1941, Monday 06 January;
They sat around a highly polished rosewood table, decorated in inlayed Chinese carvings of different woods, in the first-floor room, at the end of a wing of Flagstaff House, an opened door leading to the big veranda at one end, the windows on either side were opened, although the blinds were pulled, in an effort to allow a draft of wind to draw through without the heat of the sun coming in. Two big electric fans lazily swirled around, helping create an impression of cooler air.
They had been here since 2pm, both Lord Gort and Lt Gen Percival fresh after lunch, following another Monday morning, General War Council meeting at Government House. Present with them was Gort’s GSO1, Colonel Fawcett, and the senior staff officers of Percival’s Malaya Command, Brigadier General Staff (BGS), Brigadier Kenneth Torrance, Deputy Adjutant General, Brigadier Thomas Newbigging, Assistant Quartermaster General, Brigadier Hubert Lucas, each with an aide. On the table in front of each of them, was a copy of a large typed report, detailing their various inputs, to discuss the way forward.
Late last week they had received a cable from London authorising the expansion of local recruitment for the Army, taking Malays, Chinese and Indians in Malaya, as well as the Chinese in Hong Kong. It was a positive answer to the report Gort had sent the War Office detailing the good reports he’d had over the latest recruitment intakes, along with the growing needs of the Forces out here in the Far East for yet more men. The authorisation for additional funds didn’t go as far as he would have liked, but nevertheless it allowed for a generous expansion.
Like the RAF and Royal Navy, the Army had recruited locally before, but those initiatives had always been limited, small additions, for specific units. They had never had a permanent dedicated unit for training them. But now they did and as a result, they intended to quickly move away from just recruiting for the three infantry regiments, the Malay, Singapore (Chinese) and Hong Kong (Chinese) Regiments, to pretty much all arms and services in the Army, with sections created in the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and support services, i.e., the RAOC and RASC. There were limitations on what they could do owing to the language barrier, people able to speak English and either Malay or Chinese were in much demand.
As always, Hong Kong was the priority, indeed here the restriction on recruitment was only really governed by the need for more trainers, clothing, equipment, and the ability of existing units or newly forming ones to absorb the large numbers of newly trained. Indeed, the very units that needed more personnel, were largely having to train them themselves, either within the unit or detaching Officers and NCO to training schools.
In addition, many more Officers and NCOs were required, and this wasn’t easy, the few ECO’s from the UK and Dominions were snapped up, but young and not so young gentlemen from the Colony itself were being given a three-month course at the OTCU in Singapore, and with a crisp new uniform presented as the answer. That might had worked if they had the backing of an experience NCO, but these were all too often recently promoted from the ranks, having been identified as a seasoned soldier well versed in the ways of the Army, with some leadership qualities. That was fundamentally the brake on the recruitment expansion in Hong Kong.
For Malaya, things were a little easier, the Malay Regiment, already in existence, was able, admittedly by using the Indian Army’s practice of ‘milking’ the existing battalion of an experienced cadre, to build the new companies for the second battalion. Secondly there was much more room to develop training camps around the country, as opposed to cramming everything into Kowloon and on Hong Kong Island. That wasn’t to say things were easy, but here expansion was held back by budgets as much as by the shortages of experienced Officers and NCO’s.
Recruitment had originally been set at six platoons of 40 men each, in basic training for 6 weeks, for each of the three regiments, but initially, only Hong Kong was able to do this, the other two started with four platoons. But now things had settled down a bit, issues on training within the courses had been ironed out. Now, set before them was a plan to expand recruitment to 16 basic training platoons in each Regiment, 18 for Hong Kong, increasing training platoon numbers on a stepped progress. On completion of basic training, a selection processes would draw considerable numbers out, identified by some particular characteristic or civilian skills, for transfer into the other corps, leaving the rest to continue into infantry training with their respective regiments.
Brigadier Lucas was speaking, “The Public Works Department has nearly completed the expansion and construction of the training camp at Port Dickson, just the last three sections of the camp, which should be done by May. This means we will be able to house just over 1200 instructors and recruits here. I would suggest we continue to conduct all basic training for Malay’s at this camp, but we now have the capacity to increase recruitment significantly. And this with continuing the infantry training for the Malay Regt on the same site”. He paused to sip water from the glass in front of him, before continuing.
“Camp Fuyong, the training camp for the Singapore (Chinese) Regt just outside Seremban is still progressing, but is not expected to be complete until August, again able to accommodate 1200, however that is not hampering the training. The reason is we have had to give priority to the completion of the big RASC camp with its numerous workshops, which is on the other side of the branch railway sidings. Again, all basic training as well as infantry training can be at Camp Fuyong. The extra recruits from any expansion of the recruitment program can be accommodated under canvas for now”.
Brigadier Newbigging picked up the discussion, “Staffing the Port Dickson camp has been relatively trouble free, and as you can see we can manage the expansion quite well, however, at Camp Fuyong we don’t enjoy the existence of a unit to milk, and here we are having to use cadre from the Federal Malay State Volunteers, as well as a few from the Straits Settlements units, but in the main these need training too, so in many cases we have British instructors giving training through the use of interpreters, a less than satisfactory arrangement”.
