[ { "id": 212822, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 131, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "116\n\nAmerican air forces based in China and to the extensive establishments supplied to train and equip the Chinese Expeditionary Force, as the army which had been built up in Yunnan by the Chungking government to assist in driving the Japanese out of Burma was called.\n\nI was sent to Kun-ming to see about giving assistance to the Myosa of Kokang, prince of a small Burmese border state. The longest unnavigable river in the world, the Salween, rises in Tibet, flows through China, and enters Burma at about the level of Bhamo. For a stretch the river flows from east to west; to the north of it the territory is still China, to the south lies Kokang. The river then leaves China altogether, bends south, and lower down at Kunlong receives the Nam Ting flowing in from the east. The Nam Ting forms the southern boundary of Kokang, while the mountain-tops that divide the Salween watershed from the next river to the east form the state's eastern boundary. The stones marking this boundary were set up in 1898 as a result of the agreements made at that time. Kokang also spreads across the Salween to the territories of the large Shan state of North Shenwi, of which Kokang is actually a sub-state. The greater part of Kokang though is sandwiched between the Salween and China. Kunlong is the site of one of the most frequented of the Salween ferries, and it is down the valley of the Nam Ting that the projected railway from Kun-ming to Lashio, connecting China with Burma, will run. The embankments to carry the line had been nearly completed before the Japanese advance into Burma put an end to the work. To the south of the Nam Ting are situated the Wa states, inhabited by wild head-hunting tribes.\n\nThe Myosa of Kokang was a most loyal subject of the British crown, and because of that loyalty he was to suffer great injuries. When the Japanese advanced up the length of Burma in 1942, the British troops, who were covering the western flank, that is the flank towards India, withdrew into India. The civil administrative staff of the Shan States also withdrew to the west, while the Chinese armies, on the eastern flank,\n\n\"One British administrative officer, Evans, withdrew from Kengtung, away to the south of Kokang, into south-west Yunnan. He had established cordial relations with the Chinese troops there, and with their assistance organised local levies, drawn from the dispersed ranks of the Burma Rifle regiments; he used these to wage a small campaign of his own against the enemy until he was killed during an assault on a position manned by Siamese troops. He died unknown, unsupported, unrewarded, but not unsung, because at a time when throughout the East the British star was thought to have set for all time, this lonely man left a record of British pluck which will long be remembered on the border.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212839, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 148, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "133\n\nif we did not stay. They were not merely glad to see us because we were British; they hoped we would be able to arrange reimbursement to them for the cost of feeding the Chinese troops. At Nancha I had been most embarrassed by my large escort, which even after the subtraction of the men who were sent to accompany Stan on his reconnaissance, still numbered twenty; they ate at the headman's table and, when I offered to pay, the situation became difficult because it set a precedent inconvenient to the Chinese. Percy refused to allow me to pay, and I had to get around it by making a gift to the headman of some packets of needles that I had brought from India. Needles were very scarce and correspondingly valuable, and these particular packets had got wet when a truculent bullock had kicked off my box into a river, the day before we reached Nancha.\n\nAt the moment the Chinese troops in Kokang did not number many. The battalion had long since been withdrawn from the south, where the Japanese had established a bridgehead across the Salween at Kunlong. Of the fifteen other ferries in Kokang, six faced north across to Chinese territory. Over there the Chinese maintained guerilla forces behind the Japanese lines, and they had small guards on this side at the ferries, perhaps a hundred men in all. These troops sometimes brought in their own rice, of which Kokang was short, but they relied on the headmen to produce the rest of their supplies, cooking oil, vegetables, salt, and pork. In Kokang they fed better than in China, a small advantage which no one could begrudge them in view of the terrible hardships the Chinese troops had to endure, but it came hard on the Kokang villages. I was glad to learn that nominal prices had been fixed by the Chinese, after our arrival, though at much below current market costs, and that at any rate sometimes these were actually paid. The Chinese also called for free transport from the villages, and at Nancha the headman frequently had to produce plain clothes, taken off the backs of the all too scantily clothed people, for the use of Chinese troops crossing the river to join the guerillas on the far side. There, as in Eastern China, most of the guerillas were disguised as local inhabitants. There was nothing I could do about all this, except to suggest to the headmen that they carefully keep any receipts issued to them by the Chinese officers for supplies taken.