The great Lord Clive of India was an ancestor of our young officer who had been temporarily detached from his regiment, the 129th Baluchis, and sent on border duty.  He was very unhappy, for his brother officers were in active service in East Africa, and he had cried to resign several times, but the Indian government would not release him.  When we reached Rangoon some months later we were glad to learn that he had rejoined his regiment and was at the front.  Ma-li-pa was a recently established “winter station” and in May would be abandoned when the troop returned to Lashio, ten days’ journey away.  Comfortable barracks, cook houses, and a hospital had been erected beside a large space which had been cleaned of turf for a parade ground.

Captain Clive was in communication by heliograph with Lashio, at the end of the railroad, and received a resume of world news two or three times a week.  With mirrors during the day and lanterns at night messages were flashed from one mountain top to another and, under favorable conditions, reached Lashio in seven or eight hours.

We pitched our tents a short distance from the barracks in an open field, for there was no available shade.  Although Captain Clive was perfectly satisfied with our passports and credentials he could not let us proceed until he had communicated with the Indian government by heliograph.  The border was being guarded very closely to prevent German sympathizers from crossing into Burma from China and inciting the native tribes to rebellion.

In December, 1915, a rather serious uprising among the Kachins in the Myitkyina district on the upper waters of the Irawadi River had been incited by a foreigner, I believe, and Clive had assisted in suppressing it.  The Indian government was taking no further chances and had given strict orders to arrest and hold anyone, other than a native, who crossed the border from China.

Very fortunately H.B.M.  Consul-General Goffe at Yuen-nan Fu had communicated with the Lieutenant-Governor of Burma concerning our Expedition and we consequently expected no trouble, but Captain Clive could not let us proceed until he had orders to do so from the Superintendent of the Northern Shan States.  Through a delayed message this permission did not reach him for five days and in the meantime we made the most of the limited collecting resources which Ma-li-pa afforded.

Clive ordered his day like all the residents of Burma.  He rose at six o’clock and after coffee and rolls had drill for two hours.  At half past ten a heavy meal took the place of breakfast and tiffin; tea, with sandwiches and toast, was served at three o’clock, and dinner at eight.  His company was composed of several different native tribes, and each religious caste had its own cook and water carrier, for a man of one caste could not prepare meals for men of another.  It is an extraordinary system but one which appears to operate perfectly well under the adaptable English government.  Certainly one of the great elements in the success of the British as colonizers is their respect for native customs and superstitions!