"After the end of the Second World War, the leaders of the various ethnic nationalities met in 1946 in Panglong to deliberate the possibility of a future together after the proposed withdrawal of British protection. General Aung San, the Burman leader of the independence struggle in Ministerial Burma participated in the 2nd Panglong Conference in February 1947. He proposed that the separate ethnic homelands in the Frontier Areas be joined to Ministerial Burma as equal partners in a ?Union of Burma? to hasten the process of achieving independence from Britain..."