‘Oh, he will lead his men over to the east, to the other side of Bahau up to the area of the white map and prepare new gardens till this blows over. You will find nothing in this area now.’
‘Thank you,’ said Jason. He looked at his watch. ‘I and one man will take you to the Jelebu pass. There I will tell the commander who comes to fetch you how well you have behaved. But first, I need your signatures.’
He took a sheet from the signal pad and, in the Chinese script, wrote that ‘We’, then four names, ‘have surrendered to Captain Rance.’ Rifle numbers, date and time were penned and the men were told to sign. This they did.
Jason called his 2ic over. ‘Saheb, I have been ordered back to base with the prisoners. I will tell the 2ic that, according to the surrendered men, there is no point in keeping us out any longer.’ He called Chakré over: ‘You and I will go back with the captured daku.’
He noticed the guerrillas’ packs and told Chakré to search them. ‘Saheb, here is a portable radio.’ He switched it on. ‘It doesn’t work.’
‘What are you doing with that radio with you if it doesn’t work?’ Jason asked.
Guilelessly Goh Ah Wah told Jason that it belonged to the guerrilla leader Tan Fook Leong and he had been given it for repair or get a new one in Seremban ‘but not until matters had quietened down.’ He even gave Jason the guerrilla commander’s family and phone details, saying he’d been told to phone them.
Jason took the note he had written out of his pocket and added a sentence, ‘I recommend that the portable radio be given to Head of Special Branch and not be thrown away.’
It took longer than normal to reach the road although there was no need for any stealth but because the four prisoners were bound and Sim Ting Hok’s back made him move slowly. At the Jelebu pass, Jason personally undid their toggle ropes and gave the escort commander the written ‘surrender’ note and explained what he should say when he took the four men to the police and that one man needed medical attention. ‘You can drop me and Chakré off at 1/12 GR on the way.’
Before the vehicle drove off from the battalion, Jason handed the radio over. ‘See that gets to the Head of Special Branch in the Police Station, ustad, as it is important.’
‘Hunchha, Hajur,’ was the answer, with a smile.
The escort took the four guerrillas to Brigade HQ and the section commander handed them over, along with Jason’s two notes and the Brigade Major telephoned for Special Branch to come and collect the captives. A doctor looked at the wounded man’s back and arm and put him, under guard, in the local hospital. Jason’s two notes caused great excitement.
The Head of Special Branch was one Ismail Mubarak, known to all as ‘Moby’, an exceptional man, actually a Pakistani and a Chinese speaker to boot. Middle-aged and ‘comfortable’ he had a ready smile which hid an iron personality. He bred crocodiles as a hobby, which showed as he only had three fingers on his left hand. He and Jason had met a couple of years before when Operation Janus was taking place and had a high opinion of each other.
If I can’t get these four on my side without Jason’s help, I’ll have to work something drastic out. As for the radio … and an idea came into his mind. I’ll keep it for later.
The 2ic was due to go and meet the Brigadier but first he sent for Jason. ‘I have called you back to give you this,’ and gave him the letter that had been found in his fiancée’s bedroom. ‘She left here the night of the ambush but so busy were we all we only found out the next day.’ He glanced at Jason to see how he took the news as he read the letter. To his amazement, all Jason said was ‘Better wedding minus than wedding plus.’ Inside him his heart emptied: he felt bitter, angry, resentful as he recalled what H H Munro, ‘Saki’, had written; ‘When love is over, what of love does even the lover understand?’
At Brigade HQ it was decided to recall Jason’s company and launch a large-scale battalion operation, code named Red Tidings, in the Bahau area, within the next few days.
18 August 1954: Jason was relaxing in the Mess when he was called to the phone. ‘Moby here. Can you spare me half an hour straightaway? Down at the police station?’
‘Yes, of course. Why?’
‘I’ll tell you when you get here. Walk down the road, in uniform, and a police vehicle will pick you up at the bridge below your camp. Say nothing,’ and he rang off.
Jason walked out of the Mess and down the road to where the police vehicle had parked by the bridge. A Malay driver smiled at him and Jason got in. In fluent Malay he cracked a joke as they drove off. They were at the police station within ten minutes. He went to Moby’s office and saw a serious expression on the usually smiling face. ‘Jason, Goh Ah Wah and Kwek Leng Mong have renounced their promise to help us. I must get them on our side to use against Ten Foot Long. Very briefly, what I have done is to arrange a mock shooting of them and a third, can’t do all four as Sim Ting Hok is still in hospital. They are now in the courtyard at the back, tied to stakes. I have three Malay policemen, armed, who will be in a firing position, as if ready to shoot them dead. I want you to break in, remonstrate with me and I’ll let them free if they promise to you to come over.’
‘Moby, that is strictly against all the rules, isn’t it? If anyone finds out we’ll be lynched and out of a job,’ Jason fretted.
