MALAYA MUDDLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 41, 18 February 1942, Page 5

MALAYA MUDDLE

IMPROVISED RETREAT

PRESSMAN'S CHARGE

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 1.15 p.m.)

LONDON, February 17,

Asserting that the loss of Singapore was due at least partly to bureaucracy, complacency, and a legion of ''fifth columnists," the British United Press representative at Batavia, Mr. Harold Guard, recalls that he wrote a story on April 18, 1941, quoting military authorities as saying that the Malayan jungle did not otter sufficient protection against enemy infiltration'; The censor passed it, but said it

-was so absurd that it would make the British United Press look ridiculous.

"During the next four months," he says, "natives who had a grudge against the British showed the Japanese paths through the jungle thickets. I followed the battle down the Malayan Peninsula and saw 'fifth columnists' swarming through the jungle.

"I believe that in December the natives might have been. rallied, but it did not happen. The Battle of Malaya, as reported officially, might give the impression of a bitter, hard-fought, and planned defence. Actually it was a retreat which was improvised from day to day."