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The Kuomintang Movement in Malaya and Singapore, 1925–30

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 April 2011

C.F. Yong  and
R.B. McKenna
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Extract

In July 1925, the British Cabinet seemingly sealed the fate of the Kuomintang (KMT) movement in Malaya and Singapore by agreeing that “the Governor of the Straits Settlements should be authorised to take the necessary steps for the suppression of the Malayan branches of the Society of Kuo Min Tang”. Although this ban was legally, albeit loosely, imposed by the Governors, Sir Laurence Guillemard and Sir Hugh Clifford, it did not succeed in ending the movement as they had expected. Thus, the KMT movement remained a nagging problem for the British authorities until Sir Cecil Clementi took a strong stand to enforce the ban in February 1930, which effectively paralysed the KMT movement in Malaya and Singapore.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , March 1984 , pp. 91 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1984

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References

1 CO717/45 File 30039, Cabinet 32(25): Extract from Conclusions of a Meeting held on Wednesday July 1st 1925 at 11.30 am, 2.7.1925, p. 256.

2 FO 371/10935 File 5953, Secret Despatch from Officer Administrating the FMS, E.S. Hose, to LC.M.S. Amery, Colonial Office, 3.11.1925 (Copy).

3 NL 5949 (Singapore) G.D. 36 No. 41 /1927, The Kuo Min Tang in Malaya, 1926, p. 9. Nanyang Siang Pau, 12.9.1925; 7.12.1925. Nanyang Siang Pau identifies Phua Tin Kiap , a Hainanese, as the leader imprisoned for 12 months while Chan Sou Yung , a Cantonese doctor and a KMT leader of the 4th sub-branch in Singapore, was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment.

4 On reading rooms and social and cultural clubs, consult, Yong, C. F. and McKenna, R. B., “The Kuomintang Movement in Malaya and Singapore, 1912-1925”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 12 (1981): 121–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 CO 273/537 File 28053, Enclosure No. 1 to Straits Despatch of 31.8.1927, p. 1.

6 NL 5936 (Singapore) G.D. 38 No. 113/1928, Enclosure to the Straits Despatch of 27.3.1928, p. 1.

7 NL 5949 G.D. 36 No. 41/1927, The Kuo Min Tang in Malaya, 1926, p. 7; NL 5935 G.D. 37 No. 397/1927, Enclosure No. 1 to FMS Despatch of 8.12.1927, pp. 9-10; also The Malayan Bulletin of Political Intelligence, 47(1927): 3Google Scholar.

8 The “Main School” was a principal executive Communist organisation in Malaya and Singapore in 1926 and 1927. Its members travelled from place to place, lecturing, teaching, organising trade unions and night schools. They were said to have utilised night schools as the headquarters of their political activities. In any case, the “Main School” could be said to be a forerunner of the Nanyang Communist Party, founded in January 1928. The British claimed that the “Main School” was dominated by the Hainanese, an assertion that has yet to be verified.

9 CO 273/537 File 28053, Enclosure No. 1 … 31.8.1927, p. 2.

10 Ibid., p. 1.

11 CO 273/537 File 28053, Enclosure to Straits Despatch of 16.2.1927, p. 4.

12 Ibid., pp. 2-3.

13 Ibid., p.3.

14 Ibid.

15 Ibid., p. 4.

16 Ibid., p. 14.

17 NL 5936 CD. 38 No. 113/1928, Enclosure … 27.3.1928, pp. 1-2.

18 NL 5936 G.D. 39 No. 254/1928, Enclosure to Straits Despatch of 26.7.1928, p. 3.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid., p. 4.

(Manifesto and Resolutions of the First All-Malaya Delegates Convention of the BMHB, 1929), p. 2. Thanks to Mr. Chui Kuei Chiang of the History Department, National University of Singapore, for locating this invaluable document on the proceedings, resolutions, and manifesto of the BMHB convention (text in Chinese).

21 Manifesto and Resolutions of the First All-Malaya Delegates Convention of the BMHB, 1929, pp. 2-4.

22 Ibid., p. 3.

23 Ibid., p. 4.

24 NL 5937 G.D. 40 No. 212/1929, Enclosure No. I to Straits Despatch of 4.9.1929 on “The Malayan General Branch of the Kuo Min Tang of China”, p. 2.

25 NL 5937 G.D. 40 No. 212/1929, Enclosure No. 1 to Straits Despatch of 4.9.1929, p. 4.

26 Ibid., pp. 4-5.

27 NL 5937 G.D. 41 No. 313/1929, Enclosure No. I to Straits Despatch of 14.12.1929, p. 3.

28 FO 371/14728 File 2082 Enclosure No. 2, Conference Held at Government House, Singapore, on 20th February 1930 at 2.30 p.m., pp. 1-10.

29 The Malayan Bulletin of Political Intelligence, 57 (1928): 2–3Google Scholar.

30 Nanyang Siang Pau, 6.1.1925Google Scholar.

31

Nanyang Min-yen Chi-chuan (Penang 1925), vol. 3, p. 372. See also Hwang, Yen Ching, The Overseas Chinese and the 1911 Revolution (OUP, 1975), for further biographical information on Teh Lay Seng and other “old guard” KMT/community leadersGoogle Scholar.

32 CO 273/542 File 52010, Interim Report of the Activities of the Kwok Man Tongin the FMS during 1928 with reference to Similar or Hostile Organisations (by P.T. Allen, dated 6.7.1928), p. 18.

33 Ibid., p. 19.

34 Nanyang Min-yen Chi-chuan (Penang 1925), vol. 2, p. 39Google Scholar.

35 CO 273/542 File 52010, Interim Report, p. 18.

36 Nanyang Min-yen Chi-chuan (Penang 1925), p. 359Google Scholar.

37 Pe-ping, Chen, “Clementi and an episode of the KMT history”, International Times, 94 (1968): 21 (text in Chinese)Google Scholar.

38 Nanyang Min-yen Chi-chuan (Penang 1929), vol. 4, p. 64Google Scholar.

39 Manifesto and Resolutions of the First All-Malaya Delegates Convention of the BMHB, 1929, p. 21Google Scholar.

40 Min Kuo Jih Pao, 11.2.1930.

41 NL 5938 G.D. 42 No. 59/1930, Minutes of a Conference held at Government House, Singapore on 20.2.1930, between Sir Cecil Clementi and 17 BMHB leaders, pp. 4, 6 and 8.

42 Monthly Review of Chinese Affairs 7 (1930): 50Google Scholar.

43 Manifesto andResolutions of the First All-Malaya Delegates Convention of the BMHB, 1929, p. 7Google Scholar.

44 Fatt, Yong Ching, “Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Singapore during the 1930's”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 8 (1977): 195–209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.