Murder in Singapore

It was Sunday afternoon, and the band of students who call themselves "The Chinese High School Singsong and Harmonica Corps" were practicing in a second-floor club in one of the busy sections of Singapore. From the bottom of the stairs, a voice called up and asked in friendly Mandarin to speak to Corps Leader Lee Tai Lim. A few seconds later, a shot rang out and 21-year-old Lee fell dead in the street. He had been well known in Singapore as an active anti-Communist student leader. Said the police, as they offered a record reward of 25,000 Straits dollars ($8,333) for finding the two unidentified youths who murdered him: "Lee was the victim of a political outrage typical of the Malayan Communist Party."

The murder was only one bloody spasm in a steady flow of terror in the Chinese schools of Singapore. Since 1951, small groups of Chinese Communist students, disguised under elaborate names (e.g., "The Chinese Middle School Students Anti-British Association for Independence"), have been gradually taking over the schools. Their leaders are a hard core of overage youth, many of whom purposely flunk examinations in order to stay in school longer. They secretly distribute anti-British propaganda, have directed a series of petitions and strikes against the proposed British school subsidy and the British draft law requiring a few extra hours of training for reserves. They have gradually become a major political force in the city.

Their activities have not been confined to propaganda. Once, three teachers and a headmistress were seared by acid when they tried to resist Red infiltration. A school inspector was shot in the street, and in Penang, where a similar campaign is under way, a school headmaster was murdered. As a result of such tactics, teachers and parents alike have either knuckled under or taken refuge in apathy.

In the past few months, backed by a number of Communist-backed newspapers called the "mosquito" press, the Reds have laid their fire on higher ground: the new Nanyang University that its chancellor, Author Lin Yutang (The Importance of Living), had dreamed of building into the intellectual mecca of the millions of free Chinese in Southeast Asia (TIME, Aug. 16). Day after day, Lin was singled out for special attack in the press; he received an anonymous threat to his life, was forced to go about the city with a police bodyguard. This month, when Lin finally resigned, ostensibly because of an argument over his 1955 budget, the Communist school infiltrators scored what may well be their most significant victory.

The Reds have not yet achieved all their objectives, but so far only a handful of students have dared to resist openly, among them the murdered Lee Tai Lim. Few students cared or dared to comment on Lee's death, and only twelve attended his funeral.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.