QUEER INCIDENTS

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXI, Issue 8835, 21 October 1942, Page 1

QUEER INCIDENTS

REMOTE PARTS OF ASIA VERY FEROCIOUS CLAN ADVENTURES IN UPPER BURMA Just before the Japanese entered Rangoon the writer of the following article, David Maurice, then employed by Imperial Chemical Industries, assisted a Russian expert to destroy industrial installations.' He then joined the expeditionary forces at Mandalay as a captain of transport. Below, he describes' his journey from Mandalay to Calcutta. On leaving Mandalay, I took with me two Chinese families who had 'been bombed out and they did the cooking for me on the way. On April 17 we reached the entrance to the defile where the river runs through a steep gorge, at times between two mighty walls of rock. We stayed several days at the entrance to the defile waiting for the water to fall. We had stopped near a Kashin village and the natives had probably heard rumours of a war, but they had certainly never before seen more than one boat at a time. Natives’ Queer Axes They evidently spied on us, because next day a few lone scouts appeared and, on a walk, I ran into two or three lads chopping wood. I sat down and, although they went away, three reappeared and one started cutting down a small tree. They have a peculiar axe like a small hoe and make a slanting cut down and a wonderfully smooth and straight cut across, forming an acute angle. I took the axe and chopped a bit over and underarm, rather a bad parody on the way we cut down trees. When I looked up they’d disappeared, but soon returned with him the village. They all went into fits of laughter at my work. A Ferocious Child

I also went further afield and visited another village. I’d never heal’d of these people before. Their customs are different from those of the Shans, Kachin, and the Burmese, who live, nearby, though they now intermarry with the other tribes to some extent. They are more long-limbed than the other hill people and quite handsome. Some of the women are beautiful. In the house I visited I saw a girl of about 19 perfect in face and figure. These people have very sharp I ; , mu, swords, about two feet long. Ihe brothel . a kid of eight ° r “ ne - have thought I stared too hard, for he made a lunge at me with a spear and would have got home only it was too long for him. T family threw him out of the room. and his father, who. could speak Burmese, said, “Oh, he’s like that, he once cracked open the head of one of his playmates with a sword.” Nice child! He sidled into the room again, and I tried all my charm on

him, and itls the only time I’ve failed to win a child. On leaving he followed me and made another lunge with the spear, and, when I grabbed it, he let go and ran at me with a sword he’d picked up. I had to shoot him or flee, so I ran back to the village for sanctuary. 'His father gave him a perfunctory sort of slap and sent a bodyguard with me to the boat in case he broke out again.

After that I quite believe their story of the origin of the race. It appears that a few hundred years ago, from a certain district in China, the Emperor brought some 25 families who were skilled in the work to look after the royal elephants. They were a proud people and not even the Emperor himself could obtain one of their women. They were also clannish and would suffer any torture rather than' hurt one of the clan. The Emperor was the proud possessor of a sacred white elephant, without blemish and he therefore enjoyed the favour of the gods.

One day in a fit of caprice or temper, a boy of 9 cut off the tail of the sacred white elephant. The clan realised that an immediate flight was the only alternative to being boiled in oil. That night they set out and travelled for months till they came to the wild and inaccessible country on the banks of the defile, where they felt themselves safe.

On May 3 I reached Myitkyina in the later afternoon, and found, to my horror, that 'Bhamo had just fallen and everything was in a flat spin. Our troops were retreating and pilirn? up at Waingmaw, three miles -below and across the river, while there were about 2000-odd Chinese waiting to go the other way, where there was a mule track into Yunnan, China. We reached a big village named Sailow, and the Japanese bombed it just as we left next day and later we reached another big village, Sadon, where we did not stay, being afraid of bombing. Sure enough, next morning we heard it bombed. My group were a little band of engineers and carpenters who stayed behind to salve instruments and see their folk .well started off. Once we got on the road we travelled faster than the others and passed most of the women and children. Entomologist’s Paradise All this country, as well as the defile country, is an entonfologist’s dream of Paradise. There are all kinds of bugs and butterflies and I think it is unexplored orchid country. On May 11 we reached Kanbardee. A passing detachment of the Chinese Army had shot a pig.- We ate what they didn’t use and there’s not much of a pig that the Chinese Army leaves. Next day we reached Kooyong or Kuyuan, in China, and found that the Chinese Government had sent free rice which the villages had ready cooked for us.

We set out again for Tengyuah. On nearing Tengyuah we heard that the Japanese were there, only five miles away from us. We retraced our steps and went round in a wide