20 AUGUST 1898, Page 15

BUDDHISM IN BURMAH.

(TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.")

was much interested in reading your review on "Buddhism in Burmah " in the Spectator of August 6th. Perhaps you or your readers will be interested in the follow- ing circumstance which happened when I was stationed in Burmah some twenty years ago. Some sailors on board one of her Majesty's ships at Rangoon obtained leave of absence to go into the interior, and lost their way. A short time afterwards they were brought back by some Burmans, who had fed them and showed them the way home. The Burmans immediately returned to their village, and though the then Chief Commissioner, the late Sir Charles Aitchison, en- deavoured to find them in order to reward them, I believe he never succeeded. It caused a good deal of comment in Ran- goon at the time. I think it is interesting, as showing the effect of the teaching of Buddha, and how it saves the Bur- man from that "lust of gain" which, as you say, "has taken so strong a hold of our civilisation," though I sometimes found it inconvenient living in a land where the people are so utterly indifferent to money. But we may learn many lessons