WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE’

Grey River Argus, 19 February 1949, Page 7

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE ’

Speech By British High Commissioner

March -of Communism

TIMARU, Feb. 18

Sir Patrick Duff, K.C.8., K.C.V.0.. High Commissioner for the United Kingdom, at the Annual Conference of the New Zealand Retailers’ Federation, Timaru to-night said: —. “A world war inevitably leaves a long and widespread aftermath of passion and unsettlement flaming or smouldering in many stricken lands. But, since the cease fire in the last war there are still places like New Zealand—or Britain, for that matter —where life, on the surface, goes on familiarly as usual. But the vision of our naked eye only reaches a few miles. Just beyond it, in distances which sound big but which an aeroplane measures in a matter of hours or minutes, very different scenes take ominous shape. Those people in New Zealand who think they need not worry because they are buried far away in the midst of the wide spaces of the Pacific are about as realistic and as dignified as the ostrich’s tail which thinks' it is safe and ornamental because its head is buried in the sand. You need to re-focus your glasses; because, if you don’t look out, things which you think are far away are going to fall right into your lap at any minute.

“We are living in a dangerous work]. A silent grim battlefront has been moving Westward in Central Europe under a baffling disguise. Ir moves under cover—the cover of democracy itself—though it is as different from democracy as chalk from cheese. Its name is Communism, and its weapon the Fifth Column. “The cold war,’’ as it is called, is a very real war. If you had any doubts about it before, take a look at Czechoslovakia; And remember, that all this is, in the air-age, literally on your doorstep. Communism now controls the Government of about onefifth of the world’s population. Since 1939, Russia has moved her effective frontier nearly one thousand miles westward. The momentum of her conquests has by no means stopped; and the urge for expansion which is a fundamental tenet of Communism’s aggressive creed is as restless as ever. “I mentioned Czechoslovakia, so close and so recently grabbed behind the Iron Curtain. But the Iron Curtain is on the jump. And there is something happening much nearer to New Zealand than Czechoslovakia —- just around the corner, you might say—in Malaya. Let us have a look at Malaya. “The British brought a phenomenal degree of prosperity to Malaya and to all that part of the world. Before the British came, the various sultanates in the Malay Peninsula were perpetually at war with each other and with the aggressive Siamese to the north. The sultans and their nones exploited the peasants with the same ruthless rapacity as the mediaeval barons or feudal Europe, and debt-slavery was widespread. The Malacca Straits were infested by Malay pirates; and armed bands of Chinese tin-miners, turned brigands, roamed the countryside. The British found Singapore a barren and swampy island. Through the vigour and vision of a great man called Sir Stamford Raffles it became a huge commercial entrepot, free to all comers. From seedlings raised in Kew Gardens near London, the rubber industry in Malaya was developed, and tin-m'ining yielded a fortune to the country. It was a cardinal principle of Sir Stamford Raffles, whose name will aways hold an honoured place in the history of Colonial administration, *that a civilised power is under an obligation to promote the welfare of dependent races and at the same time to develop the natural resources of their countries in such a way as to share the resulting benefits' with the people themselves and with the outside world. With the revenue resulting from Singapore and from the country’s natural resources, the Government of Malaya were able to spend prodigious sums on education and health services. Malayan tin and rubber were steadily developed to the benefit no doubt of merchants and investors in Britain and elsewhere, but to the no less certain, and even greater benefit of Malaya itself. Malaya was transformed within a few decades from an impoverished and fever-stricken jungle of pirates and brigands to a free, prosperous and contented community, attracting immigrants from all over the Far East. In this new Malaya the life and property of the humblest Malayan were for the first time secure. For the first time he owned a permanent title to his land. Free education, free hospitals and free medicine were his, banks for Jfis savings and rail and roads for his travel. The government helped him to build his mosque and drain and irrigate his fields. Arbitrary taxation and forced labour, slavery and piracy were no more. Cholera and smallpox had virtually disappeared. The courts of law dispensed

equal justice to men of every coloui’ and creed.

