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From Sir John Jordan's telegram No. 39, dated the 14th February, 1911, of which a copy was forwarded for the information of this Government with your telegram dated the 16th February, 1913, his Honour understands that the Chinese Government are not likely to agree to a monetary compensation as a payment for the surrender of their rights in the tract. The two remaining alternatives are a lease from the Chinese Government or a rectification of the boundary line in this locality. As already stated in my telegram dated the 20th February, 1911, the lieutenant-governor considers that either of these alternatives might suitably be accepted. The advantages of a lease would be that the main watershed could be followed throughout as the boundary line, and that it would be unnecessary to rescind the measures which have already been taken by Mr. Hertz towards the administration of these villages. On the other hand, it is clear from Mr. Hertz's report, and from the map attached, that if the boundary line were amended as proposed by him so as to exclude from our side the villages under discussion, the line would follow a second ridge of mountains which would form a dividing line with advantages little, if any, less than those obtained by the adoption of the main watershed, and, under these circumstances, his Honour thinks that we should not hesitate to accept this modified line if the Chinese Government. seem disinclined to agree to a lease of the villages,
5. According to the map attached to Mr. Ifertz's note, the modified boundary merges again into the main watershed about latitude 26° 18′ north, and Mr. Hertz suggests that the Chinese Government should be moved to accept the main watershed as the boundary beyond this point up to the confines of Thibet, or if not as far as latitude 27 north. The lieutenant-governor agrees with Mr. Hertz that it would be desirable to obtain from the Chinese Government a general acceptance of the main watershed as the boundary line north of the section now under discussion, but his Honour does not think that it will be possible to delimitate the boundary further north at present, and he thinks that it will be sufficient to obtain from the Chinese Govern- ment a definite agreement either to the main watershed or to the modified line proposed by Mr. Hertz up to the point where these two boundary lines are shown to merge into each other at their northern extremities.
6. In your telegram dated the 18th January, 1911, the lieutenant-governor was asked to furnish a statement of objections to the boundary line proposed by Taotai Shih in 1905. Certain objections to this line were given in my telegram dated the 20th January, 1911, and it is further explained by Mr. Hertz in his present note that this line would be altogether unsuitable. It would include on the Chinese side numerous villages over which they have no claim, and which they are not in a position to administer. It would be difficult to render such a frontier defensible, and there would be a continued risk of disputes between the adjoining villages on cach side of the frontier.
I have, &c.
H. THOMPSON, Officiating Chief Secretary to the Government
of Burmah.
Enclosure 2 in No. 1.
Note on the Undelimited Portion of the North-Eastern Frontier of Burmah.
(Confidential.)
1. The proposed Frontier.-The local Government has been compelled by force of events to take up the question of this frontier. If it had moved in the matter ten years ago a satisfactory settlement would probably have been obtained at trifling cost. Ten years hence it may be impossible to secure a safe frontier without recourse to the arbitrament of war.
The frontier claimed by us follows the 'Nmaikha-Taping, 'Nmaikha-Shweli, and 'Nmaikha-Salween watersheds. It is an ideal one in every way, and will set a definite physical limit to further intrigue by the Chinese in the valley of the Irrawaddy.
Starting from Manangpum, the most northerly point of the deruarcated frontier, in latitude 25° 33′ north, it follows the crest of a high range of mountains trending north-eastward and separating the headwaters of the Taping and Shweli Rivers from those of the Chipwi and Ngawehang, Near the sources of the Changzaw (Pi Ho)
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stream, a tributary of the last-named river, it links on to the Irrawaddy-Salween divide, the point of contact being a high peak of 11,500 feet marked Shangpei-ho-t'ao in our maps.
North of this it follows the above-mentioned divide as far as the confines of Thibet.
