Forgotten Wars
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83. Montgomery to All Commanders at Home and Overseas, 15 October 1946, WO32/16169, TNA.
84. Brigadier K. T. Darling to Montgomery, 24 May 1946, WO32/16169, TNA.
85. Quoted in Robert H. Ahrenfeldt, Psychiatry in the British army in the Second World War (London, 1950), p. 210.
86. Brian Aldiss, The twinkling of an eye, or my life as an Englishman (London, 1998), p. 201.
87. Northern Star, 6 May 1946; Straits Echo, 13 May 1946.
88. G. B. Folliot, OSPC Island, memorandum, 3 January 1947, FO371/69629, TNA; Sunday Gazette, 17 February 1946.
89. Aisha Akbar, Aishabee at war: a very frank memoir (Singapore, 1990), p. 229.
90. Stokes to Jessie Muirhead, 24 June 1945, Stokes Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.
91. Patrick French, Liberty or death: India’s journey to independence and division (London, 1997), pp. 222–3.
92. Dash Diaries, February 1946, Mss Eur C188/6, f. 74, OIOC.
93. Sir Arthur Dash, Bengal Diary, vol. 9, p. 67, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge. This is an extended version of the contemporary diary in the India Office Collection.
94. Intelligence Report, 26 January, 1946, L/PO/9/15, OIOC.
95. Report by Thakin Than Tun on AFPFL Congress, 17–23 January 1946, L/PO/9/15, OIOC.
96. See, e.g., Karen Memorial presented by H. Stevenson and T. L. Hughes, 2 February 1946, in Hugh Tinker (ed.), Burma: the struggle for independence 1944–48, vol. I: From military occupation to civil government, 1 January 1944 to 31 August 1946 (London, 1983), pp. 650–2.
97. Dorman-Smith, memoir, Mss Eur E215/32b, f. 272, OIOC.
98. Dorman-Smith to David Monteath, 5 April 1946, Laithwaite Papers, Mss Eur F138/72, OIOC.
99. S. K. Chettur, Malayan adventure (Mangalore, 1948), pp. 84–5.
100. F. V. Duckworth, ‘The visit of Pandit Nehru to Malaya, 18 March to 26 March 1946’, 4 April 1946, CO717/149/8, TNA.
101. Chettur, Malayan adventure, pp. 78–80.
102. Tamil Nesan, 22 June 1946; Jananayakam, 24 June 1946.
103. L. F. Pendred, Director of Intelligence, ‘The visit of Pandit Nehru to Malaya’, 30 March 1946, CO717/149/8, TNA.
104. Saravanamuttu, The Sara saga, pp. 133–4.
105. Cabinet meeting, London, 13 March 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. I, p. 686.
106. Note on political matters by Major E. G. Robertson, 25 August 1946, Clague Papers, Mss Eur E252/54, OIOC.
107. Dorman-Smith to Pethick-Lawrence, 6 January 1946, Dorman-Smith Papers, Mss Eur E215/10, OIOC.
108. Dorman-Smith to Pethick-Lawrence, 22 January 1946, ibid.
109. Dorman-Smith to Pethick-Lawrence, 6 and 22 January 1946, ibid.
110. ‘Ralph Michaelis’s Independent Newsletter Reports from Burma’, 13 December 1945, Laithwaite Papers, Mss Eur F138/72, f. 41, OIOC.
111. The fullest discussion of this whole incident from both the British and Aung San’s side can be found in the papers of Sir Hubert Rance, ‘Prosecution of Aung San’, Mss Eur F169/1, OIOC. This is essentially Dorman-Smith’s file, with a note by Sir Henry Knight passed on to Rance.
112. Reynolds News, 24 March 1946, cited in Angelene Naw, Aung San and the struggle for Burmese independence (Coperhagen, 2001), p. 238, n. 72.
