84 



BURMAH. 



giving the people work on the roads. There 

 was a scarcity of rice, which rose to a very 

 high price, but supplies were brought from 

 Lower Burmah, and the large suras paid out 

 in wages on the public works prevented a 

 famine, except in some districts. The Shans, 

 who refused to work, suffered great distress. 



The Civil Administration. Mr. Crosthwaite 

 remedied certain evils that had existed under 

 the administration of his predecessor. The 

 Chinese had grievances which brought them 

 into disputes with the authorities and threat- 

 ened to increase the frontier difficulties. In 

 January the deputy commissioner at Bhamo 

 went so far as to impose fines on the Chinese 

 community and imprison their head man. The 

 new chief commissioner met a deputation of 

 Chinamen at Mandalay on March 24, and 

 agreed that the duty on jade should be paid at 

 Mogoung, and that Chinese leases of the India- 

 rubber forests should be recognized. The bar- 

 barous practice of decapitating dakoits and 

 exhibiting their heads, whicli had been per- 

 mitted as a means of inspiring terror, was dis- 

 continued by his orders, after the subject had 

 been brought up in the British Parliament. In 

 the beginning of March the Kubo valley, on 

 the frontier of the Indian province of Muni- 

 poor, was annexed to the British possessions. 



The Government revised the leases held by 

 the Bombay and Burmah Corporation, for a 

 supposed infraction of whose contract rights 

 the war against Thebaw was begun. The 

 leases were recognized, but instead of paying 

 the yearly rental specified in the contract, the 

 company will be required to pay a fixed price 

 for every log of teak extracted. 



In the spring and summer the claims against 

 the late Burmese Government were considered. 

 They amounted altogether to 64$ lakhs. The 

 bulk of them were for articles furnished by 

 merchants, mostly Frenchmen, to Thebaw. 

 These were excluded under a decision that the 

 Indian Government would not be responsible 

 for the personal debts of the King, but only for 

 the liabilities of his Government. This dis- 

 tinction, which was an entirely arbitrary one, 

 and had never been recognized in Burmese 

 jurisprudence, seemed particularly unjust, be- 

 cause the Indian Government had confiscated 

 the contents of the King's palace and had sold 

 for its own benefit many of the very articles 

 for which payment was now refused. 

 _ The Ruby-Mines. Northeast of Mandalay, at 

 some distance back from the Irrawaddy river, 

 is a ruby-producing tract, the only one known 

 to exist. The mines were the property of the 

 kings of Ava, who derived a considerable rev- 

 enue from letting the right to dig for rubies. 

 The last lease made by Thebaw expired in July, 

 1886. At the close of that year a military ex- 

 pedition was sent from Mandalay to take pos- 

 session of the mines for the new Government. 

 It set out on December 19. crossed a mountain 

 pass, and descended upon Mogouk, the princi- 

 pal town of the mining district. Merchants 



and miners who were working the mines con- 

 tributed their means to raise a military force 

 to resist the British occupation, and secured 

 the co-operation of the Shan Sawbwas of the 

 region. Strong stockades were erected and 

 formidable preparations were made to meet 

 the invaders, but as soon as the troops ap- 

 proached, the Shans and Burmese hirelings 

 fled to the hills, after first robbing their em- 

 ployers of all their wealth. A garrison was 

 left at the mines, but their possession was not 

 secure because the Sawbwa of Mainlung .and 

 other Shan chiefs refused to submit to British 

 authority. A column was sent against Main- 

 lung, and was fired on when approaching the 

 town, which was strongly stockaded. Sir 

 Frederick Roberts visited the mines in Janu- 

 ary and arranged the disposition of garrisons 

 and selected healthy quarters for troops dur- 

 ing the hot season. Mr. Streeter, a junior 

 member of a great London firm of jewelers, 

 accompanied the original expedition to the 

 mines, and was allowed to purchase rubies, 

 thoroughly examine the mines, and make ex- 

 periments in mining. After his inspection an 

 offer of four lakhs of rupees per annum was 

 made for a five years' lease of the mines. The 

 Indian Government provisionally accepted this 

 tender, but when the facts became known the 

 secret bargain was denounced in Burmah, India, 

 and Europe. Merchants of Bombay, Calcutta, 

 and Rangoon asked permission to examine the 

 mines, but the authorities refused to furnish 

 them with an escort, or to allow them to visit 

 the mines without an escort. A syndicate of 

 Parisian jewelers, who were supposed to rep- 

 resent the banking-house of Rothschild, made 

 an offer of twelve times the price proposed by 

 Messrs. Streeter. Those who were acquainted 

 with the subject asserted that the mines, with 

 the aid of machinery and explosives, would pay 

 a profit on a rent many times greater than the 

 English jewelers offered to pay. Mr. Cros- 

 thwaite went to inspect the ruby-mines in April. 

 While he was there the Sawbwas of Momeik 

 and Mainlung offered their submission and 

 agreed to pay tribute. Other Shan chiefs still 

 held aloof. The Government finally decided 

 to retain the monopoly of the mines in its own 

 hands, throwing them open to be worked by 

 the old methods, and exacting the usual duty 

 of 30 per cent, of the value of every stone. 



Petroleum Fields. There are two places in 

 Burmah where earth-oil has been produced in 

 quantities for gome years. At Akyab, on the 

 coast of Arakan, in British Burmah, wells 

 have been sunk and are worked by two Eng- 

 lish companies on the American system. The 

 oil obtained here is light and clear, and has the 

 advantage over American oil of being less ex- 

 plosive, though its illuminating power is less. 

 The production, however, is so costly that the 

 works have yielded no profit. The other oil- 

 field is at Yenangyoung, on the Irrawaddy, in 

 Upper Burmah. Here there are no bores. The 

 oil is obtained by digging holes in the earth, 



