The Role of Indian Tea Association in assisting the refugees from upper Burma escape into India during World War, 1939-1945.
FORGOTTEN FRONTIER by Geoffrey Tyson (published in 1945 by W.H.Targett & Co. Ltd., 4 Lyons Range, Calcutta) is the story of the part played by the Tea Planters of North-Eastern India in the civilian evacuation of Burma in the Spring and Summer of 1942. In the van of advancing Japanese armies, several hundred thousand refugees made their way from Burma to India – mainly across the wild and inaccessible mountain passes of the Assam-Burma border. Little known to the outside world at the time, or since, the movement was one of the great pilgrimages of history. An evacuation of this magnitude, carried out amidst the swirling tide of battle, could hardly fail to acquire at least some of the elements of drama and Mr. Tyson’s story has recaptured much of the excitement, the hasty improvisation, the squalor, the tragedy and the heroism of the stirring days of three years ago, in which the tea planters of Assam and Bengal found themselves engaged on one of the strangest missions of mercy that can ever have been assigned to a civilian organisation in time of war.
CLICK HERE to read the free online version of Forgotten Frontier by Geoffrey Tyson
Grateful thanks to Alan Lane and Betty for helping us archive this important piece of History.
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