F. W. R. Fryer

“ Apart from the value to the Empire of a province possessing the resources and natural wealth of Burma, it may be confidently asserted that British rule in Burma has been of the greatest advantage to the province. We found anarchy, and we have established order. The country has been brought under settled administration, the happiness and contentment of the people have been secured, and the country has been opened out and developed with great rapidity. ”

“ The loss of Burma would thus mean the loss of power, and would also be a very grave blow to our prestige and to our commercial prosperity. Thousands of Englishmen find employment in Burma as officials, as merchants and traders, on the railways, in the forests, on sea-going and river steamers, and in many other ways. These men would be added to the great army of the unemployed, which presents a sufficiently difficult problem already.
Then, too, there would be the loss of capital, to say nothing of the public buildings, railways, canals, and roads. ”

“ The resources of Burma are very great. The food-supply of the province is always in excess of the requirements of the people. There never has been any general scarcity of food in Burma, and whenever there has been a famine in any other province of India, the food-supplies of Burma have been available to supply the deficiencies of India. Burma may, therefore, be styled the granary of India.
The principal food product of Burma is rice. In Lower Burma six-sevenths of the total area under cultivation is devoted to rice. ”

“ Financially, then, Burma is a source of strength to the British Empire. The conquest of Burma was, as I have said, not undertaken voluntarily, but of necessity. Lower Burma was conquered because we could not brook the presence of an aggressive and hostile Power on the borders of India, and Upper Burma was conquered primarily because we could not allow that province to be acquired by a foreign Power.
Great Britain has a large trade with Burma. The value of foreign imports by sea was 847 lakhs of rupees in 1908-1904. Foreign countries trade with Burma on equal terms with ourselves ”

“ In Burma revenue is levied from all cultivated land. A rate is fixed according to the description of land, and this rate remains unaltered for a term of years. The cultivated land is measured up every year, and so all extensions of cultivation come under assessment annually. To protect those who bring waste land under cultivation, they are given leases of the land which carry exemption from land revenue for terms of years based upon the nature of the land to be cleared and the amount of labour required to clear it. ”

“ It must not, however, be forgotten that Burma is still in great need of development. She needs more railways, better communications, and a more liberal expenditure on public work in general. Capital expended on the development of the province will, judging by past experience, return a liberal profit. The revenue of Burma is constantly increasing. Last year there was an increase of 78,42,610 rupees in the total revenues of the province, and, owing to the system of assessment, the land revenue increases automatically with the increase of cultivation. ”

“ Hindus have a prejudice against settling permanently on the other side of the sea. This does not prevent large numbers of Indians from crossing the sea to work in the rice-fields and rice-mills of Burma, and no difficulty is experienced in enlisting men of the warlike Indian races and Gurkhas for service in the Burma regiments and in the military police. A small proportion of these men marry Burmese wives and settle in the country, but the majority return to India with their savings. ”

“ Now that communications with China are being opened out, trade with China promises to develop considerably, and it is probable that more and more Chinamen will find their way to Burma. Chinamen are akin to the Burmans, and readily assimilate with them. ”

“ The old assessment on households, which was called Thathameda, from a Sanskrit word signifying one-tenth, is being gradually reduced so far as concerns agricultural income, and only persons who derive their income from sources other than land will continue to be assessed at full rates. The total land revenue of Burma in 1908-1904 was 2,18,15,715 rupees. In Lower Burma a capitation tax is levied at the rate of 5 rupees per married man and 2·8 rupees per bachelor. ”

“ When we took over Upper Burma, we found gangs of robbers fostered and protected by provincial Governors on the one understanding that their depredations were to be confined to country outside of that ruled over by their patrons. Nobody could call any property his own. ”

“ It is also difficult to keep imported labourers, whose tendency is to acquire land of their own and to abandon daily labour for the more independent and, to their ideas, sufficiently remunerative employment of agriculture. ”

“ Rubber, too, grows readily in Burma, and rubber plantations are being rapidly extended.
All sorts of minerals are found in Burma. The petroleum industry is already a very large and flourishing one. The Burma ruby-mines, too, are well known.
Coal is known to exist, and will be worked when communications are improved. At present the cost of transport from the coal-fields is found to be a great drawback to their successful working. ”

“ Burmans do not make good soldiers; they are too much averse to discipline. Karens and Kachins have been tried in the military police. The Karens have not done so well as was expected, but the Kachins promise to be excellent soldiers, and a company of Kachins in the Military Police did excellent service when forming part of the escort of the Burma-China Boundary Commission. ”

“ There are the European-owned factories, mills, oil-wells, river-steamers, and other valuable property, which would be irretrievably lost It needs no argument, I think, to show that Burma is too valuable a possession to be parted with so long as we have the means of retaining it. ”