No. 481.
Mr. Halderman to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Bangkok , November 17, 1882. (Received January 15.)
Sir: It has transpired that several months since, King Theebaw, of Burmah, on invitation, sent an embassy to British India, charged with the mission of negotiating a new treaty.
A draft convention was submitted to the viceroy of India, and rumor says accepted in the main by the embassy, but the Mandalay Government, not satisfied with the turn things had taken, abruptly broke off the negotiations and ordered the return of the embassy.
King Theebaw, to whom lamb-like propensities are not ascribed, has taken a bold step in thus subjecting to further strain the delicate relations subsisting between his Government and that of India.
It is not yet known upon what points the refusal to agree to British terms was grounded, but it is believed that the collapse is owing to the British demand for an “armed residency” at Mandalay.
It is claimed that in the employment of this elastic phrase, armed residency,” the Indian Government had no political purpose, but having reason for a well-established fear that assassination might be attempted upon their envoy, or that the fury of a savage mob, incited by a bloodthirsty monarch, might lead to untoward results, they deemed this precaution necessary for the safety of their representative, and hence made it a sine qua non.
As opposed to this view it has been intimated that the object of insisting upon an “armed residency” is to establish at Mandalay a cantonment capable of imposing respect upon the braves of King Theebaw, and that if the Government of India has made up its mind to bring Upper Burmah into the system of the, British Empire, and compel its sovereign to acknowledge the suzerainty of the Queen-Empress, this is the most business-like way of attaining its end.
Lexicographers, less apt than Dr. Johnson, might define “armed residency “to mean domination thinly disguised.
A highly respectable English journal at Hong-Kong says: “Burmah is practically at the mercy of the Indian Government, and has so frequently [Page 755] given trouble that it is really marvelous that the country has not long since been converted into a presidency or province of the British Indian Empire. Moreover there are political reasons for such annexation.”
Burmah joins Siam on the west, and has an estimated population of three and one-half million, and an area of 200,000 square miles. The Kingdom has commercial treaties with Great Britain, France, and Italy, and is represented as a land flowing with milk and honey. Recent advices therefrom represent that outbreaks are becoming more frequent, but it is not stated whether such are incidents of vulgar dacoits or the beginning of a political uprising. The preparations for their suppression by the Mandalay Government indicate that they are considered as matters of some gravity.
In connection with this subject, I would report that within the last four weeks one of the royal princes of Burmah, Chowfa Cambajah Tahtah by name, rajah and governor of a province, and uncle to the present King, sought refuge in Siam from the alleged persecutions of his royal kinsman. He visited me at this legation and gave an interesting account of his perilous journey upon elephants and rafts, through jungle and water-way, from Rangoon to Bangkok.
Only a few days since he departed for lands nearer his own home, where, it is surmised, he may fit out an expedition, having for its object the dethronement of Theebaw, who, in the fear, or under the control of his royal spouse, rules the destination of Burmah with savage malignity.
It is further surmised that British influence will not discountenance the expedition.
If these conjectures be imbedded in truth, the next monsoon may bring us tidings that his royal highness Chowfa Cambajah Tahtah is battling for a throne; or, for life, in flight.
Meanwhile and in any event, reasons for readjusting frontier lines on Upper Irrawaddy and the western borders of Siam may become more cogent, as the months roll on, until, impelled by the ever-pressing necessity of squaring one’s farm from his neighbor’s rich acres—and by that other ultima ratio regum—the viceroy will throw his arms around Theebaw, his dominions, treasures, and monopolies, and incorporate one and all into Her Britannic Majesty’s Indian Empire.
I have, &c.,