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Arakan: - One Who Preserves and Takes Care of Their Own Nationality. |
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Publication by Arakan Action Association (AAA.) |
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Arakan Past – Present – Future |
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BY JOHN OGILVY HAY, J.P. |
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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.
Copyright © 2007 Arakan Libray All Rights Reserved. Free counter, Since 2005.
Arakan Action Association (AAA) Chotana Road , Chaing Mai ( 50301 ), Thailand. Email : arakanactionassociation@walla.com , +66—089-637-4383, +66—053-409-577 |
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10) These views were placed before the Marquis of Salisbury, then Secretary for India, in letters dated 18th and 27th August 1874, extracts from which are attached, and which I would ask you to consider in this connection. These letters were, of course, written under circumstances which here been completely changed by the taking of Upper Burmah and the increase of population in Bengal, as it is now seen that our own teeming population should be sent to Burmah (instead of importing Chinese settlers, as then thought to be required), and for this purpose the shortest route should be selected for a railway. Being specially important, however, I here give the summing up of letter of 18th August 1874: “It may be a long look for the fulfillment of this idea, but it is one which must be followed out; and the sooner steps are taken in the direction indicated, and encouragement given to private enterprise, the sooner will the fruit be reaped – such fruit being the increase of revenue, and the spread of what should be the civilizing influences of our rule over the savage tribes on our borders. These views were continuously brought to the notice of the anthorities in India, including Governor-Generals, Lieutenant-Governors of Bengal, and Chief Commissioners of Burmah, from their first publication up to 1878, when illness obliged me to cease my labours for a time and leave India. I would further remark that, in 1888, the attention of Lord Salisbury was called to the communications made to him in 1874. At the same time the present Secretary of State for India, Lord Cross’s, attention was directed to the subject, and copies of these letters were sent to the Marquis of Lansdowne, who had then received the appointment of Governor-General of India. Had attention even then been given, there might have been no Munneepore disaster; at all events, many other lives might have been saved which have been sacrificed in various expeditions to punish the wild tribes. As mentioned by Sir Richard Temple in his paper in the ‘New Review’: “Fortunately it happens that the Government of India have already got a scheme for connecting Assam-that is, the upper valley of the Brahmapootra – with the eastern shore of the Bay of Bengal,” a connection which should have been made years ago, but still hangs fire, the final arrangements for its construction not yet having been completed. Sir Richard goes on to say: “And Chittagong, already a growing port, will be the emporium for much produce that has hitherto gone to Calcutta.” In this I entirely disagree, and give expression to my view by the following extract from a letter addressed to his Excellency the Viceroy, dated 17th May 1889, when I advocated the comparative merits of the port of Akyab over those of Chittagong. In conclusion, I wold ask of you your powerful advocacy of the views here given – viz., that the railway, the line of which has already been surveyed from Debroghur, in the north of Assam, to Chittagong, should be extended to Akyab; that connection should be made between Akyab and Mandalay; and that the construction of the railway from Mandalay to the borders of China (already surveyed) should be undertaken without delay. This letter will fulfil the long and oft-repeated cry of our manufacturers for the development of trade with Western China, and all the proposals combined will not only develop that trade and the trade of Eastern Bengal and Burmah, but will be the sure solution of our frontier troubles, to discuss which the conference is now about to be held in Calcutta. – I am, &c., &c. A writer in the ‘Manchester Guardian,’ in a letter dated 11th January 1890, said: “If, acting upon the suggestions of travelers in the country, the activity of the Indian Government in sanctioning the preliminary survey (now in progress) is an earnest of what is to follow, a couple of years hence may see the ‘iron horse’ pursuing its journey discussion on the subject for the past fifty years to a happy consummation.”Yes, so it might have been. Government began well, but how have they proceeded? A survey was made (though not quite complete), and a report of it was published showing that the route was very feasible, and would not be very difficult or expensive; but after one year’s work the survey and all connected with it was suspended, the following paragraph appearing in the Provincial Administration Report of 1889-90: “Under the orders of the Government of India, this work has been discontinued before a definite result could be arrived at” – why this action, deponent sayeth not, - the reason unknown to the local government, which was strongly in its favour; and its resumption is only to commence in the cold weather of 1892-93. There is a lukewarmness about this work which is most amazing to the outside world, as undoubtedly the development of the country is retarded, and a certain expansion of trade for our manufactures delayed and obstructed. The ‘Manchester Courier’ thus writes on 30th January 1890: “In one province of China alone, within easy reach by rail from Burmah, if only the railway was laid there, is a population so vast and wealthy as capable of absorbing a very large part of the trade of Lancashire, if means of communication were opened up.” This is what is wanted. The millions of people in the Shan States, in Yunnan, and in other parts of China, would become willing purchasers of our goods, if only they could be brought to them. What, then, is the difficulty? If such a almost incalculable advantages are to spring from the construction of a few miles of railway, how is it that the railway is not made?
