Communist Blueprint For Asia (Western Mail, 18 Agustus 1949)

The Argus (1949-08-18) - The Australian coal strike and banditry Source: Trove, National Library of Australia - https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39095389 Date retrieved: 2026-10-17 OCR text (uncorrected) follows. 18 Aug 1949 - The Australian coal strike and banditry in Malaya are seen as part of a cohesive Red plan Communist Blueprint For Asia Western Mail (Perth, WA: 1885 - 1954), Thursday 18 August 1949, page 10 The Australian coal strike and banditry in Malaya are seen as part of a cohesive Red planCommunist Blueprint For Asiafrom DENIS WARNERSINGAPORE: Sixteen months ago aYugoslav named Dusan Puhalo landed in Singapore. Twenty-four hours later, with a deportation tag on his baggage he was on his way home.It was not much of a story at the time. Few people had ever heard of Dusan Puhalo; fewer had any idea that his deportation, in effect, was the first real British counter-shot against Communism in East Asia. &iexcl;Dusan Puhalo's association with East Asia dates back to late 1947, when Moscow, baulked in the west by U.S. and British determination, switched their ideological attack to the soft and exposed East.Until then Communism East of Suez and South of Cancer had been largely local and spontane-ous. There was a noticeable lack of central direc-tion and coordination between countries. The Communist armies in China were more or less dormant; in Indo-China and Indonesia inevitable nationalistic uprising carried on without special assistance or direction from international Com-munism. Australians at Vital Talks(COORDINATION, Moscow knew, was the keyto full achievement of her plans for East Asia. A South-East Asia Youth and Students' Confer-ence at Calcutta, set for February, 1948, was therefore selected as the means for overcoming this deficiency in world organisation. Here for the first time, Moscow Communists could sit at a conference table with representatives from every country in East Asia.Four representatives from the International Union of Students and the World Federation of Trades Unions-good names, not too widely known as Communist organisations-gave the conference its air of respectability. The repre-sentatives were: Jean Lautissier, France; Joseph Groman, Czechoslovakia; Carmel Brickman, Britain; and Vidya Karniga, India.The Communist Party in Australia, Burma, Ceylon, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam supplied the "guests."The real "delegates," the men-and one woman -who; came to dictate and not to discuss were from the Soviet Union and the then, trusted ally, Yugoslavia..I have the list of "guests" and "Delegates" in front, of me.; And because they all heard the plan for Eastern revolution and, beyond reasonable doubt, carried the word to their own countries, their n&aacute;mes are worth recording. They are: Australia, Kathleen Bacon; Burma, Bon Hla Myaing, Aung <jyi, Baideau K Cheng alias Chen Pai; Ceylon, D. T. E. Mana.niperi;.China, Sung Wei Ming, Sen Shi&uacute; Hwa; India, S&aacute;tyapal Dang, A. Bhattacharya; Indonesia, Francisca Fanggidaej; Korea; An Kyang Ki; Malaya^ Lee Soortg; Paki-stan, Shams ul Maq; Philippines, Eniique Joaquin; Vietnam, Nguyen Duy Cuong, Le Tam, Mai The Chan.The U.S.S.R. sent three delegates-A. Kharmalor, V. Dranov arid Tamara Marasova. In addi-tion to Dusan Puhalo, Yugoslavia was represented by Radova Zogovic arid Vladimir D&eacute;dier.Unofficial guests also attended or at least par-ticipated in meetings conducted outside the con-ference proper. They included the Australian, Sharkey, who like Dusan Puhalo, later1 came to Singapore (unlike Puhalo, however, Sharkey spent many days with Malayan Communist Party lead-ers). A British patrol on the hunt for Communist bandits in a Malayan village. The Malayan "revolution" lspart of a Communist plan for East Asia, states the author of this article.What instructions the "guests" received is no longer just a matter of speculation. # They were told to get on with revolution in East Asia; that the rallying cry should be "down with the Im-perialists, down with Britain, France and Holland, down with the United States, down with Chiang Kai-shek, the tool of the Imperialists." "People's Democratic Republics" were to be established along Soviet lines. In countries where the immediate objective of revolution or the establishment of a republic appeared beyond the capacity of the Party, union control and the promotion of strikes and indus-trial unrest was to be coupled with cooperation with neighbouring parties.A Rash of StrikesfHE "guests," fully instructed, left to carry hometheir briefs. Reaction followed immediately; Dusan Puhalo, with the Burmese delegates, flewto Tliirma. Within weeks, Tvrnmnted bv Pnhalr/soratory,, a rash of strike* tied up the struggling young country (it got its independence only ir January, 1948). Before the end of March, Thakiari Than Tun and H. N. Goshal, a Bengali, had taken the White ' Flag Communists (theMoscow Party) under ground.With the situation in Burma developing accord-ing to plan, Puhalo flewfr&raquo; Si i nt&raquo; sinnt" A tl ic ct cn;. I. L. SHARKEYwas brief; but word of the Calcutta instructions had already been carried by the Malayan Com-munist Party's own representative at the confer-ence, a young and able Chinese named Lee