438 



INDIA. 



A privileged group obtained six lakhs, and the 

 other creditors whose claims were recognized 

 two and a half lakhs. 



The northern Shan states, as far as the Sal- 

 wen river, were invaded early in 1888 by a col- 

 umn commanded by Maj. Yates, and most of 

 the chiefs acknowledged allegiance to the Brit- 

 ish Government. The most powerful of these, 

 the Tsawbwa of Thebaw, had been banished 

 by the late King, but was restored by the Brit- 

 ish, and with their aid extended his rule over 

 neighboring territories. Other Tsawbwas who 

 opposed the British were deposed in favor of 

 rivals. In April the first disturbance occurred 

 in Arrakan, the inhabitants of which are a 

 distinct race from the Burmese. A band of 

 dakoits crossed the hills from the valley of 

 the Irrawaddy, released their leader, Mikhaya 

 Bo, who was confined in Myohoung jail, and 

 burned the town and the neighboring village 

 of Graoung, where the people fired on them. 

 Although the Arrakanese hate the Burmese 

 and have taken no part in the insurrection, 

 the policy of disarmament was carried out 

 among them as elsewhere throughout Burmah. 

 The Setkya prince in Upper Burmah defeated 

 the military police in several encounters in the 

 summer of 1888. The Choungwa prince, an- 

 other Alompra pretender, conducted his opera- 

 tions with bands of Shans and Kachyens in the 

 neighborhood of the ruby-mines. Boh Shwa- 

 yan, an able dakoit chief, who led the revolt 

 in the Tsagain district, was killed by a detach- 

 ment of British soldiers on July 25. Boh 

 Ngano kept the Minbu and Toungdwingyee 

 districts in a state of disturbance. The Chins 

 of the Tashon hills captured the town of Indin 

 and held it till a force of 1,000 men, with two 

 guns, came from Mandalay to expel them in 

 May. The other Chins joined in the rising, 

 and raided the Kubo and Chindwin valleys. 

 The Shvvegyobin prince led the movement, and 

 the Tsawbwa of Kale, whom the British had 

 deposed, planned the operations. The Chins 

 were closely pressed by the troops that were 

 sent out against them, and finally released the 

 new Tsawbwa, whom they had carried off, 

 and said that they were willing to make peace 

 if their own plundered cattle were restored. 

 The British refused this, and added the unac- 

 ceptable condition that the Shwegyobin prince 

 and other rebels among them sliould be de- 

 livered up. The military authorities contem- 

 plated an expedition into the Chin country in 

 the winter, but this the Indian Government 

 refused to sanction. Disturbances in the Thara- 

 waddy and Tenasserim districts of Lower Bur- 

 mah were distinctly traceable to the corrup- 

 tion of the officials and the cruelty and crim- 

 inal excesses of the police. Arbitrary exactions 

 under the pretext of punitive taxes caused a 

 famine in Tharawaddy. At Tavoy, a town 

 on the border of Siam, from which country 

 arms were smuggled in for the rebels, the 

 merchants, some of whom were Chinese and 

 some natives of India, informed the Commis- 



sioner of Tenasserim that his subordinates 

 were implicated in this traffic. The commis- 

 sioner took no notice of their accusations, but 

 some time afterward a punitive tax was levied 

 on the town. On their refusal to pay the tax, 

 which was illegal because no dakoities had 

 taken place in the town, the police seized the 

 furniture, jewelry, and stock in trade of the 

 inhabitants. The Kachyens north of Bhamo 

 attacked the fort at Mogouug in the spring, 

 and held the country during the summer and 

 autumn at their mercy. In November a mili- 

 tary expedition was sent against them. In 

 the south the Eed Karens and Shans ravaged 

 loyal villages. The Government in June de- 

 cided not to enforce strictly the disarmament 

 decree among the Christian Karens and Bur- 

 mese villagers of the lower province. On June 

 9 dakoits plundered and burned Yeanangyoung, 

 the headquarters of the petroleum trade. At 

 the time of the conquest one of the great ad- 

 vantages that the people were led to expect 

 was the abolition of monopolies. The monopo- 

 lies of King Thebaw were abolished, except 

 that of the teak-forests, which was held by a 

 British-Indian company. The British ostensibly 

 began the war. The financial exigencies of 

 the Government and the jobbery that pre- 

 vails in the Burman administration have led 

 to the old monopolies being reconferred and 

 others created. The holders of the India- 

 rubber, jade, and mineral-oil concessions are 

 empowered to close entire districts to all en- 

 terprises except their own. The Government 

 of India granted the monopoly of the ruby- 

 mines to the London jewelry firm of Streeter, 

 but, owing to the scandalous manner in which 

 the contract was awarded, the concession was 

 not confirmed. The Queen- mother, Princess 

 Soopyagee, the elder sister of Soopyalat, and 

 an Alompra prince, who were confined at 

 Mergui, were sent to India for greater safety 

 in June. Deportation as a precautionary 

 measure was applied not only to members of 

 the royal family and political personages, but 

 to persons of all ranks and conditions, of whom 

 50,000 had been sent to India before the au- 

 tumn of 1888. The chief commissioner, in 

 addressing an assemblage at Myinmu, a dis- 

 turbed district, accused the people of coward- 

 ice in not giving information that would lead 

 to the capture of dakoits who plundered them 

 and burned their town. He threatened them 

 with hanging or imprisonment across the seas 

 and the confiscation of all their property, so 

 that their wives and children would have to 

 beg if they did not give the required assistance 

 to the Government. Burmese who could aid 

 the police to detect dakoits very rarely gave 

 information, even though anxious to serve the 

 Government, because their act was sure to 

 come to the knowledge of rebels, and would 

 be revenged by a death of lingering torture. 

 An emigration scheme has been devised for 

 peopling the rich bottom lands of the Irra- 

 waddy with Bengalee emigrants. Large tracts 



