Mountbatten versus the generals: British military rule of Singapore, 1945-46

Journal of Contemporary History

Volumn 36, Issue 4, 2001, Pages

  Springhall, John ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ULSTER   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 34248069209     PISSN: 00220094     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/002200940103600405     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. Ernest C.T. Chew and Edwin Lee (eds), A History of Singapore (Singapore 1991), 110
2. Richard Stubbs, Hearts and Minds in Guerilla Warfare: The Malayan Emergency, 2 948-1960 (Oxford 1989), 10
3. Nicholas Tarling, Britain, Southeast Asia and the Onset of the Cold War, 1945-1950 (Cambridge 1998)
4. Peter Dennis, Troubled Days of Peace: Mountbatten and South East Asia Command, 1945-1946 (Manchester 1987)
5. A.J. Stockwell, 'Southeast Asia in War and Peace: The End of European Colonial Empires' in Nicholas Tarling (ed.), The Cambridge History of South East Asia, vol. 2 (Cambridge 1992), 329-85
6. Nicholas Tarling, 'Lord Mountbatten and the Return of Civil Government to Burma', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 9, 2 (January 1983), 197-226
7. Hone to F.S.V. Donnison, 25 March 1953, Mss. Ind. Ocn. S. 271, RHL
8. Anthony Walton, 'Maj.-Gen. Sir Ralph Hone', The Independent, 4 December 1992, 6
9. A.J. Stockwell, 'Colonial Planning during World War Two: The Case of Malaya', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 2 (May 1974), 333-51
10. Hone to F.S.V. Donnison, 4 January 1951, 2 and 25 March 1953, Mss. Ind. Ocn. S. 271, RHL. Donnison corresponded with Hone while writing the official history of British Military Administration in the Far East (London 1956). 'One of the most volatile conflicts of the postwar years was the contest between the MCP and KMT and the resurgent Triads', T.N. Harper, The End of Empire and the Making of Malaya (Cambridge 1999), 110. The author makes use of the records of the Chinese Affairs branch of the BMA in Singapore but his book appeared only after this article was in final draft
11. Mountbatten to Brazier for Creech Jones, 9 March 1946; Creech Jones to Bevin, 21 March 1946, WO203/6262
12. F.S.V. Donnison, British Military Administration in the Far East (London 1956), 222-3
13. Philip Ziegler, Mountbatten: The Official Biography (London 1985), 325-6
14. Khong Kim Hoong, Merdeka! British Rule and the Struggle for Independence in Malaya, 1945-1957 (Selangor 1984), 45
15. Martin Rudner, 'The Organization of the British Military Administration in Malaya, 1946-48 [sic]', Journal of Southeast Asian History, 9, 1 (1968), 104. 'Most of the military people did not realise that the guerillas were out and out Communists of the Moscow brand', Hone to Donnison, 25 March 1953, Mss. Ind. Ocn. S. 271, RHL
16. H.T. Pagden, Kuala Lumpur, to Oliver Morris, 27 October 1948
17. Pagden, 'Unrest in Malaya', September 1948, CO 537/3757; Lucian Pye, Guerilla Communism in Malaya: Its Social and Political Meaning (Princeton, NJ 1956), 83-4
18. Leslie Thomas, The Virgin Soldiers (London 1966). Senior civil affairs personnel like Pagden, several of whom had served in pre-war Malaya, were all given appropriate military commissions
19. Victor Purcell, Malaya's Political Climate, IV, 10-30 November 1945, Singapore, 3 December 1945, 3
20. General G.A. Wood to Purcell, 27 December 1945; Purcell to Wood, 28 December 1945, WO 203/5302
21. Yeo Kim Wah, Political Development in Singapore, 1945-55 (Singapore 1973), 221-4
22. Kim Hoong, Merdeka!, op. cit., 47
23. Rudner, 'The Organization', op. cit., 95-106
24. H.T. Pagden, 'Unrest in Malaya', September 1948, CO 537/3757;
25. Stubbs, Hearts and Minds, op. cit., 11-16
26. Kim Hoong, Merdeka!, op. cit., 42;
27. Colonel R.N. Broome, 'Situation in Malaya', 1 December 1945, WO 203/5302
28. Albert Lau, The Malayan Union Controversy, 1942-48 (Singapore 1991)
29. A.J. Stockwell, British Policy and Malay Politics during the Malayan Union Experiment, 1942-48 (Kuala Lumpur 1979)
30. idem, 'British Imperial Policy and Decolonization in Malaya, 1942-52', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 13 (1984), 68-87
31. Donnison to Hone, 14 July 1953, Mss. Ind. Ocn. S. 271, RHL
32. 'Guerilla Leaders Decorated by Supremo', The Straits Times, 7 January 1946, 1. The MCP was first legalized early in 1942 by Sir Shenton Thomas, Governor of the Straits Settlements, at the time of Chinese mobilization against the Japanese
33. Madoc cited in Brian Lapping, End of Empire (London 1985), 161
34. Colonel John Dalley, 'Strikes and Disturbances in Malaya', 8 November 1945, WO203/4497
35. Anthony Short, The Communist Insurrection in Malaya, 1948-1960 (London 1975), 32, 39-40
