin i s s ituated .

I t may therefore wel l be said that the Surveyof

' Burma i s as wel l e stab l i shed as science canmake it .

The changes which occur during the year arenoted annual ly by the Department of LandRecords and Agricul ture

,changes of every kind

of cult ivation,ownership

,o r mere changes of

shape . This i s ab solutely necessary fo r thecal culat ion of the Land Revenue . Every year

there are stretches of waste land brough t undercul t ivat ion

,somet imes with the sanction of

Government,sometimes without it

,and it is

obviously necessary to know both the extent ofthese and the crops produced , for each cult ivator i s asses se d separately every. year , both inregard to the gro und which he brings undercult ivation and the harve sts he get s from it .Stati st ics are drawn up every year as to theprices

,sale s

,mortgages

,and harvests

,in order

that‘

the revenue officers may have a completeknowledge of al l the varying condit ions .

All r ights of pasturage and fi sher ies are alsodeal t wi th by the Land Records Department

which control s the col le ct ion ofrevenue,in order

to prevent fraud . The changes of crops and

in the fi sheries,and the great number of appli

cat ions for al lotments of land have so enormously increased of late years

,that i t has been

imposs ibl e fo r the executive officers to do morethan attend to the col lect ion of revenue

,and a

supplementary staff has had to be engaged toenable the Survey Department to keep pace withit . In this way a complete su rvey has been madeof the Lowe r Burma fisheries . Every D istricthas been deal t with as a whole , and then thelarger fi she ry areas have been subdivided . Fiveinkunwun,

or fi shery officers , have beenappointed

,four of whom car ry out the duty

Pasturage lands,which are not cult ivated but

are kept permanently for grazing purposes , al sohave to pay revenue at the two anna pe r acrerate .

Government makes remiss ion of demand whenthe crops are ei ther total ly ruined or are serious lydamaged by flood s

,drought

,o r other cause not

aris ing from anything the cult ivator has done .

I f there has been a total loss,the ent ire revenue

is remit ted . I f the loss i s only part ial,the re -a

mission corresponds with the los s . N everthe

l es s,in al l cases where the loss does not exceed

a third of the average crop there i s no rem i s s ion .

The land assessment system‘ in Upper Burmai s the sam-e as in the Delta ; but the system of

assessment is not yet final ly fixed,and gives

rise to a good deal of discuss ion . I t has,how

ever,been set tled that only the lands where the

c rops have matured shal l b e assessed,and that

there shal l be no demand from’ land's where theharvest has been bad

,nor from fallow land s .

A s a result of th i s the revenue from the DryZone is ve ry irregular in it s amount . The determination of the revenue in Uppe r Burma i smuch more diffi cult than in the Lower Provincefor this r eason . In Lower Burm‘a i t may al sobe said that the re i s onl y one agricultural seasonand only. one crop—namely, ri ce . There

consequence , the land settlement operat ions are188

T he Admin istration

carri ed on in the dry s eason . In Upper Burma,

on the contrary, the re are three agri culturalseason s and ve ry many kinds of crops . Moreover, there is onl y one form‘

of land -rent inLower Burma

,whereas there are several varieties

in Upper Burma . A s a conse quence ofthi s the reis no definite season for land sett lement

,and the

Set tlement Officers have to carry on the ir workal l through the year . When it is realized thatnothing is entered but lands on which crops havebeen reaped

,and that each field

,o r part of a‘

field,has to be special ly entered on a separate

register recording whether the harvest has been

good or has fail ed,i t wi l l be seen that the sett le

ment ope rations are mo re d ifficult and les stechnical .I n addition to this ther e is the o ld nat ional

Burmese thathfamea'a tax, which is a sort ofincome -tax . I t is calcu lated for each individualon the amount of land -tax he has to pay .

In Lower Burma rights over land in the

cult ivat ing district s are acquired according tothe rules laid down in the Land and RevenueAct (No . X I . of which has legal izedthe form of land acquis it ion which was customarywhen the territory. became a Brit ish possession .

Under this Act permanent possess ion can be

obtained,either by twelve years ’ continuous cult i

vation and regular payment of the revenue1 89

demand or by direct order of the Government .The fi rs t of these methods i s the more commonin the district s which have been for a very longt ime under steady cult ivat ion

,and distr icts

where there is very l itt le waste land . The secondmethod ofob tain ing. land is a concession to newsettlers on land which up t il l then had not beencult ivated . Such sett lers ge t exempt ion fromrevenue demands for a t ime

,which var ies

according to the greater or less difficulty and

labour implied in bringing the land under cu lt ivat ion . The owner of land can al ienate hisproperty at his own wil l and convenience

Governmen t exerc ise s all the author i t y poss iblein order to secure i ts transference to bona-fid

cult ivat ion . The ordinary condition of a ruralBurm‘an is that of peasant propr ietor ; nevertheles s the system ofrent ing to tenant s i s becomingmore and more frequent in Lower Burma . Theclass of tenant cult ivators i s general ly drawnfrom among those who formerly were peasantproprie tors

,but have been ruined in one way

or another and have been forced to sel l theirlands and become tenant -cu lt ivators .

There are,on the other hand

,especially in the

I rrawaddy Delta,many young people from

Upper Burma who have sett led there and createda family . I t is very difficult to get an exactidea of the number of propert ies so ld, where the

rights of propr ietors are the same as in the caseof the owners of rural land . But in the townso-f Rangoon

,Maulmein

,Akyab

,Bassein

Prome the purchase of ground is subj ect to theo ld national customary law

,which has been re

tained . In the latter three towns every one i sconsidered absolute owner who can prove uninterrupted possess ion over the per iod of thirty

years prior to the Act of 1 8 9 8 .

In Upper Burma the possess ion of land is

governed by the Upper Burma Land an ’dRevenue Regulation

,No . I I I . of 1 8 8 9 .

I n this part of the p rovince there are two

tenures : Stat e lands and non-State lands .

The S tate lands are the property of theGovernmen t

,or are at the disposal of Govern

ment,and they inc lude

1 . Burmese Crown Lands .

2 . Lands known as service lands,assigned

to a variety ofpersons who rendered service forthem .

3 . The is lands and alluvial format ions alongrivers—that i s to say , the lands subj ect tochange owing to the vagaries of the river .

4 . All lands which had not been broughtunder cu lt ivat ion and had no owners on the1 3 th July

,1 8 8 9 , except pagoda lands,

monas tery lands, and others devoted to the pur

poses ofrel igion or education , with the except ion19 2

The Admin istration

of the lands and curt i lage s of inhabited housesbui lt on these lands .

5 . Lands which were not under cult ivationand of which no one proved ownership beforeor up to the 1 sth July, 1 8 9 1 .

6 . Common lands .

In the case of heads Nos . 1,2,and 3 , the

Brit ish Government has s imply taken over therights of the Burmese Crown. I n the case of

heads 4 and 5 it has gone beyond this . TheKings of Burma never were in a position toestablish their right s over fa llow land broughtunder cult ivat ion . As a matter of fact

,any one

could cult ivate unoccupied lands, and thus

acquire rights which in the process of t imebecame hereditary . B ut on the other hand, salesof land we re of rare occurrence, and were contrary to custom,

and no r ight of private ownership could accrue in lands where ancientcommon rights existed . The British Governmenthas declared itself the owner of all unoccupiedand uncult ivated lands , and no one can S ett leon them except in accordance wi th the rules laiddown in the Act of 1 8 8 9 .

The Regu lat ion authorizes e leases for thirtyyears

,and also permits temporary occupation .

The cult ivators have the r ight to choo se e i therthe one or the other . The Regu lat ion also fixesthe revenue to be collected from these lands

and also remiss ions of revenue to the cult ivatorwhen he is forced to leave them fallow . I tmay

,however

,be remarked that these rules are

by no means popular in Upper Burma, and thatwaste lands are frequent l y occupied and cult ivated without any t it le whatsoever .

The non -State lands are the following.

1 . All lands cult ivated before the 1 3 th July,1 8 9 9 , and , on that date , in the occupation oftheperson who cul t ivated them .

2 . All lands cu l t ivated for several generat ionsand which have pas sed in regular descent toheirs

,or which have passed into the hands of

o thers by formal and acknowledged sale .

3 . All lands formerly granted with regu lart i t le -deeds by the Kings of Burma

,or by the

local Governors by formal deeds .

All the lands,whether of the one class o r the

other,are liab le to pay regular revenue to the

Government . This rat e of assessment i s basedon the different kinds of so i l and of crops

is fixed either in money or in produce . The

s cale and the amount of rent are determinedby ancient use and wont

,except in the irrigated

areas in Mandalay and Kyaukse. They mayvary. from a tenth of the outturn from poor so ilto one -half where the soi l i s fe rti le . I n thecase of the former a remiss ion is almost alwaysgranted when the harves t i s a bad one . With

Burma un’der British Ru le

of the 2 2nd January,

1 9 1 2 , urges that it wasIndia wi th her t roops that conquered UpperBurma

,and therefore it i s r ight that Burma

shou ld repay ‘ this . The Rangoon Gazette

repl ies to this with much cogency. and

reason that the cost of the expedit ionary forceand of the pacification must have been paidlong ago .

I f twenty years after the final pacification acontr ibut ion of R s . i s st i l l demandedfrom Burma

,it i s very clear that s ince thi s sum

has been pa id for twenty years the expenses incurred by India must certa inly have beencovered . Moreover

,who is i t that has most

profi ted by the annexat ion of Upper Burma ?There can be no doub t that it i s India herself .I t is a no torious fact that the march on Mandalay was due to Imperial necess ity . Thehistory of the years before 1 8 8 5 i s sufficient lywel l known

, and no one now denies tha t thereasons given at the t ime to j ust ify the annexation were intended to hide a secret proj ect . Theboundary between Upper and Lower Burma wasart ificial and fantast ical ; the Representative of

another Power was in treaty with King Thibawfor commercia l and indus trial concessions

,wi th

an eye to future more serious eventua lit ies . Ourteak trade was hindered ; it was nece ssary to

have a more natural and a more we ll -marked196

The Admin istration

frontier the mas sacres ordered by King Thibawand the weaknes s and fut il i ty of hi s policy— al lthese were causes of the war .

But as a matter of fact the real cause wasthe fear which the Government of the day had ofseeing another European Power set foo t in UpperBurma and so threaten our power in India . I twas therefo re more part icularly to safeguardIndia that we annexe d Burma . S ince that i sso

,why should the whole province pay for an

indefinite per iod an enormous sum ofmoney tothe Imperial Treasury

,when the north of the

province was taken over,not merely to guarantee

the pos it ion of the southern half, but a lso , andmo st of all

,for the safety ofthe Indian Empire ?

By all means let us pay a share , but let i tbe a reasonab le share and a fixed amount , notalways increasing year by year . We can makea very good use of our surplus for our own

benefi t . The rai lway system needs extension .

One has only to look at the t raffic which therailways now exist ing have created to realize thato thers ought to be built . The figure s of the

Po rt of Rangoon wi l l reveal to those who don-ot know of the marvel lous growth o -f B urmathat we need our own money fo r ourselves .

Money spent in Burma will b e money wel l spent ,and it wi l l bring in t ime large sum s into Indiancoffers I t wi l l be not merely fo r the so le

Burma under B r itish Ru le

benefi t ofBurma,but for al l the other provinces

of I ndia .

I have intended in making these quotat ions toshow how highly Burma is es teemed as a richyounger s ister . I t i s c lear enough that from'

now onwards this province is the most flourishing from all points of view of the provinces of

the Indian Empire . There is abundance of

money there ; people l ive there in a large waythough the cos t of l iving is very high . I ndianofficers who pass from India to service inBurma all receive an al lowance on account ofthe cost of l iving which corresponds with theirrank .

I t is therefore very certain that if mere ly thehalf of what is now poured into the I ndianTreasury were kept in Burma

,in a very short

t ime it would become very much more rich andvery much more prosperous than it i s even now

I Quoted from the RangoonGazette ofthe 22nd January andzrst February

,19 1 2 .

years had a service from Liverpool to Rangoon .

The steamers touch at Marseil les,Port Said , and

Colombo . The ships are excel lent ly fitted-out ,and are so buil t that they can keep the highseas even in the stormiest weather in quiteremarkable fashion . The passage moneyamounts to £4 5 , and if a return t icket i s takenthere is a very considerable reduct ion , according.

as the period i s for three months o r for two

years .

I cannot praise the B ibby Line too highly .

One is as comfortable on board their boats as i ti s poss ibl e to be on any boat making a longsea j ourney . They make the passage in twentythree days from Marseil les . From Liverpo oli t is sl ight ly over the month .

There is another direct l ine from Liverpoolto Rangoon—the service of

' the PatrickHenderson Company . The fares are somewhatlower

,but the comfort is not quite the same, and

these vessels are most ly patronized by subordi

nate officers and people of no great means .They are quite comfortabl e boat s to sai l in ;great attent ion i s paid to the passengers

there is not the luxury ofthe B ibby Line boats .

On landing in Rangoon,the fi rst thing to do

is to choose your hotel . There are several ofthem . First there i s the Strand Hotel on the

river - front,fac ing the harbour and the landing

I I . Of roads outs ide the town there are st i l lvery few

,especial ly metal led and macadamised

roads , kept in order with steam -rol lers . Nevertheless

, there are a few ofthem,most ly in Lower

Burma .

1 . There is one which leaves Rangoon in thedirect ion of Tharawaddy , passing through Insein,Taikgy i, and Thonze. From Tharawaddy i t goeson to Letpadan and Minhla . There i t stops forthe present

,but some t ime or other i t wil l

doubt,be carried on to Prome .

2 . From Pegu there i s a road which runsnorth to Nyaung -le-bin

,pass ing through Daiku .

I t seems l ikely that i t wi l l be carried on whenfunds are availab le as far as Toungoo . FromPegu there are al so some shreds and patches ofroads to the south

,the east

,and the west . They

show ambit ions to go on somewhere , and nodoub t wil l do so in the fu lnes s oft ime .

3 . From Thaton to Martaban by way of

Paung .

4 . From Maulmein to Amherst by way of

Mudon .

5 . From Toungoo to the Thandaung Sanatorium .

6 . From Thaz i to Taunggyi , the headquartersof the Southern Shan States .As for s imple country roads

,no t metalled,

there are plenty ofthem,and they are pract icab le

What to See in the Province

enough in the dry weather, but in the rains theyusual ly become bogs . Such are :

1 . From Sandoway to Gwa,on the Arakan‘

coast of the Bay ofBengal .2 . From Pantanaw to Myan -aung , fol lowing

the right bank of the I rrawaddy and pass ingthrough Henzada . From Henzada a roadbranches off to Ngan -naingaung .

3 . From Ma -ubin to Kyaiklat .

4 . From Gy ob ingauk to Paungde,Shwe

daung,Prome

,Padaing,

and Taungup .

5 . From Prome to Thayetmyo and Minhla,

and from Minhla on to Mindon .

6 . From Daiku to Toungoo .

7 . From Amherst to Ye .

8 . From Kyaikto to Papun .

9 . From Yedashe,on the main railway line

to Thayetmyo and Al lanmyo .

1 0 . From Pakokku to Pauk , and then fromthere northwards to Kan and beyond .

1 1 . From Meikt i la to Myingyan. From thi slatter town there are severa l sketchy roads invar ious direct ions .

1 2 . Round Mandalay there are several routesin variou s direct ions . There i s one from Mandalay to Chaung - l i from Sagaing to Shwebo ;from Mandalay to Maymyo

,H sipaw and Lashio

now superseded by the railway,so that the

greater number of sect ions are rapidly becoming203

gras s -grown vil lage roads . Mandalay,Sagaing

Alon,Mon-ywa

,Shwebo

,Tabayin

,Ye -u

daw,Kin -u

,and Thabeit-kyin are al l connected

with one an0ther by a network of routes .1 3 . From Tigyaing to Wuntho

,Banmauk

Katha .

1 4 . From Bhamo to Myit -ky ina . There i s averitable web of roads between these two towns .

1 5 . From Mogaung to Kamaing and beyond .

1 6 . Final ly,there i s a great road across the

Shan States from Taung -gyi to Kéngtfing .

Al l these roads are natural ly very elementary,and have to be freshly made after every rainyseason . Nevertheless

,they make trade possible

in defaul t of other means ofcommunicat ion , andthey are of great use for the cart s and otherwheeled traffic of the people of the count ry .

The European does not make much use of them ,

for where there i s no railway o r steamboat heusual ly travels on horseback .

I I I . I t was not for fi fteen years after theannexation of Lower Burma

,in 1 8 5 2 , that the

Engl ish thought ofbuilding a rai lway . The fi rstl ine

,which was aligned in 1 8 69 , was the one

from Rangoon to Prome . I t was sanct ionedunder the name of the Rangoon and I rrawaddyVal ley State Rai lway . Const ruct ion was not

begun t il l 1 8 74, and the l ine was opened to

t raffic in 1 8 7 7 . The distance from Rangoon toProme is exactl y 16 1 Engl i sh miles .

annexed . S ince the first l ines had been successful beyond the most sanguine expectat ion

B rit i sh Government thought,not unreasonably

that the wisest thing to do was to extend therailway to Mandalay . This was al l the moredesirable because i t wou ld greatly help the di spatch oft roops to put down the dacoit s and bandsof Burman rebel s who were sti l l out in the field .

So i t was begun,and by July

,1 8 8 8 , the line

reached Thawati,and by O ctober of the same

year was at Pyinmana,half-way from Rangoon

to Mandalay . On the I st ofMarch,1 8 8 9 , the

l ine was formally opened to Mandalay,the

brand -new Burmese capital,which dated from

1 8 5 7 and had already become a mere D istrictheadquartersI n 1 8 9 0 the construct ion of the Mu Val ley

railway was begun,running north towards Myit

kyina . The l ine starts from Sagaing , on the r ightbank of the I rrawaddy

,twelve miles to the south

of Mandalay , and the distance from there toMy it -kyina i s 3 3 5 miles Myit -kyina i s the mostnortherly of the Burma Districts at the end of

the spurs running down from Tibet . The sect ionfrom Sagaing to Shwebo was opened to traffic onthe 1 st of Ju l y, 1 8 9 1 , and it was pu shed on toWuntho in 1 8 9 3 . By O ctober of the same yearthe l ine was completed as far as Mo -hnyin, aswel l as the branch -l ine from Naba to Katha ,

carried on to H sipaw and Lashio , but the difficulties of construct ion were so great and thecost so enormous

,while the prospect s of t rade

were so small and the poverty of the country,

along the l ine so marked,that construct ion was

stopped . The l ine as i t exi st s i s 1 7 7 miles longfrom Mandalay to Lashio ; an iron bridge overthe Hokiit (or Gokte ik ) Gorge , on the nearers ide of H sipaw

,cost several mill ions . I t was

thought that H s ipaw could be reached by no

other route through so difficul t a count ry . Trainsrun only every other day between Hs ipaw andLash io l Between Mandalay and Maymyo thel ine c l imb s the hi l l by a serie s of revers ingstat ions

,which involved a very great deal of

work . The line is inspected very carefu l ly every,

day,for if a mishap were to occur the tra in wou ld

topple into the ravine .

On the i 5 th of April , 1 900, a l ine fromSagaing to Monywa and Alon

, on the River.Chindwin

,was opened to traffic .

Three years later,

‘in Apri l,1 9 03 , a branch

l ine from Letpadan,on the Prome l ine

,was con

structed to Tharawaw,where the river i s crossed

by ferry to Henzada,and from Henzada the l ine

is carried on to Bassein . At this t ime,in 1 9 03 ,

the total length of the l ines open to traffi c wasmiles .

Four miles were added to thi s in 1 9 0 5 by the208

opening of suburban l ines at Bas sein . In thi ssame year were commenced the firs t operat ionson the Pegu -Martaban l ine

,to the other s ide of

the river from Maulmein. The length of thel ine is 1 2 1 miles . A s works of engineer ingskil l, the bridges over the Pegu and SittangRivers are worth not ing . Another l ine wasbegun between H enzada and Kyangyin, a distance of s ixty-five miles . Final ly, thi s same year,1 9 0 5 , saw the beginning of the examination of

the ground for the construct ion of ( 1 ) a l inefrom Prome by the Taungup Pass to connectArakan with Rangoon

,a distance of 1 1 3 miles ;

( 2 ) a l ine from Pegu to Syriam,wi th a length of

sixty-seven miles ; ( 3 ) ofa circular l ine , to theeast of the River Daga

,between Neikban and

Begayet,covering s ixty miles ; and ( 4 ) a line

from P yin -mana to Magwe , distance 1 00 miles .During the two fol lowing years no new line

was Opened to traffic,but cons iderable progress

was made on the two l ines under construct ionthe Pegu -Martaban -Maulmein l ine and theBassein -Henzada-Kyangyin l ine . These twol ines at the t ime ofwrit ing are working .

A railway survey party was sent out to ascertain the poss ibil it ies of a 2 -ft . 6-in. l ine fromBhamo to T‘

éngyiieh , in the Chinese Province ofYiin-nan Nothing has

,however

,yet been

decided on thi s subject .209

The year 1 9 10 saw nothing in the way ofrailroad construct ion except the beginning of thel ine which is to open up the Southern ShanStates

,start ing from Thaz i on the main line and

running eastwards . Many proposals were sub

mitted to Government , but none of them wassanct ioned .

The Pyinmana -Magwe l ine and the Daga -Hen

zada -Basse in -Neikban -Begayet are st i l l held up,

because of the heavy character of the work .

A private b ranch l ine was opened on the Mandalay -Lashio railway to connect the Burma mineswith the rai lway .

Suggested l ines were from Zada'

bin to Chittagong to connect Arakan with Bengal

,so that

if the Taungup l ine were constructed, one mighttravel from Rangoon to Calcutta b y rail ; fromMaulmein to Ye ; and from Malagon to.

Dawbong .