Brigadier Torrance came in now, “because of the aforementioned problems, although we will be creating new fully manned companies, they will require a lot more training, as well as a need of being issued better equipment than they currently have, and so will not be ready for full operational duties for the foreseeable future”.
Brigadier Lucas quickly jumped in “we are able to equip these new companies with sufficient rifles, bayonets and side arms, but other than a few grenades and one Lewis machine gun per platoon, I have nothing else to give them. Unfortunately, all current planned shipments of arms to arrive are already allocated firstly to the Australians, and then the Indian regiments”.
There was a silenced pause, clearly all had been said about these camps, Lord Gort gave a nod of approval and then Percival cleared his throat, “moving onto the other arms, the engineers first”
Brigadier Torrance replied, “I’ve had discussions with the Chief Engineer, Brigadier Pennycuick, and he is confident he will be able to accommodate the four Engineer training platoons, despite also providing training for battalions of the Indian Pioneer Corps. He has some more building additions required for the Batu Cave cantonment, just needs authorisation for the material, and will construct them with the new recruits, a learning on the job process, so to speak”.
Percival interrupted “I’d just like to add, Lord Gort, if I may, that will in no way impact on the additional training schools he is running for both Indian Sappers and the Indian Pioneer Corps, both of who will continue to send men for further training courses, in total, Batu Caves will be able to accommodate 700 men in constructed barracks, any more will have to be in tents”.
Gort nodded, and looked over at Lucas, who continued the discussion, “Brigadier Pennycuick has already given me a detailed list of materials, which I will begin sourcing and providing this week, the only thing I will struggle with is the cement, as you know the RAF have a very significant portion of whats shipped in, but almost everything else I can provide quite quickly”. Lucas looked up at Percival who took the cue, “thank you Hubert, moving onto artillery, Thomas, if you please”
Newbigging began again “currently we have a camp at Port Swettenham that has an artillery range across the marshes, that with tentage, can hold two regiments of Artillery. We have identified a new site at Rawang, just north of Kuala Lumpur, over ground that had previously been used for tin mining. It has the potential to give us an excellent camp with several artillery ranges. We have a basic camp there at the moment, but are gradually developing the area. I would suggest, for now that the proposed new light batteries of the Malay and Singapore Regts are founded at Port Swettenham, allowing already formed formations to exercise at Rawang”. He stopped talking, allowing Lucas to come in.
“The light batteries will be equipped with 18 pounders, four to a battery, possibly later we could issue 4.5-inch Hows, depending on other unit upgrades. They will be allocated Canadian built artillery tractors, but again are not high priority, so perhaps by the end of the year, but no promises”. Lucas stopped and looked around, ready to answer any questions. Maybe his information was sufficient, or maybe the heat in the room was draining people of enthusiasm, but no questions came.
Percival cleared his throat, “hem, thank you Gentlemen, that leaves us the RAOC and RASC, Thomas, if you may”. Newbigging began again. “Both the RAOC and RASC would greatly benefit from recruitment from both Malay’s and Chinese. We are suggesting they take four platoons each intake, two Malay, two Chinese, selected after their basic training is completed. That’s the most they can absorb, initially they may struggle a bit, but I’m sure the Corps become comfortable with training and absorbing them”. Again, Newbigging turned to Lucas to comment.
“Yes, we have looked at their organisations, and the RAOC will be able to accommodate a training facility at its Taiping Camp, while the RASC can do the same at its Ipoh camp. Both camps will need further development, but I am confident, using tentage initially, they can start as soon as they first recruits finish their basic training”.
Percival now spoke “Lord Gort, with these increases in native recruitment, by the end of the year we will have recruited over 3500 Malays and 3000 Chinese into service, together with an additional of over 1200 of each in training. Given the newly increased budget, this is the most we will be able to expand by, it is a significant improvement on what we had, and will go a long way to improving our forces.”
“Thank you, Arthur, gentlemen, the plan is excellent, well thought out and soundly based, no doubt a lot of work has gone into it. I’m please to say I accept it, by all means implement it at once.”
“Err Lord Gort, Sir, there is one matter I’d like to press you on, on behalf of myself and my officers present” Percival paused, awaiting Gort’s reply, “Go on Arthur”.
“As you said, ‘a lot of work has gone into it’ and at a time when Malaya Command HQ has never been so stretched as of now, we simply don’t have enough trained and experienced men within it, the officers here have worked right through the weekend, they’ve had to do a lot of the junior grade work, simply because their junior officers don’t know how, or worse, they don’t have a junior officer covering those particular roles. Lord Gort, Sir, we must have more trained staff officers added to the Command, as, I fear, in a time of crisis, the few trained officers we have would collapse under the pressure of it all.”
“Yes, Arthur, and for the record, you have continually advised me on that poor state of affairs, the War Office recognises the need for more trained staff. Unfortunately, trained staff officers are in short supply everywhere, we are still recovering from our losses in France. Formations need to be rebuilt, and new ones raised, the lion’s share of trained staff officers will be going to those I’m afraid. However, the War Office assures me there will be a steady trickle of officers coming our way, and by the end of summer, you will have seen an easement of your predicament. Again, gentlemen, I commend you all on your good work, thank you.”