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altogether a sum of about 22,000 tacls was extracted, of which the Lung Ling sub- Prefect took about 11,000 taels (though he was probably "caten" in his turn by his superiors) and the rest went to the Yung Chang Prefect (now Acting Taotai of West Yunnan at Tengyueh) and to Mr. Tseng, his secretary, who was a fellow-provincial (Human) of le Lung Ling sub-Prefect, and had operated the affair in conjunction with him. The payments were made by Mang Shih chiefly in gold leaf, and one indirect result was the bankruptcy of a Burmali Tengyueh firmu (Chop Wan Sheng Ho), who could not collect certain debts from Mang Shih, as the Sawbwa had paid away all his ready cash to the officials. There is little doubt that the unlucky Sawbwa would have been murdered as Chanta was, but the telegram which the Yung Chang Prefect and Lung Ling sub-Prefect had sent to Yunnan-fu about the case got into my In it the Sawbwa was hands, and was forwarded by me to the Consul-General.
accused of “secretly travelling to Rangoon" and "intriguing with the outer people," and also of buying cartridges for the purpose of raising a rebellion. It was added that the mouths of the outer people had long been watering for the possession of Mang Shih."
I protested against this as a palpable falsehood, and an insult to a friendly Government. Mr. Wilkinson made similar representations at Yunnan-fu; the Sawbwa also succeeded in getting a statement of his case put before the Yunnan Viceroy. The matter has now been pressed by me for more than six months; the Lung Láng sub-Prefect has been removed; the Sawbwa has been released; the Prefect of Yung Chang, now Acting Taotai at Tengyueh, has withdrawn the charges of intrigues with Burmah, and, more sinico, has requested that he should be reprimanded for having made them; but though the Viceroy Ting pretends to be still inquiring into the case, I am informed that his Excellency is perfectly acquainted with the facts, and is merely waiting to see if the matter is further pressed by the Consulates, in which case he would have no other course but to denounce the Acting Taotai to the Throne. I have suggested to Mr. Wilkinson that it is not perhaps advisable to press the case so far as the Acting Taotai is an energetic and efficient official in other matters. He has been much alarmed, and has even conveyed to me that he is prepared to repay part of his share of the spoil to Mang Shih if nothing more is said about the matter.
The occurrences in connection with the "squeezing" and imprisonment of Mang Shih were matters of common knowledge in Tengyueh, and throughout the Chinese Shan States, where the other Sawbwas are much alarmed. The young Kangai Sawbwa appears to have thought, and not without reason, that on account of his wealth and friendliness to passing British officers, he would be the next victim of charges of conspiring with the outer people. It appears that the Taotai's secretary, Tseng, had already commenced to weave the net around him, but as soon as the Mang Shih business became known to me, Mr. Tseng bolted to Rangoon, and has not since been heard of. When I was passing through his State in June last, young Kangai came to see me, and told me that he feared his life and his property were in danger, I strongly dissuaded him in this and that he proposed to take refuge in Burmah. course, and he remained at home until the autumn, when I was absent on the Thibetan frontier; then, in consequence of further reports which he received of yamên intrigues against him, he took refuge in Burmah nominally for the purpose of worshipping at the Buddhist shrines there and proceeding to Japan to study; I have suggested for the consideration of the Government of Burmah that the young Sawbwa should be advised to return to his State. The Chinese officials are in a fright in consequence of the exposure in the Mang Shih case, and I think that Kangai can be for the present protected by Consular representations. Disorders in this State, which may probably follow the permanent absence of the young Sawbwa, would be a source of danger to
our trade and frontier.
I think it may be stated, as a rule, that the functions of the West Yünnan officials in their Shan States are either parasitical or predatory; they do nothing to protect or educate their Sawbwas, and they prevent them from educating or protecting them- selves, but they are ready to extort by false and frivolous charges the last rupee out of their unlucky dependents.
Questions, therefore, of some difficulty arise when the relations between the Tengyuch Consul and the Chinese Shan Chiefs have to be adjusted. To assist in the settlement of frontier cases in which British subjects have suffered injury is one of the principal duties of the Consul.
