Graphic Picture Of Terror In Malaya

Chronicle (Levin), 14 July 1948, Page 5

Graphic Picture Of Terror In Malaya

(N.Z.P.A.-

-Reuter.

, Copyright)

Eeceived Tuesday, 7 p.-m. ' ' SINPAPOEE, July 13. The foliowing' dispatch written by a Straits Times' reporter, Mr. Ueoffre'y (leldard; who has just returned from Johore, gives, a hrst liand graphic picture, of iife under the fule of the gun. He says: -:*As terrorism stalks Malaya, every Chinese f'ears his aeighbour. In villages and small towns the man next door, the ftran 111 the coft'ee shop and the man who mends a bicycle, might be Communist terrorists or their vvomenfolk spies. "For moiiths now the Communists have been the virtual rulers of hundreds of thousands of rubber estate and tin mine workers. Those. who defiod them are being rapidly eliminated. Most Chinese are now ready to let the torrorists liave their own way. "In two lonely and adjacent villages in Central Johore -oue Saturday when the torror first started, Communists armed with tommy and sten guns killed three opposition leaders while their families watched in horror. One old man's head was hacked off and the body pumped full of bulLets by three men he had known for years, The village barber was one of his murderers. Of dozens of people who saw the men they knew committing these ' mnrders, only the wife of one slain man had the courage to tell the poli-ee the names of some of the assailants. "Two old Chinese rubber smallholders were brutually tortured with a Japanese sword before they were shot and robbed by a gang of terrorists who were their vvorkmates' the day previously. ' ' AVhen over 50 terrorists staged a big dawn attack on a main road village, a number were recognised as old residents who recently disappe'ared from the village. The gang killed a small boy, his mother and shop assistant. In a police comb-out after the terror"ists were repulsed they arrested 'spies' including an ieed water seller, rulilier tappcr and four \\;omen. ♦ •"When Ihe police made a Mal-aya-wide all night swoop on known Comimmists, they arrested hundreds, but the' all important men iiad been warned and. they fled to the jungle where they set 1 up headquarters in old anti- Japanese army camps they usM as guerrillas during the occupation. When a job is 'to lie done these leaders detail the barber, the ice water man and rubber man and people like them, arm them and lead them in the ' operatioiis. ' These were their taetics when they were anti- Japanese guerrillas. Now they are anti-anyone who does not operate with them and there is little wonder the common, peace loving citizen of Malay, is afraid of his neighbour."