Letter to his Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. 22nd Jan 1892. I last addressed your Excellency on the 8th January 1892. In a previous letter, under date 18th December 1891, I forwarded copy of a letter I addressed to the Secretary of State for India of 8th idem. I now beg to wait on you with his reply, by which I understand that the whole matter rests with your Excellency’s Government. Under another cover I forward for your Excellency’s acceptance copy of a map which I had published by Stanford of Charing Cross in 1875, showing proposals for lines of railway to develop and civilize our possessions to the east of the Brahmapootra; and in view of the conference soon to be held under the orders of the Government of India for the discussion of frontier matters, I ask you respectfully to consider the views I endeavoured to express by that map. Last week I took the liberty of addressing a telegram to his Honour the Lieutenat Governor of Bengal, asking him respectfully to submit to your Excellency in Council a letter which I addressed to him on the 3rd July 1891, to which I would also ask your careful attention. I am prepared to undertake the formation of the “Corporation,” of which I then gave a sketch, the carrying out of which, I humbly consider, would be a “sure solution of our frontier troubles.” – I have the honour to be, &c., &c.
Copy of Telegram to his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal. London, 15th January 1892. Re Chin conference. Kindly submit my letter, 3rd July, respectfully to attention Viceroy in Council. Prepared undertake whole. Sure solution frontier troubles. – Hay.
Acknowledgement. No. 298 R.C., Gov. of India, P.W.D., Railway Construction. Calcutta, 15th March 1892. Sir, - I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letters, dated 8th and 22nd January 1892 respectively, to the address of his Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General, with which you enclosed copies of further correspondence with the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for India in connection with certain proposals submitted by you for extending the railway system in Burmah eastwards to the China frontier, together with a map illustrating these proposals. I am to inform you that since P.W.D. letter No. 69 R.C., dated 18th January 1892, was written in answer to your letters, dated 28th October and 14th November and 18th December 1891, the Government of India has received from the Secretary of State copies of the communications marginally noted. (Letter from the India Office to Mr J. Q. Hay, No. P.W. 2112, dated 2nd Dec 1891.) With reference to this correspondence, I am to say that pending the results of the detailed survey through the Shan States to Kun-Long Ferry on the Salween river, which will be undertaken, as intimated to you, by the Secretary of State, his Excellency the Governor-General in Council considers that it would be premature to further discuss any proposals for constructing a railway in that direction. It is intended that the survey in question shall be set in hand next cold weather. – I have the honour, &c., &c. J. G. Forbes, Col. R.E., Secretary. J. Ogilvy Hay, Esq.
From an Indian Official. 27th Jan 1892. “It is understood to be quite decided that in the present state of the country the Government will keep railway business in its own hands. Private enterprise may doubtless come in a little later.” Note. – How does the above agree with the Viceroy’s declaration and the views of the Secretary of State as to encouraging Private Enterprise?
Letter to the Right Honourable the Secretary of State for India. 5th Feb 1892. I have had the honour to receive Mr Secretary Curzon’s letter, P.W. 2384, of 14th January 1892, by which I am informed that all my communications on the subject of railway extension in Burmah towards the China frontier have been forwarded to the Government of India, with whom, therefore, address his Excellency the Viceroy in Council. Having been informed that your lordship has completed arrangements for the construction of the Assam-Chittagong Railway with a company about to be brought before the public, I take leave again to ask your attention to the question of the connection between Upper Burmah and the division of Arakan, with extension towards India as far as the river Megna. In my letter (No. 10) of 2nd January 1891 I wrote your lordship very fully as to this connection, and respectfully beg your special reference to that letter. Since then an expedition was dispatched from “Minbu, in Upper Burmah, via the Aeng Pass, under charge of Lieutenant Walker, 1st Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry, attaché of the Intelligence Department, which returned in the direction of the ‘Sawbwas’ route to Laungshe.” The report of this expedition clearly shows that either route is feasible and practicable; the comparative advantages of the one over the other would be the cost of bridging creeks as against tunnelling. Of the one route he says: “Were it opened and cleared, it would be an excellent, easy, and short means of communicating between Arakan and Burmah. The Taungmin of Kindwe remarked ‘that we had done well in coming across by this route, and would do a great deal of good by doing so. The Kindwe people would dearly like to see a brisk trade between Arakan and Burmah, passing by this route; while Laungshe, twenty-eight miles further east, would revive and become what it once was before, a thriving town.’ This is said of the Sawbwas route.” Of the other route, via the Aeng, he says: “The distance over the pass is short, and the wide plains of Arakan merely require the creeks to be bridged. It is superfluous to point out the impetus trade would receive by the construction of a railway along this route, and unnecessary to draw attention to the present tedious journey which is involved in going from the Irrawaddy into Arakan. There would be established the means of communication that is, or will be, ultimately aimed at in every undertaking in this country which deals with roads and communications.” As regards the state of the country Lieutenant Walker remarks: “The whole country is perfectly quiet. Indeed I might have traveled the whole way over by myself, and have dispensed with my escort of fifteen men,” so there would be no trouble with the people. This report confirms the view I have all along held that the connection between Burmah and Arakan is absolutely necessary, not only for opening up the country, but also as the highway between Burmah and India, and the highway for immigration from Bengal to Burmah. For the prosecution of this work a more thorough survey, however, is necessary, and I would now repeat what I said in my letter of 2nd January 1891 before referred to that I am financially in a position to undertake the exploration of this territory, and shall be pleased to learn that your Government is willing to enter on negotiations on the proposals I have already made, or is prepared to state on what terms a workable arrangement can be arrived at, in the interest of the country and the general commerce of the empire. In Mr Secretary Walpore’s letter, P.W. 19, of 21st January 1891, I am informed “that it must be left to the Government of India to determine what should be done as regards the exploration” proposed. I would therefore ask that this communication should be forwarded to India as early as possible. As I have said, I am prepared financially to undertake it, and to provide a staff of surveyors or to employ those of the Government, and the work could be arranged to commence on the cessation of the coming rains. The merchants of Akyab are very pressing as to the necessity for developing their district, which, except for the rice-trade, has lain fallow for the last sixty years. Seeing the step taken for opening up Assam and contiguous districts, they will be more pressing that their district should not longer remain isolated and without land communication with adjoining countries. – I have the honour to be, &c., &c.
