Evening journal., 1897-01-08
DACOITS OF BURMA.
THOUGH SOMEWHAT CHANGED THEY
STILL EXIST TO PLUMBER.


ing and DO Not often Capture One OF
the Dacoits-A sample Case Of the Incf
nciency of the Police Omccrs.
Burma is one Of the countries that
are changing very fast. and one Of the
things that have changed in Burma is
the ducoit The sportive gentlemen de-
scribed by Rudyard Kipling and others
who crucified villagers wholesale and /
filled old ladies with kerosene were .
flourishing in full vigor less than ten .
years ago, but they already belong as .
completely to the past as Dick Turpin /
and his colleagues in England. No doubt
n fresh war or any event seriously shak |
ing the British power or reputation /
might produce a recrudescence of the old |
disease, but in the meantime the daooits /
have entirely changed their habits. IN
stead of living together in bands in the
jungle they are scattered through sepa-
rate villages i'll the guise Of peaceful |
cultivators During the day each man
attends to his paddy fields just like his
neighbors, and il is only at night that
they meet together for the dispatch of
their more important and lucrative bust
ness.
Dacoity as defined by law is simply
robbery committed by band Of five
men or more, and it is important only
because of the Burman's strong natural
propensity toward it and the great diff
culties which his national character
places in the way of his detection. IL
must always be remembered that Bur-
ma being III a transition stage and
much less settled than India and the
government being extremely short hand
ed, an immense amount Of various kinds
of work falls upon each single English
/ official Hence it is wholly impossible
for him to exercise any close or detailed
/ supervision over any particular part of
/ his district. This of itself renders the
detection OF criminals difficult mat
ter When the dacoits were in the woods,
it was simply a case Of turning out oc-
casionally to hunt them down. AT pres
ent the matter must necessarily be left
chiefly in the hands of natives.
Now, the natives are for the most
part honest and tolerably law abiding,
and they have no sympathy whatever
with man who goes dacoiting, but the
dacoit goes armed, and the supinenels
and cowardice of the Burman in the
presence of arms, more particularly Of
firearms, are something almost incom-
prehensible to the western mind 1t is
quite sufficient for party of half dozen
men to have a gun among them-eifect-
i've or useless, loaded or empty, matters
little, the mere show is enough-and
they may go fearlessly to work in the
midst of a crowd. No one will interfere
with them. In more than one instance
bold robbers have made successful at
tacks when armed merely with their
dabs-the dagger which every Burman
} carries-and with pretended rife made
J of a stick, with which they frightened
OF all opposition.
But perhaps the strange workings Of
the native character are best exhibited
in the following case, which occurred
quite recently. The facts are vouched
for by an English officer: There was q
+ band Of five men who were in the habit
of practicing dacoity occasionally Three
of them came from the same village
/ not a common thing. as it makes detec-
tion easier-the fourth from another
village, and, as for the fifth, no man
S knows whence he came, for reasons that
S will appear. One night those five men,
e armed with nothing but their knives
and spears, which are used for fishing
in lower Burma, entered "A house, tied
up the owner and began plundering.
Now, this house was in a large village,
containing not only a population Of
- some 400, but police post with 10
# native policemen armed with sniders.
e The alarm was given and the house
= surrounded. and then there was pause.
The robbers continued their work undis
: turbed within. The villagers, some 20C
or 800 ahlebodied men, all more or lesi
B. armed, sat around OH the dam which
&. surrounds and protects every house OF
e the delta looked down on the house anC
o discussed the question. The police stooC
s rather nearer the house and fired shot
Z INTO it through the bamboo walls, hurt
y ing no one.
~ One solitary policeman after tlm'
]. volunteered TO advance. He crept M
" quite close to the house and fired il
n through an opening in the wall. Thel
he went farther ard actually pat hi
- head and part Of his body through th'
~ hole, apparently to see what execution
y he had dono One OF the robbers prompt
" ly pinned him TO the ground with a iisl
IS spear and killed him. by this time the.
Al had completed their preparations; 81
IS they sailed forth, each man with Ii
At pack Of plumber on his back. Thougl
" the house was surrounded, they appea
g to have had no difficulty in makinI
!, their way through, only the police fro
after thcm with buckshot and Int thIe
re- OF them in the back, not seriousl
1f wounding them. But one Of the ban
m had the misfortune TO stumble and fall
IN Instantly the crowd rushed upon him
l- and before he could rise literally hacke
him TO pieces, and so effectively tha
le not the slightest clew to his identit
m remained. He was absolutely destroyed
y. No one knows even what was his na
b. tionality. The other four got olea