ABSTRACT
The report of the Upper Burma District for 1940 spoke of being remote from the theatre of war and unaffected by the hostilities no blackouts, no rationing: a short-lived calm, as it soon turned out. But published reports during the war years were more concerned with the Jamaica earthquake in 1941, the large numbers emigrating from the region and the rise of fanatical, emotional sects in the Virgin Islands. The war is of necessity throwing more responsibility upon the Churches. Wesley Church in Mandalay was totally bomb-damaged and the mission house and girls' school were requisitioned in 1942; Mahazayabon, a prosperous suburb of Mandalay, became a gathering point, and almost every Sunday to the war's end services were held, morning and evening, in private villas. The Indian ministers grew in stature; they gained confidence, won respect, and the church progressed all the more rapidly towards maturity.
