CO129-330 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 430

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be noted on the Sawbwa's registers. A Shan family may be taken on an average to consist of five persons, though this is sometimes an underestimate :-

Nantien Kangai Chanta

Labs-Hosa Meng Wan Meng Mao

Chefang Meng Kwan

Meng Ting

State.

Families.

6,000

7,000

1,500

8.000

5,000

2,500

2,000

12,000

(of which nearly one- third Chinese.)

2,000 (?)

If the unsubdued Kachins living within the borders of the various States are included, these figures would be at least doubled in the case of Meng Wan, Meng Mao or Chanta, and more than doubled in the case of Chefang; Nan Tien, Kangia, and Labsa have but few unsubdued Kachins.

The Shan population of Meng Wan is decreasing, partly by emigration to British territory, and the same may be said of Meng Mao; in the other States the population is probably stationary or slowly increasing.

The external trade of the Chinese Shan States is chiefly with Burmah and chiefly in articles which under that remarkable document, the Burmah-China Convention, are contraband; the principal trade is an export of rice and opium in exchange for salt, all three of which are forbidden by the Convention. The import of yarn and foreign piece-goods is also considerable, as is the export of cattle. But I question if the whole trade amounts to more than 1,000,000 rupees in the year.

There is an important rice trade from the Taping and Meng Kivan Valleys to Tengyueh and Lung Ling.

The principles on which the Yünnan Government acts in dealing with its Sban Chiefs are repression in some directions and non-interference or rather indifference in others. Not only are no measures taken to secure the well-being of the Shans, to restrain the excesses of the vicious Sawbwas or to correct the financial confusion which often prevails, but it is an axiom that an energetic or a rich Sawbwa may prove a rebellious Sawbwa and any attempt, if such were made, by the Sawbwas themselves to strengthen their Government or develop the resources of their States would be at once checked by the Mandarins and would probably land the adventurous Sawbwa in a Chinese prison. Thus Kangai dares not even repair his own roads. It is partly on account of this Chinese policy that the Kachins have made such headway and found so little resistance.

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On the other hand, the Sawbwas are allowed to oppress their peasantry and squander such resources as they have without any interference. They must accept Chinese titles, wear Chinese dress, make representations even to the lowest grade of Mandarin in the form of a petition and generally "give face" to their political superiors. So long as they do this, the Yunnan-fu Government leaves them alone and frowns down the proposals which are sometimes made by the local officials to incorporate the Shan States into the ordinary Chinese jurisdiction. I am told that under the arrangements made when the Shan Chiefs first submitted to the Chinese, chiefly in the Ming dynasty, no land in the Shan States can be owned by Chinese; but this rule is more honoured in the breach than in the observance, and where it has been observed, it is the climate and not the law which has protected the Shan peasant against his Chinese rival.

The West Yunnan local officials have ideas of their own regarding the Shan States; they would divide the Sawbwas into two classes, the poor and the rich; in the case of the first, the policy is to leave them severely alone as interference entails trouble and expense; in the case of the second the policy is to "squeeze" them. It is only the poverty of their families and the wretchedness of their States that can protect the Sawbwas from Chinese rapacity. There is an expressive phrase often heard in West Yünnan: "ch'ih t'u ssu" i.e., "eating the Sawbwas." The nature and practice of this art is perfectly understood by every official and yamên underling in

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the country. The eating process may be consummated by any one of the following methods:-

1. A method often practised by petty military officers. If one of these Mandarins has any business in the Shan States he will establish himself near a Sawbwa's residence and announce that he will not go away under a certain sum; he invariably gets it. The present provincial Commander-in-chief of the Kwangsi province, Ting. who was for many years in West Yunnan was an adept at this practice."

2. The Shan Militia process; the Shans are not a fighting people, and are always unwilling to serve as soldiers. A military officer would therefore be sent from Tengyuel to train militia" in the Shan States. Every one who is called up offers money to be let off and so a good sum could be collected in a short time. Li Shao Yuan, a rascally official who gave some trouble when Tengyueh was first opened to trade, made a fortune in this way. He called up the militia at harvest time, when all the peasants were prepared to pay more than usual to be let free. History repeats itself:-

Falstaff-Prick me Master Bullcalf.

Bardolph-Sir, a word with you; I have three pounds to free Mouldy and

Bullealf.

Falstaff—Go to!

(HENRY IV, Part 2.)

3. Fictitious lawsuits and cases against the Sawbwas are often got up by the yamên folk in collusion with some of the Chinese resident in the Shan States. The Sawbwa is then called on to appear at Tengyueh, or Lung Ling, or Yung Chang as the case may be to answer the matter. He never goes but always pays money to be allowed to stay at home. This game was brought to the level of a high art by a former sub-Prefect of Tengyueh, Chen Tsung Hai, who is now dead but his evil memory still lives along the border.

Since the establishment of the Consulate the above three methods have rather fallen into desuetude, as the Consul may ask awkward questions.

4. Threats of accusations of treason and rebellion. These false charges against the Sawbwas have been very frequent since the time of the Panthay rebellion. The late General Chiang Ping Tang, who was Brigadier at Tengyueh at the time of Margary's murder laid the foundation of a large fortune by holding such threats over the Sawbwas. Whenever a Sawbwa had to resist Kachin aggression it was casy to say that he wished to levy war against the Government.

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6. The Boundary Commission was made the excuse for heavy squeezing operations. The Kangai Sawbwa assures me that he alone first and last had to pay some 12,000 rupees in hard cash to the Chinese Commissioner, besides sending in quantities of supplies which were not paid for. Unluckily for the Mandarins this source of supply has been dried up by the final delimitation of the Sawbwa's frontiers. 6. Accusations of secret and treasonable intrigues with the Government in Burmah. Since the establishment of the Tengyueh Consulate and the opening of trade, this method of eating Sawbwas" has come into considerable vogue, but I hope it has now been put a stop to, for a time at least. It has two great advantages; first, such charges are greedily believed by the ignorant Mandarins who rule at Yunnan-fu, while other accusations might be more carefully gone into; secondly, the result of such a charge is that the accused Sawbwa is handed bodily over to the local Mandarin, and cannot only be "squeezed," but plucked bare, and his State looted as well. On the other hand, the disadvantage of this method is that it involves a serious affront to a friendly Government, and, what is more to the point, may lead to unpleasant consequences to the Mandarin who employs it, if the Consulates take the matter up.

The first Sawbwa to be ruined by false charges of this kind was Santa, the father of the present infant Sawbwa. He was brought up to Tengyueh in 1897 by Yang, then sub-Prefect, and the same official who was responsible for the affair at Hparé in 1900; then he was first robbed and then executed by Yang; the State was handed over to the official Li Shao Yuan, mentioned above, as Regent, and it will be some time before it will recover from the effects of this short period of direct celestial government.

In the winter of 1903-1904 a similar plot was hatched by the sub- Prefect of Lung Ling against the young Sawbwa of Mang Shih (Meng Kwan in Shan). His comparative wealth made his guilt manifest. He was seized by Chinese troops and thrown into prison at Lung Ling, whence he was conveyed in custody to Yung Chang. For some months the process of extortion went steadily on, and

[1899 -1]