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“An Empire Gem”: British Wartime Planning for Post-War Burma, 1943–44

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

Nicholas Tarling
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Extract

British planning for post-war Burma had been set back by the Cabinet's decision in April 1943 not to adopt the proposals put forward by Leopold Amery, the Secretary of State. Designed also to meet the need for wartime propaganda, the proposals had envisaged a programme of reconstruction aided by the British, carried forward during a period of direct rule, to be followed by advance towards self-government. There were doubts about the amount of aid Britain could promise. There were also doubts as to the wisdom of the concept of direct rule, though in fact the Cabinet accepted the principle without setting a limit to the period. Above all, the Prime Minister opposed further policy declarations on Burma. The war, Churchill believed, was not the time for them. Amery and Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, the Governor, thought that he really believed that no time would be right for them. They were not without hope that he would “come round”. Meanwhile, it was decided that the Burma Government, in exile in Simla, would remain in existence. “I can not help thinking that it would be a bad thing politically actually to do away with the office of Governor of Burma, if only because it would [be] a welcome propaganda point for the Japanese who would doubtless use it to demonstrate either that we have given up all hopes of retaking Burma or that we visualise setting up a Military Government in Burma.…”

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , September 1982 , pp. 310 - 348
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1982

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References

1 Dorman-Smith to Amery, 1 July 1943, MSS. Eur. E.215/4, India Office Records, London.

2 Dorman-Smith to Amery, 28 July 1943, ibid.

3 Dorman-Smith to Linlithgow, 12 July 1943, Eur. E. 215/11.

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6 Minute, 22 July 1943, ibid.

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47 See questions by Sorensen, 11 Nov. 1943, M3/734 (BF 9103/39 Part V); and Dugdale, 2 Dec, M3/730 (BF 9103/39 Part 1).

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65 Note by Johnston, 19 Jan. 1944, BF 83/44.

66 Michie to Under-Secretary, 7 Mar. 1944, ibid.; R 8/8/2.

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88 Dorman-Smith to Amery, ?13 June 1944, Eur. E. 215/6.

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96 Comments by the Governor of Burma, 11 Aug. 1944, ibid.

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107 Note, 2 Sept. 1944, ibid.

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120 Dorman-Smith to Mountbatten, 3 Aug. 1944, Eur. E.215/14.

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128 MacDougall to Dorman-Smith, 9 Oct. 1944, ibid.

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133 Minutes, 14, 17 Nov. 1944, ibid.

134 Drafts in ibid.

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136 Minute, 23 Nov. 1944, ibid.; PREM 4/50/3.

137 Blue Print for Burma, Report by Certain Conservative Members of Parliament on the Future of Burma (London, 1944).

138 Times, 15 Nov. 1944.

139 House of Commons, 29 Nov. 1944.

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142 Churchill for Chief Whip, 3 Dec. 1944, PREM 4/50/3.

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149 Hansard, Vol. 406, No. 8, cols. 1076–1127.

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154 [Draft] Memo, Government Assistance towards Re-establishment of Industry in Burma after the War, and redraft by Wright, ibid.

155 Meeting at Treasury, 15 Nov. 1944, BF E 53/46.

156 Smith to James, 11 Dec. 1944; Winnifrith to Smith, 21 December, ibid.

157 MacDougall to Dorman-Smith, 7 Nov. 1944, R 8/1/6; F.O. 643/5.

158 MacDougall to Walton, 9 Nov. 1944, R 8/1/6.

159 Notes, 3, 7, 8 Nov. 1944, ibid.

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161 See note 124

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