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punishment of villages across the Dikhu river |
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Relations with Tributary States and Frontier Affairs |
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In view of the difficulty of adequately protecting the Aos in future, without permanently maintaining a garrison at Mongsemdi, or elsewhere in their midst, and of the fact that many of the leading Ao villages had during Mr. McCabe's tour petitioned for their incorporation in British territory, sanction was asked for and obtained from the Government of India to the inclusion within the settled district of the whole cis-Dikhu tract. Accordingly, on return of the Mazung expedition, Mr. A.W. Davis, Assistant-Commissioner, remained in the Ao country to settle it and count the houses for its future assessment. This work had been almost completed by the middle of March when the Deputy-Commissioner paid his fourth visit to the Ao country. It had then been finally decided by the Chief Commissioner that the rate of assessment should be Rs.2 per house and on the 4th April 1889, at an assembly of the headmen of almost every village taken over, the Deputy-Commissioner formally announced the incorporation of the cis-Dikhu territory in the Naga Hills district and made it known that revenue at the rate of Rs.2 per house would in future be collected from all villages within it. It was also announced that for the three months January to March 1889, during which the Ao villages had been under direct British administration, As.8 per house would be levied at once. The whole demand on this account, amounting to Rs.3,539, was collected by Mr. Davis before the end of May 1889. During the Deputy-Commissioner's tour, in March 1889, a new outpost at Tamlu with a garrison of 30 men was established and a site near the village of Mokok-chung was finally approved at the headquarters station for the new sub-division to be formed in the Ao country. The Mongsemdi outpost was retained with a diminished garrison of 25 men. |
