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Relations with Tributary States and Frontier Affairs |
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The conduct of the Semas under the political control of the Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills was good. There were the usual land disputes, leading to petty squabbles and assaults, but no serious crime. Two of the participators in the Natami raid reported in paragraph 60 of the report for 1899-1900, were arrested and sentenced each to seven years' rigorous imprisonment. During the tour of the Deputy Commissioner, Naga Hills, in the Sema political control area, he found that six of te raiders of that occasion had been living openly at Natami, which had been rebuilt against orders. He accordingly destroyed the village again. He also visited the village of Saghami and caused the villagers to break down the houses of three men of that village, who murdered at Tessephima trader in 1899. The conduct of the Semas beyond the area of political control was not quite so satisfactory. The Yachumi Chiefs, who were mentioned in last year's report as having visited Kohima, were ambuscaded on their return journey by Yehimi people, who lay in wait, intending to kill them, nut, hearing from people of Seromi that their intended victims had received handsome presents at Kohima, appear to have been so impressed that they feasted them instead. In March 1902, Yekashe's village and Lovishe's village, both in the Tizu Valley, had a fight over land, two men of the former being killed and four wounded. During his tour through the Sema political control area in May 1902, the Deputy Commissioner was appealed to settle several land disputes beyond the area of political control. The Deputy Commissioner, Major Woods, proposed that the limit of political control should be extended up to the Tizu, but, after considering all the circumstances, the Chief Commissioner was not prepared to recommend such an extension to the Government of India. A fight subsequently occurred between tow of the contending willages, Lhoshiapu's and Inato's, in which five men were killed on one side and three on the other. Eventually, the Deputy Commissioner allowed Khupu, his head Sema dobhasha, and Ghukia and Khukia, tow of the principal chiefs subject to British control, to go across the border and settle the dispute, explaining carefully that this in no way made Government responsible for enforcing the decision of the arbitrators. The panchayat was held, and Khupu reported that the disputed land had been divided between the parties, each of whom swore not to molest the other, unless first attacked. A party of Sema Chiefs, among them the sons of Lhoshiapu and Sakhai from across the border, went with the Deputy Commissioner to Manipur during the Viceroy'a visit. |
