22Maxwell’s death had caused a profound shock in Kyauktada. It would cause a shock throughout the whole of Burma, and the case – ‘the Kyauktada case, do you remember?’ – would still be talked of years after the wretched youth’s name was forgotten. But in a purely personal way no one was much distressed. Maxwell had been almost a nonentity – just a ‘good fellow’ like any other of the ten thousand ex colore good fellows of Burma – and with no close friends. No one among the Europeans genuinely mourned for him. But that is not to say that they were not angry. On the contrary, for the moment they were almost mad with rage. For the unforgivable had happened – a white man had been killed. When that happens, a sort of shudder runs through the English of the East. Eight hundred people, possibly, a