\n\nIn Burma before the war paper rupees had largely displaced silver coins; but in these conservative border districts paper was not welcome, and silver coins were preferred. Of course, the paper money of the Burma", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212843, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 152, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "137\n\njackass stood tethered near the herdman's hut, on a knoll from which he could proudly survey his young.\n\nAt Lunghtang Jack rejoined us; he had followed the Salween and inspected all the ferries, except those around Kunlong, where the Japanese had established their bridgehead. During the past two years they had on several occasions raided from Kunlong as far north as Tawnio, putting the villages to fire. Kokang south of Tawnio was practically deserted and the mule tracks overgrown; there were no Chinese troops, but the Japanese were watched by standing patrols of the Kokang Defence Force.\n\nThe Salween at this season was low; in long stretches the current ran slow and the river could be crossed; the ferries were marked on the map at places, where tracks led down to the water. The width of the river, of course, varied; in the rapids where the water rushed through it might be no more than 100 feet, elsewhere generally nearer 300 feet. There were no boats; the method of crossing was to cut down a number of bamboos, lash them together, and paddle across. At the northern ferries small parties of Chinese troops watched on our side; the Japanese could be seen on the far side; but after the river left China to turn south, there were no more Chinese troops, and the ferries were watched by unarmed village levies, obviously ineffectively. The Japanese used the same system on their side, and at one ferry Jack had been able to shout over and hold a brief conversation with the two Kachin watchers on the far bank. At certain of the northern ferries shots were frequently exchanged between the Chinese troops, assisted by men of the K.D.F., and the enemy; and sometimes the Japanese would roll a gun up and lob some shells over; at other times it would be a trench mortar. On certain sections of the muletrack it was unwise to move by daylight.\n\nI sent Jack back to Hsintang where we had picked up some useful contacts, mostly thanks to Lopez' earlier work. Opposite Hsintang the Kachin tribes appeared ready to help, and we hoped we would be able to get people through onto the Burma road to watch Japanese movements, and so to facilitate Wingate's operations; if we could at the same time destroy some Japanese dumps so much the better.\n\nWhile at Hsintang I had been visited by one of the staff officers of the Nth division. I had with some difficulty persuaded him to allow our agents to cross the Salween at the ferry, which led most directly to the friendly Kachins and where the Japanese watch was not strict. We had", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212846, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 155, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "140\n\nthough that description is scarcely fair to him. I do not think he was really disloyal to his elder brother, the Myosa; he had merely been caught in a situation which was beyond him. He was a weak character, the Chinese had terrified him, and he was as butter in their hands. I was concerned for our protection; though Lunghtang was ten miles back from the Salween, apart from the unarmed village watchers at the ferries, and an odd post of the K.D.F., there was nothing between us and the enemy. I asked the Puppet to let us have twenty men of the Defence Force. We would arm them, train them, and retain them as our personal bodyguards. He could not refuse.\n\nDuring his reconnaissance Stan had investigated the state of the Defence Force. They were about 200 strong at Sincheng, to watch the Japanese opposite the Kunlong bridgehead; their arms consisted half of British and half of Chinese rifles; they were desperately short of ammunition; their training was poor. I arranged with the Puppet that after training the bodyguards he would send us his five Bren teams for a course and for equipping with new guns, as most of those they had were damaged. Later we would train a platoon at a time, and equip them with further rifles and light automatics. I hoped also to find men of the guerilla type for use in trans-Salween operations, but these men would mostly have to be recruited from the tribes across the river, so that they could return to operate on their own ground.\n\nThe controversy between Tommy and Sten guns had settled itself. I had been for standardising on Stens, but Jack and Stan were both used to the Tommy and insisted on carrying one; I carried a Sten, which with its clip weighed 5 lbs against their 10. I noticed one day a Tommy had been loaded on the pack animals and on going up the line found Stan carrying a Sten! An extra 5 lbs makes a lot of difference when you are marching up and down mountains! Jack too soon fell into line and we made presents of our Tommy guns to the Puppet, who already had one or two. I also arranged to replenish his ammunition supplies.