Sungai Siput incident

Sungai Siput Incident
Part of Malayan Emergency
Sungai Siput Sungai Siput incident (Peninsular Malaysia)
Date 16 June 1948 Location Sungai Siput, Perak, Malaya Result Communist victory
Belligerents
United Kingdom	Malayan Communist Party
Casualties and losses
3 killed	None

The Sungai Siput incident marked the beginning of the Malayan Emergency on 16 June 1948. Three European plantation managers were killed at Sungai Siput, Perak in two different rubber estates – the Elphil estate and Phin Soon estate. The estates were two kilometres apart.^[1]

Elphil Estate manager A.E. Walker was shot at his office desk at 8:30 am. Thirty minutes later, Phin Soon's manager John Allison and his assistant Ian Christian were tied and killed by the communists.^[2][3] This attack led to the declaration of a state of emergency a few weeks later.

On 13 July 1950, Inspector Ralph Lewis Inder of the Malay Police was attacked by insurgents and died at Ipoh Hospital. Boris Hembry was a planter and in his book entitled "Malaysian Spymaster: Memoirs Of A Rubber Planter, Bandit Fighter And Spy", he wrote, "It would appear that early on that morning, communist terrorists had slashed a lot of young rubber trees on Dovenby. Ralph had gone out to investigate and the bandits were waiting for him. Ralph and his escort of two constables were outnumbered six to one, but they put up a good fight. One of the special constables was killed and the other badly wounded, and the bandits got away with their weapons."^[4]