Sufrolks in Selangor
THIS is an honest, graphic, illuminating account of active service in Malaya. The author, a regular soldier, commanded a company in the 1st Battalion, the Suffolk Regiment ; I think it is probably fair to say that, of all the British infantry committed to this thankless campaign, no unit has yet emerged with greater distinction than the Suffolks. For the best part of three years their efforts were mainly concentrated against the 4th Independent Company of the" Malayan Races' Liberation Army " in South Selangor • and this singleness of operational purpose is an advantage to Major Campbell, who achieves both a conclusion and a climax with his story of the action in which the wily and fanatical commander of the terrorists is killed by a national service subaltern.
He is (to my mind) less happy in his decision to enlarge the scope of his own first-hand experiences by including, as things which happened to him and to the men of his company, incidents which, although they are objectively and accurately described, in fact happened to somebody else. His intention here is obvious ; it is to broaden and enrich his canvas, to bring out more lessons, to provide his readers with a more comprehensive picture of the reality. But there is always some risk, even if you are an historical novelist writing about distant events, in blending fiction with reality. Major Campbell tells us in his preface that the Suffolks' arch-enemy, Liew Kon Kim, was finally brought to book in June, 1952, by an (unnamed) subaltern ; and when he comes to describe this exciting episode it is difficult to see what is gained by calling the terrorist " Liew Kim Bok " and giving the subaltern a fictitious name. It is a technique which would have imposed itself, faute de inieux, on the director of a documentary film with the. same terms of reference as this book ; but in Major Campbell's narrative—despite its obvious overall authenticity, incidentally underwritten by General Sir Gerald Templer—it has the effect of generating minor but dis- tracting question-marks. " I was browsing through Sitwell's Left Hand—Right Hand." Well, were you ? Or are we now getting a close-up of the commander of (say) Charlie Company ? Or is this you, with your literary tastes adapted for the purpose of 'disguise ? This is a flippant instance of the sort of thing I mean ; but Major Campbell inevitably has, at times, to describe—and he does it vividly—casualties, both mental and physical, to the men under his command, and in such contexts an element of the synthetic is out :if place. But these minor criticisms detract little from the main value of the book. It is a study—very thorough and reasonably perceptive— both of a particular type of warfare and of the men engaged in it. As in all British units nowadays, the majority of these are young national service men, and they emerge with great credit from Major Campbell's account of their often monotonous but sometimes most exacting experiences. Jungle Green gives a clear, harsh but on the whole inspiriting picture of a citizen army at grips with Communism in Asia, and it will be read with interest and gratitude by all who want to know exactly what goes on in Malaya.
PETER FLEMING.
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