\n\nThe country people were poorly clad; no new cloth had come in for several years. We were able to include in our supplies some bolts of cloth, Shan pants, jerseys, and rubber shoes; they were originally intended as gifts for those across the Salween who worked for us, but we soon found they dared not receive such gifts because the Japanese, when they saw anything new, immediately realised that it came from their enemies, and concluded that those who wore it were helping our", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212851, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "145\n\nand probably compelled them to increase the area of opium cultivation. Obviously the crop was being passed on through the Chinese officers at the Puppet's headquarters. I had found there that they used his office as if it were their own. This may have been another reason for the grip the Chinese had taken of this small state. When Allied government is re-established in Burma it is to be hoped that serious attention will be paid to the question of opium. On the barren slopes of Kokang it is one of the only crops which grow, and so the problem is chiefly economic, the finding of a substitute crop. I noticed that no opium was planted in the Lihsaw villages; they were all Christians, converted by the American Baptist Mission—a mission which does the same as Dr. Seagrave's very excellent work in Burma, and they had been taught to grow potatoes instead. But the Lihsaws are not numerous, there are limits to the demand for potatoes, and further alternatives will be required.\n\nKokang was not self-supporting in rice. The normal flow of commerce is along the motor road from Kunlong to Hsenwi and Burma; that road was now cut by Japanese occupation, and Kokang had to depend on China for additional supplies. I believe the Puppet did his best to exchange part of his opium for rice, but not very successfully. Yunnan itself had inadequate supplies to feed the large forces of the C.E.F. for whom quantities of rice had to be imported from further afield. It was a difficult situation for the Puppet and one which put him the more under Chinese obligation.\n\nI got to know many of the headmen personally and well; with two exceptions, men recently appointed by the Puppet, they were hostile to him, and anxiously awaited the return of the Myosa, whose fair and just administration had left happy memories.\n\nI did not fathom the system of appointing circle and village headmen. The Myosa appeared to have the authority to make appointments, but I found in many places that the post was hereditary; many of the headmen too were of the Myosa's family. They often had managers, or Prime Ministers, who managed their affairs for them; and in at least some instances the function of manager to a circle headman was hereditary too.\n\nI returned from Sincheng to Lunghtang with a baffled feeling; the Bren gun teams were sent for training, but I felt they were the last the Chinese would allow to come, and the event was to prove my doubts justified. The despatch of further men was delayed on one pretext after", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212853, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 162, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "147\n\nwireless. We had small hand generators for charging the batteries, but our skeds were so heavy, that even though we hired coolies to turn the generators in relays for fourteen hours a day, we could not keep our batteries up. So it was proposed to drop a \"chorhorse\" to us, a small petrol machine which would do the job. That was the one container we never found. The package was heavy, it broke away from the 'chute, and must have dived into the earth, where it probably buried itself a good many feet. We did not get our \"chorhorse\" till my relief arrived with a large mule train overland from Kun-ming.\n\nThe dropping of money was an anxiety; there was a tendency to overload the containers, and a proportion broke away and crashed to earth, burying and scattering a jumble of bent silver rupees. I kept the responsibility for money in my own hands, and on the whole we lost remarkably little thanks to the innate honesty of the simple natives, who helped us to collect the scattered treasure. They did not like accepting the bent dollars in payment; but I had to insist; we had too many on our hands, and after all they contained the same amount of metal.\n\nI was due for relief before the rains; the officer sent for the purpose was a well-known young Tibetan explorer. Let us hope he will some day add to his books by giving us an account of his adventures in Kokang; they were not few. Although in my time, the Japanese had on several occasions put us in a state of alarm, by advances from Kunlong, so that we once dispersed to hideouts in the hills, they never actually chased us. That was fortunate for though we had hired mules from the Puppet, we were by no means mobile. My successor, however, had a different experience which should be well worth the relating.\n\nAs for the Myosa, his case was referred to the highest authorities, and the British insisted on his release, without trial. He was flown over to India where he went to recuperate in a hill station. I cannot tell you the end of his story, because I do not know it myself. We must leave him in his bungalow on a hill top in India.\n\nIt was mid-May of 1944 before I could start on my return journey. I took Rogue with me, and Lao Teng. The Americans had kindly given us a case of C ration; for each meal there was a tin containing five biscuits, two lumps of sugar, coffee powder for two cups, and four glucose candies; and a second tin with vegetable hash, vegetable stew, or hash and beans. It was all excellent, and saved time cooking; only", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 } ]