BURMESE MISSION

Evening Star, Issue 26001, 16 January 1947, Page 4

BURMESE MISSION

BRITISH OFFICER'S PROTEST LEADER'S PRO-JAPANESE MISSION (K.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent.) LONDON, January 15. Captain B. R. Vertannes, who served as a liaison officer with the British 14th Army, and who is a landowner in Burma, called at No. 10 Downing Street with a 5,000-word letter of protest against the British Government entertaining some of the members of the Burmese Government Mission at present in London. The protest alleges that several members of the mission co-operated with the Japanese during the war, particularly the mission’s leader, U. Aung San, who raised and led a. force for the Japanese in 1942, and received the Order of the Rising Sun before he decided to change sides and co-operate with the 14th Army. Mr Attlee was out when Mr Vertannes called, so ho decided to print 640 copies of his protest and distribute a copy to each member of Parliament. Subsequently, the Burma Office issued a statement pointing out that members of the mission are all members of the present Executive Council of Burma, and were here at the Government’s invitation. The Government was fully aware of their war records when the invitations were sent.