Despite not being in very good condition, I’m still able to put together the badly fraying newspaper pieces and read Harry Miller's detailed account written soon after he visited the scene of the assassination and spoke to survivors, including Gurney's widow and Staples. It was nothing short of a miracle that the duo managed to escape unscathed as 35 bullet holes were counted on their Rolls Royce.

BLACKEST DAY

The general public was numbed by shock when Miller's story was published the next day. Considered the blackest day in the history of the Malayan Emergency, Gurney's death began raising questions in the mind of the people. Many began to wonder if the authorities were ever going to triumph over the communists who seemed to be growing from strength to strength since their reign of terror began three years ago.

The audacity of the terrorists in assassinating the heavily-escorted British High Commissioner, one considered in the hierarchy of British Imperial rule to be as inviolable as the Queen, in broad daylight clearly showed that the authorities had underestimated the strength of the insurrection.

Two days after the incident, as thousands of people from all walks of life lined the streets of Kuala Lumpur to witness Gurney's cortege on a gun carriage make its way towards the Cheras War Cemetery in Kuala Lumpur, many a tear was shed for the man who was the chief architect of British policy since the first day he arrived in Malaya on Oct 1, 1948.

Succeeding Sir Edward Gent, Gurney had been Chief Secretary in Palestine during the last two years of the British mandate.

Described as a slight man of 50, with receding hairline and grey moustache, Gurney's self-confidence was almost legendary during the last few frightful months in the Middle East. He even insisted on his daily round of golf up until the day when he theatrically wound up the administration by taking the last plane out of Palestine.

POLITICAL WAR

Upon his arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Gurney was quick to grasp the situation and realised the fundamental truth that the communist uprising was a political war where arms alone could never subdue. To him, the major key to victory was political stability.

The Malayan government had to function and, more importantly, the people must see the administration run 'business as usual' style or else there’d be no hope for the millions caught up in the turmoil. Gurney strongly believed that without hope and belief in the government, the only alternative for the people would be communism.

With the support of like-minded Malayan administrators like Malcolm MacDonald, Gurney successfully persuaded London not to lean towards an all-out war.

He warned that an unending pattern of escalation and the inevitable toll on innocent civilians would result in hatred for the government and tilt the balance in favour of bandit leader, Chin Peng.

Instead of direct confrontation, Gurney gave the world its first glimpse of how communist terror tactics could be effectively eroded by launching a plan which marked an unprecedented social revolution never before seen in the history of British overseas rule.

UNPRECEDENTED RESETTLEMENT

Gurney set in place a plan to uproot and resettle around 600,000 Chinese squatters living on land near the jungle fringe and put them in barbed wired new villages with round the clock security.

Through this herculean nationwide removal operation, Gurney hoped to deprive Chin Peng of hundreds of thousands of both willing and unwilling supporters.

Squatters are known to have already existed ever since the time when the Chinese began immigrating to Malaya in huge numbers in the late 19th century.

But their numbers began to increase at a phenomenal rate during the Japanese Occupation. During those times of great hardship, many starving Chinese abandoned the city and settled with their families on land acquired by simply clearing the jungle.

Chin Peng already realised the value of these squatters when he was heading the Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA), a guerrilla force that opposed the Japanese army during Second World War.

A staunch British ally at that time, Chin Peng and his men received huge supplies of weapons, cash and tactical knowledge to wreak havoc on the Japanese troops.

Malaya was thrown into chaos once the Japanese surrendered on Aug 15, 1945 as the bulk of the British troops had yet to return to assume control. Attempting to fill the power vacuum, the MPAJA emerged from the jungle and began their reign of terror by killing and torturing those suspected of abetting the Japanese during the war.

Looking at several MPAJA issued leaflets in my collection, it’s evident that the guerrillas were intent upon seizing control of most major towns in the country and set up their own communist administration.

Fortunately, the timely return of the British during the first week of September 1945 called time on their brief period of influence and the MPAJA was subsequently disbanded.

FRIENDS TURN INTO MORTAL ENEMIES

During Victory Day celebrations held throughout Malaya, the guerrillas publicly laid down their arms in return for monetary rewards. The British also bestowed honours upon many of them during these events in recognition of their gallantry during the Japanese Occupation.

Chin Peng received three prestigious medals for his wartime effort. On Jan 6, 1946 he was decorated twice by the Supreme Allied Commander, Admiral Lord Mountbatten at the steps of Singapore's City Hall and six months later was given the Order of the British Empire medal at the London Victory Celebrations on June 8, 1946.

Unfortunately, a string of related events that happened after that caused Chin Peng and his men to return to the jungle in 1948 and continue their struggle to establish a communist government in Malaya.

He launched ferocious campaigns of intimidation after realising that quite a number of the squatters were reluctant to help. Waverers quickly toed the line when their family members were hacked to death in front of their very eyes. "Cooperate or we’ll kill another one" soon became the guerrillas' trademark parting shot before slipping back into the jungle.

These atrocities were among the many reasons that helped Gurney persuade the squatters to move to the safety of the new villages. First, however, Gurney had to overcome the stumbling block of land acquisition before his plan could become a reality.