CRY FROM FAR EAST.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20252, 11 May 1929, Page 3 (Supplement)

CRY FROM FAR EAST.

WANTING A KINGDOM. 'AN EX-KING'S DAUGHTER. The dullness of the inferior types of kings has always been unfathomable, though the best types are very bright. The Bourbons were said to have learned nothing and to have forgotten nothing, and the jibe seemed an exact truth, remarks a London paper. Now there comes from very far East a quaint example. Princess Myatpayagalay, the fourth daughter of Theebaw, the last King of Burma, has asked Sir John Simon's Commission to recommend the restoration of her family to the throne of Burma. Burma was annexed by Great Britain just 43 years ago. It had been, as long back as European knowledge extends, one of the worst governed parts of. the earth. It was incessantly at war. It was aggressive toward all its neighbours, and by its aggression it reached the borders of British India. Its kings did not understand that they could no longer spread their depredations in that direction. They forced Britain into wars of defence. In 1825, 1852 and 1885 that country was compolled to force reasonable behaviour upon an utterly misgoverned and miserable land, and by the last war Britain dethroned King Theebaw, took charge of his almost ruined land, and placed him in exile in India.

It took four or five years of strenuous work to enable the Burmese people to settle down in peace and show now their good qualities had been obscured by bad government. In no part of the world has progress been more remarkable. Burma has become a happy land. • Its population has increased as fast as the population of Egypt increased when British control brought prosperity there. And now, forgetful of the fact that royal family murders by the reigning king was a commonplace event in the bad old days, the Theebaw family is asking for the Government clock to be put back half a century and for Burma to be given back to them.