General Gatacre Part 9

MANDALAY

It was with difficulty that the British Government had lived so long at peace with Theebaw, King of Burma. In 1883 he sent a mission to Europe, ostensibly to study western civilisation, but it was recognised that in reality he was making advances to the French Government, who were of course our neighbours on the east, in Siam. There was also friction over the demarcation of the Manipur frontier on the west, but the actual ground for the outbreak of hostilities arose over a commercial question. An English trading company found that King Theebaw had sold over again to the French the rights over some forest lands for which the company had paid seven years' tolls in advance.

The High Court of Mandalay upheld their sovereign's proceedings, so that the corporation were driven to appeal to the British Government to vindicate their claims. King Theebaw, however, flatly refused to discuss the matter with the Chief Commissioner of Lower Burma. The British Government welcomed the occasion to {83} send an ultimatum to King Theebaw "which aimed at a settlement of all the main matters in dispute between the two Governments,"[1] and simultaneously instructed Sir Harry Prendergast to prepare a force to march on Mandalay.

[1] _Parliamentary Papers_ (Burma), 1886.

A defiant answer having been returned by the King, orders for the advance were issued. A fleet of transports was escorted by a few vessels from the Royal Navy up the Irrawaddy. On November 14, 1885, at a point about twenty-eight miles beyond our frontier post at Thayetmyo, the forts at Minhla barred the pa.s.sage of the river. Our naval guns then opened fire with good effect, and when the troops landed there was no resistance.

[Sidenote: Theebaw surrenders]

The advance continued, and ten days later a similar engagement took place about seven miles from Ava. After the naval guns had silenced the enemy's artillery, the Hamps.h.i.+re Regiment was landed, and drove the defenders from their entrenchments. At 4 p.m. on November 24 a royal state barge appeared bearing a flag of truce, and a message that the King "was well disposed in mind and heart."[2] To this a reply was sent that nothing less than the unconditional surrender of the King and his capital would satisfy the British Government, and that the response must be received within twelve hours.

[2] Despatch dated January 13, 1886.

The picturesqueness of the scene was so irresistible that even the official despatch breaks into description of the "far-famed city of Ava, {84} with its mouldering monasteries and decaying walls. On the banks are batteries bristling with guns, and parapets alive with scarlet-clad soldiers," etc., etc.

King Theebaw's reply was received by the time specified, and when translated was found to express a frame of mind that was acceptable to the invaders. The subsequent advance from Ava was therefore unopposed, and on November 28 British troops made their way peacefully through the streets of Mandalay. In the afternoon of the next day the King and his Queens and a suitable retinue were conveyed on board a steamer and transported to Rangoon, _en route_ to India. As a compliment to their former estate, the escort was detailed from the Royal Navy. It is said that Supya-lat offered violent resistance to this deportation, saying that she would prefer death or any fate at the hands of the Englishmen to life as a state prisoner with her husband. But she had to conform.

By Proclamation on January 1, 1886, Upper Burma was declared a part of the British Empire, and the Chief Commissioner, Sir Charles Bernard, transferred his headquarters from Rangoon to Mandalay.

[Sidenote: Dacoity]

Sir Harry Prendergast had completed his task in the occupation of the capital, but the subjugation of the vast province of Upper Burma, covering about 100,000 square miles, was a very different matter. The collapse of the Civil Government and the disbanding of the native army led to a state of anarchy. Pretenders sprang {85} up who were exploited by enterprising ex-officers, and became leaders of the various bands of dacoits that infested the land. These armed bands were a terror to the people, for they lived on the country and robbed and looted freely but it was not till we had won the confidence of the peaceable peasants that they would venture to give us information as to the whereabouts of their enemies. The fact that there was no cohesion or community of interest between these marauders made them the more troublesome to suppress, as each one had to be dealt with separately.

The pacification of the country was entrusted to Sir George White with a force of three infantry brigades. But as there was no national party in arms against him, so there was no organised resistance; the enemy were not soldiers, but a lawless rabble led by brigands.

In his report of this work in a country which he describes as "one vast military obstacle," he says:

"The actual resistance offered to our troops was not very trying to disciplined well-armed soldiers, but small bodies of these soldiers have often had to stand up against bands whose numbers were estimated in thousands. Between April 1 and July 31 over one hundred affairs took place, and few days elapsed without the occurrence of fighting in some part of the newly acquired province."[3]

[3] See _Despatch_, July 17, 1886.

After a time it was found possible partially {86} to replace the soldiers by specially recruited armed military police, who were thickly distributed in all the disturbed districts; and gradually the more peaceable inhabitants realised that every time a military raid was organised there would be a smaller number of thieves and robbers left in the land.

When the bulk of Sir George White's expeditionary force was withdrawn, Brigadier-General George Wolseley, who had been commanding the Mandalay Brigade, a.s.sumed the command of the permanent garrison. It was as his subst.i.tute that Gatacre held the post from October 1889 to October 1890, with a few weeks' interval in the spring. Gatacre had been nearly four years in the same office on the Headquarter Staff, and his letters show that after the departure of General Chapman in April 1889 he was anxiously watching for some new opening for himself. The change to an independent command was very welcome, and not less so was the change from the social life of Headquarters to the wild simplicity of Upper Burma. The military direction of such a vast and unsettled province would provide scope for administration and opportunity for personal exertion--would, in short, afford all the arduous duties in which Gatacre found his delight.

