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

There is no competing sea; there are no competing rivers. There are no roads, competing or other. All the traffic of twenty millions of people must pass over the iron roads, and if the roads are but cheap and the tariffs low, that traffic must pay. It is beginning to pay well even on roads built, at enormous expense for so poor a country, to carry, at twenty miles an hour, traffic which could just as advantageously have been carried at ten. The circumstances never were so advantageous. India is borrowing at 4 per cent. Parliament, appalled as it will yet be by this present famine, which will exceed in real magnitude any calamity of our time, will be just in the mood for a large plan. The Public Works Department, just organized up to its full strength, is about to lie idle at enormous cost. There are masses of labour to be had for bare food. And finally, all men are willing that a great scheme, a scheme which at least will secure that South India shall never again be cut off from food-supplies, shall be fairly tried, tried with Government and the people alike eager that it should succeed. Of the gain to commerce we say nothing, but it must be immense; for twenty millions of industrious, orderly, and submissive people would be enabled to communicate with each other as freely as if they were all inhabitants of the same city. Of the political gain we say little, for Madras, even as it is, is the easiest Presidency to govern, but the work of civilizing the country would be rendered a hundred times more easy. We content ourselves with maintaining that the Government could at a risk quite within the power of the Treasury to endure-a risk, too, of the most shadowy kind – place Southern India altogether beyond the worst risks of famine, bring its officers, and its supplies, and its power generally, within a hundred miles of the most remote village in the country, and make the future task, the universal provision of water by wells, tanks, and aqueducts, comparatively cheap and easy. That with such a system of feeders in existence the existing railways would at once become sources of a large revenue is a minor point, as is also the consideration that the military difficulty of South India, the cost and cumbrousness of transport, would be at an end. The single argument it is needful to press is, that for the safety of the population nothing is required but sufficient means of transporting food without reliance on animal labour, and that sufficient means can be provided, probably with advantage to the Treasury, but certainly without exhausting it: - Spcctator.

The ‘Friend’ on the ‘Spectator’s’ Views.

The ‘Spectator’ maintains that the prevention of famines in Southern India, though immensely difficult, is possible without sacrificing every object of Government to that of keeping the people alive. The writer dismisses the plan of laying up stores of grain for emergencies and the making of canals as too costly; but believes that the old native modes of irrigation, the formation of vast tanks, reservoirs, the method which made Tanjore a garden under native rule, could be pursued without inordinate expense; that the villagers could be pursued without inordinate expense; that the villagers could be taught to sink deep wells if the State would find the brick-work; and that artesian wells, on the plan adopted by General Daumas in Algeria, could be sunk without any ruinous outlay.

But the true remedy lies in a vast increase in the means of distribution. These means must be in India, as in the Western States of America, railways – railways built as lightly, as cheaply, and with as steep gradients as scientific knowledge will allow. There is not the slightest reason why they should be built for high speed. Ten miles an hour, the speed of an English gig, would be sufficient to take grain from the North west to Travancore in a week, as quickly as there is any necessity for carrying it, and ten times as quickly as it can now be carried. There is not the slightest need for wide gauge, on grand tunnels, or for stations better than sheds, or for rails of great weight, or for brick bridges, or for any attention to aesthetics. What is wanted is rough, safe, slow railways, fitted with the thinnest steel rails, and to be considered not as “engineering triumphs,” but the convenient makeshifts of overpressed poor law guardians. Such railways can be constructed for less than £5000 a mile, and will either prevent famine by allowing free traffic of grain everywhere, or enable the State easily to relieve distress when it comes.

We give prominence to these views as agreeing with them generally; but the course of this famine has impressed us otherwise as to the existence of Government reserves of food. Here is Agra starving, not because there is no food, but no means of controlling prices, so as to keep them below famine range. – Friend of India and Statesman.

Lord Derby On British and the adjoining Provinces being constituted into a separate Lieutenant Governorship.

‘ Arakan News,’ 13^th October 1877.

