The making of Burma PDF
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THE MAKING OF BURMA By the same author: THE REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA DOROTHY WOODMAN THE MAKING OF BURMA LONDON THE CRESSET PRESS MCMLXII Copyright © 1962 by Dorothy Woodman Published in Great Britain by The Cresset Press, 11 Fitzroy Square, London, W. First published 1962 Printed in Great Britain by The Camelot Press Ltd., London and Southampton Preface T he 4th of January 1948 was the most memorable day of my life. On that day, at 4 o’clock in the morning, I was privileged to take part in the celebrations of the transfer of sovereign power from Great Britain to the Union of Burma. To this deeply moving experience I was able to add others in many parts of Burma in the course of three more visits to the country; to the Kachin States and the Chin Hills; to the Naga areas and the Shan States. Again and again I met friends who outlined to me the history of their own area; the Sama Duwa Sinwa Nawng, Duwa Zau Rip, U Zan Hta Sin and Major Shan Lone in the Kachin States; Sao Saimong and Mi Mi Khaing in the Shan States; Vum Ko Hau in the Chin Hills. None of them have the slightest responsibility for what I have written, but I am greatly indebted to them for the interest they stimulated as well as for the data with which they supplied me. The self-appointed task of telling the story of the making of Burma up to the point when, in October i960, she acquired a complete frontier was made easier and happier by the encourage¬ ment and friendship of Burmese scholars; of Dr. Maung Maung, author of Burma in the Family of Nations and The Constitution of Burma\ Dr. Hla Pe, Reader in Burmese at the School of Oriental Studies and chief editor of a new Burmese-English Dictionary; U Tet Htoot, who is supervising the printing of the Encylopedia Burmanica\ Ma Thoung, Khin Maung Nyunt, Dr. Yi Yi, all colleagues in the India Office Library whilst working for their Ph.Ds., and Thet Tun for his M.A. There are also British scholars; the late J. S. Furnivall, who gave me much helpful advice in the early stages of the book and who, a few days before he died in July i960, repeated the encouragement which has endeared so many students to him, and Dr. D. G. E. Hall, who has been generous enough to allow me to consult him on specific points. None of them shares any responsibility for the views I have expressed nor for the errors which I may have made. The Making of Burma could not have been written without access to the unrivalled documentation in the India Office Library in London. I am specially indebted to Mr. S. C. Sutton, its Director, to Mrs. Molly Poulter, and to Mr. D. Matthews, in VI THE MAKING OF BURMA charge respectively of the Manuscript Collection and Microfilms, and to the staunch Paperkeepers, the indispensable link between researcher and material. I am also indebted to the London Library, the Library of India House, Senate House Library, the School of Oriental Studies; the Royal Institute of International Affairs, and the Royal Commonwealth Society. And, finally, I must thank Mrs. Betty Paddon for her help on many occasions, and for preparing the Index, and Miss Maureen Travis who so patiently and accurately deciphered and typed the manuscript.
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