113. B. Fase to Tom Driberg, 9 March 1946, Tom Driberg Papers, S3, 2, 25, Christ Church, Oxford.
114. Mountbatten to government of Burma, 27 March 1946, Rance Papers, Mss Eur F169/1, OIOC.
115. Cabinet Mission, Delhi, to Cabinet, London, 18 April 1946, L/PO/9/15, OIOC.
116. Pethick-Lawrence to Attlee, 7 April 1946, Pethick-Lawrence Papers, Box 1/72, Trinity College, Cambridge.
117. Dorman-Smith memoirs, Mss Eur E215/32b, ff. 264–6, OIOC.
118. Ibid., f. 266.
119. Government of Burma to Burma Office, 13 May 1946, ‘Prosecution of Aung San’, Rance Papers, Mss Eur F169/1, OIOC.
120. Ibid; also ‘Humble petition of Ma Ahma, wife of the late Abdul Raschid, residing at Paung’, M/5/102, OIOC, reproduced in Tinker, Burma, vol. I, p. 728.
121. Dorman-Smith Papers, Mss E215, 32 a/b, f. 218, OIOC.
122. GB to BO, 13 May 1946; Aung San’s rejoinder to the charges in the Legislative Council was printed in the Hanthawaddy newspaper c. 4 April 1946.
123. Ibid.
124. Naw, Aung San, p. 156, citing Hanthawaddy newspaper.
125. Appreciation by G. Appleton, 27 March 1946, Rance Papers, Mss Eur F 169/1, ‘Prosecution of Aung San’, OIOC.
126. Dorman-Smith Papers, Mss Eur E215/32, f. 64, OIOC.
127. Ibid., f. 207.
128. Report of the Tantabin Enquiry Committee (Rangoon, 1947), pp. 1–36. There is an unpaginated copy in the Library of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
129. Kyaw Win to an associate, 17 May 1946, ibid. p. 5.
130. Ibid., pp. 7–12.
131. Aung San to T. L. Hughes, 22 May 1946, M/4/2619, OIOC.
132. Attlee to Pethick-Lawrence, 7 May 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. I, p. 773.
133. Pearce to Dorman-Smith, 18 August 1946, Dorman-Smith Papers, Mss Eur E215/15, OIOC.
134. Tom Driberg, Ruling passions (London, 1978), pp. 215–16.
135. Aung San to Driberg, 12 June 1946, Driberg Papers, S3, Christ Church, Oxford.
136. Naw, Aung San, p. 166, citing Maurice Collis, Last and first in Burma, 1941–48 (London, 1956), p. 280.
137. Dorman-Smith to John Humphrey Wise, 8 November 1946, Dorman-Smith Papers, Mss Eur E215/16, OIOC.
138. Ibid.
139. U Thein Pe Myint, ‘A critique of the communist movement in Burma’, 1973, Mss Eur C498, f. 12, OIOC.
140. Burma and the insurrections, Government of the Union of Burma Publications, September 1949 (Rangoon, 1949), p. 3; Thein Pe, ‘A critique’, f. 19.
141. M. E. Dening, ‘Review of political events in South-East Asia 1945 to March 1946’, 25 March 1946, in Stockwell, British documents: Malaya, part I, p. 218.
142. Clyde Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald: bringing an end to empire (Montreal and London, 1995).
143. John Falconer to Hugh Bryson, 3 October 1969, Heussler Papers, RHO.
144. Ibid., p. 80. The description of the palace is by Han Suyin, a frequent guest of MacDonald’s.
CHAPTER 6 1946: ONE EMPIRE UNRAVELS, ANOTHER IS BORN
1. Nicholas Mansergh (ed.), Constitutional relations between Britain and India: the transfer of power 1942–47, vol. VII, The Cabinet Mission (London, 1977), introduction.
2. Maulana Azad to Wavell, 13 June 1946, ibid., p. 914.
3. Wavell, note of 29 June 1946, ibid., p. 1085.
4. Penderell Moon (ed.), Wavell: the viceroy’s journal (London, 1973), entry for 24 October 1946, p. 363
5. Patrick French, Liberty or death: India’s journey to independence and division (London, 1997), pp. 247–9.
6. Moon, Wavell, entry for 27 August 1946, p. 341.
7. Joya Chatterji, Bengal divided: Hindu communalism and partition, 1932–1947 (Cambridge, 1994), pp. 230–40; Suranjan Das, Communal riots in Bengal, 1905–1947 (Delhi, 1991), p. 165.
