Sir Henry Gurney's Legacy
It was apparently more by accident than design that Sir Henry Gurney was murdered ; but it is some measure of the uncertainty which still overhangs Malaya that its High Commissioner can be killed by an act of casual banditry. Sir Henry Gurney had been High Commissioner for three years. When he was appointed to his new post immediately after his term as Chief Secretary to the Palestine Government had, through no fault of his own, come to an inglorious end, it was sometimes too easily assumed that he was intended to be the " strong man " who would bend the resources of Malaya to crushing the terrorists. The real measure of Sir Henry's strength was that he never let the campaign against the terrorists interfere with his plans for political progress. A great deal has happened in the three years that he served as High Commissioner. The military campaign has been pursued with heartbreaking ups `and downs of fortune ; there is little chance now that Sir Henry's hope of seeing the state of emergency end this year will be fulfilled. But there should equally be little fear that the terrorists will be able to expand their operations or make any more serious wounds in Malaya's economy. Politically the situation is a great dial brighter than anyone could have hoped to see three years ago. Responsibility for administration has to some extent passed into unofficial hands, and the founding of Dato Onn Bin Ja'afar's Independence for Malaya Party is one sign that poli- tical experience will grow alongside experience in administration. All these developments Sir Henry Gurney initiated or encouraged. He was one of the outstanding exponents in the Far East of the belief that Communism cannot be fought by bullets alone—even.though, in his death, he is a witness of the fact that Communism still fights back most readily with bullets.
Previous page
