The Baling Peace
Talks
The Baling Peace
Talks, 28th./29th.Dec.1955 by Dennis Wombell
I
recently read an article taken from an Australian
newspaper and published in the 2001 issue of Bugle and
Kukri - "Old Marxist Guerillas Don`t Seem to Fade
Away Anymore" - with considerable interest. The
article consists of an interview with Chin Peng, the
former leader from 1948 to 1960 of the Communist
insurgency in Malaya, in which, when asked whether he had
ever heard of a plot to assassinate him in the event of
the 1955 peace talks failing replied that he hadn`t, but
that he had anticipated the possibility. The article
continues "At the conclusion of the talks, during
which he declined an invitation to surrender, Chin and
his companions walked away not into the jungle but into a
rubber plantation. There Chin stood in full view of any
pursuers or hitmen waiting up ahead but also with a
potential clear view of them. He sent a scout into the
jungle to identify the most efficient place for an ambush
and then headed into the jungle in that direction. Once
under cover he switched to a different route. This does
not make tactical sense and it is not what happened; and
I can only assume that Chin Peng`s memory is playing
tricks on him. Not surprising at his age and when the
events of which he speaks occurred nearly half a century
ago. Consequently, I feel that I should, in the interest
of historical accuracy, record my own memories of the
Baling Peace talks in which I played a small part.
At the
time I was a young platoon commander with 2nd Malayan
Police Field Force operating in North Malaya, and in 1955
I had already spent almost five years operating in the
Betong Salient on both sides of the Thai border - Chin
Peng`s stamping ground - and a great deal of my time was
spent in attempting to hunt him down - almost
successfully on more than one occasion! Following an
initial exchange of letters between the Government and
the Central Committee of the Malayan Communist Party, and
two preliminary meetings between representatives of both,
the first in the Town Committee offices in Klian Intan
village and the second in a tent on Kroh airfield, it was
agreed that talks would be held between the leaders on
both sides in an attempt to negotiate peace and to bring
to an end the Communist insurrection throughout Malaya.
As a result of these initial meetings it was agreed that
the Peace Talks would commence on the 28th of December
and would be held at a local school in the nearby small
town of Baling. The Communists announced their intention
of emerging from the jungle on the morning of the 28th.
at a hilltop tin mine, Gunong Paku, near the small mining
town of Klian Intan, approximately 20 miles from Baling.
This
being our area of operations, it fell to 2nd Field Force
to put in hand the necessary security proceedures. These
were, essentally, firstly to secure for the duration of
the talks the area on Gunong Paku where the Communists
were to emerge from the jungle, and secondly, to conduct
Chin Peng and his party safely to Baling and to return
them to Gunong Paku upon the termination of the talks.
This latter task was given to me with my platoon. In the
preliminary negotiations at Kroh, it was agreed that Chin
Peng and his party would be accompanied to the jungle
edge by a large force of about a hundred terrorists who
would establish a camp in the jungle close to the place
from which Chin Peng was to emerge, and remain there for
the duration of the talks. The Government agreed to give
this force an amnesty for this period and for a ten day
period following the cessation of the talks should they
fail. A guarantee was given that the terrorists would not
be pursued until this period had elapsed, and the
Government also agreed to supply the entire terrorist
contingent with army `compo` rations plus an additional
daily ration of rice both for the period of the talks and
for the ten days during which they were to be allowed to
clear the area. There was a great deal of eager
anticipation amongst the officers who were to secure the
Gunong Paku area. It was envisaged that a line of
communication would be opened between the two camps - the
one in the jungle and the other on the tin mine hilltop,
with a field telephone line between the two and a good
deal of coming and going with rations and supplies.This
was a fascinating prospect for those of us who had spent
the last several years in the jungle, hunting down this
elusive enemy, of whom we caught only momentary glimpses
in the short sharp fire fights which were typical of the
type of warfare in which we were engaged. Alas this was
not to be. When Chin Peng eventually emerged from the
jungle, he insisted that the rations for the entire
period of the talks and of the amnesty, be carried a
short way into the jungle and stacked there for his force
to collect unseen.