‘I know, I know, but to get these men working for us is crucial. I’m ready to risk it. Won’t you help me, Jason, please, just this once? I know of no other method. Fear of imminent death cripples peoples’ will fast. You’ll be away into the bushes soon and now is the only time I can see to do it. Look out of the window.’
Jason did and there three of his four captives were, bound to stakes but not blindfolded. Jason, hating himself, told Moby he’d help ‘but let’s get it over quickly.’
‘Thank you, Jason, you’re a pal. I will go and give the orders for them to be shot. The three policemen will come up into the aim and you will break in asking me not to shoot. I will order my men to lower their rifles and you will tell me about their surrender signature, go forward and tell them you just happen to have seen what was about to occur and felt you had to stop it.’
‘Wilco, Moby, as we military buffs have it.’
Moby went into the courtyard and, in a loud voice, ordered his men to take up the standing aim position in front of each man. ‘You will be shot dead for carrying arms and wearing enemy uniform.’
Jason opened the door and pretended to be appalled by what he saw. In Chinese he said to Moby, ‘Mr Mubarak, wait please. They surrendered their arms to me. They were not captured with them.’
Moby looked round as if in surprise. ‘Captain Rance! Are you sure?’
‘Yes, Mr Mubarak. I am sure.’
‘In that case, the charges of carrying arms and wearing enemy uniform are dropped. They will not be shot because of it.’
He ordered his squad to withdraw from the firing position and Jason went up to the three men. ‘Lucky I came here at this time. What is your trouble? Didn’t you believe me when I said nothing would happen to you? Did you change your minds?’
‘Can you save us?’ all three asked, ashen faces witness of their fear.
‘Yes but only if you say you’ll work for me or for anyone I detail instead of me.’
‘We will, we will,’ came the chorus.
Jason turned round and told Moby that the three men would obey him and please revoke the death penalty.
Moby made as though to consider the request. ‘Yes, revoke it I will.’ He told the three policemen to ‘ground arms’ and go and undo the captives whose faces resumed their normal colour.
Unbound the three Chinese came and knelt in front of Jason and Moby and said ‘We will obey your orders.’
Moby then said, ‘Say after me: “I swear that the statement I made is the truth. If it is not and if I have acted against my conscience, deep in my soul I shall be tormented and I shall be subject to legal sanctions.”’
This they repeated in unison.
Moby turned to Jason and said, ‘You are the witness to what these men have sworn to. Say after me “I swear I told the truth. If any statement that I have made about what I know is false, I hold myself responsible for all legal consequences and moral condemnations.”’
Jason, in turn, followed suit. The oath was now official.
The three men stood up and all shook hands. Before being allowed to join other ‘Q’ squad men, Moby said, ‘This is our secret. Keep it quiet.’
‘Yes, we will. Yes, we will,’ they echoed as someone came to lead them off.
‘Jason, that is our secret also. You will be court-martialled if that is known and I will be jailed.’
They shook hands and the police vehicle took Jason back to the bridge below the 1/12 GR camp.
19 August 1954, The funeral of Lieutenant Colonel Edward Ridings was solemn, simple and sad. The long-wheelbase Land Rover carrying the coffin was followed by a staff car in which his widow sat, stern-faced and tense, her two children beside her. The Brigade Commander followed in his vehicle, bedecked with flag and one star in front and one in the rear. Both sides of the road were lined with soldiers standing to attention, gazes fixed fiercely forward, all men vowing to ‘get our own back’ on the dishonour done to their battalion. Gurkha pallbearers unloaded the coffin and carried it to the grave and interred it. The senior army chaplain in Malaya quickly but gracefully conducted the service. People dispersed and after Mrs Ridings had been driven away to Major Gibson’s house the soldiers lining the route marched back to camp.
The Ridings family was flown back to England at government expense on 21 August, mentally shattered, Mrs Ridings only slightly comforted on learning that her late husband’s name had been ‘retained but disguised’ as the operation to be undertaken to avenge his death was Operation Red Tidings.
The most senior officer to be killed in the Emergency was a lieutenant colonel near the Jelebu pass. A brigadier died in a plane crash. ↵
Senior airmen regarded the infantry’s kill-to-contact ratio when surrounding a guerrilla camp as extremely poor. The policy of ‘Smash-Hit’ was their attempt to improve upon it. The one major success was when a notorious guerrilla was located, with Special Branch help, Lincolns of the Royal Australian Air Force and Canberras of the RAF dropped a hundred bombs which killed most of the guerrilla force. In fact it was a fluke because the guerrillas had moved before the bombing but, as the bombers fortuitously dropped their bombs on where the guerrillas had gone and not where they were briefed to, the end result was the same! Because of that, the use of ‘Smash-Hit’ became mandatory whenever an occupied camp was located. ↵
19 August 1954, Seremban: Before Moby left his house for the office he was rung up by his school friend, a Tamil named Vinod Vellu. ‘Moby, we haven’t met for years and I know its short notice but can I come and see you now as ever is?’
