Editing Gerald Templer (section)

==High Commissioner for Malaya==
[[File:Sir Gerald Templer and his assistant, Major Lord Wynford inspecting the members of Kinta Valley Home Guard in Perak.jpg|thumb|left|Sir Gerald Templer and his assistant, Major Lord Wynford inspecting the members of Kinta Valley Home Guard (KVHG) in Perak, {{circa|1952}}.]]
{{see also|The Templer Plan}}
[[File:10th May 1952 - This Horror Must End.jpg|thumb|A British [[Royal Marines|Royal Marine]] in Malay poses with the heads of two MNLA guerrillas. Templer oversaw and defended the practice of decapitating suspected pro-independence fighters during the Malayan Emergency]]
On 22 January 1952, [[Winston Churchill]] appointed Templer [[British High Commissioner in Malaya|British High Commissioner for Malaya]] to deal with the [[Malayan Emergency]].<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=39448|page=513|date=25 January 1952}}</ref> Working closely with [[Robert Grainger Ker Thompson|Robert Thompson]], the Permanent Secretary of Defence for Malaya, Templer's tactics against the [[Malayan National Liberation Army|Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA)]] were held up by Heathcote as "one of the most successful of the British Army's [[counter-insurgency]] campaigns".{{sfn|Heathcote|1999|p=276}} In military terms Templer concentrated his efforts on intelligence.<ref name="Pointer">{{cite web|url=http://www.mindef.gov.sg/imindef/publications/pointer/journals/2003/v29n4/personality_profile.html |title=Personality Profile: Gerald Templer|publisher=Pointer: Journal of the Singapore Armed Forces|year=2003|access-date=2 January 2012}}</ref> Templer famously remarked that, "The answer [to the uprising] lies not in pouring more troops into the jungle, but in the hearts and minds of the people."<ref>Lapping, Brian pg 224</ref>

He instituted incentive schemes for rewarding surrendering rebels and those who encouraged them to surrender<ref name="Channel4">{{cite web|url=http://www.channel4.com/programmes/empires-children/episode-guide/series-1/episode-5 |title=Empire's Children: Hearts and Minds Campaign|publisher=Channel 4|access-date=2 January 2012}}</ref> and used strict curfews and tight control of food supplies to force compliance from rebellious areas to flush out guerillas. Crops grown by the communists in response to these measures were sprayed with [[herbicide]] and [[defoliants]] ([[2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid]]), the practice of which prepared the way for American use of [[Agent Orange]] in Vietnam.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire|last=Newsinger|first=John|publisher=Bookmarks Publications|year=2013|isbn=978-1-909026-29-2|location=London|pages=220}}</ref> Restrictions on food and curfews were lifted on so-called ''White Areas'' which had been found to be free of communist incursion.<ref>Ramakrishna, Kumar pg 120</ref>

In private correspondences with Colonial Secretary [[Oliver Lyttleton]], Templer defended the practice of British troops employing [[Dayak people|Dayak]] headhunters to cut the heads off suspected MNLA [[Guerilla warfare|guerillas]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History|last1=Peng|first1=Chin|last2=Miraflor|first2=Norma|last3=Ward|first3=Ian|publisher=Media Masters|year=2003|isbn=981-04-8693-6|location=Singapore|pages=304–305}}</ref> The widespread use of decapitations by Templer's troops in Malaya was exposed to the public by a British communist newspaper called ''The Daily Worker'' when they published the first known photographs of the decapitations in April 1952.<ref name=":1">{{Cite news|title=This is the War in Malaya|date=28 April 1952|work=The Daily Worker}}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite book|title=The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire|last=Newsinger|first=John|publisher=Bookmarks Publications|year=2013|isbn=978-1-909026-29-2|location=London|pages=219}}</ref>

