TERRORISM IN MALAYA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25549, 17 July 1948, Page 7

TERRORISM IN MALAYA

GUN BATTLE AGAINST BANDITS POLICE PRECAUTIONS IN SINGAPORE (Rec. 11 p.m.) SINGAPORE. July 16. A clash in which 11 terrorists were killed was fought out this morning on a rubber estate near Kajang. The police rushed a house, killing the two occupants. Terrorist reinforcements of 30 men, , armed with Bren guns, Sten guns, and hand grenades arrived, end forced the , police temporarily to withdraw. The action was resumed when police reinforcements arrived and. after a gun battle, the terrorists broke off the tight, having lost nine more killed. The police suffered no serious casualties. Gurkhas and police are pursuing the terrorists. The president Gf the Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army was | among the terrorists killed this morning. He was a 30-year-c;ld Chinese. Lao Yew, who went to London in 194 b with the Malayan Victory Contingent, and participated in the Victory P ar T ade. Five of the 11 terrorists killed during the gun battle were Chinese j women. Another Communist Killed was believed to be the leader of the Johore insurgents. Terrorists yesterday shot dead a MyearrQid Chinese who was awarded the British Empire Medal for his services during the occupation. . Polu®, in a raid before dawn this morning, cordoned off a rural area outside Singapore and detained 375 persons, mostly Chinese, for screening a nd interrogation. It was the first combined police and military operation on Singapore Island, and part of precautionary measures to forestall terrorist activity in Singapore. The first shooting on Singapore Island in the recent troubles occurred last night, when a Malay gangster was shot dead and another was captured as a result of a police ambush. The office of the Governor-General of Malaya 'Mr Malcolm MacDonald' yesterday issued a statement saying: “The report that the Minister of State for the Colonies < Lord ListoweD stated that Sir Alexander Newboult, the Acting-High Commissioner of the Federation of Malaya, was satisfied that the oolice had adequate forces to °oal with the present situation is dearly incorrect.” [Lord Listowel was reported as saying in the House of Lords: ‘The High Commissioner is satisfied that the police have adequate forces for the action they are taking.” I The statement adds: “Sir Alexander Newboult has never expressed any suc h opinion. On the contrary, he a uthorised some time ago the recruitment of nearly 3000 additional men to the police force, with the necessary implement of additional officers. At the same time he authorised the recruitment of many thousands of special constables to assist the regular police, recruitment in both categories is proce eding energetically.” r the Ist Battalion of the Inniskilling fusiliers was yesterdav ordered to from Hong Kong' to Singapore, ine battalion will reinforce the British forces combating terrorism in Malaya. , Population of China.—China now jl 3 a population of more than according to the latest cenfigures, revealed to-aay by the Gninese Ministry of the Interior. The -Ministry explained, however, that the J’ ns jj s in Communist-held areas was ohf ■ On P re ‘ war figures, or on those ast y ear - In some regions of ~ anc huria. the figures were based on , census taken during the Japanese Shanghai, uly 16.