大象传媒

Loyalty betrayed

The Burmese had been wanting independence from the British even before the war. When the Japanese invaded in 1941 Aung San and a group of a dozen others who had been to Japan for training formed the Burma National Army. It fought against the allies until 1945. Aung San then realised that he had backed the wrong side and entered into talks with the British.

At that time the X1Vth Army were fighting southwards towards Rangoon and as air supply becomes very difficult during the monsoon they had to capture the port before the rains started in May. So, much against the gut instincts of many of us, the High Command accepted Aung San鈥檚 offer to change sides. The BNA was a distraction to be removed in the all-out push against the Japs.

After the war the recently elected Labour Government were anxious to give independence to as much of the Empire as they could as quickly as possible. India was an obvious candidate and Burma too. They grossly mishandled the giving of independence to Burma. The Burmese were a majority but the peoples in the surrounding hills had quite different ambitions and no wish to be governed by people they mistrusted. They had stayed loyal throughout the war and justifiably expected some recognition of this.

A federal solution would have been possible had the British had the determination to give time to the difficult negotiations which would have been necessary. The Karens could have had a viable self-governing territory within a Burmese Federation and this is what they pleaded for. They would have been self-sufficient with the majority of Tenasserim, bounded on the north by the left bank of the Sittang River, across to the Thai border somewhere south of Papun, and down perhaps to Mergui. They were the majority population there; they also had a large population to the west of Rangoon; if they were not happy to remain there, there would have been room for them in the new territory.

Delegations from the interested parties all came to London to put their cases to the government. The government response is exemplified at a luncheon where the Prime Minister was the host. (This is described by Brigadier Fergusson in his book 鈥楻eturn to Burma鈥�). Mr Attlee made a speech. 鈥淣one of us鈥�, he said, 鈥渨ould ever forget the friendship which had existed so long between the Karens and the British, nor for what they had done for us during the war鈥�. The leader of the Karen delegation rose to reply.

鈥淢r. Attlee has said some very nice things about the Karens鈥� he said. 鈥渆verybody has been very kind to us since we came to London. There have been cocktail parties, dinner parties, receptions, and much generous hospitality. But we cannot get the answer to the question we came to London to ask. We have only one question. Some peoples want to leave the British empire. We Karens don鈥檛. So here is our question , and it鈥檚 all we want to know. May we please stay in the British Empire?鈥�

Mr. Attlee looked at his watch and said that he had an urgent meeting. The delegation returned to Burma without an answer. Shortly afterwards Burma was granted unrestricted independence and left the Empire.

In a short time the Karen rebellion started. Soon they had captured Bassein in the Irrawadi delta and were within about 16 miles of Rangoon. A little later they captured Meiktila and Moulmein. However, the new Burmese government had an army whose senior officers were almost all Karen. All but two, who had been associated with Aung San, were with the British throughout the war.

The commander in chief, General Smith Dun, called them all to a meeting in Rangoon. Many of their friends had joined the rebellion. Had they decided to support their own people there is no doubt that the Karens would have won their independence. As senior officers with the British Army which had recaptured Burma, some of them Sandhurst trained, the decision facing them was agonising. They finally agreed that their loyalty had to be with government they were employed to serve. They took steps to crush the rebellion and after further months of chaos order was restored.

The rebels were not satisfied. They took territory on the Thai border which became a de facto self-administered area. The Burmese army has been fighting against them for almost 60 years. In 1982 I visited Thailand and with the help of Karen friends I crossed the border illicitly and visited one of the Karen enclaves. The village had its church, school, hospital, a well-disciplined unit of the Karen National Defence Force and a Customs post. I watched a football match between Customs Imports and Customs Exports!

They charged duty on all the goods being smuggled into Burma from Thailand which had to pass through the territory. All the luxuries which Burma would not import came in by routes such as this. I saw a column of some 20 porters set out with heavy loads for Kawkareik in Burma where they could put their goods onto the black market. The televisions, radios, and electrical goods provided a Customs revenue to finance the Karens!

I was delighted to hear that the track through the mountains which the smugglers used was still called the 鈥榩arachutists鈥� path鈥� because I had used it in 1945.

I met old levy friends there and they were still confident that they would maintain their independence. Unhappily that has not been so. The Burmese army, with aircraft and artillery at their disposal, have slowly pushed the Karens across the Thai border almost everywhere. Many have ended up in this country, Australia, Canada and the USA but there are some 200,000 of them in a number of camps just inside Thailand, where they, like refugees in many parts of the world, are tolerated rather than welcomed.

I am still in e-mail contact with them and the small contribution I am making to show my gratitude is by helping them to set up a library for the schools they have opened in the camps. All the parcels I send are opened before they reach them so I have no means of knowing just how many books they have received.

I wanted to go to see them under the 鈥淗eroes Return鈥� scheme (what a ghastly name!) but no tours are organised to visit that area and I just don鈥檛 feel fit enough to travel under my own arrangements.

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