Arakan Library - Araka Past Present Future

Arakan: - One Who Preserves and Takes Care of Their Own Nationality.

Publication by Arakan Action Association (AAA.)

Arakan Past – Present – Future

BY JOHN OGILVY HAY, J.P.

Arakan Library was founded by a group of Arakan Action Association (AAA) in exile in Thailand from Burma in 2007 doing to voice for the knowledge, the people democratic and human rights.

Arakan Action Association (AAA)

Chotana Road , Chaing Mai ( 50301 ), Thailand.

Email : arakanactionassociation@walla.com , +66—089-637-4383, +66—053-409-577

You did not seem to think the land grant system would answer, and that it might in more expensive to Government than a guarantee. In this we differ. I think it could be worked to advantage, and wrote to Lord Cross asking for particulars, believing I could be able to carry them out – but they were not supplied. To Lord Lansdowne I wrote, “The construction of the railway might be left to private enterprise, its cost being covered by a liberal concession of waste land, which, without such communications, may for ages remain waste, and not otherwise a convertible security, such not entailing on the Government any pecuniary outlay or guarantee.” The opening up of Burmah as speedily as possible is an important matter, and deserves more consistent and vigorous action than heretofore. – Your, &c.

28^th Nov, 1890.

I am in receipt of your letter, and can only say I will take a special interest in your proposals. It seems to me that railway extension in India without guarantee of interest on the part of Government is full of difficulties. Grants of waste land might be given in a few cases, but I doubt much if the necessary capital could be raised in the market with no other concession. – Yours, &c.

Letter to the Under Secretary of State for India.

31^st December 1890.

I have had the honour to receive Mr Horace Walpole’s letter, P.W. 1836, of 12^th November, which circumstances have prevented me sooner acknowledging.

I would respectfully ask your reference to my letter of 11^th October, to which the letter now before me is a reply. It made a request for information as to the terms of the concession offered to the promoters of the Assam-Chittagong Railway project; whereas Sir John E.Gorst’s letter of 16^th August 1889, to which my attention is directed, was on the subject of a proposed railway from Akyab to Mandalay. The information I asked for was not so much with reference to railway extension in Burmah as directly with reference to the Assam-Chittagong Railway itself, in which I feel as much interest as in the Burmah railways, as it was a project I suggested to the Most Honourable the Marquis of Salisbury so far back as 1874, when he was Secretary for India, as will be seen by my letter to his lordship dated 18^th August 1874, from which, for easy reference, I beg to annex copy extract.

My object in asking for particulars of the concession was not as a “fishing question,” but with the bona fide intention of acting on it, as with these before me, having learned from official source that “they comprised very liberal grants of waste land, coal and oil,” I thought “it probable that I could be able to carry them out;” and seeing that the negotiations with “the promoters of the Assam-Chittagong Railway were at an end,” or, as stated in the letter under acknowledgment, “the scheme had been abandoned,” it was probable the Government might be still prepared to give the concessions, so as to have the railway constructed as a work of “private enterprise,” which would necessarily require some Government aid, while avoiding recourse to a “guarantee.”

I would further add that while my object was primarily as above stated, I had in view that the same terms might be applied to the two projects for railways in Burmah, as to which I had been previously in communication with his lordship the Secretary to State. May I therefore now again respectfully ask to be favoured with the information, as stated in the last paragraph of my letter of 11^th October, and copy of which, for easy reference, I annex. – I have the honour, &c.

Extract from Letter No.8 of 11^th October 1890.

As the negotiations with the promoters of the Assam-Chittagong Railway on the Land-grant system are at an end, may I ask your lordship to be so good as to inform me as to the terms which the Government were disposed to give. It is, I think, probable that I could be able to carry them out, and so save your lordship from resiling from the resolution you had arrived at in respect of guarantee of interest.

Letter to the Right Honourable Viscount Cross, G.C.B., Secretary of State for India Office, Whitehall, S.W.

London, 2^nd January 1891.

My Lord, - The development of our eastern provinces of India, and acceleration of means to that end, are such all-important questions, that I doubt not your lordship will pardon my again addressing you on the subject of railway extension in Burmah, in continuation of the correspondence I have already had the honour to hold with your Office. I am quite aware that your lordship, as also the Government of India, are fully alive to the importance of the subject; but it may not be out of place that a non-official view of the same be brought before you, more especially as the French are pressing us hard from Tonquin for the trade of South-western China, as shown forcibly in the columns of the ‘Times’ of 17^th September 1889; and our position with regard to connecting Burmah with China urgently calls for immediate action.

