CO129-372 - Public Offices - 1910 — Page 329

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bought across the Maru range at one ounce for three ounces of silver. There is one point of considerable interest in connection with these mineral deposits. In the autumn of last year the Chinese trader Li Lao-pan applied for and obtained through the Tengyuch Taotai a written permit to work the silver and salt of the Pienma district. He proposed to bring over men from the Mingkuang mines, but the excitement following the raid was so great that none dared to enter the country, and It is he will be obliged to wait until the close of the rains before commencing work. not improbable that the information supplied to the Taotai on this occasion may have proved an added incentive to the Chinese in their resolve to make a final bid for the possession of the unadministered territory.

The Chinese Li Fo-ming. It may be of interest to give some account of the Chinese trader Li Fa-ming or Li Lao-pan (known by the tribesmen as Li San-pao), who might be one of our necessary acquisitious should the Government of Burmah decide to undertake the immediate administration of this territory. He speaks Kachin and Maru, and evidently carries on a thriving trade throughout these districts, where he has considerable influence with the people, who travel little beyond their homes and depend on him for the news and the products of the outside world. He brings into the country Chinese cotton-cloth, opium, beads, buttons, needles and oxen, and sends out gold, musk, bears'-galls, huang-lien (a drug), beeswax, and coffin planks. He was very anxious that I should expel Tengkeng's tax-collectors from Kang-fang, visit the twenty-six villages, and appoint headmen both in them and in the Pienma group. He also urged me to go with him a journey of three days to the country of the wild Maru, where he assured me of a warm welcome. I did not, however, feel justified in accepting any of these offers. He reports thirteen salt springs at O-mi-o-tze, in the Maru country, and evidently has great faith in the potentialities of that land. He was of great assistance to me on my journey, and, although I have no doubt that he manages to keep well with the Chinese authorities, I think he might prove useful, as he is one of the many Yunnanese traders who know Burmah well, and who welcome British rule with its open roads, its security for property, and encouragement of trade. Ife did not hesitate to press for a ratification of the mines concession granted by the Taotai, but I explained that I could offer him no assistance in this direction, and that I was merely on a tour of enquiry.

Journey to Tengkeng. On the 18th April the weather showed signs of clearing, and we said good-bye to Pienma, whilst the whole population turned out to speed us On our way and to urge an early and a permanent return. The top of the pass (10,500 feet) was covered with whirling mist-wreaths, and at intervals could be seen miles of snow-peaks stretching far away in a long unbroken line, as the great mass of the Irrawady-Salween watershed vanished into the white clouds towards the north. All round the pass were masses of primulas, great blooms of a brilliant azure blue, and to the east the Valley of the Ku-tan Ho ran steeply down in sunshine to Tengkeng and the Salween, backed by the great range dividing it from the Mekong, which is almost as perfect and symmetrical as the peaks on its western bank. Along the track were gangs of men "making a road for the Paoshan magistrate," and at the little homestead where we stayed the night an intimation had been received that supplies would be required in the course of the next few days. On arrival at Tengkeng the magistrate appeared in person a beavy, genial officer, who leapt into the midst of affairs without introduction or warning. He had been sent by the Yungchang Prefect, his superior, to look after his subordinate Tengkeng; the Prefect feared I should require information which the Sawbwa could scarcely be trusted to give; it was very hard on a man of his weight this journey into the Salween Valley at this season of the year, and his chair-bearers had given out already; he was leaving for Pienma at once, but suggested that I should stay a few days and rest; did I need any information? Hle unfortunately recovered his breath before I had time to speak, and I left him the next day, having only been able to tell him that he would be ill-advised to cross the range at the present juncture; that the question of the frontier in this district was under the consideration of our two Governments; that I was telegraphing to Yunnan-fu to the effect that 1 had requested him to await further orders before proceeding, and that, if he persisted in crossing without further instructions, he might einbarrass his Government. With some reluctance he promised to communicate with the Yungchang Prefect, who was believed to be awaiting my return in Tengyuel, and he undertook to delay his departure until a reply had been received, explanations and ejaculations being shouted at me across the hills long after they had ceased to be intelligible. A secretary who accompanied this active officer informed my writer that the magistrate had been instructed to hurry up to Pienma to establish a school and to

