ABSTRACT
The demonstration against National Service in May 1954, with its popular cause and its provocation of the use of force by the police, gave a tremendous boost to open left-wing activity in the Chinese Middle Schools. The Malayan Communist Party had instructed the Preparatory Committee of the Singapore Chinese Middle School Students Union (SCMSSU) to reverse their earlier attitude and to seek registration by accepting the government's condition that they undertake not to take part in political activities or to interfere in labour disputes. The members of the School Committee, as the open front leaders, were, of course, the 'ringleaders' whose arrest was threatened in 1955 and carried out in 1956. When the SCMSSU Preparatory Committee drafted its Constitution in 1954, there were two significant aspects which were noted by Special Branch. Some of the teachers were openly or discreetly sympathetic to the SCMSSU in the battle for Chinese rights and Chinese culture under the British domination.
