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Things to add to Kuala Krai article:

  • origin of the name - 2 versions:
    1. local fish (ANITA ANANDARAJAH and DEBRA CHONG (2005). "THE ROAD LESS TRAVELLED: Hinter-wonderland". Sunday People - The New Sunday Times Magazine. Retrieved 2006-12-19.)
    2. Australian mispronunciation of name of a river (Newspaper cutting already cited)

(The writer was a British officer left behind to help organise resistance to the Japanese. Note the rivalry between different guerilla groups and the Japanese policy of reprisals.)

In September 1942 my friend Ah Loy and about eight others had left the Menchis camp somewhat mysteriously. I now gathered from Siouw Ling that they had gone about a hundred miles up the west-coast railway line to form a new guerilla patrol on the border of Pahang and Kelantan near the villages of Merapah, Pulai, and Gua Musang. The Chinese who lived in this isolated valley were very independent and bitterly opposed the Japs, with whom they had had several pitched battles. Indeed, Siouw Ling told me that the Japs dared not enter the valley at all and had even used aircraft in an attempt to drive the guerillas out of Gua Musang. This Patrol was in tough with the Perak group, fifty miles over the Main Range to the west, and also carried on a private war with a rival band of Chinese guerillas (whom they referred to as bandits) whose headquarters were at Kuala Krai, another fifty miles further north up the railway line.

We also received a visit from the Bahau leader whom I had met at Palong, and the leader of the whole Negri Sembilan group, who was know as Martin ……..

Martin was extremely intelligent and spoke excellent English. He told me that the Negri Sembilan group had patrols at Bahar, Kongkoi, Titi, and Pertang and were in a very flourishing state. They had gone into action even before the fall of Singapore, and in reprisal for this the Japs, as soon as they had established themselves in Negri, had carried out a most brutal massacre at Titi, the Chinese mining centre of Jelebu District, in which some thousands of guerilla supporters - men, women, and children - had been put to death. Martin described how a recent raid on a police station had failed, not one of the six grenades which they had lobbed through the window at night exploding. On the other hand, they had carried out a successful ambush against lorries containing Japanese, Indian and Malay troops, and had captured arms from isolated police posts. As a result of these activities the Japanese were known to be planning a concentrated attack against the guerillas ……..

(Chapman. op. cit.,pp.146-147.)

F. Spencer Chapman, DSO, The Jungle is Neutral, Corgi paperback, London 1965.p.21

  • same source: about Japanese administration: "Until the second half of 1943, the Japanese linked the administration of Sumatra with that of Malaya and Singapore. This was largely an attempt to encourage Malay support by appearing to create a greater Malay state, but the experiment was discontinued in 1943. In August of that year the northern Malay States were returned to Thailand, which had become an ally of Japan. In October, the remaining provinces each received a Consultative Council with the Japanese Governor as its Chairman and the Sultan as Vice-Chairman. Nor other Japanese were to be members, though their ultimate control was not weakened. At the same time, the proportion of Malay officials in the civil service was increased. However, while the Malays received a greater say in affairs, no offer of independence was made as in Burma, Indonesia and the Philippines, probably because there had been no organised independence movement in Malaya before the war."
8 Dec 1941 - 15 Aug 1945  Japanese troops in Thailand. 
1 Aug 1943 - 1945         Annexes part of Shan States (Kyaington, Mongpan) 
                            from Burma and 20 Aug 1943 -  8 Sep 1945 
                            Perlis, Terengganu, Kedah and Kelantan from  
                            Malaya.