Thu s , although a great deal remains to bedone

,the Bu rma railway

,system has great ly

quickened communicat ion and has linked together al l the great centres . Rice i s p i led uphigher and higher at Rangoon , and only remainslong enough there to pass from the truck to thesteamer ’ s hold for a harbour l ine runs a ll alongthe r iver front, and mak es loading an easymatter . Rice i s the wealth ofBurma, and thereis never any dear th of it . I t wou ld also be the

I n 1 9 1 1 the expenditure of the BurmaRailways Company

,Limited

,amounted to

of which were for

the rol l ing stock . The chief items of expen

diture otherwise were : the doub l ing of l ines,the

rebuilding of old s tat ions,houses for the staff

the building of new bazaar -s tal l carr iages . Thesemarket carriages are simply

,shops set upon

wheel s and at tached to the ordinary trains, not

the expres s t ra ins . The stal l -keeper sett les himself down in one of them,

and makes his salesat every stat ion the t rain stops a t . This i s a

very cons iderab le advantage for the pedlar , anda great convenience for the Burman peasant

who i s rel ieved of al l troub le, and does not nee-dto go to the towns fo r what he may stand in needof The I rrawaddy Flot i l la Company long ago

set up shop -steamers which shop at al l the smallvil lages on the banks of the r iver. The stallkeepers travel in thi s way from Rangoon toBhamo in cons iderat ion of a fixed rent paid tothe company . Bes ides thi s a

,good deal was

expended on the complete rebuilding of theRangoon railway -stat ion

,which has made great

progres s . The doub le l ine of rai lway betweenPegu and Pyuntaza was opened to traffic at theend of June .

The embanking on the fi rs t sect ion of theSouthern Shan States l ine i s finished and the

br idges nearly completed . The rai l s have beenlaid for a distance of fourteen miles from Thazij unct ion

, and quite recent ly the fi rst sect ion upto the seventeenth mile has been Opened totraffic ; 1 0 locomot ives

,1 5 th ird -class carriages ,

1 6 goods -vans,

1 5 0 catt le -trucks,and 1 00

ballast -trucks were also added .

The gross revenue exceeded that of the previous year by more than rupees

maintenance charges reach about the same figure .

The net revenue in 1 9 1 1 was R s . morethan in 1 9 1 0 .

Nineteen mil l ion third clas s passengers werecarr ied

,more than one mill ion increase on 1 9 1 0 .

The goods traffic prospered equal ly . The tab leof receipt s and expenditure for 1 9 1 0 - 1 1

July to July,i s as foll ows

Receipts .

Passenger trafficGoodsOther receiptsGross receipts totalCost of

N et receipts

The accounts of the company showed aprofi t of 1 9 3 . 2d .

,added to the balance

on the 3 oth June in London of £ 5 I 2 5 . 8d .,

which made for the year an availab le total of2 1 3

Burma under Briti sh Ru le

1 1 5 . r od . The dividend of threequarters per cent . was paid on the I st Julyand amounted to I OS .

,which left a

credit balance of I S . 1 od .

-Wh en are o -ur Indo -Chinese and Yun -nan‘

Railways going to reach a posit ion l ike this ?IV . Bes ides land routes and rai lways

,there

are, in a country so wel l watered as Burma,a

number of waterways on which low -draughtsteamers ply after the fashion of the Americanr iver - steamers . The river navigat ion i s ent irelyin the hands of the I rrawaddy Flot i l la Company .

There are services from Rangoon to Mandalaywith stoppages at Henzada

,Prome

,Thayetmyo

Yenangyaung,Pagan

,Pakokku

,Myingyan

Myin -mu . These steamers leave Rangoon on

Mondays and Thursdays for Mandalay, and thereturn j ourney from there is on Wednesdays andSaturdays at daybreak .

From Mandalay to Bhamo,with“ stoppages at

Kyauk -myaung,Thabeitkyin

,Kyaukhnyat

Tagaung,Tigyaing

,Katha

,Shwegu

S inkan . The ves sels on thi s l ine leave Mandalayon Tuesdays at eight in the morning

,and reach

Bhamo on the Friday . They leave Bhamo atseven o ’clock on Saturday mornings

,and reach

Mandalay on the Monday .

From Prome to Thayetmyo and back steamersgo every day except Monday . They leave Prome

returning in the evening . The s teamers whichply on the Chindwin River leave Pakokku onThursday mornings

,stop at Monywa the follow

ing morning, and go on to Kindat,s topping at

Alon, Mawkadaw,Kale

,Mingin

Masain. On the return j ourney they leaveKindat onWednesday in each week .

The Brit i sh India Company ’ s steamers leaveRangoon for Calcutta direct every Monday,carrying the European mails . The steamersleav ing on Thursday and Saturday stop at thecoast po rts

,Sandoway, Kyaukpyu,

Akyab, andChittagong .

A steamer from Rangoon for Madras directleaves on Saturdays

,and from‘ Rangoon to

Pinang and Singapore on Fridays .

S teamers for Maulmein leave Rangoon threet imes a week

,on Mondays

,Wednesdays , and

F r idays,at seven in the morn ing

,arriving at

Maulmein at four in the afternoon .

The I rrawaddy Flot i l la steamers, and those ofthe Brit ish - I ndia

,are very comfortab le, very

clean,and very wel l kept up . I have made

several voyages on the river from Mandalay,northwards, and I have nothing but pra i se forthe accommodat ion

,for the food

,and for the

courtesy and capab il ity of the officers .

V . Now that the means of gett ing aboutBurma have been descr ibed, it may be usefu l

to indicat e some excurs ions about the country .

I t must be understood that Burma has none ofthe marvels of India . India is without an equalin the world . There i s no place l ike India. fora success ion of magnificent monuments in themidst of delightful scenery . Nevertheless Burmahas many attract ive j ourneys and many fine relicsof the past .

The country itself is divided into two sharplydiffer ing parts—the Delta, and the plain fromRangoon to Mandalay . The p lain is shut inon the west by the mountains of Arakan and on

the east by the Karen and Shan hil ls . H erethere is no edge to the horizon

,stretch ing away

over a ‘huge plain,damp and green with r ice

fields in the s ummer months ; dry and showingnothing but rice -stubble after the harvest in thedry season . Here and there are a few woodedclump s and coppices vi l lages surrounded bybamboos and mango - trees herds of buffaloesand catt le grazing as they wander

and then,huge fl ights of egret s and herons

,ducks

and geese . A striking air ofmelancholy seemsto brood over this plain

,which forms the wealth

ofBurma,when one i s carr ied through it behind

a locomotive in the midst of the torrent rains ofthe summer . Everything seems to be drownedand under water . On the other hand, when thedry season has come and the water has run off

the sun gives this grey plain a kind of loveliness,

modulated by the distance of the horizon . I t isclear that it is not here

,i t is not in the Del ta

of Rangoon and Bas sein that one has to lookfor the smil ing views of Burma . One has totravel farther north . Mandalay already hasquite a different kind of scenery . I t i s not thatthe plain in which it l ies has a more exhilarat inglook, but the first spurs of the Shan tableland,which shelter i t to the north -east and east , andthe hil ls of Sagaing to '

the south -west , give i ta more picturesque appearance

,and one which

suggests a much more agreeab le countryThe divis ion of the seasons or monsoons , a s

a matter of fact,are not al l the same in Lower

and Upper Burma . I n Lower Burma the alternating south -west and north -east monsoons aresharply marked

,and cause two well -defined

seasons : the rains and the dry weather . Fromthe end of April o r the beginning ofMay t i l lthe month of July the south -west winds bringup the clouds laden with moisture over theforest s of Pegu

,and there they dissolve in

abundant rain . They fal l every day throughoutth is t ime

,and at the beginning and the end are

usually,in addit ion

,characterized by viol ent

s qual l s . The air i s fi ll ed with electrici ty,l ight

n ing flashes and thunder grow l s almost withoutinterrupt ion . Pagodas , high bu i ldings , and lofty

S ummer is not preceded by a smil ing springas it i s in Europe . The change from cold tohot is very sudden

,so much so that it i s pre

cisely in the months of March and April that themaximum heat temperatures are recorded . Ihave seen the thermometer r i se to 4 2

in the shade . I t i s about this t imethat the trees begin to renew their leaves . Theyare mostly

,as in all countries in the Torrid Zone

evergreens . On the Shan Tab leland,however

some trees,more

,especial ly the oaks

deciduous l ike the trees . of Europe . UpperBurma

,although it i s in a considerably higher

lat itude,has much% greater heats and much

longer,on account of the mountains which shut

i t in . During the hot and dry season there areoften fogs which hang over the I rrawaddy andits t ributaries

,and do not ri se t i l l midday:

I t is thus very clear that there i s a greatdifference between the north and south of theprovince There is a very well -marked divis ionthe Delta and the low plain of Rangoon up toToungoo ; the upper country from Toungoo toMandalay and beyond

,and the Shan Tableland .

Europeans who have become accustomed to theclimate of the Delta dis l ike Upper Burma . Onthe other hand, later comers , s ince the Annexat ion of 1 8 8 5 , who have never l ived except inUpper Burma, do not wil l ingly suit themselves

to the cl imate and the level monotony of theIrrawaddy Delta .

V I .-What becomes of the European in these

tropical countries , where he is always more orles s exposed to the rays ofa scorching sun? H e

l ives there none the les s and accommodates himself to it very well . I knew a Frenchman whocame to Burma in 1 8 5 5 . His place of res idenceis Prome, and there he l ives , act ive, energet ic ,and in good health . I have met a miss ionary inLower Burma, at Henzada, who had carried on

h is apostol ic work for fifty years without everreturning to France, and had never had a day ’ ss ickness . There are English and German merchants who have been in Burma for twenty,thirty, forty y ears , and have b id defiance to thecl imateThe reason ofthis i s that although the cl imate

ofBurma is hot, it i s not unhea lthy . I t is notto be compared with the atrocious cl imates ofS iam or Cochin -China . These lands are shutoff from the breezes of the high seas by the

peninsula of Malacca ; they are not braced upby the b reath of the sea . Rangoon and the

whole of the Delta ofLower B urma are exposedto the fu l l blast of the south -west monsoon .

Thus even when there is a temperature of ahundred in the shade, there is always a noticeab le br eeze in Rangoon which freshens up

towards evening and gives one good sleep andrest . This is the great point . I f one can sleepat night , the heat of the day does not matter .

At the same time,i t must not be forgo tten

that if the English in Burma stand the cl imatebetter than the French do in Cochin -China

i s not entirely due to the difference in thec l imate, but also and more part i cularly to thedifference in the way of l iving This is a quest ion which I have put to many people, and Ithink I have the answer to it . I t i s beyond dispute that the French in Indo -China have farmore wastage than the English in B urma . AtSaigon

,among the Europeans

,whether soldiers

o r c iv il ians,there are always great numbers of

s ick men with’ dysentery,l iver complaints

most of al l anaemia . I n Rangoon , Europeans,c ivi l and mil itary

,are equal ly more liab le to

s ickness than they are in Europe,but in com

parison there are fewer s ick,and the English

man living in Rangoon has not the wan lookof papier maché that the French res ident of

Saigon has .

What i s the cause of i t ? Most people say

alcohol s traight away, but I think thi s idea mustbe summari ly rej ected

,for the Englishman

his club s and bars , drinks just as much as , ifnot more than, the Erenchman in his cafes

There are many other reasons that have been222

cise suits him bes t—r iding on horseback or on

b icycle, walking, or rowing . At nine o ’clock

they bathe and have breakfast . Then they work,in spite of the heat

,from ten ti l l one . There

are punkahs,and since every one has had his

exercise in the morning,he is supple instead of

heavy . Moreover,if one does one ’ s work ,

there is no t ime to notice the heat .At one o ’clock a l ight lunch is taken

work goes on again t i l l five o ’clock . Theneverybody takes up some kind ofspo rt or o theryoung. and old

,women and gir ls . Some play

golf,some tennis

,some football

,some hockey,

some badminton . Unt i l seven at night everyone has what i s called a constitut ional

,and then

they go to the club . From there al l go hometo have a bath, change of clothes, and dinner .

They sleep well afterwards,because they are

we ll balanced phys ically and moral ly .

I am convinced that the ent ire secret of theEnglish for keeping. well in tropical countries issummed up in the word exercise . We Frenchmen sti l l fol low the colonial way of the seventeenth century : a hammock , a s iesta, andlounging about wh i l e the slaves work . TheEnglishman works himself ; he has no siesta,he stirs abou t

,and his system is al l the better

for it . The Englishman resis ts the cl imate andthe Frenchman falls a victim to it .

The firs t res idents in Burma,when they estab

lished themselves in Rangoon , Bassein , Prome ,and other places

,built themselves houses of

wood,open to all the winds , with Venet ian blinds

instead of windows . They had spacious rooms ,long and broad verandas

,roofs of thatch o r of

s lips of tough wood ; their houses were healthybecause they were airy

,and they were very

easily kept up . There are sti ll some of themleft

,and I have experienced their charm and

their comfort . Nowadays they are beginningto disappear

,and in their place we see houses

of brick and stone . They are mo re architectural

,more European

,but neve rthe les s they

are perhaps less comfortable in the Burmaclimate

,and in my opinion they are hotter .

Under the influence of this fashion,in no great

number of years,when the old -style house has

quite disappeared,Rang-con w i l l take on quite

the look of a European town . There will bethe same furn iture

,the same wealth of stuff

curtains,carpe t s

,knicknacks—and one is tempted

to ask oneself if all this is no-t out of place inso sultry an atmosphere . In h is excellent bookon the Netherlands Indies

,M . Cabaton has

noted the same changes and has expressed thesame regrets in regard to the Javanese colonist sand offic ials .

I t is the same with clothing,and in regard to

22 5 P

this I differ absolutely from the Engl ish viewFo rmerly it was the custom in the tropics to

dress in white . A smal l network singlet , aj acket w ith a mi litary co l lar

,like a tuni c

a pair of trousers— that was the wear . This washealthy

,s imple

,and al l that was needed

one could change the whole suit often,and it

was quite poss ib le to have ' two o r three dozenof these outfit s without straining one ’ s re source s .

This style of dress i s st i l l usual in the Frenchcolonies

,but the later comers are bringing with

them the English fashion . The English customin India and in Burma is to have everything thesame as in Europe

,and the white suit has been

rej ected because the half-caste,the chi-chi, so

looked down upon by the English , dresses inwhite . I f the Euras ian dres ses in white theEuropean mus t not dress l ike him Cou sequent ly even in the st ifl ing temperature of Apri land May

,the Eng l ishman put s on a starched

shirt with co l lars and cuffs,j ust as if he were

in Regent Street,and over this he wears flannel

or cloth,grey , blue, or white, l ike the most

e legant lounge suits of the London tailors . Andin the evening

,when he has finished his exor

cise games and had a whisky -and -soda and acigar with his friends at h is c lub

,he go es home

to dress in a tai led coat and white t ie for dinThere are st i l l some of the older residents

have the part icular caste,the Heaven -born

they are ca lled by those who are not so born .

This is ent irely made up of the all -powerfulpersonages who belong to the Indian C ivi lService

,which also supplies the administrators

of Burma . This i s the acme of sacro -sanct ity,

and these gent lemen,and the i r wives

,have re la

t ions wi th nobody but one another, and do no tdeign to go outs ide their caste to widen theiracquaintance . Even the highest mil itary officersare bare ly admitt ed to an occasional tea o r adinner with them now and again .

The mili tary also l ive% apart,and do not always

get on very well with the civil ians . They havetheir c lubs and their messes

,and they keep very

much to themse lves . The subordinate execut iveservice forms another society

,of its own. The

merch ants form another . In fact,beyond some

genera l gatherings which cannot be avoidednatio-nal celebrat ions or Government House bal ls

where everybody is invited— every one lives inhis own c irc le . Although

,as I have already

said,th is is somewhat ludicrous at fi rst s ight , I

am not sure that it i s not good for the service sand for socia l relations . Every one i s in h is

own place , which is particularl y. desirable inO r ienta l countries . The Engl ish in Burmawe lcome foreigners and rece ive them in the mostfr iendly way . I pr ide myself greatly on the

who,some think

,themselves came from Tibet .

The town covered a c ircular area with a diameterof about two and a half miles

,and conta ined

several quarters of different national it ies , eachof which had one or two Buddhist bui ldingswhich served as shr ines for communities ofBuddhist monks . I t was surrounded by afort ified brick wall

,the ends of which were

marked by four pagodas,built of brick and

about ninety feet high .

Some t ime in the ninth century the Burmesewere attacked by the Talaings or Mon andret ired from Prome to the Upper I rrawaddy .

The travel ler can devote a day to theruins of Prome

,which may be reached either

by rai l or by one of the I rrawaddy Floti l las teamers .

The Government of Burma has done someexcavation work

,and General de B eylié , under

the author ity of the Viceroy of India,has also

made some extended researches . He foundnothing but some stelae

,or pillars

,and votive

plaques,and two inscriptions in an unknown

language,which have so far remained unde

ciphered . Everything that has been discoveredso far proves conclus ively that i t was the s iteof a sett lement from India— o r at any rate thatthere were many Indians there .

After Prome the ancient ci ty of Pagan deserves230

a’ vis i t . In the e leventh century Pagan was theBurmese capital

,after the ret irement from

P rome . Pagan again was abandoned in its turnin the thirteenth century

,about the year 1 2 8 4,

and nothing remains of it but ruins . TheChinese

,or Mongol , invas ion fo l lowing the ap

pearance of Kub lai Khan has l eft nothing butthe memory of its glori es . Tradition says thatKub lai Khan

,who was then Emperor of China ,

sent a great army aga inst the Burmese toavenge the murder of one of his ambassadors .

The King of Burma tore down a thousand greattemples to fort i fy the city against the Chinesetroops

,and bes ides these a thousand small

temples and four thousand pago das to furn ishhim with material for defence .

lBiut beneath oneof the pagodas therewas found a prophecy whichcaused him to give up h ope

,and he fled an-d

gave up the city . Although it is qui te in ruins,

Pagan has,even now

,nearly e ight hundred

temples and pagodas,with d-omes and bell

turrets and pyramids of the most fantast i c architecture . Seve ral of the temples r ise to a heightof over one hundred and eigh t feet . Pagan is

in fact,the mos t remarkab le re l igious ci ty in

the world from the point of view of the multitude of its temples and the wealth of des ign andornamentat ion which make the o ld abandonedcapita l a marvel . Nowadays a few huts on the

r iver bank mark the s it e of the town, but forover six miles along. the bank of the riverpagodas of al l s izes and of every kind ofarchitecture are st i l l to be seen

,and the ground is

so covered with crumpled remains that onecannot take a step without treading on somesacred th ing . A few of the bui ldings have beenrestored by pious hands and rise up whiteagainst the sky , in the midst of others like themwhich have not had the good fortune to findany one to take care of them

,and look all the

mo re pitiful from the contras t .Three of the great temples in part icular have

been renovated,as wel l as some others of less

importance,and they are the goal of many

pilgrims but the vast maj or ity have been givenover to the bats and the owls

,and there are

o thers which serve as byres for cows .

The three pr incipal temples are the Ananda ,the Thapy inyu ,

and the Gaudapalin, all of themclose together at the south s ide of the town .

The Ananda is a perfect square,with other

smaller squares proj ecting on each face . I t hasseven stages diminishing in size the higher theyare

, so that they form a pyramid . Inside oneach of the four faces there is a chapel with astatue of the Buddha thirty feet high . I t i sthought that this temple was built in the eleventhcentury

Mandalay,and then down r iver to Pagan

[Nyaung-u ], which is not far from the s ite .

After Pagan the travelle r should make forA va

, the o ld capital,founded in 1 3 64 by.

Thadominbya . I t stands at the j unct ion of theMyitnge with the I rrawaddy

,and the city was

bui lt on an art ificial is land,formed by a canal

called the My itthachaung ,which j o ins the

Myitnge with the I rrawaddy . H ouses are s cattered here and there now

,and from a dozen o -r

so of l itt le hamlets,both inside and outside the

old city walls . The city is in the north -easternangle of the is land . The wal l i s surrounded bya moat

,which is open on the eastern s ide and

closed to the north in the direct ion of the I rrawaddy . The pa lace wall

,in its turn

,i s sur

rounded by another moat . Of the old palacenothing remains but a tower very much inclinedto one s ide and almost ru inous . The wall s

however,are very solid and very formidable .

Ins ide the walls are to be found cult ivat ed fields,

houses,monaster ies

,and heaps of brick which

at one t ime were pagodas . The whole co lleet ion is well worth seeing, and the V i ew of theancient capital is one of the quaintest to be seenon the I rrawaddy .

'A v_a was given up forAmarapura

,but again became the capital from

1 8 2 2 to 1 8 3 7 .

Amarapura,the C ity of the Immortals

founded in 1 7 8 3 , and for a long t ime remainedthe capital of the Burmese kingdom . At thepresent day , though it i s l it t le

ove r a centuryold

,it i s absolute l y a ruin . Am arapura was in

the form ofa square . The King ’ s palace , whichhad nothing striking about i t

,was bui lt of so l id

masonry,and stood in the north -east corner of

the city . Alongside one can st il l se e the RoyalAudience Hall

,which relat ive ly is in a fair state

of preservat ion . Beyond the remains of theroyal buildings nothing is to be seen but pilesof bricks

,in the midst of which millet and

sesame fields are scattered .

A wall s ix feet thick and a wide mo-at,which

can st il l be traced,surrounded the royal town .

I t was here that the first English Embassy came,

mentioned in the first chapte r of this book .

In 1 8 60 Amarapura ceased to be the cap ita l ,and its place was taken by Mandalay

,an entire ly

new to-wn,which King Mindon commenced when

he ascended the throne in 1 8 5 2 .

Nothing need be said of Mandalay,which has

already been described,but round Mandalay I

would direct attent ion to the tombs of theBurmese Kings

,Mandalay H i l l and the Mingon

Bell .Ming

on is a vi llage in the Sagaing D istrict,

and the ridge which rises above i t offers to whoever takes the troub le to cl imb it a remarkable

view ofMandalay,Kyaukse, A va,

Sagaing , andShwebo . I t s tands fifteen hundred feet abovemean sea l eve l

,and from its crest the view ex

tends to the S ekyataung ,in Myingy an D ist rict

and to the mountains of the ruby -mines .

There are several famous pagodas at Mingonthe E indawya,

buil t in 1 66 2 ; the S etdawya,

in 1 7 9 0 ; and the S inbyu -mibuya,buil t in the

same year Two ancient shrines,buil t by the

King Th iridhammathawka i n 8 66,the Shwe

myindin and the S utaung -pyi,are st il l standing

but the great wonder of Mingon is the famousbel l, which i s said to be second only to the one

at Moscow . I t is hung from a stout tripl e beamstrengthened with i ron . The beam rest s on twobrick pil lars surrounding two massive teak post s .

They have been so shaken by var ious'

earthquakes that support s of wood were put underthe bel l

,and these were carved with grotesque

figures . I n sp ite of al l thi s the bel l fe ll to theground in 1 8 9 5 , and in the fol lowing year theCommiss ioner ofSagaing had i t hoisted up again .

Traces of gold and s i lver can be seen in thebronze

,which have not mingled with the mass

of the metal . The bell weighs about a thousandtons

,according to popular Burmese report . As

a matter of fact , the thickness of the metal variesin different part s from five and a hal f to overel even inches

,and its weight i s eighty tons .