“I don’t know what higher gifts one nation could conceivably bestow upon another. “The British-made prosperity of Malaya attracted immigrants from all over the East, but principally .from China. This created a difficult problem as, by 1937, 41.3 per cent, of the whole population had become Chinese as against 42.2 per cent. Malayan. When, in the war, French Indo-China fell and left our flank exposed and when the British Navy, being so heavily engaged in Western waters, could not simultaneously protect the Eastern oceans, the Japanese ovef-ran Malaya. The smoke-screen of Japanese propaganda still hangs over that part of the world and is greedily exploited in certain quarters. Their propaganda keeps floating on like poison gas, festering in holes and corners or filtering on in the same way that a forest fire runs underground and out of sight and re-appears-again long after the original blaze to what it can feed on anew. You cannot collect these insidious lies like you can disused ammunition, or round them up like criminals. You cannot blow them out of the water with depth charges, or string them up like the war criminals of Tokyo. It is one of the ironies of history that, because of the disaster which befell our arms in Malaya in 1942, and because of the Japanese propaganda of that period, British Colonial administration has been more strongly criticised as regards Malaya than almost anywhere else. The fact is that our administration in Malaya, particularly in developing the social services and in safe-guarding mine and plantation labour, might fairly be described as an example to the world. When you hear criticism of it, remember that the trade mark of that fabrication is “Made in Japan.” “In 1942 the Japanese over-ran Malaya, and darkness settled down over the country for the next three years. Towards the end of the Japanese war, considerable anti-Japan-ese resistance forces were gathered in Malayan jungles. A large proportion of these were composed of Communists of Chinese race. They were immigrants: ■ not born in Malaya. They were given arms and equipment to conduct guerrilla operations against the Japanese. Actually, these Chinese did very little, except to rob unarmed Malay villages ;and, for the mo3t part, although they may pose now as "heroes of the resistance movement,” they fled for their lives during the Japanese occupation to the recesses of the forest-clad mountains. But their intentions had always looked beyond the Japanese occupation. These immigrant Chinese Communists had planned to take over the whole government of Malaya, if necessary by force, immediately after somebody else had pushed the Japanese out. In this purpose they were defeated by the arrival of Admiral Mountbatten’s liberating forces and the quick establishment of the British Military Administration over the entire country. This gave them pause; but the Communists regarded their plan to capture power in Malaya by force as only postponed. They hid their arms, ammunition and other military equipment in the jungle and kept both a political and a military organisation in being. They all went “underground,” and owing to the ease with which they could keep more or less' out of sight in wild parts of the country, they were Largely able to avoid detection or interference by the Government. “The first move in the game for seizing power in Malaya was made by Communist agents who sought to penetrate and capture trade unions and small left wing political groups in Malaya. They met with a certain amount of success, although far less success than they hoped for. The fact is that the vast majority of Malaya, Chinese and other ' communities in Malaya are moderate in their views, and are utterly opposed to Communist doctrines. ' Young left wing enthusiasts, especially among immigrant Chinese, however, gave the Communist movement a certain amount of energy and impetus.

“The important thing to remember is that these Chinese are not of local birth, but are imported Communists from China.

“Early last year the Communist leaders, partly it. seems on their own initiative and partly following instructions from somewhere outside Malaya, decided that the time had arrived to challenge the Government. Having failed, owing to firm Government action, to make effective the challenge by organising a general strike, they turned to violence, They have always been prepared for this, and their campaign is a carefully organised one. Our intelligence officers fortunately secured an account _of the Communist plan for capturing power in Malaya. The programme was to provoke widespread labour unrest through April of last year, stimulating it by stabbing Trade Union leaders reluctant to join them, burning factories and the like, with political demonstrations designed to impress the people of Malaya with the idea of Communist strength. This was to be followed by an armed insurrection in June: It was to spread to the island of Singapore; and on August 3rd. —they had the sauce to name the actual date: On August 3rd of last year the whole area was to he proclaimed the Communist Republic of Malaya. The industrial unrest fizzled out, but the armed outbreak took place as planned. Its principal victims un to date have been local Chinese in the country areas, but some European planters, local Malayan leaders of the United Malayan National Organisation and Indian and Chinese labourers, have also been murdered in circumstances of horrifying brutality. The perpetrators of the crimes have, in almost all cases, been armed Chinese Communists, imported from China. I saw in a newspaper some months ago that Mr Sharkey, the General Secretary of the Australian Communist Party, had been visiting Malaya. Mr Sharkey described himself as prepared to support the Communist Party in Malaya in its fight, and, after saying that the British troops trying to suppress terrorism there are “cutthroats hired to continue their wellknown work,” remarked: ‘The revolt in Malaya is a struggle for national independence.’ Nothing could possibly be further from the truth than to describe the attack on the Malayan community by Communists nearly all of whom are recent immigrants from China as a ‘struggle for national independence.’ But, beside being a lie, it is also a very typical form of Communist lie. One of their favourite and most artful devices is to hitch themselves on to aspirations which make a big popular appeal and, to pose as their champion. In India, for insi ance, they posed as supporters of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Nehru and the Congress Party, whilst in Burma they aided Aung San and his patriotic party. But their friendliness is false to the core. No sooner do Pandit Nehru and his colleagues side over the government of India and Thakin Nu and his fellow Ministers preside over the Government of Burma than, lo and behold, the Communists oppose them in turn and make every effort to undermine them.

