Film showing various activities of the Civil Affairs Service (Burma) in Mandalay, including collecting weapons, issuing rations and pensions, distributing captured Japanese supplies and declaring price controls.

Wide shot of Burmese civilians queuing up to surrender firearms to men of the Civil Affairs Service (CAS); there is a pile of surrendered rifles, a number of Japanese 6.5mm Model 11 light machine guns, two British Bren guns and two Japanese Model 92 heavy machine guns. Civilians hand over their rifles (Lee-Enfield No. 3s) to a British officer. The weapons are cleared before being added to the pile. A Burmese woman, named on the dopesheet as Daw Hmit, is issued a double-barrelled shotgun by Lieutenant-Colonel A J Jones (Senior Civil Affairs Officer (Police)). At St John Bosco Leper Home civilian refugees, bombed out of their homes, are issued food by CAS staff. An elderly man, named on the dopesheet as Mr Howard, receives a ration of rice and cooking oil. Two young children are issued rice. Civilians queuing. An Indian family eating. The CAS making pensions payments in arrears to elderly civilians. Pensioners queue before a table of CAS officers. A woman applies her thumbprint to an identity document. Lieutenant-Colonel J M G Fann, Senior Civil Affairs Officer, signing documents authorising payment. Civilians waiting. View along the desk with clerks on one side and pensioners on the other. Colonel Fann paying a pensioner and counting money. At a supply depot captured Japanese stores are neatly stacked. Local civilians carrying away crates of supplies. Lieutenant Maybury checks a wide range of supplies and sundries which include buckets of various sizes, meat cleavers, large kettles, watering cans and nondescript boxes and crates. Civilians loading material on to a bullock cart. Men carrying sacks of rice; one of the sack rips open and rice pours out. Small wooden boxes with Japanese markings. Cardboard boxes; one is marked 'coffee' (apparently in chalk and probably for the benefit of the camera). The cart is loaded and the driver moves off. A town crier with a gong declares the institution of price control. The crier making his announcement with British and Indian troops in the distance behind him. A notice is fixed to a clock tower and 'Price Control' is chalked up in English and Burmese. View of the clock tower with people at the base reading the notice. British servicemen walking away.

Notes

A useful and illustrative piece of film covering the variety of tasks undertaken by the CAS.

Daw Hmit, the Burmese woman seen being issued a shotgun, was apparently organising a village defence corps against dacoits (armed robbers or bandits), the threat of which was considered great enough for the CAS to issue firearms licences and weapons for local defence. Even before the Japanese invasion Burma has been a difficult country to govern and banditry had been rife.

Mr Howard may be part of the substantial Anglo-Burmese population, but this is speculation.

The CAS were responsible for restoration of civil services during the reoccupation of Burma, though their authority ultimately derived from the military through South East Asia Command.

Other film of CAS activities, shot by both the British Army and the RAF, can be found at the references below. See related items.