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years I am unable to express too strongly my opinion of their value, and my hope that the Government of Buriah will insist upon their continuance on the present excellent lines, affording an opportunity to as many officers as possible to meet and, in those informal discussions by the camp-fire as in the more official relations with their Chinese neighbours, both civil and military, to extend the good work of the last few years by the genial influence of personal relations, which has been so real a gain to both sides in our recent international relations.
This is probably the last frontier report which I shall have an opportunity of submitting from Tengyueh, and I cannot leave the frontier without an expression of the deep gratitude which I feel to every officer, both civil and military, on the Burmah side of the border. I have met with the most generous and unfailing kindness whenever my work has taken me into their districts, and with the most loyal support in every question which has arisen during these two difficult and stormy years, and in spite of the loneliness, the isolation, and the difficulty of Chinese relations, I shall say good-bye to my remote little post, to the tribesmen of the Kachin Hills and to the experience of the frontier meetings with a very real regret, remembering that I am leaving men who have been a tower of strength in every difficulty, who have shown to the Chinese that British instinct of standing solidly together in the fulfilment of their purpose, and who have been the staunchest of colleagues and the best of friends.
The Future of the Frontier.
In the first paragraph of this report I have endeavoured to outline the present situation on the Burmah-China frontier, and in closing it I would submit a brief summary of the points which still appear to merit consideration and to call for action in the future. My plea on behalf of the Bhamo-Tongyueh Railway was presented in the Tengyueh Trade Report for 1909 (issued as a Confidential paper No. 9700), and to that I have nothing to add. There remains only the completion of the frontier line.
From 1897 until 1900 boundary commissions were at work, endeavouring to delimit the Burmah-China frontier on the broad lines laid down by the conventions of 1894 and 1897, and, although a long stretch was definitely settled, much remains to be done. In the ten years which have followed much new information has been gathered and many new factors have intervened, the most important of which appears to be the activity of the Chinese, who have installed themselves as our neighbours along the whole of the north-east frontier of India, and who are endeavouring to press their administrative machinery and their military forces to the very limit of the political border line. In approaching this question I am anxious to avoid any suggestion of alarm, for there does not appear to me any probability that even the modern-drilled troops of Szechuan or Yünnan will be anxious to try conclusions with the forces of India. The conditions of local activity however do appear to indicate that the Chinese belief in their widespread supremacy, their modern cries of " "Rights' Recovery" and "China's Sovereignty," and their genius for intrigue and peaceful expansion, may prove factors of grave difficulty unless the border line is completed and a halt is called before they have over-stepped that line which has been realised by His Majesty's Government as our real political frontier, and beyond which the Chinese have been unable in the past to substantiate any claim,
The difficulty of gathering reliable information as to many of the more remote sections of the border makes me diffident in advancing sweeping assertions of their progress, but there appears little doubt that they have at least reached the limit of their rights in the unaccepted stretch to the east of the Wa country, that they have overstepped that limit in the direction of Hpimaw (Pien-ma) and Khamti, and that they have ventured very near to the Indian borderland in the advance from the Yünnanese post A-tun-tze to Rima (latitude 28 10', longitude 97° 10′), which lies 160 miles south-west of Batang and 120 miles east of Sudiya. Our present information appears to indicate the construction of a military road from Batang towards Rima, probably in the hope of reaching Lhassa without traversing the turbulent Thibetan province of Kam. The Chinese attitude towards the undelimited frontier is graphically sketched in a letter from Yunnan-fu of the 9th February, 1911, in which Mr. O'Brien- Butler writes :---
"I noticed with great interest on the Chinese map produced by the Administrator of Foreign Affairs that the whole country above this point-the junction of the Ngaw- chang Kha and the 'Nmai Kha-was labelled Hsi-tsang-Thibet! The map was long and narrow and only represented the country to the west about as far as the Mali Kha,
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but I am convinced from what I saw that the Chinese lay claim to the whole of the northern part of Burmah, right across to Assam, as forming part of their Thibetan dependency."
The events of the past season, and more especially the advance of the administra- tive expedition into the country north of Myitkyina, have had the anticipated effect of placing us in an unusually good position on the frontier. The Chinese have not departed from their usual attitude of yielding rapidly to fear when all reason has failed, and local conditions appear to me to indicate their readiness to accept the accomplished fact. It is significant that in response to the repeated and excited telegrams to the Viceroy at Yüonau-fu in regard to the menace of British troops on the frontier and the activity which was necessary in order to expel them from Hpimaw, his Excellency vouchsafed only the laconic reply to the taotai: "What proof have you that Pien-ma belongs to China?"
AOI gather that the taotai is anxious that the broad question of the frontier line and all outstanding difficulties should be settled locally, though I am unable to ascertain how far this idea has been inspired by higher authorities. Should the Chinese Government show any desire for a local settlement, the proposal would, I think, be worthy of consideration, for all opposition comes primarily from local sources, discussion on the spot would focus difficulties, our local position is favourable, and such an arrangement would secure for us a strong reserve of moral backing and support at Peking. We have waited for ten years to try and settle this question, and it seems clear that the activity and forward advance of the Chinese now calls for action on our part, whilst we cannot tell when so favourable an opportunity will occur again.
I have had the honour to submit by telegram the points which appear to call most urgently for settlement as seen from the local point of view, and I would now summarise them in clearer and fuller form for your consideration.
The Chinese Government has approached us with a request for a joint inspection of, and the addition of Chinese instructions to, the existing boundary pillars. As far as I can ascertain they were not notified of the erection of these pillars, and though they have no valid reason for raising objections at this late date, it might be desirable to secure their acceptance by the Yunnan Government, and to close the endless quibbles which now exist, by proving to the Chinese that we have not tried to encroach upon their territory. I would suggest, therefore, that this joint inspection should be conceded provided:-
1. That the Chinese were willing to accept the entire frontier line, including that section to the cast of the Wa country generally known as "Scott's Line," and lying between Nalawt-Fangsang (latitude 22° 10′ north, longitude 99° 10′ east), and the Nauting River (latitude 23° 28′ north, longitude 95° 52′ east); and also that section to the north of Manang Pum (latitude 25° 33′ north) as far as that point approximately at 28° north latitude, where the Salween-Irrawady watershed is believed to sweep round in a westerly direction or to be joined at right angles by a lofty and definitely marked range, which has long proved the actual and natural boundary on geographical and ethnographical grounds between the outlying and hitherto unadministered portions of India, Yunnan, and Thibet.
In the erection of frontier pillars along the above sections we might possibly be willing to agree in regard to the first to concede to China such territory, if any, as may have been brought under effective Chinese administration since the date of the boundary commission. And in regard to the second, that, if China was still unwilling to waive those family claims to the coffin-wood tolls of Pien-ma and Hpare for a payment in money, we might consider the possibility of realigning a small strip of the middle section of the frontier where the present paddy-band boundary between tribal States is a source of constant trouble. On neither of the above points is my information sufficiently full to indicate exactly what would be a satisfactory settlement to the Government of Burmah, but the lieutenant-governor would doubtless be able to lay down a definite line as a basis for discussion.
2. That China would sign an agreement similar to that draft which is attached to Mr. Litton's report on thie undelimited north-east frontier, dated the 20th May, 1905.
3. That competent surveyors were appointed by China to accompany the party,
or that they agreed beforehand to accept as conclusve the evidence of the British survey officers.
4. That pillars were erected by the party as they proceeded along the unmarked suctions.
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