Even before the “Palestinians” arrived on the scene, planters and mine owners called for more draconian methods. The local Straits Times had summed up demands that harkened back to Britain’s humiliations in the Mandate: “Govern or get out.”[116] Many planters were also wartime veterans, and some had served in Force 136. They quickly hunkered down behind self-fashioned fortresses of barbed wire, spotlights, trenches, and booby traps filled with broken glass and other shrapnel. They amassed their own private armies, complete with American-funded ammunition to protect rubber destined for U.S.
...more
