ARRESTS MADE IN BURMA

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25245, 25 July 1947, Page 7

ARRESTS MADE IN BURMA

ALLEGED ASSASSINS OF MINISTERS

RANGOON, July 23. It is learned on good authority that the police have arrested the gunmen who last Saturday assassinated seven Burmese Ministers, says Reuters. Police last night shot dead one of the arrested gunmen as he attempted to escane from a jeep which was bringing him to Rangoon from Pegu. The identities of the gunmen are not yet known. They are all Burmese, and seem to have had military training. The Burmese police will use mine detectors in an intensive search for arms which political organisations are believed to have buried.

Two skeletons dug up near the entrance of the estate of U Saw, the Myochit leader, have been sent to the medical authorities to determine the possible cause of .death. Police, who raided the home of U Ba Pe, a former member of the Governor’s Executive Council, found nothing incriminating and no one was arrested. The secretary of the Defence Department Ba Tint, said that Burma had not approached Britain or India for troops. “We have sufficient Burmese troops to deal with any situation likely to arise,” he added. •

“DUTCH VIOLENCE” CONDEMNED

JOINT STATEMENT BY N.S.W. CHURCHMEN

(Rec. 7JO pun.) SYDNEY, July 24. Five New South Wales churchmen condemn “Dutch violence” in. Indonesia. In a joint statement, they suggest the imposition of economic sanctions through the United Nations organisation. The churchmen are the Bishop of Armidale (Dr. J. S. Moyes) and the Rev. E. J. Davidson and the Rev. W. G. Coughlan. of the Church of England, and the Rev. Alan Walker and the Rev. Ralph Sutton, of the Methodist Church. “We have all been conscious of the goodwill that the promising Dutch policy in Indonesia was acquiring,” says the statement. “Now the Dutch have destroyed it at one stroke. We do not expect mature democratic actions from the Indonesians, but we have every right to expect them of the Dutch. “There is nothing to justify violence at this stage of the negotiations. Should not the Government of Australia, as a democratic neighbour, take immediate steps to offer its services as mediator?”

FEDERATION OF LABOUR’S ATTITUDE

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 24. An international stand by trade unions on the issue of self-government for colonial peoples is proposed in a cablegram sent by the secretary of the New Zealand Federation of Labour (Mr K. Baxter) to the general secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (Mr Louis Saillant, Paris). The message stated: “The New Zealand Federations of Labour affirms its support of the principle of self-govern-ment (as laid down at out annual conference in 1945). We believe the World Federation of Trade Unions should take a world-wide stand on this issue.”

NO BOYCOTT OF SHIPS AT ROTTERDAM

AMSTERDAM, July 23. The Communist boycott of ships for Indonesia in the port of Amsterdam is not yet in evidence in the port of Rotterdam. The Mayor of Rotterdam (Dr. Oud) has banned a meeting of affiliated uhions which is scheduled for tomorrow night.