By ARTHUR CLEGG

eace issue key to
Malay independence

LONDON

In talks in London with the British government, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Malayan
chief minister, has won full controltover all internal, military and police affairs in his

country.

He told me this in a 90-minute interview during which, speaking of the future,
is to build up my nation, not to destroy Communism.”’

he said: ‘““The task before me
The published report of the
talks shows that the Malayan
delegation has won new powers
-and obtained a promise of nom-
Inal independence next year.
But how much or how little has
in fact been won depends on
whether Tunku Rahman will now

meet the Malayan Communists
and make peace.

If he does so, he will be able
to end the last remaining British
control over Malayan internal
military affairs and give the un-
ited Malayan people the power
and the positions to make Malaya
self-governing.

Chief immediate results are
that three new ministries are to
be created and placed in Malay-
an hands.

These are: the minister of in-
ternal defense and security, who
will displace the present British
secretary for defense both in the
executive council (government)
and in the legislative council;

The minister of finance, who
will displace the present British
financial secretary; and a newly
created minister for ' commerce
an industry.

“My dream,” Tunku Rahman
told me, “is to make Malaya an
abode of happiness and peace
for all who live there. - —

He said he had refused invita-
tions from a Formosa delegation
which visited Malaya and had're-
fused to join any anti-Commun-
ist front. “I have never attacked
Communists,” he declared.:

Asked about the Malayan war,
he was at times a little contra-
dictory. He said, for example,
that he had suggested a free par-
don for all. But at another time
he said that at the talks in Ba-
ling in December he had told
Chin Peng, secretary of the
Malayan Communist party, that
his terms included a detention
period of “only three months.”

Was he ready to reopen the
talks with the Communists? “Tll

reopen: any time,” he answered,

“and persuade them to accept my
terms.”

Was it possible for the war to
be solved by military means? |
“You can’t get a military solu-
tion. »

But, at another time when we

returned to this question; he went
back to the “unconditional surren-
der” position, saying: “I would
be willing to meet them (the
Communists) again but they must
surrender unconditionally.”

He said that at the Baling talks
he had told the Communists:
have got to make sure you swear
allegiance to Malaya before I
allow you to take up political
activities.”

He said he was ready to end
the Emergency Regulations but
demanded of the Communists that
they prove themselves “good
citizens of Malaya if they want
to stay here.”

» But to make them a legal party
would be wrong, he claimed.

Asked what his plans were for

civil liberties in Malaya, he said

civil liberties would be “as in
Britain.”

When I pointed out that there
was. a legal Communist party in
Britain, he did. not reply, but
| went on to talk of other matters.

Later, however, he paid a trib-
ute to the Malayan Communist
‘leader, saying “Chin Peng
honest.”

Ga

is

a British soldier in Cyprus.

LONDON

Allegations that troops posted
to Cyprus from the Suez Canal
base were given. “shoot to kill”
orders as long ago as January
1955 were made here last week
by Martin Smith, former corporal
in the Royal Army Medical Corps, |.
who served in Cyprus from
March till October.

Smith, now a clerk, says that
he personally typed standing ord-
ers for drivers in the quarter-
master’s office at Tél-el-Kebir

Even this boy’s fiddle ease comes under the scrutiny of

4 typed order to kill’

which contained the order: “Shoot
to kill.”

Similar orders, he alleges,
were also given to escorts. And
troops were told in a talk by an
officer on the drill square that
“it is better to be sure than
SOTEys2> |

“The impression I was given
in Egypt,” he says, “was that
these orders were necessary, but
when I got to Cyprus I found:

they were not, and could see nO

point in them except to put ideas
into the drivers’ minds.”

Alan en in Tibet--9

{

There is no mystery about Tibet’s future

(In this last article of a series
on his recent visit to Tibet, Alan
Winnington discusses the coun-
try’s past — and its future.)

LHASA

“Land of Mystery” tales about
Tibet now have to go the same
way as the Chinese “enigma” and
all the other “Mysteries of the
Orient” which have been used to
set people against people.

Tibet is now, after all, on the
bus route. Nor is Tibet “bleak
and forbidding.” It has many
climates, untold mineral wealth,
_ vast forests and plenty of water
for power and irrigation. °

Tibet is not a “land” either. It
is the most westerly half—a mil-
lion square miles—of China, and
has been for centuries, though
poor communications and the
delay of Chinese feudalism, forced.
Tibet to grow in upon itself.

That fine old spearhead of
British imperialism, the East
India Company, turned hungry
eyes on Tibet about 200 years
ago ‘and. tried to negotiate its
usual kind of “trade” agreement.

From that time British spies
disguised as pilgrims swarmed in
to Tibet with maps hidden in
prayer wheels and counting the
miles on rosaries.

The most open effort to tear
Tibet away from China was the
British expedition under Colonel
Younghusband in 1904, when he
trained his guns on the mona-
steries and dictated an unequal
trade treaty.

At that time the Dalai Lama
appealed to the corrupt regime in
Peking, but no help came.

