The HPK-GCBA also called their conference, calling it the 10th at Thayetmyo on November 9* 10 and 11, 1922. The place was chosen to avenge the Police closure of the Conference in May. This time there was no interruption. The Sun dated Nov: 11 reported that delegates from over 3000 athins attended. Also the Baymeh sayadaw, the President of the Upper Burma GCSS
came specially for this conference. The ceremonial also appeared no less solemn and regal than the last conference in Mandalay, with Royal Ponnas, and golden umbrellas for the
"Thamada-Okkahtagyi" (The President). This conference merely confirmed the decisions arrived at the special meeting in
Rangoon. It routinely confirmed the boycott, but undid some of the key provisions of the new rules of the GCBA adopted at the December 1921 meeting, while Chit Hlaing was detained for the Prince of Wales* visit, Tharrawaddy Pu implying that they were brought in by Ba Pe for ulterior motives.
The Coining of Dyarchy
Under the Dyarchy reforms (or strictly the Montague- Chelmsford reforms) the first elections under the constituency 26. Han Tin, ogg., Vol.II, p.3Q0, List 46 sayadaws, but few
great names, p.308 mentions this as first meeting where the Bnglish version of the Chairman's speech was dispensed with and the Burmese version read from the outset.
27. Ibid.% p„357* mentions the C eR. Das decision, in the Indian
Congress to enter Legislative Councils to show up U Ottama's views as dated.
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and general and selective suffrage, the first of its kind in Burma, were held in November 1922, The outcome was 28 members elected from the 21 Party out of 59 in the general list in the
po
79 elective constituencies. It was still the largest majority for a single party in the new Legislative Council. The boycott by the HPK GCBA was remarkably effective.^ The public had little idea of the new constitution, save to learn to hate it due to the weight of nationwide propaganda by the dhammakatikas. The installation of the new constitution began with the swearing in of the new full Governor Sir Harcourt Butler, who had served in Burma before as Lieutenant-Governor with flair and success. He appointed only one out of the most successful Burman party,
the 21 Party, packing his Council of Ministers with proven
loyalists Sir Maung Khin (Home Member) and J.A. Maung Gyi (Excise and Forests).^0 The Financial Member had to be a Civil Servant with authority above the others and Sir William Keith was chosen by Butler. The other members of the "government" could not do
anything effective without the cooperation of the holder of
purse strings, the heads of departments (civil servants) and the approval of the Governor, the sole authority of government power.
Nevertheless it was meant to be a tutelage, and an experiment, and Ba Pe and his group were willing to give it a try to swing policy along nationalist trends in spite of over whelming odds held by the Governor and the foreign Community led 28. Han Tin, Sgg., 7ol.II, pp.399-j4-00. (describes constituencies) 29« Ibid.» p.4-01, voting was 6.9%* Pu, U, Pers. Acct•, p . 9 ?
"Hpongyis came near polling booths saying we will do this and that, we voted, so we came up very easily, with little votes, very easy. No co3t at all, at most Rs.200 (for his election). 30. Lar Ba, U, Pers. Accjb., pp.70, 71
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-by the curiously named. British commercial authority, the Burma Chamber of Commerce. Later the 21 Party gained one more seat in the Governor’s Council after J.A. Maung Gyi was moved to the High Court at the death of'Sir Maung Khin. Then U Fu (Shwegin,
ex-premier) got the Excise and Forests portfolio. However the first 21 Party "minister” was U Maung Gyi (M.A. Maung Gyi as he wa3 better known to distinguish him from the less liked J.A.)® U Maung Gyi tried to implement much of educational policies
outlined since the YMBA days and the more concrete formulations since the 1920 University strike and the setting up of the CUE, but with indifferent success. He was hamstrung by the lack of
sympathy in the Governor and his civil servants on the one side and the suspicion in him personally and the 21 Party generally, aroused after they took office, by the public at large and es pecially by those active in the National School movement.
Nevertheless he managed to help in the survival of national schools, i.e., those who accept government aid, after
the GCBA split which generated a great wave of enthusiasm for politics to the exclusion of constructive but unromantic pro jects such as national schools and the minimum needs of the
31
school teachers. All available funds, even the proverbial widow’s mite was being absorbed into grandious schemes such as
31. BSPP, HD & HE, pp.410, 411, gives the salaries of the
national school teachers of those days (the same in U Aye Kyaw’s HNE) : Certified High School teacher Hs.60-2-80, Certified Middle School teacher Hs.40-2-60, Certified Primary School teacher Hs.25-1-30 - 30-2-40, Certified Primary School teacher Hs.20-1-23, and uncertified teacher
a flat rate Rs.15 per month. (Hote. Government schools teachers earned approximate twice as much. An office peon, lowest grade in a government office gets Rs.14 a month, a Police constable Rs.15 plus certain allowances and quarters, a Police Sub-Inspector, the lowest officer gets Rs.125 at the start, plus allowances and other peripheral benefits such as quarters.)
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export banks, commercial banks, cooperative banks, native depart ment stores, cinemas, industries, cotton mill, the great Thilawa Refinery of U Chit Hlaing, and purely political projects such as
the Home Hule League funds, the GCBA funds, the Eonmayi Athin funds and so on. Yet the majority of the school teachers were so carried away by the emotionalism of the boycott and non
cooperation campaign of those days, that they themselves were most vehement in refusing government aid. U Maung Gyi, himself
the Chairman of the CUE when he took office, was condemned by the public, and had difficulty maintaining his position in the
national education movement.
The 21 I-arty ministers tried on many occassions, to