REINFORCEMENTS FOR MALAYA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 70, Issue 211, 22 June 1950, Page 5

REINFORCEMENTS FOR MALAYA

OPERATIONS AGAINST GUERILLAS (Rec. 10.40 a.m.) LONDON, June 21. The Secretary for War, Mr John Strachey, who recently returned' from a tour of Malaya’s guerilla battlefrohts, said to-day that substantial reinforcements of land and air forces were arriving to take part in operations in the Peninsula. « Telling the House of Commons about his visit, Mr Strachey and the Colonial Secretary, Mr James Griffiths, who accompanied him, said they were confident that the guerillas could he crushed. They said, however, that it was a tough job in which swift and spectacular results couid not be expected. Mr Strachey told a questioner that supplies of American carbines—-light, simple weapons ideal for jungle warfare —were going to Malaya soon. Explaining the British Government’s attitude to Malaya, Mr Strachey said that Britain was in no sense attempting to suppress a national movement of people seeking independence. She was aiding a great majority of people to prevent a small but well-armed and well-organised minority from seizing power. Mr Strachey added that the Government was determined to take all military measures to restore order, although the problem was not exclusively a military one. Over much of the country it had been possible for the authorities to arm the civil population on the largest possible scale without fear of arms passing into the hands of the Communists—an acid test of where the sympathies of a majority of the population lay.