ABSTRACT
The most urgent and effective Emergency Regulations were those giving power to arrest and detain without trial – an unavoidable suspension of liberty when the functioning of the normal processes of law is deliberately made unworkable by the repeated intimidation of witnesses. Instead of having separate chains of command, each Malayan Communist Party (MCP) Branch Committee was to be given control of a platoon of the Malayan Races Liberation Army as its striking force. Despite inflammatory efforts by the MCP, there was surprisingly little opposition to this programme, or even evasion, and very little violence used against the government officials responsible for its execution. At the end of 1949 the MCP offensive was resumed with greater ferocity and greater skill. Concerned with the deteriorating situation, the British government in April 1950 appointed a Director of Operations with wide powers of coordination over the police, the army and the civilian departments concerned with the Emergency.