I would also recommend two other excurs ionswhich can easi ly be made , the one by steamer,the other by rai l . The s teamer journey is fromMandalay to Bhamo by the defiles of the UpperIrrawaddy . The first defi le narrows in the riverto a channel about eight hundred yards wide .

Here the river flows ‘for a distance oftwenty -fivemiles be tween a series of low h i l l s dense l ycovered with evergreen tree s . The scenery i svery fine . The forest growth reaches to the

water ’ s edge,and here and there on the river ’ s

brink one can see some Burmese fi shermen’

vil lage h idden away among the greenery . The

other defi le,which i s r eached after passing.

through the flat country which separates the two ,

is much shorter . I t is only five mi les long,but

it is much narrowe r,only a litt le over 1 5 0

yards wide,and the water rushes through

it with many Whirlpoo ls and eddies . I t isbordered on both banks by wo oded hil ls one of

which ri ses 600 feet of sheer cl iff from the water,and has on i t s face a small gi l t statue of theBuddha .

Th ere i s far finer scenery to be seen in the.mountains of Burma”espe cial ly in the Karen ,Chin

,and Kachin Hil l s

,but these places are

not easily got at,whereas the defiles ofthe upper

river are easi ly viewed from the comfort of thede ck of one of the I rrawaddy Floti lla steamers .

I t is the same with the Hokiit (or Gokteik )Gorge

,which is reached by the railway from

Mandalay to Lashio,and

,as a matter of fact ,

there is a station at the Gokte ik . Gokteik'

Ngok -teik,is the Burmese name of a smal l Sh'an

vil lage,whose nat ive name is Hokiit . Both mean

the place where the water goes underground .

I t has become famous because,thanks to the

railway,vi si tors may come from everywhere to

see a phenomenon which i s not by any meansuncomm on

,but has the suggest ion of the mar

vel lons to the O riental mind . This is the disappearance underground of the Nam Pase

,which

vanishes for some distance into the ear th andcomes out again far ther on. B ut the mostst riking. thing about i t

,in my opinion

,i s the

beauty of the surrounding scenery . There aredel ightful hi l l - slopes covered al l the year roundwith flower -bloom

,the clear splash of waterfall s

the freshness of the air,al l of which remind ed

me of Yun -nan and its c losed -in landscapes ,which

,when once they have been seen

,can never

be forgotten .

Above the gorge,from one hil l -face to the

other,a magnificent iron bridge has been bui lt .

This is a mighty work,which may be compared

with the bridge over the Red River at Hanoi .Unhappily

,thi s mass of metal does not b lend

wel l with the l ines of the natural s cenery .

CHAPTER V I I I

PRODUCT S

The most important products after rice—Teak . II. Cutch(catechu) . III. Rubber. IV . S ilk . V . Coal in the ShanStates . VI. Tobacco . VII. Cotton. VIII . Mineralwealth—Petro leum. IX. The Mergu i pearl-fisheries .

X . Burma beans .

I . THE working and export of teak t imber i sone of the chief resources of' Burma . Burmaand Siam are the two chi ef producers of thi suniversal ly used wood . Up to recent days thesupply seemed inexhaustib le

,but of late Con

servators of Forest s have taken alarmist viewsand have warned the Government of Burmaagainst the great diminut ion of teak in the forestsand consequentl y on the market . The truth i sthat the Government and the private firms whichare especial ly connected with the working of

teak are beginning to. be alarmed,and are

afraid that the reduced product ion and theprices

,which have ri sen so greatl y of late

,wil l

l ead to the use of other t imbers in the place of240

Products

teak,and wi l l deprive Burma of its posit ion as

chief producer of teak tim'ber in the world . A s

a matter of fact,the teak of Java and the

jarrah of Austral ia can be used instead of Burmateak for various purposes

,for whi ch up til l

recently nothing but teak was bought .For some years now importation into Europe

has fal len off,in the proport ion of 40 per cent .

Prices have ri sen very considerably . From £ 1 1

a ton they have gone up lately to £ 1 9 or £ 2 0 ,

and English stocks have fall en off by 5 0 percent To thi s must be added a tendency to areduced expo rtat ion to India on account of thecompetit ion of S iam and Java , and also becauseof“ the quant it y of t imber unsuited to Indianuses .Siam teak has made great st rides in the Indian

market, and the minus value in the 1Blurma

export corresponds steadi ly with the plus valueof S iam .

What are the causes of this reduced exportat ion of teak from Burma to India? There are

several1 . The reduction in the Burma forest s of the

number of b ig logs of great diameter .

2 . The increase in the cost o-f extract ionbecause of the incr ease of the areas worked and

their greater inaccessibil ity .

3 . The greatly increased cost of elephants .

24 1 Q

4 . The increase in Government duties and themuch more rigid rule s for extract ion .

The working of‘ the forests is carried on inthree ways : by Government agent s

,by lessees ,

and by temporary licence holders .

Government sel l s i ts t im'ber by auct ion . I tis obvious that lessees cannot al low compet itorsto buy teak at these auct ions for a lower pri cethan they get for their own operat ions . The

exporters pay high pr ices for the Governmentteak to annoy the lessees , as well as to get thebest qual ity teak required for the Europeanmarket . Shippers

,again

, are obl iged to buyin order to have a ful l freight .The ques t ion is whether Government can

do anything to steady the market . I n order tosecure this

,it would be necessary to. regulate

the competi t ion. B ut the competit ion b etweenpr ivate fi rms am‘ong one another and the competition be tween private firms and the Government

,as i t exi st s now

,are two absolutely different

things . Government has financial resourcesrestr icted by no l imit s . Private firms areobviously kept down to l imits . As long as theGovernment occupies the posit ion of a r ivaldealer it can change nothing,

whereas i f themarket were l eft ent irely in the hands of the

firms,they would be able to b ring about an

improvement in the present s ituation,and,

revenue would be more accurately known , and

the country would be better opened to enterpri se . The working by Government means perhaps brings in a l itt le more to the Treasury,but i t hampe rs the market and it checks boththe development of the t imber trade and ofprivate enterpr ise .

The stock on hand should be cut down morerapidly than in a period of sixty years

,as is the

rule now . Plans and schemes shou ld be drawnup so that the forest officers shal l make a beginning of marking the reserve trees fi t for fel l ing .

Leases might very profi tably be granted for

longer per iods than at present,and with a

guarantee of renewal if the working has beensat i sfactory . The S tate is a bad trader

,no les s

abroad than in Europe .

I t has been bel ieved up t i l l now,and near ly

everybody still bel ieves , that t eak cannot begnawed and damaged by any insect . This istrue enough as regards ordinary and wel l -knowninsects

,but it has been proved by forest officers

and those engaged in the teak trade that teak isgreatly in jured by a special insect which is foundin the Burma and Tenasserim“ forests . For manyyears hol es have been found in some teak logs ,some of them almos t what might be cal ledtunnels

,and these went by the name of bee

holes,but nothing very definite was known about

Products

the insect which caused thi s mischief, no r was i tknown at what period of the growth of the treethe inj ury was caused .

Mr . E . P . Stebbing,the Indian Government

entomologist,began an investigat ion , carried out

in the most careful way,of the teak forest s of

B urma, and he has pub l ished the result of hi sstudies in a very remarkable report He dis

covered that the so -cal led bee -holes are madeby an insect of cons iderable size and bri l l iantcolours . I t i s the caterpi l lar that does the mischief

,and it belongs to the o rder of' the

Heterocera,and attacks trees of al l s izes

to sapl ings only two years old,which have woody

ti ssue in thei r lowe r po rt ion Mr . Ste‘bb ingbe l ieves that the insect

,which i s what is known

as a clavicorn beet le,deposits its eggs either on

the bark or in a l i tt le crevice . The young larva,

when it i s hatched,feeds on the bark , but as it

grows bigger,and as its mandibles become

stronger, it begins to dig an i rregu lar gallery,with passages radiating from it into the t imbe rit self . When it has finished growing it drivesright into the heartwood a tunnel from nine totwelve inches long

,with a roomy cha ’mber at

the end of i t . I t i s in this cel l that the caterpi l larchanges into a pupa

,and from it the complete

insect comes out in the hot weather .So far as resear ch has gone, i t seems that the

larva only attacks growing trees,and the result

of thi s is that the holes by which it enters arecovered up by new growths of the tree . Thusit happens that t rees which look perfect out sidemay be seriously damaged in the heart by thesebee -holes In some forests where the insecti s common this i s the most serious danger thatforesters have to encounter . In the Mohnyinforests

,for example

,Mr . Stebbing est imates that

from 40 to 5 0 per cent . of the trees have sufferedfrom its attacks

,and here and there nurseries of

young trees have been completely dest royed .

Before we are able to say what sort ofremedies are to be adopted against thi s destruct ive creature

,it wi l l be necessary firs t of al l to

know it s ways and i t s methods of working .

However,from what i s already known there i s

enough to enable some precaut ions to be taken .

The woodpe cker i s a. known enemy of thecaterpil lar, for i t l ive s on it, but i t does notput an end to the creature t i l l the mi sch i ef hasalready be en done

,moreover

,in order to

get at it it digs into the wood and increases thedamage already done . A s far as the t imber i sconcerned

,i t cannot be said that the servi ces

of the woodpe cker counterbalance the mischiefdone to the trees . Consequent ly, one can hardlyencourage the fi l l ing of the forest s with woodpeckers . But much destruct ion can be prevented

Burma under British Rule

shown to be Java teak . Moreover,a great deal

of the timber IS neither of the qual ity no r of thesize th at is wanted . I f

,as a consequence of the

present excess ive prices of Burma teak , i t hasbeen necessary to look to Java fo r i t , it is nonethe less greatly to be regretted that inferior Javatimber has been shipped to London .

At the present t ime in Burma there i s an effortto subst itute py inkaa

’o ( i ronwood ) for teak in

al l the cases where i t can be done . P yinkado

cost s less than teak,and it i s equal ly durable

when it i s not exposed to violent changes of

temperature .

I I . Cutch‘

,or catechu, which must not be mis

taken fo r cashew, as i t frequentl y i s in France ,

i s a product of one of the acacia group of trees .This tree

,which is found from‘ Kashmir right

across to Pegu,i s not the same everywhere, and

differs a l itt le according to the degree oflat itude,

although the product is nearly the same in al lthe d ifferent variet i es .Cutch i s a product of India and of Burma

used for dyeing and for tanning,and the Pegu

cutch i s admittedly the be st . Much of it i sexported from Rangoon to Eon‘

don,and a cer

tain amount to Havre . I therefore think itdesirable to consider i t at length from both thehort icul tural and the commercial point of Vi ew .

I t may be divided into248

the tree before fel l ing it to see i f the wood isspeckled and if i t contains ag-yi, a special kindof sap -pith which furnishes the cutch . I f spotsare found

,i t i s an assurance that hard cutch wil l

be got, which is very mu ch more valuable than

the soft . The presence of agy i i s of the mos tvital importance

,and trees which have not

spot ted wood are rej ected if there are enoughof the o thers . Cutch -boil ers recognize four kindsof A cacia catecka

,which are dist ingu i shed by

their bark and by the colour. of the heart -wood .

These are : the Ska ni,or red cu tch ; the S ka

wa,or yel low cu t ch the Ska [7ya Kyaung mlwe

or blue cutch ; and the Ska net, o r black cutch .

Of these four k inds the red cutch i s consideredthe bes t Blue cutch cannot be u sed alone ;it mus t always be mixed with one of the otherkinds .

The sel ected tr ees are stripped of the ir barkand ofthe ou ter wood and are cut into six-foo tlengths

,or a l i tt le longer . These b il lets are then

hacked into small pieces , which are then boiledin earthen pots which hold abou t three gal lonsof water . The l iquor i s then shifted into a b igiron caldron

,holding eleven gallons

,and i s boi led

until it becomes viscous . I t i s very importantto keep constantl y, stirring it . The caldron i sthen removed from the fire ,

and to. prevent thecut ch from sol idifying on the surface it i s st irred

Products

constant ly with a wooden spoon unt il i t hascooled sufficiently to be handled . I t is thenpoured into a bri ck mould

,which i s usual ly

l ined with leaves,and le ft there to coo l . The

resul t i s a mass of dark -coloured cutch , whichvaries in consi stency according to the amountofa'

gyi there was in the wood . The process of'

preparat ion is pract i cal ly the same in Upper andin Lower Burma .

Cu t ch is mad e in the fol lowing placesMinbu

,Pyinmana

,Mandalay

,Katha ,

and on th e C-h indwin,in Upper B urma, and Pegu ,

in the Lower Province . In the Yaw forest s thequal ity of the cutch boiled is a l itt le differentfrom the o rd inary k ind . I t i s bo il ed in the usualway and i s then poured in to bamboo baske t s tosee whether i t wil l har‘den . I f i t is hard

,i t is

put back into the cal-dron and mel ted again . A 1

certain quantity of than-bark (Terminalia

Olivieri) i s then added to give a colou r to it

and to make it harder . Then it is placed inconical m'oul'ds dug in the ground and l ined withthe leaves of the Cassia fistula, or B

auhinia .

When the cutch is hardened the leaves are torn%off. This cutch is made specia l ly for the S hans ,and is intended for chewing . I t sel l s in Bh amo.

at between twenty and thirty rupees the hundr edpounds . The amount made for chewing is

comparat ively , smal l .2 5 1

lBurmese cu tc‘h is often mad e in smal l b locks .

In the S inbyngyun j ungle s , near Minbu ,three

k ind s of cutch are known,black

,ye l low,

red . The colours are most read il y seen whenit i s being boiled .

In Pegu yellow cutc‘h loo-ks l ike round cakes .

On the outs ide they are a brownish yel low ;ins id e reddish brown .

At Prome cutch i s sold in bal l s . The Pegucutch is sold to the trade through Rangoon toCalcutta . I t i s made in great so l id slab s

,weigh

ing sometime s a hundred pounds,or sometimes

in square cakes,s ix inche s long and one inch

in thi ckness . They are usuall y wrapped in leavesofthe D ipterocarpus taber calatas , the S tepkegyradiversifolia, o r the Tectona Hamiltoniana . Thiscutch is dark b rown and is broken into irregularpieces

,which are e ither compact or porous

according to the heat appl ied when drying i t .I f it i s cut with a kni fe

,i t shows a reddish -brown

col-our This kind i s known on the Calcuttamarket as Pegu

,Ranguni, or Mogai Kkair , and.

it sell s at the rate of 2 6 rupees the m’aund

The Burmese somet imes u se o ther plant s tomix with the cu t ch and adulterate it . The useof than (Terminalia Olivieri) has been mentioned above . O ther admixtures are tkan-Kyana

(Terminatia tormentosa) , lein (Terminalia2 52

Burma under Br itish Ru le‘B . B . Flag : The A rracan Company .

I think it as wel l to again remind our Frenchmerchants that they must not mistake cutch

catechu, a product of the ‘A cacia catechu, whichis used for dye ing and tanning

,with the cashew

the fru it of the Anacarciiam occidentale, whoseproduct i s o il .

I I I . Rubber is a product in such g reat demandnowadays in so many industr ies that make suchvarious and such extens ive uses of i t that thereis no country that is not preoccupied with the

idea of prevent ing this precious mater ial fromrunning short . Plantat ions of creepe r rubberhave been experimented with in every countrywhere the cl imati c condit ions seem‘ to be favourable . Burma has not lagged behind, and bo ththe Government and private effort have set aboutmaking extensive plantat ions . I n 1 9 00

- 1 the[Bri t i sh authori t ies made an expe r imental plantation in Mergu i . I t covered an area of

7 8 0 ares (about 2 0 acres ) and cost Rs .

B y 1 9 06 there were H evea plants , witha girth of nearly 2 4 in che s , which we re so com

pletely successfu l that they produced lb s .

of rubber,which real ized £ 3 47 on the London

market . From‘ this prospe rous beginning theGovernment plantat ion has gone on improving,and it i s th e same with private ventures .

I n 1 9 04 5 the value of the rubber exported2 54

Products

from 'Bfur'

ma amounted to Rs . and in1 90 5 -6 this had risen

‘ to R s . Privateindividual s mos tly prefe r the Hevea brasilie

‘nsis

which thrives very we l l in Lowe r B urma,and

several companies have lately been formed tocarry on the plantat ion . N ow that it has be envery clearly proved that this kind ofrubber gives

goo-d resu lts the expansion of the industry is

mere ly a quest ion of t ime . Last year ( 1 9 1 1 )the amount of rubber exported repre sented avalue of R s .

I n Upper Burma,whe re the cl imati c condi

t ions are different,and most ly unfavourable to the

cult ivat ion ofHevea bras iliensis,an expe riment

might be made with Ceara and Castitioa elastica,

which have been very successful ly grown inCeylon up to and feet above sea

level .The late W . S . Todd was the first planter

of the rubber -tree in Lower Burma, and perhapsit wil l not be without inte rest for those who wi shto try the experiment in Cochin-China and Cambodia to learn the result of the experiments ofthis Engl ishman . They have served to provethat no rubber -t ree but the Hevea brasiliensis i sl ikely to be succe ssful in the low plains o-f IndoChina .

In 1 8 9 9 Todd began by sowing eight thousandHevea brasiliensis at Kyaukadat, about nine and

a half miles from Amhers t,on the Gulf of Mar

taban . Although the seed of this rubber -t reehas the name of accommodating itsel f to everykind of so il , the cho ice of the ground for theplantation was not very easy

,because of the

composit ion of the so il of the whole neighbourhoo d of Amherst

,which is almo st everywhere

a kind ofbrick -clay . The best so il i s one whichi s composed of a deep layer of vegetable m‘ouldwith a clay subsoil . Sandy or gravel ly grou ndand st iff clay should be avoided . From the first

seeds something l ike came up,

and were raised in nurseries . The seeds wereplanted at a distance of no t quite eight inchesfrom one another in s ix -feet b eds At thebeginning of the monsoon of 1 9 0 0 the youngplant s were planted out on land where the j unglehad been burnt at distances of

' from twelve toeighteen feet from one anothe r . Todd did notapprove ofthe planting out ofn ine o r ten monthold plant s . H e thought i t much better to keepthe seedl ings two .years in the nursery beforesett ing them out

The chief thing to be carefu l of in thi s stagei s the preservation of the roo t s

,which are quite

ext raordinarily long . The re i s al

goo ’

d deal ofr isk of harming them ; bu t, on the other hand

thi s method has the great advantage that twoor three year old sapl ings throw out branches

Even then , though it i s worth while doing it ,i t i s not absolutely necessary to water them . Atany rate, i f the trees are not watered, they mustbe manured at the root s . I f irr igation i s po ss ible ,i t i s far better than mere watering of the surface .

The water ought to be brought in along the path ,and should remain s tanding round the plant s fortwo hours , so as to thoroughly water the beds .

Besides the nursery plants,it IS as wel l to have

some reserve plants,in o rder to be able to fi l l

up b lanks , which are l ike ly to o ccur in the firs tyear .

Opinions differ very widely as to the distancetha t should be left between the plan ts . Todd

after a ser ies of exper iments,came to the con

clusion that the best dis tance was seven anda half feet by seven and a hal f, or, say,trees to the acre . Moreover

,in cal culat ing the

dis tance between the plants i t has to be takeninto account what supplementary cu l t ivation i s tobe carried on in the spaces . I f, however, as isalmost always the case , the main thing is therubber, the by

-products do not much matter ,and everybody is agreed that the seven to eightfeet interval i s the proper one . The ch ief cropsrecommended between the trees are yams ,bananas

,cot ton

,and leguminous plant s . The

last .are part i cular ly use ful because their leavessupply qu i te an excel lent manure .

Products

Let us now see the expense and the profitof a ten-acre plan tat ion ofHe vea brasiliensis atthe end of the ninth year .

The total expend iture,on al l counts

,at the

end of the n inth year would be Rs .

or R s . 3 48 fo r the e ighth of an acre . In theexpenditure must be included a sum‘

Rs . which represent s the intere st at

7 per cent . of the yearly out lay .

The sale of the rubber from the s ixth to theninth year inclus ive will b ring in R s .

I f a sum of R s . i s added to the expen'di

ture to cover the ‘cost ofsuperintend'ing the plantation at Rs . 2 00 a month for nine years

total expenditure will amount to Rs . andthe tak ings wi l l be Rs . which leaves anet profi t ofRs . at the end of the ninthyear . From the tenth to the thirteenth year anaverage of a pound for every tree may reasonably be counted ou . For the eighth of an acre ,therefore

,there would be lbs .

,which

at two and a hal f rupees the pound wouldreturn R s . a year

,a l itt le more than

st erl ing .

These figures are good enough to tempt thos ewho have capital to inves t . The so i l s of Cam'

bo'dia and Cochin -China should certainly be aswel l fitted fo r the pro fi tab le cult ivat ion ofHevea

brasiliensis as tho se of Lower Emma .

A plantation of para rubber was tr ied inRangoon . I t has an area of acres

in 1 9 1 1 it produced lbs . of rubber betweenJuly and November

,and the est imat ed outturn

for the future i s cal culated as fo l lows

Pounds .

1 9 1 1—1 2 an out-turn of

19 1 2—13

19 13—14

19 14—15

19 1 5—16

19 16—1 7

19 17—1 8

I t has to be remembered that the more thetree reaches the producing stage the less thecost of upkeep becomes

,for the tree has gained

strength and does not need so much attent ion .

The probable output of 1 9 1 7 - 1 8 will real ize anet profi t of on a capital out lay of

which impl i es a very sat i sfactory dividend . Obviously for a year or two the shareholders must be sati sfied with very modestreturns

,but the future prospe cts are most

rosy .

The Me rgui plantation , which was started asan experiment by Government

,has been handed

over to a company, which at the present t imehas an outturn of 1 0 0 lbs . of rubber everyday . Fo r two more years , in accordance with theresolut ions adopted at a meet ing of shareholders

at Lyons and member of the Chamber ofCom

merce,and had a representat ive at Mandalay .

But afte r the third Bu rma War,fo r no very

obvious reason,all the F renchmen who were in

Mandalay and all those who did business withthe Bu rmese gave up the connect ion . This wasa very grave mistake

,for the Frenchmen who

remain and are a l l too few have nothing but

praise fo r the wide liberty g iven to everybodyby the EnglishAt the present t ime s i lk is pract ically all

suppl ied by Japan , which has supplanted us andis no t at all ready to resign the pos it ion . Exceptfor some r ich Lyons stuffs sent in small quant it ies for very elaborate Burmese dresses

great French city sends no more . Every yearJapan sell s two mil l ion rupees worth of s ilk to

Burma .