“The Communists do not want the new governments in India or Burma to be a’success. Their solicitude for national independence, there or elsewhere, is a complete sham. All they want is to create the conditions of economic distress and political choas which give a chance to a violent minority to overthrow the government

and to seize the community by the throat.

“Mr Sharkey and other Communists elsewhere would naturally like to see immigrant Chinese gunmen overwhelm the Government of Malaya, and then spill over into New Zealand. The people of Malaya, however, are of a very different opinions Virtually the whole of the Malayan population is supporting the Government in its resistance to these terrorists. The Government recruited on the spot ten t housand full-time Special Constables—which is a tribute to the zeal of the volunteers as well as a testimony to the solidarity of the Malayan people behind the Government. Three thousand parttime Auxiliary Police Officers were also enrolled. But mobile bands of desperadoes take a lot of catching in wild country much of which is virgin jungle with few, if any, communications; and, in order to deal with them and to restore peaceful conditions in as short a while as possible, it has been necessary to call in troops.. Y’all have read in the papers the names of famous regiments or elements of famous regiments represented there: the 4th Hussars, a Brigade of Guards, the British-Gurkha Division, the Malay Regiment, Seaforth Highlanders, Devonshire Regiment, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, the Royal Air Force, the übiquitous Royal Artillery and the Royal Navy patrolling the coast. The difficulty of the jungle country for operations automatically slows down results; but the operations are being successful and the results, if slow, are sure. “I seem to have noticed that people in New Zealand read and talk about what, is happening in Malaya with tlie most complacent detachment, as if it has nothing whatever to do with them. It makes me wonder if you realise that Singapore is only a few aeroplane hops from here? Do you realise that Malaya to-day is on your doorstep? Do you realise that, if Communist Chinese gunmen and bandits got the upper hand in .Ma.aya, a pivotal link in our chain ot British nations would be snapped; and. that it would be no time before the resultant forces of chaos spilled over into New Zealand? Who is it, just on your doorstep, fighting the battle? Britain! People here through their history are apt to expect Mother Britain to turn on protection for them at all points on the map every day of the week in the same way as Mother Nature turns on sunshine. I don’t know what it costs Mother Nature to turn on sunshine; but I can make some guess at what it costs Britain to turn on the R.A.F., the Inniskillings, the Fourth Hussars and the rest. Britain’s sons, Yorkshire Light Infantry or Air Force or Guards, would be just as glad to be in their homes •as New Zealand s sons. British mothers of Seaforth Highlanders or Devonshires would just as soon have their sons at home as New Zealand mothers. British taxpayers would have other _ things to spend their money on, if such a threat as this in Malaya did not assail the whole Empire family spread across the Seven Seas. So, when you read of the staunch efforts made by the Malay Regiment to quell the Communist attempt to overwhelm their happy and contented country and to disrupt your lifeline and your safety and the foundations of your economy (as well as Britain’s); when you read that the Fourth Hussars or the Guards, or the R ; A.F.,_ or the Gurkhas, or the Yorkshire Light Infantry, or the Seaforths, or the Devonshires are in action; remember: It is New Zealand nomes as well as British homes that they are trying to make safe. Remember that in Ma’aya it is New Zealand’s battle that, at all this cost of Britain’s life, and treasure. Britain’s youth are fighting. And spare a thought, as you read your newspaper, for the Seaforths and Hussars and Devonshires and the Guards and the rest of them, fighting your battle on your doorstep for you. And spare a thought, as you hear on your wireless the news from Malaya, for John and Mary Bull in Britain who bear the whole heartache and the whole expense.

