Celebration of Soviet National Day November 7, 1953

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP65-00756R000600040007-5
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 4, 2000
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: November 12, 1953
• Content Type: DISP

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FOREIGN SERVICE.DESPATCFI
Celebration of Sovi
.2000309 --
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rwlAm~wAr3 1953
National Day November ?.. 1953
SUM =t Attendance by government officials at the celebration of Soviet
National Days, November 7,, was so sparse as to constitute a definite snub. No
National Day of any country, however large or small has been treated in so cavalier
a per in Butna since Independence. The reception was also characterized by
attendance of large numbers l of Communists and Communist-fronterss, including well-
known figures whose presen+ was, in itself s, sufficient to disccurr ge attendance by
many members of the goverr nt, Attitudes and incidents observed justify interpre-
tation of the Burmese goverment ra handling of this reception as further evidence
that Burmese "neutralism" i indeed relative,. and that Burma is not so neutral as
to brook such interference in her internal affairs by a foreign power as that
evidenced by the intimacy c the Russian Embassy with the BWPP and C*mmis front
leaders
d,nce State Dept. (declassification instructions on file
A,ter
Russian barge d'Affai*es DYUKMV told U EM W , Protocol Officer of the
Foreign Offices that one thsand invitations had been extended to attend the
celebration at the Strand H+tel on November 7, It is safe to say that at no time
were there more than five h i i people present at the celebrations, so that,
allowing for early departur s, there may have been approximately fifty-five percent
attendance. This is nanteithe very goods, nor really very bad for a reception of this
The most interesting
government members and
whose attendance was die
Cabinet present.. Sao S:
next ranking government of
U Rhin )kung about the oth
omenon was the almost complete . lack of high Burmese
-
servants Sao HON HBO, the Foreign Ministers,
tocol., was literally the only member of the
4 Speaker of the Hbwe of Nationalities, was the
al at the reaceptiion An officer of the Embassy asked
members of the Cabinet by name and when U (bin
mEuned the belief that they were not there, asked his why, U Mdn Maung did not
ax swers but when it _ suggested that it might be because the government officials
KODAW 1 &ING (above ground Ces f et leaders), all of wham were present, he
Inughed gaily in such a wary as to imply that the Embassy officer had hit the nail
on the head. When asked mhather he had spoken to a rq of the aforementioned gentle-
men himself, U Xhn Maung answered that he had been ordered to attend this party and
make his presence known to the Russian Charge dtAffaires. He said that once hi had
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done that he considered his duty accomplished. Be said his only object from
that time forward was to have a good tuna. and this did not include talking to
fists. He said that U TUN SHEIN, Permanent Secret to
who had also been ordered to be present viewed the ~' of the Foreign Office.,
He called attention to the fact thatsthere were no justices of the Supreme
Court ?resent, and that U MAUNG PYU,, Chief Secretary of the Government., had
also stayed away, although requested to attend.
His Lordship, the Mayor of Rangoon was there but found himself almost
completely isolated from the Communists and Col munist-front groups who formed more
than half of the crowd., because of the fact that he had been required by the
AFPFL to lead the sober TUC(B) celebration of the Great October Revolution which
was held in competition with the rabble rousing (Io ramie-front BTUC celebration.
Apparently, his past kindnesses in throwing open the City Hall to "peace* rallies
and Chinese Communist celebrations were not enough to offset this.
The presence of the Chinese Ambassador* who had returned to Rangoon the
preceding day without fanfare, was a feature of the reception and the fact he
had not notified his colleagues of his return m 4y have contributed to the early
departure or several diplomats who did not wait for the toast. Among these was
I,mabassador tultanuddin AM ED of Pakistan who had been acting Dean in the absence
of the Chinese Ambassador'. At the moment of the toast, the only Ambassador in
attendance teas the Chinese Ambassador.
According to U MIAT SCE f Sayeh State Secretary, the large and rather unruly
gathering of gaungbaungglese individuals included the directorates of the Commie-
front group$ and Communist cells from all sections of Rangoon., including the
University. 1' A Chinese Communist women's group was also represented.:
The Toast
The Foreign Ministers face shoved positive distaste as he stood at the side
of Dyukarev,waiting for silence to propose the toast. When it became clear that
the Communists and Canon njst_fro ters
hollered into the were not going to be still, he literally
microphone that he took pleasure in offering a toast to wHis
Excellency the President of the Presidium of the USSR".
enunciatin the entire country (He used the initials, not
g try nsmae a Ise view of the Foreign Minister's sensitivity
to protocol this is a significant Indication of his attitude.) The gathering
was then re;aled with a recording of the "Rod Flag" which was played three times
in full. After DrAarsv proposed a toast to the President of Burma a
snatch, , little
hardy ten seconds long, of the tail end of the Burmese national anthem
was Played. U Mdn M said to the reporting officer at this point, "It is
asy to see which is he bigger countryo"
* There 12 An
or
w L'4u"g1'nummese headdress, to become
a badge of respectabili and ~sur~
~. port of is government. Local Companies do not
Iwear gaungbaungs except when apPearijg in Parliament as members of the BWWP
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From
e British Embassy down to he least Third Seer+etary had been invited,, i;ncludi
r flat representatives of the B to Council.. This appears to be in line with the
t rent Russian attempt to a wedge between Great Britain and the United -To States by implytng that the tish are more friendly to the Russians than is
the United States,. Mr. Onal did not say how many" officers had been invited;
it is estimated that the der was around twenty,,, in contrast to the seven who
were invited from the Bmeri n: Embassy.
The Y=sue
In somewhat bad tastep he iugoslav Charges, Mr. SD IC, attended the recep-
tion apparently with the intention of making remkse of questionable taste
concerning the large der of *unwashed* who were present. The reporting
officer did not speak to Stvic, but heard but this from two different British
individuals who were them.
Co
Chile this Embassy has for some time been of the opinion that there is an
observable trend over the last six years in Ban* in the direction of closer
friendship with the Vest and increasing suspicion of Soviet Russia, the overt
signs of displeasure mentioned above were surprising,,, particularly the boy-
cotting of the reception by the high Cabinet officers and the Justices of the
Supreme Court. It is belieeveed, hover, that it would be possible to attach
too much significance to this and that the reason for the absences is to found
in the fact that the Burmese goverment had knowledge of the invitations which
had been sent to MWP leaders a reception old in fact appear to be an
additional bit of evidence that the Russians and Chinese in Burma have done
themselves much more ]arm than good by msnintai ng close relations with local
Communist and Comm unist$rornt groups which are definitely,, and overtly,,
working against the Burmese government. What is of extreme Interest is the
fact,, brought out by this reception,, that the attitude of neutrality which
Burmese foreign policy requires in salt all contact with official represen-
tation of foreign countries,, has its limits, and that the Burmese government
feels that the Communists have presumed too far in their attempt to use this
neutrality for their own. ends
Action requested:Pleaee send copies of this Despatch to Bangkok,, New
Delhi s, Karachi,, Djakarta,,, Singapore,, Taipei and Moscow.
Albert B i Franklin
First Secretary of Embassy
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