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ABSTRACT
With unique access to police and government resources in almost all levels of society, the Burma Police Special Branch was a core part of the colonial intelligence apparatus. It was the primary political intelligence organisation active in this period and acted as an analytical and advisory body to government. However, over time the Special Branch lost its investigative capability and when faced with increased political unrest in the 1920s and 1930s, it struggled to adapt to the changing conditions, resulting in intelligence failures and the creation of new, competing political intelligence units.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Thomas, Empires of Intelligence.
2. Ibid.
3. Bayly, Empire and Information.
4. Police Act of 1861.
5. Ibid., Section 23.
6. Ireland, The Province of Burma.
7. Burma Police Manual (Volume Five), Paragraph 10 (P.4).
8. See Section 16 (1) of the Rangoon Town Police Act (1899).
9. Allason, The Branch; and Wilson, SB: A History.
10. Burma Police Manual.
11. For example, see Burma Police Manual.
12. Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Manual Part 1 (1923 & 1964).
13. This was the term used in all of the Reports on the Police Administration of Burma (RPAB).
14. Creation of a Criminal Intelligence Branch in Burma.
15. See Proposed organization of a detective police force in each province.
16. CID Manual Part 3.
17. See Report on the Police Administration of Burma (RPAB) 1925, which noted that during that year, the SB was removed from the Crime Branch and placed on its own within the CID.
18. See National Records and Archives Law.
19. Although it is unknown if records in Burma were destroyed before Burmese independence, there is evidence of such destruction in other former colonies prior to handover of power. See Sato, Operation Legacy and Banton, Destroy? Migrate? Conceal? .
20. Burma, Report of the Committee Appointed to Consider the Reorganisation of the Police Force of Lower Burma (1888).
21. Ibid. See submission by Colonel G. A. Strover, Commissioner, Northern Division, Mandalay, on the Police Force of Lower Burma, dated the 17 September 1888, pp. 38 (Part 4 of the report).
22. Ibid. See Submission by The District Superintendent of Police (DSP) for Toungoo, 62 (Part 4).
23. Ibid., 62 (Part 4).
24. Ibid.
25. Formation of the Criminal Intelligence Branch. See Memorandum on the Formation of an Intelligence Department for Burma (1 September 1895), 1.
26. Formation of the Criminal Intelligence Branch. See Report on how far the various abortive risings which have taken place this year in Upper Burma are connected with the other. (Dated Rangoon, 22 June 1894), 4.
27. Ibid., 4.
28. Ibid., See Extract from a Note by the Inspector General of Police, Burma, dated the 8 August 1894, 4.
29. Ibid.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid., 2.
32. Crosthwaite, Pacification of Burma, 108.
33. Creation of the Criminal Intelligence Branch in Burma. See Extract from a Note by the Inspector General of Police, Burma, dated the 8 August 1894. 4.
34. Ibid., See Letter from the Chief Secretary to the Commissioner, to the Secretary to the Government of India, Home Department. Dated the 12 January 1895.
