7th Rangers: The British in Malaya were engaged in a momentous experiment: they were offering the people of Malaya parliamentary democracy. Monday, Aug. 8, 1955
Fighting Seventh
The Fighting Rangers On War, Politics and Burning Issues
Rudyard Kipling"
“When you're left wounded on Afganistan's plains and
the women come out to cut up what remains, Just roll to your rifle
and blow out your brains,
And go to your God like a soldier”
General Douglas MacArthur"
“We are not retreating. We are advancing in another direction.”
“It is fatal to enter any war without the will to win it.” “Old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
“The soldier, above all other people, prays for peace, for he must suffer and be the deepest wounds and scars of war.”
“May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't .” “The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his.
“Nobody ever defended, there is only attack and attack and attack some more.
“It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived.
The Soldier stood and faced God
Which must always come to pass
He hoped his shoes were shining
Just as bright as his brass
"Step forward you Soldier,
How shall I deal with you?
Have you always turned the other cheek?
To My Church have you been true?"
"No, Lord, I guess I ain't
Because those of us who carry guns
Can't always be a saint."
I've had to work on Sundays
And at times my talk was tough,
And sometimes I've been violent,
Because the world is awfully rough.
But, I never took a penny
That wasn't mine to keep.
Though I worked a lot of overtime
When the bills got just too steep,
The Soldier squared his shoulders and said
And I never passed a cry for help
Though at times I shook with fear,
And sometimes, God forgive me,
I've wept unmanly tears.
I know I don't deserve a place
Among the people here.
They never wanted me around
Except to calm their fears.
If you've a place for me here,
Lord, It needn't be so grand,
I never expected or had too much,
But if you don't, I'll understand."
There was silence all around the throne
Where the saints had often trod
As the Soldier waited quietly,
For the judgment of his God.
"Step forward now, you Soldier,
You've borne your burden well.
Walk peacefully on Heaven's streets,
You've done your time in Hell."
The British in Malaya were engaged in a momentous experiment: they were offering the people of Malaya parliamentary democracy. Monday, Aug. 8, 1955
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
The Malayan jungle, for seven years a field of battle with Communist terrorists, was invaded by a strange new company last week. Instead of armored cars, mobile units rolled into the kampongs (villages) with films of hip-swinging dancing girls to draw the crowds; instead of riflemen, sweating, sport-shirted politicians arrived by bicycle, canoe and on foot over the jungle trails; instead of new orders and restrictions, catchy tunes and the magic word merdeka (independence) blared from truck-and boat-borne public-address systems; instead of police inter rogators, teams of European and Asian officials were passing out booklets in four languages entitled, "What Must I Do on Polling Day?"
Cotton; Elastic; Pair of cotton over-boots hand sewn from a flour sack. To form each over-boot, half of the sack has been folded vertically and stitched together to form a tube, with the bottom tapering to form a roughly triangular boot shape. The open top ends have been hemmed, and were originally elasticised, although the elastic has now perished. One of the over-boots is of unmarked cotton, while the other, evidently made from the front of the bag, is printed in blue, red, yellow and green ink. The words 'PRODUCT OF AUSTRALIA BEST QUALITY AUSTRALIAN FLOUR THREE TURTLES BRAND ROLLER FLOUR MFD FOR BORNEO SUMATRA TRADING HSH 15779 MALACCA IMPORTED BY BORNEO SUMATRA TRADING CO (M) LTD. SINGAPORE. MANUFACTURED BY STRATTON & SONS PTY. LTD LBS GROSS WEIGHT WHEN'¿ (remainder obscured) are printed on the cotton, along with the trademark of three green and yellow turtles and two five-pointed red stars. The foot sections of each over-boot are discoloured from contact with wet ground. Summary: Pair of over-boots recovered from one of the Communist Terrorists killed by a patrol from 7 Platoon, 3 Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, on 23 April, 1958. The two Communist Terrorists killed in this action, which took place in the Sungei Siput rubber plantation, north east of Sungei Siput village in the State of Perak, Malaya, were later identified as a Chinese and an Indian from the Lintang South Armed Work Force (AWF). A third man, believed to be wounded, escaped. The jeep-mounted patrol from 7 Platoon, operating under the command of B Company, set out at first light on 23 April, intending to try and cut the attempted escape route of a group of Communist Terrorists who had been ambushed by A Company the previous night. One man was eventually spotted hiding behind a rubber tree, and in the jeep-borne pursuit which followed, the two men were killed by machine gun fire. They were the first confirmed kills of 3 RAR's tour of Malaya, following a series of indecisive clashes. The over-boots were used by terrorists to hide the distinctive pattern of their boots when moving along jungle tracks, and were made from a flour sack of Australian origin.
The British in Malaya were engaged in a momentous experiment: they were offering the people of Malaya parliamentary democracy, a measure of self-government now, and its seemingly inevitable consequence, independence in due time. Every citizen over the age of 21 was entitled to vote, and 1,250,000 out of the eligible 1,600,000 registered to do so. The response was greatest among the Malays, much less among the native-born Chinese, who almost equal the Malays numerically now and, because of a higher birth rate, expect to outnumber them in a few years. For the 52 available seats in the Legislative Council there were 129 candidates, most of them Malays. But Chinese interest in the general election was not entirely lacking. The principal backers of the powerful Alliance Party are wealthy Chinese businessmen, although the party is largely made up of Malays. When the returns came in, the Alliance Party won 51 of the 52 seats, overwhelming the opposition Negara Party, a Malay group antagonistic to the Chinese.
The Legislative Council, in addition to its newly elected members, includes 47 members appointed by the British. But as a popularly elected body, the Alliance Party will have a far more powerful voice than that of the British appointees. President of the Alliance Party and certain to be chief minister in the new government is Prince Abdul Rahman, known as the Tengku (meaning prince in Malayan), a son of the Sultan of Kedah, a dynasty founded centuries ago by a Mongol chieftain who was shipwrecked on the Malayan coast. Tengku's mother was the daughter of a Siamese chieftain.
The Tengku was educated in England, and returning there in 1947 for a belated law degree, managed to get named as a corespondent in an English divorce case, a feat which did him no harm with his electorate. The Tengku stumped the country tirelessly on foot and by car, preaching the Alliance Party's program of complete independence in four years, and the "Malayanizing" of the public services, i.e., kicking out the British officials. But the British are not unduly worried. For all his talk, the Tengku stands for a conservative capitalist economy and the encouragement of foreign investment. The source.
