The Times might have waited for the Minute of Lord
Dafferin, detailing his reasons for annexation. The Minute it publishes by Colonel Sladen, lately Resident in Mandelay, is very poor indeed. That officer has great local experience ; but, as often happens, his insight is only clouded by it. He advises annexation on grounds which are unfavourable to it, pleading, for example, the impreg- nable loyalty of the Burmese—which has not marked them in British Burmah—and the discontent of the priesthood in our own provinces with our rule—which has, if it exists, produced no consequences. He says nothing of China, which is the main factor in the situation, and, in fact, gives only two sound reasons for annexation, which are,—the certainty that any Burmese King will be bad, and the secret weariness of the people of their atrocious despotism. Colonel Sladen is an excellent and highly experienced officer ; but his paper is poor, and will produce no influence on the general mind, which, how- ever, is, we believe, made up. Nobody wanted Burmah ; but after the collapse of the Kingdom in the face of half-a-dozen river steamers and a brigade of Europeans, there was nothing to do but govern it. If Pekin agrees, it will be a splendid estate ; if it does not, it will be a burdensome, and perhaps costly, nuisance.
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