HC Deb 19 November 1952 vol 507 cc1866-71

The following Question stood upon the Order Paper:

81. Sir IAN FRASER: To ask the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will make a statement about the present position in Malaya and the progress of the campaign against the terrorists.

Mr. Lyttelton

With your permission, Mr. Speaker, I will make a short statement on Malaya in answer to Question 81, which has not been reached.

The course of the emergency in Malaya has greatly improved. Thus there has been a marked and progressive reduction in terrorist attacks, a trend which has become more pronounced during the last six months. During October, the weekly average of attacks by the terrorists was 30 against 50 in September and 123 in February. Despite this, the Security Forces have continued to take a heavy toll; and an increasing number of those accounted for are leaders.

One hundred and seventeen terrorists were killed or captured, or surrendered, during the four weeks ending 30th October, at a cost of only 29 Security Forces casualties, that is:—10 killed and 19 wounded, whereas in February, when 124 terrorists were accounted for. 66 members of the Security Forces were killed or wounded. At the same time, terrorists have surrendered themselves in increasing numbers. This has led to an improvement in public morale which has shown itself in the increased amount of useful information given to the Police.

The six main objectives which I laid down after my visit to Malaya are being attained.

These encouraging trends do not mean that the emergency is over; they indicate that we are winning, but not that we can or will relax our effort in any way. Everyone should be spurred to those further efforts which we need to restore the country to peace and order.

Unfortunately the economic picture is not so bright. The fall in the price of rubber has led to painful adjustments in earnings and wages. These adjustments follow negotiations and recommendations made by a Board consisting of an impartial chairman and nominees of the workers and the employers. They have been loyally accepted. We shall continue to try and improve the economic situation by all practicable means.

I can assure the House that Her Majesty's Government and the Malayan Government are fully alive to the need for winning the battle of ideas against the Communist threat. While General Templer continues to build up the Security Forces and to bring a still heavier impact to bear upon the terrorists, he is at the same time vigorously carrying out a long-term policy of social and political advance in accordance with the directive given to him when he was appointed. The debt which Malaya and this country owe to General Templer is inestimable. He has by his unbounded energy, foresight and liberal approach to political problems transformed public morale and given everyone in Malaya something to do now and something to look forward to in the future.

Finally, no reference to current events in Malaya would be complete unless I paid a warm and respectful tribute to Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, whose visit has encouraged all races in Malaya and whose presence has brought such wide and spontaneous expressions of loyalty to the Crown.

Sir I. Fraser

While congratulating my right hon. Friend and General Templer, may I ask whether the long-term outlook for tin and rubber, which are so important to us and to all the people of Malaya, is satisfactory and, in particular, whether new explorations for tin and new plantings for rubber are going on? While I appreciate the gallantry of the people in those businesses, can my right hon. Friend say that all possible help is being given to them?

Mr. Lyttelton

Let me deal first with the second part of my hon. Friend's question. The prospecting for tin is not yet on a satisfactory scale. That is entirely due to security reasons. One of the dividends which peace will bring back will be the possibility of prospecting again for tin. In regard to rubber, the replanting scheme is proceeding as quickly as the state of the country permits.

Mr. J. Griffiths

Whilst welcoming, as we all do, the signs of increasing success in winning the emergency, may I ask the Secretary of State whether the Government have any policy to deal with what threatens to become a very serious matter for Malaya; that is, the fall in the price of rubber and its impact on the economy of the country? Will the right hon. Gentleman consider very seriously the suggestion that emerged from the recent arbitration that, having regard to the fact that the trade unions have accepted loyally the arbitration award, which has meant a reduction in wages when the cost of living still goes up, there ought to be a thorough investigation of the rubber industry in Malaya in all its economic and social implications?

Does the right hon. Gentleman's statement imply that General Templer is accepting in full the Gurney plan for political development and for elections as then laid down?

Mr. Lyftelton

To answer the last part of the question first, the policy which General Templer is pursuing is that laid down in the directive which was issued to him at the time he was appointed. In some respects it differs from, and in other respects is the same as, the previous policy.