Soong. Well educated and the son of prosperous parents, Lee led the Chinese Communist Youth Movement in Singapore after the war.Back from Calcutta, and probably aided by Sharkey, Lee spread the doctrine of revolution. A meeting of the Central Executive of the Party, called to hear his report, decided to close the port of Singapore as a prelude to armed revolt. This was expected to wreck Singapore economy and to confine the Army to the island, leaving the Malayan Peninsula wide open for major up-rising. April 15 was the date set for opening the cam-paign. British authorities got word of the plot on April 1. On April 14 the Singapore Government is-sued banishment warrants against a number of Communist union leaders, and the police took action on the same day by raiding the premises. of the Harbour Labour Union and the SingaporeFederation of Trades Unions.Vehemently seditious pamphlets advocating violence were found, as well as full lists of names of members of the Communist Singapore Workers' Protection corps.Rallying their forces, the Communists at-tempted to strike back through the remains of their Chinese and Indian Protection Corps. Sabotage by arson in a big rubber factory and the throwing of grenades in the Harbour Board followed.But this prelude to revolution in Malaya failed. Prompt police action left the Army free to aid the Federation police, and the situation was fairly under control by the time the Malayan Communist Party began its Malayan "revolution "Military defeats, or, more correctly,, only minor terrorist successes, have not caused the Malayan Communist Party to deviate from the policy enunciated at Calcutta. A recent "Outline of the People's Democratic Republic of the Malayan Communist Party" declares that the independent and "All-races equal" Malayan People's Demo-cratic Republic, amalgamating Singapore and Malaya into one entity, will be established after the British Imperialists have been driven out of Malaya and their military, political and economic influence and that of their feudal underlings have been thoroughly eliminated through uniting andmobilising the strength of the people of all Malaya.The proposed Communist constitution of Malaya-bearing a 1949 date-calls for a dictator-ship of the "Unified All-Malaya Central People's Assembly," to be brought about by expropriating the "British Imperialists." The constitution is blue-printed from the Calcutta directives.Chinese Reds Show Their Hand*1&pound;HE China sequel to Calcutta caught the worldheadlines. What the Communists did is too widely known to warant repetition. Underpublicised, however, is what the Chinese Com-munists said. No longer is there any pretence at mere agrarian reform. Nor is Mao Tse-tung evena remote cousin to Tito.Mao Tse-tung came out frankly for revolution-ary Communism. In a message to Stalin on November 6, 1948, the thirty-first anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution, he said:After the victory of the Second World War, American Imperialism and its running dogs (a Chinese and Korean term of contempt) in vari-ous countries replaced Fascist Germany, Italy and Japan and are frenziedly preparing a new world war menacing the whole world. They reflect the extreme rottenness of the capitalist world and its panic in the face of impendingMftinrtinn.He acknowledged Soviet leadership and called for the advance of Communist revolution on a world-wide front."fpIE blueprint for the People's DemocraticRepublic of Australia, like the blueprint for revolutionary government in Malaya, the Philippines and Korea, came to East Asia in a Soviet attache case/' writes Denis Warner, special correspondent in East Asia. "The ban-dit's gun in Malaya and the miner's strike on the Australian coalfields spring from the same general directive."In this documented article, written from clas-sified information gathered in Japan, Korea, the Philippines and Singapore, Warner presents for the first time an authentic account of the Communist conference at Calcutta in February, 1948, and its revolutionary aftermath.In North Korea, An Kyang Ki reported on the Calcutta conference to Kim ll Sung, president of the already established People's Republic of North Korea. The plan here was not to overthrow the existing internal government but to carry the war south of the 38th parallel to Syngman Rhee's American running dogs.Aided, involuntarily, by two members of a United Nations Commission who were quoted as having described the Americans as controlling a "police state," North Korea immediately began a vigorous propaganda barrage. Arms passed over the border in increasing quantities for Southern Communists, and late in April, 1948, the Ameri-cans, under Lt.