Book Description

Alleyne Ireland (1871-1951) was a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society in London who, in 1901, was appointed by the University of Chicago to head a commission to study colonial administration in the Far East. Ireland's first major project, published in 1907, was this exhaustive, two-volume study of Burma, at the time under British rule as a province of the Indian Empire. Volume one contains a general description of Burma, a history of Britain's acquisition of the colony, and chapters on the people, government, general administration, civil service, police administration, judicial administration, prison administration, and educational system. Volume two is devoted to economic and administrative affairs, including financial administration, the land revenue system, public works, trade and shipping, and the administration of forests, towns, villages, and harbors. Twenty-one appendices provide additional detail, including economic and demographic statistics, the texts of treaties, agreements, and reports, a bibliography, and a glossary of Indian and Burmese words. At the end of volume one is a large foldout map of Burma by Edinburgh mapmakers John Bartholomew & Co.