36. Cheah Boon Kheng, Red Star Over Malaya: Resistance and Social Conflict during and after the Japanese Occupation of Malaya, 1941-1946 (Singapore 1983), 244-9
37. Chew and Lee (eds), A History of Singapore, op. cit., 118
38. Earl Mountbatten, Post-Surrender Tasks, Section E of the Report to the Combined Chiefs of Staff by the Supreme Allied Commander South East Asia, 1943-1945 (London HMSO 1969), para. 11
39. Brigadier A.T. Newboult, 'Review of Petition by Soong Kwong and Report by DCCAO', 24 January 1946, WO203/6260
40. Mountbatten, Post-Surrender Tasks, op. cit., para 113;
41. 'Extracts from SAC's 311th. meeting on 29 Jan. 1946', WO203/6260
42. Hone's reminiscences, 1978-79, MB1/N99A, MP/SU;
43. Patrick Mallon, US Consul-General, Singapore, to Secretary of State, Washington, 6 February 1946, Dept. of State, 846d. 5045, USNA
44. Donnison, British Military Administration, op. cit., 393
45. R.H. de S. Onraet to CCAO Hone, Kuala Lumpur, 6 March 1946
46. Onraet talk with [Sir Thomas] Lloyd and J.J.P., copy of minute, 1 August 1946, CO 537/1579. At Bukit Timah 700 British troops were reported to have stopped work in protest at the suppression of the general strike, and left-wing servicemen supposedly made contacts with the GLLJ: Harper, The End of Empire, op. cit., 80
47. Mallon to Secretary of State, Washington, 6 February 1946, Dept. of State, 846d. 5045, USNA
48. From a Chinese perspective, 'lenient' British treatment of collaborators with the Japanese lent intensity to the Soong Kwong episode: Simon C. Smith, 'Crimes and Punishment: Local Responses to the Trial of Japanese War Criminals in Malaya and Singapore, 1946-48', South-East Asia Research, 5, 1 (1997), 41-56
49. 'February 15 Is NOT A Holiday', The Malaya Tribune, 13 February 1946, 3
50. Mins. of SAC's 315th meeting, 9 February 1946, WO203/6262; Hone to Donnison, 25 March 1953, Mss. Ind. Ocn. S. 271, RHL
51. G.H. Hall to Mountbatten, 29 March 1946, CO537/1579; Mins. of SAC's 315th meeting, 9 February 1946, op. cit
52. Mins. of SAC's 316th meeting, 11 February 1946, WO203/6262;
53. 'BMA statement, not for release before 1600 hours on Wed. 13 Feb. 1946', Colonel J.S. Dumeresque, Dept. of Publicity and Printing, WO203/6262
54. Donnison to Hone, 17 July 1951, Mss. Ind. Ocn. S. 271, RHL
55. Major-General H.R. Hone, Report on the British Military Administration of Malaya, September 1945 to March 1946 (Kuala Lumpur 1946), 39-40, WO203/2321
56. Victor Purcell, The Memoirs of a Malayan Official (London 1965), 356
57. Ziegler, Mountbatten, op. cit., 326
58. Purcell, 'The Issues Before Us', 18 February 1946, Mountbatten note for Recorder, 30 January 1946, WO203/6262
59. Noel Monks, 'Singapore General Orders Inquiry into Riots', Daily Mail, 16 February 1946, 4;
60. Staff Reporter, '"Beaten Up By Police" Charges', Daily Express, 16 February 1946, 1
61. Press Note, HQ/SACSEA, 16 February 1946, WO203/6262
62. Kim Wah, Political Development, op. cit., 213, 215, fn. 33
63. Browning to Wield, Cabinet Offices, 16 February 1946, WO203/6262
64. Hone, BMA Monthly Report, op. cit., 39 (202)
65. Mountbatten to Hone, 26 March 1946, WO203/6262
66. 'Candidates for Expulsion with SAC's Recommendation', WO203/6262
67. Hone's Reminiscences, 1978-79, MB1/N99A, MP/SU
68. Mountbatten to Browning, 6 March 1946, WO203/6262
69. Browning to Mountbatten, 6 March 1946, MB1/C32/20, Mountbatten to Browning, 9 March 1946, MB1/C32/21, MP/SU
70. Mountbatten to Hone, 26 July 1946, MB1/C124/11, MP/SU; Mountbatten to Dempsey, signal 9 March 1946
71. Dempsey to Mountbatten, personal signal [March 1946], WO203/6262
72. Browning to Mountbatten, signal 6 March 1946; Mountbatten to Browning, signal 6 March 1946; Mountbatten to Browning, signal 8 March 1946, WO203/6262; Hone to Gater, Colonial Office, 13 March 1946, CO537/1579. The incoming civil government allowed the MCP to function semi-overtly until mid-1948
73. Hone to Gater, CO cipher, 29 March 1946; Hone to Gater, Colonial Office, telegram, 2 April 1946
74. F.C. Gimson to Hall, 4 April 1946, CO 537/1579
75. Hone, BMA Report, op. cit., para. 202; Mountbatten to Hone, 26 July 1946, MB1/C124/11, Hone to Mountbatten, 8 August 1946, MB1/C118/73, MP/SU. Mountbatten's copy of the BMA Report, with annotations, is at MB1/C319, MP/SU. In 1947 Sir Edward Gent, High Commissioner of the Malayan Union, and in 1951 William Addis, Hone's successor as MacDonald's deputy, made unsuccessful attempts to secure the report's publication: Mss. Ind. Ocn. S271, RHL
76. Clyde Sanger, Malcolm MacDonald: Bringing an End to Empire (Liverpool 1995), 289-312
77. Mountbatten to Hone, 26 July 1946, MB1/C124/11; Hone's Reminiscences, 1978-79, MB1/N99A, MP/SU