BURMA

Evening Star, Issue 25619, 20 October 1945, Page 10

BURMA

THE NEW DOMINION [Written by H.S.K.-K., for the ' Evening Star.'] The reported resumption of civil government in Burma will have farreaching effects not only on that vast country to the south-east of India, but also oil the whole of the Commonwealth. Burma, nearly three times the size of New Zealand, with a population of 15,000,00, had been promised dominion status in 1937, and this promise was reaffirmed in July, 1940. It lias just been reported that His Majesty sent a message to the Governor-General stating that "it is the intention of •the United Kingdom Government that Burma should at the earliest opportunity attain complete self-government as a member of the British Commonwealth." The present deadlock in India might well mean that that great empire will be outstripped by Burma in the attainment of independence within the Commonwealth, and for the first time in British history a country inhabited by an Asiatic people would thus become an equal partner in the most adaptable and progressive association of nations the world has yot seen.

Burma attracted British interest at a relatively late stage. A firm foothold had been established in India before expansion to their independent Burmese kingdom took place. Burma had had a checkered history before that time. Peopled by a Mongoloid race closely akin to the Chinese, the kingdom was conquered by the famous Mongolian emperor of China, Kublai Khan in the thirteenth century. The great medieval traveller Marco Polo, who served on Kublai Khan's personal staff, has left fascinating accounts of the war in which the Burmese were subdued and made tributary to their powerful neighbours. Chinese princes parcelled out the country among themselves, and after a while they in turn became virtually independent of Chinese overlordship. BRITAIN'S EMERGENCE. A period of dynastic and social upheavals followed the last Sino-Burmese during the middle of the eighteenth century, and this gave Britain a chance to establish herself in Burma. The strongest of the various rulers who tried to establish themselves made a treaty with Britain whereby he ceded outright a small territory on the coast, and allowed trade to enter the country free of duty. In return he was promised military aid when needed against his rivals, and Britain also undertook not to give any assistance to the next strongest aspirant to the Burmese throne. An annual " tribute " to the king brought him the blessings of civilisation in the shape of a cannon every year, and also gunpowder. Not quite conversant with world affairs, and knowing nothing of European strength, later Burmese kings considered their country to be more than a match for Great Britain, and were not slow to try conclusions. They were sadly disillusioned when the British East India Company, India's then ruler, moved against them in 1823 after a long series of Burmese aggressions against the Indian frontire lands. In 1826 Burma had to cede the provinces of Assam. Aralkan, and the coastal district of Tenasserim—all names which have figured in the recent war. The second Burma war of 1851-1852 was waged on account of the : king's arbitrary treatment of British merchants in defiance of treaty rights. It cost Burma the province of Pegu, including the great port of Rangoon. This latest annexation cut off access to the sea, and Burma was thus reduced to an inland kingdom. The last Burmese war, which ended the independence of the remnant of the country, was fought in 1860. By that time the French had entered on the scene in neighbouring Siam, and from

there attempted the " peaceful penetration " of Burma. Her last king, Thebaw, was not averse from playing off France against Britain, which he considered more dangerous to his country, because nearer at hand in India. When Thebaw attempted to transfer the rights of a British trading company to the French, Britain acted by sending Thebaw an ultimatum requiring him to follow British advice in his home and foreign policy. An army followed this ultimatum, captured Mandalay, took Thebaw prisoner, and, on January 1. 1866, Burma was declared an' integral part of British India. MODERN BURMA. Burma' was never wholly absorbed in the Indian Empire. It remained a separate province under a lieutenantgoverner until 1937, when the India Act of 1935 came into operation. An earlier Act of 1919 had laid the foundations for self-government in India, and the 1935 Act extended the principle. Its main importance for Burma lay in the provision that the country was separated from India, thus fulfilling the desire of the Burmese, who, on the whole, were against union with theii more, populous and powerful neighbour. Burma was given a separate House of Representatives of 132 members elected on a property qualification; a Senate of 36, acting as the Upper Chamber, was partly elected by the House of Representatives and partly appointed by the British Governor. The Cabinet is generally chosen by the Governor from members of the Legislature who still en-

joy its confidence, and in name Cabinet is responsible to the Lower House. The Governor, however, has important reserve powers which not only enable him to veto Acts of the Legislature, but also give him the right to legislate without the consent of the two Houses. ■ Apart from these overriding powers, the Government departments of foreign policy, defence, finance, and ecclesiastical matters are under the Governor's sole control. An important aspect in Burmese affairs is the " excluded areas," comprising the 34 Shan States, which are ruled by their own princes under the advice of British political officers. Although part of Burma, the Shan States do not participate in the Rangoon Legislature, and their disposition might well prove a source of trouble.

Economically, Burma is well able to take care of herself. She has vast mineral wealth, particularly in oil and tin, as well as in silver, gold. ; and precious stones. Rubber and Trice , comprise the bulk' of foreign export, and the failure of the Burmese rice crops to reach India during the war was mainlv responsible for the recent Indian famines. Culturally, the Burmese loo:k more towards China than towards India, and there also existed some strong feeling agamst Indians before the war due to the influx of Indian workers who were satisfied with low wages, and thus depressed the Burmese standard o f 'living. On the whole, however. Burma will prove a bridge between Tndin and China, and her emergence as a fully self-governing dominion within the British Commonwealth will do much to strencthrvi democratic principles in thp Far F"-+.