Double-Decker

As is the case the world over today, in Burma the number of students is increasing at a faster rate than are the educational facilities meant to accommodate them. At Rangoon University, for example, there were more applications this year for dormitory accommodations than there were rooms available. Authorities at the Teachers' Training College tried to solve this problem by introducing double-decker beds into the women's dormitories. The proposed solution was not a success. Faced with the prospect of using one of the new beds the girls reportedly burst into tears. Some of them claimed that the double-deckers were just like canopied funeral biers . . .

Tried with the boys, the beds fared no better. Although the men refrained from tears, they were just as adamant in their refusal to use the beds. Invariably a student assigned to the top deck either slept on a bamboo mat on the floor or moved an extra single bed into the room, authorities reported.

Reports from Syria say that a number of university and secondary school students in Damascus have been arrested and jailed following the appearances of leaflets calling for "an end to the union between Egypt and Syria." These reports, which were broadcast by "Amman" in Arabic on September 19, indicate that the leaflets were distributed on a large scale In opposition to measures being taken in Syria to "stabilize the regime."