"The Burmese language itself was beginning to change under the same influences which had led to the modern forms of many languages in India: the impact of western literature, the growth of printing, the dissemination of newspapers, the creation of a wider reading public. Classical Burmese had become heavily laden ... with loan words, stereotyped literary expressions and artificial flourishes. The early newspaper articles in Burmese retained many of the old conventions, frequently breaking into verse when reporting such dramatic events as a lovers' suicide pact. However, with the burgeoning of news dispatches the style became more factual and terse. Here it is difficult to decide how much change was due to the nature of journalistic writings and how much to the influence of English." Section 3, pp. 117-118

"The early years of British rule brought some material prosperity but the laissez-faire economic policy adopted by the government and the...