8. Extract in ‘Calcutta riots 1946–7’, L/P and J/8/655, OIOC.
9. Cited in Das, Communal riots, p. 168.
10. Press release of Working Committee of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, 6 September 1946, ‘Calcutta riots 1946–7’, L/P and J/8/655, OIOC.
11. Sim to Col. F. J. Erroll MP, n.d. August 1946, extract in ‘Calcutta riots 1946–7’, ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Governor Bengal to viceroy, 22 August 1946, entry Monday 19 August, ibid.
14. Das, Communal riots, p. 171.
15. This paragraph follows Das, Communal riots, the most authoritative secondary account of these events. This narrative itself is largely based on the 10-volume, Calcutta disturbances commission of enquiry: minutes of evidence (Calcutta, 1946).
16. Statesman, 26 August 1946.
17. Das, Communal riots, pp. 183–4.
18. Statesman, 24 August 1946; the newspaper’s coverage of these events was collected in the ‘Great Calcutta Killing, August 1946–September 1946’, copy in Stephens Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.
19. Dash, Bengal diary, vol. IX, p. 80, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.
20. Moon, Wavell, entry for 3 November 1946, p. 370.
21. Diary entry for 17 August, ‘Report on the disturbances in Calcutta commencing August 16 1946 issued by HQ Eastern Command’, Bucher Papers, 7901–87 A, National Army Museum.
22. Diary entry for 18 August, ibid.
23. Dash diaries, August 1946, ff. 74–80, Mss Eur C188/6, OIOC.
24. Governor Bengal to viceroy, 28 August 1946, ‘Calcutta riots 1946–7’, L/P and J/8/655, OIOC.
25. ‘Record of life in the Indian Civil Service 1930–47’, F. O. Bell Papers, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.
26. A retrospective account; Edward McInery to J. H. Habbakuk, 14 February 1976, McInery diary, Mss Photo Eur 148, OIOC.
27. Personal communications to the authors, 2001, from Professor F. M. L. Thompson.
28. Secret report on the political situation in Bengal for the second half of September 1946 by chief secretary to government of Bengal, J. M. G. Bell Papers, 2, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.
29. ‘Note on recent experiences’, late 1946, J. M. G. Bell Papers, 3, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge.
30. Manju Bandyopadhyay, cited in Sandip Bandyopadhyay, ‘The riddles of partition: memories of the Bengali Hindus’, in Ranabir Samaddar (ed.), Reflections on partition in the east (Calcutta, 1997), p. 68.
31. J. Tyson to his family, 30 November 1946, Tyson Papers, Mss Eur E341/41, OIOC.
32. Moon, Wavell, entry for 27 August 1945, p. 341.
33. Tyson to his family, 17 November 1946, Tyson Papers, Mss Eur E341/41, OIOC.
34. Counter-Intelligence summary, Burma Command, fortnight to 15 August 1946, f. 11, L/WS/1/744, OIOC.
35. Ibid., f. 21.
36. Counter-Intelligence summary, fortnight to end July, 1946, f. 35, ibid.
37. Note by Rance, 15 September 1946, in Hugh Tinker (ed.), Burma: the struggle for independence 1944–1948, vol. II: From general strike to independence, 31 August 1946 to 4 January 1948 (London, 1984), p. 19.
38. SACSEA to Cabinet, 17 September 1946, L/PO/9/15, OIOC.
39. John H. McEnery, Epilogue in Burma, 1945–48 (Tunbridge Wells, 1990), p. 56.
40. See daily progress reports of general strike, 24–30 September 1945, ‘The strike of September 1946’, Arnold Papers, Mss Eur F145/38 OIOC.
41. Mr Binns’s press release and note ‘immediate’ by F. Donnison, 21 September 1946, ibid.
42. Appeal by Maung Tin and F. B. Arnold, c. 23 September 1946, ibid.
43. Note by Montgomery, 23 September 1946, L/PO/9/15, OIOC.
44. Note by Rance, 15 September 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 22.
45. ‘His Excellency’s interview with U Saw’, 12 September 1945, L/PO/9/15, OIOC.
