Old U.K. plan for move into Thailand

Press, 10 January 1984, Page 16

Old U.K. plan for move into Thailand

NZPA-AFP London A former British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, ordered his chiefs-of-staff to prepare a plan for the occupation of part of southern Thailand in 1953, according to Cabinet papers declassified recently under the 30-year rule. The papers show that the order was made to prevent Malaya from falling to the Communists. British troops fighting Communist insurgents in Malaya feared a domino effect if Indo-China were to fall to the Vietminh or if Thailand were to be subverted, the papers quoted by “The Times” newspaper showed.

In April, 1953, Sir Winston Churchill authorised detailed preparation of a secret plan for occupation of the Songkhla position across the Malaysian peninsula, north of the Malayan border. By November 1953, the British High Commissioner, General Sir Gerald Tempter, reported that the insurgency was dying down thanks to the “loss of tactical initiative by the Communists, lowering of Communist morale (and) considerable internal dissension in the Communist ranks fostered by various intelligence organisations,” and the invasion plans were shelved.