EAST OF SUEZ
MR. OLIVER LYTTELTON is shortly to visit Malaya, where General Sir Rob Lockhart has been appointed to take over control of the anti-terrorist operations from General Sir Harold Briggs. As the last deplorable outrage, reported on Wednesday, indicates, the whole situation . urgently needs review. Strenuous, costly and Thankless efforts by the security forces have succeeded neither in wresting the initiative from the guerrillas nor in seriously impairing either their will or their ability to continue the campaign indefinitely. The complexity of the administrative structure under which the Peninsula and the island of Singapore are governed is undoubtedly a handicap to vigorous and effective action in whatever sphere ; there is far too much red tape, and far too many people have to be consulted before anything can be done. But even if the overlapping and the interdepartmental friction could be ironed out, the central problem would remain, and would still look almost insoluble. Since propaganda and re-education can play only a marginal part in the Malayan struggle, the central problem is a military problem. The piecemeal destruction of small but resolute and elusive guerrilla bands in vast tracts of jungle-covered country is not a task for which a modern army is suited or in which a modern air-force can lend decisive support ; nor is it facilitated by the continual replacement, in British if not in Gurkha units, of trained by untrained soldiers. The security forces have proved their ability to keep the activities of the terrorists within certain bounds ; but they have never come within sight of eliminating them altogether. It should not, however, be forgotten that the outlook for the Communists must often look bleak ; for the scale of their operations and the nature of their resources hold out no hope of ultimate success, since their ability to hit is matched by the neceSsity to run immediately afterwards. But there can, unfortunately—on a long-term view—be no doubt which side has the tide of events in Asia with it, and which is trying to stand against that tide. The re-settlement scheme, by reducing the Power of the bandits to extort arms and food from the Chinese Population, has had sonic effect, but that, like all other measures, has fallen far short of what the occasion requires.
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