Page 147 - Demo

147when after almost ten years in command of the APL, the RAF Regiment handed over command to the British Army in 1957, heads were held high. %u000b%u0006%u0001%u0004%u0008%u0006%u00013%u0007ffi%u0010%u0006Fffi%u0004%u0005%u0004%u0003%u0004G%u0006 The RAF Regiment (Malaya) was unique among the Associated Forces. Instead of being formed as %u2018Levies%u2019 for %u2018Air Control%u2019, it was created specifically as the precursor of what would become Royal Air Force (Malaya). It was not a %u2018Levy%u2019 Force. A UK Government memorandum of April 1947 had called for %u2018colonial peoples%u2019 to become more fully involved in Imperial defence. However, the British Defence Committee in SE Asia questioned the feasibility of creating modern local air forces in the short term, because of the training and technology involved. Thus, for air forces, particularly in Malaya as the most strategically and politically important remaining SE Asian imperial territory, a start should be made with indigenous troops being responsible for the defence of in8country RAF airfields, whilst an embryonic Malayan Air Force was being nurtured. An Order in Council constituted the new force as a corps to be called the Royal Air Force Regiment (Malaya), established at 1,054 all Gunners of No 91 (Rifle) Sqn, RAF Regt (Malaya) clear an oil palm plantation during anti?bandit operations, Selangor, Malaya, 1951.