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Relations with frontier tribes |
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Relations with Tributary States and Foreign Affairs |
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Government of India do not agree to further extension of Naga Hills District but will permit tours into trans-frontier area to put down feuds |
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During the year the Chief Commissioner addressed the Government of India on the subject of the policy to be pursued in dealing with Naga tribes residing outside the boundaries of the Naga Hills district. Mr. McCabe was of opinion that the same control should be exercised by him over these tribes as was exercised over the Angami and Lhota tribes residing within the Naga Hills district; and with this view he recommended the establishment of a permanent outpost in the heart of the Ao or Hatiguria country lying to the west of Wokha. The Chief Commissioner was unable to recommend these proposals to the Government of India, as they practically amounted to annexing the area of political control indicated by Mr. McCabe to the Naga Hills district, a step which is not yet called for, and which would moreover involve an additional expenditure scarcely warranted by the circumstances of the case. As the main object of requiring the Deputy-Commissioner to exercise political control over these trans-frontier tribes is to check their practice of raiding on each other, and to prevent their turbulence boiling over into the plains, the Chief Commissioner considered that this object could be sufficiently attained by requiring the Deputy-Commissioner of Kohima to make annual promenades with a force of frontier police through the trans-frontier area which it might be found expedient to bring under our control, besides making special expeditions, when necessary, for the punishment of refractory villages. These views were approved by the Government of India and the limits of the new trans-frontier area of political control to be assigned to the Deputy-Commissioner of the Naga Hills were defined. This area now lies between the Dikhu river and the eastern boundary of the Naga Hills district. It includes the bulk of the Hatiguria Nagas, a very inferior and unwarlike race, and a good many Sema and Eastern Angami villages. The policy to be pursued by the Deputy-Commissioner in controlling this area has also for the first time been clearly laid down, and distinguished from that followed by him within the limits of his proper district. |
