About the book (from jacket flap):
In recent years a number of books have been written about military operations in Malaya and the Service life in that delectable, but to a soldier extremely taxing and exasperating, land. Other books describe the political scene and the sociological situation, and in particular set out to rectify past ignorance about the Chinese, who now, as in former times, hold at least as great a stake in the country as the so-called indigenous Malays.
Leaving the activities of the armed forces and of the politicians to the experts, the author of this book has tried to give instead a true picture of the way of life and temper of the various peoples who have made Malaya their home.
In nearly six years of coming and going in the land he has had time to meet and talk to many people of many races, and to note how much nonsense is talked about “who the country belongs to”. Against the historical background all the races are comparatively recent immigrants except for the aboriginal “jungle men”. Malaya, therefore, quite simple belongs to all who have staked their claims in her, be they Malay, Chinese, Indian, Eurasian, Aboriginal or British.
The author has seen Malaya move from the sinister days of the Emergency, through the bright quickening of peaceful independence, into the limited but costly warfare with Indonesia which developed after the formation of the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. In none of these times has he felt that any but a small minority regarded the British and undesirable or superfluous.
