BURMA REBELLION OUT OF CONTROL

Grey River Argus, 1 March 1949, Page 5

BURMA REBELLION OUT OF CONTROL

Over Thirty Thousand Lives Lost

RANGOON, Feb. 27.

The Prime Minister of Burma, Thakin Nu, stated to-day that 30,000 people had so far lost their lives as a result of the insurrection of Burma, He appealed to his countrymen to abandon their “terrorist activities” and support the Government so that general elections could' be held. Thakin Nu added that the loss of revenue through the insurrection represented nearly £19,000,000. Thakin Nu was addressing a mass rally of the anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League. Ten thousand people at the meeting swore allegiance to the Government and pledged themselves to an all-out effort to restore law and order. LONDON, Feb 27.

A Reuter -correspondent reports that Burmese Government troops have launched heavy attacks on Karen and Communist rebels holding the Central Burma railway towns of Meiktila and Thazi. A conference on the Burmese situation was arranged after the Brit’sh Government consulted other Commonwealth Governments on the Burmese request to the British Government for money to finance the export of its rice crop and for other purposes, says The Times diplomatic correspondent. “The Burmese Government will not be represented; but the conference is being held with its consent,” he says. It is stated that the object of the conference is to find ways and means of assisting Burma to internal stability and encourage Burmese rice exports. Rice is the basis of Burma’s economy. It is emphasised in London that there is no question of Britain trying to regain influence in Burma.

The Brtish Government’s position The British Government’s position and other reason settlement of the trouble between the Karens and the Burmese Government is urgent. There is no evidence that the Karens owe or wish to owe anything to the Communists; but a danger remains that continuance of chaos in Burma would have economic and political consequences prejudicial to the security of South-East Asia as a whole.

The British Commissioner-General in South-east Asia (Mr Malcolm Macdonald) will attend the conference. A Foreign Ministry spokesman in Karachi reported that Pakistan will not send a delegate to the .conference because the date coindldes with the introduction of the Dominion budget, discussion.