BURMA: Red Holiday

Rich and poor alike, the passengers in Rangoon station were in a festive mood last week as they boarded the crack Prome Express, homeward bound to celebrate waso, a Buddhist holy season. Every seat in the expensive compartments was taken, and the railroad had hitched on extra cattle cars to accommodate hundreds of poorer men and women laden down with baskets of food. At outlying stations, scores of waso pilgrims climbed aboard, further packing the train.

As if in answer to the festival mood, the sun was shining in unaccustomed brightness through the monsoon-clouded skies as the heavily loaded train...

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