[Sidenote: Fort Dufferin]

The ancient citadel of Mandalay is now called Fort Dufferin. It consists of a vast quadrilateral enclosure, in the centre of which stands the palace, surrounded by gardens and a high teak-wood stockade.

The walls are 10 ft. thick {87} and 29 ft. high; each side of the square is a mile and a quarter in length; at regular intervals there are gates leading to bridges over a moat that is more than 200 ft.

wide. Along the walls are numerous picturesque watch-houses with little seven-roofed paG.o.das over each gate. These buildings provided quarters and offices for both the civil and military departments.

Sir Charles Crosthwaite, who was Chief Commissioner of Burma when Gatacre took up the command, writes:

"I lived in one of the paG.o.da erections over a gate in the Mandalay wall, and there was a long flight of steps leading up to my rooms. I can see Sir William now flying up the steps and rus.h.i.+ng down them, after he had seen me, and vaulting on to his horse. He was indefatigable."[4]

[4] August 18, 1909.

The reception rooms in the palace itself were fitted up as a club for the officers of the garrison. Some men were playing whist there one evening in November 1889, when Gatacre came in, and going up to one of the players asked him if he knew anything about transport. The officer, busy with his cards, replied "Not a d.a.m.n!" which elicited the unexpected response:

"Will you be my transport officer?"

When the hand was finished the subaltern turned round, and for the first time perceived who was speaking to him.

"I am afraid you are chaffing me, sir."

{88}

"Not at all. The last two transport officers I have had knew everything--one could not teach them anything. Are you willing to learn?"

That officer did his best to learn, and remained Gatacre's transport officer till his regiment left the station. He remembers especially his General's friendly manner, tells us how the dignity and power of his personality enabled him to dispense with the formalities of his position, and to do things which in other men might have resulted in undue familiarity. There was an arrangement by which the other staff officer carried on the work in the office, while the transport officer accompanied the General on all his tours. It is to this officer that we are indebted for the following story.

[Sidenote: Maymyo]

About forty miles from Mandalay there is a little hill-station called Maymyo, at an elevation of 3,500 ft. It is now full of red-brick buildings, and is the headquarters of the Lieutenant-General commanding the Burma Division, and there is a railway up from Mandalay which runs on to Las.h.i.+o. But in 1889 Maymyo was but a collection of huts and tents, and the road that led thither was not only execrable to travel on, but infested with robbers. However, it served as a sanatorium, and the sick folk from Mandalay had to brave the dangers of the road. The transport officer had been spending a month at Maymyo with his wife, and, having met with exceptional difficulties in making his journey down, was very much alive to its discomforts. Only two days before another party had been {89} attacked, their native driver killed, and their kit dacoited.

When they met next morning the General told the officer to lay a dak to Maymyo, as he intended going there next day. The thought of doing that journey again so soon was most distasteful, but the officer only asked:

"What time do we start?"

"There is no 'we' in it. You don't go. I am going alone."

"That's ridiculous!" followed on, with such simplicity and directness that both broke into laughter.

The idea was ridiculous, but it was carried out. The subaltern's pride of office was wounded by his being thus set on one side, but when he realised that it was done out of consideration to himself, and that no one else was taken, he could not but be satisfied. Risk and exertion were like magnets to draw Gatacre; he went alone, dispensing even with an orderly. The fastest and most active ponies were always sent out for the General's use, and it would have been difficult to find man and beast to keep up with him when on such an excursion. He must have made a very early start, for he rode forty miles up into the mountains, inspected the detachment of the Madras Native Infantry quartered there, and returned in time to dine with the Chief Commissioner. There he met Sir Frederick Fryer, to whom he related his day's work. It afterwards transpired that two of the ponies were broken down by the journey, but {90} even for such a mishap the General found a cheerful use. When rallied by one of his commanding officers on this point, he replied:

"Hard on the ponies! Not at all. Why, my dear fellow, it is really a good thing, for the useless ones get weeded out."

In 1886 Sir George White wrote that it would be a "long time before dacoity died of inanition."[5] But British methods, worked with British perseverance, had triumphed over Burmese inst.i.tutions. In 1889 Sir Charles Crosthwaite could write that "disorder and lawlessness had been put down, and the power of the Government firmly established and fully acknowledged."[6] It was, however, reserved for Gatacre to equip a little expedition which was to penetrate into the Kachin Hills, where a leader known as Kan Hlaing was hara.s.sing the country. The General sent the following telegram to Calcutta on November 25, 1889:

[5] _Despatch_, August 18, 1886.

[6] _Report of Administration_, August 1887 to August 1889.

"Chief Commissioner has applied for services of troops to operate from Bhamo against Lwe Saing Tonhon Kachins, in Meteilaing, to effect capture or surrender of Kan Hlaing and reduction of Tonhon, the chief town. After effecting this, to march southwards in Binhong and attack pretender Sairyawuiniz. A column to co-operate from Ruby Mines district, marching on Momeit. Bhamo Column to consist of 75 rifles Hants, two guns No. 2 Bombay, 100 rifles 17th Bengal Infantry, and 250 rifles Mogoung Levy. Momeit {91} Column to consist of 50 rifles Hants, 150 Bengal Native Infantry from Mandalay. Have complied with his wishes, made all necessary arrangements. Column will start from Bhamo Dec. 1. The Momeit Column will reach Momeit about Dec. 10. Solicits Army's approval."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Kachin Bridge over which five hundred men crossed in one day]