On the
28th December, the day the talks were to commence, a
Company of 2nd Field Force from their detachment in Kroh
established a camp of jungle bashas facing outwards in a
large defensive circle around the summit of Gunong Paku
and prepared themselves to remain there until the end of
the talks. I and the men in my platoon wore jungle kit
and carried only rifles and bren guns for the purpose of
the escort duty. However, tucked away in the vehicles and
out of sight, we carried our full scale of equipment -
grenades, extra ammunition, maps of the border area, four
days rations and so forth, in readiness for an immediate
and prolonged jungle operation should we be attacked at
any point. I assembled my platoon with our vehicles on a
flat area on the summit and joined the group of officers
awaiting Chin Peng`s arrival. It was a hot,
dry and inhospitable moon-like landscape. The whole
mountain, which had been mined for tin in terraces and
consisted of stony red volcanic laterite, rock and shale,
without as much as a blade of grass growing on it, was
surrounded at its foot by primary jungle, from which Chin
Peng was to emerge. The officers I remember being there
at the time were Assistant Commissioner T.B.Voice, Ops.
Officer with overall responsibility for the arrangements
of the talks, Geoffrey Turner, OCPD Grik, John Penly the
Field Force Company Commander and a Police Lieutenant
Ollerearnshaw, a Field Force platoon commander. Lastly,
but most importantly was John Davis, known as the
Conducting Officer. He was District Officer, Butterworth
at the time, but during the war he had served with Force
136 and had been parachuted into the Jungle to assist the
Malayan Peoples` Anti Japanese Army as the Communist
guerillas were then known, in their fight against the
Japanese. He was much respected and totally trusted by
Chin Peng who asked that Davis accompany him at all
times, from his emergence from the jungle and until his
return, to guarantee his safety. We all stood
on the hilltop for some time and watched the jungle edge
with considerable apprehension, wondering whether Chin
Peng really would turn up. Suddenly two lone figures
appeared and made their solitary way up the steep side of
the mountain watched in silence by the armed multitude at
the top of the hill. It must have been a daunting
experience and required a considerable ammount of
courage. The first to appear was a very small, slim,
young Chinese man, dressed not as we had expected in MCP
khaki drill uniform, with green cloth pointed cap, putees
and rubber-soled canvas boots, but in a clean plain white
long-sleeved shirt and khaki trousers. He was Chan Tien,
Chin Peng`s second-in-command, and he informed us that
Chin Peng and the rest of the party were following and
would arrive within the next ten minutes or so. The man
with him was similarly dressed and was, as far as I
remember,a guide and orderly. Shortly afterwards a line
of figures emerged from the jungle and slowly climbed the
hill towards us. Most of us knew Chin Peng by sight and
recognised him as he greeted his old friend John Davis.
