The next day he came to me with an amused expression on his face and a paper of figures in his hand.
"I have made them all out," he said, "as you wished. Here they are."
"Then," I said, "let us take the districts with the decreases first. Please show me them."
"There are none," he answered. "They all show increases."
"Large?" I asked.
"Yes, large," he said; "from a population of about nine million to ten million in ten years is a good increase. The Burmese are prolific."
"But," I remarked also, "I thought the Burman was disappearing? You said so on authority. How is that?"
He laughed; he had taken his lesson.
And again, another point. I had received an order from Government which I thought was mistaken, and I said so. He was a Government official too, and I could say to him what I could not say to others.
"Then you won't carry it out?" he asked, surprised.