46. Note by Rance, ‘Interview with U Saw’, 12 September 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 17.
47. Memorandum of U Saw to Rance, October 1946, Laithwaite Papers, Mss Eur F138/72, OIOC.
48. Ibid.
49. SACSEA to Cabinet, 21 September 1946, L/PO/9/15, OIOC.
50. Rance To Pethick-Lawrence, 21 September 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 56.
51. Aung San to Rance, 17 September 1946, L/WS/1, 669; reproduced in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 33.
52. Rance to Pethick-Lawrence, 19 September 1946, ibid. pp. 47–8.
53. The Burman, 3 November 1946, clipping, FO/643/38 (G6/G546), TNA, reproduced in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 105.
54. Cabinet India and Burma Committee, 18 September 1946, ibid. pp. 36–9.
55. Progress Report for October 1946, Government of Burma Commerce and Supply Department, Arnold Papers, Mss Eur F145/24, OIOC.
56. Ibid.
57. Wavell reproducing Nehru to Aung San, 8 October 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 78, citing Mansergh, Transfer of Power in India, vol. VIII, p. 682.
58. ‘Hon. Aung San’s proposal for the immediate grant of a fuller measure of self-government to the people of Burma’, 11 November 1946, R/8/36, OIOC.
59. Rance to Pethick-Lawrence, 13 November 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, pp. 139–40
60. Rance to Pethick-Lawrence, 13 November 1946, R/8/36, OIOC.
61. Rance to Pethick-Lawrence, 12 November 1946, ibid.
62. Rance’s memorandum on the need to accelerate the progress of constitutional advance for Burma, 12 November 1946, ibid.
63. Rance to Pethick-Lawrence, 13 November 1946, in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, pp. 139–44.
64. Angelene Naw, Aung San and the struggle for Burmese independence (Copenhagen, 2001), pp. 177–81.
65. Extract from The Burman, 3 November 1946, 643/38, TNA, cited in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 105.
66. Thein Pe, ‘A critique of the communist movement in Burma’, a note to Indian communsists, 1973; Mss Eur C498, OIOC.
67. Invitation to reception 22 October 1946, Tom Driberg Papers, S3, 2, 51, Christ Church, Oxford; cf. ibid., no. 54, conversation between Tom Harrisson (Mass Observation) and Karen representatives, passed on to Driberg.
68. Combined civil and military intelligence for December 1946, ff. 70–4, Rance Papers, Mss Eur F169/5, OIOC.
69. ‘Reuter interview with Bogyoke Aung San, 16 December 1946’, in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 194.
70. John H. McEnery, Epilogue in Burma, 1945–48 (Tunbridge Wells, 1990), pp. 75–90.
71. Hansard, House of Commons debates, vol. 431, col. 2343–5, cited in Tinker, Burma, vol. II, p. 209.
72. Laithwaite to Monteath, 17 December 1946, Laithwaite Papers, Mss Eur F138/72, OIOC.
73. Ibid.
74. Laithwaite to Monteath, 20 December 1946, ibid.
75. Excerpt from Hansard, House of Commons debates, 20 December 1946, col. 2343; clipping in Laithwaite Papers, Mss Eur F138/72, OIOC.
76. McEnery, Epilogue in Burma, pp. 95–6.
77. ‘Memorial service for the men who died in captivity at work on the Burma–Siam Railway, 1942–5, December 18 1946’, Laithwaite Papers, Mss Eur F138/72, OIOC.
78. Fujio Hara, Malayan Chinese and China: conversion in identity consciousness, 1945–57 (Singapore, 2003), p. 32.
79. Charlie Cheah Fook Yong, OHD, SNA.
80. Kevin Blackburn, ‘The collective memory of the sook ching massacre and the creation of the civilian war memorial of Singapore’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 73, 2 (2000), pp. 76–7.
81. Beatrice Trefalt, Japanese army stragglers and memories of the war in Japan, 1950–1975 (London, 2003), p. 25.
82. ‘Jap nationals in SEAC area’, 19 September 1946, WO208/3909, TNA.
