16 
APPENDIX. 
unsettled, and this question must become the subject of 
future negotiation. At present, the claims of the two 
parties seem difficult to reconcile. As far as I am able to 
form a judgment from the few facts which have come to 
my knowledge, those of the Burmese Government are so 
extravagant, that, could they be substantiated, Gumbheer 
Singh would be deprived of the larger portion of what he 
considers, and, I suspect, justly, the proper principality of 
Munnipore. The legitimate boundaries of the two coun¬ 
tries can only be ascertained and fixed by local inquiry and 
investigation instituted by British agents, and through the 
mediation of the British Government; for, to leave so de¬ 
licate and difficult a matter to be adjusted between the 
parties themselves in the present state of their feelings, 
would inevitably produce such a collision of interests as 
must end in hostilities between them. 
It is the probability of our being their immediate neigh¬ 
bours at Munnipore, which has chiefly alarmed the Bur¬ 
mese Government. They are sufficiently aware, that from 
this point their capital and the heart of their dominions are 
open to invasion either by land or water. Their appre¬ 
hensions on this subject are expressed in the note of the 
Burman negotiators of the 3d of November, already 
quoted; and more fully in the conferences of the 5th and 
10th of the same month. I trust, the Right Honoura¬ 
ble the Vice-President in Council will approve of the ex¬ 
planations which I afforded, with a view of removing the 
fears of the Burmese Government on this point. I con¬ 
sidered myself warranted, in making the assurance that 
the British Government had no intention of occupying 
Munnipore, and that Gumbheer Singh should not be aided 
either in men, money, or advice, to the prej udice of the 
Burmese Government. This explanation was founded on 
the ground of what was admitted by the British Com- 
