A CONFERENCE FOR BURMA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20991, 30 September 1931, Page 8

A CONFERENCE FOR BURMA.

Preliminary arrangements are being made for a round table conference to discuss the future of Burma. The intention to hold it in November, after the Federal Structure Committee of the India Conference now in session—had completed its task, but before the sittings of the conference as'a whole had ended) was announced on August 20. The essential task of the gathering, it was then definitely stated, would be to discuss the lines of a Constitution for Burma separated from India. The principle of separation had been recommended by the Statutory Commission and endorsed by the Burma Sub-Committee of the India Conference, the resolution to that effect having been passed in January last. The British -Government, in effect, accepted the policy at once, promising to proceed with inquiries into the conditions necessary for an equitable severance of relations between British India and Burma. The delay since then can be attributed largely to the Burmese rebellion, a movement said to have been aggravated slightly by the slowness with which the separation scheme was being prosecuted, but based far more on the economic difficulties and discontents of the people. The fortunes of the Burmese people as a whole depend principally on one commodity, rice. Like wheat, rice has suffered a disastrous fall in price, and the difficulties this position engendered made the work of agitators easy. Now, however, the situation .is more in hand, and the task of the conference can be pursued. As shown, the principle of separation can be regarded as settled. Only the conditions remain to be decided. The two most important points are the financial adjustment, as between Burma and India, and the Constitution for the newly independent country—independent of India, that is. The first is the most delicate, for Indian susceptibilities have to be considered. There is force in the suggestion that the question cannot properly be settled by discussion at a conference, that it should be handed over to a judicial tribunal. As regards the Constitution, practically no suggestions have come from the Burmese themselves, and thus the conference, which will have such an important bearing on the future of the country, should be able to attack its task with few prejudices to combat and few preliminary difficulties to, overcome.