The ‘Times’ editorial closes with the following: “There can be no doubt that the trade of Southern and Western China is worth striving for, and it is pretty certain that it will ultimately fall into the hands of those who strive for it with the greatest amount of energy, intelligence and perseverance.”

My previous communications have mostly been based on the address which your lordship delivered at Oldham in the early part of last year, followed, as that was, by the demi-official exposition, by Sir Juland danvers, of the position your Government took up as to enlisting the aid of the public in railway extension in India, and I am not aware that the public has received any intimation or hint that the views thus expressed have undergone any material change. True, there have appeared from time to time in the public prints rumours that the Indian Government were inclined to execute all such works by the State railway department – a late rumor being to the effect that “you have been asked to sanction the construction of the Assam-Chittagong Railway by the Government of India as a State line; and the latest, that on your declining to do so, “it had been again urged on you.” Having been working, as I believed, on the lines propounded by your address before referred to, and having brought matters to the point of definitely ferred to, and having brought matters to the point of definitely placing tangible proposals before your Government you can readily understand the disappointment I met with in the reply I received to the proposal I submitted for the “Burmah-China Railway Extension” in my letter of 25^th March 1890, as conveyed in letter of 1^st May 1^st May 1890, by which I was informed that it was Government’s “intention to undertake for themselves any extension of that system” (Burmah State railway system) “which may be deemed expedient, and that your lordship has approved of this course, and is not, therefore, in a position to consider the terms on which a company might be disposed to take over and extend the Burmah railways in the direction indicated in your letter;” further, “A copy of this correspondence will be forwarded to the Government of India;” and subsequently, by letter of 29^th July 1890, I learn “that no answer has yet been received from the Government of India with reference to the proposals contained in your letter of 25^th March.” On the subject of these proposals I therefore wait your lordships’s further communications, on receipt of the views of the Government of India regarding the same. I would, however, in passing, respectfully call your attention to the following opinion expressed in one of a series of interesting letters regarding Burmah, which have lately appeared in the ‘Times’ newspaper (see that of 2^nd September, 1890) from the pen, it is believed, of a lately retired able Government administrator, who has visited Burmah during the past cold season. He says: “I cannot but think the authorities will do well to call to their assistance private enterprise and capital, instead of keeping in their own hands the construction and working of these railways, as the sooner the province is opened out the more surely will its revenue and population increase.”

By the present I take leave to ask your lordship’s reconsideration of the question brought before you by my letters of 14^th February and 30^th March 1889, as to the connection by railway of Mandalay and the port of Akyab; and I am very pressing on the subject, being thoroughly convinced that there is no line of railway so important for the trade – both import and export – of the empire generally, as the one to which I would now respectfully and urgently again direct your attention.

In my letter of 15^th July 1890 I inquired if any reports had been received of the explorations made during the late Lushai expedition of what is called by the Burmese the “Tsawbwas road,” leading to Akyab, “by which it was believed a practicable route would be found for bringing Upper Burmah into direct communication with the Bay of Bengal.” This is very important, considering that one of the principal objects of the Chin-Lushai expedition, besides overawing the tribes, was to secure an overland route from Bengal to Upper Burmah, as: “Thus early in the day the conclusion has been formulated, that the making of a highroad through the Lushai-Chin country is scarcely practicable, and the scheme of overland communication from Chittagong must be given up.” – and so further expense, in that direction, should be avoided, and attention directed to a more practicable route farther to the south. The connection of Upper Burmah with India must undoubtedly be through Arakan, and the partial exploration above referred to of the “Tsawbwas road” points immediately to this. Independently of the difficulties shown to a more northerly route, the greater length of the route must be considered. Take the distance which our two columns had to traverse from Burmah and Chittagong respectively before a junction was effected, and then the distance between our settled districts in Upper Burmah and those in Arakan. There can be no question as to the latter being very materially shorter; and had this shorter route been adopted in the late expedition, there would have been an immense saving in every way, as compared with the actual cost of the expedition. This shorter route would have formed a base from which to work northward, with the valleys before us, instead of our troops being exhausted by crossing the ridges and gorges which they had to ascend and descend – a harassing work. It is therefore apparent that the idea of connecting Burmah with Chittagong directly must be abandoned.