In the s i lk import figures for the Rangoonport

,the name of France now does not appear

at a ll . Japan stands at the head,and then

very long way after,comes Great Britain . What

few Ly ons s i lks are brought in are those whichhave been bought by Brit ish agents and aresent under the Brit ish flag .

In view of the great demand for s i lk amongthe Burmese

,the Government of I ndia has t r ied

to promote s i lk cult ivat ion in the country . S ilkcult ivat ion existed

,as a mat ter of fact

,but it

Products

was in a very rudimentary condit ion . Therewere s i lkworm breeders at Prome

,Toungo o

Pyinmana,Yamethin

,Magwe

,on the Chindwin ,

and in P okokku,but the occupat ion was not a

thriving one,and at the present t ime

,instead

ofgrowing,i t i s dwindling away . In the Myede

and Thayetmyo neighbourhood a var iety of s i lkworm is found known as the B ombyx fortnnatas ,which has white and yellow markings

,and the

s ilk which i t spins has been considered excellent . The B ombyx aracanensis has only beenfound in the Pakokku neighbourhood .

The Shans also do a l itt l e in the way of s i lkcult ivat ion

,but the s i lk is of very poor qual ity

on account of the l itt le care devo ted to the rearing of the worms . The two kinds of s i lkwormmost widely found in Burma are the following :

the domest icated si lkworm,which feeds on

mulberry - leaves and is known by the name of

the B ombyx .anaoanen‘

sis , or the B om'

byx fortn

natas and the wild s ilkworm,which does not

feed on mulberry-leaves but on various trees,

and is found in the j ungle . There are twospecies of the wi ld s i lkworm : the Cricala tri

fenestrata and the A ttack s atlas . The wormsof these two species produce cocoons severalt imes in the y ear, but the cocoons are small,and the thread is so

” badly spun and so loo seon the cocoon that it is almost impossible to

prevent it from being ravelled when i t i swound off. Nevertheless the silk of the Cricalatrifenestrata i s very fine

,but owing to the

irregularity of the thr ead and to a kind ofgum%which cl ings to it

,proper winding of it i s im

possib le , and i t i s most ly used as waste s ilk .

sWhen modern processe s are introduced,which

natural ly are constantly being improved,there

is no doubt a great future b efore this kind of

s i lk . The Rangoon Government offers greatincent ives to those who will devot e th emselvesto s i lk culture

,and numerous experiment s have

been madeOn the init iat ive of Sir Thomas Wardle

President of the Associat ion of Ser i culture inGreat B rita in and I reland

, and also the introducer of s i lk into Kashmir

,expe riments were

made in 1 9 03 and 1 9 04 wi th s i lkworm eggsbrought from France . They were distr ibuted inthe various s i lk cult ivating centres and also inthe Shan S tates . The eggs were brought straightfrom France and hatched out sat isfactor i ly, butthe larvae almost all died immediately afterwards .

This misadventure was attr ibuted to the fact thatthe eggs were hatched two months before theyoung leaves of the mu lberry appeared, andalso to the cl imate . But though the failure maybe ascr ibed to these causes , i t i s none the lesstrue that the main reason of fai lure lay el sewhere .

i t crepitates badly as i t burns . As i t is dugou t of the mine it is fair ly hard and is broughtout in fair ly b ig lumps

,but as s oon as i t is

exposed to the air i t disintegrates and crumblesinto small p ieces . The various samples analysedgive the proport ion of carbon as

and Theresults as far as locomotive steam-coal i s concerned

,have been disappoint ing

,and it may be

asserted that the coal as it comes out of theground is altogether usele ss for the railway . I fi t is made into briquett es

,the cost would come

to six rupees the ton,and if five rupees a ton is

added for transport,the coal might perhaps be

used in Bengal,and perhaps briquette - fuel might

become the chief means of producing steam ‘

the Mandalay-Lashio ra i lway,but it i s clear that

i t wi l l never have more than a local marke t .

The Nam -ma co al is found in H senwi andH s ipaw

,both in the Northern Shan States

charge . The field extends over an area of t enmiles to the south -east of Lashio . The coalhere is a bright l ign it e

,with a specific gravity of

1 3 7 . I t i s b lack,with brown rays through it . I t

does not coke well ; it does no t appear to con

tain to o much iron pyrites . I t i s hard,but

britt le,has few or no fi ssures in it

,and has a

conchoidal fractu re . I t is not eas i ly worked onaccount of the way. i t c rumbles

,but with a l itt l e

Products

care on the part of the miner b ig pieces canbe brought out . A s soon as i t is exposed to

the air it becomes dry,disintegrates

,and breaks

into small cubical fragment s . I t holds verylitt le carbon

,and is ful l of mo isture and volat i l e

constituents . The only good qual it y i t has i sthe small amount ofash . In the open air

it is freshly extracted,i t burns wel l with a clear

flame , wi th perhaps too much smoke and apeculiar smell . I t i s superio r in qualit y to any

of the other coals found in the Northern ShanStates

,but neverthe le ss it cannot b e used for

fuel except in the shape of briquettes . I nNovember

,1 9 0 5 , a trial was made with the coal

on the line from Lashio to Mayunyo under thedirect supervis ion of the Engineer -ih -Chief oftheBurma Rai lway

,but it was a complete failure .

The engine -driver had to get b i l lets of firewoodto bring the locomot ive back to the place itstarted from .

Recent ly s even tons of N am-ma coal weregiven to the rai lway for t rial . Al though therewas reason to hope fo r goo d result s from thisfresh trial

,the locomotive -superintendent wound

up his repor t by saying : Although this coalburns in the usual way when it i s fresh -mined,and although there was a good draught, it isquite unsuited for a steam-coal .I t is annoying, for it i s estimated that there

are five hundred thousand tons of coal availableat Nam -ma

,and this coal i s use less unless it i s

made into briquettes . The only purchaser wouldbe the rai lway for the Lashio -Myohaung sect ion .

At present i t uses wood fuel at 4 rupees2 annas the ton

,and B’engal coal at 1 7

rupees 1 3 annas . In order to make Nam -ma.

coal into b riquettes and to lay it downfor the locomot ives i t would be necessary to

spend at least twenty rupees the ton,and per

haps more . There is therefore absolutely nochance of seeing this coal enter into competit ion with any imported fuel whatever .

Mr . S impson , of the Geological Survey ofIndia

,who was in special charge of the test ing

of this Nam -ma coal,winds up his repo rt as

fo llows : I t may be confident ly asserted thatas the coal i s now,

it would be a mistaken po l i cyto expend money on it . Before thinking ofputt ing the coalfield in touch with the rai lwayby a go od road, o r of carrying on regular extract ion

,more extens ive prospect ing:wou ld have

to be carr ied out to make it cer tain that themine would furnish coal over a very. long ser iesof y ears . There i s

,moreover

,ano ther quest ion

which comp l i cates the s ituat ion , and that islabour . The Shans are not miners

,and the

populat ion is a very thin one .

The Man Sang% coalfield is in the ne ighbour268

morning to night . But it is not pure tobaccothey smoke . They mix other fragrant herbswith it . They rare ly smoke pipes . The moderneducated Burman smokes a br iar

,and in

fo rme r days there were holes bored in thefloor of the Hal l o-f Audience through whichminis ters of s tate could pass the bowls of thei rpipes , which were fi l led and l ight-ed by attendants .

ut cherut-smoking is the rule . This implies that the cult ivat ion of tobacco i s verywidespread in B urma, and Government hasthought it des irab le to encourage the plantersby b ringing in foreign tobacco -seed and distribut ing it among them . Almost every par tof the province has been tried and succes s hasbeen general, mo re part icular l y in the ChindwinD istr icts of Upper Burma .

The soi l of some distr ict s,espe cial ly Ma -ubin

and the Upper Chindwin,i s exce llently suited

for the growth of tobacco , and foreign tobaccoshave been experimented with . I n 1 8 8 8 differentkinds of seed were brought from Havana andfrom V irginia . The results were so successfulthat all the tobacco -fields in these distr ictsare now planted with these seeds , .and the leafis excellent . The area of land under tobaccohas steadily increased, and all the new plantat ions are sown with Havana and Vi rginia seed .

The Department of Land Records and Agri270

Products

culture has given great support to tobaccocult ivat ion

,and there can be no doub t that it

is to it s efforts that the good result s are due .

T0 encourage the growth of foreign tobaccos ,seed has been distributed fre e for twenty yearsthrough the D istrict officers . I t is especial lyin the Ma -ubin D istri ct that the best resultshave been obtained wi th American tobaccos .

Official reports show that there has been a distinct improvement in the tobacco pro duced . I tis far superior to that ofthe plant formerly cultivated in Burma , which is believed to have beenbrought in by the Portuguese . O f the two

American variet ies,the Havana plant did

especially we l l . The Virg inia plant , though it stexture is very fine and very pl iab le as far as

the leaf is concerned, is less profi table , becauseof the smal lness of the leaf . There is always a

great demand on the market for both’

Havana and the Burma tobacco . The smoothleaves of the Havana plant are used for thewrappers and the coarser Burmese leaf for thefi l l ing .

The Upper Chindwin has also been found verysuited to tobacco plantat ion

,and i t is thought

that the variety which comes from Coringa,near

Dindigul,in the Madras Presidency, or even the

Java plant would do very wel l there .

“Havanaseed has also done very wel l here , and the

leaves have been part icularly fine . The peopleof the country

,however

,are abso lutely ignorant

of the way to cure it . I t is probab ly fo r thi sreason that there are no makers of cigars of

the European shape in Burma,and thi s is why

urma tobacco - leaf i s sent to Southern Indiato be made up there .

I n the Lower Chindwin D is trict sevengrammes (quarter of an ounce ) of seed gave areturn of s ixteen pounds of tobacco

,while at

Myitkyina,quite in the north of Burma

a pound of seed produced a thousand poundsweight of tobacco . The so i l which gives thebest result s is a clay soi l which i s new andfriab le

,and not too s t iff a clay . Alluvial so i l ,

with an admixture of sand,and high lands

ferti l ized by burnt vegetation are no less favourable . Everywhere where the various kinds of

Havana and Vi rginia seed have been tried,the

leaves have given a finer texture and a strongerperfume than those of the local tobacco

have commanded a higher price . I n someplaces there have been disappointments

this has been invar iab ly due to mistakes inchoos ing the ground . O ccasionally

method of treat ing. the leaves has been veryprimit ive

,and thi s has been a very general cause

of failure . N one,the les s i t may be predicted

that before very long Burma tobacco will be272

Products

able to compete on the European market withthe tobacco -leaf of Java and Sumatra .

The growth of tobacco in Burma cannot bedisputed

,but the prope r t reatment of it s imply

does not exis t . I t i s from India that all thecigars of European shapes that are smoked inthe country are sent

,and it i s India that takes

the far greater amount of B’

urman tobacco,

makes i t up,and sends i t back in the shape of

cigars . St il l,bes ides the native cigars

,smoked

by the Burmese,which are a mixture of tobacco

and fragrant plants,both Rangoon and

Mandalay turn out a kind of ch erut— that isto say

,a cigar cut at both ends which is

smoked by Eurasians and some Europeans .

Burmese gir ls are the o rdinary rollers of thesecheruts

,which‘ are only, smoked locally and

have very l it t l e chance of being well receivedout of the country . Stil l

,though the cherut is

undoubtedly full -flavoured,the re are a not in

considerab le number of people who acquire thetaste and l ike the flavour even among thosewho have never been in Burma .

V I I . Cotton, which has obviously been introduced from India, i s cult ivated in almost al l thedistrict s of Upper Burma, and in almost halfof those of Lower Burma . I n Lower Burmathe turn -out is not large and is intended forhome use only

,and as a matter of fact the area

under cotton is dimini shing every year . Sincemanufactured cot ton has been imported at lowprices from abroad

,nat ive weaving has become

a means of passing the t ime rather than anindustry

,and the women do no more than weave

the clothes and the cloths that are used intheir own houses . I n some dist rict s

,such as

Meikti la and Myingyan,cotton is also grown

fo r export to China,by way of Bhamo . Up

in the hil ls,and also in some of the Upper

Burma distr icts,native cotton sti l l competes wi th

the imported material,especial ly in the Shan

States,where the difficult ies of t ransport pro

tect the local cotton against foreign compet it io-n . But as a general principle i t may beadmitted that Where foreign cotton can bedelivered

,either in the form of yarn or ofmanu

factured cloth , the nat ive product dwindles away .

There is no weaving whatever done inKyankse. At Taungdwingyi more than threequarters of the manufactured cotton comes fromabroad . At Pyinmana

,in the Yamethin D is

trict,the cotton industry was very flourishing

under Burmese rule,but i t has almost ent ire ly

ceased now that the Forest D epartment forb idsthe promiscuous cutt ing of the trees whose barkfurnished the dyes used'

. At Pakokku,also

imported thread is preferred . I n fact,officers

almost everywhere have announced a decl ine274

over, is ent irely in the hands of Chinese settledin Bhamo

,Meikt i la

,and Rangoon .

Burmese cotton i s like Indian cotton,and has

the same fault s . The staple i s too short fo r mostmachines , and , moreover , the Burmese are notab le to bleach it th’oroughly

,which “ takes away

from its value . At tempt s have been made toestab l ish the American long—s tapled cotton inLower Burma

,but the experiment was not a

success , and the failure is thought to be due tothe cl imate . I n these days B urmese cotton i sordinarily sown in ground cleared of j ungle

as the Burmese cal l taungya . Red rice IS sownalong with it

,and the soi l i s not manured

,and is

only scratched with:a . very rudimentary harrow .

The cult ivator himse lf both grows it and gets itready for the market . This preparing is oftenso badly done that the buyer finds sand, earth,and stones in his purchas e . Moreover once ithas matured and has been p icked, it i s often leftunprotected on the ground, and thu s it i s that itcomes to be del ivered dirt ied‘

and ful l of rubbi shof al l sort s . The planters stand badly in needof some ob j ect - lessons to make them understandthat they would get much better prices if theyoffered their produce in a more reasonable andattract ive form .

V I I I . Burma has considerab le mineral wealthin gold

,which is far from having received full

Products

development, but wi l l in the future add greatlyto the wel l -being of the country .

Gold is found in the extreme north, not farfrom the Chinese frontier in the Myitkyina.District

, and the auriferous quartz there is veryrich . But the company

which has the concess ionhas not yet begun work ing .

Gold is also won by washing. the sands of

various streams,especial ly at Ban -mauk in

Katha D istrict,and also in the Pakokku District .

The company which has undertaken the dredgingof the Upper I rrawaddy has had an averagereturn of from Rs . to Rs . worthof gold

,out of which it pays Rs . royal ty

to Government .

The Nanyaseik ruby -mines in the MyitkyinaD istrict have been given up , and there are noneworked now except at Mogok . These

,however

are sti l l far from being completely developed,

and they are st il l going through periods of difficulty which make it necessary for Governmentto give the company time for the payment of

royalt ies on the workings . This was the casein 19 1

09 , at which'lat e date the company appliedto the authorit ies for the remission of the duesin arrear

,on the ground that a new mine ha:d

to be o pened out,s ince the old ones were

exhausted .

The Tawmaw mines in the Myitkyina District277

produce a kind of jade,cal led Burmite

,but in

no great quant it ies . Those of Hwe Ka andMamon in the same di st r ict

,as wel l as those in

Pakokku,have up to the present been unsatis

factory .

The outturn of tourmaline in H sipaw and inMong Mit

,in the north of the Shan States

not very cons iderable,and it has not much chance

ofexpanding on account of the compet it ion withthe tourmaline of Cambodia and of the NamHkawng Valley .

Amber comes from the Hukawng Val ley tothe north of Myitkyina

,but the output reaches

only a total of Rs .

The Bawdwin leadmines,worked by the

Burma Mines Company in the Northern ShanStat es

,have an outturn of to tons:

of lead,and about lbs . of s i lver .

I n the Southern Shan States,which up to now

have been l itt le developed,there has been nothing

more than an outturn of a matter of 1 0 0 tons oflead . Lead was al so found at Mount P ima inthe Yamethin D istr ict

,s ince closed down

at Sagadaung,near Mandalay

,as wel l a s argent

iferous galena,which' exists in very many p laces

in the Myelat .

Tin is found in Tavoy and Mergui,as also is

wolfram . There is a very ri ch t in and wolframmine at Mawchi in Karen -ni . The Pakokku and

together represent ing an approximate value ofRs .

Qu ite recent ly an important discovery of

various metal l iferous depos it s has been made inthe Kachin country by Mr . B . A . Baldwin , anold res ident of Burma. Among the metal s di scovered are gold

,plat inum

,osmiridium

,i ridium ,

palladium,rhodium

,and osmium . After hi s

return from Khamaing,in the Kachin hil ls , Mr .

Baldwin ob tained a series of prospecting li cencesfrom the local Government . The area is onthe Nam San

,an affluent of the Mogaung River ,

about twenty -five miles from Khamaing . Accessto it by water i s easy in the rainy. season . AGovernment launch has b een as far as the mouthof the hil l stream at Laban

,and thi s i s only a

short distance from the deposits , which are inan al luvial plain at the foot of Loi Maw

,a hi ll

which reaches an altitude of nearly six thousandfeet . The Nam San

,which runs down the val ley ,

has cut a deep channel for it self in the alluvialso il

,and enters the Nam Kawng, or Mogaung.

River,close to Laban village . There i s no clay

depos it,nothing but sand and round pebbles .

The seam to be worked is est imated ‘

to have awidth of nine to twelve feet throughout the area

and it is st i l l thicker when the rocky bed isreached . A company has been formed in Rangoon to work the mineral s

,and has proposed

Products

to the Burma Gold D redging Company to jo inin the pro j ect and send one of its dred'gers from‘

Myitkyina . Communicat ions are easy, for al lthrough the rains Government launches carry ona service from the Mogaung rai lway -stat ion toKhamaing . From Khamaing a l ight -draugh tlaunch “ could eas ily carry on the service to Laban ,at any rate du ring the rainy season . In the dryweather mule t ransport would have to be used .

All the neighbouring count ry is inhabited bythe Kachins

,but the Burmese are beginning to

establish themselves al so,for the rice -land is

very good and gives heavy crops . The climate,too

,i s healthy

,even for Europeans .

One of the chief sources of the mineral wealthof Burma is petroleum . I n Lower Burma somewells of no great importance have been in exis tence for very many years in Pegu and inArakan ; but it is chiefly in Upper Burma in%the Yenangyaung neighbourhood that there i smuch ’ oi l

,and oi l easy of extract ion . Fo r many

years in the t ime of’ the Burmese kings , petroleumwas a royal monopoly

,and King Mindon had

an annual revenue from it amount ing toRs . The wel ls were in the hands ofa corporat ion

,who worked them for the Crown .

The firs t oi l -workers were probably Arakaneseprisoners of war

,who knew how to set about the

work from having carried it on in their own28 1

country The Yenangyaung earth -oi l was notextracted in systemat ic fashion unti l the middleof the eighteenth century

,but it seems clear

that the existence of the wel ls and the characterof the o i l were known for long centur ies before .

There are many Engl ish travel lers,notably

Captain George B aker in 1 749 and W . Hunterin 1 7 8 2 , who have recorded great act ivi ty inthe ext ract ion of earth -oi l both in Lower andUpper Burma .

The Pagan wel ls,which are better known as

the Yenangyat wel l s,were not d iscovered t i ll

some t ime between 1 8 5 5 and 1 8 7 3 , and theyare not nearly so r ich as those ofYenangyaung .

Wells have a lso been found at Mimbu . At thepresent t ime the only o il-well s which producevery large quant it ies are those at Yenangyaung inthe Magwe D istri ct . They alone produce from

to gal lons out of thegal lons which form the total of

al l the well s of the Province The Yenangyat ,S ingu

,and Kyaukpyu wells seem to be approach

ing exhaust ion Those at Akyab have beenabandoned .

At Yenangyaung the Twinsa Oil Company andthe Aungban O il Company have sunk new wells ,and the former has bought the areas of theRangoon Refinery Company . Last .y ear a newcompany was formed , cal led the Yenangyaung

on account of the number of bidders . Thefisheries are for pearl oysters

,mother -of-pearl

shells , sea -slugs or béche -a’

e -mer,

and theLiparis vulgaris

or sea -snai l . The successfulb idder for the year 1 9 1 I paid nearly doublethe usual sum%

. He has,moreover

,made a con

siderable profi t, for in addit ion to an excess of

twenty -five tons of the Lipaw’

s,or sea -snails

has al so been able to obtain higher prices . In1 9 09

- 1 0 the price of a ton was Rs . 3 8 2 , while in1 9 1 1 he was ab le to obtain R s . 4 1 9 , and the

wreath -shel ls of the turbinidce or gasteropo‘dspecies reached R s . 3 0 2 the ton, instead of theRs . 1 9 9 of the preceding year . This industry isin the hands of the Salon (or sea-gipsies ) . Theygather al l these things to be sold in S iam, wheresea-shel l s and s lugs command a high pr i ce . On

the other hand,the pearl oysters did not come up

to the average . Oysters were scarce and thefi shermen wanted higher prices for the pear l sand defeated the ir own interests . The shal lowwaters where the divers u sed‘ to operate havebeen cleaned out

,and it has become necessary

to try deeper water . As a consequence theJapanese have taken the place ofthe Manila men,who refuse to r isk the great dept'hs . During1 9 1 0

- 1 1 two pear l s of very great va lue werefound ; one was est imated to be worthRs . the other R s . 1 0

,0 00 .

Products

X . During the las t few years there have beencases of i llness

,in some cases result ing in death ,

caused,it is thought

,by the Burma bean , whose

scient ific name is P S Op'hocar/ws tetragonolobus .

I t is now grown al l over Burma and the ShanStates

,but i t was introduced there from Goa and

the Malabar coast . The quest ion ' i s whetherthis bean

,grown so freely in Arakan and Burma

is real ly the cause of the poisoning .

According to the inquiries which I have made,

it appears that the Burmese themselves eatnothing but the root

,and sometimes the pods ,

after the fashion of French beans . They nevereat the beans themselves when they have growndry and hard to their full l imit . Th i s bean

,which

is smal l and reddish in colour, i s a violent poison ,and contains a large amount of pruss ic acid .

The fol lowing are some notes on the method ofcult ivat ion and gathering these beans . Mr .

