ABSTRACT
The local requirements of the troops were wide and varied. Such needs as were ~not met by direct intervention of the military authorities necessitated an intricate mass of detailed orders, proclamations and notices issued under the authority of the General Officer Commanding and enforced for the most part by military police and military courts. These regulations supervised the direct relations between the inhabitants and the army, ranging from the control of rents B and foodstuffs,3 the restriction of movement of persons and of rivercraft,' to orders that carriage drivers and boatmen 'shall in all cases give preference to British Officers, European ladies and Government
BRITISH ADMINISTRATION servants'. 1 Regulations governed indirect relations, from the control of the carrying of arms among the inhabitants,· the sale of liquors and drugs a to minute sanitary regulations prescribing floor space per animal in stables or rewards for bringing in dogs for destruction. 4
Delicate handling by the Political Officers was necessary in order to enforce the orders and regulations, harsh and exacting as many of them were, and at the same time to keep the
populace friendly, an avowed aim of the Expedition which from its inception placed the British officials in a peculiar position.
