BURMESE PROBLEMS.

Waikato Times, Volume 114, Issue 19118, 1 December 1933, Page 4

BURMESE PROBLEMS.

The Burmese constitutional problem is a dual one. It comprises a major and a minor issue—the separation of Burma from India and the form of Constitution most suited to a separated Burma, comments The Times. If the Burmans should elect to remain permanently within the Indian Empire their country would enjoy no greater and no less a measure of autonomy than is provided in the White Paper for Madras or for any other Indian province. In that case the problem would be narrowed down to the representation of the Burmans and their minorities in the Central Legislature. But there are no grounds whatever for the assumption that the people of Burma desire permanent union with India.. Their representatives in the Indian Legislative Assembly have shown very little interest in Indian affairs. The economic interests of the two countries are divergent. The so-called anti-Separationists who won the last Burmese General Election only differ from the Separationists on a question of tactics. In spite of the Prime Minister’s warning and the scepticism of their rivals they believe or hope that Burma will be allowed to enter the Indian Federation with the right to “ contract out ” whenever it suits the Burma Council, and on better terms than they would now obtain. The Indian delegates, who have been discussing with the Committee the effect of separation on Indian may not be enthusiastic at the prospect of separation in so far as they fear that it may diminish the opportunities and the importance of the Indian community in Burma. But this does not mean that they are prepared to grant the right of secession to the Burmese Province; indeed several leading Indian politicians have already refused any such concession. Meanwhile all the available evidence marshalled by the Secretary of State indicates that the vast majority of the people of Burma are separationists at heart, and that the only genuine antiseparationists are the Indians residing in Burma whose economic success has given them greater influence in Burmese politics than their numbers warrant. _