The British Frontier Area Administration (FAA) in exile in India during the Japanese occupation planned elections of village and regional councils eliminating hereditary princes (saopha or sawbwa), chiefs and headmen. The director of FAA, H.N.C. Stevenson, even planned to make the frontier areas into one big federation of principalities the previously mentioned excluded areas) and as a self-governing state under the Empire. Stevenson launched his plan in 1945 and published it in the anthropological journal Man (vol. XLV, no.2). His idea was to create a system of councils from village to state in the Frontiers Areas. These councils were to be united in a Grand Federal Council placed under the British governor. Thus, he wanted to replace the traditional chiefs with a democratic system, though under British control until it had reached a stage in development and education when it could be amalgamated with Ministerial Burma. Stevenson believed that colonial rule had made the Frontier Areas more autocratic. He a more cohesive whole in order to federate it with Ministerial Burma However his federative idea was based on racial groups Interestingly some of his critical thoughts on autocracy (feudalism) and development were close to the AFPFL policy. But his grand scheme was too expensive politically sensitive to London and offensive to the AFPFL. The Burmans