The Tientan, Mingkwang, and Tatang valleys, to which frequent reference is made in reports on this frontier, are in the Shweli drainage and the Tantsa valley in that of the Taping River. All these valleys are in China. The streams on the Burmah side are, beginning from the south, the Shingaw, Tamu, Chipwi, and the Ngawchang, the streams on which the Hpare and Hpimaw groups of villages are situated being tributaries of the last-named river. All these streams belong to the Irrawaddy system. The peaks on the connecting mountain-chain vary in height from 10,300 to 12,300 feet, while those on the Irrawaddy-Salween divide run up to 15,500 feet. From the point where the two mountain-cbains meet until the Irrawaddy-Salween divide is merged in the eastern ramparts of the Ilimalayan range, whence spring the first sources of the parent rivers of the Irrawaddy, the 'Nmaikba, and Malikha, the divide forms an almost direct north and south line.
South of latitude 26° 30′ north the passes in this range are the Chimili (13,000 feet) above Kangfang and the Hipimaw pass (11,000 feet) near the village of that name. Both these passes are often snowed up for weeks, and the former is always impassable for mules, and is very little used even by pedestrians. South of this there is the Feng Shui Ling pass, through which lies the high road from Tengyueh to Hpimaw, two passes into the Hparè valley, two into the Chipwi, and one into the Shingaw. Except in the villages of Hpimaw, Tangtung, and Kangfang, where there are Chinese traders who return to their native land in the rainy season, there are no Chinese residents, permanent or temporary, in the villages on this side of the proposed frontier. The inhabitants are all Marus and Lashis, except near the headwaters of the Ngawchang River above Kangfang and in the hills near Hpimaw, where there are scattered hamlets of Yawyins or Lisus, whose real habitat is the Salween valley. The proposed line of division is thus also an ethnological boundary. It possesses great geographical independence, being the watershed between two large river-systems, the villages on each side of it are a day's march apart, and there are only a few narrow ways across it. A better frontier in every respect, therefore, could not be found, and we shall be fortunate if we can secure its acceptance by the Chinese Government.
2. The Chinese Claims.--I have now visited nearly all the villages to which the Chinese can reasonably lay claim, except those in the Tamu and Chipwi valleys, which will be visited later on. The claims to villages in those valleys may be rejected in limine on the authority of the late Mr. Litton's report on the " Joint Survey of the Burmah-Yunnan Boundary by British and Chinese officials in 1905." The Shingaw valley has been under our direct administration for twelve or more years, and so any claim to it cannot be entertained; and no claims were made to the Tamu valley. With reference to the Tientan fuyi's claim to a few Lisu hamlets in the Upper Chipwi valley, Mr. Litton says in the above-mentioned report: "I told the taotai that these so-called claims were entirely beyond discussion, and that I must refuse to talk about them," and the taotai decided " that the claims might be considered as
withdrawn."
The next valley is the one in which the Hpard group of villages is situated. The stream is known to the inhabitants as the Hkansheng Kha, and it is an affiuent of the Ngawchang, the largest river in these parts. The Mingkwang fuyi claims this valley, but the villagers deny his claim in toto, or that they are, or ever have been, in any sense tributary to him, or that any Chinese officials have ever exercised any sort of control over them. When I visited the village the headman of Upper IIparè sought permission to raid Mingkwang, because the fuyi had burnt his village after the Chinese were expelled from the valley in 1900 by the exploration column under my brother. On a tributary stream are the two Lashi villages of Lagwi (Chinese, Tzu Chu), the inhabitants of which also maintain that they have never paid tribute to the Chinese, and that they are not tributary to China. But they admit that once in "six to ten years" they exchange presents of salt and "huanglien," a medicinal root that grows in these bills, with the Mingkwang fuyi. As is to be expected, the inhabitants of the villages lower down the Ikansheng valley also deny entirely that they are in any way subordinate to China. They are unanimous on this point.
I will now deal with the villages on the Ngawchaug River between its junction with the Hkansheng (Hparè) and the Htangjam (Hpimaw) streams. The villages of Bale, Lungpang, Kamkawn, Htawmsbing and Ngazung on the far or north bank, commonly known as the Lungpang group, were admitted by Taotai Shih, who was associated with
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