FOUR YEARS IN UPPER BURMA.CHAPTER I.INTRODUCTORY.
The annexation of Upper Burma on January 1st, 1886, opened up to England a large and valuable addition to her foreign possessions, whilst it perceptibly widened the ever-increasing area of her responsibilities, both political and moral. Including the Shan States tributary to the kingdom of Burma, the annexation added to Lower or, as it was then called, British Burma, a territory as large as France, thus making all Burma a compact province of our Indian Empire, as large as France and Great Britain together, and bringing British India right up to the frontiers of China.
The resources of Burma are very considerable. Its mineral wealth includes gold and silver, iron and tin; its mines of rubies and sapphires are noted all over the world; its coal and earth-oil are likely to prove of great value; jade, a green stone much prized in China and Japan for the manufacture of bracelets and trinkets, is found in large quantities in Upper Burma, and amber is met with in the northern parts of the country. As the country and its productions become opened up, these treasures are sure to receive the attention they deserve.
The soil of Burma is generally very fertile, and with its diversified elevation and climate of mountain, plain and tableland, almost every variety of tropical productions can be grown, as wellas many belonging to the temperate zone. Lower Burma, especially the great delta of the Irrawaddy, affords unrivalled scope and suitable climate for the growth of rice, the staple food of so large a part of the human race. The area under cultivation for rice in Lower Burma is 4,339,000 acres, and for other crops 474,000 acres, and besides all local consumption, there is the enormous total annual export of rice by sea of 1,145,000 tons.
The dry climate and rich soil of Upper Burma render it more suitable for the growth of wheat, maize, cotton, and many native grains, vegetables and fruits than for rice. On the mountains indigenous tea is grown, is manufactured by natives, and can be bought in any bazaar. Burma is the chosen home of the teak, that prince among timber trees. The reserved forests are under the care of a Government Department for forest conservation, and are the property of the Crown. They cover an area of several thousand square miles, and yielded in the year 1889-90, 260,074 tons of teak, beside other valuable timbers and forest productions, including indiarubber and cutch. Cutch is the common commercial name for a product of theAcacia Catechutree, very valuable as a dye. These forests brought into the public revenue, when all expenses were paid, a net surplus of 3,388,400 rupees for the year 1889-90. The export of teak timber, chiefly for the European market, amounted to 184,431 tons, and the average value was about £10 a ton. Thus Burma is already a country of great material wealth, with vast possibilities of growth and development.
According to the census of 1891 the population of Burma, including the Shan States, is 8,098,014. This total is made up as follows:—
With regard to the population of the towns, Mandalay stands first with 188,815. Next to this is Rangoon, the capital andthe seat of Government, with 180,324; Maulmein has 56,000. The rest of the towns are considerably smaller.
The population of Burma is scanty in proportion to its area and resources; in fact, population is the great requisite for the development of the country. The quickening touch of British rule and commerce is effecting much in the direction of supplying this need. Every district, without exception, in Lower Burma shows an increase in the last ten years, an increase of 22 per cent. on the whole. The Indian Government is disposed to make the rich province of Burma an outlet for the congested populations of some of the provinces of India, and the great steamer companies are accomplishing this by conveying many hundreds of natives every week from the Indian ports to Rangoon, thereby enriching themselves, enriching Burma, and giving to these people a sphere and a chance in life, where their humble energies may receive their due reward. It is in manifold ways like this that civilisation and a firm and enlightened rule bestow such blessings on these teeming Oriental populations. The number of these immigrants from India into Rangoon, the chief seaport of Burma, during 1890 was 86,609. Owing to the customs of the natives of India, and their reluctance to break entirely away from home and country, there were in that year 65,055 who returned to India. This leaves a balance of over 20,000 for the year, which may represent approximately that very welcome addition to its population which Burma receives from India year by year. Rangoon itself is largely Indian in population, and Indians are to be found all over the country in great numbers.