The atmosphere was friendly and relaxed, although, in
retrospect, it must have been a tense moment for Chin
Peng. We were introduced to the communist group - Chan
Tien, Rashid Mydin, - the Malay representative of the
MCP, Tan Kwee Cheng and Lee Chin Hee who I think were
guides or aides and (according to the Singapore Standard)
Sanip - an orderly to the group. My memory of the last
three is sketchy to say the least. Due to the
difficulty of the terrain, my transport on top of the
hill consisted of 2 Ferrett Scout Cars with armoured
turrets and 2 GMC`s. These latter vehicles which were
univerally used as personnel carriers by the Malayan
Police during the emergency were completely armoured
except for the back which was open, and where the armour
was only waist high. Being open they were very hot, and,
having no seating, very uncomfortable, but they were
capable of negotiating the roughest tracks and these were
the vehicles used to transport the Communist group the
one and a half miles down to the Klian Intan/Tanah Merah
road. There we were met by two open sided Bedford vans
with bench seats in the back into which we transferred
John Davis, Chin Peng and the remainder of his entourage
for a rather more comfortable ride along the tortuous
jungle road to Baling, almost twenty miles away. The two
Bedford vans were sandwiched between the two GMC`s
containing the escort party, with myself in front in a
Ferret Scout Car and another Ferret at the rear armed
with a Bren Gun. I shall never forget the sight which
met us as we approached the gates of the school in Baling
where the talks were to be held. There was a crowd of two
or three hundred people, Malays, Chinese and Indians,
with, in front of them, twenty or thirty photographers
and reporters. In a country fighting a war, and in which
such assemblies were, strictly speaking, illegal, I had
never seen anything like it. Nor, in those days, did we
have any truck with journalists or photographers. I had
actually threatened to shoot a pushy reporter who had
attempted to invade the airfield during the preliminary
talks at Kroh! The crowd though was quiet and well
behaved, and in festive mood, as they had waited almost
in awe, to catch a glimpse of their national leaders and
the legendary Chin Peng and his group. I stopped my
escort party at the gates to the school, allowed the two
Bedford vans to go in, and, my part in the proceedings
being at an end for the time being,proceeded to another
local school in the town where we were to be accomodated
to await the outcome of the talks. The talks, in
which the Government was represented by Tengku Abdul
Rahman, the Chief Minister of the Federation of Malaya;
Dato Marshall, the Chief Minister of Singapore; Dato Sir
Cheng Lock Tan, the President of the Malayan Chinese
Association and Too Joon Hing, the Assistant Minister of
Education, ended in failure at noon on the following day.
The cessation of the talks was marked by a statement,
hand-written by David Marshall on behalf of the Communist
delegation and amended by Chen Tien (his amendments are
in brackets) which read : "As soon as the (elected
government of the) Federation obtains complete control of
internal security and local armed forces we will end
hostilities, lay down our arms and disband our forces.
(It does not amount to accept the present amnesty
terms.)" I received orders immediately to
return to the school in which the talks had been held and
to escort the Communists back to the jungle edge at
Gunong Paku. The return journey was completed without
incident except that Chin Peng, who already looked
somewhat despondant at the failure of the talks, was
somewhat irritated when I took photographs of him and his
party on our return journey and when we changed vehicles
upon arrival at the Gunong Paku track. He complained that
he had not agreed to photographs being taken outside
Baling, but, knowing what the immediate future held for
him I was not too concerned!
We
arrived back at Gunong Paku in the late afternoon, and,
to our surprise, Chin Peng, after a discussion with the
other members of his party, announced that it was too
late for him to return to his jungle base before
nightfall. He asked if we would allow him to send Chen
Tien back with the other members of the party that night,
and for him to follow on the following morning. He also
asked whether Chen Tien could be supplied with a torch to
help him return to the jungle in the dark! By this time
we had established a fairly friendly rapport with the
Communist leader and saw no reason to deny his request. A
basha was quickly erected for him and a Land Rover
despatched to the local village where the driver
purchased a torch. Chen Tien then left with the main
party and Chin Peng remained, in the company of John
Davis, to spend that night in what must have been for
him, the lion`s den! After my evening meal and whilst
wandering about on the summit of Gunong Paku watching the
sun go down he joined me for a little while and we
engaged in small talk. We studiously avoided discussing
our mutual professions, and the only thing I remember of
our conversation was that he asked me how long I had been
in Malaya and whether I found it hot? I never knew
whether to take this literally or whether it was an
allusion to my activities over the preceeding years!