Letter to the Secretary of State for India. 5th February 1892. Late telegrams from Calcutta announce that the conference on the Chin-Lushai frontier matters has been held and their report sent in to the Government. It is believed that their recommendations tend towards the prosecution of roads and railways for opening up the country where we have hitherto had so much trouble with the tribes. With this information before me, I take leave to offer for your lordship’s acceptance copy of a map which I had prepared in the year 1875 (referred to in my letter No.2 of 14th February 1889, to which I would ask attention), showing my views then as to the development of our Eastern provinces; these views were also placed before the Secretary of State for India in a letter dated 18th August 1874. Unfortunately they were not entertained, or the expenditure of much life and treasure might have been saved, as subsequent events have proved. As my late correspondence with your lordship shows, my views remain unchanged, and I am glad to think they are now being gradually realized by the action of your Government, notably in the arrangements which it is understood have just been concluded for the Assam and Chittagong Railway, which I had at one time hoped to have embraced in a large scheme covering all Eastern Bengal and Burmah; but I trust my proposals separately submitted to your lordship for carrying out the rest may be favourably received. – I have the honour to be, &c., &c. Reply. India Office, Whitehall, S.W. 23rd Feb, 1892. P.W. 218. Sir, - I am directed to acknowledge and thank you for your letter dated the 2nd [5th?] February 1892, in respect to railway extension between India and Burmah, and I am to state in reply that copies of the communications in question have, in accordance with your request, been transmitted to the Government of India. – I am, &c., Horace Walpore. J. Ogilvy Hay, Esq.
Letter to his Excellency the Viceroy and Governor-General of India. 5th February 1892. I had the honour to address your Excellency on the 22nd January 1892, when I informed you that I had by telegram asked his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal to submit to your Excellency in Council certain proposals I brought before him for the purpose of settling and developing our Far East provinces. Since then it has been rumoured that arrangements have been made for a company to undertake the construction of the railway from Assam to Chittagong, with certain officers of Government on the board of direction. It is evident that with such competitors in the field I could have no chance. This part of my scheme having gone past me, but showing the desire of the Government to carry out their declared policy of “encouraging private enterprise,” I am the more hopeful that my remaining proposals my be taken into your Excellency’s favourable consideration. With this view I have addressed a letter to the Secretary of State, of which I beg to enclose copy. I there offer to explore the country between Upper Burmah and Arakan, and have the whole line surveyed for connecting Burmah with India through Arakan as far as the river Megna, and this, joining with the Assam-Chittagong line, would carry through the whole scheme, and, as I said in my last, be the sure solution of our frontier troubles. It would also promote immigration from Bengal to Burmah, so much desired. Circumstances have very much changed since my letters of 14th February 1889 and 30th March 1889, which, by your Secretary’s letter of 15th July 1889, I was informed had been referred by the Secretary of State for the consideration of the Government of India. The explorations made by Lieutenants Rainey and Walker of the Intelligence Department in seasons 1889, 1890, and 1891, clearly show that the farther north a line is taken from Mandalay westward, the longer the distance and the greater the difficulties; while I believe a thorough survey, such as I propose, would reveal a comparatively easy country, and one also capable of development to some purpose. Lieutenant Walker’s report also shows that the people in the intervening territory are quiet and amenable to authority, which, considerately though firmly administered, they are prepared to submit to. Under these circumstances I respectfully ask that my proposals may be favourably entertained, and a modus operandi effected. – I have the honour to be, &c., &c. Reply. Government House, Calcutta, 27th Feb 1892. Sir, - I am directed by the Viceroy to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 5th instant with enclosures, relating to your proposal to undertake the exploration of the country between Burmah and Arakan with a view to railway construction. The matter will receive his Excellency’s consideration. – Yours Faithfully, J.C. Ardagh, Colonel, Priv. Scc. J. Ogilvy Hay, Esq. |