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."
From Singapore, Manfred Gottfried, chief of foreign correspondents for TIME & LIFE, cabled this appraisal of the situation in Malaya:
They speak of Emergency here. It means Communist terrorism. The Emergency is not getting any better. Every day or so another planter or soldier or constable is killed. Recently, bandits fired into a car in which a planter's daughter, aged 2½, was riding. They hit the driver and the car went into the ditch. Then the bandits came up, shot the little girl through the head at close range, killed the cook boy who tried to protect her."Swine —just swine!" exclaimed a British official, and the planters were even more bitter.
In Singapore, a Chinese takes a taxicab at night and in a lonely area holds up the driver, seizes his money and identity card and sets the cab on fire. Or three or four men take a bus at night and ride until the rest of the passengers alight. Then they set fire to the bus. Returning to my hotel one evening recently, I passed one of these buses just burned out.
Marxism for Schoolchildren. Another terrorist tactic is to enter a school, cut the telephone wires, hold up the teacher, go into the classes, make fiery Communist speeches to the children, take away their identity cards and, after 20 minutes, skip. Identity cards have been issued because of The Emergency, and they apparently bother the terrorists, who are trying to break up the card system.
There are about 3,000 to 5,000 terrorists in all Malaya. It is a purely Communist movement. They get along by living in the jungle, where food is scarce and living tough, and they have to be fanatic to stick it out. The British are convinced that they get no outside help. In support of this view, the British have captured documents which indicate that the Communist high command does not consider it worthwhile to give the terrorists aid until Siam is in Communist hands. The terrorists get their guns and ammunition by shooting people who have them. A favorite trick until recently was to shoot down traffic police when their backs were turned and to seize their side arms. Now traffic police go unarmed and thus are helpless if they see a bandit outrage.
Stalinism for Chinese. The Communists are almost without exception Chinese, and their chief victims are Chinese. The Chinese community's leaders support British efforts to stamp out the bandits, but there is a tendency to play both sides. The British position in the Chinese community was weakened by British recognition of the Mao government. The logical consequence of recognizing Communist China—if China ever acknowledges Britain's recognition—would be the establishment of Red Chinese consulates in Malaya, and that would put all Chinese residents within Communist reach. All the Britons I met in Malaya regard the recognition of Mao as a great mistake.
The British administration, headed by Malcolm MacDonald, British Commissioner-General for Southeast Asia, is probably the best any British possession has ever had. The government is bringing along natives as No. 2 men in all departments. By Oriental standards education is already advanced (literacy is around 40%), and big school-building programs are afoot. On my way out to see Mac-Donald at "Bukit Serene," three miles from Johore Bahru, the Malayan taxi driver said: "If we were going five miles, I would have to ask you to lie down on the floor. The bandits keep watch at five miles. If they saw you, then at seven miles they would shoot at us. I think they telephone ahead." The strange thing about all this is that it is only a nuisance, not an emergency. Life goes on about as placidly as life went on in Chicago in Capone's day—for the moment. The source.