Both Upper and Lower Burma have yet large tracts of waste land, unoccupied territory that would well repay cultivation, and it is to be hoped that an agricultural population will be attracted from India. Should the railway system of Burma, now being rapidly developed, be united to that of India, that will no doubt be brought about in course of time. As the price of labour, roughly speaking, is 100 per cent. more than it is in India, and as the cost of living is not more than 50 per cent. higher, the balance is decidedly in favour of the immigrant.
Burma is watered by magnificent rivers. Chief of these is theIrrawaddy, with Rangoon near its mouth, and chief among its tributaries is the Chindwin. Both these rivers are great arteries of trade, being navigated not only by great numbers of the quaint-looking Burmese vessels, but by the large and powerful steamers of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, which, since 1867, has been trading on these rivers. Their steamers now ply regularly several times a week up the Irrawaddy to Mandalay, 500 miles, and even as far as Bhamo, some 250 miles farther, and up the Chindwin as far as Kendat. These steamers are splendidly built of steel, with flat bottom, and lower and upper deck, with ample accommodation both for saloon and deck passengers, and are fitted throughout with the electric light. Some of them will carry considerably over a thousand passengers besides cargo.
Historically Upper Burma is a land of great interest. It was all that remained of the once powerful Burmese empire, which in the early part of this century was strong enough to menace our Indian territory, and extended from Siam, in the south, to the confines of Bengal, in the north, and from China to the Bay of Bengal.
Each of the three Burmese wars has arisen in a similar way, and has been marked by the same features on the part of the Burmese Government,—viz., an unwillingness to listen to reason, with much bluster and ignorant self-sufficiency at the outset, and inferior military qualities in the performance,—and each has resulted in the annexation of some part of the kingdom to British territory. Arakan and Tenasserim were acquired by treaty after the first Burmese war in 1824-26; the province of Pegu was occupied and retained, consequent on the second war in 1852-53; this gave us the command of the Irrawaddy, with Rangoon for a seaport; the third and last war, in 1885, took away all that remained of Burmese rule, and the kingdom of Burma became a thing of the past.
Much may be said against war in the abstract, and against wars of this description in particular. It would be easy to represent such a war as this, so far away from England, as aggressive and unjustifiable. I am no advocate for war of any kind, and I am not anxious to defend this action of England in conqueringand annexing the last remnant of the Burman kingdom. But I can see that a question of this kind is not to be so summarily settled as may appear on the face of it.
England long ago embarked in India on a career of empire, prompted rather by the force of circumstances than of set purpose; and now it often seems difficult to decide when to go forward and where to stop. I will not attempt to unravel this tangled skein, but will merely say that, leaving aside the questions of how England came by her vast power and influence in the East, and whether she ought ever to extend it, and if so under what circumstances, it seems to me that ultimately and finally the verdict must turn on the use she makes of this unique position, and what she accomplishes with her unrivalled opportunities in the material, intellectual, social and moral advancement of the many races and nations that she rules or protects.
