MALAYAN BATTLE WON: STRENUOUS MOPPINGUP REMAINS

Grey River Argus, 15 November 1948, Page 8

MALAYAN BATTLE WON: STRENUOUS MOPPINGUP REMAINS

[From Roy Macartney, N.Z.P.A. Reuters Correspondent] SINGAPORE, (By Airmail). The Malayan battle has been won. Chinese Communists who sought to seize control of the Empire’s secondbest dollar earner, have lost their hazardous gamble. There now remains only the hard slogging business of eliminating one by one the hard core of vicious, fanatical terrorists. Phase one of the struggle has been completed. In this phase the Communists sought to disorganise the economic life of the country and to spread political chaos. To this end, they tried to build up large concentrations one the lines of the eight regiments of the wartime Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army. The army, royal air force and police frustrated these attempts. Large concentrations of terrorists required large encampments which were soon detected and hit hard, usually from the air. Unpopular earlier, the Security Forces’ tactics are now paying off. They aimed at keening the terrorists on the move. Stopping them from achieving the build-up they desired. Sorely tried planters and miners on the other hand understandably wanted more and more “static” protection with troops stationed to guard their* estates and mines. The army had to draw a fine balance between the number of troops they deployed as static guards and those used on offensive operations. These proportions had to be varied from area to area according to the violence of the terrorist threat. Not all planters agreed with dispositions but now the tactics are paying dividends. Terrorist bands of 100 or more men building into military units have nearly all been forced to disperse. Most have returned to the villages and to “squatter” areas .. by day apparently peaceful citizens, by night the sneaking killer. Now phase two is beginning—the stamping out of the small parties of terrorists and the isolated gunmen. “The struggle has become one great battle patrol,” a senior military officer described it in Singapore. Security forces in Malaya have reached a formidable high. With the arrival of the Second Guards Brigade and the Fourth Hussars, there is the equivalent of more than two divisions of troops deployed throughout the Federation and Singapore Island. The police force has been built up to over 15,000 Malay constables led by 500 European officers. Twenty thousand “Special Constables”— in effect a Malay “Home Guard”— have been enlisted for static guard duties. Four hundred ex-Palestinian policemen are “stiffening’ and training these guards. The recently arrived Guards and Hussars are now undergoing jungle training. Soon their weight will be thrown into the battle but it will never be one or a series of big offensives. Instead the jungle patrol will probably be the majoi* unit employed. Already special jungle squads of “Ferret Force” have been in action deep in the jungle against terrorists. Led by wartime British guerrilla officers, these squads are highly mobile and live off the country. British, Malays, Indians, Chinese, Sakais (Malay Aborigines) and even Dyak head-hunters make up the Ferrets. Now the “Ferret” Patrol is becoming the basis of all army training in Malaya, it was announced this week by the General Officer commanding Malaya, Major-General C. H. Boucher. Every battalion will have its squads of men who can disappear into the jungle for weeks on end and harass the terrorist in his lair. Most urgent need for the successful prosecution of phase two is information. This underlines the fact that the Anti-Terrorist Campaign is essentially a police job, backed up by the resources of the services. The police must have agents in every town, villages and squatter area. They must be in a position to point out the terrorist skulking among law-abiding citizens to terrified to report his presence. Colonel W. N. Gray, the new Commissioner of Police, for this reason holds the key responsibility in the Anti-Terrorist Campaign. His reinforced police force is becoming a powerful instrument, more effective, and dangerous with the passage of each day. As phase one merges into phase two; the sands are running out for the terrorists. They have not been able to concentrate and build up into large military units; they have failed to achieve any spectacular military success, or to establish suzerainty over any area. In addition, their supplies of ammunition denied replenishment from overseas are inmonths they can continue the sporadic struggle. Security Forces in July captured 2,000 rounds, in August 8,000, and in September 20,000. Soon the heat will be on in the villages and squatter areas and what terrorists survive will have to flee into the furthermost depths of the jungle. Phase three —their complete elimination—will be the final operation in which J.he fluid “Ferret” Groups will really come into their own. Side by side with the increasingly effective police and military campaign has been launched a psychological offensive. Millions of leaflets have been dropped from the air telling of terrorist reverses and carrying pictures emphasising death js the price of terrorism. Increasing defections from terrorist ranks have been reported. Two terrorist leaders have been shot by their own men. and, in one case, handed over to the police. Bodies of “executed” terrorists have also been found in the jungle suggesting rough court-martials and summary execution of dissatisfied. followers. Two names have been removed from the list of twelve Chinese Communist terrorist leaders for whom 10,000 dollars rewards had been offered. One went to London with a contingent from the Malayan Peoples Anti-Japanese Army to participate in the victory parade. The police have offered no explanation why the men are no longer “wanted”, beyond stating: “They are out of circulation.” Final headache for the terrorists is national registration. Within three months every one of these wanted men will have lost his most valuable cloak— anonymity. He will identify himself as a terrorist by his failure to register. For this reason, terrorists are -doing everything possible--so far with little success—to dissuade particularly the Chinese population from registering. Cracks are perceivable in the Communist structure of terror which may collapse at any time. Their military ventuie is almost over; there remains only the mopping up. This may mean many more trying months for the European planters and miners whose resolution has been a major factor m frustrating Communist ambitions. Murders will continue; terrorises will be shot and hanged, but within a measurable time the military sti uggle will be over. Then attention must again be focussed on the Malayan political scene. Progressive enlightened legislation, practically suspended because of the Communist military threat, must be resumed , wnh particular attention to Labour and Trade Unionism for the Communists will resume their old tactics of n filtration and agitation and expo.t all grievances, particularly those among the workers.