A Turning-Point in Malaya ?
Mr. Malcolm MacDonald's broadcast from Singapore on Tuesday was a lot more reassuring than the loosely optimistic statements about the Malayan situation which have emanated periodically from official sources both in London and out there. He made it clear that Communist strategy, which envisaged a large-scale insurrection culminating ere this in control of the whole Peninsula, had been decisively defeated ; and although on a tactical level the terrorists are still in a position to take the initiative in isolated districts, their leaders can point to little in the way of what even they could call constructive achievement. Outrages, whether planned or improvised, will continue to recur until these leaders are killed, captured or discredited and their conspiratorial network, which owes more to personal relationships and loyalties than to party discipline or ideological harmonies, is broken up. Pressure on the insurgents is steadily increasing. A battalion of the Inniskillings landed from Hongkong this week and the 4th Hussars, whose despatch to Malaya was decided on several weeks ago, are expected in Singapore about the middle of September after a transit which certainly avoids the appearance of undue haste. The police force is being expanded by roughly 3o per cent., and a small dividend from our Palestine policy crops tip in the shape of Soo officers and N.C.O.s now available for duty in Malaya. It looks, in short, as if we shall weather the storm there, though not before a number of people—especially the planters —have undergone much hardship, danger and strain, if nothing worse. More vigilance and greater resolution before the outbreak could and should have confined it to a more easily manageable scale.
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