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The Kuomintang Movement in Malaya and Singapore, 1912–1925

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Extract

The history of the Kuomintang (KMT) movement in both Malaya and Singapore during the pre-war years has remained largely under-explored since the appearance of Png Poh-seng's article on that topic twenty years ago. Its history deserves a deeper study as it would throw light not only on the China-oriented politics among the Chinese in these two territories but also on the causes and the rationale of the British authorities to contain and ban it. As the Colonial Office and Foreign Office records have now been made accessible to researchers, it is feasible and urgent that such a study be undertaken in a more systematic and analytical manner.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 1981

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References

1 Poh-seng, Png, “The Kuomintang in Malaya, 1912–1941”, Journal of Southeast Asian History 2, no. 1 (1961):132Google Scholar.

2 Fatt, Yong Ching, “Leadership and Power in the Chinese Community of Singapore during the 1930s”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 8, no. 2 (1977):195209CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 CO 275/85 Minutes of Straits Settlements Executive Council, 23 Dec. 1912, p. 70. One official record from the Chinese Secretariat, Singapore, states that the Singapore branch was registered on 18 Dec. 1912 which we think is a mistake. See CO 275/596 Monthly Review of Chinese Affairs (hereafter MRCA) 45 (1934): 15.

4 CO 275/596 MRCA 45 (1934): 15.

6 Ibid., 17–19.

7 Ibid., p. 17.

8 Ibid., p. 16.

9 Ibid., pp. 17–19.

10 Kuo Min Yit Poh, 27 June 1916, 11 Aug. 1916 which reveal the existence of the Singapore and Penang branches of the Chinese Revolutionary Party. See also CO 275/96 Chancellor, A.R., “Report on the Straits Settlements Police Force”, Annual Reports of the Straits Settlements for 1915 (1915), 20Google Scholar.

11 CO 273/597 MRCA 48 (1934): 24–25.

12 Ibid., pp. 27–28.

13 Ibid., p. 29.

14 Ibid., p. 26.

15 Ibid., p. 32.

16 Hwang, Yen Ching, The Overseas Chinese and the 1911 Revolution (Kuala Lumpur, 1976), pp. 115–17Google Scholar.

17 Yong, C.F., “Chau-nien Sin-hua She-hui ti Shu-pao-she”, Sin Chew Jit Poh, 7 05 1979Google Scholar.

18 Nam Kew Poo, 24 Apr. 1913, Kuo Min Yit Poh, 8 Nov. 1916.

19 On both Ee Hoe Hean Club and Goh Loo Club, see Yong, C.F., Chinese Community Structure and Leadership in Pre- War Singapore (Singapore, 1977), pp. 30–43Google Scholar. (Text in Chinese)

20 CO 273/596 MRCA, op. cit., p. 20.

21 CO 273/483 File 51183, Confidential despatch from Governor, SS to Secretary of State for the Colonies, 26 July 1919, p. 561.

22 CO 275/85 Minutes of the SS Executive Council, 14 July 1913, p. 1.

23 Minutes of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce, vol. 3, 23 Aug. 1913, p. 31Google Scholar.

24 Lat Pao, 5 June 1912.

25 CO 273/530 File 11790, Minutes of Colonial Office Conference on the suppression of the KMT in Malaya, 26 Feb. 1925, p. 3.

26 Nam Kew Poo, 18 July 1913.

27 Sin Chew Jil Poh, 4 Jan. 1941–10 Jan. 1941.

28 CO 273/596, MRCA, op. cit., p. 16.

29 For explanations of Hainanese radicalism in Malaya, see the Ph. D. thesis by Stephen, MunYoon, Leong, “Sources, Agencies and Manifestations of Overseas Chinese Nationalism in Malaya, 1937–1941” (University of California, Los Angeles, 1976), vol. 1, pp. 201–2, footnote 29Google Scholar.

30 Kuo-fu Ch'uan-shu (Taipei, 1966, 3rd printing), p. 863Google Scholar.

31 Ibid., p. 585.

32 Ibid., p. 589.

33 Ibid., p. 863.

34 CO 273/597, MRCA, op. cit., pp. 8–9, and Hsung-Tung Ku.

35 NL 5938 (Singapore) CD. No. 59/1930, Confidential Despatch of the Governor, Straits Settlements, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 25 Feb. 1930. Enclosure 2, Minutes of the meeting between the Governor, Sir Cecil dementi and the KMT leaders at Government House in Singapore, 20 Feb. 1930, pp. 4 and 6.

36 CO 273/483 File 51183, Confidential despatch of Governor Sir Arthur Young, Straits Settlements, to the Secretary of the State for the Colonies, 26 July 1919, pp. 5–6.

37 Ibid., pp. 1–8.

38 Philip, LohFook, Seng, Seeds of Separatism: Educational Policy in Malaya (Kuala Lumpur, 1975), p. 43Google Scholar. See also FO 371/9224. Confidential Despatch of Governor, Straits Settlements, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 6 Dec. 1922, p. 12.

39 Win Kuo Yit Poh, 1 Aug. 1919. See also Leong, op. cit., p. 118.

40 CO 273/483 File 51183, op. cit., pp. 6–7.

41 CO 275/108 Minutes of the Proceedings of the Executive Council of Straits Settlements, 23 Oct. 1919, p. 453.

42 CO 275/110 Beatty, D., “Protector of Chinese”, Annual Departmental Report of the Straits Settlements for 1923 (Singapore, 1923), p. 27Google Scholar.

43 CO 273/597 MRCA, op. cit., p. 30.

44 FO 371/9224 Confidential Despatch of Governor, Straits Settlements, to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 6 Dec. 1922.

45 CO 273/530 File 11790, op. cit., p. 2.

46 CO 273/526 File 54020, Confidential Despatch of Governor to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 21 Oct. 1924, p. 1.

47 CO 273/527 File 18, Colonial Office Minutes on the KMT, 30 Dec. 1924. CO 273/526 File 54026, Colonial Office Minutes on the KMT, 21 Oct. 1924.

48 CO 273/530 File 11790, Colonial Office Minutes on the KMT, 26 Feb. 1925. CO 273/530 File 3104, Colonial Office Minutes on the KMT, Jan. 1925.

49 CO 273/530 File 11790, Minutes of a Meeting held at the Colonial Office on the suppression of the Malayan Branches of the KMT, 26 Feb. 1925, p. 1.

50 CO 717/45 File 30039, Minutes of Cabinet Meeting, July 1925, p. 256.

51 CO 273/526 File 54020, op. cit., p. 2.

52 CO 273/530 File 11790, op. cit., p. 9.

54 FO 371/9224, op. cit., pp. 5–6.

55 CO 273/530 File 11790, op. cit., p. 3.

56 CO 273/530 File 11790, op. cit., p. 6.

58 Ibid., p. 7.

59 CO 717/13 File 31878, Enclosure No. 3 to FMS Despatch of 21 May 1921, p. 2.

61 FO 371/9224, op. cit., p. 11.

63 Ibid., pp. 13–14.

64 Ibid., p. 13.

65 CO 273/530 File 11790, op. cit., p. 7.

66 FO 371/9224, op. cit., p. 16.