Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/360

 352J FOEEIGN HISTOEY. [1899.

Bunnah. — Peace and prosperity reigned in almost every district during the year and the organised gangs of dacoits were dispersed. The Government continued renewing the expiring leases for working the forests instead of assuming the work.

The demarcation of the southern section of the Burmo- Chinese frontier was completed in May, and in October the final delimitation for the season was accomplished. The frontier from the river Namyang runs due east, adding to the northern Shan States several hundred square miles more than was given by the line laid down by the agreement of 1897.

A good railway route from Yung-chang-fu to Yin-chau, near Shunning-fu, was discovered, rendering railway connection practicable between Bunnah and the Chinese province of Yunnan.

A chief court of justice for Lower Bunnah, consisting of a chief and three associate judges, was recommended by the Government in August.

At the close of the year the construction of the Bassein- Henzada Eailway was about to begin, and also the survey of the Pegu-Moulmein line.

It was announced that 2,020,881 tons of rice were this year available for export from Bunnah.

Bombay. — The Hon. Sir Henry Stafford Northcote, baronet, was appointed in November to be Governor of Bombay in succession to Lord Sandhurst, on the expiration of his term of office in February, 1900.

The native editor of a Marathi newspaper, the Gurakki, published at Bombay, was sentenced in June to six months' imprisonment for publishing in March in that paper a series of seditious articles, which were a direct incitement to rebellion.

A great sensation was caused at Poona on February 8 by the assassination of the brothers Dravid, the informers through whose evidence Damodar Chapekar was convicted of the murder of Mr. Eand and Lieutenant Ayerst in June, 1897. The Dravids were enticed from their house and shot. While several members of a club formed by Damodar Chapekar were being examined at the police station, the youngest brother of Damodar fired a revolver at the native chief constable, boasted that he had killed the brothers Dravid, and declared that Eanade, a Brahmin, who had been anested on suspicion, was his accomplice. In March Balkrishna Chapekar, Vasudeo Chapekar and Eanade were found guilty of the murder of Lieutenant Ayerst and Mr. Eand, and sentenced to death. Vasudeo and Eanade were previously convicted of the murder of the brothers Dravid.

In October the Bombay millowners decided to run their cotton mills only four days per week on account of the depres- sion caused by the failure of the Indian cotton crop, the low price of yarn, and the glut in the Chinese marke^ (