J . H . B u rkill,the well -known economical

botanist to the Government of India, who devotes

his special attent ion to the product s of thecountry

‘has made a special study of this Burmabean . I t is not cult ivated in India

,as a general

thing,anywhere but in gardens . In Burma it

is sown in the fields . The distri cts where itis most cult ivated are Kyaukse

,Mandalay

Meikti la,Yameth in

,Prome

,and fHenzada . The re

is a small amount in Mong Mit,a l i ttle in the

Upper Chindwin,and also in Katha . Th ere i s

also a small amount cul t ivated in Hanthawaddy ,but none whatever i s found in Tharawaddy .

A few Chinamen grow it in a smal l way nearR angoon, and in Bassein a few plots are p lantedin gardens . In Pegu al so it is only found ingarden cult ivat ion . I n Thaton the Karens growit al l along the banks of the Salween . In theShan States i t is found everywhere— in H s ipawand H sumh sai

,in Hsenwi and Kengtawng . In

fact , it i s the Shan S tates that ra ise the bestb eans . The greatest quant it ies of them comefrom “ Kyaukkwet

,and Kywethnapa,

from Ngenin,

Maymyo,Wetwin

,and H t ihla ing . They are

cal led in Burmese P é saungsa and P e‘

Myit. TheKar en name is Kaw bemya (Burmese beans ) , andthe Shan To pong .

I n the Shan States the seed is sown at thebeginning of June

,when the rains begin . A rich

and wel l -watered soi l is chosen,or if the soil is

not very fert i le,i t s poverty is made up for by

generous irr igat ion . In the Southern ShanStat es

,over in Kengtawng, the beans are only

to be seen here and there,in no great quant ity ,

whereas in the Northern Shan States they area very common crop . They are usual ly found inthe taungyas— that is to say ,

on the ground wherethe j ungle has been cut down and burnt and theashes of the leaves and branches have enriched

Products

the soi l . When they are sown as a garden cropthey are planted in regular l ines and are left tothemselves except for the stakes which are putin the ground to help them to climb . They growwel l

,and often reach. a height of from nine to

twelve feet . Sometimes the Shans eat the roots,

but as a genera l rule they leave them to fruit,

but these are plucked young and tender,and the

fully developed beans are only used as seed .

The harvest - t ime is in December o r January .

The beans are bigger than those grown in Burma,

and the growers always keep their own seed .

The H sumh sai people export large quant it ies toB urma

,and so do the Danus of the Maymyo

neighbourhood . The beans are taken down to

Mandalay and Kyaukse,where they command a

price of seven and a half rupees,and sometimes

even ten rupees the bushel basket,which is twice

the rate of the local product .

The qual ity of the beans obviously depend son the choice of the seed and the car e devotedto its cult ivat ion

,but it may nevertheless be said

that the difference between the beans from theShan States and those of Burma is due to thefact that

,even if there is excess ive rain in the

Shan States,it does not l ie on the ground as i t

does in the plains of Burma . Too much Imoistureis very bad fo r the crop

,and for this reason

rising grounds are always chosen to grow the287

bean crop . I t grows very well in a m'arl 5 011,but the bean is apt to grow too large and i s nothighly thought of . A sandy soi l is thought to bethe best .

The procedure in Burma i s as fol lowsTowards the month of May or June water is letinto the fields chosen: for the sowing and

the ground is then ploug‘hed and harrowed‘

thoroughly . In July and August the earth i sheaped up into a series of ridges

,between which

there are trench es or gutters to al low air andwater to circulate freely . Then the seeds areplanted in litt le holes along the top ofthe r idge .

I t requires two baskets of seed to plant an acreof ground . The P e‘gy i, or b ig beans , are sown amonth earl ier than the P e‘galé , or small beans .

Immediately after the seed has been sown the

fields are flooded,but the water is soon drawn'

off. The field is flooded in this way every now.

and again unti l harvest -t ime,according - to the

greater or les s amount of rain that has fal len.

I t is very necessary to see that the ground doesnot become water logged, fo r , as has been notedabove

,exces s of moisture tends to reduce the

number of the tubers' o r root s . Weeding iscarr ied out with very great care three or fourt imes during the season . This is done by women

who are paid at the rate of two annas a day and

their food . No stakes are used , and the beans288

i f i t i s planted after the beans . This i s the

regu lar pract i ce with the S ingaing cult ivators .

In the Mandalay neighbourhood the cult ivat ion of the Goa bean is a more recent introduct ion . The local market price is ten rupeesthe hundred vis s ( three hundred pounds ) inD ecember

,and only half this price in January .

The green pods are sold at five rupees thehundred vis s

,and the seed at five rupees the

basket . A basket of roots contains seven hundred vis s of eatab le material

,and the outturn to

the acre is fourteen hundred vissI n Yamethin and Pyinmana

,s ince 1 8 78 the

Goa bean has been much planted . The seedis sown at the end ofJune or beginn ing ofJuly

and the root s appear on the market in Januaryor Feb ruary . I n the Prome

,Henzada

,Hantha

waddy,and Thaton dis tri cts and in Northern

Burma the bean is also cult ivated and the outturnis much the same in al l p laces .

The roots are looked upon as a very favouritedish among the Burmese

,and there i s a special

kind of root,both’ as regards flavour and size

which] every cult ivator s et s before him as anideal

,and tries to attain . The t rade in Goa

beans i s cons iderable, and the rai lways take them

everywhere in the country . The KyaukseD istrict sends them to Bhamo

Rangoon . The roo t i s eaten raw wi thou t any290

Products

dres s ing . It i s s l ight ly sweet , as firm as a

potato , and the flavour is not disagreeab leThe pods are eaten green , but they are inferio rto European haricots verts .

Great quant it ies ofthe dry bean are sent fromBurma to Europe . No doubt in some of the

cons ignments there have been some of th e

P S Op/zocarpus tetragonolobos , and these probab lywere responsib le for the cases ofpoisoning whichso disquieted Europe , especially in the year1 9 06 .

CHARTER IX

TRA DE

I. Money . II. Weights and measures . III. The Port of

Rangoon. IV. Trade—Imports and exports . V. Sh ipping—Entries and clearances. VI. The regu lar sh ippingofRangoon Port.

I . NOWA DAYS the Indian rupee i s the onlymoney used in Rangoon . Formerly its valuewas l iab le to fluctuat ions which'were often verydamaging to trade

,but now it has a fixed value .

The Government of India has adopted' the goldstandard

,and this standard i s the Brit i sh

sovereign . A pound sterl ing i s worth 1 5 rupees,

and it i s on thi s fixed value that al l commercialdeal ings are transacted . The rupee itself i s asilver coin which i s worth I franc 60 cent imesof French money . The sub-mult iples are the

half-rupee,

o r eight -anna piece ( there are

1 6 annas in the rupee) , the four-anna and the

two -anna pieces ; and below these, copper coinsof the value of an anna and a quarter -anna .

resul t i s the weight in hundredweight s avoirdupois .Ifi, on the other hand, it i s wanted to convert

weight avoirdupois into I ndian weight,

must mult iply by 3 5 and divide by 7 2 in thefi rs t case

,or multiply by 49 and divide i t by

3 6 in the second . One ton is equivalent to

2 75~ maunds .

I t need hardly be said that in addi t ion to thesemeasures of weight which the Anglo - Indians use

wherever they may be,in India or Burma

,there

are weights and measures which are parti cularto each province . These cause endless compl icat ion s

,and i t i s astonishing that the Engl ish

man,who u sual ly is such a pract ical person

has not long ago made an effo rt to reform hissystem of weight s and measures and moneyvalues so that i t shal l be uniform throughoutthe Empire .

The Burmese native weights are as fol lows

2 kinywe 1 ywegyi grains grammes4 ywegyi 1 pegy i2 pegy i 1 mugyi2 mugy i 1 mat

1255;or 1 kyat (tical) 25 5 64 grainsgrammes

10 mugale100 kyat 1 beittha (viss) 3 65 2 lbs . 1 6 16 kilos1 0 beiktha I kwet100 beiktha 1 acheintaya 365 2

.The measures of l ength used by the Burmeseare as fol lows

4 grains ofrice 1 finger’s breadth 1 lettathit

6 a thumb’s I letma8 th it 1 meik (the breadth of the hand with the

thumb stretched out)2 meik 1 foot 0 305 centimetres1 2 th it 1 twa (9 thumb ’s breadths)2 twa 1 daung (1 84 daung 1 lan 6 feet7 daung 1 ta

500 ta 1 ngayadwin one Engl ish mile 16093 3 metresta 1 daing

Measures of capacity

1 sale 0 56 l itre4 sale I byi

2 byi 1 sayut 1 gal lon litres2 sayut 1 seik 2 gallons2 seik 1 gwe 4

2 gwe 1 din 8

The din,or basket

,i s the unit of measure

for the sal e ofgrain . I n former days i t vari edal l over the country

,but now it has been stan

dardized on the model of the English bushel .Liqu ids in Burma are sold by weight and notby measure .

I I I . Rangoon Port i s control led by a bodyknown as the Rangoon Port Trust, which wascreated in 1 8 8 0 . I t is made up ofthe Presiden tof the Rangoon Municipal i ty, the Commissioner

ofPol ice, the Chief Port Officer, the head of theCustoms , and of different engineers and official sappointed by the Burma Government . Thereare eleven members .This B oard has certain technical powers

i t fol lows the po l i cy of Government on generalquestions .

The Port ofRangoon is one ofthe finest andbest port s in Asia. I t has grown up gradual lyand methodical ly with the h elp of success iveloans . The fi rst was raised in 1 8 8 7, a total ofRs . at 5 per cent .In O ctober

,1 9 03 , another loan of

R s . was floated at 4% per cent . ,fol lowed, in O ctober, 1 9 04, by another forR s . at the same rate of interest . InNovember

,1 9 0 5 , there were three loans raised

for the enlargement of the port, the anchoringof buoys

,and the establ i shment of

' harbourl ights

,be s ides a variety of other. improve

ments . The amounts we re R s . and

Rs . all at 4 pe r cent .This money has been laid out to good pur

and now the largest ships can comealongside the wh’

arve s, and the service ofbuoysand the l ight ing are excel lent

,so that Rangoon

Port,in the huge del ta of the I rrawaddy, can

stand comparison with the wealthiest ports inthe world . The Burma rai lways have extended

l ines along the quays,so that freight can be

loaded direct on to the ship s without breakingbulk

,while goods intended for the interior do

not need to be stored . There i s a scene of

act ivi ty which contrasts,i n a painful way to a

Frenchman,with the s leepy port of Saigon .

rIV %The best idea of the trade of the Port ofRangoon

,and of the other l ess impo rtant port s

of Burma,i s to be go t from' the report of the

fi scal year 1 9 1 0- 1 1

,which is the las t i s sued

for the fi scal year in the I ndian Empire runs fromApril to Apri l . The tota l value of import s fromforeign countri e s amounted for thi s year toRs . and of the exports to

Rs . The coast trade importscame to R s . and the export sto R s .

The total value of the sea-borne trade wasR s . more than the preceding year

an'd the total value of the foreign t rade aloneincreased by per cent . Cotton stuffsgreatl y increased among the import s , as wel las clothes and garments in general . Machineryand metal s and tobacco

,on the other hand

decl ined in value . The export of ri ce was particularly good, and so were t imbe r

,hides of

catt le,buffaloes and goats

,l ead, cutch , paraffin

wax,and earth -oil . Earth -oi l and t imber were

part icu larly largely exported .

The fol lowing table gives the share whicheach port had in the total trade ofBurma

Maulmein

A kyabBasseinTavoyMerguiKyaukpyuVictoria PointSandowayRangoon

FORE IGN IMPORTS .

The fol lowing are the chief imports into theharbours of Burma

,and chiefly into Rangoon

which,as appears from the tab le

,monopolizes

nearly all the trade of the provinceCotton in al l i t s forms ; metals ; provi s ions

of al l kinds s i lk and manufactured si lks sugarand sweetstuffs ; metalwork ironmongeryart i cl es ; cut lery ; machinery and mi l l p lant ;clothing ; wines and spiri t s ; l inen threads andal l kinds of manufactured l inen ; rol ling stockfor railways ; oi l s ; matches ; paper and pasteboard ; soap dru'gs medicines and narco ti cssal t ; earthenware and porcelain ; buildingmaterial s ; chemicals ; carriages and trucks or

their const ituent part s ; paint s and icolours

instruments of al l kinds ; g las s and glas sware ;298

porcelain,and soap

,the demand for which goes

on increas ing . Bricks and ti les and other building material have also largely increased . Thesecame from Great Britain

,except cement

,which

is b rought from Hongkong . Cardiff coal hasfal len off in quant i ty owing to increased use ofBengal coal . Motor -cars ofal l kinds are beginning to be imported in cons iderab le quant it i esfrom the United Kingdom .

Wines and S pirits .

Beer ofall kindsBrandyG in

Wh iskySpirits ofwineA lcoho l for scentsMethylated spirits ofw ineOther kinds ofalcoho lChampagneRed and wh ite winePortSherryOther wines

The quant ity of beer imported has fal len off

greatly . Almost all the beer drunk in Burmacomes from England or from Germany . Englandsent 8 6 per cent . and Germany 1 4 per cent . I t isGerman beer which has suffered most

,for i t has

fal len offto the extent of 1 5 per cent . , whereas300

Engl ish beer has decl ined by only 1 per cent .I t is to be no ted that ever s ince 1 9 0 7

-8 there hasbeen a steady fall in the import of beers .Wines and spirit s have also been imported in

smaller quantit ies,except champagne

,which

alone goes up . The total fal l comes to 1 6 percent . Brandy fel l by 1 8 per cent . , gin by 3 7 percent . , and rum by 5 0 per cent . Nevertheless ,owing to the rise in prices

,the value in rupees

has fal len by no more than 4 per cent . The

inferior brandies from Germany and Hollandhave fallen considerab ly, and of the total , 7 8 percent . came from France .

Far less alcohol i s drunk since the Customsduties were raised

,from the 2 5th of February

1 9 1 0 . This has made the retai l price muchheavier for the nat ives ofthe country . Instead of7 rupees the gallon (4 l itres ) , the duty i s now9 rupees 6 annas .The export , country by country

,i s as

fol lows

Great Britain: gallons, of wh ich werewh isky .

France gallons, ofwh ich were brandy.Germany : gallons, ofwh ich were Germanbrandy .

Holland : gallons, of wh ich were Dutchbrandy .

Java : gal lons ofrum.

S ingapore 850 gallons ofd i fferent kinds ofspirits.

Other countries gallons ofvarious alcohols .

P rovisions .

Bacon and hamB iscu its ofall kindsButterTinned and bottledprovisions ”

Cheese

Flour ofvarious kindsfor cookingand for saucesOrd inary dried fishSalted dried fish .

Ngapi , o r fish pasteFruit and vegetables, dried andsaltedLardCondensed mi lkPickles

,Vinegars , sauces, mustards

,and other

cond imentsOther provis ions

Salted fi sh and plain dried fish fel l off considerably because ofthe great quantit i es in stock .

B iscuits,the sale of which i s constantly

increasing,mostly come from Great B ritain'.

utter i s fall ing off as an import,due to the

fact that I ndia now makes t inned butter andsends it to the Burma market . Bombay and thePunj ab are the principal producers .

The Brit ish I s lands supply 40 per cent . of thetotal under th is head

,the Strai t s Sett lements

3 6 per cent . , and cont inental Europe 1 5 percent . The chief coasting trade goods are Indianbutter

,sal t and dried fi sh from the S traits Sett le

ments,and glue from Bengal .

tively . When the new shipments arrived inFebruary

,1 9 1 1 , the pri ces receded to Rs . 8 1

for Engl ish salt and Rs . 8 0 for other varie t ies .

At the end ofthe fiscal year ( 3 I st March , 1 9 1 1 )there were tons in bond . Sal t madein Burma only mounted up to tons . I tcommanded the same price as the other kindsof sal t b eside s Brit i sh—namely, Rs . 8 0 the

S ugar .

Sugar came from the fol lowing coun tr iesRupe es .

The British IslandsThe Straits SettlementsH ongkongBelgiumAustria-HungaryJava

Refined sugar f-el l 1 1 per cent . in value, onaccount of th e large surplus stocks from the

preceding year . Almost all the sweet s comefrom England .

Ironmongery and Cutlery .

These came in in the fol lowing proportionsRu ees .

Cutlery 28ofoooAgr icu ltural implementsOther implementsEnamelled ironLampsSew ingmach inesVarious articles

There was an average in this b ranch of tradeof more than Rs . over the two preceding years The Brit i sh I slands , Austria ,Germany, and the United States send most of

these art icl es . Most of the cut l ery come s fromthe Brit i sh I slands . Belgium follows them clo sewith R s . Enamel led iron and lampscome from Ge rmany and Au st ria . Sewingmachines come from' England andGermany The United S tates tr ied to

place the i r sewing -machines on the Rangoonmarket

,but did not sel l more than 62 1 . As a

whole,the United Kingdom suppl ies 70 per cent .

under this heading .

Machines ofall Kinds .

There was a fal l in these compared with the

preceding year,but this was due to the fact

that in 1 9 09- 1 0 the Port ofRangoon imported

a number of hydraul ic cranes,and the munici

pality had a large consignment of pump s . Theaverage was fairly wel l maintained

,and the

mining companies imported a variety of

machinery to a very considerable value .

Metals

Burma under British

Worked metalBar-ironNai ls, screws rivets and boltsPipingSheet-iron and plated metalOther kinds ofironLeadMercurySteel

Pi llars,posts

,and girders

Steel in sheets and platesVariousT in

ZincVarious

Most of th is came from Great Britain ,Germany, Be lgium, Austr ia-Hungary, and theUnited S tates .

Railway S tock .

This is almost ent irely fu rnished by,the

Brit i sh I slands and Belgium

‘Burma purchases fol low asteady routine , according to the need fo r therepair of old l ines or the oonstru ction of new

ones .

Tobacco .

The increase in the import du ty on tobaccoin the preceding year brought down the amountof tobacco from lbs .

, with‘

a value306

As far as can be made out from the returns,the great bulk of the cotton import trade iscarried on by Great B ri tain

,which i s reason

ab le enough . The percentage i s 8 1 of thetotal cotton imports of Burma . Ho lland con

tinues to supply special dyed cottons , mo repart icularly the sarongs , o r waist -cloths , whichare mad-e spe cial ly for the Java trade . Japanhas also begun import ing art i cle s ofhos iery

since their price i s very low,i t has al ready

captured half the Rangoon market .

S ilks .

Rupees.Raw Si lkFrom the Straits SettlementsFrom HongkongFrom Ch ina

Manufactured si lksFrom the United KingdomFrom JapanFrom the Straits SettlementsFrom other countries

P iece s ilkFrom the United KingdomFrom other countries

The great predominance of Japan in the importof manufactured silks is noti ceable . I t waswhat was to be expe cted, and the example of

Japan wil l certainly be followed by China whenthe trade is organized and peace and a regular

and wi se Gove rnment have brought tranqu il l i tyto the country .

In this i t seems to me there i s an exampleto be fol lowed in French “

Infido -China . The

s ilk indu stry has made very cons iderable progress in Tongking

,and the Administration and

some of the merchants have begun to take an'

intere s t in the improvement of nat ive methods ,and the attempt to extend the output . We are

past the period of experiment s and trials nowadays . The d iffe rent %kinds of raw silk and s i lkyarns and t is sues are easil y produced by the

nat ives,and they cost very l itt le . French buyers

are quite famil iar with them and know theirvalue, and the ti ssues , which could easi ly be madeon the Japanese model

,wou ld certainly have a

chance of competing with them in the surrounding countries . The silk industry is espe cial lyimportant in the countries where labou r i s abundant

,as i s the case in the Tongking Del ta

the Tongking cl imate i s part i cularly suited tosilk . Eggs can be hat ched out during e ightmonths out of the twelve

,and each hatch ing:

takes no more than a matter of five -and -twenty‘days . I t would

,there fore

,take very l itt le t ime

to have re sul ts , all the more because mulbe rryleaves grow ve ry fast after each plucking .

There are two s ilk factories at N inh -Binh‘ andat Thai -Binh‘

,but these are not enough . I know

that some traders send consignments to Chinaand S ingapore, but the amount is insignificantand only reaches a value of a mil lion francs .

Our fel low -countrymen wil l be very il l -advisedi f they neglect s i lk in Tongking . There i s a:wealth to be got there which only wantstaking up .

Woollens

Carpets and blanket ingPiece goodsShawlsHosiery .

Worsted and knitt ingworstedOther woollengoods

The imports of wool len goods fel l offbecauseof the surplus s tock which remained over from1 9 0 8 and 1 9 0 9 . These goods come mostl y fromthe United Kingdom

,from Germany

Austria -Hungary . France has a certain sharein the blanke t t rade

,and imported to the value

of R s . in the year 1 9 1 0- 1 1

,but this

was less than usual owing to the over -stockingal luded toCloth ing

,boots

,blankets

,mill inery, handker

chiefs,bale s of cloth , and everything connected

with the tailor ing trade increased considerab l y .

This was due to the fact that the s tocks of the3 10

Bu rma earth -oil goe s to India, where it i s freefrom the two annas a gal lon du t y which is imposed on for e ign petrol eum . But a considerablequant ity of candles made from earth -oil i sexported .

United KingdomCape and NatalA ustralasia.

GermanyPortuguese A fricaJapanUnited StatesOther countries

This i s a proof that the development of theearth -oil we l l s i s extending rapidly and that therefineries have plenty ofwo rk . The Oil ob tainedin Bu rma for the present i s al l taken by India,but some of the companies have begun to sendtheir brands to China and Japan and to the Dutchcolonies .

Rice .

We have now come to . the main expo rt fromBu rma

,the export which i s the chief source of

th e weal th of the country . I t may thereforebe treated at some l engthRice i s exported from the four chief ports ,

Rangoon,Maulmein, Akyab , and B asse in

from some smal ler ports . The following are the

figures for them in detai l

Rice is exported to the United Kingdom,to

South Africa, to Maurit ius , the Straits Settl ements , Cey lon , Hongkong , Au stralasia, and to

al l the B ri t ish posse ssions ; also to Russia,

Sweden , Germany, Hol land, IBlelgium‘

,Austria

Hungary, Roumania, Turkey, Egypt, GermanEast Africa

,Java , Sumatra , the Phil ippine s ,

China, Japan , South America, and a smal lamount to France .

The r ice trad e in' Burma in 1 9 1 1 was remarkable for the high prices obtained for paddy andfor husked ri ce in al l the producing centres ofthe province

,as wel l as for the large quantit ie s

sent to Europe and to the Strait s Settl ements .

