BRITISH IN ACTION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22227, 13 January 1947, Page 4

BRITISH IN ACTION

MALAYA PIRATES

R.A.F. & R.N. SQUASH THUGS

SINGAPORE

British troops in Malaya have just completed a task which tor strangeness equals anything the Army has ever been called on to carry out. says Pat Sherman in the Sunday Express. Co-operating with llie Navy and the R.A.F., British and Indian soldiers of the 33rd Indian Brigade have taken part in a big drive against the pirates and bandits, mostly Chinese, who infest -the coastal areas of north-western Malaya.

Before the war these parasites were kept in check by efficient police and forestry departments. But with the coming of the Japanese restraint disappeared and they flourished .to sucii ‘an extent that when the British reoccupied Malaya gangster piracy was a major problem. Well armed and organised with a flair for the methods of American

gangsters, they have terrorised peaceful inhabitants, even in places which have a military garrison and police. Merchants and Government clerks have been abducted and held to ransom; shopkeepers and cafe proprietors have been forced to subscribe for "protection.” Secret Society Most, if not till, of these pirates and gangsters belong to a secret society will all the trimmings usually found in a Sax Rhomer novel. This society is the “Ang Bin Hoay,” or "Red Face Society,” whose official name before the war was the “Tien Ti Hoay,” or "Heaven and Earth SoC was originally formed in South China many decades ago with the object of removing the Manchu dynasty from the throne; a similar society, the “White Lotus,” worked on the same lines in northern China. Emigration on a large scale of Chinese from their mother country to the South Seas and Malaya in the latter part of the 19th century brought the society’s ritual and customs, and some of its members, with it. The Ang Bin Hoay—or to give it yet another name, the Triad Society (from the three red dots tatooed on the hands of its members)—became particularly powerful along the coast of Perak, where the terrain, consisting of mangrove swamps and tidal creeks, is ideal. The actual location of the society's headquarters is not known, but available evidence suggests it is at or near Pasir Hitam, a mangravc island oh Port Weld seldom visited by white men —-or by any outsiders for that matter. But 'it could equally well be located in any of the myriad villages along the hundred miles of coast from Penang to the Bindings. Their Strong Suit Kidnapping is the strong suit of the Ang Bin Hoav’s phantom members and they concentrate on Chinese merchants and traders in the bigger towns such as Penang, Ipoh, Taiping and Sungci Siput. If for lack of ransom money Ihey wish lo liquidate their victim they do so in this gruesome way:— Tie him up in a sack, break him to pieces with an iron rod or with wooden poles and dump the result into the nearest mud creek, or into the open sea. In the recent drive, carried out as a combined operation, even the muddiest of creeks were combed by naval landing craft and assault barges, while K.A.F. planes roared overhead. Large numbers of suspects were winkled from their hideouts and _ arrested and arms and ammunition ot all types were recovered. Still, the nature of the terrain makes it impossible to hope to check the Ang Bin Hoay's activities effectively in one swoop, and the operation will have to be repeated from time to time. The pirates of Perak no longer have things all their own way.