In Rangoon, Burma, the Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) led by Aung San, holds a national conference near the Shwedagon Pagoda.

A road with a stream of people passing, some carrying placards; the camera pans left to show the line continues some way into the distance and a local photographer struggles with an unwieldy tripod in the foreground. Shots of the crowd and (long lens shots) of men speaking on a platform.

Notes

The distance of the camera from the subject and the light conditions mean that the speakers are mostly unidentifiable, but they are named as U Ba Choe (master of ceremonies, likely the later information minister), Than Tun (General Secretary of the Anti-Fascist Organisation, the AFPFL's wartime forerunner) and Aung San (President of the AFO). Thakin Chit is named on the dopesheet for JFU 463. Aung San appears last and appears to be dressed in military uniform.

Dopesheet gives the attendance for this conference as 60,000 and summarises the discussions as:

To decide on future organisation and policy of the AFO.

To elect delegates to meet the British government in London (despite the government's recent refusal to receive such a delegation), and to urge London to reverse their decision.

To express friendship with Britain even while intensifying their struggle against 'imperialism' (inverted commas on the cameraman's dopesheet).

To express adherence to the 'United Nations Organisation' (inverted commas in original).

To demand complete independence from Britain and reject Dominion or any other status.

Though unfortunately lacking a decent shot of either Than Tun or Aung San, this is nonetheless an important film that documents a stage of Burma's movement towards independence in January 1948.

For additional coverage, see related items.

The Museum's Department of Printed Books holds a copy of Aung San's speech to this Congress.