Lawrence Dundas

“ For a brief and breathless moment the whole continent of India vibrated beneath the magnetic touch of the dramatic figure of Dupleix, and when the glittering prospect opened up by him faded before the grim tenacity and forceful determination of the seamen and traders of Great Britain, a craving for empire sprang up in adjacent territories and found expression in a series of ill-conceived enterprises in the direction of Burma and Siam. ”

“ Great Britain could not view with equanimity the prospect of a powerful neighbour establishing herself along her eastern frontier, uncontrolled and ill-defined as such frontier was, and consisting of an ill-assorted patchwork of little-known tribes whose proclivities would be only too likely to lie in the direction of crooked diplomacy and intrigue ”

“ Within an hour the Secret Treaty was in possession of the British Resident. Action was taken with splendid promptitude. M. de Freycinet, when pressed on the subject, repudiated any intention of acquiring for France a political predominance in Burma. An immediate pretext was found to place Theebaw in a dilemma; eleven days later the British troops had crossed the frontier, and Upper Burma was another province of our Indian Empire." [3]
Defeated in her efforts to lay hold of Upper Burma, she turned her eyes towards Siam as the next most convenient field for imperial exploitation. ”