We have seen how much there is to admire and to be proud of in the capacity and skill of our nation as the great ruling power in India. One cannot have dwelt in Upper Burma during the last few years without observing how sincerely our rulers have sought the welfare of the people, and how ably they have secured it. The liberty of the people, their freedom from oppression, the greater security for life and property all over the country, their general comfort and well-being, the introduction of a far better system of law and justice than ever they knew before, the development of the resources of the country, and the general prosperity that has ensued, are results well worth securing. But the countenance given to the sale and consumption of intoxicants, and the growth of these vices under our rule, when we ought to be so well able to discourage and check them, are very grave defects; and it is this matter I propose in this and the following chapters to discuss. This is just now a question which is receiving much attention. It is not a case for heated controversy, or for calling ill names, but for calmly and dispassionately looking the facts in the face, and asking ourselves in the sight of God whether we are doing right, or whether there is not a more excellent way. A special and peculiar interest surrounds this question, owing partly to the fact that the new province was so recently annexed, and our policy is not as yet finally fixed; partly to the delicate and anomalous position in which we, as a non-abstaining race, find ourselves, in governing a race whose religion definitely enjoins total abstinence from everything intoxicating, and who earnestly desire that prohibition be continued as the law of the land; and partly from the very disastrous effects which have been found to result from the policy we have been pursuing during the many years we have been ruling Lower Burma. On our annexing Upper Burma in 1886, we found the fifth commandment of the Buddhist religion, “Thou shalt not take anything that intoxicates,” was the law of the land, the only law on the subject the Burmans had ever known. On this point I quote no less an authority than a despatch from the Government of India to the Secretary of State, dated October 1886, in which are certain “Instructions to Civil Officers,” and it is there stated that— “Burmans of all classes, monks and laity, very strongly wish that drinking shops and the habit of drinking should be discouraged in Upper Burma. In the time of the late king traffic in liquor was altogether forbidden. No doubt there is some making and drinking of toddy, of rice beer, and even of spirits in Burman villages. But the sense of the better classes is against the practice. No revenue was ever raised by the late king from liquor, lest he should seem to be encouraging evil. And under the circumstances, it seems expedient to meet the wishes of the people by declining for the present to license drinking shops.”