The prohib it ion of the rice export from Saigonno doubt help-ed this . One of the chief featuresof the 1 9 1 I trade was the commencement of

purchase by the buyers direct from the cult ivators instead of through“

the medium of thebrokers .

During the year a total of tons3 13

was exported from the province . O f thisamount tons went to Europe ,

tons to the Straits Settl ement s,China,

and Japan . The chie f ports of export fromlB urma had the fol lowing figures : Rangoon ,

tons for Europe and tons forI ndia ; Akyab , for Europe andtons for India ; Bas sein,

tons andtons respe ct ively ; and Maulmein

tons and tons . The riceshipped to the Straits and to America went fromRangoon .

Paddy begins to arrive in Rangoon about thebeginning ofDecember

,but act ive work does not

real ly. begin before January . In 1 9 1 1 the qualityof the paddy was generall y. excellent , especially as regards the consignments from severalplaces on the Prome l ine . The market openedat the rate ofR S . 1 0 3 the boat load and R S . 1 00

the wagon -lo ad,but it did not long remain at

this figure . Towards the end of January theprice had risen to R s . 1 2 2 to Rs . 1 2 4 the boatload and R S . 1 1 9 to R S . 1 2 2 the wagon by themiddl e of February . However

,pri ces went

down a l ittl e t i l l March,and then rose again

about the middle ofApril , when they closed atRs . 1 2 5 to R s . 1 3 o for the boat and Rs . 1 2 3

to R S . 1 2 8 for the wagon. The re were not manyshipments in May, and a r i se in price was the

however, kept up , and fel l to R S . 3 2 0 by theend of the month . A‘ demand for the S traitsand China kept the prices up

,and when orders

came from Japan the rate went up to R S . 3 3 0

again at the beginning of June . There was l it t ledoing in July

,and the rate stuck at Rs . 3 2 5 t i l l

the middle of the month . B ut on the 2 0th

specu lators began buying again,and there were

transactions at the price of Rs . 3 4 5 , which fel lto Rs . 3 3 5 for want of buyers .

The chief feature of Augus t was th e

phenomenal price which was reached by the

bull s , and also becau se there were heavy shipments to be made to Java

,China

,and the S traits .

The month began with R s . 3 3 5 , and this wentup steadily til l on the Z I S t it reached Rs . 43 0 ,

and on the 8th September,after a sl ight fal l

the price of R s . 43 2 8 annas . Then the marketbegan to take a ser ies of fantast i c l eaps , on

receipt of the news that all export was forb iddenfrom Saigon and that Bangkok wanted rice .

The rate went to R S . 5 00 and R s . 2 5 abovethat . Then when orders were executed pricesfel l unt i l th e speculators for a ri se got to worldagain . The market in O ctober opened atfrom Rs . 47 5 to R s . 48 5 , and the price s keptat this t il l the end of the month

,when a b ig

bul l ing firm,which wanted to hold the market,

raised the pr i ce s at the end' of O ctober and3 16

November to R S . 5 8 0, the highest sum‘ everknown on the Rangoon marke t .

Raw Cotton

The exports from Bfiurma were in 1 9 1 0- 1 1

Rupees.United KingdomGermanyA ustria-HungaryBelgiumItalyJapanSpainOther countries

These figure s are much below former .years ,for the co tton harvest was a

Cu tch and ground-nutsimpetus .

exports from Burma .

very bad one .

received a greatI t i s France that takes most of these

S kins and H ides .

expor t fo r 1 9 1 o 1 1 was

United KingdomThe Straits SettlementsCanadaAustria-HungaryGermanyHollandFranceSpainItalyTurkey in EuropeUnited StatesTurkey inA siaOther countries

I t was a good year in th is l ine,becau se ofthe

high price s obtained in European countries andthe Levant . I taly took most

,chiefly the l ighter

kinds of hides . Turkey in Asia,on the other

hand , preferred buffalo -hides .

Teak .

Export for 1 9 1 0- 1 1

United KingdomCeylonNatal and Cape ColonyAustral ia—VictoriaGermanyPortuguese A fricaOther countr ies

The .year 1 9 1 0- 1 1

, after two y ears ofdepress ion, showed good teak expor ts .

In 1 9 09 - 1 0 th e fore ign export wastons , and rose the fol lowing .year to 5 7 tons .

Th ere was a great demand for Shipbuilding andfor railway construction . I t was for railwaysthat the export was made to Sou th Afr ica and

to Vi ctoria . The expo-rt to the United Kingdomwas natural ly the large st , for London i s the teakmarket for al l the wor ld . I n spite of the greatamount of teak exported, it must , unhappily, besaid that there i s not enough fi rst-qual ity t imberto lower the price on the market .The teak marke t has not yet escaped from

Burma . I t imported to the value of Rs .

say francs,and ex

ported to the value of R S . o r

francs . This i s an example ofthe use of colonies to a nation which knowshow to put a proper value on them and to profitby them .

Germany comes next with Rs . for

imports and R s . for expor ts .

Then France with R s . imports andRs . exports .

Austria -Hungary with R s . importsand Rs . expo rts .

In Asia,Japan imports to the value of

R S . into Bu rma and exports from‘ itR S . worth .

The United S tates also have no incons iderabletrade

,with R s . worth% of imports , but

exports only to the value of R s .

V . For th e Province of B urma in the year1 9 1 0

- 1 1 (between April I st and April I st)2 67 steamers entered with cargoe s and 1 5 4 inbal last ; and there were 8 sai l ing -ships in.

ballast . The total burden was tons .

The departures for the same per iod were 4 2 6loa‘de’d s team ers

, 4 in bal las t ; and 4 1 loadedsail ing -ships

,1 in bal last

,wi th a total tonnage

of tons .

This total does not include the port of3 20

THE“ WATER TOW ER

,MANDALAY.

2 . The B ibby Line of steamers .

3 . The Patrick Henderson .

4 . The Java -Bengal Line .

5 . The Asiat ic S team Navigat ion Company .

1 . The Brit i sh India S team Navigat ion Company .

For Cal cut ta direct every Monday,Thursday

and Saturday ;For Kyaukpyu , Akyab

,Chittagong

Calcut ta every,Wednesday ;

For Madras direct every Friday ;For the North Coromandel Coast every

SaturdayFor Pinang and S ingapore every Thursday ;Fo r Maulmein every Monday

,Wednesday

Friday ;For Tavoy and Mergui direct every Wed

nesday .

The steamers sail ing for Calcutta direct takefreight for London

,which is transshipped at

Cal cut ta to steamers l eaving for London everyfi fteen days .

2 . The B ibby Line of steamers .

These l eave every fi fteen days from Liverpoolby Marseil le s

,through Por t Said

,Colombo , and

Rangoon . They are fine steamers of overtons

,with horse -powe r , and are

the best fi t ted out of al l the steamers touchingat Rangoon . Among them those last launched,

the Worcestershire,the Herefordshire, and the

Warwickshire,are admirable seaboats in the

worst weather . The voyage to Rangoon occu

pies twenty -three days from Marseil les,and I

would advise all t rave l lers to B urma to use thisl ine . I t has an agency in Marseil les at 8 RueB eauveau .

3 . The Patrick Henderson Line .

These sail from Liverpool to Port Said and

Rangoon every fifteen days . The steamers arefast

,but not so wel l fi tted up as the Bibby boats .

The passage money i s considerably l ess .

4 . The Java -Bengal Line .

This is a Dutch Company, which, wi th three

steamers of about tons burden,makes

monthly j ourneys from‘ B'

atavia to Calcutta,

cal l ing at Rangoon .

5 . The Asiat i c S team Navigat ion Company,which has the fol lowing programmeCalcutta to Rangoon

,cal l ing at Chittagong ;

Cal cutta to Maulmein,call ing at Rangoon ;

Calcut ta to Java,cal l ing at Rangoon , Padang ,

atavia,Samarang

,and Surabaja

Rangoo n to JapanRangoon to Bombay ;Cal cutta to Po rt B lair , in the Andamans, once

a month,call ing at Rangoon.

CHAPTER X

THE TRIB UTA RY STA TE S

I. Trade with Ch ina through the Shan States . II. Tradewith the Northern Shan States . III. Trade with the

Southern Shan States. IV . Trade with S iam.

I . BE SIDE S the seaborne trade which the Burmaport s carry on with the other port s of the worl d

there i s al so the trans -front ier t rade with the

Chinese Province of Yiin-nan,on the borders

of the Shan S tates .

The three most important routes from Yunnan towards Burma acros s the Shan States are

1 . From Tal i b y T‘

éngyiieh to Bhamo ;2 . From Tal i through S sumao and Keng

tung3 . From Yun -nanfu through Talang and

Ssumao .

The fi rst of these i s much the most impo rtant ,but in i tself the town ofT ‘

engyueh takes only asmall share of the trade . I t i s mostly a transittrade . T

éngyiieh is the first true Chinese sett lement reached afte r coming from the Bu rma

i s ent i rely Chinese,except in the tract where the

Ming -chia or Ming -yen are found . On the otherhand , the towns and vil lages in the plain on theother s ide of T‘

éngyiieh are inhab ited by Shans ,many of whom

,i t may be remarked

Chinese half -breeds and wear Chinese dres s .

The hil l s are occupied by Kachin tribes,more or

less uncivi l ized,and in al l respe cts similar to

the tribes who live on the hill s round Yuenkiangand Talang

,whom the Chinese call Han-pai .

The Brit i sh as sert that the plateaux to the westof T

éngy iieh ,as wel l as the three Shan States

ofNantien,Kan -ngai

,and Chanta

,which make

up the Taping River basin,have a populat ion

ofthree hundred thousand . This e s t imate seemsto me rather exaggerated . I t i s

,however

the opinion of the engineers sent to carry out arai lway survey

,and therefore well may be

erroneous .

The Taping River,at whose source T‘

engyueh stands

,fall s by a series of terraces to the

I rrawaddy,which i t enters above Bhamo , and

i t passes across the bed of the former lake , whichnow forms the States ofNantien and Kan -ngai .The Taping Val ley forms a natural road toBhamo . The old T ‘

éngyiieh route, after leavingBhamo

,crosses the river near Myothit and goes

on to the Nampaung,where i t crosses the

front ier, and then passes through Pengs i , Man326

The Tributary States

yuen (or Manwaing ) , and Tapingkai . I t crossesthe river at several places

,notably at Man

chang, near Kan -ngai,a number of routes join

together, al l l eading through Nantien to T ‘

en‘gyueh .

The new road, on the south bank of the

Taping, was constructed in 1 9 0 2 -4, and passesby the Kulong hka and the Kuli hka

,where it

crosses the frontier ; and passes by Mansein ,N awngchang

-Kai,Kan -ngai

,and so on to

éngy iieh .

The third known route goes from Bhamo toNamhkam

,in B rit i sh terri tory

,there crosse s the

Shwel i,and goes on through the Shan -Chinese

S tates of Meng Mao,Chefang

,and Mangshih

to the Chinese town of Lungling . From Lungl ing two routes may be followed leading toYung -ch ‘ang -fu

,where the main road to Tal i

i s j oined .

The Imperial,or Repub l ican , Chinese Customs

Service has ports on these three routes : atPéngch ien and Manyuen,

on the old rou te ; atMangch ien and Nawngchang ,

on the new routeand at Lungling

,on the route of that name .

There is also a Customs stat ion at Kanlanchai,at the bridge over the Shwel i ; with the T

yiieh“ port the total number i s seven . The

three Shan -Chinese S tates of Hoh sa, Lahsa, andMong Wan ( called Lung

’chuan by the Chinese ) ,327

on the Bhamo front ier,are so closed in by moun

tains that i t is impossib le to construct a road toget at them . Nothing can be done beyond thepresent footpaths

,which are excess ively bad .

The roads from Myit Ky ina,north of Bhamo

to T ‘

éngy iieh are also very difficult going . Thechief are

1 . From Sadon to T engyueh,through the

Sans i gorge,at a height of feet

a pass of and another of feet . I tpasses through S inchi to T ‘

éngy iieh .

2 . From S ima to Meng Tien,at an alt i tude

of feet,beyond which i s a pass of

feet . This also passes through S inchi toT

éngyiieh .

3 . From S ima to S imapa, with a rise to

feet . Then a pass of feet at TapingKai

,on the o ld road

,and so on to T ‘

éngyiieh .

I t i s no more than eighty miles in an air - l ine,but

the j ourney takes e ight or nine days . FromBhamo to T ‘

engyueh,a dis tance of 1 3 6 miles ,

the j ourney can be done in eight days . Apartfrom the sect ion of the road buil t by Bu rma,extending to a s core ofmiles o r so

,the roads are

as bad as they well can be . They are,in fact,

l ike al l the other roads in Yun -nan,except the

main roads leaving Yiin-nan -fu for Tali,for

S sumao,Mengtzu

,and Chaotung

,which are

tolerab le . The most diffi cul t roads and the328

to a l it t le over two shil l ings the mile,and

it must be remembered that only certain kindsof goods are suited for the road

,and that they

must not be eas ily breakab le,that they must not

spoil on the way,and that they must be able to

stand al l the jo lt ing and jarring of the road .

Goods which might spoi l,o r which would only

bring in a smal l profi t,are completely Shut out .

Moreover the rains put an end to al l traffic,and

the rains last six months .

The imports from China to Burma in 1 9 1 0- 1 1

Horses,ponies and mules

CattleSheep and goatsOther kinds ofanimalsClothesVegetab le fibreDrugs and medic inesOrangesSweet potatoesVarious fru itsSkins ofanimalsHornsJewel lery and precious stonesCopperMuskOpiumTea

S ilkMarble and jadeTobaccoVarious articles

I f some other import s are added to these,

the grand total amounts to R s .

The exports to China mount up toR S . The most not iceab le amongthem are cotton goods

,cotton thread

,dried and

salted fi sh, and swallows

’ nests . Woollens andearth -oil also amount to a considerab le sum

woollens , R s . and earth -oil products,

Rs . This is the summary of the trafficof Burma with South -western China , across theShan States .

I I . With the exception of Tawngpeng,the

Northern Shan States are larger than those of

the South,but Tawngpeng makes up for its

want of s ize by the tea which it produces . Kengffing ,

i t i s true,i s almost twice as b ig as North

Hsenwi,which is the next largest S tate , but i t

i s very far away,and i t i s inhabited by a much

greater number of useless hil l t ribes than anyother State with the exception of Manglun

,which ,

w ith its populat ion ofTame Was , produces almostnothing at al l . Ton H sang

,the octogenarian

chief of Manglun,i s a venerab le rel ic of bygone

days,very ob st inate and incapable of under

standing what progress means , but his sub j ectsare not l ike him

,and engage in a variety of

enterpr ises . They carry rope to Tawngpengand also lead

,and bring back salt . Moreover,

even the wi lder Wa are giving up their savagery3S I

and embarking in trade . There are, indeed ,some of them who have developed a very rapidcivi l ization , if one is to judge from one of themwho was arrested not long ago for making falsemoney .

The State revenues are proof enough in theirgrowth of the trade which is being established .

Thus H s ipaw already exceeds the sum of

R S . 600,000 . Yawnghwe shows R s . 2 70, 5 00,

while Tawngpeng and North Hsenwi have as lightly larger total . Kengtung, with i t s

square miles,returns only Rs .

The Northern Shan States are evidently morefavoured than those of the South

,which perhaps

is due to the Maymyo -Lashio railway, but muchmore to the greater individual size of thedomains . I t i s obvious that a State which countsits area by tens of square miles instead of byhundreds or thousands has no great chance of

largely increas ing it s revenues . Moreover,in

the smaller States of the south the construct ionofa bridge i s a big undertaking, whereas in thenorth great attent ion i s paid to the making of

roads and the suppress ion of gambling, whichcannot so easi ly be suppressed in the southbecause they make up a large item in the budgetof the small S tates . Nevertheles s some of thebest S tate roads are in the south ; and as for

gambling,there is not much to choo se between

undes irab le populat ion,and attacked and burnt

the vil lage of a dawa,or chief

, ofthe Maru clan .

A party of military pol ice had to b e sent againstthem, and several of the raiders were kil led .

This was followed by disturbances in a goodmany other quarters

,and as just at this t ime the

Revolut ion broke out in China,there was a good

deal of disorder,which probably wil l br eak out

again . All these hi l l peoples,Shan Kachin

Wa,are ready to rise at a moment S notice

the Wa in particular are always ready to seizeany excuse for a good quarrel .There was an increase in the exports from the

Northern Shan States,and they reached a total

of R S . Much of the r ise was dueto the lead - s ilver mine of the Burma Mines Company at B

awdwingyi,and also in some degree to

teak,which rose to R s . 2 67 , 1 66 . The mining

company has corrected the mistake it made inbuilding too l ight a branch line from Manpwi toBawdwin

,and the results now are most promis

ing . Last year the depth reached was over twothousand feet

,and the amount of ore extracted

was tons,which gave 1 9 per cent . of lead

and 7 per cent . of S i lver to the ton . U p to nowtons have been sent to the smelt ing

works at Mandalay . The smelter has s ince beenremoved to the mines . The lead obtainedamounted to tons at £ 1 2 1 95 . the ton.

The Tr ibutary States

The s ilver total led 8 5 ounces , at 2 5 . 2—d . the

ounce . Without being over -sanguine,most ex

cellent results may be expected from this enterprise . Through it the Mandalay -Lashio railwayhas realized a profi t ofR S . on a totalofRs .

Imports from Burma to the Northern ShanStates , on the contrary, fel l off. The explanat ionof th is may be the bad harvest o f the precedingyear

,and also the decrease of trade with China

on account of the cessat ion ofOpium cult ivation .

I t must also be added that the Tongking railwayto Yiin-nan -fu has affected trade as far west asTal i -tu , and has deflected it to the capital andto Mengtzu

,and It 1s very clear that this will

continue to be increas ingly the case . All thatBurma wi l l be able to do wil l be to retain hersphere as far as Yungch‘ang -tu .

Roads are being extended more and morein the Northern Shan States . The H sipawSawbwa keeps up 2 3 5 miles of roads , which aregradually being macadamized

,and 5 0 miles of

mule tracks . On these roads he has to employnat ives of India

,for h is own sub jects dislike the

work and are much more expens ive . But cool iesare beginning to arrive from China , and theywill be cheaper than Indian labour . The Sawbwahas imported a steam -roller to H sipaw, so thatthe streets ofhis capital are very wel l kept up .

The Tawngpeng Sawbwa also has spent muchmoney on the Nansan road . On the whole theS ituation in the Northern Shan States i sthoroughly sat isfactory .

I I I . As to the Southern States the presentgreat interest i s the building ofthe rai lway . The

work does not seem to have got on very fast .Construct ion has not got farther than the Meik

t i la distr ict,and al l the difficul t portion i s in

front , and wil l only begin when the ascent of thefoot -hill s commences . The l ine

,however , i s

definitely laid out, and the al ignment reachesto Yawnghwe

,which is to be the terminus for

the present . I t is hoped that the fi rst locomotive will reach Kalaw towards the end of

1 9 1 3 , and that the whole l ine wil l b e open totraffic in 1 9 14 . Kalaw wil l then be quicklyreached

,and the sanator ium ofwhich there has

been so much talk can easi ly be establ i shed .

Houses have already been buil t there for the

rai lway staff,and if the expenditure proposed i s

sanct ioned,as one may assume that i t wi l l be,

the work should go on fast . After two years ’ workballast trains run no farther than the s ixteenthmile

,and to tel l the truth, i t cannot be said that

much energy has been Shown up to the present .Nevertheles s the trade of this part of the

country has been very brisk, and the results areencouraging . The total of the imports and

export s with Burma for 1 9 1 0- 1 1 came to

R S . This is the highest figurereached up to now

,and only ten years ago the

total of the Southern Shan States trade withBurma was only half this sum . I t i s made upas follows imports into Burma

,R S .

exports from Burma,R s . The

Government cart -road is chiefly responsib le forthis improvement in trade, more especial lybecause Government officers have not insisted on

the ru le which provides that the tyres of thecart -wheels shal l be of a certain width . The

narrow wheels obvious ly cut up the roads , butit i s very difficult to force a definite pattern of

wheel on the Shans . They have no communicat ion with Rangoon

,and wheels are not readily

got . I t wi l l be t ime enough to, enforce theregulat ion when the rai lway is open and purchases can be made The imports of potatoesfrom the Shan States have increased cons iderably

,and rose to a sum of over R s .

I t i s certain that when the rai lway is opened thecrops wil l be quickly del ivered in large quant it ies in the markets of the plains

,and that the

Marseil les potato trade wil l come to an end .

The Shan States are equal to supplying anydemand

,and there will no longer be any culti

vators watching their potatoes rot fo r want oftransport to Thaz i .

The introduction of sanitary ru les for the protection of cattle has had excel lent results

,as is

shown by the number of horned catt le expo rtedhead , with a value of Rs .

O ranges were represented by R S . 1

and this item is sure to increase,for Shans and

Karens plant orange -gardens wherever they are

possib le .

Only Rs . worth of raw cotton wasimported into Burma . Wheat improved

,and a

good deal was sold among the cool ies employedon rai lway construction at Thaz i . This i s worthnoting

,for i t seems probable that wheat pro

duct ion wil l develop to supply these new customers and may find a market in Rangoon andMandalay .

The decline in raw S i lk and in cotton thread i sthe mos t noteworthy fact in the export s fromBurma to the Southern Shan States . This i smost unfortunate

,but i t i s inevitable . Before

long we shal l see Shan women wearing b lousesmade in Germany .

The total trade ofthe Southern Shan S tates i sobviously not al l included in the figures givenabove . This i s due to the fact that a cons iderab le proport ion makes its way to H s ipaw s tat ionon the Mandalay -Lashio Railway . When theThazi -Yawnghwe rai lway is finished, thi s wil l nolonger b e the case, but meanwhile al l the Kéng

refined sugar,tobacco

,and bamboo . Teak

alone i s the most valuable import,and amounted

in value to R s . for the south andR s . for the north

,or a grand total of

Among the exports to North S iam are ponies,

elephants,l ime

,rattan

,cotton in al l it s

forms,drugs and medicines

,dyeing stuff

,apples

potatoes,grain

,wheat

,s ti cklac

,hides

,spirits

earth -oil,paper

,salt and dried fi sh

,raw S i lk

spices,betel

,sugar

,tobacco

,and woo ll ens .

To South S iam the exports are horned catt le,

goats,elephants

,clothing , arms and ammunition ,

bricks and t i les,coal

,co t ton of al l kinds

drugs and medicines , dyeing materials , oranges ,potatoes

,rice and grain

,skins and hides

,various

metals,earth -oil

,opium

,in fact

,practi cal ly

the same things as go to the north .

