CH A P T E R XV
TO M IN BU
ACROSS the river, and facing Thayetmyo, is the
small town of Allanmyo. It owes its name to
Major Grant Allan, who demarcated the old frontier
between Upper and Lower Burma in 1853. Frontiers
have a tendency to follow the natural features of the
land ; but this one^rit has ceased now to be of
any importance— runs with an uncompromising directness
across. Burma from east to west. And the tale
is that when the imperious Dalhousie saw no prospect
of getting the Court of Burma to recognise the British
occupation of Pegu, he ruled a line across the map,
and ordered the frontier to be delimited accordingly.
White pillars half buried in the jungle still survive in
memory of his fiat. Allanmyo, like its name, is a
product of British rule. In the king’s days Meaday,
facing it on the Thayetmyo side of the river, was
the centre of life. “ At noon,” wrote Symes, in the
narrative of his Embassy to Ava in 1795— “ at noon
we reached Meaday, the personal estate of the Maywoon
of Pegue, who is oftener called from this place Meaday
Prae or Lord of Meaday, than by the viceroyal titles.
Here in compliance with the wishes of the. Maywoon,
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