| caption: |
destruction of Choknyu and Hunkong |
| text: |
5. Choknyu and Hunkong were burnt before my own eyes. - 27 morning - a day of sullen yellowish clouds - mist filled the valleys - at 7 I was suddenly called out - a great column of smoke was rising and I could see the flames creeping - full of shame - from house to house - about an hour later Hunkong went up and another great column rose into the grey and waterish sky - after that the scarlet orange flames went out and the smoke blended with the clouds. Even now any Konyak would gladly carry a load and feed himself for a month to get a share in a head. |
| text: |
6. Disarming the villages without giving them any protection - all of us who saw it were filled with shame and horror - ? had warned Choknyu that unless they [] they would burn the village. We ourselves had deprived Choknyu of 50 guns because of a petty head-taking attack on Longmein. It was with a sense of guilt that we saw the village burnt - We knew that the burning was only the climax of the raid and that a number of grisly headless corpses must be lying in or about the village - We saw the smoke and the flames with a sense of impotent shame. We were forbidden to cross the frontier without the D.C's orders - We were unable to send a party hotly in pursuit - All we could do was to watch in abject horror - We ourselves had created this situation - It was we who were responsible for those headless bodies. |