CHAPTER X I

FREN CH TRA DE W ITH BURMA

I. French trade in Burma. II. Tinned foods. III. Tinnedfish . IV. Tinned fru it . V . Condiments and spices .

VI. Wine and champagne. VII. Brandy.

I . WITH the help of the s tati st ics pub l ished bythe Local Government

,notwithstanding that they

are not always very precise,I have been able:

to give a fairly complete view of the generaltrade between France and ‘Bu rma to the po rt sof Rangoon

,Maulmein

,and Akyab . I t i s

hardly neces sary to say that Rangoon alone take s ,one might almost say , the whole of the trade , asi t does the trade ofal l other countr ies .

For the official year 1 9 1 0- 1 1 the total

imports from France to Bu rma amou nted toa value of R s . 1

, 7 8 1 ,o o o ( in 1 9 0 5-6 i t was

Rs . and in 1 9 09- 1 0 i t was

Rs . a cons iderab le fall ing off frompreceding years . The exports from Bu rma toFrance had a value of which

showed a rise ( 1 9 09 - 1 0 the value was

R s . 6 1

The chief art i cles we import are : brandy ,l iqueurs

,perfumes and perfumed alcohol , cham

pagne,red and white wines

,port and sherry,

butter,provis ions in t ins and bott les

,cheese ,

farinaceous foods,fruit s

,vegetab les

,sal t and

dried preserves,condensed milk

,vinegar ,

gherkins,art i cles preserved in vinegar , sweets

and bonbons,cutlery and ironmongery ware ,

lamps,enamell ed i ron

,drugs

,al l kinds

ofcotton goods,hosiery

,haberdashery

,mill inery

piece s i lk,s i lk and cotton

,carpets and wool len

b lankets,all manner ofdress ing mater ial s , boots

and Shoes,hats

,t i les

,bricks and cement

ornamental glassware .

Although i t i s s t i l l in i t s infancy,I am con

vinced that French trade with Bu rma could beconsiderab ly developed . Bu t i f th is i s to be

done,i t should b e taken in hand by French

fi rms interested in pushing French manufactures .

I t is quite certain that the English commissionagents who buy French goods from London tosend them to Burma only buy them when i t isnecessary

,and are always ready to subst itute

B rit i sh goods whenever they can . I t i s anobvious principle that i f you want to do goodbus iness you must do i t yourself . We Frenchpeople do not manage our own affairs in Bu rma .

the French products l ikely to command a sal eand to start novelt ies ? What we want i s thespirit of enterprise

,and i t i s not only here that

we lack i t . With a l ittl e init iat ive,pat ie nce ,

and united effort we ourse lves would carry onour own busines s in Rangoon . Even now we

do a trade to the value of Rs . inRangoon

,and there is not a S ingle French

merchant there . From this fact alone i t i sobvious that i f there were only one s ingle fi rmthere

,a firm which would import all manner

of goods,i t would be certain of success .

Among the exports from Burma to France arerice

,dyeing woods

,hides

,horns

,al l of

them imported into France by foreign housesand carried in foreign ships . This i s nothingcompared with what could b e done by a Frenchhouse sett led in Rangoon . The products ofBu rma which are ab sorbed o r are manufacturedin France are numerous . B es ides ri ce

,horns

and hides,I may ment ion cotton

,copra

,cutch'

or catechu, peas and beans , spices of al l kinds ,dyeing and tanning materials

,paraffin wax

besides these,earth -nuts

,birds ’ feathers

,ivory

rat tan,rubber

,j ade

,precious stones

,gum - lac

essential oi l s for perfumery,mother -of-pearl

shel ls,tal low and vegetab le wax, j ute and fibre

and much more .

I would add that in o rder to do bus ines s in344

French Trade with Burma

Rangoon it i s ab solutely imperat ive to have a

good knowledge of English,to understand the

Indian coinage,which is in use here— that i s to

say , rupees and annas—to know the Engl ishweights and measures

,as wel l as those of the

nat ives . All our merchant s write in French,give

the prices in francs,and make the i r proposal s

in French . Nobody takes the troub le to readthei r letters

,for nobody here understands French

which is a language of fashion,spoken only by

a few society ladies .

A S a comparison I wi l l give the German tradefigures

Our French firms are somet imes amaz ing intheir ignorance . Thus at the t ime when I wasConsu l in Rangoon a b ig Marseill es o i l and soapestab lishment wrote to ask me if there was adirect l ine of s teamers from Marsei ll es to

Rangoon . I t was absolutely ignorant ofthe factthat Rangoon communicates direct with Marseil les by the B ibby Line steamers

,and yet

i t was a Marsei l les firm and the B ibby Line i swel l known .

I I . Tinned provis ions , especial ly vegetablesand fruit

,wil l find a market al l over Bu rma

from Rangoon . European vegetable s and fruits345

do not grow in the plain country,and they are

eaten t inned . Our chief r ivals are the UnitedKingdom, the United S tates , and Austral ia . Theimports total a value of R S . Underthe general head of provisions other than winesand l iqueurs

,sugar

,and coffee

,France appears

on the l i s t fo r a paltry sum ofbetween forty-fiveand fi fty thousand rupees .

(a) There are no exports under the headt inned provis ions

,except nat ive foodstuffs for

I ndia,such as salt fi sh and condiments .

(b) H i therto the Medical Board has made nospecial rules as to t inned foods . At the t ime of

the Chicago scandals all American canned meatswere banned .

(c) The bes t way of extending the use of

French preserved food s wou ld certainly be to

send commercial travelle rs,but al so

,and more

part icularly,the establ ishment of a French firm

which would carry on wholesal e and retai l bus iness . I t should have an agent of i t s own,

whowould go from Rangoo n to France and backevery S ix months

,and would thus b e ab l e to

keep an eye on the sales and on the goo ds indemand

,to see to their packing, and ensure that

everything should be done in France to suit thewants of the customers . I t i s imperative thatal l the s taff should speak Engl ish , and that oneof them Shou ld know Bu rmese and another Hin

(g ) I t i s the best plan to send everythingpossib le in bottles . The customer can see whathe is buying

,and they appeal more to the eye .

The French labels should be left on the bott le s,

but i t might be well to add in Engl ish the nameof the art icle under the French name . Thus

cots °aerts.

French beans .

(k ) Bottles of one o r two pounds weight arethe most usual S izes . The method of openingpreferred is a key twist ing offthe strip of metal .

(i) Every bottle should be careful ly packedin straw to prevent breakage . A S to the numberof bott les or t ins in each case

,the best plan

is to consult the customer and pack according tohis requirements . I t i s advisable to send sup

plies in small quantit ies and at frequent interval son account of the dampness and heat of thecountry .

I I I . (a) Preserved tunny -fish ,sardines

,ancho

vies,smal l mackerel in oil

,herrings

,and the

l ike,would find a market in Rangoon and in

Bu rma .

(b) I n such suppl ies we should have to compete with America

,but Am erica has , one might

almost say , the monopoly of the t inned salmonand lobster t rade .

(c) The usual method of packing them is in348

French Trade with Burma

t ins , but I have noted a new fashion , l it t le glassjars opening with a screw key

,sent by the Pari s

fi rm ofBillet ( factory at Sables d’

Olonne) . Thismethod of packing attracts customers

,who can

see what they are buying .

(d ) The tins on sale in the Rangoon marketare of the same s ize and shape as the French ;no alterat ion in model i s therefore necessary,but keys are preferable to knife t in -openers .

(e ) N o part icular precautions have to betaken in packing except where glass i s con

cerned . As to the size of the boxes and the

number of fi shes to be packed in each,the buyer

Should be consulted,for he knows better than

anybody what is most l ikely to sel l .

(f) Stock should be renewed often and insmall instalment s because of the cl imateIV . (a) Preserved fruits, such as j ams , fruits

in syrup , dried fruits , prunes , fruit in brandy,command a sale in Rang-con and all overBu rma .

There is no local compe t it ion . A s toforeign competit ion

,i t i s with England for the

j ams and with America and Australia for the

preserved fruit

(c) The Americans and Austral ians send theirgoods in t ins . The French“ prefer bo t t les

,i f one

is to j udge from the expor ts of some B ordeauxfirms . This i s no doub t more at tractive

,but it

costs more . The Austral ians sell their j ams particularly cheap and import large quant i t ies . Theendeavour Should therefore b e made to supplythe fruit packed in bottles at the same pri ce asin t ins . The French labels might be retained ,with the English name added . B

oth tins andbott les weigh one or two pounds .

(d ) The bott les must be well packed, and thenumber in each case should be determined inconsultat ion with the customers .

(e ) Consignments should b e sent frequentlyand in smal l quant it ies

,because of the cl imate .

French preserved fruits are very popular,and

great quant it ies are consumed,especial ly in

D ecember and January . Au str ia enters intocompetit ion with us , but does not equal us inqual ityV . (a) There i s a po ss ib l e sale for sauces and

groceries , but i t i s not a very large field .

(19 ) The trade now i s more part icular lyEnglish

,and Messrs . Crosse and B lackwel l

London,have nearly a monopoly of i t . Never

theless , in some shops I have seen bottles fromB

ornibus,Price

,and Louit Freres .

(c) Such goods are always sent in bot t les orear thenware pots .

(d ) French brands are known and accepted .

There i s no need to change them .

(e ) Articles preserved in vinegar and Spices3 50

the wines he impo rts—ch iefly port and sherryall come through London . Red and white tablewines

,therefore

,are not in demand . There

remain the vintage wines, and these are mostlyimported by the hotels and regimental messes ,and also to some extent by the clubs and bywealthy pr ivate individuals . Customs stat ist icsgive. an average return of from to

francs (about a year for wineduties . The best year was 1 9 0 5 -6, when thetotal came to R s . and that was the yearthe Prince of Wales (now King George V . )came to B urma . His vis i t helped to raise thesales of high -class wines .

I n addit ion to the fact that the English do

not drink much wine,except

,now and then, after

dinner wines,it has also to be noted that France

has rivals in the wines of Australia,Cal ifornia,

and Hungary . Thus the S trand Hotel,the chief

hotel in Rangoon,imports Hungarian Bordeaux

and Burgundy wines . There are also the winesof I taly

,Chiant i

,Barollo, and Barbera to com

pete with us on the Rangoon market,chiefly

because th ere is an I tal ian firm,Messrs . Chiesa

Cie .,which imports direct .

A S far as champagne is concerned, Bom

mery and Greno is the favourite brand one

might say i t i s almost the only one drunk inall houses

,clubs

,and hotels The cheaper3 52

Rs . and Rs . respect ively . This ischeap and fraudulent b randy

,with false label s

giving the names of Hennessy,Martell

,and other

well -known French trade marks . I col lected anumber of these labels and sent them to theCognac Chamber ofCommerce

,but I never had

an answer from them .

A S a matter of fact,S ince the Customs dut ie s

are very high,bad brandies cannot eas i ly sup

port them,and good French brandy Should profi t

correspondingly . But i t must be admit ted thatthe good days for brandy in the Indian Empireare gone . Formerly the Anglo - Indian dranknothing but brandy and soda . I n those daysFrance did a cons iderable brandy trade wi th thechief ports of I ndia and wi th Rangoon . Nowadays it is whisky and soda that i s drunk

it has completely di splaced brandy .

CHAPTER X I I

IN DUSTR IE S

I. Native industries—Cotton and S ilk weaving. II. Dyeing.

III. Salt-bo i ling. IV . Manufacture of ngapi, or saltedfish . V. Pottery . VI. Lac. VII. Gilt boxes .

VIII. Bronze,iron

,and wood carving, etc .

IX. European industries and manufactures in Burma.

I . NON E of the native industr ie s i s of' great

importance,and mechanical product ion is

,so to

say, in i t s infancy . Cotton and si lk weavingare carr ied on in almost every house

,although

this is not so much the case in the big townsas in the vi l lages . Nevertheless one can hardlytake awalk without noticing or hearing the clackofweaving . The loom is a ve ry S imple affair

and ofa model that has done no thing ve ry great .I t is not unl ike the old looms that used to be

worked in Europe . The threads of the warpare alternately raised and lowered by pe‘da'l s .

The art icles woven , whether of cotton o r s i lk, arechiefly paso, or waistclo th‘s , of different coloursworn by the men or tamein

, a kind of pe t t i35 5

coat , worn by the women . Pieces of S i lk or

co tton for various family uses are also woven .

I n former days al l the cotton clo th was madewith cot ton grown in the country, but s ince improved communicat ions have introduced foreigncot ton

,and since the estab l i shment of markets

in al l the great centres,and S ince

,perhaps ,

cotton -fields have more and more given place torice -fields in Burma, imported cotton has almostuniversally come into use

,and i t has become

quite the custom to buy European -made clo th .

S ilk has also been imported from abroad inincreasing quant it ies

,but neverthele ss there are

a good many si lk -weaving estab li shments,

no tab l y at Prome and even more so in Mandalay .

Government gives i t s support to those who wishto promote the S i lk product ion of the country .

The designs are usual ly in striking colours,and

the patterns are often very complicated, andimply the use at times of twenty or moreshutt les . A paso of thi s kind sometimescosts R S . 3 00 The design is o rdinari lyin l ines or zigzags of different colours , inwhich yellow

,green

,and red predominate .

The nat ive -woven art icles are coarse,but they

are s trong,and they las t longer than the

imported si lks . I t is true that the latterare cheaper and attract the eye more

are therefore sought after by those who want3 56

coloured designs,and the Shans of H senwi

State make cot ton cloths with very S ingularpatterns

,but al l dark in colour . The Kachins

also have a sombre groundwork for thei r clo ths,

usual ly a black -b lue,with longitudinal or con

to rted l ines of different colours,but always very

compl icated . The Lu Shans,on the other hand

those who l ive on the other s ide of the Salween,

l ike the Lao tribes who l ive in French terri tory,

prefer very bright colours,often threaded wi th

gold .

l l . Dyeing is an art with the Burmese , and

also among the Shans and Karens . The coloursare al l very pure and att ract ive to the eye

the way in which the weavers combine themforms the most harmonious result s . Unfo rtu

mate ly,however

,the nat ive co lours are being

gradually displaced by the horrib le ani l ine dyesof European manufacture

,which are very far

from producing the soft and art i st ic effect s of

the natural dyes of the country . But on th e

other hand,the Hum an

,who is const i tutional ly

averse to work,very readily gives up the com

plicated methods of hi s ances tors,when he can

buy the neces sary dye cheaply in the neares tmarket . Thus in Mandalay

,which remains the

chief s i lk -prod ucing di stri ct of Burma,anil ine

dyes have taken the place of al l the nat iona lcolours except three o r four These remaining

Industries

dyes are arnotto (B rixa orellana) and wildarnotto (Rottera tinctoria) , which come from theShan States

,turmeric

,and sti cklac .

Dyeing with the old nat ional ‘ t ints is s ti l lcarried on in out-of-the -way places

,away from

the beaten track The everyday dress of thepeasant i s woven by hi s w ife and daughters withthe country cotton and dyed with the herbalsof the j ungle

,but the fest ival day dress is made

of s tuff bought in the bazaar,cheap

,gari sh

trashy .

A S i s noted above,the chief Colours are

yel low,red

,and green

,and to these may be

added l ight b lue and white,except among the

Shans and Karens and the Chin and Kachinhi l lmen

,who subst i tute dark blue and black .

To fix the whitenes s of the thread i t i s boi ledin a mordant

,and then beaten on a stone o r a

wooden plank . I f i t is to be dyed yel low it isplunged in a decoct ion of saffron and st i rredabout fo r half an hour . Then it i s washedseveral t imes in cold water .

Green is got by plunging the thread in aboil ing decoct ion of the leaves and twigs of thecreeper called Mai-nwe (Marsa

’emia tinctoria) .

I f o range is wanted the small seeds of theth iden (B ixa orellana, arnotto ) are rubbed in thepalm of the hand in a bucket of cold water . Theseeds are taken out and the thread is steeped init and then boi led .

For red,st icklac i s used in a powdered form .

The powder is boiled in water in which thethread is steeped .

I n some parts of the country D iosporis mollis,

Terminalia chebula,and latropka carcas are used

to get b lack and ‘

Ruellia indigofera, Indigofera

tinctoria, and a kind of wild indigo fo r a bluedye .

The fruit of the tamarind,the wood of the

‘A a’

enantkera pavona and’

Melanorrhcea asitatis

sima give a red dye , and so does the well -knownSapan wood (Ccesalpinia sappan) which i sfound in Tavoy . The Southern Karens use the‘

Rotleria tinctoria and the roots of the morinda .

Cardamoms give a yellow dye,an ’d when

mixed with other ingredients,s everal t int s of

red . Different colours of .yel low are go t fromthe wood of the j ack - tree (A rtocarpas integri

folia), from the roo t of a psychotria, from thebark of a kind of garcinia, from the flowers of

the Catea,and the leaves of the memecylon.

I ndigo is used more part icularly by theShans

,who have two variet ie s of i t . The plant

seems to flourish especial ly on high ground,and

does not stand great heat . Fo r this reason i tis grown in shady places in the plains of Burma

and i t thrives wonderful ly on the Shan andKaren H i l l s . I t i s only used for dyeing cottonstuffs .

Industries

Sticklac is found in various places in the ShanStates

,but i t i s not much propagated art ificially

except among the Red Karens , though the Shansof Yawnghwe State graft i t on ar har dkal .

Everywhere else,when a tree is attacked or

colonized by the insects,the people are sat i sfied

with co llect ing the lac that has been deposited .

The Karen -ni,on the other hand

,deve lop and

encourage the depos it . The scale insects are ,

as it were,grafted on the thickest branches of

the trees which experience has shown are themost favoured by them . The kinds mostcommonly chosen are tho se which the Burmesecal l the pyauk, the gyo ,

and certain variet i esof the fig or banyan species . The insects

al l appearance,remain quiet and s leepy for a

month or two,but when the rains come on they

become busy and cover the small b ranches of

the tree with their depos it to a thickness of ‘

o r thereabouts of an inch . This lac takes theform of l it t le brownish cel ls

,in which the

creatures l ive . The branches are cut off at theend of the rains

,but some are always left to.

carry on the species next year on new Shoo t s ,and also to supply the brood - lac fo r graft ingon other trees .

The lopped -off branches are laid in the sun,

and since the branches are dead the insect s arenot long of dying. fo r want of nourishment too .

When the branches are quite dry the y arepounded in a wooden mortar . The powderedlac is then put in a bamboo tube

,well shut up ,

and it is v igorously Shaken with water . A partwhich is cal led the blood ofthe insect

,but which

is probab ly merely a solut ion of the cel lularstructure

,is dissolved and fi l tered . This is used

as a red dye,and it i s with thi s that the red

trousers so character ist i c of the Karen -ni aredyed .

1What remains i s used as wax for fastening and seal ing, and?the people ofthe country usei t especial ly for fixing knifeblades in their h'afts .

Cutch,ob tained from the A cacia catechu

which was dealt with in Chapter V I I I,is also

used as a dye by the Burmese . The Pegu cutchis the best fo r thi s purpose

,and i t i s this which

is chiefly sent to Europe . The cutch marketfor al l Europe is in London .

I I I . Salt is boiled along the whole length of

the coast from Akyab to Mergui,but imported

salt i s di sp lacing home -bo i led salt, espe cial ly inPegu . There are two methods of extract ing thesalt

,accordingly as sea-water o r earthy brine

is treated . When sea-water i s used,an area

of about three thousand square .yards is prepared by rais ing a small earthen ridge roundit . I n February sea-water is let in and is

allowed to evaporate . I n March the muddydeposIt is carried off and put in a filter -bed

gaung is eaten roasted, fried, or with curry . Thekind of fish does not much matter . N gapi is

made w ith all manner of fish,although the most

popular kind is made wi th N ga thalauk (Clupea

palasah ) . After the fish have been scaled andthe heads and tail s cut off they are salted andput into bamboo baskets to let the li quid drainoff Then they are salted again and put outin the sun

,and when they are dry they are

packed in hampers with alternate layers of fi shand sal t . What moisture there is rises andevaporates

,and the fish i s ready for eat ing. in

a month ’ s time . The most noted ngap'

i is thatmade at Hpayagyi and Angyi , in the RangoonD istrict . I t i s known al l over Burma Thefishes used are the N ga kn ( closios major ) andthe N ga kye (CallichroassWhen nga thalauk is used the fish is not s caled .

I t is split up the middle and fi l led with salt .

Taungtha ngapi or a’

kamin is made of small fi shor prawns

,wh ich are spread out in the sun to

dry for two days,and are then pounded in a

mortar with salt . S einsa i s made entirely of

prawns at Mergu i and Tavoy .

‘ There i s a varietycalled Keik ngapi, which is only made for Rangoon and Maulmein.

V . Pottery -work is carried on in the dryweather between December and March . I n therains the potter s stop al l work and take to agri

Industries

cu ltural pursu it s . Pegu,Tunte

,and Bassein are

the chief centres of production . Pegu is celebrated for its jars

,which are known all over

India as Martabans .

The vessels made at Bassein are not withoutartist ic merit . Papun and Tavoy turn out finepottery -work

,and By inmana i s celebrated for

ornamental pottery . There are great factoriesat Singu in the Mandalay district . The dollsmade of the Shwedaik earthenware are wellknown . Pakokku

,Magwe

,and Minbu also turn

out a good deal, and as a matter of fact there

are few places where some kind ofpottery i s notmade .

The Shans have long manufactured glazedpottery

,and no doubt learned the art from the

Chinese,and they in their turn introduced i t

into Burma . Tiles and plaques of baked earth‘

have been found at Tagaung , Pagan , Prome , and,

Pegu,all o ld capitals of Burma . Specimens may

be seen in the Phay re Museum in Rangoon .

V I . Although there is no lacquer -work inBurma which can be compared with Japanlacquer

,or Chinese lacquer

,descr ibed in Chapter

X I I .,p . 1 66

,of L’Empire laponaise et sa vie

conomique, yet Upper Burma has developed aspecial kind of the work in the figured redlacquer

,which is known as Hagan lacquer, and

employs a considerab le number of people . Boxes,

cups , and tab les are made with much tas te anda certain amount of skil l . The box is made of

the required size in fine woven bamboo . Thisis then smeared over with a groundwork ofdarkcoloured pure vegetable oil

,known by the name

ofth itsi,which is extracted from theMelanorrhoea

asitatissima . When it i s quite dry,a mixture of

sawdust,wood -oil

,and rice -water is appl ied

when this,again

,i s quite dry

,the box is fi rmly

fixed to a post and careful ly pol i shed with apiece of s i l icious bamboo

,whi ch acts l ike sand

paper . Then it i s again covered with anotherlayer of paste made offine bone -dust and woodo il

,which is al lowed to dry

,and then again

pol ished in the same way .

