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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 22, p. 246.

246 NOI2TKRRN WAX STATES east of the Salween can hardly he said to be under British control. In ordinary matters the States are administered by their Sawbwas, who are assisted by amats or ministers in various departments. An Assistant Superintendent at Hsipaw advises the Sawbwas of Hsipaw and Tawng- peng, officers of similar rank at Kutkai and Tangyan supervise the affairs of the Sawbwas of North and South Hsenwi and 1Vlanglon, and an officer of the Subordinate civil service has lately been posted to Namhsan to help the Tawngpeng Sawbwa in the administration of his charge. The extensive Kachin colony in the North Hsenwi State is directly under the civil officer at Kutkai. Lashio itself has been made practically part of Burma proper. In the Northern Shan States the criminal and civil administration is vested in the Sawbwas, subject to the limitations laid down in their sanads (deeds of appointment), and to restrictions imposed by the extension of enactments and the issue of orders under the Shan States Act or the Burma Laws Act. The customary law of these States has been modified by a notification which specifies the punishments that may be inflicted for offences against the criminal law, limits the inflic- tion of certain punishments to the more heinous offences, and pre scribes simple rules of procedure in criminal cases. The Superintendent exercises general control over the administration of criminal justice, has power to call for cases, and is vested with wide revisionary powers. All criminal jurisdiction in cases in which either the complainant or accused is a European or American, or a Government servant, or a British subject not a native of a Shan State, is withdrawn from the chiefs, and vested in the Superintendent and Assistant Superintendents. In the cases above mentioned the ordinary criminal law in Upper Burma, as modified by the Shan States Laws and Criminal Justice Order, 1895, is in force. In such cases the Superintendent exercises the powers of a District Magistrate and Sessions Judge, and the Assis- tant Superintendents exercise the powers of a District Magistrate under sections 3o and 34 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Superintendent and Assistant Superintendents, if European British subjects, are also ex-officio justices of the peace in the States. The Superintendent has been especially empowered to withdraw from subor- dinate magistrates such cases as he thinks fit. He can now also take cognizance of any criminal case, and try or refer it to a subordinate magistrate for trial. The Superintendent and each Assistant Superin- tendent exercise the powers of a magistrate under the Foreign Juris- diction and Extradition Act, parts of which are in force in the States. In regard to the administration of civil justice, the customary law has been modified by a notification of rgoo, which confers original appellate and revisional jurisdiction on the Superintendent and Assistant Super- intendents, creates local courts, and prescrites a simple judicial pro-