In an administrative view, Arakan, being an important division of the Chief Commissionership of Burmah, should be undoubtedly connected by railway with the headquarters of the province. By late advices from Rangoon I learn that the Chief Commissioner is very pressing for the survey, seeing the necessity for this connection being effected. If there is the necessity for this connection, why think of a railway farther to the north, for which there is at present no special call? The port of Chittagong can be of no use to Burmah, seeing it has its own far superior port, Akayb; and the railway which is projected from Assam to Chittagong must ultimately have its terminus at Akyab, and that line, connected with the Akyab Mandalay line, would more satisfactorily effect the avowed object – viz., to facilitate emigration from Bengal to Burmah, strongly put forward as the raison d’etre for the Chittagong – Mandalay connection. I am glad to say I have secured the co-operation of gentlemen connected with Bengal interested in this emigration question, which will be of service in carrying out the grand scheme hereinafter proposed. Recent reports from India state that the country to the east of Chittagong will be explored this cold season; and in view of this, and the position of matters, I would respectfully ask your special attention to the necessity for the survey or exploration, in the first place, of the country between Arakan and Upper Burmah, which, being under a hundred miles, could be more speedily executed than a more northerly line from any part of the district of Chittagong. I would point out, and a reference to the map will show, that by a straight line drawn on the 21^st parallel of latitude from the river Lemroo in Arakan, well within our settled districts, to the Irrawaddy, also well within our settled districts in Upper Burmah, the distance, as the crow flies, is only about a hundred miles, and the actual unexplored part of that might not be much over half that distance. This is the line of country I referred to in my letters to your lordship of 14^th February and 30^th March 1889, which were forwarded to the Government of India for consideration, and to which I received reply by letter of 16^th August 1889, “that the Government of India point out that a railway from Akyab to any part of Upper Burmah would pass through a tract which is not for the most part British territory.” To this my letter of 25^th March last was an answer; and with all due deference to the view of the Government of India, and to your lordship, who agreed to that view, I would respectfully point out that so far as my proposals went, the objection brought forward by the Government might in a far greater degree have applied to the late expedition, and the road which was constructed by it, and would apply to the further exploration contemplated this cold season. The Government reply went on to say, “While that part which is British is at present almost entirely unexplored.” This was one of my chief reasons for the work, that the country should not continue to be “a perfect terra incognita so far as our Government is concerned.” In 1874 wrote to the Most Honourable the Marquis of Salisbury, then Secretary for India, “Arakan has been under our Government for about fifty years, has an area of 18,529 square miles, over which it has not twenty miles of common road, its boundaries, not a hundred miles from the headquarters of the Commissioner, unknown, and altogether one of the most neglected though promising districts under the crown.” Sixteen years have since passed; it is still as neglected, and as now acknowledged by Government, its boundaries still “almost entirely unexplored,” and we took possession of the country in 1826! There is not another part of the empire that has been so treated.

I would now beg to say that I am financially in a position to undertake the exploration of this territory, and to repeat what I wrote under date 14^th February 1889: “That this work would have a wonderful effect cannot be doubted, and the possibility of its accomplishment of the country, the effects of the exploration, survey, and settlement of the district would have a salutary and permanent influence on the wild tribes, which are at present giving the Indian Government so much trouble,” “tending much to the development of Upper Burmah and its connection with India.” “This work would also further the Government scheme of emigrating the surplus population of Bengal into Burmah by a less circuitous route than that proposed via Assam,” and the shorter distance between our settled districts in Arakan and those in Upper Burmah (as hereinbefore shown) should have special attention when contrasted with the fact that the distance through unsettled and unexplored territory increases the more northerly the line is taken. The country to be explored is in shape like an egg, the base being in Arakan where that division joins with Upper Burmah.

