The Pacification of Burma

by C. H. T. Crosthwaite

I have noticed already the change in the province and the diversion of attention from the interior to the frontier districts. This change shows itself very clearly in my correspondence with the Viceroy, which reflected the matters giving me most anxiety from week to week. During the first half of 1889 the affairs of the frontiers occupied the chief place. I have given their history in separate chapters.

It might be thought, from the space I have given to dacoits and their leaders, that the time had hardly yet come for reducing the military police. In truth the struggle with the dacoits was drawing to a close, and the forces of order were winning all along the line. The outbursts in Magwè and elsewhere were like the last dying efforts of a fire.

The extent to which the military police and the troops had changed places can best be understood from this, that on the 1st of January, 1887, the troops held one hundred and forty-two posts and the military police fifty-six. On the 1st of January, 1889, the police held one hundred and ninety-two posts and the troops forty-one. And the state of the province was such as to lead me to consider the possibility of reducing the military police strength.

It has been seen how the withdrawal of the troops led for a time to renewed activity on the part of the discontented and criminal classes.

With this experience before us it was resolved to move with the greatest caution, and to feel our way step by step. The following procedure was adopted. The state of each district and of its subdivisions was carefully reviewed. The posts which might be altogether withdrawn were first selected, then those of which the garrisons might be reduced in numbers. The changes thus determined were to be made gradually, so as to attract as little attention as might be. The men brought in from the posts were not to leave the district at once, but were to remain at headquarters, where their discipline, drill, and musketry could be worked up.

If it should appear from an increase in disorder that reduction had been premature, the mistake could be remedied at once by ordering the men back to their posts. If, on the contrary, no mischief followed, the surplus men were to be drafted, by companies if possible, into a provincial reserve battalion, which would be brought to a high standard of military efficiency, and would be available in case of need for any part of the province. Finally, when the reserve battalion became crowded, I proposed to offer the trained companies to the army, if the Commander-in-Chief would accept them and if the men would take military service, of which there was no doubt.

This scheme was carried out, and continued until the strength of the military police force was not greater than the Government of Burma needed.

Another change was made in order to reduce the forces, namely, the amalgamation of two or more battalions under one Commandant. It was necessary at first to give a separate battalion to each district, in order that each Deputy Commissioner should have a sufficient force of military police at his hand and under his control. But when the country became peaceful and active service was rarely called for, there was no reason for maintaining an organization that was costly in money and men. Thus by doubling up the battalions, aggregating nineteen companies, in the Eastern Division, into one battalion of fifteen companies, four companies were saved and drafted into the Reserve.

This process went on until, in the year 1892, seven fine regiments had been given to the army. These were treated at first and for some time as local regiments attached to the province. Of late years, however, the policy in the Indian Army has been to obliterate all local distinctions and to make service general.