BURMESE ASPIRATIONS

Rotorua Morning Post, Issue 5327, 13 February 1947, Page 4

BURMESE ASPIRATIONS

— ^HE yeast of nationalism has worked powerfully during the war in Burma, and there is little doubt that, as with the Indians, nothing short of complete independence will satisfy the aspirations of the majority of politically educated Burmese. Their right to this has, indeed, been acknowledged in plain terms by Mr. Attlee. In one important respect Burma presents a less difficult* problem than India, in that she is free from the intractable racial and religious differences which are hampering her great neighbour's progress tov/ards full self -government. The only real racial problem occurs in the frontier areas. Britain, who has reason to be grateful to the staunchness of the frontier peoples during the Japanese invasion, would certainly be bound to resist any attempt to bring them unwillingly under Burmese domination, but an impasse on this issue seems to have been averted by the intimation of U Aung San, leader of the AntiFascist People's • Freedom League, that his party is prepared to grailt these regions full autonomy and material assistance. More contentious is the Burmese insistence . that the April elections should be for a cpnstituent assembly, and that the present Executive Council should become an interim Government with full powers. The greatest hurdle of all is presented, howev'er, by the neremptory Burmese demand for complete independence within a year. Whatever the political pressures hehind it, this demand patently ignores the complex economic and financial problems which must first be settled before indenendence can become . a reality. But even here, giveif goodwill on both sides, some compromise "based on the British Government's explicit * assurances ^hould not prove unatt§ipa]b]g.