BURMAH. 



BURNABY, FREDERICK G. 115 



scheme for escaping from his dependence on 

 the English by granting concessions and mo- 

 nopolies to French syndicates, and thus estab- 

 lishing large French commercial interests in 

 Burmah. On April 13, 1885, a concession was 

 granted for a land bank that should have the 

 exclusive right of advancing money on crops 

 or lending on mortgage, and of receiving de- 

 posits at interest. The King desired to revoke 

 the privileges of one of the largest English 

 monopolies, the Bombay and Burmah Trading 

 Company, in order to transfer them to French 

 concessionaires. This company holds leases of 

 the teak-forests of Upper Burmah, and has 

 been in the habit of advancing money to the 

 King. It declined to make an advance that 

 the King wanted for a court festival. A suit 

 was brought against the company by a number 

 of Burmese foresters for wages. In the course 

 of the trial it was brought out in evidence that 

 the company had removed over 50,000 teak- 

 logs without paying the royalty. The cor- 

 poration was ordered to pay the duties, with 

 a penalty added, making the sum of nearly 

 $1,250,000. The judgment of the Court was 

 followed by an order directing the confiscation 

 of the company's property to the extent of the 

 claim upon default. The company denied the 

 accusation, and charged that the entire proceed- 

 ings were factitious^ and the evidence forged. It 

 appealed to the Indian Government, which sent 

 a remonstrance and requested the suspension 

 of the decree. To this a slighting and evasive 

 reply was returned. 



A treaty was drawn up between the French 

 representative in Mandalay and the Burmese 

 Government, by which, in return for the capi- 

 tal advanced by France to establish the bank 

 at Mandalay, Burmah was to grant her the 

 control of the customs revenue from the tea- 

 trade and the working of the famous ruby- 

 mines. France, moreover, obtained an exclu- 

 sive concession for the construction of rail- 

 roads, and, as security for the capital, received 

 control of the customs on the Irrawaddy. The 

 interest on the line from Mandalay to Tonghoo, 

 on the border of British Burmah, was guaran- 

 teed by the King. While a Burmese envoy, 

 Thangyet Woon, was on the way to Paris with 

 this treaty, the British made preparations to 

 proceed to the long-deferred armed interven- 

 tion. The dispute with the timber company 

 affjrded as good a pretext as any other for a 

 demonstration intended to warn France. In 

 September a British corvette was sent to Ran- 

 goon. The reasons for interposition were com- 

 mercial rather than political. French suprem- 

 acy in Burmah was not much feared, but it 

 was considered important to prevent private 

 vested interests being established by French- 

 men, which would deprive the political rever- 

 sion of its lucrative value to English capital. 

 In such a cause the British Cabinet, being in 

 the position of an interim Ministry, were not 

 easily persuaded by Lord Dnfferin to initiate 

 an aggressive policy that might lead "to consid- 



erable expenses or unforeseen complications. 

 An ultimatum was sent to the Mandalay Gov- 

 ernment in the middle of October, a gunboat 

 was fitted up for service on the Irrawaddy, and 

 5,000 troops were collected on the frontier of 

 Burmah. Thebaw concentrated his forces on 

 the frontier, prepared to resist the British in- 

 vasion, and prepared to sink ships to block the 

 Irrawaddy. No satisfactory answer being re- 

 turned to the ultimatum, Gen. Prendergast 

 invaded Burmah with a British force. After 

 the capture of Mandalay, King Thebaw surren- 

 dered himself. At the end of December the 

 annexation of Upper Burmah was announced 

 by the British Government. 



The Chinese Occupation of Bhamo. In the early 

 part of the year 1885 the Burmese Government 

 was involved in a conflict with China, or rath- 

 er with Chinese filibusters. The Chinese had 

 taken advantage of the disorders in Burmah 

 to take possession of the city and district of 

 Bhamo, on the border of Yunnan. The Man- 

 dalay Government was not disposed to submit 

 quietly to the loss, but sent its best general 

 with a large force to recapture Bhamo, about 

 3,000 men in all, but badly provisioned and 

 equipped. The Chinese fortified Bhamo, and 

 repelled all the Burmese attacks. It required 

 the whole resources of the kingdom to drive 

 the marauders over the border. 



BIRXABY, FREDERICK GUSTAVUS, an English 

 soldier, killed in the battle of Abu Klea, in the 

 Soudan, Jan. 17, 1885. He was the son of a 

 clergyman, and was born at Somerby-Hall, 

 Leicestershire, in 1842. He received his edu- 

 cation at Harrow and in Germany, and en- 

 tered the Royal Horse Guards as a cornet in 

 1859, and became a lieutenant in the same 

 regiment in 1861, captain in 1866, major in 

 1880, and lieutenant-colonel in 1881. He first 

 became famous through a ride to Khiva, ac- 

 complished amid great difficulties and perils, in 

 1875, of which he published a graphic account. 

 Though he was prompted simply by a love of 

 adventure, the Russian authorities regarded 

 him with suspicion and complained to his su- 

 periors, who called him home before he could 

 carry out his intention of extending the jour- 

 ney to Bokhara and Samarcand. In 1876 he 

 made another trip on horseback through Asi- 

 atic Turkey, into Persia, and back again along 

 the shore of the Black Sea, of which an account 

 was published, entitled " On Horseback though 

 Asia Minor." He was with Don Carlos in the 

 last Carlist war as military correspondent for 

 the London "Times." In 1880 he was a Con- 

 servative candidate for Parliament for Birming- 

 ham, which borough he had prepared to con- 

 test again as joint candidate with Lord Ran- 

 dolph Churchill in the next general election. 

 In March, 1882, though he had no experience 

 in aeronautics, he ascended alone in the Eclipse 

 balloon from Dover and accomplished, not with- 

 out great danger, the voyage across the Chan- 

 nel, descending at Envermeau in Normandy. 

 His love of adventure led him, though a non- 



