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SIGINT IN THE SUN - GCHQ'S OVERSEAS EMPIRE 149
of communications was sent over long distances using highfrequency
radio, GCHQ depended on the remnants of empire
to provide a global network of ground stations to collect these
signals. Indeed, Britain's imperial real estate was one of the key
contributions to UKUSA, and was of particular assistance to the
United States. Accordingly, in many colonies there were defence
and intelligence bases that Britain wished to retain, prompting
officials to drag their feet over independence. Elsewhere, the
British attempted to persuade post-independence governments
to permit some bases to remain. 2
Throughout the 1950s Britain fought one of the most
protracted colonial struggles of the post-war era, the Malayan
Emergency. The enemy were a hardened band of Communist
guerrillas who had been Britain's uneasy allies against the
Japanese during the war. The military forces of the Malayan
Communist Party, or 'MCP', led by Ching Peng, operated from
refuges in the dense jungle. Britain did not initially recognise
the seriousness of the Emergency in Malaya, allowing it to get
out of hand. However, in October 1951 the MCP succeeded in
assassinating Sir Henry Gurney, the British High Commissioner.
Thereafter, striking back at the guerrillas and eliminating Ching
Peng became a near-obsession for the security authorities in
London. When Oliver Lyttelton, the Colonial Secretary, returned
to London to report on Gurney's assassination he promised the
Cabinet that he would form special teams 'aimed at certain individuals'.
These were effectively killer squads, and he gave a firm
assurance that they would 'hunt down individual men from
Communist higher formations through their families, properties,
sweethearts etc:. 3
Locating the guerrilla headquarters in Malaya was easier said
than done. In 1950 a sigint-equipped Lancaster from the RAP's
192 Squadron was sent out to help in the hunt for the insurgents
by tracking their radio communications. Later, undercover
agents planted batteries with excessively high power on the
guerrillas to damage their radios. When they were repaired, the
workshops the guerrillas used were bribed to secretly modify