Some months age a suggestion was made in our columns that these provinces should be constituted a Crown colony, or at least a separate lieutenant-governorship, this last idea having originated with the present Earl of Derby when lord Stenley. Some of our contemporaries ridiculed at the time either idea and later the ‘Leader’ chaffed us on the subject. We knew that Lord Stanley had given utterance to the opinion expressed but had not beside us particulars of hid speech, or the occasion which called it forth. We believed it was at a general meeting of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and we accordingly wrote to the secretary of that body for information. We an happy to say that through the courtesy of that gentlemen meeting of the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and we accordingly wrote to the secretary of that body for information. We an happy to say that through the courtesy of that gentleman we are now in possession of the half-yearly report for 1864, when we find Lord Stanley was present at the half-yearly meeting of the Chamber, held on the 4^th August of that year. Among our extracts will be found Lord Stanley’s words; they were called forth by an allusion in the Report of the Council to a representation made to the Chamber by the Chamber of Commerce of Rangoon ( a body we believe now defunct ), on the defects of the courts of justice in the province. His lordship then said that this “part of India has not obtained in this country or at Calcutta the attention it deserves.” If his lordship has since given attention to the subject, or if he will now draw himself off for a moment of the country which he declared to have “a very great future.” He never made a truer declaration, and it remains true at this day; yet while this “great future” (This has yet to be looked for, fifteen years after the above was written, twenty-eight years after Lord Derby spoke. What will he say now to the “future” yet waited for?) is still to come, it must strike him and all intelligent administrators that it is derogatory to an enlightened Government that this development has yet to come. Thirteen years have passed since he spoke, and what has been done? True, the revenue of the province has expanded most marvelously, but that has not been from the extra attention bestowed on the province either from Calcutta or England, but from the sheer force of circumstances. The division of Pegu has developed itself, in fact it could hardly be kept back. True, money has been spent almost without stint on Pegu, to the detriment of the sister divisions; but how about its judicious disposal? Large sums have been laid out on embankments to reclaim land of which there is otherwise already abundance and to spare: in fact, more in the province than can possibly be cultivated for years to come, and this on the idea that some day this reclaimed land will give a fair return on the outlay. But during this past season the great inundations have committed sad have on the embankments, the repairs to which will walk pretty considerably into the chief engineer’s expected returns, and the continuous expense of keeping them up will be considerable. Then again the outlay on the Rangoon and Prome Railway; doubtless it will be a great benefit to the province, and being a step in the right direction, we will not say more against it than that it was not immediately wanted, and the money spent on it ought to have been laid out on other parts of the province where communications were essentially necessary – vide Arakan, which is destitute of any means of communication with adjoining countries except provided, and for which Arakan can say, No thanks to the Government of India!

Last week, is an article headed “Railways, the SINE QUA NON FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A COUNTRY,” we asked why the Chief Commissioner and the Commissioner of this division did not bestir themselves to devise some scheme for the development of this long-negelected country; and called upon them to be up and doing. Our opportunities of communication with Rangoon are so few and far between, as shown in another column; that our Call to the C.C. only left here by Wednesday’s steamer; and even if he should condescend to lend an ear to us, it may be weeks and months, and even years, as in the time that has already passed, before any attention is given to us. The system to Government here is radically wrong. Though our Commissioner should be ever so anxious to give a good account of his stewardship – though he should write volumes of reports, and send in numberless representations as to the wants of the province and the means by which these should be supplied, and his labours crowned by the development of the country – what more can he do? (See a former Commissioner’s opinion, “hopelessly,” p.9.) His hands are tied and his mouth sealed until higher authorities take it into their wise heads to act. Now, if Lord Derby would only lend an ear to us, and with the views formerly expressed, indoctrinate Lord Salisbury with the same, there might be some chance for us; but to expect anything from the Government of India is just out of the question. Their indifference to their responsibilities as regards this province are now quite a byword; and as long as the natural richness of the country gives a recenue, (Vide p.5.) which they unjustly carry off under the misnomer Imperial, the country may whistle for any action. Leaving alone Pegu and Tenasserim – the former of which has all the interest at headquarters, and the latter of which can fight for herself as well as we can, but for which we heartily give a cry, Do her justice also; - we beg and implore Lord Derby, and also Lord Salisbury, to lend an ear to our cry for development. The country is yearning for it, and this can only be effected, as we have repeatedly said before, by the IRON HOUSE. Our local revenue can well afford it. Then give us railways. Our population is scant, and it is not wealthy; for want of a railway the wealth that yearly comes into it from our rice-trade, is carried away to other countries by the migratory labour we are obliged to import from Chittagong and elsewhere, which profit by it. The railway will bring in population, will give us indigenous labour, and so retain our wealth in ourselves. Then, men of Arakan, bestir yourselves! Aid our humble endeavours to get justice done to your country, and inaugurate some definite scheme for the consideration of Government, which, if ignored here, will not be so in England, where you have more real friends than you are aware of, ready and willing to help, only waiting you to tell them how.

Why does not the chief engineer of these provinces visit this division and devise the means for its improvement, as the chief engineer of the North-West has just been doing in his charge? We close this by asking, Has the chief engineer of British Burmah ever visited Arakan – when, and how often, and how long age? But unless he is to do some real good, his traveling expenses had better be saved; we do not want visists Deckne Ka waste. We have had many such before now of heads of departments, but cui bono? We want visits to produce results.

Extract from the Speech of Lord Stanley (the present Earl of Derby).

As to the improvement of courts of justice at Rangoon. I think that that part of India has not obtained in this country or at Calcutta the attention it deserves. It is a country which, in my belief, has a very great future. I have lately seen people returned from it who speak of it as a territory offering a boundless field to commercial enterprise. It is more like a colony than any other part to India; it is thinly peopled; it is a country which has been very quiet; it is rather out of the way, and perhaps on that account it does not offer so many temptations to the most aspiring and able members of the civil and military services. I have long looked forward to the time, and I think it ought not to far distant, when all that large territory lying to the south-east of Calcutta – British Burmah and the adjoining provinces – shall be constituted into a more independent Government – into, at least, a separate lieutenant – governorship. That would involve a certain increase of expense, and that is of course a difficulty; that it would, I believe, remove some local causes of complaint, and would probably involve the establishment of such improved local courts of justice, as are mentioned in the report.

