Word: burma
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Said Winston Churchill: "The words which have come from the Prime Minister's lips today are, in fact, irrevocable and he has shorn Burma from the British Crown...
Clement Attlee had just told the House of Commons that Burma could have a choice between complete independence and dominion status. A representative group of Burmans would come to London next month to speed the freedom process while Burma elected a constitutional convention...
Attlee had acted under pressure. A month ago Burma's youthful (31) nationalist leader, Aung San, had presented the British with a demand to quit Burma by Jan. 31, 1947. If the deadline were not met, Aung San had threatened, it would be time for "extralegal methods." Aung San, whose Anti-Fascist People's Freedom . League is expected to sweep the elections, will undoubtedly head the delegation to London...
Churchill had not become the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition to witness in silence the liquidation of the British Empire. First there had been India, the brightest jewel; now, with Burma, that hated word "liquidation" had proceeded into the second syllable. An 18th Century statesman who scorns the 20th Century's grey impersonality, Churchill identified himself with his imperial cause. In a peculiarly Churchillian passage he said: "I have always followed [Burma] affairs with attention because it was my father* who was responsible for the annexation of Burma. ... It was said in the [18th Century] days...
...Burma, for instance, is not sharply divided, like India, along religious lines. Burmese are a homogeneous people, with a relatively high literacy rate (61% for males, 17% for females). Yet this fall, as Governor Sir Hubert Ranee tried hard to set up a native government, the Burmese broke out in a rash of major strikes and riots. Disturbances crystallized last month into violently opposed factions, one led by a former Japanese puppet, U Aung San, the other by a self-styled Communist, U Than Tun. These two young (31) men have similar political and personal backgrounds; in fact, they married...