Although a bit more unlikely, there is also a possibility of air reinforcement from a valuable source. COL Claire Chennault and Curtiss Aircraft Corporation’s first choice for the organization of the American Volunteer Group (AVG) was Singapore, not Burma. Singapore already had a thriving American business community, and Ford Motor Company had established an assembly plant – infamous as the location of Percival’s surrender to Yamashita. The British Colonial authorities in Malaya vetoed this proposal, again fearing a Curtiss presence would disrupt the labor market and believing it would be a provocative act. This concern for Japanese sensibilities also led to the AVG being forced to construct facilities from scratch at Toungoo, Burma instead of using existing (and empty) RAF facilities.