Letters from Roy Follows: Part 5

Dear Goh.

Many thanks for taking the trouble to me contact , and sending me a couple of pics and map * showing the postion of Brook (Fort Brooke ) which are most appreciated.

I expect you know about my hutan and Jungle Fort expirences from your friend TBF. But to briefly recap. For about eight/ nine years 1952 -1960 during the emergency I served with the Royal Malaysai Police . For a good five years or more, until dreaded malaria caugh up with me, I was a platoon commander carry out jungle operation some of which lasted up to a month ,and often in little known and not properly map Hutan . Mana Mankan Lah ? Every 5/6 day food and other supplies would be parachuted in to us ,on to the droppinh zone (DZ) which we had hacked out of the jungle. The map ref of the DZ had to be nearly spot on - no GPSs a compass- so that the aircraft could locate our postion Silap besar, dan tadak makan, susah lah. The most interesting, rewarding, but challenging and dangerous position I had the priviledge to be given, was that being appointed Commander of Fort Brooke, where I was for about nine months in 1954/55. Go back over fifty years and Brooke like the other jungle forts, were nothing like they are today. At the time with little or no contact with the Orang Asli , the Dept of Aborigines ,as it was then called , had little or no idea how many there were grubbing out an existance in the rain forest . When in Fort Brooke and after much 'cat and mouse games' , I eventually made contact with a shy and elusive tribe of Temiar , who until seeing me had never set their eyes on an orang puteh before. What a shock they must have had on seeing me. At present I'm writing a book about the little know jungle forts and the important role they played in defeating the communists during the emergency. With your kind help, Camera Kens, TBF, and any one who've I missed , (please forgive me if I have ) I'm looking for recent photographs of ,or anything associated with those Jungle Forts that still exist to day. The idea being, is the photographs would into the book ,so to compare todays 'forts' to how they were during the emergency over fiify years ago. * Something about the Map showing 'Brook' and a little information about the fort etc, in my next email.I tried to send cc to the others but not being a PC whizz kid I failed, and for some unknown reason could only cc TBF.