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Mr. H. A. Thornton, I.C.S., superintendent, Northern Shan States; Mr. W. H. L. Cabell, I.C.S., deputy commissioner, Bhamo; Mr. D. W. Rae, assistant superintendent, Sinlumkaba; Mr. D. W. Kiernander, assistant superintendent, Kutkai; Captain B. E. A. Pritchard, I.A., battalion commandant, Lashio; Mr. Smart, R.A., Bhamo Battalion; and
The consul.
Colonel G. Pereira, C.M.G., D.S.O.; Captain Blackwell, R.A.M.C.; and Mr. Morris,
of the East Surrey Regiment, also visited the camp.
The Chinese representatives were :---
Keng Pao-kuei, tuotai of Tenguch;
Chao Kai-bsuan, frontier deputy;
Hsu Chai-yu, sub-prefect of Lungling;
Kuang kuei-yuan, the newly-appointed assistant frontier deputy; and Colonel Wang Kuei-ching.
Colonel Chung was also under orders to attend, but was retained at his post owing to the northern unrest.
The meeting commenced very satisfactorily, the Chinese party calling upon us first with a large escort and considerable state. The Burmah officers, who have been responsible for the British camp during the last two years, have carried out the plans in a way which certainly did credit to their Government, and it was evident that the Chinese had been impressed, for the taotai had spared no pains this year in arranging that his staff, his retinue, and his banquet should be worthy of his post, and that he should not be eclipsed on this occasion of international meeting.
After the unsatisfactory relations which had existed at Tengyuch during the past year the first meeting was anticipated with some interest, and the taotai lost no time in endeavouring to establish a better understanding, for he at once offered a full and frank apology for his previous behaviour. He was unfailingly courteous throughout our stay at Namkham, mecting us practically every day either at public or private discussions or at those social functions which form part of the usual programme, and he interested himself in all that was passing, showing the greatest keenness to behave in a manner which was correct.
The different courts were constituted as usual, and the junior Chinese officers met their British colleagues on satisfactory terms, a heavy roll of cases being settled during the three weeks' conference, which involved long and unbroken sittings, and must have proved very trying for Mr. Rae and Mr. Kiernander, who were constantly in court. When it is remembered that the British and Chinese officers on the bench have not only to convince themselves and one another of the desirability of certain settlements through the medium of interpreters, but that the British officers must marshal their witnesses and sift their evidence in the dozen different languages of the frontier tribes, it will be realised that the settlement of a long case- roll in the mixed courts of the frontier is no easy matter, and calls for an endless patience and unflagging persistency of purpose. Our officers are sometimes discouraged at the fact that their Chinese colleagues have so little perception of abstract justice, and that they find difficulty in resisting a temptation to bargain over the settlements when monetary compensations are awarded by the court. Such bargaining is, I think, inevitable to the mind of the Chinese magistrate, and when it is remembered that the awards come first of all from his own pocket, and that he is dependent on the recovery of his outlay from numerous other officials and loosely-held tribal villages-a process requiring another long and enduring struggle- these shortcomings may perhaps be charitably forgotten. Judging by their results, it is evident that relations were entirely satisfactory, for their settlements were excellent, and they parted the best of friends.
In the appellate court the taotai sat with Mr. Thornton or Mr. Cabell and myself, I am and we realised at an early date that he was not prepared to do business. inclined to think that he had tied his own hands; that he had boasted to the Viceroy that he would show a bold face to the British at the frontier; and that he found himself bound to justify his promises, but placed in consequence in a foolish and undignified position from which he would gladly have retired had it been possible for him to do so without loss of prestige with the authorities at Yunnan-fu. The fact remains that he refused to settle any case which came before him, and by so doing he
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cut at the root of the joint court and compensation system which had been accepted formally by China as our basis of procedure at last year's meeting. In the settlement of frontier cases, old-established custom, reduced to writing in the frontier agreement of 1910 (attached to my last frontier report), has decided that trans-frontier thefts, bodily injuries, and murders shall be paid for on a fixed scale of compensation by the offending country, in addition to the arrest and punishment of the offender, and that the compensation account shall be balanced and settled before the representatives of Burmah and Yunnan leave the meeting. It not infrequently happens that we have
to pay more than China, but we never quibble over a case which has been proved.
This year, however, the taotai set custom and agreement at defiance. There were five murder cases before him--murders of British subjects by people whom we claimed to be Chinese. I had brought the cases to his attention again and again during the year, asking him to make some attempt to arrest the culprits; but his only replies had been either that the murdered men were Chinese subjects or that the murderers were British, and as he offered no reasons for his statements and frequently worded them in unfriendly and discourteous terms, there remained no alternative but to await the results of the frontier meeting. The cases came up in due course to the appellate court, and the British evidence was produced-in each case full, satisfactory, and to us entirely convincing. The natural course would have been for the taotal to produce any counter-evidence, but he made no attempt to do this, nor did he produce the offenders or witnesses who could rebut the evidence in any way. We therefore claimed compensation on the fixed scale, which he flatly refused. The cases had been through all the stages of the frontier courts, and there seemed no hope of settlement. The object of the frontier meetings is to replace those old blood feuds, in which the Kachins settle such matters amongst themselves, by properly organised courts and by settlements which would be enforced if necessary, The result of the meetings and of this procedure has been a steady decrease of lawlessness along the frontier, to the benefit of both nations concerned; but, carnestly as we tried to persuade him to better counsels, the taotai appeared determined to set all precedent at defiance, and thus to undo the effect of many years of steady work and mutual co-operation. This was the situation in regard to case work on the last day of the meeting.
Trans-frontier Cultivations.
There remained another matter of importance the question of trans-frontier cultivations. This subject has been discussed and dealt with perfunctorily for several years past, but it was surrounded with difficulties, and it was not until the last twelve months that our information was sufficiently full to render a settlement possible. I have had the honour to address you on several occasions in regard to this question, but it may be well to recapitulate the position briefly in view of the settlement which has now been effected.
In delimiting the middle section of the Burmah-China frontier it was found by the commissioners that the acceptance of their line, which frequently followed a zigzag course between paddy fields and irrigation dykes, would occasionally have the result of placing a village on one side of the border whilst the whole or part of the lands worked by the villagers would belong to the other side. They therefore made specific arrangements in the joint "Description of the Boundary" safeguarding the rights of the villagers in such cases to their original cultivation rights over the land in question. This was the commencement of the trans-frontier cultivation. As time went on, however, the original claims became considerably extended, for the farmers on the China side--mainly inhabitants of the Shan States-found that they could escape from the exactions and oppression of their own sawbwas by removing their homes to Burmah while continuing to cultivate their original fields in China. On the strength of the fact that they became subjects of Burmah by frontier custom of domicile, they now refused to pay taxes for their land to the Chinese suwbwas, and from this fact has arisen the matter in dispute.
For the past three or four years the Yunnanese authorities have shown an active interest in the question. They have found that in the worst administered of the States-notably in Lungchuan and Mengmao-a great number of Chinese cultivators have moved their domicile to Burmah, and thus avoided payment of all taxes to China, with the result that the revenues of the Shan sawbwas in question have been considerably affected; the sawbwas themselves reported that their subjects are crossing to Burmah and "taking their fields with them," thus touching the Chinese on their most sensitive spot, the possible alienation of Chinese territory.
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