STERN MEASURES TO CRUSH COMMUNIST VIOLENCE IN MALAYA

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22666, 17 June 1948, Page 5

STERN MEASURES TO CRUSH COMMUNIST VIOLENCE IN MALAYA

(N, Z. P. A.—Reuter—Copyright.) (11.30 a.m.) LONDON, June 16. Replying to a barrage of questions in the House of Commons about “Communist-inspired outbreak of crime and violence in Malaya,” the Colonial Secretary, Mr. A. Creech Jones, said the worst affected areas were Central and South Perak and Central Johore. There were five organised murders and two attempted last week. In addition, this morning a Chinese gang murdered two European managers and one European assistant of three neighbouring estates in Central Perak.

■* The High Commissioner had immediately given the police in the affected areas extraordinary powers of search, detention and control of the movements of people and traffic, and re-imposed the death penalty for the unlawful possession of arms.

Mr. Creech Jones said that police posts and military patrols had been increased in the affected areas. Steps had been taken to increase the police foice.

The Government was considering a banishment ordinance. The administration was tightening up the regulations relating to subversive propaganda and had begun to amend the trade union regulations. Lord Listowel, in the House of Lords, said the Government was aware that communism was behind many acts of violence in Malaya. Meanwhile, murder and terrorism continue in Malaya. Ten Chinese gunmen, armed with automatics and revolvers, today ambushed and killed a Chinese foreman on a lonely road in the Senai rubber estate near Kuali, 15 miles north of Johore Bharu. The foreman was a supporter of the Kuomintang. Kuali is one of the areas for which the High Commissioner, Sir Edward Gent today granted emergency powers to the police. Disgruntled dismissed employees recently burned down the estate rubber factory and started several other fires.

Chinese, armed with Sten guns and revolvers, this morning shot dead three British planters on a rubber estate 20 miles from Ipoh.

The bandits looted a bungalow on the estate and set fire to rubber smokehouses. Troops and police have been dispatched to the scene. All European women and children on the estates in the district are being evacuated. A senior police officer said there was no question that the murders were carried out by the Communist “strongarm corps” who were out to destroy the rubber and tin industries of the country. Gangsters shot dead a Chinese contractor on a rubber estate north of Taiping. bringing the day’s deathroll from murders in Perak to four.