Only three colours are employed in the ornamentat ion ofthe box,

but there are different t intsofeach . For yel low,

powdered orp iment i s used,which is washed several t imes t i l l nothing but apure

,impalpab le powder remains , which i s mixed

with a l itt le gum tragacanth . When it i s app liedto the box it i s mixed to the desired consistencywith a vegetab le o il cal led S hun-S i . To get

green,indigo is added to the orpiment , and for

red,a l itt le vermil ion is mixed with thit-si di luted

with shan-si . The patterns are then incised witha kind of s tyle and the whole i s covered with alayer of varnish .

V I I.Prome is noted for another kind of in

Images of the Buddha are made in thi s wayof bronze

,and the rel igious often throw gold

S i lver, and precious s tones into the molten metalso that they may be melted into the figure . TheBu rmese metal -workers employ the same methodof melted wax which was practi sed by thePhoenicians

,and must have been the system

followed by al l As iatic peoples . These smeltersare to b e found more o r les s al l over theprovince . They make great quanti t i es of knivesand swords . The da

, or sword, i s put to al lkinds of uses

,even to the cutt ing of a path

through the j ungle,a feat which the Burmese

and Shans achieve with extraordinary ski l l andrapidity . These a

as usual ly weigh from one tofour pounds

,according to their

length,and the

back is always broad . The knives o r daggersare of different shapes and lengths , and theyare very serviceab le

,though not very neat in

their workmanship . Every Burman,Shan , Karen,

and,in fact

,every person in Indo -China has a

do and a knife . One never meets any one inthe hill s who is not armed with a da in hi sbel t, and the Burmese b lacksmiths sell greatnumbers in the nat ive bazaars . Goldsmiths ’

work may be counted among the other nat iveindustr ies . They make r ings

,b racelets

cyl inders , gold and s ilver chains , boxes , bowls ,and S i lver plates

,but there are not more than

Indu stries

three or four thousand workmen in the wholecountry .

The best wood -carvers are to be found inHenzada . Ever s ince Europeans have settledin B u rma these craftsmen have set themselvesto make tab les

,chairs

,picture -frames

,and other

Western art icles carved in the national s tyle ;these they sel l in Rangoon and Mandalay .

Their chief employment,however

,is in the orna

mentat ion ofmonasteries,shrines

,and all manner

of rel igious bui ldings . Bu rmese wood -carving i scoarse and has no true inventiveness about it ,though there are those who think that it showsmore true art is t ic spirit than the painful elaborat ion of detai l in I ndian work .

The Burmese,and st i l l more the Shans

a kind of paper from the bark of a certain t ree .

This industry,however

,is fall ing off

,and seems

l ikely to disappear before the importation of

European paper of al l kinds .

Mat -making is another industry,but i t is not

equal to the product ions of Japan,China , and

French Indo -China in workmanship .

Mandalay and Sagaing have a monopoly of

sculpture in stone and marb le . The sol e or

at any rate the almost ent ire ob j ect of this wo rkis the adornment of temples and pagodas . Thesculptors are sometimes very ab le, and I haveoften stopped in the stone -workers ’ quarter in

369 A A

Mandalay to visit their shopyards and to admirethe statues of the placid Buddha made to the

order of some wealthy cit izen,to be dedi cated

with great ceremony at some pagoda as apenance for h is s ins .

. European trades have not made theirappearance in Burma as yet to any extent . Thereare earth -oil refineries

,almost al l at Syriam

the except ion of one o r two in Rangoon,where

the earth -oil i s brought in pipes recently laiddown by the Burma Oil Company from theYenangyaung o il-well s

,and in the tank steamers

ofthe I rrawaddy Flot il la Company . The Syr iamfactorie s are in very act ive operat ion . They alsoturn out candles and tapers for the pagodas .

The rice -mills st il l continue to represent thech ief European industry of the country . Rangoon has 1 3 0 of them . I n Lower Bu rma

Thaton,Pegu

,and Amhers t also have them

some owned by rich Burmese or natives ofI ndia .

Two or three s team sawmill s have al so beenset up in Rangoon by European firms

,but they

do not at present work as steadily as they might,

because of the scarcity of t imber .

I t i s therefore,perhap s

,not incorrect to say

that al l manufacturing activi ty sti l l remains tobe created .

Newspapers pub li shed in the country arecharged a quarter -anna the S ix to las

,o r twenty

tolas for half an anna,and half an anna for every

additional twenty tolas or part of them .

Parcels are sent by post from twenty up totwo thousand tolas— that is to say , at from one

to twelve rupees postage .

The value -payab le parcel system is in use,

and is natural,for Europeans in the mofuss i l

can only get the things they want from Rangoono r Mandalay

,and with the value -payable system

purchase is made easy .

For foreign countries the charge i s a quarterof an anna

,twopence -halfpenny for twenty

grammes weight . I n countrie s belonging to thePostal Union parcel s

,postcards

,and patterns

post art icle s are sent according to the rules andcharges of the Postal Union . Post -office orderscan be sent under the same condition s as prevai lel sewhereBurma and the I ndian Empire have a system

of Post Office Savings Banks,which finds great

favour w ith th e people of the country . There i sa Deputy -Postmaster -General in Rangoon whois under the orders of the Postmas ter -Generalfor al l I ndia

,who lives in Calcutta .

There are three ways ofsending telegrams1 . Urgent— I 6 words fo r 2 rupees

,and 4

annas for every additional word .

Miscel laneous

2 . Ordinary— 1 6 words for I rupee,and 2

annas for each addit ional word .

3 . Deferred —I o words for 4 annas , and 1

anna for every additional wo rd .

Telegrams for foreign countries are chargedaccording to the destinat ion . To Erance the

charge is 2 francs 2 5 cents the word .

The inland telegram is in very common use .

Nobody writes everybody sends telegrams , evenabout the most tr ifl ing things . I t is so convenient and so cheap .

I I . The engineers ofthe Pub lic Works Department belong to the Imperial I ndian serv ice .

They enter with the rank ofAssistant -Engineer .

Officers are appointed by the Secretary of Statein London

,with the as s istance of a committee

which must have a fully qual ified C ivi l Engineerin i ts number . The candidates must have enteredtheir twenty -fi rst year

,but must be under twenty

four on the I st of July . They must be Britishsub j ects and the sons of B ri t i sh sub j ectsBri t i sh -born nat ives of the country are ad

missib le,and if their number and their quali

fications are in o rder, 1 0 per cent . of th e

vacancies are reserved for them . No specialexamination i s imposed upon the candidates now .

The committee s imply cons iders the test imonial ssent in by each candidate

,and makes up the li s t

according to their relat ive value . Special im373

por tance is naturally attached to diplomas andcert ificates of honour .

Promotion in the Pub l ic Works Department i sby select ion . The engineers are employed in theerect ing or maintenance of pub l ic bui ldings

roads,canal s

,and irrigat ion . Their pay ranges

from R s . a year for the Chief Engineerdown to R S . for ass istant -engineers . I nBurma they have to devote special attent ion toirrigat ion

,which expands every year

,part i cularly

in Upper Burma .

The Burma I rrigat ion Works consi s t of fourmain series

,known by the names of the Man

dalay,Shwebo

,and Mon Canal systems .

The two latter are st i ll under construct ion .

I n the same way there are four main groupsof embankments : ( I ) The I rrawaddy embankment

,west of the river near Henzada and

surrounding Thongwa I s land . 2 ) The three protective embankments on the S ittang in the PeguD istri ct

,with the Ma -ub in embankment in

addit ion . 3 ) A greater or less number of canalsand reservoirs of les s importance

,dat ing from

the time of nat ive rule . These are spread all‘

over the dry zone in Upper Burma, and drawtheir suppl ies either from the rainfall o r fromsuch rivers as that of Madaya in Mandalay, theZawgyi and Paunglaung Rivers in Kyaukse, or

the Man and the Sal in in the Minbu D istrict374

a work which i s constant ly new and constantlygrowing

,fo r the maintenance of the canals i s

a task of great difficulty owing to the damagewhich is due often and suddenly by the overflowofthe waters . Thus the Kyaukse District

,a l itt le

south of Mandalay,suffered severely two years

in success ion,in 1 9 0 8 and 1 9 09 , and the

crops were almost ent irely lost,s imply because

in September,

1 9 09 , acres of r icefields

were flooded .

I n Lower Burma it i s the repairing andbuilding of embankments which mostly take upthe attent ion of the engineers

,for there water

is present in such huge quantit ies that precaut ions have to be taken against the mis chiefi t might do . The chief embankments are thoseof Ma -ub in

,between Ma -ub in and Pantanaw

the great embankment which start s from Pantanaw and passes through Henzada to Myanaung

,on the west bank of the I rrawaddy there

is a b ranch which goes off to the north of

H enzada,at about the middle

,and turns towards

Bassein,to the wes t of the rai lway

,which i t

protects . To the north of Pegu there are twoembankments between the rai lway and the

Sittang River,and one of them goes on through

Nyaunglebin to re j oin the rai lway to the southof Pyu rai lway -stat ion .

I I I . The expenditure and receipts of Burma376

Miscel laneous

are divided into : Impe rial expenditure andreceipts and Provincial expenditure and receipts

or,in other words

,general and lo cal . The

Imperial or general receipt s include the landtax

,the capitat ion tax in Lower B urma, and

the revenue tax,or that/zamea

’e,in Uppe r Bu rma,

the fi sheries,the i rrigat ion taxes

,the Customs

and Excise,the sal t tax

,opium tax

,the t imber

royalty and regis trat ion dues in the forest s .

The local revenues are distri ct and municipalfunds and the port dues .

The total budget of Burma balances itsel fgenerally in the excess of re ce ipts . We maytake the last two years 1 9 09 and 1 9 1 0

1909 . Receipts . Expenditure .R upees. R upees .

Imperial fundsLocal fundsTotal in rupees

I t may be confident ly asserted that thereceipts are always in a surplus of fromR S . to R s . and this surplus usually grows every year

,unles s there are

accidents or unforeseen disasters . The financial377

posit ion of Bu rma is excel lent,and i t cannot fail

to improve . Rice,the chief wealth of the

province,i s never wanting

,and in Burma one

never sees,as in India

,whole regions deprived

of water and swept by famine . Bu rma is rich,

and therefore l iving is expens ive,more expen

s ive than in any part of India . Bu t in spiteof th is B rit i sh officials who have had a term of

service in Burma do not wil l ingly go back to

I ndia . Moreover,the wealth of the province

added to the laz iness of i t s population,brings

about a constantly increas ing inflow ofnatives ofI ndia

,more especial ly in Lower Bu rma . When

one lands in Rangoon it would be easy to fancyoneself in a town on the coast of Malabar or

Madras . One only sees a Blurman here and

there in the dis tance . The number of nat ive sof I ndia who yearly come to Rangoon amount sto about Some of them remain permanently , and they end by gett ing possess ionof much land round the towns and driving theBurmans northward, so that the country roun‘dRangoon is becoming Indian

,with nothing but

people from the Madras or Malabar coas t .

A'kyab,Mergui

,and Maulmein in the same way

have large numbers of I ndian emigrants . Thisis

,however

,more apparent than real , and is not

borne out by census o r Land Record Reports .

A very considerab le proport ion of the land st il l378

was an epidemic which carried off thousands ofthe people .

The small number of deaths from‘ snakebite i s also noticeable

,when one th inks of the

mult itudes of these horrib le creatures in thecountry .

The hospital service i s admirab le . The twolargest and the best are naturally those inRangoon and Mandalay

,but there are hospitals

in al l the chief towns,and at the t ime ofwri ting

the hospitals and dispensaries for all Burmanumber 2 60 .

The expenditure necessary to combat theplague has overburdened the finance s of manytowns and distri cts

,and has consequent ly ham

pered the s teady watching ofthe epidemic owingto want of funds . I t wil l be difficul t to

arrive at a sure way of prevent ing thi s curseand j ust as is the case with cholera

,the doctors

wil l have to l ive with i t and become accustomedto i t b efore a really effect ive cure i s discovered .

Leprosy is one of the endemic diseases whichcauses cons iderab le ravages . All manner of

remedies have been tried to check i t,i f not com

pletely to cure i t . Dr . Rost,a Special is t in th e

quest ion in Rangoon,thought he had discovered

a serum,but i t does not wo rk infall ibly . Several

French miss ionaries and s i sters have contractedit

,and are cared for at the Leper Asylum at

Miscel laneous

Kemmendine , near Rangoon , which is presidedover by Father F reynet, with a staff of Francis can S isters . One of the S is ters has beencured, but the other vict ims have not derivedany benefi t from the inj ect ions of serum .

V . Education in Burma is carried on in Government schools

,under the control o f the Depart

ment of Public I nstruction,and inspected by it

There are Government s chools and privates chools almost independent of offi cial supervis ion . The number of free schools is greaterthan that of the Government schoo ls . Thereare of them as against butthe pupil s in the Government schools are the

more numerous,

as againstOfthe pub l ic, o r non -official, school s 1 areB uddhis t monasteries , and among these there aremany that have not more than two or threepupils . They are graded as primary schools ,secondary schools

,and the college s . The

primary schoo ls teach up to the fourth s tandard ,and sometimes up to the fi rs t s tandard of thesecondary co urse . Two of the s chools areGovernment property

,eighteen are subventioned ,

and seven are under Government contro l .English is only taught by ear in the three

lower standards . I n 1 9 1 1 there werepupils in the Government primary schools .

The secondary schools number 6 5 0 , with38 1

pupils . They are divided into twoclasses : upper and middle secondary School s .

There are such schoo ls at Prome,Yandun

padan,Mergui

,Kyaikto

,Rangoon

,Mandalay

and at al l the principal towns of the province .

There are 9 5 of them that prepare theyouth for higher teaching and educate them upto the standard of the matriculat ion at Calcut taUnivers i ty . I n 1 9 1 0 there were 1 1 4 candidatesfrom Burma schools and 1 0 1 of them passed

7 7 of them in the fi rs t class .

Among the Rangoon schools that of theChrist ian Brothers deserves mention . I t has

pupils at least,and the teachers are French

and I rish . The same body of Christ ian Brothershas a school at Mandalay

,with an attendance

of 5 0 0 . The headmaster,Br other Jean , whom

I have already ment ioned,i s a Frenchman of

high standing,whose character and intel l igence

are held in high est imat ion by the Europeanpopulation . These two schools are always verysuccess ful in the examinat ions and are consideredamong the best in the province .

Rangoon College teaches up to the standardwhich “ corresponds with our bachelor ’ s degree .

There are about a hundred pupils .

There are also schools for special profess ionsin several towns . Rangoon in part i cular hasthree of them

encourage this revival of Bu rmese art,and

apprent ices in S i lver -work,lacquer

,and carving

have been taken on in various towns,with

allowances of ten rupees a month fo r four years .

I n 1 9 1 0 there was a Bu rmese Arts and Craft sExhib it ion in Rangoon

,whi ch met with some

success,and the progres s made in the various

branches was quite not iceable .

There is an Archaeological Department inMandalay

,pres ided over by a B u rma -born

Chinaman,Mr . Taw Sein—ko . H e i s empowered

to restore and keep up such Bu rmese monumentsas are worth the troub le and are st i l l in a s tate %

that admits of repai r,as

,for example

,the Royal

Palace in Mandalay,where a museum has been

estab l ished .

The department is also charged with the dutyof making studies in the ruins of old capital s

such% as Pagan,Prome

,A va,

Amarapura,and

of the o ld races that formerly dwel t in the I rrawaddy Delta . Up to now no very noteworthydiscoveries have been made . I t wil l take somet ime for the archaeological D epartment to reachthe level of the service s which i t has been createdto render .

CHAPTER X‘IV

THE A N DAMA N IS LA N DS

NOT so long. ago the Andaman I slands werea dependency of the V iceroy and GovernorGeneral of I ndia

,who appo inted the officer to

the charge of i t . N ow this group of i s lands,

as wel l as the N icobars,i s unde r the Burma

Government,and the then Lieutenant -Governor ,

S ir Herbert Thirkell White,paid his first official

vis i t there in 1 9 0 7 . They are only a very smal lpart of Burma

,and furnish it with i ts penal

sett lement,but they deserve to be ment ioned .

The A ndamans were o riginal ly inhab i ted bya dwarf race of Malay origin

,but this aborigina l

race has been rapidly ext inguished as a cou se

quence of intermarriage with other types , whohave for long years been depo rted to the seis lands . The populat ion is therefo re a mosaicof al l the races of I ndia and Bu rma, l ib eratedconvicts

,or men sentenced to penal servitude .

There are from S ixteen to twenty thousandprisoners who work at woo l len and cotton weav

38 5 B B

i ng , husking rice , and express ing coco -nut oi l .Cotton and woo llen blankets bring in a sum

ofalmost R S . to the prison . The amountof rice husked has occas ional ly amounted to

lbs . or lbs . ofwhite r ice .

The o il presses of Viper Mill producelb s . of o il

,which is usual ly sold in

Calcutta .

The total cost of the publ ic works,inc luding

the work of the prisoners,mounts up to an

average total of Rs . I n the Department of Pub l ic Works the convicts are clas sedas stokers

,fi t ters

,and drivers . The value of

the goods turned out for Government,o r for

private purchasers,amounts in ordinary years to

R s . The workshops on Phoenix B'

aytake an important place in the work

,and give a

great deal of assis tance to the Pub l ic Worksand Naval Departments . I n these works 5 00prisoners are employed in the foundriestanneries

,chalk furnaces

,and cane factor ies .

The chalk -kilns manufacture 2 5 0 cub ic feet inthe year ; 5 00 bul lock -hides and goatskins and Sheep -skins are tanned and

,prepared

and sold .

The foundries bring in from Rs . to

Rs . annual ly .

I n the rope and rat tan works about thirtygood workmen are trained every year, and the

the A ndamans . Hevea,Ceara

,and Para

rubber are al l of them cult ivated . There aretrees at N arcnmaghar . Near Navy

Bay there are 2 00,and some have been

planted at Aberdeen,in N orth Bay

,but the

plantat ions are st i l l young and are only j ustbeginn ing to yield . Nevertheless the yieldpromises to be large . The Hevea and the Cearado particularly wel l .Sugar - cane is also cult ivated

,and the Musa

textilis or text i le banana .

Each prisoner cost s about eighty -five rupees .

S ince 1 9 0 5 the Andaman I slands have beenconnected with I ndia by wireless installat ion .

The is lands have great oyster -beds,and i t i s

said that fi shers have latel y di scovered spec imens of the Melogonia margariti/era o r pearlbearing oyster .

To all the products and al l the industrie s whichhave been mentioned there has to be added acons iderable t imber trade . I t i s therefore clearthat these remote dependenc ie s of Burma arenot beneath not ice from the economic po int of

A dministration of Burma and

Indo-China contrasted , 1 80A kyab , 1 54

A laungpaya, 3 7

A nnexation, final , 75A rakan, friction in, 4 1 ; pagoda,

A rakanese , 79

A rchaeology, 3 84A va, 36, 2 34

Bassein, 1 54

Beans , 28 5Budget ofBurma, a steady sur

plus. 3 77Burma and Malaya compared, 30Burma

, contributionto India, 1 9 5Burma, iso lation of, 2 1

Burma,Lower, physical

sions, 1 1 1—1 4

Burma, Lower and Upper con

trasted, 2 1 8

Burma Rai lways Company, 2 1 2 ;

revenue and traffic , 2 1 3

Burma War,First, 4 7 ; British

losses, 49Burma War, Second, causes of

5 4—5 9 ; commencement ofho s

tilities, 62 concluded byproclamat ion, 64

Cadastral Survey, 1 84

Canal s, 3 74Canning, Captain,

sent to Burma,4 2

Chaungtha. 80

Ch in H ills, 1 3 2

Cl imate, 1 39

Coal , 265Cotton, 2 73Cox, Captain H iram,

B urma, 40

Cutch , 248 et seq .

sent to

Delta ofIrrawaddy, I 1 6

Dress, 2 26Dyeing, 3 5 8

Burma War , Third, causes of,

70—73

Burmese Court massacres, 5 3 , 68Burmese doctors, 9 2 dress, 93meals

Burmese, first friction withBritish , 3 9Burmese intrigues in India, 44Burmese race, 76 cl seq . charac

ter, 78

Burmese, their first home, 3 5Burney

,Major, appo inted Envoy

to Burma, 49

Ear-boring, 84 Metal-wo rking, 367Earth o il

,28 1 MindOn, King, 66

Education, 3 8 1 MingOn pagodas and be l l, 2 3 6

Embankments, 3 76 Mountains ofBurma,1 1 8—2 2

Fisheries , 28 3 Ngapi (salted fish paste), 363Forest Service , 1 74

Pagan, 2 3 1

Gokteik bridge , 2 3 8 Pearl and oéche-c’

c-mer fish ing,Go ld

,2 77 284

Pegu ,1 5 2

H ealth,2 2 2 Engl ish and French Po lice, 1 79

habits , 2 23 Posts and Telegraphs, 3 7 1H laing o r Rangoon R iver, 1 2 7 Pottery, 364

Prome, 1 5 3 , 2 30

I rrawaddy R iver, 1 23 ; affluents, Publ ic Works Department, 3 73

1 2 5 P ure, 8 8

IrrigationWorks, 3 74uarries

Kach in H i l ls,1 3 1 , 1 36

Kalaw,1 68

Karens or Kayin, 98 ; c lans ,1 00 ; Red, 98 , 1 0 1

Kéngtt‘

ing, 1 64

Kuthodaw pagoda, 1 60

Lacquer-ware, 365Lakes in Burma, 1 29

Land Records Department, 1 85

Lash io, 165

Leadmines, 2 78

Maladies, 14 2Mandalay

,1 58 palace, I 5 9

Maulmein, 1 5 5Maymyo, 1 66 Salt-bo il ing, 362Medical statistics, 3 79 Sanatoria,

Mergu i A rch ipelago, I 5 7 Seasons, 2 1 9

Rai lway, extension of SouthernShan States l ine , 28

Rai lway, Hukawng Val ley l ine,1 8

Rai lway, Mandalay-Kunlong, 24Rai lways, need oftrunk lines, 1 7

Rai lways, profits on, 1 5

Rangoon, 145 , zoo ; founded, 3 8Revenue system

,1 8 7

R ice trade, 3 1 2R iver steamers, 2 14R oads, 2 0 2 insufficient, 1 4

Rubber, 2 5 4 e% seq.

Ruby-mines, 2 3 9

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