With regard to investigations into the future of rubber, that is, of course, constantly under discussion; but this is a world commodity, subject to world influences, and I do not think I can be asked to make any predictions on these matters.

Mr. Griffiths

I presume that the Secretary of State will have before him the report of the recent arbitration which awarded a reduction in wages because of the fall in the price of rubber. The trade unions, to whose loyalty tribute should be paid, have loyally accepted that, but the court of arbitration urged very strongly that a full investigation should be made into the economic and social repercussions of the fall in the price of rubber. Will the right hon. Gentleman give careful consideration to that suggestion?

Mr. Lyttelton

Of course, it is my duty to consider these matters all the time in relation to one of the primary commodities of Malaya.

Mr. R. Robinson

Would my right hon. Friend refresh the memory of the House by stating the six major objectives of policy referred to in his statement?

Mr. Lyttelton

They were: First, responsibility for both civil and military affairs being concentrated in one hand. Second, that the police should be retrained and reorganised. Third, that the Home Guard should be built up—there are now 87,000 Chinese members of the Home Guard. Fourth, that the resettlement areas, now known as new villages, should be better protected, and most of them are. Fifth, that the conditions of the Malayan Civil Service should be improved; and last, that compulsory primary education should be introduced. There is a Bill before the Legislature today on that subject.

Mr. Awbery

Is the Minister aware that the best way to maintain the morale of the people of Malaya is to raise the standard of the workers? Is he also aware that the present wages of the plantation worker are 3s. 6d. a day and that there have been two reductions during the last two months? May I press the right hon. Gentleman to implement the recommendation accompanying the recent award, and to hold an inquiry into the present conditions in the rubber industry?

Mr. Lyttelton

I have already answered that question in reply to the right hon. Gentleman. I remind the hon. Member, however, that there is no possibility of raising the standard of life of workers in Malaya until we can first deliver them freedom from fear.

Sir W. Smiles

May I ask my right hon. Friend whether it has been pointed out to the United States of America that the production of synthetic rubber there has a most serious effect upon the prices of rubber in Malaya; and whether the increase in the prices of rubber would not be a great defence against Communism and result in the improvement of wages on the rubber plantations?

Mr. Lyttelton

My hon. and gallant Friend is, of course, aware of the international group—and I think that this is partly what the right hon. Gentleman the Member for Llanelly (Mr. J. Griffiths) has been thinking—that has been examining all these matters.

Mr. Driberg

Is it the right hon. Gentleman's view that the practical results of imposing collective punishment on villages have justified the use of that barbarous and undemocratic method, and if so, does that mean that Her Majesty's Government adhere to the old administrative principle that the end justifies the means?

Mr. Lyttelton

I think that the hon. Gentleman has given me the advantage of answering his own question in his own way. I should say that collective punishment has proved its utility in those cases where the community have given no information where barbarous acts of murder have been committed.

Mr. Renton

Can the Minister say whether the number of British people and members of their families who have lost their lives in recent months has increased or diminished compared with the previous period?

Mr. Lyttelton

I have not the figures before me for those particular months for which my hon. Friend asks. Generally speaking, the answer is that the casualties have greatly diminished on our side, and those of the terrorists have greatly increased.

Mr. Harold Davies

May I ask the right hon. Gentleman whether Her Majesty's Government have investigated the serious report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation, wherein it was stated that there is now—without giving the figures—almost half as much rice for export in South-East Asia as there was before the war, and what steps the Government have taken to lift the rice supplies to this area; and is he aware that in this area a sack of rice is more powerful than a sack of gunpowder?

Mr. Lyttelton

The hon. Member knows that we are very pleased with the advance which we are making. He has put his finger on a matter which, of course, must give Her Majesty's Government's present advisers, as it did the last Government's, very great anxiety concerning the marginal position of the rice supplies in South-East Asia. We are doing all that we can to promote by various schemes, not only in that area but in other parts of the Colonial Empire, the growing of rice in order to try to solve this problem. There is no short-term solution for which I can hold out any hope, but for the long-term solution I am hopeful.