General Roberts has reached Mandelay, and will at once commence
active operations. His plan, it is said, is to hold the
river stations strongly, to send out light columns to suppress all armed resistance, to disarm the county thoroughly, and then to place the districts in charge of the•new military police, who will number 8,000 men. It will thus be possible gradually to withdraw at least half, probably two-thirds, of the large garrison it is now necessary to employ. The scheme is a sound one; but it is hampered by the newness of the police, who are half-organised, unfamiliar with the country, and commanded by officers picked up anywhere. Some of them are able, however; the work is understood; and as the roads are cut, the villagers will believe in the British, and assist in putting down brigand- age. They are doing this already ; half of Burmah is quieted, and is paying its revenue readily ; and within two years the whole should be as peaceful as Pegn. The main difficulty now is to make the civil power effective ; but Lord Dufferin, who from the first recommended more expenditure, has sub- divided the province into four, and the Commissioners will, as the police become efficient, take a firm hold of their districts. The frontier hills will be left to a semi-subject, but paid, Shan• police.
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