The
following day, waking just before dawn and after
stand-to, we had an early breakfast and quickly packed
our kit in preparation for our return to our camp in
Kroh. I was about to go to Hong Kong for a week`s leave
and I wanted to get away as soon as possible,
consequently my men and I loitered about waiting for Chin
Peng to depart and for our vehicles to arrive. By this
time of course each man had, beside him, his full
complement of weapons and kit, which we had carried
covertly in the event of having to mount an immediate
offensive jungle operation. In passing the time, I stood,
open map-case in hand, with another officer on the edge
of Gunong Paku pointing towards the distant jungle hills
and discussing with him the operations in which I had
been involved over the past year on the Thai border. The
sight of me in jungle kit, holding a carbine and
carrying, on various parts of my anatomy, a 9mm. pistol,
a compass, a belt of carbine ammunition, two
handgrenades, and a parang, and pointing to the jungle in
the direction in which he was about to depart, produced
an immediate effect on Chin Peng who showed distinct
signs of nervousness. He was obviously convinced that we
were preparing to pursue him immediatly and that we would
have little difficulty in killing him once he was out of
sight and in the jungle. It took some time for John Davis
to convince him that our intentions were honourable, and,
as proof of this, agreed to accompany him into the jungle
alone for some considerable distance. Eventually, Chin
Peng was satisfied of our good intentions, and he and
Davis disappeared down the track from which Chin Peng and
his party had emerged on the previous day. We waited for
about an hour until John Davies reappeared and then went
our separate ways. The Peace Talks were over - or, at
least for me, not quite over! POSTSCRIPT
Two
days after my return from leave in Hongkong the amnesty
period for the Communists on the border was over, and I
was ordered to search the Gunong Paku area and to attempt
to follow the tracks of Chin Peng and his party from
where they had originally emerged from the jungle. We
were also to investigate the area in which his armed
group had camped, and the food dump which had been
supplied to them by our own forces and stacked thirty or
forty yards beyond the jungle edge.
It came
as no surprise to me to find that there was no communist
camp and that no large armed force had existed. Chin Peng
was no fool and knew as well as we did that a large body
of men is as easy to track in the jungle as a double
decker bus, and it was obvious that Chin Peng and his
party had been alone. Consequently, the large food dump
was almost untouched. A few boxes of compo rations had
been opened and some of the contents removed. A quantity
of rice had also been taken. I concluded that this had
been the reason for Chen Tien leaving separately on the
day before Chin Peng, since it gave him ample time to
examine the dump and to take as much food as he and his
party could carry. We then followed the track along which
the communists had returned to the jungle. Like all
jungle paths in the vicinity of a village, it was well
worn by local people for the first three or four hundred
yards and easy to follow. It then petered out to become
more typical of the tracks made by terrorists in primary
jungle - ill defined and marked only by the occasional
sapling stem cut by a parang. It was still relatively
easy to follow until it climbed steeply up to the ridge
marking the Malayan/Thai border where, at just over a
thousand feet, the ground is stony and the vegetation
sparse. Tracking in these conditions is almost
impossible, and, given that our immediate task was
completed we returned to Gunong Paku to be picked up and
returned to our base in Kroh. This marked
the end of what had been a most interesting and
fascinating experience, especially in meeting the man who
had become something of a legend in Malaya, albeit a
misguided one. Knowing full well from experience the
hardships he must have had to endure after twelve years
in the jungle as a hunted man, without our advantages of
regular airdrops of an unlimited supply of food,
medicines, arms and ammunition, and our ready access,
even in the deepest and remotest jungle to rapid medical
assistance, I had to admire his tenacity in pursuing what
was to him, a political ideal. To return to
the article from the Australian Press, Chin Peng`s
assertion that he went not in to the jungle upon leaving
Gunong Paku, but into a rubber plantation is mistaken.
There were no rubber plantations in that area, nor, with
John Davis accompanying him did he need to take the
precautions he describes, and I can only assume that he
has dramatised the situation in an effort to increase his
book sales. In fact he departed in an amicable atmosphere
of mutual trust on both sides, in the company of John
Davis. Copyright
Dennis Wombell
With the failure of the peace talks
the Malayan Govt.decided to appeal directly to the MCP
rank and file by declaring a general amnesty.The
"Briefing Points" circular shown below was
distributed to all Govt.Officers..........Rufus Cole
