Transcriber's Note:
Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully aspossible, including some inconsistent hyphenation and accents. Theerratum noted after the list of illustrations has been fixed. Someother changes have been made. They are listed at the end of thetext.
A CIVIL SERVANT IN BURMA
A CIVIL SERVANT
IN BURMA
BY
SIR HERBERT THIRKELL WHITE, K.C.I.E.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
1913
(All rights reserved)
TO
MY WIFE
WHO SHARED
MY LIFE IN BURMA
FOR MORE THAN THIRTY-TWO YEARS
PREFACE
This is not a guide-book, or a history, or a study ofmanners and customs. It is a plain story of officiallife for more than thirty years. It does not competewith any of the books already written about Burma,except, perhaps, the monumental work of GeneralFytche. While pursuing as a rule a track ofchronological order, I have not hesitated to wanderinto by-paths of dissertation and description. Icould not write without attempting to give fragmentaryimpressions of the people and theircharacter. As far as possible I have limited mynarrative to events within my own knowledge; myjudgments are based on my own observation.
I have to express my acknowledgments to thefriends who have given me photographs to illustratethe book. My special thanks are due to Mr. A.Leeds, I.C.S. (retired), for a large number ofcharacteristic and charming pictures.
H. T. W.
September, 1913.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| I. | INTRODUCTORY: A RETROSPECT AND SOME COMPARISONS | 1 |
| II. | EARLY YEARS AND FIRST IMPRESSIONS | 16 |
| III. | THE FIRST SUBDIVISION: THE SECRETARIAT | 36 |
| IV. | SOME ASPECTS OF BURMESE LIFE AND CHARACTER | 55 |
| V. | ON THE FRONTIER | 73 |
| VI. | THE SECRETARIAT: THE LAST SUBDIVISION | 90 |