OUTBREAK OF VIOLENCE IN MALAYAN AREAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 June 1948, Page 5

OUTBREAK OF VIOLENCE IN MALAYAN AREAS

(Rec. 11.30 a.m.) RANGOON, -Tune 7. Two hundred insurgents, with Ihe support of 500 Indians belonging' Io ihe Communist-sponsored Sabha Association, are reported to have attacked a sugar factory in the Tonngoo district and killed two of the factory staff and wounded four during a four-hour gnu battle on June 5. The polieY and military caught the insurgents at a nearby village, but no details of the subsequent clash are yet available. Another force of insurgents today attacked the Paungdawthec police station, 100 miles from Rangoon. The police defenders killed three and captured 30 without loss. The Singapore Straits Times says the Malayan Government may shortly ban the Communist Party. The newspaper, which lists a number of cases of murder and violence which have occurred in t-he last few days, often against estate managers and foremen, says the recent entry of gunmen into industrial disputes is the most dangerous threat to public security for many years. Posters have recently appeared on estates throughout Johore, exhorting: “Destroy those who work for other races.’’

Gurkha patrols are assisting the police in Johore, but the .Johore Labour Department said today the situation was improving there and seven of the 20 estates, which were recently strike-bound, are again working.