BURMA UPRISING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26852, 17 August 1948, Page 5

BURMA UPRISING

GOVERNMENT’S PRECARIOUS POSITION

FACING MILITARY REVOLT

N.Z.P. A.—Copyright LONDON, Aug. 15 Thfe Burmese Government is tottering under the weight of popular discontent and the internal fight for power, says the Associated Press correspondent who left Rangoon a few days ago. The Prime Minister, Thakin Nu, during the past 10 days put down an intended revolt within the army. A third of the army may be disaffected. The first hint of the uprising came less than a week ago. when Rangoon papers cautiously revealed that 800 men of the Sixteenth Battalion military police had been surrounded and disarmed in their barracks. The Government asserted that they intended to join 70 of their comrades who had previously joined Communist rebels near Rangoon. The Government swiftly disarmed other suspect army units and barricaded roads into Rangoon. Britain’s Policy The British seem to be observing a strictly hands-off policy. The only British troops in Burma are 15 officers and men, due to leave soon, and a small group of advisers training the Burmese Army. Rangoon’s Prome road gaol is crowded with political opponents of the Thakin Nu regime. Most of Burma’s political parties have gone underground. The man behind the political purge is Kyan Nyein, Home Minister and founder of the Burmese Socialist Party. Opponents of the regime include Communists, some Independents, the People’s Volunteer Organisation, and ambitious army officers. The correspondent says the Communists are making things hot for the Government in outlying areas. Their leader, Than Tun. is hiding in the Pyinmana forests. 300 miles from Rangoon. The Moscow-Burma go-between is a quiet man named Goshal, on whose head there is a price' of £SOOO, and who is said to get his orders via Calcutta. So-called Communist activity is mainly simple banditry. Capitulation Suggested Most of the foreigners in Burma say that Thakin Nu will probably hand over the Government to a military regime, headed by the army commander. Lieutenant-general Smith Dun, who is a 45-year-old Burmese, a little Left of Centre. Reuter’s Rangoon correspondent quotes a Government communique as saying the Government forces dispersed 300 insurgents, who earlier occupied a police station in Syriam, Burma’s largest oil depot on the op l posite bank of the river from Rangoon. Government troops also recaptured a small village near Rangoon.