The news from Burmah grows more satisfactory. The stronger guerilla
bands are being rapidly hunted down, and as they turn and fight, their leaders are generally killed. These once discouraged, General Roberts, who prefers civil administration to martial law, intends to guarantee them their lives on making full sub- mission. He proposes to occupy the Shan frontier in some force, but not to interfere with the internal government of the tribes, -and he told an interviewer he thought all might be quiet by March. The best news, however, is the decision to raise a strong Burmese police force, with an unusual complement of officers. The plan is distrusted in Rangoon, and no doubt the men will be mostly guerillas ; but they are brave, they know the country, and they can be disciplined like all other human beings. It is foolish to say they may be treacherous, for so may the Sikh police. If we cannot, due time being given, conciliate men like these sufficiently to induce them to give good service for good pay, we had better leave Burmah, for we shall do no good there, and never be safe. The Indian police are of little use in Burmah, except as gensdarmes ; and as for the risk, we are in India because we think nothing about it. The whole administration, from Cashmere to Travancore, could be destroyed in half an hoar, and nobody sleeps the less sound,
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