§ Mr. DAYasked the Secretary of State for India whether he can make any further statement arising out of the rebellion in Burma and the number of British Europeans who have been killed or injured?
§ Mr. BENNI am circulating a statement covering the events of last week. Since the beginning of the rebellion, one 631W British police officer, Mr. Austin, has been killed in action, and two others, Mr. H. C. Smith and Captain Jones, have been injured. Mr. Fields Clarke, a British forest officer, was murdered in the early stages of the rising.
The following is the statement:
In the Prome District several attacks by rebels have been repulsed with heavy losses, 16 being killed in an attack on Wettigan Police Station on 1st June, and 22 others in an attack by 300 rebels on a platoon of Punjabis near Pauk-Kaung on 5th June. On the second occasion the total rebel casualties, killed and wounded, were estimated at at least 100. There were no Government casualties as a result of these attacks. In the same area a rebel camp was destroyed on 2nd June. Most of the villages in the North-East of Prome District are reported to be disaffected. In the Tharrawaddy District 200 rebels attacked the police on 2nd June, and were repulsed with losses, of which no estimate was formed. The Government casualties were one sepoy killed and one havildar wounded. In the Thayetmyo District, the rebels are reported to have broken up into small gangs and to be committing dacoities. In other areas there have been no important events or changes in the situation. Attacks on Indians are still occurring, but are not spreading to new areas. The economic situation remains unchanged. Cultivation has been delayed by the monsoon. The Mandalay mail train was derailed on the night of the lst-2nd June near Penwegon, 120 miles north of Rangoon. The first reports stated that a pier of the bridge had been damaged by explosives, but this has since been denied. It is uncertain whether the derailment was the work or rebels or not.