149
6.
In furtherance of your function under para 4 you will during th period of Military Administration be responsible, subject to operational requirements, for the provision of supplies for the needs of the civil population, and for local industrics and agriculture to a level necessary to prevent disease and unrest and to secure the maximum assistance for the progressive restoration of the territory. In addition you should render such assistance as is feasible to emble those natural resources of the territory as are urgently required to meet the general world shortage to be obtained. Sufficient supplies will be demnäcd for 6 months for the whole of Malaya. In addition you will demand additional supplies in the form of Inducement Goods for military labour employed directly for military purposes should you consider it necessary to do so to ensure proper supplies of labour.. Other necessary supplies for the civil population of the liberated territory during the period of Military Administration may be procured by the Colonial Office and for these you will provide such transportation and other facilitics within your Cormand as may be possible in the circumstances of the case. All supplies for the civil needs of the territory for the periods following the 6 months military provisions are being procured through civil channels as a Colonial Office responsibility and for those, also, you will provide such transportation and other facilities within your Command as my be possible.
7.
It is the policy of His Majesty's Government that the Administration of the territories in question should be transferred to the responsibility of the Colonial Office as soon as possible as and in so far as conditions are such as to enable the latter to function. It will be for you to recommend when and in what areas such transfer can take place without embarrassment to military needs bearing in mind that so far as the Malayan mainland areas are concerned (excluding Singapore) it is likely to be impracticable for the Colonial Office to take over responsibility until the whole of that area can be so transferred. Subject to military exigencies, the Government of the civil population during the period of Military Administration in Malaya will be carried on in the various administrative spheres in accordance with long-term policy which the Colonial Office has in mind to pursue when it resumes responsibility for the civil administration of the territory. In order that you may be aware of this policy, and be in a position to puruse it so far as circumstances and military considerations permit, you will be supplied from time to time with long-term policy directives framed by the Secretary of State for the Colonies and transmitted to you through the War Office.
8.
If, in your judgment, a departure from these or any subscquent instructions is required for urgent and over-riding military reasons, you have discretion to authorise action accordingly and you will submit a report on the matter as soon as possible.
17 August, 1945.
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Col. C.A.
(Sgd.) J.J. LAWSON
C.A.1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 13, 17, 20(a)
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D.M.O.
D.D. M. O. (A)
M.0.1. 12.
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