35. Ibid., 2.
36. Proposed organization of a detective force.
37. Report of the Indian Police Commission 1902–03, 198.
38. Ibid., 71.
39. Creation of a Criminal Intelligence Branch.
40. Report of the Indian Police Commission 1902–03, 5.
41. Proposed organization of a detective force, 16.
42. See Creation of the Criminal Intelligence Branch in Burma.
43. See note 40 above.
44. Ibid., 5.
45. Ibid., 117.
46. See CID Manual Part Three.
47. Crosthwaite, Pacification of Burma.
48. See Special Branch File 1907 and 1908.
49. Report of the Rangoon Town Police 1914, 4.
50. Request of the Punjabi Government for surveillance of foreigners (1914).
51. Report of the Rangoon Town Police 1915; Request of the Punjabi Government.
52. Request from the Punjabi Government; Report of the Rangoon Town Police 1914.
53. Report of the Rangoon Town Police 1914.
54. Foreigners in Burma.
55. CID Manual 3.
56. Report of the Burma Police Enquiry Committee 1924, 11.
57. Ibid., 11; RPAB 1925 .
58. CID Manual 3, 1.
59. Report of the Burma Police Enquiry Committee 1924, 6.
60. CID Manual 1, 1929 & 1964 (see Paras 24 and 30).
61. Ireland, Province of Burma, 227.
62. Ibid., 211.
63. Ibid., 227.
64. CID Manual Part 1.
65. RPAB 1939.
66. Ibid.
67. Report on the Rangoon Town Police 1912.
68. CID Manual Part 1.
69. CID Manual Part 3.
70. Ibid.
71. See “Burma Political Tree” (1932) and Police Abstract of Intelligence (1942).
72. See Police Abstract of Intelligence 1942.
73. CID Manual Part 1, 1929 & 1964, 4.
74. CID Manual Part 3.
75. Report of the Burma Police Enquiry Committee 1924, 6.
76. CID Manual 3, 13.
77. RPAB 1928, 70.
78. Ibid., 70.
79. RPAB 1927, 68.
80. RPAB 1925, 52; See also RPAB 1926.
81. CID Manual 1.
82. CID Manual 3, 12.
83. RPAB 1927 (see pp.68); RPAB, 1928.
84. RPAB 1924, 12.
85. Ibid.; RPAB 1926; RPAB 1927.
86. RPAB, 1927.
87. RPAB 1926; RPAB 1927.
88. RPAB 1933.
89. Ibid., 43.
90. RPAB 1932, 56.
91. RPAB 1931, 3.
92. Ibid.
93. Ibid., 54.
94. Ibid.
95. RPAB 1932.
96. Ibid.
97. Ibid., 56.
98. Ibid.
99. Safeguards for control of Special Branch (Criminal Investigations Department) and Intelligence.
100. RPAB 1930, 51.
101. See note 90 above.
102. RPAB 1931, 51-.
103. See RPAB 1933.
104. Safeguards for control of Special Branch.
105. RPAB 1933, 43.
106. RPAB 1934, 38.
107. RPAB 1935.
108. RPAB 1936.
109. RPAB 1937; For quote see RPAB 1938, 61.
110. See note 104 above.
111. RPAB 1931.
112. See note 104 above.
113. RPAB 1938.
114. RPAB 1939, 21.
115. This specific quote appears in two successive Annual reports – See RPAB 1928, 70; RPAB 1929, 86.
116. This specific quote appears in several RPABs, including RPAB 1926, 75; RPAB 1927, 68; RPAB 1931, 55; RPAB 1932; RPAB 1930.
117. See note 90 above.
118. RPAB 1934, 39.
119. Ibid.
120. RPAB 1935, 31–32.
121. RPAB 1934; RPAB 1935; RPAB 1938.
122. RPAB 1938, 60.
123. RPAB 1939, 69.
124. Final Report of the Riot Enquiry Committee (1939), 262.
125. Ibid.
126. Ibid., 16.
127. Ibid., 15.
128. Ibid., 16.
129. Ibid., 261.
130. RPAB 1926, 1.
131. Ibid., 74 .
132. RPAB 1927, 67.
133. RPAB 1931, 15.
134. Ibid.
135. RPAB 1923, 35.
136. See note 79 above.
137. Final Report of the Riot Enquiry Committee (1939), 18.
138. Ibid., 17.
139. Ibid., 18.
140. Ibid., 260–1.
141. Ibid., 261.
142. Ibid., 260–1.
143. Ibid., 20.
144. Ibid.
145. Final Report of the Riot Enquiry Committee (1939).
146. Report of the Burma Police Enquiry Committee 1924.
147. See note 123 above.
148. See note 145 above.
149. Report of the Burma Police Enquiry Committee 1924, 262.
150. Ibid.
151. RPAB 1939, 70.
152. There are no records in either British or Myanmar Archives for RPABs after 1946.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Rhys Thompson
Rhys Thompson is an independent researcher based in Yangon, Myanmar. A graduate of the University of Melbourne, he was formerly an Australian diplomat posted to Myanmar from 2010 – 2013.