he Malayan Emergency was a twelve-year conflict in the Malayan peninsula which arose from an attempt by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) to overthrow the British colonial administration of Malaya.
Confrontation was a conflict which developed in 1963 between Indonesia and the new state of Malaysia backed by Commonwealth allies. Its origins lay in Great Britain's plans to divest itself of formal empire in South-east Asia.
Declared on 18 June 1948, the Emergency was the immediate response to the murder of three British planters in northern Malaya but had its roots deep in the post-war economic and political dislocation of Malaya and a sense of alienation among the Chinese community in particular.
New Zealand's alignment and participation in the Cold War was determined by the decision of the 1940s Labour government to back the United States and Great Britain (that concord was crucial) in their disagreements with the Soviet Union
New Zealand's first involvement in Emergency operations occurred in 1949 following the deployment to Singapore of a flight of 41 Squadron's Dakotas in response to the threatening situation in Hong Kong.
From March 1958 1st Battalion, New Zealand Regiment, which had replaced the SAS Squadron in the Strategic Reserve, took part in operations designed to clear Perak of insurgents. Operating from Ipoh and later Grik, it mounted a series of deep jungle patrols.
'Better not interfere old boy, he might lose his temper'. President Sukarno of Indonesia threatens a surprised-looking looking President of Malaysia in the background, while, in the foreground, Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia, is advising New Zealand Prime Minister, Keith Holyoake, that any interference could cause trouble.
