Word: burma
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Said Winston Churchill: "The words which have come from the Prime Minister's lips today are, in fact, irrevocable and he has shorn Burma from the British Crown...
Clement Attlee had just told the House of Commons that Burma could have a choice between complete independence and dominion status. A representative group of Burmans would come to London next month to speed the freedom process while Burma elected a constitutional convention...
Attlee had acted under pressure. A month ago Burma's youthful (31) nationalist leader, Aung San, had presented the British with a demand to quit Burma by Jan. 31, 1947. If the deadline were not met, Aung San had threatened, it would be time for "extralegal methods." Aung San, whose Anti-Fascist People's Freedom . League is expected to sweep the elections, will undoubtedly head the delegation to London...
Churchill had not become the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition to witness in silence the liquidation of the British Empire. First there had been India, the brightest jewel; now, with Burma, that hated word "liquidation" had proceeded into the second syllable. An 18th Century statesman who scorns the 20th Century's grey impersonality, Churchill identified himself with his imperial cause. In a peculiarly Churchillian passage he said: "I have always followed [Burma] affairs with attention because it was my father* who was responsible for the annexation of Burma. ... It was said in the [18th Century] days...
...Lord Randolph Churchill, as Secretary of State for India in 1885, ordered a British expeditionary force to depose Burma's mad King Theebaw and formally join the country, which had been under British influence for 60 years, to the Empire...