Inquiry On Malaya

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32214, 5 February 1970, Page 11

Inquiry On Malaya

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Ccpu/ioht; KUALA LUMPUR. Feb. 4.

A Malaysian Chinese leader said today the British Government should compensate relatives of the men allegedly shot dead by British soldiers 21 years ago.

Mr Kam Woon Wah, sec-retary-general of the Malaysian Chinese Association (M.C.A.). the Chinese partner in the ruling Alliance Party, told N.Z.P.A.-Reuter that the relatives should receive compensation whether the shooting was in cold blood or a genuine mistake. The official version of the Incident in a remote rubber plantation in 1948 said that soldiers of the Scots Guards regiment shot 25 suspected Communist terrorists as they tried to escape. Witnesses have rejected this version, claiming the sol diers shot the men, all Chinese tappers, in cold blood. “If it was a deliberate kill ing, there is no excuse and the people should be compensated,” Mr Kam said. “On the other hand, if there was a genuine mistake, as the then Attorney-General Sir Stafford Foster-Sutton maintains, there should still be compensation by Britain to the families because it was a mistake. “In any case, now that the

matter has come to light again, a detailed investigation should be carried out on whether it was a genuine mistake or whether the Scots Guards were trigger-happy soldiers,” Mr Kam said. The 21-year-old incident, which took place at the beginning of ( the prolonged Communist insurgency in Malaya, has started controversy since a British Sunday newspaper quoted witnesses as saying that a Scots Guard patrol massacred the Chinese. The British Government is conducting a fresh inquiry into the incident. The Malaysian Government has so far declined to comment on the incident, although it drew big headlines in today’s newspapers, particularly the Chinese ones. Most carry interviews with relatives of the victims and the sole survivor, who told N.Z.P.A.-Reuter yesterday that he only escaped because he fainted when the soldiers opened fire and then feigned death until they went away. A former British soldiet who says he took part in the

alleged jungle massacre described the dilemma facing him moments before the shooting. Mr Alan Tuppen said in Britain that at the time of the incident he was only 18 and under the strict discipline of the Scots Guards.

"I carried out my orders as a soldier in a platoon which was engaged in dangerous jungle patrols against armed Communist terrorists,” he said In a statement.

Mr Tuppen said that he was given an order to fall out of line if he did not want to go ahead with the shooting. “It seemed wrong to me to shoot these people in cold blood and if I had been given more time 1 think I would have fallen out but the offer was open for only a matter of seconds.” be said.

“Nobody wanted to be shown up and nobody fell out,” he said. Meanwhile in Singapore, a complete search of records held by Britain’s Far East land forces has been unable to uncover any material relating to the shooting.