The Triumph of Diplomacy and the Regaining of Independence

Abstract

When in December, 1946, the British Prime Minister, Mr. Attlee, declaring that it was the Burmese themselves who would have to decide their political future, invited General Aung San to London for discussions with His Majesty’s Government, some of his followers and most of his opponents did not believe that Britain would ever agree to permit Burma to leave the British Empire. In 1945, when the Burmese demanded from the British full independence, and also decided to make their new State a republic, there was no question of Burma remaining on as a part of the British Empire, because neither a fully sovereign state nor a republic could then exist within an empire. However, by 1947, the conception and structure of the British Empire itself were changing, and it was being transformed into a Commonwealth of Nations, within which the Republic of India, when established, could and would remain. Therefore, the Burmese leaders had now to consider whether they would re-open the question of remaining within the Commonwealth. Burma had inherited from the war a full legacy of chaos and destruction, and was in sore need of outside wealth for her reconstruction and rehabilitation, and to remain within the Commonwealth would have assured that some aid at least would be received from Britain.

Since there is no help, come let us kiss and part.

Michael Drayton, Sonnet

Farewell! thou art too dear for my possessing, And like enough thou know’st thy estimate: The charter of thy worth gives thee releasing; My bonds in thee are all determinate.

Shakespeare, Sonnets