(This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.)
SOUTH-WEST CHINA.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
[October 22]
39067
692
SECTION 1.0
Extract of Memorandum by Mr. Litton on the State of Affairs in North-west Yünnan. -(Communicated by Mr. Wilkinson, October 22, 1904.)
(Confidential.)
3.-Chinese Jurisdiction on the Upper Salwen, &c.
THE Wei-hsi Ting, who is subject to Lichiang, is supposed to rule those districts through the "bessé" or Chieftain of Yedru (in Chinese, Yeh-chih), a village on the east bank of the Mekong, between Wei-hsi and Tse-ku. This Chief was put in authority by the Chinese a few years ago in order to supersede the influence of the Kempu, or Abbot, of the Chamutung lamasery, who was supposed to be friendly to foreigners; in point of fact the Kempu still remains in de facto control of the whole of the country inhabited by the Chiu Tzu and Nu Tzu, west of the Mekong and south of the Tsarong and Khem country, so far as it is controlled at all, which is very little.
The Kempu's power is, however, limited in one very important way, which is that every year the various Chiefs of the Nu Tzu, Chin Tzu, Mosso, &c., come to Yedru to pay tribute, which is paid in silver, and is remitted to Lichiang. Now some of the Chiefs who attend this annual gathering come from the head-waters of the west bank of the Irrawadi, and from all round the Khamti country, though the Khamti (Shan) Sawba or Chief pays no tribute. This brings tribes who indirectly pay tribute to China, right up to the south and east slopes of the mountains which form the divide between the Upper Irrawadi and the Brahmaputra. If the above facts are verified, and I feel sure they will be, there will be another obstacle in the way of settling a frontier such as India ought to have, as the whole of the head-waters country of the Irrawadi will certainly be claimed for China as being tributary to Lichiang. There is, of course, no actual exercise of administrative authority by the Chinese, and in the case of the Lisaws and Nu Tzus, in the Salwen basin between about 26° north and 27° 40′ north, there is not even the shadow of a claim to a tribute; but the facts which I now bring forward seem to afford a further argument for the appearance of a British Administrative authority in the Upper Irrawadi at an early date.
August 20, 1904.
[2216 y-1]