Sir William Slim

White Paper on Burma

On 17 May 1945 the British government issued its "White Paper" on the future of Burma. Burma's Anti-Fascist Organization (later Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League, AFPFL) under General Aung San opposed the programme outlined in the White Paper, leading first to a stand off against the returned British authorities, then to negotiations in London in January 1946 and finally independence outside the Commonwealth in 1948. The White Paper proposed the following: (1) A period of "direct rule" by the Governor (assisted...