83. SEALF to SCAP, 1 March 1947, WO208/3910, TNA.
84. ‘Japanese Surrendered Personnel in Central Malaya’, December 1946, WO 208/3910, TNA.
85. Kazuo Tamayama, Railwaymen in the war: tales by Japanese railway soldiers in Burma and Thailand, 1941–1947 (Basingstoke, 2005), pp. 274–5.
86. Ibid., pp. 233–7.
87. Mamoru Shinozaki, Syonan – my story: the Japanese occupation of Singapore (Singapore, 1979), pp. 102–4.
88. Enclosures on BMA/CH/43/46, SNA.
89. Wee Hock Chye, Comfort homes and early years (Kuala Lumpur, n.d.) pp. 45–7.
90. Kevin Blackburn and Edmund Lim, ‘The Japanese war memorials of Singapore: monuments of commemoration and symbols of Japanese imperial ideology’, South East Asia Research, 7, 3 (2001), p. 336.
91. Kenichi Goto, Tensions of empire: Japan and Southeast Asia in the colonial and postcolonial world (Singapore, 2003), p. 196.
92. Chin Peng, My side of history (Singapore, 2003), pp. 146–7; C. C. Chin and Karl Hack (eds.), Dialogues with Chin Peng: new light on the Malayan Communist Party (Singapore, 2004), p. 96.
&
nbsp; 93. O. W. Gilmour, With freedom to Singapore (London, 1950), pp. 16–18.
94. Victor Purcell, Memoirs of a Malayan official (London, 1965), p. 303.
95. Letter of 7 July 1946, in Amy and Richard Haggard, ‘An account of the British Military Administration of Upper Perak, Malaya – 1945/46: being memories based on diaries and letters’, 4 April 2000, RCS, CUL.
96. E. T. Campbell in 1931, quoted in Margaret Shennan, Out in the midday sun: the British in Malaya, 1880–1960 (London, 2000), p. 114.
97. ‘Notes for women proceeding to Malaya: 21st May 1946’; minute 8 June, 1946, CO717/149/2, TNA.
98. Vernon Bartlett, Go East, old man (London, 1948), p. 103.
99. J. M. Gullick, ‘My time in Malaya’, June 1970, Heussler Papers, RHO.
100. Bartlett, Go East, old man, p. 103.
101. A. H. Dickenson to Gent, 22 December 1945; W. S. Morgan, minute, 25 October 1945, CO273/673/7, TNA.
102. Nicholas J. White, Business, government and the end of empire: Malaya, 1945–1957 (Kuala Lumpur, 1996), p. 82.
103. S. K. Chettur, Malayan adventure (Mangalore, 1948), p. 178–87.
104. Philip Warner, ‘Hone, Sir (Herbert) Ralph (1896–1992)’, Oxford dictionary of national biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/51132, accessed 3 May 2005.
105. Gent to Sir George Cator, 5 November 1946, A. J. Stockwell (ed.), British documents on the end of empire: Malaya, part I (London, 1995), pp. 271–4.
106. A. J. Stockwell, British policy and Malay politics during the Malayan Union experiment, 1945–1948 (Kuala Lumpur, 1979), ch. 5; Malayan Security Service, Political Intelligence Journal [MSS/PIJ], 31 December 1946, Dalley Papers, RHO.
107. Creech Jones to Gent, 1 May 1946, CO537/1529, TNA.
108. Nicholas Tarling, ‘“Some rather nebulous capacity”: Lord Killearn’s appointment in Southeast Asia’, Modern Asian Studies, 20, 3 (1986), pp. 559–600.
109. Charles Gamba, The origins of trade unionism in Malaya (Singapore, 1960), p. 67; Ronald Milne interview, OHD, SNA.
110. Office of the Special Commissioner in South East Asia, ‘Social Welfare Conference, Singapore 19–23 August 1947: Minutes’, SCA/5/47, SNA.
111. ‘Youth Welfare in Singapore, 10 July 1947’, ibid.