“I have given you a brief picture of what is happening in Malaya because it illustrates in a concrete way what should be the moral running through the evolution of much of our Empire’s history. Let us take a rapid glance back over the last one hundred years—(in the Stream of Time, as in "other streams, if the fisherman is to make a good forward cast, he must first niake a good back cast.) “New Zealand, from her birth a century and more ago, has been blessed wih two Fairy Godmothers: Mother Nature and Mother Britain. Protected through a century by Britain’s fleet, with Britain’s finance at rail—not forgetting the large stream of private capital fed into this country in the early days of settlement — I. doubt if any country was ever given such a flying start on the course of destiny. In the shortest possible time, through the long-visioned and liberal policy of Britain, New Zealand became a self-governing Dominion within the shining company of peoples known as the British Commonwealth and Empire. And thus the voice of New Zealand, although it has only a handful of population compared with the teeming millions of other nations, is heard with respect and attention, because of that association, in the councils of the nations. It is the same, in varying degrees, with the other members of our British Commonwealth family.

“But old habits die hard. The new Dominions, as they all grew and developed, claimed —as they were given by Britain every encouragement to do—complete self-government. But their political maturity, although it implied further rights of which they were very conscious, was not held by them to "involve further obligations. And thus Britain continued to hold over the Dominions the shield of the Royal Navy, as in the days of their infancy, almost unaided. While constitutionally the Dominions were reaching equality and autonomy, full and final, as far as defence was concerned the traditions of their infancy lingered on, and they remained immature and dependent still. After the turn of the century, the military and economic scale of leading world powers like Germany was! steadily expanding; but the young self-gov-erning nations of the British Empire took little thought whether the United Kingdom ' taxpayer could in such circumstances indefinitely maintain the defence of the Empire virtually unaided.

“They took it all for granted, and looked for Mother Britain to turn on their defence like Mother Nature turned on their sunshine. The first war. with its appalling losses and its appalling lessons, befell. When the continued existence, not only of Britain. but of the whole Empire family was in mortal peril, the Dominions rose manfully to the occasion and did not stint to throw all their resources into the fight. But, after that war was over and as immediate danger seemed to vanish, the democracies of the British Empire assumed that danger would never revive and they proceeded to concentrate their attention on their own domestic affairs. They reverted to the old axiom that any disagreeable responsibilities or onerous insurance must be carried by the United Kingdom. The tempting old tradition that the defence of the whole Empire is the responsibility of the United Kingdom taxpayer resumed its sway. It was not till the last war that citizens, not only of the British Empire, but of the United States of America, realised abruptly that, for generations past, they had been taking the unobtrusive screen of the Royal Navy for grant-

ed. It was the British Navy which made the Munro doctrine possible for the United States of America.' It was the American Secretary for War, Colonel Stimson, who reminded both Americans, North and South, that they owed their freedom and the survival of their way of life to the friendly control of the Royal Navy over the North Atlantic.

“What has happened since the cease fire in World War II? The world has not grown safer. Quite the reverse. It has never been in a condition of more vertiginous insecurity. Have the lessons of the past been assimilated, or do we witness many of the same old tendencies manifesting themselves again, and the same complacent readiness to leave the United Kingdom to carry the lion’s share of umpire defence? Do you ever give a thought to the responsibilities which the United Kingdom is carrying today? I have given you the single Instance of Malaya where your battle on your doorstep is being fought tor you. What is happening elsewhere ?

“Although her economic difficulties have caused her to effect reductions in her armed forces, Britain, at the cost of considerable sacrifices to herself, is still discharging her responsibilities as a world Power by the maintenance of a military strength which exceeds that of pre-war days. “The British Navy is second in power only to that of the United States. Its present strength in officers and other ranks (145,000) is bigger than it was in 1939 (120,000). “The strength of the R.A.F. in March, 1948, was 274,000 compared with 118,000 in 1939. It is equipped with'the latest jet and other types of planes as far ahead in design as British planes wmre during the war. '■‘The present strength of the British Army is upwards of half a milion men.

