N.Z. TIN MINER’S ORDEAL IN “TIGER TAMER’S COUNTRY”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22729, 30 August 1948, Page 6

N.Z. TIN MINER’S ORDEAL IN “TIGER TAMER’S COUNTRY”

(From Graham Jenkins, N.Z.P.A., Reuter s Correspondent.) SELAYANG, Cen. Malaya. Here on this valuable Britishowned dollar producer, the New Zealand manager, Mr. Bill Taylor, has not had a whole night’s rest since the Communist offensive broke in the district nearly three months ago.

With his Wellington-born wife and three faithful dogs, Taylor lives just eight miles north of the federation's capital, Kuala Lumpur, yet lie is right in thd heart of what the terrorists call “tiger tamer's country”. For the period of this emergency, Taylor is, an auxiliary Police Inspector for the district. It includes five tin mines with valuable dredging equipment, 17 Britons with some wives and families and more than 1000 coolie population. By day, Mr. Taylor attends his normal duties and trains auxiliary policemen. By night he sees his shifts of workmen are being protected, ( checks his police posts on the mine and lends a hand when there is some defending to be done. Home Attacked at Midnight Mr. Taylor's 24-hour schedule is typical of the life now among Malay’s tin miners and rubber planters—unsung heroes holding this fluid battle line for production against Communist-led insurgents. The Communist tactics being employed against Mr. Taylor are typical too. Take for instance, home of his recent troubles which he recounted today. Insurgents not long ago launched a midnight attack on Mr. Taylor’s late shift as they groped through the darkness, tired and sleepy, along a lonely road back to their village with only a light police escort. In a sudden scuille, the police lost Mr. Taylor's only sten gun and one of the mine's six rifles. The men ran back frightened to the dredge and refused to go home until dawn came. Apparently the Communist objective was arms, not dead bodies. There were no Europeans in the party. Mr. Taylor’s suspicions that the

insurgents had inside information about his policemen’s movemonts appeared confirmed the next day when detectives arrested three of his Chinese employees. Later detectives surprised Mr. Taylor by arresting one of his own office staff. Contact With* Jungle Thugs The contact between jungle thugs and some employees in Malay's key tin industry, Mr. Taylor thinks, has existed ever since British planes dropped arms and ammunition in the nearby Batu Caves area to the Communists for guerilla warfare against the Japan-_ ese during the occupation.

It was as the "Tiger Tamers’’ that the guerillas continued their post-war activities. They stole tine from the mines, robbed and murdered.

In Selayang it reached a climax with murder of a taxi driver and arrest of several of Mr. Taylor’s men. The dismissal of several others followed. Today, the “Tiger Tamers” are with the Communists, Mr. Taylor believes. Already three dismissed men have been recognised in Insurgent raids.

Mr. Taylor agreed that the insurgent objective was to eliminate European mine staffs, disrupt the labour force and create conditions conducive to a revolution.

“Our labour force has always been a little “anti” and could quite easily be led by the Communists if we were out of the way,” Mr. Taylor said. The total defences of the Seleyang community comprised four stens, 29 rifles, four shotguns and Mr. Taylor's own pistol for which he has not suitable ammunition. Sleeping Over Guns “My husband spends most of his time in the evening filing down sten gun ammunition to fit his pistol,” Mrs. Taylor said today. “We go to bed with his gun and have a shot-gun underneath us. I get in the bath when there is trouble. Its the only place that’s safe.

Mrs. Taylor said she was annoyed on being told from London so often that there were enough troops in Malaya. Undoubtedly the police were doing a good job, but the country was a big one and needed more defenders she thought.

Mr. Taylor is from Oamaru, New Zealand. He has been in Malaya about 15 years and spent the war on the Thailand railway as a P.O.W. After the war he recuperated in Sydney and New Zealand before returning to Malaya.