Now, the subjects or nominal subjects of the Shan Sawbwas are nearly always the guilty parties in these cases. For the Consul to remain at Tengyueh and address
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formal remonstrances to the Chinese officials have been proved by experience to be utterly useless. On the other hand, by proceeding to the frontier, by meeting the Chinese deputies and the Shan Sawbwas on the spot, it has been proved that the British officials can, to a large extent, prevent serious frontier troubles, such as raids, and can obtain a large measure of satisfaction for the minor cases, such as cattle- lifting and so forth.
The Consul cannot do his duty unless he goes to the frontier and meets the Shan Sawbwas or their deputies; he cannot go the frontier without passing through the Shan territories; he cannot pass through those territories without having relations with the Sawbwas.
The British Government has the right to post a Consul to Tengyuch, and the Consul has the duty of assisting in the settlement of frontier matters. It seems to follow that we can properly insist that the Shan Chiefs and States shall not be subject to any special oppression or extortion by the Chinese officials merely because we are exercising that right or the Consul is fulfilling that duty.
These official depredations must, and do, cause unrest in the Chinese Shan States, and such unrest must affect the border and the trans-frontier trade as a whole; it is, therefore, submitted that the argument that the internal affairs of the Chinese Empire-the "cating of the Sawbwas " included-do not concern the Consul, is purely academical, and cannot in practice rule the conduct of the Consulates.
Still clearer is our right to insist that the Tengyueh officials shall not drag the name of our Government into these disgraceful transactions, and make Burmah the stalking-horse behind which they approach their prey. No one knows better than the Taotai that these charges of intrigues with the Burmah Government are both false and insulting; they are only put forward because they are readily accepted at Yünnan-fu, and been there accepted, render the "squeezing" process easy of accom. plishment.
It may be said that, in cases where positive evidence that such false charges have been made is not forthcoming, or in cases where other charges, such as meditating a rebellion, are put forward with a view to extort money from one of these Shan Chiefs, the Consul has no locus standi and no official knowledge of what is going on, and no right to interfere.
To this, the reply is the charge of rebellion, is as absurd as the charge of intrigues with Burmah for the reason that it is notorious that none of the Chinese Shan States have even the pretence of a force with which to operate a rebellion, and secondly, that the Consul or the British officials in Burmah are always acquainted with the condition of the Chinese Shau States, and will know if the Chinese officials have any real ground for molesting or arresting the Sawbwa in question. If there is no such ground, it is practically certain that such action on their part is an attempt to extort
money.
If the false charge is conspiring with Burmah, it is an insult to the British name; if it is something else, it and the "squeezing" which follow endanger the peace of the frontier which it is the duty of the Yunnan Government to preserve, and i hope you will approve of the Consular officer making an energetic protest in all such cases. Such a protest would, I think, be always effectual, and the threat of demarding an inquiry by the Yunnan Viceroy, or still more by the Central Government at Peking, would always cause the local officials to drop their prey, as in the case of Mang Shih.
In the matter of the young Kangai Sawbwa, the Taotai has assured me, though not in writing, that it is all a mistake, and that if the young Sawbwa returns to his State, no notice of his absence will be taken. With the Mang Shih case hanging over him, I have little doubt that the Taotai will keep his word.
If the Chinese officials lay themselves open to Consular remonstrances, which they resent, they have only themselves to blame. They have always been bad and perfidious neighbours to Burmah; so long as they had the power they practised every kind of extortion on our trade, nor have I any doubt that nearly all the Kachin and other fighting which has accompanied the settlement of the border by the British down to the Hparé affair in 1900, was secretly instigated from the Tongyueh yamêns. It is true that on two occasions, i.e., after the Sima troubles in 1891, and after the fight at Hparé, the Yunnan-fu Government removed and degraded the guilty Tengyueh official, but one may suspect that this was not so much because intrigues across the border bad commenced, as because they had ended in failure from the Chinese point of view.
Thus I venture to submit that the experience of the past amply justifies a certain amount of interference in the Chinese Shan States in the future, directed to secure
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