Oliver Lyttelton, a millionaire industrialist with a taste for classical literature, was Churchill’s trouble-shooting production chief in World War II. Last month Churchill sent husky Lyttelton, now Colonial Secretary, on a trouble-shooting trip to Malaya, where Britain’s 3½-year war with Communism continues perilous, indecisive and expensive (it has cost the government $60,000 for every dead Communist guerrilla).*
Said Lyttelton, stepping down at Singapore’s Kallang Airport: “The first duty of government is to ensure law & order. There is no point in giving people political progress if they get their throats cut.” Replied the Singapore Labor Party’s Secretary General P. M. Williams: “[He] does not realize that the present situation springs from the political setup.”
On a see-for-himself tour, Lyttelton sat behind a 2-in. cannon in a seven-ton armored car, one of a convoy of twelve. The road was lined with Gurkhas and police facing outward with bayoneted rifles held at the ready. Lyttelton seemed displeased by so much protection. But on the second day of his tour, a Communist guerrilla with a live grenade in his pocket was captured. After that, Lyttelton’s guard was strengthened, his itinerary changed.
In tin-mining Ipoh, the airport was sealed off by 300 troops, while men of the 12th Lancers surrounded him in a body, led him to an armored car. “What, another one!” said Lyttelton, climbing aboard. “Close the hatch,” said the officer in charge. Lyttelton saw the tin district through the eye-slit in the armor. In Kuala Lumpur, Lyttelton transferred to the bullet-proof automobile which had been brought from England, too late, for assassinated High Commissioner Sir Henry Gurney (TIME, Oct. 15). At Negri Sembilan he was presented with the red-starred khaki cap of a Communist shot five days before.
Lyttelton heard two kinds of argument: 1) planters and tin miners who want more arms, armor, more troops in the field, more discipline among the police—in short, “forceful action”; 2) minority groups, such as native Malay nationalists, Indian and Chinese residents, who want more representative government, and legislative reforms leading to independence. The planters warned that Communist terrorism was causing many old hands to quit their jobs; the minority groups said they had lost confidence in the present government.
Back in Singapore last week, Colonial Secretary Lyttelton gave a cautious preview of the recommendations he will make to Prime Minister Churchill. They seemed to involve more of the same methodical jungle patrolling. Said he: “There is a great tendency to pull out the geraniums to see how they grow. I should like to let them grow a little longer first.”
* The score: 2,550 Communists killed, v. 2,720 British, Chinese and Malay dead.
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