ABSTRACT
In April 1923 a delegation of British imperial officials and journalists descended on the mining settlements of Namtu and Bawdwin in the Northern Shan States of British Burma to celebrate the opening of new works at the mines. The mines at Bawdwin were located in a remote, mountainous area of Upper Burma known as the Northern Shan States, which was incorporated as part of the British Empire following the annexation of 1886. Struggling after the war to maintain the fiction that Britain could build and manage an empire cheaply, and trying to maintain their belief in free trade, journalists and British officials considered the Burma Corporation’s mines to be a tool of governance and imperial development. While scholars need to know more about the role of US nationals throughout the British Empire, the fact that Burma was a frontier zone may have particularly encouraged their involvement.