During his time in Malaya, Templer became commonly known as the "Tiger of Malaya", a title previously enjoyed by the Japanese general [[Tomoyuki Yamashita]], who had captured Singapore and Malaya in 1942.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World 1945–1965|last=Burleigh|first=Michael|publisher=Viking – Penguin Group|year=2013|isbn=978-0-670-02545-9|location=New York|pages=176}}</ref> In response to an article in ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine that "the jungle had been stabilised",<ref>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.time.com/time/covers/0,16641,19521215,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061207071321/http://www.time.com/time/covers/0%2C16641%2C19521215%2C00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 December 2006|title=Covers|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date=15 December 1952|access-date=2 January 2012}}</ref> he declared "I'll shoot the bastard who says that this emergency is over".<ref name="Pointer"/> The Malayan government eventually declared the Emergency over in 1960.<ref name="Channel4"/> He was advanced to [[Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George]] for his work as High Commissioner in the [[Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II|Coronation Honours List]] in June 1953.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=39863 |supp=y|page=2945|date=26 May 1953}}</ref>
[[File:Stop This Horror in Malaya. Page 4 of 4.png|thumb|Page of a 1952 [[Morning Star (British newspaper)|''Daily Worker'']] leaflet accusing Templer of committing atrocities in Malaya.]]
Although Templer's actions were successful in helping to defeat the MNLA, they required the use of many controversial strategies, including the continued use of internment camps known as "[[New village|New Villages]]", the forced relocation of [[Orang Asli|ethnic minorities]],<ref name=":4">{{Cite book|last=Leary|first=John D.|title=Violence and the Dream People: The Orang Asli in the Emergency 1948–1960|publisher=Athens: Ohio University Press|year=1995|isbn=0-89680-186-1|location=Athens|pages=42–43}}</ref> forced conscription,<ref name=":3">{{Cite book|last=Brendon|first=Piers|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVnyQr2avocC&dq=piers%20brendon%20the%20decline%20of%20the%20British%20Empire&pg=PA457|title=The Decline and Fall of the British Empire 1781–1997|publisher=Random House|year=2010|isbn=9781409077961|pages=457}}</ref> collective punishment against civilians,<ref name=":3" /> the hiring of specialist headhunters to decapitate suspected communists,<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> herbicidal warfare through the use of [[Agent Orange]],<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Newsinger|first=John|title=British Counterinsurgency: 2nd Edition|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2015|isbn=978-0-230-29824-8|location=Basingstoke, UK|pages=52}}</ref> and the widespread killing of livestock and destruction of food crops to deprive the MNLA of resources.<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last1=Stellman|first1=Jeanne Mager|last2=Stellman|first2=Steven D.|last3=Christian|first3=Richard|last4=Weber|first4=Tracey|last5=Tomasallo|first5=Carrie|date=17 April 2003|title=The extent and patterns of usage of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam|url=https://www.nature.com/articles/nature01537|journal=Nature|volume=422|issue=6933|pages=681–7|doi=10.1038/nature01537|pmid=12700752|bibcode=2003Natur.422..681S|s2cid=4419223|via=Nature .com}}</ref>

In 1952 the poet [[Randall Swingler]] wrote a poem about Templer titled "The Ballad of Herod Templer".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Croft |first=Andy |title=Comrade Heart: A Life of Randall Swingler |publisher=[[Manchester University Press]] |year=2003 |pages=217}}</ref> The poem is believed to have been inspired by the British-Malayan headhunting scandal.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen and Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1399057417 |pages=xxvii, 117}}</ref>

The Malaysian Government arranged for the Main Hall at the [[Royal Military College (Malaysia)|Royal Military College, Kuala Lumpur]] in [[Sungai Besi]], which had been established in 1952, to be named the "Tun Templer Hall" in his honour.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.geocities.ws/rmcmalaysia/facilitiesBenefits.htm|title=Royal Military College: facilities|publisher=Geocities|access-date=2 January 2012}}</ref> They also named after him [[Templer's Park]], a [[nature reserve]] established in 1955 in [[Rawang, Selangor|Rawang]], as well as the [[Taman Templer (state constituency)|Selangor state assembly constituency]] surrounding it.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.malaiadventure.com/sightseeing/sightseeing_kl3.htm|title=Templer's Park|publisher=Malai Adventure|access-date=2 January 2012|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303222301/http://www.malaiadventure.com/sightseeing/sightseeing_kl3.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>