The Malayan Security Service (1945–1948)
@article{Comber2003TheMS, title={The Malayan Security Service (1945–1948)}, author={Leon Comber}, journal={Intelligence and National Security}, year={2003}, volume={18}, pages={128 - 153} }
The Malayan Security Service (MSS) was the main intelligence agency of the British when they returned to Singapore in September 1945 following the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II. It was responsible for obtaining and collating information on subversive organisations and personalities in Singapore/Malaya. As there was some dissatisfaction over its alleged failure to forewarn the British colonial authorities of the impending uprising of the Communist Party of Malaya (CPM), it was…
7 Citations
Rethinking the Rise and Fall of the Malayan Security Service, 1946–48
- Political Science
- 2015
An item of conventional wisdom in our understanding of the Malayan First Emergency is that the original security organisation, the Malayan Security Service (MSS), was a comprehensive failure,…
‘A very salutary effect’: The Counter-Terror Strategy in the Early Malayan Emergency, June 1948 to December 1949
- Political Science
- 2009
Abstract The counter-insurgency lessons commonly drawn from the Malayan Emergency ignore strategy in the opening phase or dismiss it as characterised by mistakes committed in a policy vacuum. This…
The aftermath of the Maria Hertogh riots in colonial Singapore (1950-1953).
- History
- 2008
This thesis examines the genesis, outbreak and far-reaching effects of the first among a series of incidents of mass violence which determined the course of British colonial rule in post World War…
Forgotten Armies: Britain's Asian Empire and the War with Japan
- History
- 2005
The vast crescent of British-ruled territories from India down to Singapore appeared in the early stages of the Second World War a massive asset in the war with Germany, providing huge quantities of…
The view from above: how the Royal Air Force provided a strategic vision for operational intelligence during the Malayan Emergency
- Political Science
- 2015
It has long been held that the Federation of Malaya’s counter-insurgency campaign during the First Malayan Emergency (1948–60) was determined by the use of intelligence. Special Branch — the…
Intelligence and British decolonisation : the development of an imperial intelligence system in the late colonial period 1944-1966
- Political Science, History
- 2015
This thesis seeks to explain the development of an ‘imperial intelligence system’ connecting Whitehall and the colonies. The system had two roles; to collect information and process it into…