-Gen. John Hodge captured a Communist plan for revolution iii the South, de-signed to coincide with the elections-the first in the country's history-early in May. Two weeks of terrorism, murder and violence on a scale un-precedented in modern Korea ended when Syng-man Rhee, an extreme rightist, swept the polls.But that is far from the end of the story. The Russian-trained, Russian-equipped Army of the People's Republic of Northern Korea awaits only the signal and the country will be embroiled in a civil war in which there is only one possible out-come; a bloody Communist victory and the estab-lishment of a "People's Democratic Republic" forali Korea.Philippines and IndonesiaJplLIPINO Communists showed even moreclearly the influence of an external authority. With the death of Manuel Roxas, an implacable enemy of Communism, and the succession of Elpidio Quirino to the presidency, the Philippine Gov-ernment experimented with a "soft" policy towards the Hukbalahaps, who, like the Chinese Commun-ists, began as agrarian reformists, Quirino pro-claimed a general amnesty and the Hukbalahaps came out of the mountains and the Plain of Pampanga in considerable numbers, surrendering their arms and appearing genuinely willing tosettle their problems over a conference table in-stead of along the sights of a rifle.After Emique Joaquin reported on Calcutta, Luis Fame, Hakbalahap leader, who had taken his seat again in the House of Representatives, disappeared into the mountains with a new price on his head. The terror went on, culminating last May in the brutal assassination of Mrs. Quezon.Vietnam had little to learn from Calcutta. Rather, its three representatives could extol their less successful revolutionary comrades to follow their example. For under the leadership of 57* year-old Ho Chi Minn, this Indo-China State had fought an unending yet highly successful warwith the French.There is little in the dossier of Francisca Fanggidae, of Indonesia, to indicate the true nature of his politics. It is not safe to assume that he was, or is, a Communist. The Republican leaders of Indonesia have not welcomed Communist aid, knowing that it goes along with Independence movements only for its own purposes.The elimination of colonial Powers from southEast Asia is, however, part of Indonesian policy;A "Cominform" in Syd&ntilde;eyAUSTRALIA'S part in the East Asian conspir-acy is probably better appreciated by gaslessand heatless Melbourne than by an expatriate, who has spent only two years of the last nine in his own country. Even before the Calcutta conference, however, there was unmistakable proof that Australian Communists saw their duty outside as well as inside Australia.In the Philippines in 1945, I obtained copies of Communist pamphlets printed in Sydney and dis-tributed in Manila. At that time the American authorities, preparing to turn over the country to the Filipinos in July, 1946, were not greatlyconcerned.In January, 1947, an American counter-intelli-gence agent in Tokyo passed on the information that what amounted to a miniature South-East Asian Cominform had been established in Sydney.To avoid compromising the source of the in-formation by writing the story with a Tokyo dateline, *1 cabled the information confidentially to Australian Associated Press-Reuter in Sydney. Subsequently the Australian Press was informed and the Tokyo facts generally were substantiatedfrom official sources.More significantly, Moscow Radio, not given to the praise of the democracies, twice mentioned the Australian "workers" in favourable terms in broadcasts directed to Korea.Then in April of this year, on yet another visit to Manila, 1 was told by high Philippine GovernKoreans, carrying portraits o! Stalin and of their candidate for a people's committee, demonstrate in Phyongyang. "The Russian-trained, Russian-equipped Army of the People's Republic of North Korea awaitsonly the signal and the country will be embroiled in a civil war."MAO TSE-TUNGand this was the primary objective of the Calcutta conference. Nor was the conception of collabora-tion with neighbouring Communist parties new to the Indonesians. Ear-lier-before the British forces moved into Malaya at the end of the warSoekarno visited Kuala Lumpur and conferred with Malayan Communist Party leaders, doubtless with the idea of coordi-nating action againstthe two colonial Powers. But subsequent execu-tion by the Republicans of Communist leaders in Indonesia, including Amir Sjarifoeddin, finally drew the dividing line between the Republicans and the Communist Party, and it is safe to say today that the Indonesian Independence move-ment is neither CommunisMnspired nor Com-munist-controlled.ment officials that Communist pamphlets originat-ing in Sydney, had again been discovered in tho Philippines.Here in Singapore, British authorities report that the Malayan Communist Party-before it was outlawed-looked to Australia as a principal friend. (This was partly brought about by Eng-lish snubs at an Empire conference in London). Chinese crews, arriving from Australia, have car-ried pamphlets of a similar nature and origin to those found in Manila. There is even a strong suspicion that some Australian arms and ammuni-tion have found their way into the hands of Com-munist guerrillas.That is the East-Asian Communist scene as it developed from the Calcutta conference room. The bandit's gun in Malaya and the miner's strike on the Australian coalfield spring from the same general directive. The blueprint for the People's Democratic Republic of Australia, like the blueprint for revolutionary government in Malaya, the Philippines and Korea is identical with that which Dusan Puhalo and Tamara Marasova carried to Calcutta in February, 1948.This plan is already half achieved. And in only sixteen months. What the next sixteen months will bring about is largely a matter for the still free peoples of Asia and the support they can win from the world forces of anti-Commun-ism.