“LADY OF WHITE HORSE” HEADS BURMA BANDITS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22707, 4 August 1948, Page 6

“LADY OF WHITE HORSE” HEADS BURMA BANDITS

RANGOON (By Air Mail). “A beautiful young maiden, flying through the night on a pure white stallion at the head of a column of Burmese bandits”—this is the description given in the Burmese press to the activities of Ma Khin Nyunt, leader of 300 rebels who are attacking police outposts and convoys in central Burma.

Ma Khin Nyunt or the Lady of the White Horse, as she is called, made headlines in the Rangoon papers following two successful attacks on Government outposts in the troubled Yamethin district between Rangoon and Mandalay.

She was first heard of, however, in the early months of last year—long before the outbreak of the present Communist insurrection. Early in 1947, when the late U Aung San’s interim Government was faced with a serious breakdown of law and order, the authorities launched "Operation Flush” only to discover that some of the fiercest opposition came from a woman rebel. Always One Jump Ahead Every effort was made to capture the Lady of the White Horse, but she was always one jump ahead of Government- forces. A military spokesman, who described her as a "virago,” said her success in evading the law was due to the assistance she received from other gangs. Whatever difficulty she was in, she . could always muster a sufficiently strong force of her own or other gangs to fight her way to safety. Today, after 18 months of campaigning against the forces of law and order, Ma Khin Nyunt is more active than ever. She heads a band of adventurers and malcontents, armed with booty left, by the Japanese. She operates in thickly forested areas, where some of the Government’s richest teak reserves afford ample cover against attack. The Lady of the White Horse, still in her early twenties, is undoubtedly! helping the Burmese Communists in] their battle against the Government,! but there is nothing to prove that she is over-interested in the political issues that are being thrashed out in tha Burmese capital. Lady of the Highway Records show that she is purely and simply a lady of the highways. Government convoys, merchants and ordinary travellers are her meat. She is , by no means a female Robin Hood, but the newspapers find her romantic story good "copy” for their readersAn enterprising film company has seized upon the chance to portray the story of Ma on the screen, but they have run up against censorship difficulties, as the authorities frown on any undue emphasis on crime. Although Ma is regarded as Burma’s No. 1 woman Dacoit, she is not alone in the field.

In Myingyan. another district of central Burma, two women insurgents, both former Government school teachers, decided that the sword was more remunerative than the pen. and now head sizeable gangs of bandits. Many of their following are women. There have frequently been reports in the press of "roving bands of women” swooping down on convoys just beyond the outskirts of Rangoon. In an attack bv insurgents on a police station at Pegu, 40 miles north of Rangoon, women passed the ammunition to the men.