“Britain’s military strength is not being used merely for the defence of the British Isles. Britain still carries immense responsibilities for defence all over the world, viz., occupation forces in Germany and Austria; troops in Greece and in Trieste; forces to safeguard communications in the Mediterranean and the Middle East; forces in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean, and defence agreements with Burma and Celyon; garrisons in the Far East, e.g. Hong Kong; forces in Malaya; contingents to provide support for local forces in Africa and the West Indies.

These are huge burdens carried by the United Kingdom people. These are the people in the last w'ar who foyght earliest, who fought hardest, who fought longest. Their reward has been to be saddled with a burden of debt greater than the highest amount of reparations tvhich, after World War I, the Allies ever levied upon Germany; and to face austerity in food and in all the lesser comforts of life such as is beyond the imagination of countries which have not. stood with all they possessed in the firing line as Britain did. “At the same time, Britain is sustaining a decisive role in the struggle for world prosperity. The fact that she is the world’s greatest importermeans that the prosperity of all the countries who sell to her —and that means almost every country in the world —is bound up to some extent with Britain’s ability to maintain her purchases. Britain is the biggest single customer of no less than 31 othernations. If Britain, with her colossal potential market, is not in a strong purchasing position, all hope of ‘full employment’ disappears for 31 nations of the world as well as for herself. British exports are also important, not merely because they enable Britain to finance her vast imports, but because they are, particularly in this citical post-war period, bringing basic necessities like coal and machinery of all types to countries in Europe and other parts of the world who need them desperately for their own recovery. Although, owing to balance of payments difficulties, it has been necessary to hold imports down to about 75 per cent, of prewar volume, exports have been above pre-war ever since the middle of 1946, and in December last reached a record of 152 per . cent, of 1938 volume. This achievement has only been possible at considerable sacrifice to the British people, but it has represented a substantial contribution to world recovery. “Britain, in. a perilous world, is holding up the umbrella of defence over the heads of many peoples besides her own; she is holding up the floor of their economy under the feet of many peoples besides her own. But, meanwhile, the skies are still darkening.

“I tell you nought for your comfort Yea, nought for your desire; Save that the sky grows darker yet And the sea rises higher.”

“There was once a portal over which were written the words: —

“All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”

“We should never abandon any hope, let alone ‘all hope.’ But, over the threshold of our New Year is affixed the sepulchral words of Stalin defining the tasks of Communists as:—

“A persistent struggle, bloody and bloodless, violent and peaceful, military and economic, educational and administrtive, against the forces and traditions of the old society.” “And, parallel with it, is Lenin’s doctrine, that: — “The existence of the Soviet Republic side by side with imperialist states for a long time is unthinkable. One or the other must triumph in the end. And before that end supervenes, a series of frightful collisions between the Soviet Republic and the bourgeois states will be inevitable.”

“Lenin’s doctrine is the creed enforced on one-fifth of the human race. And now look at China, and at the great landslide of 456 million and more people into Communism’s grip. And look at the map! Above you is Japan, to-day a defeated nation, 75 million of them. There is a timelessness about the calculations of the East. Millions of sullen, inscrutable, fanatic peoples are poised like a sword of Damocles over your heads. The births each year in Japan alone exceeded New Zealand’s total population. Look at the map?; But don’t let the map give you on paper a false sense of security. Distance has crumpled up. The motors burn up the miles. Aircraft are flying at 600 miles an hour to-day; we are actually in Sight, of the ram-jet aeroplane whose cruising speed will be around 2,200 miles an hour. As the walls of Jericho fell at the sound of the trumpets, so the wall of Distance, like the Maginot Line, crumble and melt away befor the roar of tank and aeroplane engines. When such vast upheavals, such momentous redispositions of power are taking place in the sight of all men and when such aggression and such malignant intent are openly displayed and announced, the historian writing 25 years ahead may well express astonishment at the unconcern with which so many proud young nations were content to allow so disproportionate a burden of their common defence to rest upon the people of the United Kingdom.”