Page 30 - Malayan Story
P. 30
MALAYAN STORY
CHAPTER 6 GUERILLA WARFARE
A Chinese proverb states that “on the beginning all things are difficult”. Although Sir Gerald
Templar was an experienced military man, well versed in all the ways of modem warfare, it was not
easy task he found had been assigned to him in Malaya. This was guerrilla warfare where one never
met the enemy face to face, nor could his base of operations be pin pointed and dealt with, for he
was here today and gone tomorrow. In spite of his strong arm tactics and determination to win the
war, at the beginning, he didn’t seem to be making much headway.
Every day our newspapers told us of further “incidents”. We had been in Malaya barely a year when
it was announced that the Road Transport Operators Association had lost nearly 500 vehicles so far
during the Emergency, most of them having been burned by terrorists. Police and army vehicles
were often ambushed either on the main roads or in the jungle. The people driving them were killed,
their money and ammunition and any food supplies were taken and the vehicles burned.
In Yong Peng where Percy had listened to an elderly Presbyterian missionary interpreting for Sir
Gerald, and where the 23 hour curfew he had enforced seemed to have been effective, the people
seemed cooperative and were becoming known as “a model community”, and the village as “white”.
So it was a shock when some thirty terrorists attacked the village one morning. They waited till six
of the Home Guards had set off to patrol the perimeter fence, leaving only the other two guards at the
Home Guard Post. Then they hacked their way through the fence, dashed across to the Guard Post,
overpowered the two men there and dashed back into the jungle, taking with them all the arms and
ammunition they could find.
In Scudai village, soon after I had been there with Percy on our way to Kuala Lumpur in 1953, two
special constables were shot dead by eight terrorists. Sir Gerald took action at once, warning that the
Scudai area was one of the worst. Questionnaires were handed out to every home and collected later,
but they gave no information at all. Sir Gerald warned that if information was not given to prevent
further food supplies reaching the guerrillas in the jungle, sterner measures would be taken. We
realised he probably meant a 23 hour curfew our of 24. Every house would be closed and nobody
allowed on the streets except the guards. One hour alone would be allowed for them to do any
legitimate work outside. Life in the villages was difficult enough already. There were guards on the
gates and a guard post in every village which was entirely surrounded by barbed wire so that the
only way in or out was past the guards at the gate. Everybody was searched as they went in or out,
and curfew was 6 pm. Nocturnal house searches by Government soldiers occurred unexpectedly and
unannounced, and missionaries were not exempt either. If they lived in the village, they had to be
prepared to let soldiers search their cupboards and examine their food supplies lest they too might be
hoarding some of the supplies which were going out to the jungle.
A woman carrying two buckets of night soil was searched by the guards as she went through the gate
and apparently had nothing she should not have had, but something made the guards suspicious, so
they made her empty the buckets. The result was that they found both buckets had fake bottoms in
which in which were hidden two tins of oatmeal, three of condensed milk and a two pound bag of
sugar. The woman said she had been threatened by terrorists and ordered to get supplies for them. It
was they who had taught her how to smuggle them out. It was so easy for the terrorists to approach
30
CHAPTER 6 GUERILLA WARFARE
A Chinese proverb states that “on the beginning all things are difficult”. Although Sir Gerald
Templar was an experienced military man, well versed in all the ways of modem warfare, it was not
easy task he found had been assigned to him in Malaya. This was guerrilla warfare where one never
met the enemy face to face, nor could his base of operations be pin pointed and dealt with, for he
was here today and gone tomorrow. In spite of his strong arm tactics and determination to win the
war, at the beginning, he didn’t seem to be making much headway.
Every day our newspapers told us of further “incidents”. We had been in Malaya barely a year when
it was announced that the Road Transport Operators Association had lost nearly 500 vehicles so far
during the Emergency, most of them having been burned by terrorists. Police and army vehicles
were often ambushed either on the main roads or in the jungle. The people driving them were killed,
their money and ammunition and any food supplies were taken and the vehicles burned.
In Yong Peng where Percy had listened to an elderly Presbyterian missionary interpreting for Sir
Gerald, and where the 23 hour curfew he had enforced seemed to have been effective, the people
seemed cooperative and were becoming known as “a model community”, and the village as “white”.
So it was a shock when some thirty terrorists attacked the village one morning. They waited till six
of the Home Guards had set off to patrol the perimeter fence, leaving only the other two guards at the
Home Guard Post. Then they hacked their way through the fence, dashed across to the Guard Post,
overpowered the two men there and dashed back into the jungle, taking with them all the arms and
ammunition they could find.
In Scudai village, soon after I had been there with Percy on our way to Kuala Lumpur in 1953, two
special constables were shot dead by eight terrorists. Sir Gerald took action at once, warning that the
Scudai area was one of the worst. Questionnaires were handed out to every home and collected later,
but they gave no information at all. Sir Gerald warned that if information was not given to prevent
further food supplies reaching the guerrillas in the jungle, sterner measures would be taken. We
realised he probably meant a 23 hour curfew our of 24. Every house would be closed and nobody
allowed on the streets except the guards. One hour alone would be allowed for them to do any
legitimate work outside. Life in the villages was difficult enough already. There were guards on the
gates and a guard post in every village which was entirely surrounded by barbed wire so that the
only way in or out was past the guards at the gate. Everybody was searched as they went in or out,
and curfew was 6 pm. Nocturnal house searches by Government soldiers occurred unexpectedly and
unannounced, and missionaries were not exempt either. If they lived in the village, they had to be
prepared to let soldiers search their cupboards and examine their food supplies lest they too might be
hoarding some of the supplies which were going out to the jungle.
A woman carrying two buckets of night soil was searched by the guards as she went through the gate
and apparently had nothing she should not have had, but something made the guards suspicious, so
they made her empty the buckets. The result was that they found both buckets had fake bottoms in
which in which were hidden two tins of oatmeal, three of condensed milk and a two pound bag of
sugar. The woman said she had been threatened by terrorists and ordered to get supplies for them. It
was they who had taught her how to smuggle them out. It was so easy for the terrorists to approach
30