appoint headmen, and that there had been great trouble about the destruction of the frontier pillar in Lungchuan, but that the Viceroy had telegraphed from Yunnan-fu that he had received assurances that the Government of Burmah did not propose to make an incident of the matter, and that the magistrate had been ordered to leave the next day; the Viceroy's message had concluded with an injunction to lay aside all fear of the foreigner. This information was almost as breathless and inarticulate as the magistrate himself, but it appears to throw some light on the fact that the Tengkeng raid and the activity of the Prefect in regard to the southeru frontier are all part of one scheme resulting from a sudden access of frontier activity; that the action of the Prefect in destroying the pillar (reported in my despatch of the 15th February) caused a certain disquiet lest it had carried things too far, but that some assurance had been received which had allayed their uneasiness, and on the strength of which they were losing no time in laying the foundations of administrative control beyond the disputed line of the north-eastern frontier. At the same time, it confirms the reports which reach me on all sides that the destruction of the Lungchuan pillar was regarded by the Chinese as a matter of considerable importance, and that they anticipated a rebuff from the Government of Burmab with some anxiety.

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Frontier Chiefs.The Tengkeng Chief (Sawbwa, Fu-yi or Tussu) called to see me in company with his superintending officer, but he was so much overwhelmed by the presence of the magistrate that he was unable to speak, except to mention that he was Chinese by descent, and of the name of Tuan. He is a slight nervous-looking lad of about 20, and by no means the blustering desperado I had expected to find. locally known as a fool, and there seems little doubt that in the matter of the raid he was merely a tool of the Paoshan magistrate and his energetic superior, the Prefect Peng. Five chiefs of the same Tuan family hold the neighbouring Lisu posts, and none of them appear to have the personality or power to band men together on their own initiative, though they form a powerful combination, and could doubtless raise a considerable force and prove very troublesome if once convinced of the backing of the Chinese officials, of whom they have a wholesome dread. The last I saw of the neighbouring Sawbwa Tuan of Lao-wo was a crouching, sobbing figure in the consulate gatehouse, clad in a highly-decorated Japanese uniform and a pair of ladies' brown boots, who had been "beaten to death" by Colonel Chiang for daring to claim a tiny share in the credit of avenging last year's German murder. The two Mingkuang Sawbwaships from whose districts came the opposition to Mr. Hertz's column in 1900 are now represented by very feeble rulers, and I think that little trouble need be feared from their direction, as the Chinese have ousted or absorbed the Lisu population in their districts, and their titles are little but a name. The advance of the Chinese farmers northwards along the Salween has also had serious effects for the Sawbwa of Tengkeng, who is obliged to walk warily in taxing the pure Chinese, lest he be called to book in the magistrate's yamen; his poppy cultivation has also been stopped-- meaning a loss of from 16 to 20 ounces of opium from each house-and his total annual income on the Chinese side of the frontier is believed to have been reduced to about 2,000 rupees, a fact which is well borne out by the poverty and squalor of bis capital and his yamen, qualities in which those of his neighbours enter into active competition. With the reduction of their revenues they are year by year less able to meet the demands of the magistrate for his annual perquisites, and there is no doubt that the chiefs have felt tentatively, and the magistrate has indicated actively the necessity for some new resources if they are to retain their posts.

The Salween Valley.-On learning of the object of the Paoshan magistrate's proposed visit to Pienma, I was much tempted to return across the pass and await there an assurance from His Majesty's consul-general at Yunnan-fu that the magistrate would be deterred from crossing, as it appeared important that he should be prevented from taking any steps towards the administrative control of the country at the present juncture. I felt unable to do this, however, as my little party had been severely tried by the hardships of the journey, and a return of the rains would possibly have delayed my return to my post for an indefinite period, a risk which appeared inadvisable at the present time. I therefore took the road by the banks of the river, which reaches Tengyuch in seven marches after leaving Tengkeng. The weather was fortunately bright and clear during the march along the Salween, which was in its full glory of early summer, and, although intensely hot, a pleasant change after the hard journey in the mountains. The river still ran green and clear, flecked with foam as it formed in eddying rapids or rushed over its hidden rocks. On either side rose the forest-clad mountains, their luxuriant tropical green sprinkled with brilliant flowering shrubs and trees, whilst the whole was crowned by the snow-clad peaks stretching up to the

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