Enclosure 4 in No. 1.
Mr. Herts to Mr. Carey.
January 17, 1910. PLEASE refer to my demi-official letter dated the 28th August, 1909. Wilson has sent a Lashi named Chawm Tung Bawm, of Lungbang, on the Upper in Ngawchang Kha, with a letter addressed to Rose, which I am forwarding to you original under a separate registered cover. The letter is written in Chinese on a piece of board, and purports to be a petition from the inhabitants of five villages on the above-named stream, complaining that the headman of Tengkeng, situated on the Salween in China, has burnt the village of Upper (or West) Hpimaw and threatens to destroy their villages. The names in Lashi of the five villages are Hpimaw (East), Kalam (East and West), Htantung and Lamyaw. As is not usual the Chinese names of the villages are different from the local Yawyin or Lashi names.
A copy of the statement made by the messenger to Mr. Wilson, which is sub- stantially the same as he has stated to me here, is also forwarded.
The elders of the five villages are said to have met at the village of Iltumshing and there to have got two Chinese traders, Ton San Ye and Chu Laopan, to write the letter.
The burning of Пpimaw appears to have taken place more than a month ago. After the destruction of the village the headman (or chief) of Tengkeng returned to China, but his men, some hundreds of them in all, it is said, are still in Lower Ipimaw and Hpawdi. The messenger took nine days to come here.
It is evident, if the above is true (and I have no doubt that it is substantially so), that we cannot permit the Chinese to remain in occupation of the Ngawchang Valley, for if we do, we shall not be able to make good our claim to the Irrawady- Salween Divide as the boundary between the two Empires. I can see no course open to us, therefore, but to dispatch a column without delay to compel the Chinese to return to their country, and to place beyond possibility of future question that the whole of the basin of the Irrawady belongs to us.
I leave it to you to communicate with Rose on the subject of this letter, if you consider it necessary to do so,
The villages of Tengkeng, Tangtung, Lungpang (Langbang) and Hpimaw are shown in the map attached to the red book on the joint survey of the Burmah-Yunnan boundary by British and Chinese officials in 1905, in which book the claim of the Tengkeng headman to the Upper Ngawchang Valley and the advantages of the above-named boundary are discussed at length. From the opinion of the British officials who took part in the joint survey that the adoption of any other frontier will be highly detrimental to the interests of Burmah, I do not think that anyone
will dissent.
A translation of the Chinese letter is attached.
Enclosure 5 in No. 1.
Translation of Chinese letter addressed to Acting Consul Rose.
THE humble petition of the elders of villages situated on the upper waters of the Hsiao Chiang (small river, ie., the Ngawehang Kha) addressed to the British consul at Tengyuch.
About the 15th day of the 9th month the headman of Tengkeng, named Twanhwe, collecting a force of 300 Yawyins and 200 of his own people, came and attacked our villages, He set fire to and entirely destroyed one village which consists of houses with thatch roofs. We are in great danger and our people have been scattered by this inroad into our country. He has also killed all our domestic animals such as pigs, fowls, and dogs, and taken our provisions. We therefore petition to your Honour to pity us, and to restore peace and order in our unhappy valley. Our villages lie within British territory and we humbly request that you will be kind enough to pay them a visit. We do not know why the Tengkeng headman is oppressing us by raiding our villages. We have no intercourse with his villages nor is there any feud between us. Our territory lies within the Kaoliang Pass Pillar and is watered by the Hsiao Chiang (Ngawchang Kha). We are unable
* Unusual, I think.-A. R.
5
to resist his attacks, so we petition your Honour to be kind enough to visit our country, which is in a very disturbed state, and to help us.
The headman in question is also said to have threatened the people living on the other side of the river (Ngawchang Kha). Our country does not belong to him, so we request you to come to us.
We are the elders and villagers of Tumaw, Kwankwan, Shanglaw, Kachi, and Shijang.
Dated the 1st year, 10th month, 26th day of the reign of Sein Ton.
Enclosure 6 in No. 1.
Statement made to Mr. Wilson, Assistant Superintendent, Sadon, by Chawm Tung Baum, of Lungbang.
LABAU NU, Duwa of Lajawng, has brought in a Lashi named Chawm Tung Bawm, of Lungbang, a village near Hpimaw, to the British consul at Tengyuch. I have questioned Labau Nu and Chawm Tung Bawn carefully, and they furnish the following information :
"As the Lashis of IIpimaw and some fourteen or fifteen villages have not paid tribute for the last three or four years the Tengkeng fuyi about two months ago got together 500 men (Chinese, Black Lisu, Maru, and Lashi) and threatened to burn down the villages which refused to pay tribute. The Lashis on our side of the frontier got information of the fuyi's intentions from their friends and relations who live on the Chinese side, and some fifty or sixty of them, armed with guns and bows and arrows, awaited the approach of the fuyi and his following. A fight took place op the frontier and the IIpimaw men and their friends are said to have killed seven of the fuyi's men, and to have wounded a few more. The IIpimaw men had no casualties, but, as they were outnumbered, they retreated, and the fuyi and his men then sacked and burnt Upper Hpimaw.
"The fuyi is said to have stationed at the present time 300 men at Lower Hpimaw and 200 at the Lisu village of IIpawte. The detachment at 1pimaw is composed of transfrontier Chinese, Black Lisus, Marns, and Lashis, and the men are quartered in four or five Chinese houses which are built of sun-dried bricks. The men who are stationed at Ipawte are mostly from the Chinese side, but several Black Lisus who belong to Hpawte took part in the sacking and burning of Upper Upimaw.
"No Chinese soldiers or men from the frontier levy are said to have been engaged, and the fuyi's followers are armed with cap-guns, flint-locks, and Kachin check guns."
The following information obtained from the messenger may also be of interest:
"There is a tree which grows on both banks of the Ngawchang Kha, the timber of which is much prized by the Chinese for making collins. The Chingpaw name for the tree is shau hipun,' the Lashi nameshau sik,' and the Chinese namesha mu.' The Tengkeng fuyi formerly levied a tax of 1 rupee to 1 rupee Sa. on every four planks extracted from the forests near Hpimaw, but during the last three years he has taken two planks out of every four in lieu of the money tax. Two well-to-do Chinese traders, named Chu Lauban, of Mingkuang, and Ton Sanye, of Kutung Pa, who deal largely in these planks, are said to have complained to the Chinese official at Yung-chang Fu about the Tengkeng furi's conduct. They were informed that Hpimaw was in the British sphere of influence, and were referred to the Tengyuch ting, who is said to have warned the Tengkeng fuyi to discontinue levying taxes, as Ipimaw was not in Chinese territory.
"Some three years ago a Yawyin (Black Lisu) discovered a couple of salt springs near two streams which flow into the Ngawchang Kha. He took samples from each spring to the Tengkeng fuyi, who boiled them down, and found that one produced excellent salt, while the other produced inferior stuff. The furi is said thereupon to have declared that both springs are in his jurisdiction, and to have prohibited their being worked without his permission.
"The writer of this letter is Ton Sanye, one of the Chinese traders referred to.”
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