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Lt.Col. R. Kaulback of Force 136, writing in February 1991:
Early in 1945, when I was OC Tac headquarters Force 136 at 14th Army headquarters (then in Meiktila), Force 136 had some 15,000 Karens fighting for them in the Karen Hills as guerrillas under British officers.
At this time, the Japanese were making a big effort to stamp out these guerrillas and were destroying crops and villages and slaughtering the women, children and old men wherever they could. The Karens said that they were prepared to put up with all their sacrifice and would continue to fight for the British as loyally as ever; but what was going to happen to them after the war was over; that the Burmese were already saying that they would get their independence and would possess the whole country from Victoria Point to Putao and, if that were so, then it would be essential for the Karens to make peace now or face possible destruction later. The Burmese, of course, were fully supporting the Japanese at this time.
I was in no position to answer the Karens, so I referred the question to the headquarters of Force 136 in Calcutta, who referred it, in their turn, to the Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia (Admiral Lord Mountbatten). The reply was as clear as daylight -- that under no circumstances would the Karens be handed over to the Burmese after the war. I passed that on to the Karens, who continued to fight with us as courageously as ever until the war ended. And then the British handed them over to the Burmese.
Force 136 was the South-East Asian branch of Britain's Special Operations Executive, entrusted with organizing armed resistance and sabotage in enemy-occupied countries. Force 136 also played a significant intelligence-gathering role, in contrast to SOE's duties in the European theatre where this was primarily the responsibility of M.I.6.