Extension of Railways and other Works of Utility in India with English Capital.

‘Arakan News’, 20^th October 1877.

‘Vanity Fair’ is right for once: “At a time when such lamentable accounts are reaching us from India, it is a relief to turn to some brighter phase of Indian progress. And such is supplied in the yearly report of the Indian railways, which are still making steady progress. We have for some time given up advancing money to foreign Governments of questionable solvency and honour. We would strongly recommend English capitalists now to turn their attention to India. Several high authorities have written to show those periodical famines might be averted if English capital was sent to aid Nature in distributing her bountiful gift over India; railways have done much to carry food from the rich to the barren lands, but we want many more canals, which would soon convert the latter into a rich and reliable food-producing country. This is not a work of charity, but one which will pay far better than most foreign loans.”

These opinions are gradually making way, and under the impulse of the present calamity of famine, the opponents of public works made with borrowed capital are being driven from their position. It needed the bitter experience through which the country of sound reason seemed capable of driving into timid minds. We heartily wish the time were come when it will be our part to urge caution rather than zeal upon Government in the prosecution of public work. But for years back caution in this respect has degenerated into timidity and weakness, and we shall be glad to see the birth of a little energy as one of the good fruits of the present suffering. – Friend of India.

Light Railways for Oudh.

The ‘Lucknow Times’ observes: “observes: “We are very glad, indeed, that the local government is taking a worthy initiative in endeavoring to supply a want which is annually making itself more and more felt in the province. We refer to the project for intersecting certain portions of Oudh with light railways, something similar in construction and plan to the Muttra Hathras line, and which can be quickly and yet substantially laid down and constructed without embarking in any excessive expenditure, which a regular railway system would necessarily involve. The question is now before the public in a practical and completely ship-shape form, and it mainly rests with our provincial capitalists, the territorial chiefs and great talukdars, and the trading and resident public generally, to decide whether a project of such unquestioned utility shall or shall not be undertaken. The local government will, of course, embark in the undertaking, and aid it by its contributions for the stock as well as guaranteeing the interest on the working capital contributed by the public; but as the Lieutenant-Governor and Chief Commissioner of these lines of light railways, that the people in the vicinity of the routes they take and the community at large should participate, both as subscribers and co-administrators, with the Government in their management, the successful carrying out of the scheme practically rests with the people of the province, and we hope our capitalists, large landed proprietors, and the trading body will not be unmindful of the duties devolving upon them in the matter.

Gya State Railway.

We publish below the Government circular about the Gya State Railway loan. The circular, as will be found, is date 30^th September 1876.

From G.A.D. Anley, Esq., C.E., Off. Asst. Seey. To the Govt of Bengal in P.W. Department, to the Commissioner of the Patna Division, P.W.D.

Fort William, the 30^th September 1876.

Sir, - With reference to your letter No. 247 F., dated 7^th January last, I am directed to state that his Honour the Lieutenant-Governor takes great interest in the proposed railroad between Patna and Gya, and is most desirous of seeing the project taken in hand.

2. The Director of State Railways was accordingly addresses on the receipt of your letter, previous to submitting a further Director’s views on Mr Campbell’s report. The Director has not, however, yet replied to the reference.

3. Under the circumstances of financial embarrassment which have lately formed the subject of a special resolution by the Government of India, the Lieutenant-Governor cannot now apply to that Government for a loan for carrying out this important work, and it remains to be seen in what manner funds can be provided for the object in view.

4. His Honour will be glad to receive any suggestions which you may have to offer, and I am also to inquire whether the capital necessary for the railroad could be raised in the districts of Gya and Patna by loans on some such terms as these:-

5. The shares to be Rs.100 each, bearing interest (guaranteed by Government) of 4 per cent per annum, payable half-yearly any one year exceed 4 per cent on the guaranteed capital, the surplus to be equally divided between Government and the shareholders. Shares to be transferable by holders.

6. Whenever the work, rolling stock, and appurtenances shall be complete to the extent provided for by the designs and estimates sanctioned by the Government for the scheme, the capital account should be closed and fixed, and thereafter all additions (not being extension to the length of the railway), alterations, renewals, and maintenance shall be paid for out of the earning of the railway.

7. By mutual agreement between the Government and the subscribers, the capital subscribed might be repaid at any time; but unless such agreement be made, the Government would hold the subscribed capital for a period of not less than ten years. At the expiration of ten years, the Government would have the option of paying off the subscribed capital at any time and taking possession of the branch line, one year’s previous notice of such intention being given.