Corpses, Prisoners of War and Captured Documents: British and Communist Narratives of the Malayan Emergency, and the Dynamics of Intelligence Transformation

These three quotations raise an important question about the Malayan Emergency: how was intelligence transformed? Counter-insurgency intelligence in Malaya was ineffective in 1948. In 1952 it had large numbers of officers handling documents and surrendered enemy personnel (SEP), but not enough agents able to give information on which operations could be planned. By 1957 Police Special Branch had become central to the defeat of a now-ailing Communist insurgency, running hundreds of SEP and agents, and had catalogued most insurgent names and locations.