Letter from Burma 14

Heinda Mine

Tenasserim

Southern Burma

21 April, 1935

Dear Rosalind,

Happy Easter to you. I hope you are having a nice holiday with your grandma. We have just celebrated a Burmese holiday here too - the Thingyan Festival which lasts for three days.

Your mother asked me to fill you in on the history and politics of Burma for your project, so here goes.

Much of what is happening regarding the separation of Burma from India and eventually from Britain, is in fact being decided in the British Parliament, so if you read the newspapers you probably have a pretty good idea already of what I am going to say. The newspaper we get here is called The Straits Times, and what I am writing will be from an article that I read in it. Apparently there are 152 clauses relating to Burma which are included in the India Bill, which is being discussed in a Parliamentary Committee at the moment.

The plan is to establish a system of parliamentary government similar in form to that of the Westminster model of British cabinet government, providing a means for Burmese politicians to involve themselves in the management of the central state. The electoral institution of the two sector government, including political parties who are willing to cooperate with the British will lead to the further development of organised national opposition to cooperating with the colonial state.

The colonial state was never able to achieve the acceptance its precolonial predecessor
had. People could always talk about a not too distant past when the king's state apparently demanded less of the people and they lived lives unaffected by international price fluctuations, foreign labour competition, alien landlords, large debts and a punitive police
force.

A motion for the omission of the Burma separation clauses on the ground that the same
progress towards self-government had not been made in Burma as in India, was resisted by the Secretary for India, Sir Samuel Hoare, who said the Statutory Commission came very definitely to the view the the great weight of opinion in Burma was in favour of the separation.

The Government, however, insisted that every possible step should be taken to avoid a
sudden dislocation of the economic bonds that had grow up between India and Burma. Accordingly the Joint Select Committee recommends that there should be an interim period before the new governments became established, and as a result of the discussions between the two Governments the view was reached that a status quo for five years should be maintained during which time trade relations between Burma and India would continue as at present.

And in another issue of the paper, it shows that the trade links between us and India are
still very strong.

"The last few weeks have witnessed an enormous increase in the import of Burmese padi and rice into Madras. The imports for the last week alone reached about 5,000 tons." I wondered myself what the difference was between padi and rice, as Padi is the Burmese word for a rice plant - hence the padi fields where the rice is grown.

You might have heard that there is quite strong feeling here about the silver anniversary of King George V, which is due to take place next month. This is what I read.

“The Burmese nationals are denied the privilege of being ruled by their own King. As a subject race, they mourn for the Burmese monarchs. To express this lamentable condition, the conference deems it proper for the nationals to refrain from participation in the silver jubilee celebrations to be held to mark the 25th anniversary of the coronation of King George V.”

This is the first royal jubilee celebration which is to occur after only a quarter century. In England, I am sure, the king is extraordinarily popular and I expect you will have a genuine national mood of celebration with bunting, and street parties. He is virtually the only head of state of a major country to have been in place before 1914.

National Day is celebrated here in late December. It has been celebrated throughout the
colonial period. In the 1925 celebrations there was a speech to Young Burmans delivered by a Tibetan monk. saying he was pleased to find that Burma, unlike other countries, does not have a caste system and gave men and women equal rights and status.

Love from Daddy