§ 5.48 p.m.
§ LORD RANKEILLOUR rose to ask His Majesty's Government whether the protection of minorities is an essential condition of their proposals for the Government of Burma; how they contemplate that such protection can be provided; and whether the Burmese Constitution, when established, will be alterable by a majority 453 vote of the Legislature. The noble Lord said: My Lords, I put on the Order Paper a short question which I wish to put to the noble Lord, the Secretary of State for India and Burma, with regard to the proposals of His Majesty's Government as to the Government of Burma. In regard to India, the policy of His Majesty's Government, as of their predecessors, has been made clear in principle. When the present President of the Board of Trade went to India in the midst of war, in the most difficult circumstances imaginable, he made it an essential condition of any arrangement that could be made with Indian leaders that minorities would be adequately protected. The same principle has been affirmed by the present Prime Minister, and by the noble Lord opposite, although I am bound to say that, so far as they are known, the methods by which that protection is to be carried out seem to me, and I think to others, to be very far from adequate.
§ When we come to Burma I cannot find a single word as to the protection of minorities in Burma proper—that is to say in the part of Burma which it is proposed to hand over to the Burmese Government. The numbers of the minorities are very considerable. There are, for instance, 1,100,000 Karens. I have taken these and other figures from the Statesman's Year Book. These are the people in what I might call Burma proper, in the plains. Then there are 150,000 Chinese, 887,000 Indians, 120,000 Indo-Burmans, 170,000 Anglo-Indians and 8,000 Europeans. Of course, provision is made for the future of the Border States, and I trust that their right to choose will be definitely and adequately assured. I was a little doubtful as to the proceedings mentioned in connexion with the negotiations, it being the declared object of both the Burma Government and the British Government to bring them under the jurisdiction of Burma, but I hope we may be quite certain that no undue pressure will be put upon them, and that they really will have absolutely free choice as to their future. If, however, they should elect to maintain their present position, and at the same time a Burmese Government is in power in Burma proper, a rather difficult question of access will, perhaps, arise with regard to the possible need of British forces to go in for their protection against their neighbours to the south-east.
454§ However, I pass from that to ask this question. Supposing the principle of protection for minorities is to be reaffirmed, how is it to be done? I am speaking of minorities in Burma proper. I know, of course, that there is provision for communal representation by proportional voting, but, at the best, that will leave these minorities in a hopeless minority in the Burmese Legislature. Again, if you put it into the Burmese Constitution that they are to have protection in some other form, then the question arises whether the Burmese Legislature will be able to change their own Constitution. If that is the case, it is quite clear that that protection is no real guarantee for the future. I submit that, just as in India, the only real safeguard is an organic law providing protection not for minorities as a class but for every individual against discrimination on racial or religious grounds. That, of course, will involve two other things—an independent Supreme Court to interpret the law, and some power behind, in the position of Governor, to enforce it. That, so far as I can see, is the only way whereby adequate protection can be given. In the meantime I shall be glad to be told, if it is possible—and I know the courtesy and the readiness of the noble Lord, the Secretary of State for India and Burma, to answer if he can—what, so far as matters have gone up to the present, is in the minds of the Government.
§ 5.55 p.m.
§ LORD PETHICK-LAWRENCEMy Lords, I can only answer the noble Lord in this way. The arrangements in connexion with the future constitution of Burma, reached in discussion with the Burma delegation, are fully set out in the Conclusions which have been laid before Parliament as Command Paper 7029. I was not clear, before the noble Lord spoke, what were the precise limitations of his question, whether he had in mind the position of the people of the frontier areas, or minorities strictly so-called. As regards the frontier areas, the position is explained in Paragraph 8 of the Command Paper to which I have just referred, and the arrangements proposed are designed to give full weight to the wishes of the Inhabitants of those areas.
As regards minority communities, the effect of the arrangements that have been reached is, as the noble Lord will observe, 455 that there shall be elected to the Constituent Assembly two members for each seat at present reserved to the Karen minority and to the Anglo-Burman minority in a Legislature under the Act of 1935. His Majesty's Government are confident that the question of the extent to which special provision in the future Constitution of Burma for the protection of minorities is called for in the circumstances of that country, will be fully present to the Constituent Assembly. The question of the manner by which the Burmese Constitution, when established, shall be alterable, is clearly one for the Constituent Assembly to consider.