The Malayan Emergency

In June 1948, after communist guerrillas killed three European planters in Perak, the British declared a State of Emergency in Malaya. The Malayan Communist Party, led by Chin Peng and drawing mainly on ethnic Chinese supporters, sought to drive out the British. Britain called it an 'emergency' rather than a war partly because London insurers would not cover losses from war, and Malaya's rubber and tin were vital dollar earners.

The Briggs Plan moved around half a million rural people, mostly Chinese squatters, into guarded 'New Villages' to cut guerrillas off from food and recruits. From 1952 General Gerald Templer combined military pressure with a 'hearts and minds' strategy and a promise of independence. Historians debate the lessons: some praise the campaign as a counterinsurgency success, while others stress forced resettlement, detention and incidents such as the 1948 killings at Batang Kali. The Emergency officially ended in 1960.