Burma's Next Step
The Prime Minister has closed the Burma Round Table Conference with a speech calculated, for reasons set out on a later page, to leave the more advanced Burmese dissatisfied. The emancipation Mr. MacDonald foreshadows is extensive, but desires frustrated always bulk larger on such occasions than desires realized. Mr. U Ba Pc and his colleagues, naturally anxious to carry home the laurels of complete achievement, are disappointed that the temporary safeguards in such matters as defence, external relations and finance go as far as the Prime Minister declares they must, and the prospect of separate electorates, or at any rate some special provision, for minorities is equally unwelcome. On more mature reflection it will perhaps be recognized that the advance Burma is making from her present position as a province of India to full self-government qualified by certain temporary safeguards is immense. There is nothing derogatory in acceptance of a transitional regime as a prelude to the virtual independence of a British Dominion, but it is important that the British Government should make it unmistakably clear on all occasions that the regime of safeguards is genuinely meant to be transitional. It is now for Burma to declare its desire regarding separation from India.
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