Coming now to the immediate causes of the Burmese war of 1885, the following is the official account of them from the British standpoint:—
“Complaints against the Burmese Government meanwhile multiplied, British subjects suffered insult and violence at the hands of local officials, and no redress could be obtained. Trade monopolies were created in defiance of the express terms of the Treaty of 1867. The disorganisation of Upper Burma infected with disorder the adjacent districts of the British province. Negotiations were carried on by the Burmese Government for the purpose of contracting close alliances with other European countries, to the studied neglect of England. These causes had contributed to make the situation very unsatisfactory to the British Government, but were not such as to demand active interference. Acasus belliarose, however, out of a specific act of the Burmese Government, who raised a large claim, amounting to several lakhs of rupees, against the Bombay-Burma Trading Corporation, a company of merchants, mainly British subjects, who had a large business in Upper Burma. In view of the magnitude of the claim, and of the interests of British subjects involved, mediation was attempted by the British authorities in order to ensure an impartial investigation. The mediation wasignored; and the company, without being allowed reasonable opportunity for defending themselves, were condemned by the Burmese Council to be mulcted to the amount of 2,300,000 rupees. The British Government protested against this arbitrary act; and their demand to have the proceedings stayed until the matter had been referred to an arbitrator was peremptorily refused. It was on this refusal that the British Government decided to send to the King of Burma an ultimatum, which should be designed to adjust once for all the relations between the two countries. The ultimatum required the king not only to suspend proceedings against the corporation, and to receive an envoy with a view to the settlement of the matter at issue, but also for the future to permit the residence at Mandalay of a British agent, who should be treated with due respect. It was added, too, that the external relations of Burma should in future be regulated in accordance with the advice of the British Government, and that facilities should be given for opening up trade with China. This ultimatum was dispatched on October 22nd, 1885, and a satisfactory reply was demanded by November 10th. On November 9th the reply was received, containing an absolute refusal of the proposed terms. Moreover, on November 7th a proclamation had been issued by the King of Burma, calling on his subjects to rally round him, that he might annihilate these heretic foreigners, and conquer and annex their country. The ultimatum had thus led to war. The expeditionary force, already prepared, crossed the frontier on November 14th, and within a fortnight from that day Mandalay had been occupied by General Prendergast and his troops, and the king was a prisoner. The only serious resistance met with had been at Minhla.”
Such were the events leading up to the war. The demands of the British Government seem not unreasonable, but the stubborn folly of the King of Burma refused them. One cannot but regret that the resources of modern civilisation have as yet established no alternative in such a case of a petty Oriental monarch and a great power like England but an ultimatum and war. King Theebaw was such a ruler that it was in vain to think of reinstating him; no other likely ruler was to be found; annexationwas the only way to meet the case. The king was removed to India with his family, his retinue, and his chief astrologer, and there he has been in gilded seclusion ever since. On January 1st, 1886, the proclamation was made that Upper Burma was annexed to our Eastern possessions, and the fact came home to the British mind that a large, valuable, interesting country was now open to British enterprise and incorporated with our Indian Empire.
To the Christian public of England the announcement of the annexation came as a call to duty in regard to the spread of the Gospel amongst a people who had long been suffering from a cruel and tyrannical ruler. From time immemorial the palace of the Burman rulers, chiefly owing to the general practice of polygamy on the part of the kings, and the consequent troops of queens and princes and princesses, has been the scene of much intrigue and corruption, and occasional bloodshed and revolution. Absolute monarchy is almost inseparable from occasional acts of cruelty and tyranny, even if just and kind in the main. But a weak ruler with an insecure title, like the last of the Burmese kings, cannot afford to be lenient, and is more likely to be cruel than a stronger man would be. The disorders of the reign of King Theebaw had made a deep impression on the English mind. He had gained the throne by a court intrigue, for he was not the rightful heir, so that he had to keep by force what he had got by fraud. The result was the massacre of about seventy of the royal family, who were put to death as possible rivals of the new king. That was in 1879, but a greater massacre occurred in 1884, when, owing to the intrigues of certain Burman officials, an attack was made upon the jails of Mandalay, and over three hundred persons were put to death, including some inoffensive princes.
As a very striking proof of the fact that the country was in a most wretched state, bordering on anarchy, by reason of misgovernment, extortion, bad trade and dacoity, it may be mentioned that in a few years no less than ten thousand people of Upper Burma had crossed the border and taken up their abode in British Burma, in order to escape oppression, and live in security undera more beneficent rule. The tide of population has since the annexation been flowing back to Upper Burma.
Naturally much interest was felt in England over the altered condition of things, and thousands of Englishmen, on seeing the news of the annexation, felt that no time should be lost in securing to the Upper Burmans the liberty of British subjects, and that security to person and property enjoyed by all who are under British rule; and many felt, above all things, that it was a call to give them the Gospel.