“EVIL PROCESS”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22210, 21 December 1946, Page 4

“EVIL PROCESS”

MR. CHURCHILL’S VIEW BURMA SELF-RULE PLANS “APPALLING SCUTTLE’’ (10 a.m.) LONDON. Dec. 20. “The evil process’’ which is going on in India might needlessly be extended to Burma, said Mr. Churchill, Leader of the Opposition, replying in the House of Commons to a statement on Burma by the Prime Minister, Mr. C. R. Attlee. Mr. Attlee had said the Government did not regard the White Paper on Burma as unchangeable. The Burmese were showing some impatience at the apparently slow development of plans for self-government. The Cabinet believed the plan for Burma now merited reconsideration.

Mr. Churchill said it was surely reasonable that law and order should be established in Burma before the question of self-government was resumed. He could not see why it was necessary to open Burma to the possibility of the "same disasters to which we are only on the threshold in India. This haste is appalling. Scuttle is the only word,” he added. Government Action Defended

Mr. Attlee replied that Mr. Churchill had often found himself alone in these matters. “I think he has not been right. It is much more dangerous to lag behind than to keep up with the movements of public opinion in these countries. The Government has not been too fast in Burma but too slow. We believe that Burma will stay in the Empire, but we do not want to compel them. I see no reason why Burma should be treated worse than India in this respect.”

Mr. Attlee announced that because of the number of questions that had arisen about the implementation of British pledges to Burma .the Government had decided to invite a representative group of Burmese to visit Britain in the near future for discussions. Mr. Attlee recalled that when Burma separated from India. Britain wished it understood that this would not prejudice the prospects of constitutional advance held out to Burma as part of British India. Since then India had made great strides toward self-govern-ment and Burma had developed in the same direction, but it was greatly complicated by the Japanese invasion from which Burma had emerged chaotically. The Government had later issued a White Paper planning rigid Burmese self-government, though the Burmese leaders should be given the fullest opportunities ofmakingsuggestions.