DARK DAYS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27028, 12 March 1949, Page 8

DARK DAYS

MALAYAN SCENE BID FOR CONTROL Dunedin was incredibly peaceful after the bloodshed in Malaya. That v/as a remark made by Madame Charles Lomont to the Daily Times yesterday when describing the activities of the Chinese terrorists in Malaya. Madame Lomont has been in Malaya for the past 25 years. She was formerly Miss Marjorie Dumsday, of Central Otago. “I am not a politician,” she said. “I do not know why these things are, or what can be done to stop them, but I do know that this creed of violence unlooses something upon the world that no ends can justify. I nave seen women weeping, children crying, their husbands and fathers shot down, riddled with bullets. There will surely be an awful reckoning demanded of these people.” The two great industries of Malaya were tin and rubber, Madame Lomont said, and their full production earned for Britain vital quantities of dollars. After the war the representatives of these industrial concerns came back to the country at great personal sacrifice, and succeeded in putting the companies on their feet again. Having described the series of brutal murders which began in May of last year, Madame Lomont said that the country was now organised to some measure of defence. Britain had sent soldiers from the best regiments, and about 20,000 Malays had volunteered as special constabulary. ' “ Chinese terrorists are making an organised attempt to disrupt the tin and rubber industries and gain control of the country.” Madame Lomont declared. "It is estimated that there are about 5000, perhaps more, who are undoubtedly organised by some outside influence to carry out without scruple what we know to be the first plank in the Communist platformkill and destroy to get your way of life.” . . ■

Despite the efforts of the terrorists, the production of tin and rubber was rapidly approaching pre-war levels, she added. Planters and miners refused to throw in the towel. It was impossible to speak too highly of the men who had returned to Malaya in the days after the war and dragged some order out of chaos, she concluded. In the midst of all the present terrorist activity, these men were sticking to their jobs.