Tibet became a “sphere of in-
fluence,” but was not occupied.
It is hard to imagine any foreign

troops being able to occupy Tibet.
In recent times India became
independent and the Chinese
People’s Army was driving Chiang
Kai-shek off the mainland of

Ching. ‘It was a bad moment for
imperialism, and the United
States stepped in to take the lead.

Moves were set on foot to get
Tibet declared independent by
the United Nations—where the
U.S. had an automatic majority
—and two high-pressure Ameri-
can propagandists, Lowell Thomas
and his son, were rushed to Lhasa.

Articles, radio talks, films and
so on duly appeared, but the
junior Thomas gave the game
away in his book Out of this

World by his noisy references to

the value of Tibet as a military
base against China.

In Korea U.S. forces were
threatening to invade China. The
U.S. had grabbed the Chinese
island of Formosa, and Tibet itself
began to loom as another’ ace
in U.S. war plans.

* * *
It was a moment for decisive

action and the Chinese people
took it. The sent their volun-

teers into Korea and, in one of |:

the most dramatic marches of
history, placed the People’s Army
in Tibet to protect the Himalayan
borders of the newborn Chinese
People’s Republic.

An agreement was sizmed ‘in|
{which the local government of].

the youthful Dalai Lama agreed

to wipe out imperialist influences.

in Tibet, and the central author-
ities agreed not to interfere in

Tibetan affairs such as religion,

local governmént and social cus-
toms.

Tibetan leaders I met said that
at first they were suspicious of
the central authorities, owing to
their past bitter experience with
the imperial and ‘Kuomintang
regimes.

But they found the People’ S

government kept its word. Hun-
dreds of Tibetan leaders went all
over. China, including the Dalai
and Panchen Lamas, whose re-

concilliation was another ‘positive.

result of the agreement. .

They saw that religious free-
dom was real. The Panchen Lama
told me how impressed he was
that the People’s government
was restoring the Lingying Lama
temple, near Shanghai.

They saw how autonomy works
in other areas where national
minorities live.

So, as the Dalai Lama said to
me, “Our misgivings were re-
moved and now there is unity

The Dalai Lama is shown
here wearing his crown of state
ata palace reception in Lhasa.

cA

day.”

Tibet is a land where tradition
really counts. Wherever you go
you hear about the great king
—Tsongtsan Gambo—who lived
about 1,300 years ago. He married
a Chinese princess in the days
when China’s culture was prob-
ably the highest in the world.

To Lhasa with the princess went
craftsmen, culture—even Bud-
dhism. -Tibetan clothes today are
still the fashion that came then
from Peking, and the words for
Chinese of that period.

Now, to Tibetans, history seems
to be repeating itself on a new
plane. The new roads which link
Tibet more closely to China are

world’s rooftop.

Now, as then, a profound mental
upheaval is taking place. A high
Tibetan official, director of
Tibetan. mint, Lama Senthung
Khenchung, said to me: “It was
a joy to me to see the industrial
construction going ahead in in-
land China. Tibet can only de-
velop in the same way.

“Now that we have the roads
we can save our cattle from epi-
demic. This means more cattle,
so we should develop milk-proces-
sing factories and tanneries. Now

| we waste most of our hides and

wool. We should have wool tex-
tile factories. :

“But the canning of meat might
be hampered by religious feel-
ings.” He thought for a long time
and said: “We live in an improv-
ing world. We can scarcely avoid
that some small things will not
be entirely in conformity with
religion, so long as we do not
violate our main religious pre-
cepts.”

Tn Korea, he said, he had seen
disruption done by the Americans.
“I saw their shameful intentions

which is growing etraneer every:

carrying with them a newer cul-:
ture and new techniques to the}.

of aggression against China. Such
aggression could also come from
Formosa, though it would be
doomed to - fail. :

“We know the policies of our
People’s government and are glad
of our unity, for we have no de-
sire to experience what Korea
experienced.

“IT hope you will tell your lead-
ers that Tibetans place the protec-
tion of peace in the forefront of
our religion.”

*

en *

These are among the mamy
ideas now being discussed im
Tibet. The misgivings have gone,
but not the need to rationalise
the new machines, hospitals, more
fruitful’ seeds and vaccines, that
have come with the roads.

Tibetan parents are sending
their children to study in Peking
and they are returning with no-
tions about piloting aircraft and
working in factories.

Both the Dalai and Panchen
Lamas say that Tibet will go to
socialism with the rest of China.

Exactly how that advance will
take place will be determined by
the Tibetans. What I have been
so fortunate to see here are the
first steps they are taking on that .
historic journey into the bright
future.

Tibet will soon be an autono-
mous region though help from the
People’s government will con-
tinue. But there will be no pres-
sure on the Tibetans to go faster —
than they want, no hurry, no ;
compulsion.

Tibet is not “out of this world,”
as Lowell Thomas said, but “out
of that world” and into the bright
new world thas is marching to
socialism.

Tibet will reach socialism, but
not the hard way; not through
capitalism or colonial oppression,
but as part of China, at her own
pace, in her own way.

FEBRUARY 17%, 1956 —PACIFIC TRIBUNE. — PAGE 2