With this I beg to hand copy of a letter I addressed on 17^th May 1889 to his Excellency the Viceroy, when I was informed that your lordship had given instructions for the correspondence I had had with your Office to be forwarded for the consideration of the Government of India. The influences there in referred to have been the chief cause which have so many years operated against the development of Arakan, and are still in operation, I believe as shown in the desire for a more northerly route than that I advocate being an attempt to force trade to Chittagong as under Bengal instead of its natural port Akyab, and ignoring the interests of Burmah and its claim on this trade. This is confirmed by Sir Theodore C.Hope, late Public Works member of the Governor-General’s Council, in a lecture before the Society of Arts, in the following works. (I would premise that the ‘Bengal influence’ has heretofore endeavoured to force trade to Calcutta, to the detriment even of its own port of Chittagong; but now, seeing this cannot be accomplished, the influence is so far relaxed as to endeavour to direct it to Chittagong, being still a part of Bengal – but to the detriment of Burmah, to which all this trade should and must ultimately come by its port Akyab). Sir Theodore Hope says: “Thus the territory to the eastward, and the entire province of Assam, are still entirely destitute of railway connection with the rest of India or their own seaport of Chittagong. A whole province is absolutely without opening up by railway. The country served by the port of Chittagong is some 19,000 square miles in area, with twice the population of Canada …. Chittagong (Questionable when the capabilities of Akyab are considered) is the natural outlet of these vast resources, although devoid of either rail or road to the interior. Its trade has grown from some 55 lakhs to 320 lakhs in the last twelve years, and all efforts to force the traffic to Calcutta are evidently destined to be futile.”

As supporting the views I have advanced, I would respectfully ask your attention to the opinions of two officers of the Government long connected with the province, in responsible positions opinions which I submit should carry weight. These are contained in letters, copies of which accompany this, addressed to me by the late Sir Edward Sladen, for some years Commissioner of Arakan, and General Alexander Fraser, C.B., R.E., formerly executive officer in Arakan, and Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of British Burmah in the Public Works Department and subsequently Secretary to the Government of India in the same department. Both these officers point strongly to the advantages to the Government to be gained by the proposed exploration and railway, Sir Edward Sladen saying, “It would millions to us strategically, and in an administrative sense also.” Neither of them realized the objections suggested by the Government, the importance of which, if existent, should have been known to them from their long and intimate connection with the province. In my letter of 30^th March 1889 I stated “that my scheme would be based on the system of grants of unoccupied culturable land along the line” (a system to which I was informed the Government of India were not opposed), “with a concession …. Not interfering with the rights of any of the tribes that may at present have their location in the range.

Should the views I entertain as to the expansion of the trade of Akayb by the railways proposed to terminate there, be fulfilled. I anticipate that in time there would be a requirement for the construction of docks at that port. My anticipations as to the development of Akyab extend to seeing it a great naval depot, which would form one of the best naval defences to the port of Calcutta (as pointed out in a letter to the Admiralty copy of which is enclosed), enabling Government, in case of need, to denude the lower provinces of India of all troops should their services be required on our north-western frontier and the railway to Mandalay extended on through the Shan States, would also be the means of securing the safety of our frontier Chinawards, and, should such be required at any time give aid to our ally, the Emperor of China, should his dominion be threatened. It may be said these are all very remote contingencies; they are, however, such as might occur, and my proposals would be a preparation for them.

In conclusion, I beg to ask your attention to a letter addressed to me by General Albert Fytche, C.S.I., formerly Chief Commissioner of Birth Burmah, and several officers who have held important positions in that province, in recommendation of my proposals, copy of which is enclosed. The original is also submitted for your lordship’s information, with the request that it may be returned to me. – I have the honour to be &c., &c.

Enclosures. – Copy of letter, J. Ogilvy Hay to his Excellence the Viceroy of India, dated 17^th May 1889. Copy letters from the late Sir E. B. Sladen and General A. Fraser B. E., C. B. Copy letter, J. Ogilvy Hay to the Director Naval intelligence Department of the Admiralty, dated 4^th February 1890. Copy of letter from General Fytche and others. Copy letter from the late Sir E.B. Sladen, Knight, Colonel (formerly resident at Mandalay, and in command of first expedition to Western China, late Commissioner of Arakan, and Chief Political Officer with the army in the late occupation of Burmah).

30 Lownes Square, 28^th May 1889.

My Dear Hay, - I am very glad indeed to hear that you are to the front again, and that your health has been so completely restored. I did receive the pamphlet you allude to, and would have acknowledged it had you given an address. As to your pet scheme. Now that we have Upper Burmah, I am more than inclined to side with you, and to say that a railway which would connect Akyab and Mandalay is most desirable commercially and strategically.