IOR/Q/16

The Burma Round Table Conference was inaugurated by the Prince of Wales in the King's Robing Room in the House of Lords, London, on 27 November 1931. The main task of the Conference was to discuss the lines of a Constitution for a separated Burma. The Montagu-Chelmsford Report (1918) and the Indian Statutory Commission (1929) had both recommended that the Government of Burma be separated from that of India, and the Burma Sub-committee of the Indian Round Table Conference had also endorsed the principle of separation. In his opening speech to the Burma Round Table Conference, the Chairman, Lord Peel, emphasised that the Conference had to proceed on the hypothesis that Burma was to be separated from India, although he conceded that he would not rule out reference to the question of whether Burma should or should not be separated from India.

Following the Third Plenary Session on 3 December 1931, the Conference resolved itself into a Committee of the Whole and deliberated upon the outlines of a Constitution for a Burma separated from India. The Conference met again in Plenary Session on 8 January 1932 to review the work of the Conference and accept the report of the Committee. The Final Plenary Session was held on 12 January 1932, with the Prime Minister giving a closing speech. The Opening Session of the Conference was held in public, and a number of distinguished visitors and members of the Press were invited to the Final Session. Neither the press nor the public were admitted to any other sessions, though information on the proceedings was given to the press by the Publicity Officers of the Conference.