Commander who won ‘hearts and minds’

Press, 31 October 1979, Page 20

Commander who won ‘hearts and minds’

Field Marshal Sir Gerald Templer, who died late last week at the age of 81, was one of Britain’s most distinguished soldiers with a career which included both world wars and operations in Palestine and Malaya. He is especially well remembered by many New Zealand servicemen for his part in turning the tide of war against the Communist guerrilla movement in Malaya between 1952 and 1954, shortly before New Zealand troops and aircraft were stationed there as part of the Commonwealth Strategic Reserve. Sir Gerald Templer was born in Northern Ireland, educated at Wellington and Sandhurst, and served in the Royal Irish Fusiliers during the First World War. He represented Britain as a hurdler in the 1921 Olympic Games and was at one time the bayonet fighting champion of the British Army. During the Second World War he became, at 44, the youngest Lieutenant-General in the Army.

His post-war career included a period as Military Governor of the British Zone of occupied Germany and two years as Director of Militarv Intelligence at the War Office. The experience gained in these positions served him well after he was sent to Malaya, by Sir Winston Churchill, early in 1952. General Templer, as he then was, took over the combined positions of High Commissioner and Director of Operations in Malaya. As head of the Government and of the defence forces he enjoyed greater power than any British soldier had known perhaps since Oliver Cromwell 300 years before. Sir Gerald was appointed after the High Commissioner, Sir Henry Gurney, had been killed while defending hjs wife against a Communist ambush on the narrow, jungle-clad road leading to the holiday resort of Fraser’s Hill not far from the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The new High Commis-

sioner and commander quickly became famous for his brusque insistence on vigorous action to solve Malaya’s military and political problems. He was strongly criticised for his policy of imposing collective punishments, including 22-hour curfews on towns, and villages which

appeared to be giving support to the terrorists, but in less than two years he had won the military and political initiative from the Communists and set Malaya on the way to becoming an independent, multi racial democracy. He is especially remembered by military historians for his insistence that a successful war against guerrillas could not be won by military means alone. It was, he said, a matter of “winning the hearts and minds of the people.” He did not coin the phrase—it was first used during the American War of Independence against the British in 1776—but General Templer practised what he preached. He continued and expanded the policy of his predecessors in setting up new villages, in which civilians could be trained to protect themselves from the terrorists so that the guerrillas were gradually isolated from the population on which they depended for supplies and information.

During his two years in command in Malaya twothirds of the guerrillas were wiped out: casualties from terrorist attacks were reduced from more than 200 a month to less than 40. In later years the war became a slow search for small bands of surviving guerrillas who were driven deeper into the jungle. The guerrillas never again posed a major threat to Malaya’s security, although remnants of those bands still exist. The country became independent, within the British Commonwealth, in 1957. Sir Gerald Templer also assisted the political development of the country by measures designed to give a greater degree of responsible government, and by encouraging racial harmony between Malay, Chinese, and Indian residents of Malaya. He persuaded the Malay Sultans to agree to an extension of citizenship laws so that many thousands of Chinese and Indians, the descendents of immigrant labourers,

could become full citizens. During his time, in elections for the Kuala Lumpur City Council, an electoral alliance was formed between Malats and Chinese in the Alliance Party which was to become the governing party after Malava's independence. He was an unorthodox commander who paid substantial rewards for guerrilla leaders alive, and smaller rewards for their bodies. He introduced voice aircraft which broadcast surrender appeals; he employed surrendered terrorists in the security forces and used them to infiltrate among their former comrades. His command included troops from Britain, Rhodesia. and Fiji, as well as Gurkhas, Malays, Chinese and Indians. He insisted on his doctrine that “the answer lies not in pouring more and more troops into the jungles, but in winning the hearts and minds of the people.” The success of modern Malaysia owes much to the political and military foundations laid by Sir Gerald Templet.