Page:History of India Vol 8.djvu/502

446 operations, military and diplomatic, has been to lay out along the northern and northwestern frontiers of India a broad zone of protected states, which separate China, Russia, and Persia from the territories under our direct administration.

THE GOLDEN MONASTERY, MANDALAY, BURMA.

In the meantime, however, while we were engaged in clearing and strengthening the strategic position beyond Northern India, on our southeast frontier new and grave complications had arisen. Since 1853, when the lower provinces of Burma had been conquered and annexed, the attitude of the Burmese rulers toward the British government had been resentful and vindictive. In 1885 the Burmese king persisted in rejecting reasonable demands made for reparation of injuries to British subjects, and what was much more serious, it was dis-